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LangaList 2001-09-06 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) One Thousand Posts Later: WPA UpdateYou people are amazing! The column "Is Windows XP's 'Product Activation' A Privacy Risk?" generated an incredible amount of reader responses! There's good reason for the furor: Because WPA ("Windows Product Activation") is a mandatory and unavoidable element of the new XP Office/Office 2002 software and the XP operating system, it will affect millions of us. But because the volume of WPA-related reader messages was so high, it was hard to keep up with them all. Some excellent topics, comments, and amplifications may have slipped beneath your radar. For example, one very provocative subthread raised by several readers involved the "Desktop Product Lifecycle Guidelines" that Microsoft quietly published some time ago at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.asp and http://support.microsoft.com/directory/discontinue.asp . There, you can see or calculate the dates after which Microsoft will no longer support various products. For example, all support for DOS, Win3.x and Win95 will cease as of this coming January. Win98 and WinNT have a couple years left, but will no longer be supported after June 30th, 2003. And from now on, all new Microsoft products will have a basic three-year life (for full support), followed by a one year "extended" period (with partial support). This guideline suggests that XP will cease to be actively supported in 2005. The XP software itself will still work, of course, but many readers wondered what would happen when/if WPA kicked in due to a reinstall or system upgrade. It's not clear from the Microsoft documentation whether or not Product Re-activation services will still be continued for a nonsupported product. If not, the XP software will only work for 30 days before the WPA "reduced functionality" mode kicks in. Then, you either must upgrade to a newer, supported version of the software, or do another full reinstall of the old software--- and another, and another--- every 30 days. Building on this, some readers assume that WPA, combined with an arbitrarily finite product lifecycle, is actually a way for Microsoft to continue moving users towards a subscription model, where you must--- *must*--- renew or upgrade your software on a schedule that Microsoft determines, rather than at a time of your own choosing. But there are opposing views on this, and other readers voiced those views. I've devoted a new InformationWeek column to exploring the most interesting, informative and provocative posts from among the 1000+ generated by the original article. You'll see both sides of the "forced upgrade" debate; information from XP beta testers on exactly what real-life system changes do and do not trigger a need to "reactivate" the software; tons of links for excellent third party and official Microsoft information, and more, including an amazing post from a reader who suggests an underlying Machiavellian legal rationale for Microsoft's attempt to split "activation" from "registration." It's an eye-opener! Please check out the new article at http://www.informationweek.com/853/langa.htm and then add your voice--- pro or con--- to the amazing debate going on at http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa . See you there! Click to
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 2) Cool--- and Free!--- IE Cache ToolsSteven Foust writes:
Thanks, Steven! The same site also offers a free cache-monitoring tool, too. Nice! Click to
email this item to a friend 3) Faster Ways To Kill FindFastIn "Turn Off Office's Background
Indexing" (see But many readers do have FindFast installed, and they suggested other ways either to adjust or eliminate this pesky utility if you likewise already have it installed on your system. For example, this was the first of many similar emails:
Thanks, Graeme--- and to all who wrote in! Click to
email this item to a friend 4) Internet Explorer 6Around the same time as Microsoft
released SP2 for IE5.5 (see Reader Winston Loh wrote:
Thanks! It does have several new features, including a built-in cookie-blocker that's actually fairly flexible in its settings: You can tell it to block everything, nothing, or to selectively allow only some cookies (such as those benignly used by some sites to automate log-in procedures). There are other improvements, too: If you try IE6, be sure to check out the Edit/Tools/Internet Options menu, and step through all the submenus and options to see what's there, and what's different. So far, I like IE6. It installed fine (see next item) and has run smoothly. So far, so good... Click to
email this item to a friend 5) Installing IE6You can install IE6 in any of several ways. The simplest ways are to go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ or http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ and follow the on-screen instructions. But there's a less-obvious way that may be better for you if you need to install or reinstall IE multiple times, and don't want to go through the long download each time. For example:
Sure, Jeff. It's not a separate site, but rather a separate method that begins the same way as the standard install of both IE5 and 6. It lets you download all the IE5 or 6 files to your hard drive or (say) a network server, and then later use those files to install the software as many times as you wish, whenever you wish, without having to re-download everything. Here's how: Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ or http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ . Select IE6, and start the download. Note that---despite appearances--- the first thing that downloads is NOT the actual browser, but rather a setup/download management tool (468K). Run the setup/download manager;
when you're asked, accept the download agreement. Note that this technique works on older versions of IE, too: Many of Microsoft's downloads offer a way to save the files to disk for later use, rather than installing them right away: Just poke around the download dialog boxes to see what your options are! Click to
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 6) A Fresh StartIt's a new month, and right now your chances are the best they'll ever be! To have a shot at winning a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and more--- just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a mini-shopping spree! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 The more times you make a recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning! Or, if you'd like to try to win $10,000(really!), try this link (full details also available here): http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182 Either way, thank you, and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend 7) Got Tons Of Disk Space?
