How To Subscribe and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Mailing List Trouble? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm
Questions about the advertisers? See the end of this note. Please also see legal notices at the end of this note. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !)

An easier-to read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available
<a href=" http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-10-18.htm ">here</a>

The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-10-18

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) Fine Print Gotcha Results In $16,000 Bill

If you thought I was overplaying the problem with today's one-sided End-User License Agreements (EULAs) consider these two experiences:

Fred, Regarding, fine print in the EULA... there's a web hosting company called Global Internet Solutions that proudly boasts an incredibly low price on a full-featured hosting package that comes with a 30-day Money Back Guarantee... The 30-day Money Back Guarantee, of course, is a rather standard practice for hosting companies who give you the opportunity to test out their servers. However, I have learned the hard way that GISOL has their own definition of a 30-day Money Back Guarantee. Only after being unhappy with their service and after attempting to cancel it did I discover that if you pre-paid for 1-year of service, you cannot cancel, they will not close the account, you cannot get your money back, and you cannot exercise the 30-day Money Back Guarantee unless you satisfy their questionable definition of said guarantee (fine print to follow)... "All of our web hosting plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee, only if we are unable to set up your account due to problems on our side." Duhhhh... doesn't that go without saying? Doesn't a "30-day money back guarantee" mean you get your money back if you are not satisfied? Buyer beware... --- L B Abrams

Curiously--- or perhaps as a result of LB's experience--- the GISOL site doesn't stress any money back offer now. But there's more to the GISOL story: Al Sacui says that GISOL tried a fine-print maneuver on him that resulted in his getting  an unexpected bill for over $16,000!  Al was unhappy enough to set up a web site dedicated to getting the word out about the incident: It's at http://gisol.org/gisol/11/a.html

Al says GISOL eventually retracted the bill, but he's still one very unhappy ex-GISOL customer. I have no first-hand experience with GISOL at all, but this kind of reader-to-reader anecdotal evidence can be very useful, both in regards to a specific vendor's possible EULA abuse, and to see how EULAs may be abused in general.

And to help further buttress yourself against EULA abuse,  reader Rob Harmer built a whole site about "Software Licenses - Information for Auditors:"

Fred, Your article on EULAs caught my eye. You may be interested in the following articles that I wrote that have a similar theme.
http://www.auditnet.org/articles/softwarelicenses.htm

Topics covered in the above article are:
One Computer One License
EULA - Get Used to the term!
Licenses are amended from time to time
Upgrading software
What Types Of Software Licenses Are There?
Does the 80/20 Rule Still apply for software?
What Constitutes Copying Of Software?
Software Licensing Issues - A General Rule
How To Tell If You're At Risk
What steps are necessary when looking at the "big picture" of software compliance?
How can I PROVE that I am legally compliant?
Not convinced you need to sharpen up your software compliance audit practises?
How to become Software Compliant
What should you be doing as "the AUDITOR"?
How can you detect what has been installed?
Sample EULA's (End User License Agreements)
Frequently Asked Questions about Software Licenses

Other items of interest are;
http://www.pcprofile.com/frequently_asked_questions.htm
http://www.pcprofile.com/software_piracy.htm
http://www.auditnet.org/articles/No_Budget_For_Audit_Software.htm

Please come check out the examples readers and I have posted at InformationWeek, and then join in the discussion: What's your experience with EULAs and TOSes? Do you read all such documents, or do you click "accept" and hope for the best? Have you ever been ensnared by "stealth" terms added to a EULA or TOS document? Have you ever declined to use a product because of a too-restrictive legal document? And, with regard to the Front Page EULA, do you agree with my interpretation that it's not a big deal, or am I letting Microsoft off the hook too easily?

Please check out the new article at
http://www.informationweek.com/859/langa.htm  and then add your comments at http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa .

See you there!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

2) Free, Ultra-Small, Low-Impact Browser

Miles Wolbe wrote:

If you haven't checked out the OffByOne browser, it is *awesome* http://offbyone.com/

Thanks, Miles. It's interesting indeed. The site describes it thus:

The Off By One Web Browser may be the world's smallest and fastest Web Browser with full HTML 3.2 support. It is a completely self-contained, stand-alone 1.1MB application with no dependencies on any other browser or browser component. For Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT and Windows 2000.

Because it's small and doesn't try to do everything, it's also very parsimonious in its use of system resources: On a test system here, the OffByOne browser consumed only about 3% of system resources in use, versus 13% for Navigator and 6% for IE. Nice!

Pros and Cons:
http://offbyone.com/ob1_overview.htm

Download:
http://offbyone.com/

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

3) About That LiveUpdate Security Hole...

