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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-09-20

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) 85 Great Sites: Only The Beginning

In this week's free InformationWeek article and forum, I lead off by listing fully 85 great sites--- sites I personally use--- in a wide range of categories:

• General reference: dictionaries, encyclopedia, etc.
• General problem solving and troubleshooting references
• Sci-tech news sources
• Reliable security info/research
• Accurate and timely virus info
• Info on identifying hoaxes, myths, chain letters, et al
• Conversions (e.g. English/metric)
• Quick and dirty online translation tools
• HTML validation and related tools
• Browser problem/connection-speed analysis
• Online security tests
• General system health tests
• Search Fred's published tips, tricks, etc.
• Searching further afield

Readers are expanding the list by adding their own known-good, proven online resources ranging from the wonderfully broad to the amazingly specific. For example:

http://www.winsite.com/win95/sysutil/index.html (hundreds of Windows utilities) ---Richard Becker

As far as HTML Validation Tools, I have assembled (what I believe to be) the best HTML validation tools onto a single page and have slightly altered the user interfaces so that they all work the same. As a professional software engineer, I find myself and my colleagues continually using this page I have assembled. This may be of interest to either you or some of your readers.
http://www.craigcecil.com/checkyoursite.htm ---Craig R. Cecil

Hi, Fred. A site I co-moderate which can answer any well thought out questions about protecting electronics and structures from lightning, surges, harmonics, power failures, etc. is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LightningProtection  Experts are available to dispel myths, sales hokum, spurious performance claims, etc., and make scientifically correct observations (when there is scientific agreement). But, this site is NOT a forum or chat room where non-productive messages are allowed to be posted, or overly simplistic questions are answered. There isn't time, and the people who contribute information are busy professionals (physicists, professors, engineers, medical doctors, meteorologists, safety experts, ...). People responsible for managing electronic networks should find enough resources here to use in evaluating proposed or existing protective systems (lightning protection devices, grounding, surge protection, ...). Cordially, Rick O'Keefe

Come see both the master list, plus all the other great sites recommended by your fellow readers, and then add your own: Let's pool our knowledge to produce a definitive list of outstanding online computer resources!

Click on over to http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010916S0021 . See you there!

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2) Netscape/AOL Diddles With Your "Trusted" Zone?

Reader Michael G. Baker, Jr. sent in this alarming email:

Dear Fred, I would like to voice my disgust with AOL, please listen: When a user downloads or updates AIM, free.aol.com is added to the users IE Trusted Sites Zone. This also happens if you download N6 with integrated AIM. It is one thing for them to put that free.aol.com link EVERYWHERE, when you download N6, even in IE's bookmarks, but quite another thing to mess with security settings. Although mostly harmless, it is the principle.

I don't think this is right. If this was Microsoft messing with a Netscape security setting all hell would break loose....

This has also been reported in the grc.com security newsgroup.

I don't currently have AOL installed on my PCs, so I can't personally verify this. But if you're using AOL or Netscape products, it surely will be worthwhile to look at your security settings and make sure they're what *you* want, and not what AOL--- or anyone else--- wants.

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3) Free Pop-Up Stopper

Hi, Fred! I know one of your favorite words is FREE, especially when it comes to  useful tools for our PC. Well, I stumbled upon this the other day and thought you might like to take a look at it.

Pop-Up Stopper from Panicware, Inc. protects us from those infernal  pop-ups and pop-unders that plague our peaceful browsing (even that blasted X-10 garbage), and what's great about this one is that if you WANT to view  something, all you have to do is press CTRL or Shift while clicking a link to temporarily disable it. I love the control it offers...

This is total freeware, not ad-ware or spyware, although you have the option to donate a nominal amount should you care to. Unlike much freeware, they also offer full support. Here is the link to check it out Panicware, Inc. - Pop-Up Stopper .

They do have a couple of other programs designed to protect privacy as well, not freeware, but worth a look.--- Sunriser13

Thanks, Sunriser.