There's actually a pile of "CD Emulation" software out there, Jim, and although the best ones are commercial, they're not expensive: See http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cd+drive+emulate
Click to
email this item to a friend 8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...Well over a thousand of your
fellow readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to
http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've
already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on
the Langa.Com web site, please see
http://www.langa.com/link.txt ) Manually Browse
All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At Computer Tips House of the Magic
Moose Couch-Potato
Marketing Shumacher family (hawaii) BoloDog (personal
site) Computer Jazz
(online store) steveneshan "My Canadian News" Fighter Ace Online
Gaming CD Labeler Gold Click to
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) Meet Suradon, Newest Member Of The LangaList FamilySuradon Janno is a 7 year old boy living in Thailand. (Click for image: http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/suradon.jpg ) His family is extremely poor (less than $290 per capita per year) , and ekes out a marginal living doing odds jobs and some farming. The local relief agency writes "Suradon badly needs food, clothing and medical care." Normally, Suradon might not have much of a future to look forward to. But his future just got a little brighter, thanks to LangaList Plus! subscribers. You see, those of us with computers and Internet access are vastly better off than most of the world's population. Because of this, I decided that a portion of the LangaList Plus! subscription fees would be donated to registered/legitimate charities helping the underprivileged around the world. The contribution does not increase the cost of a Plus! subscription in any way; the donation is taken "off the top" of any profits. (This is described in the pages at http://www.langa.com/plus.htm ) Suradon is the fourth child sponsored for a full year (via an international relief agency) by the collective generosity of LangaList subscribers. LangaList Plus! subscribers also have collectively contributed to emergency earthquake relief efforts in India. (To see all the donations so far, click to http://www.langa.com/plus2.htm#kids ) As the year goes on, and as more readers sign up for Plus! subscriptions, I hope we'll be able to sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world. Graham Greene once said, "There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...." If you're already a LangaList Plus subscriber, thank you! You can feel good about giving back a little to those less fortunate, and opening "a door to the future" for a child in otherwise-desperate circumstances. If you're not yet a Plus! subscriber check it out: With a Plus! subscription, you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online with expanded content and no advertising--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Suradon) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help! Click to
email this item to a friend 10) Just For GrinsIn the last issue's Just For Grins, we learned about a science experiment (scheduled for tomorrow!) in which millions of school kids are going to jump up and down at the same time, to see if the vibrations can be felt some distance away. (See http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns230599#43 ) Reader David Trevino sent in info on another massive experiment, but this one involves trying to get millions of people to "paint the moon" by simultaneously shining their handheld laser pointers at the same spot on the moon, this autumn.
This is a way cool idea--- even though I'm somewhat skeptical that handheld devices can shine accurately or strongly enough to make a spot or even a glow visible to the naked eye. But it'll be fun to try, and I'll be out with my pointer. 8-) More info: http://www.paintthemoon.org/ Click to
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11) Improved, Freeware Task Manager;
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