In the last issue, we discussed a vulnerability in Symantec's LiveUpdate software (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-10-15.htm#3 ). Here's more information:

Hi Fred, here are some links to the Liveupdate vulnerability. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/22203.html , and http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/security/Content/2001.10.05.html . Great news letter...Kenneth Masson

Hi Fred, I became aware of this issue last week and contacted Symantec. Below is what they had to say

Hello Rob, Welcome to Symantec's online technical support discussion forum....I understand that you are worried if this is true. Let me assist you with more information. LiveUpdate... The improvements Symantec introduced in LiveUpdate 1.6 and higher are actually "best practice security". It would be advisable to update all Symantec products using LiveUpdate to version 1.6. The latest LiveUpdate 1.6.x is available from the URL  http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/files/lu/lu.html .... We assure you that you will be secure from the latest viruses by using our latest product along with LiveUpdate 1.6....Symantec Consumer Technical Support

That still leaves me with the question what about version 1.6? They assure me that using 1.6 will secure me from the latest viruses, but what about the security hole? I didn't get the answer I was looking for... Thanks for a great newsletter! Rob Eckert

Because it uses standard Internet connection/file-transfer techniques, 1.6 is vulnerable to standard Internet attack techniques such as redirection and denial of service, but these are not unique flaws in 1.6--- they're part of the everyday risks of being online. However, the really bad security hole in LiveUpdate 1.4, by which malicious hackers could install hostile code on your system, seems to have been removed from 1.6.

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

4) Free: Old and New Install/UnInstall Tools

Dear Fred,  Many thanks for an excellent read in Langa list plus. I particularly like introductions to new software utilities.

Here is one I have found extremely useful, "InstallWatch" from Epsilonsquared. http://www.installwatch.com/products.html  It logs all changes to your system after installations etc. They are shown in a friendly user interface and it is freeware and spyware free. Best wishes John Greenwood

Thanks, John. InstallWatch actually has been around for a while. It's another way to take before/after "snapshots" of critical system files to track changes when you install new software. As such, it also makes it easier to undo completely any errant installations or failed uninstalls.

But reader "Greg" found a newer cool tool that lets you test-drive new software without changing your registry at all:

Hi, I found a program I'd like to share with you - and your readers... It's called TestRun by BernieBuilt, an Australian fellow. It uses batch files to duplicate the Windows registry, restarts Windows and then runs any apps you want to test from the duplicate or dummy registry. It's got lots of explicit warning screens and prompts which I find useful. I've  enjoyed downloading using and testing freeware for years. I learned a lot about Windows systems from my perhaps too naive method of "just try it."  I did install TestRun myself and it is very easy to use. I installed a couple of applications while using it, and switching between Registry and CopyofRegistry and I like it.--- Greg

Thanks, Greg, You can find the download at http://testrun.cjb.net/

Here's what the site says:

Some programs that you [try] may import values into the Registry that overwrite the original settings. Even if the programs are uninstalled, it can still be impossible to get the Registry back to original....  For example...certain graphic programs become associated with particular file types, and former associations are not reinstated when that program is removed from your system.... Other types of programs may also cause irreversible changes to the Registry.

TEST-RUN looks after the Registry in a different way than providing a Registry backup which could be used to fix the Registry "after" any corruption. Instead, TEST-RUN provides a Separate Registry especially for testing trial programs. After testing a program, you can switch back to your normal Registry and install it, or uninstall it before switching back.

That's fine, except for one catch: Programs that force a registration at first-use will have to be re-registered "for real" when you perform the final installation, and that can range from simple to nearly impossible, depending on the software and the registration process used.

That's one of the reasons why I still recommend and use the technique described in the next item (#5), below:

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

5) A Way To 100% Uninstall *ANY* Software--- Even IE

Software sometimes just won't "let go," and can be very hard to get rid of: Some versions of Internet Explorer can be among the worst offenders.

"Can be" because, depending on how you installed it, choosing IE in Control Panel's Add/Remove Software applet *may* give you the option of restoring the previous version. But even then, depending on what you've done with IE and what add-ons you may be using, trying to extricate it can still be difficult. (And depending on your setup options, it's also possible to have no ability at all to even try an automatic reversion.)

Utilities like GoBack, InstallWatch and Test-Run can help, but the only 100% sure way I know to remove ANY piece of software, regardless of what it is or how it was installed, is to use full-blown backup software.

For example, when I have some software tank on me, I'll simply roll my system back to an earlier date: either before the problem occurred, or before I ever installed the bad software. I then update that rolled-back setup with any user files that were created or updated after the roll-back date, and I end up with a new setup *without* the bad software, but *with* all my current user files.