The URL for Pop-Up Stopper is http://www.panicware.com/product_dpps.html .

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4) Many Tools Make Light Work

Often, system maintenance tools focus in on a few important areas, leaving others alone. As a result, it's not uncommon for hard-core users (like me!) to use multiple tools in sequence. For example, I do routine Registry cleaning by carefully and selectively running EasyCleaner ( http://www.saunalahti.fi/~tonihele/ )--- which, if anything, has a tendency to *over* clean--- then Microsoft's RegClean, then RegCleaner ( http://www.jv16.org/ ), then Norton's WinDoctor. Believe it or not, they each tend to find things that the others miss. No one tool does it all.

Reader MLL employs a similar strategy for Startup editing:

Hi Fred, About http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-07-30.htm#2 , "Free Startup Editor:"

1. Free Startup Editor forgets to keep an eye on some registry keys (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce etc...) and also the "All users\Startup" folder (for Win NT4 & 2000)

2. So Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel ( http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml ) is a more complete, leaner concurrent (and free too) - you also can temporarily disable an autorun item.

3. Startup Control Panel is even more efficient when used in conjunction with StartupMonitor ( http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml ), which keeps guards on most autorun places on the PC.

4. For more info on all autorun places, see the autoruns app at http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/misc.shtml#autoruns  (also runs on Win9x) - great free utilities site BTW.

Thanks, MLL!

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5) Don’t Make Me Beg! 8-)

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, 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 $10,000 for your trouble (full details also available via this link):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more. To have a shot at winning, 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 $30 Gift Certificate! (Full details also available via this link):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you, and good luck!
 

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6) Drivers Sought--- and Found

Back in "Driver Woes" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-08-02.htm#3 ) we discussed several ways to track down software drivers you may need when you're installing a new OS, repairing an older machine, or what not.

Reader Travis Skaggs has a related suggestion:

Another way to identify drivers from questionable hardware is windrivers.com. You can do a search based on the physical appearance of the card or the identifying #'s on the card.

Try http://www.windrivers.com/  as the basic site. Or, http://www.windrivers.com/beginner/index.htm  to go to the search site.

Thanks, Travis!

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7) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...

Well over 1,500 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 )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

All 4 Freebies
http://personal.palouse.net/ben486/freebies/home.html

Freebie Korner
http://karrat1.tripod.com/

Dragon Scholar
http://www.icubed.com/~ljg/index.html

Aviation Links
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/aviation/

ActNow Domains
http://www.actnowdomains.com/contact.htm

Floral Roberts
http://floralroberts.i8.com/

KH Gundam (note: many popups, alas)
http://www.geocities.com/robotwarff/

Jokes4U
http://www.jokez4u.com/humorlinks.shtml

Music Mansion
http://www.musicmansion.com/Home/programs/intro.cfm

"The best site in the world (for humor)"
http://www.geocities.com/nicks_new_website/

BuckWorks Online Shopping Directory
http://buckworks.com/

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8) Anti-SPAM FAQ

Hi Fred, On the recent topic Email "Header" Forgery you may want to refer interested readers to the following source of information on practically everything to do with Spam and how to figure out who is sending it http://ddi.digital.net/~gandalf/spamfaq.html Thanks for the great job you do on the LangaList! --- Alan Evans

Thanks, Alan.

The SpamFAQ is an awesome resource, although it's formatted for information content rather than easy readability: It can be daunting  to wade through, but you'll learn a *lot* in the process.

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9) Just For Grins

Wow--- I got some very interesting feedback on the "Paint The Moon" scheme (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-09-06.htm#10). For example, reader Rick Streeters wrote:

Fred: One of our Mentor Technicians made this comment and did this calculation

************
Shhhh.... they are Americans.

They will probably try to move it next by all blowing skywards. We live in England where the Government would hush things like that up but tax it anyway.

Anyone pointing a laser pen at an object 238,900 miles away and a mere .01 degrees out of alignment would be 41.69 miles off target. The moon subtends about 0.5° in the sky. Allowing for an error of ± .01° would give a target diameter of, say, 83.5 miles giving an area of 5460 square miles to hit (which equals 446,054,400 square inches Assuming a laser diameter or 1/16th inch this would require 446054400 x 325.945 laser pens = 145,389,201,400 pens to fill Assuming only 1% of these would be needed to give a resolvable red patch that would require 1,453,892,014 pens or 5.27 pens for each of the 275,562,673 inhabitants (including mexicans). Allowing for refraction and the need to have a clear sky over the whole of the USA and considering that the laser light would take 238,900/186,000 = 1.28 seconds to reach the moon and that the hand would not be able to keep still for that time and during the 5 minute period the moon would have traversed......
***********

Are you STILL sure you will "be out with my pointer"?

And Kirk P. Woodside wrote:

With the movement of the earth, the moon, the person's hand trembling, wind, etc, it would be a true miracle if the beam actually reached the moon at all. I have seen nightclubs where just from across the room the little red spot of light dances on the back of someone's head in spirograph circles, no matter how steady the person wishes the dot to remain. Only high grade targeting devices with a tripod can even make a dot stay still long enough on a target 300 meters away, let alone the distance to the moon! I don't think the stability of the beams will be precise enough to stand still in "one spot" on a moving target from a moving location. The accuracy of pointing with the human hand shaking or trembling probably covers a space greater than three-quarters of the moon in size at the distance the moon is from earth. Next thing you know they'll have another experiment to see if a cow REALLY CAN jump over the moon! C'mon guys!

The moon is in a slightly elliptical orbit around earth. At perigee, (closest) it's 368,257 Km, (220, 954 Mi.) and at apogee, (farthest), it's 404,558 Km, (242, 734 Mi.). Average is about 386,000 Km (225,000 miles). This means that a vibration in the hand equivalent to one millimeter of movement per meter of distance (or the one meter per kilometer as above) would make each vibration of laser travel across some 386-404 Km in radius at the speed of light. Given that each laser dot is approximately 3mm in diameter, that same precise radius it would require some 43 million laser dots zigging and zagging across a 386 km circle of the moons surface to achieve even a 1% fill of laser light that may or may not be visible to the human eye at that distance given the terrain and slope of the moon, meteorological conditions and so forth! I doubt if there is that many people that have a laser and that know about this experiment, are going to try, and are not going to encounter their own cloud cover, wind or rain on those two nights!

Thanks, Rick and Kirk, and all the others who wrote in.

But if you want to get technical, it's even worse than the above. (That's why the item ran as a "just for grins" entry.)

Cheap, penlight laser beams aren't all that precise or well-collimated, so they do widen, albeit more slowly than standard flashlight beams. (The tech term is "divergence.") Take this typical laser pointer, for example: http://www.edmundscientific.com/Products/DisplayProduct.cfm?productid=725 . The beam starts at 1/8 inch (3mm), but grows to 2" (5cm) at 165 feet (50m). Round off the numbers, and a back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that at the distance of the moon, the laser's few milliwatts of energy will be spread out over an area of something like 187 miles (300km ) wide. Of that diffuse beam, only a tiny fraction will be reflected back to the viewer (the Moon is neither flat, nor perfectly reflective); and then the inverse square law kicks in for *that* reflected light.

So, even with millions of lights at play, and even if they were aimed perfectly (ha!) I think the returned energy will be below naked-eye detection limits.

But it should still be fun to see the beams stabbing skyward from one's neighborhood. At the least, it's a cheap and colorful diversion--- surely worth a grin. 8-)

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10) Outlook + IE6 + HTML Email = Problems?
Sorting Out IE6's *48* New Privacy Options;
Free MultiSearch

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: Reader reports of Outlook arbitrarily truncated long HTML emails; handy resources for making sense of the myriad new privacy options in IE6; and a free, downloadable "multisearch" tool.

Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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See you next issue!

Best,

Fred
(fred@langa.com)

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