I hate to sound like the proverbial broken record (er, scratched CD?), but a tool like Drive Image makes this almost painless. I Image my drive every day, and I can roll my system back to any arbitrary date in a matter of minutes.

Plus: blank CD prices keep falling--- you can easily find blanks for about 15 cents a pop now, and I just bought 300 blank CDs on sale for about seven cents each. With prices like that--- about penny per 100 MB of storage--- there's really no reason NOT to be using CD backups.

And when you do, you'll be all but immune to roll-back or other problems, and will never, ever have to live with bad software or fool around with rollback and uninstall tools.

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

6) Is This Information Useful?

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the LangaList---your friend may find a new source of useful information 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. (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

7) A Free And Useful ActiveX Diagnostic Tool

Normally, it's hard to know what ActiveX controls are running on your system, but there's actually a free tool that lets you see and manage your ActiveX controls: WinMag originally commissioned it years ago! It's called the ActiveXcavator, and it can show you up to a dozen pieces of information about each control it finds. And, with a click, it lets you delete any unwanted controls!

You can read more about the current version (2.04) at http://www.cognitronix.com/xcavator.htm, or download the free file from http://img.cmpnet.com/byte/columns/frantz/1999/06/XCavate.exe

When you run it, I bet you'll be very surprised to see just how much ActiveX stuff it finds on your PC!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

8) More Reader Sites!

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (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 From Among All Listed
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

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

SiteBuilder
http://www.sitebilder.com/

Hartman Clocks
http://coalhill_17.tripod.com/hartmanclockcompany/index.html

Computer and Internet Consulting and Information
http://www.mikpat-enterprises.com/Index.html

A Tribute to America
http://members.home.net/ronfleischer/ethos/default.html

Kirky's Kabin
http://members.optushome.com.au/kirky3/

Systems Design and Analysis
http://www.sdaindy.com/

ValueLink1.com (wholesale electronics)
http://www.valuelink1.com/

9-11 Memorial
http://911.swafford-family.com/webring.html

M4Soft
http://www.mfour.dk/

Van's Journal
http://www.blakeman.net/

Bienvenue sur Configmail (Outlook & OE)
http://configmail.free.fr/

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

9) Not Free, But Interesting/Useful Software

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

10) Just For Grins

Writing from Canada, Jeff Rankin-Lowe continues the long tradition of circulating computer-virus jokes:

Survivor Virus--- Deletes your files one by one over 13 weeks until only the most annoying one remains.

Dan Quayle Virus---- Destroys all the files stored on your Etch-a-Sketch.

Tiger Woods Virus--- Beats the holy crap out of you in every computer game you play.

Britney Spears Virus--- Your partitions mysteriously quadruple in size overnight.

Firestone Virus--- Leaves chunks of its code all over the information highway.

I_HATE_YOU Virus--- Emits shrill screams from your speakers when you refuse to buy the new computer game that "all the other computers at school already have".

Boulder Police Virus--- Can't even *find* your computer.

"Redneck Computer Virus!"---As we don't have any programming experience, this virus works on the honor system. Please delete all of the files on your hard drive, and manually forward this virus to everyone on your mailing list. Thank you for your cooperation.--- Bubba

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Ultimate Solutions For Multi-Booting?
• Powerful, Free Process Monitor
• Restoring A Normal Boot/Autoexec File To Windows ME

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: Reader-recommendations for multi-booting methods that offer *total immunity* from one OS trashing another; a free task manager/"process monitor" that informs you about and puts you in fine control over every task and subprocess running on your PC; and ways to use the "Redirect-to-NUL" trick--- or any Autoexec.Bat trick even on WindowsME.

A Plus! issue only costs about a dime! More info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

See you next issue!

Best,

Fred
(fred@langa.com)

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

An easier-to read formatted HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://www.langa.com.  (The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the issue date.) All past LangaList issues are also available at the Langa.Com site.

return to top of page

Administrivia:

UNSUBSCRIBE: From the same email account you used to sign up with), send an email to
unsubscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net

SUBSCRIBE (it's free!): Create and send a new email to
subscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net

CHANGE ADDRESS? LIST TROUBLE? HAVE QUESTIONS? OTHER PROBLEM? NEED HELP? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm

This is a 100% OPT-IN newsletter: See http://www.langa.com/info.htm

About the advertisers: http://www.langa.com/privacy.htm#ads

Disclaimer: http://www.langa.com/legal.htm  In brief: All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. Neither Langa Consulting LLC, nor its employees nor contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from your choosing to use of any information presented here.

This newsletter is a free service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 1997-2005 Fred Langa/ Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

return to top of page