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/2002/2002-09-09.htm ">here</a>

The LangaList
Standard Edition

2002-09-09

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) Traveling With Laptops In The Post 9-11 World

You only have to stand in an airport security line once, barefoot as your shoes are sniffed for chemicals, watching an inspector tear your laptop bag apart and even swab its exterior to look for traces of explosives, to know that few things have changed more in the last year than air travel. For frequent travelers, and especially frequent business travelers who carry items that look suspicious on X-Ray---laptops, PDAs, cell phones, cables, chargers, spare batteries, etc.--- it can be a major hassle.

But there are several steps you can take to speed your way safely through even the most rigorous security searches, and also greatly reduce the chances of loss, theft or damage to your expensive and delicate electronic travel gear.

I've posted my top ten travel tips for traveling with electronics in the post 9-11 world; they're in my new column, live now (and free) at InformationWeek.Com: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020905S0002

Please come check out the column and then join in the discussion: What tips can you share for traveling with electronic gear? Have you had notable experiences, good or bad, that you can share with us? Have you ever suffered loss or damage to a laptop or similar device in a security screening? Have you changed how you travel, since 9-11 of last year? Let's pool our experiences and knowledge: Join in, at http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020905S0002

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

return to top of page

2) Better than "DeskSweeper?"

Hi Fred.... First up, as a fairly new subscriber, thanks for the great read.....enjoy the "LIST", always!!!

Just to add to "Chet's" input regarding that Desk Sweeper freeware proggie he suggested [ http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-08-26.htm#9 ], here's another on that theme people maybe interested in. If it's running and you have your Task Bar set to "auto-hide".....guess what "hides", right along with the Task Bar? That's right..... the desktop icons. Cool huh? I thought it was. Proggie's called "HideDesk". Here's the particulars:

HideDesk
Freeware
http://home.plutonium.net/~bjackson

---Jay Rovers

Thanks, Jay. Coordinating Hide-Icons with Hide-Taskbar is a clever approach.

There's lots more freeware on the above site, too: Worth a look, despite its somewhat over-the-top name: "Brad's Butt Kickin' WinDoze Utility MegaSite." <g>

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

return to top of page

3) Sometimes, Simple Fixes Are Best

Dear Fred, I've used a Windows Me system for about 2 years. In that time, I've added and removed much freeware, shareware, and trialware. Over a period of time I realized that my computer was running slow. I was about to replace [it], then I came across your articles. I tried out following steps in the order mentioned:

1) Used Four cleaning tools one after another, namely jv16 Power Tools ( http://www.jv16.org ); EasyCleaner ( http://www.toniarts.com/ecleane.htm ) ; CleanReg ( http://www.cleanreg.net/ )  and Clean Disk Security ( http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/clndisk.html ). What was not cleared by one software was cleared by another, and the net result was all these four software tools cleared all debris from my hard disk.

2) Then used RegClean 4.1a from Microsoft

3) I applied your tips spelt out in your article titled Ten Ways to Make Windows 98 Run Better ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/98runbetter/default.htm ; see also "10 Ways to Make WinME Run Better:" http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/merunbetter/default.htm )

4) Added sguide_tweak_98 from http://www.speedguide.net/files/sguide_tweak_98

5) Then defragmented the hard disk using Diskeeper. ( http://www.execsoft.com/downloads/menu.asp )

The net result was amazing and unbelievable. My computer started working much faster as compared to even initial use and my Internet connection speed boosted up to at least 25 % more than initial.

You helped save me from [replacing hardware]. Thanks a lot!--- U. G. Barad (M. Pharm., Ph. D.)

Glad it helped. In fact, it's always smart to try the simple, free and easy fixes before you spring for "cure all" software, or replacement hardware. Most maintenance really isn't hard (especially if you keep up with it) and can have an enormous positive effect. 8-)

Lots more free tune-up info at http://www.freetune.com/most_popular_pages.htm and http://www.informationweek.com/LP/columnists/Fred Langa.html .

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

return to top of page

4) "OnBoard" Video OK?

hey fred, i'm putting together a "parts list" for a new pc i'm gonna build. question; what is your opinion of motherboards with on-board video? i plan on using a MB that uses DDR ram. thanks for your time--- joe

Motherboards with onboard video usually have the video circuitry built right into the basic chipset, so you don't have to buy a separate video card. You save money.

But there are three potential problem areas. First, while a top-of-the-line separate video card might come with 64 or 128MB of dedicated high-speed video RAM, one very common form of onboard video simply "borrows" some system RAM for itself--- say, 8MB or so. This limited amount of RAM constrains what the video system can do in terms of storing textures, patterns, and so on.

Second, general system RAM is almost always intrinsically slower than special-purpose video RAM. With less RAM to start with, and with even that limited RAM of a slower type, onboard video is usually neither as fast nor as versatile as a stand-alone video card can be.

Finally, when onboard video takes over some system RAM, you have less RAM available for everything else. A system with 128MB of RAM in it might only end up with 120MB available, for example, if the onboard video consumes 8MB of RAM. And with some motherboards, disabling the onboard video (so you can install and use a separate video card) doesn't return the "borrowed" RAM to the system pool: It can be a permanent loss.

That's not to say onboard video doesn't work: It does, and is well suited for applications where video performance isn't a big deal, such as general office work (word processing, email, etc.), server applications, and the like. My own office server uses onboard video, for example, and it works fine: The server's job is just to sling bits around the network; it's never used for graphically intensive apps, so there's no need for high-end video performance.

The flip side: For tasks like 3D gameplay, heavy video or photo editing, or *any* graphically intensive application, you'll usually do far better with a separate, stand-alone high-performance graphics card, than you will with onboard video.

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

return to top of page

5) Persistent Question

Reader C.W. Billow most recently voiced a question that crops up again and again about backups:

Why can't I just "mirror" or use Norton Ghost to copy my drive(s) to a second hard drive? Ghost has the added benefit of running from DOS, so you don't have to re-install Windows before restoring...

A variant of this question is "why not use a RAID system?" (RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks."  It's a way of spreading or mirroring data over two or more disks, live and in real-time, as sort of a constant, always-current backup system.)

The problem with all multi-hard-drive backup options for PCs is that you end up with all your data--- live and backup--- inside the same box: All your eggs are in one basket. Anything that takes out either the primary drive or the entire PC--- virus, user error, malice, electrical spike, fire, theft, flood, whatever--- may take out not only your live data but also the data on the backup drive(s). In short, a single severe system problem may cause you to lose *everything.* This kind of defeats the point of having backups, doesn't it?

That's why backup methods that physically separate your backup data from your live data are much safer; and this is one of the reasons why I like backing up to CDs. You make your backup, put the CD aside, and then, if your PC suffers a catastrophic failure or even grows legs and walks out the door, your backup data will still be safe on the CDs.

In fact, you can increase the security of your backup method by increasing the physical distance between your live data and the backups, so that no one event is likely to take out both. In my case, I store my daily backup CDs in a different part of my house from my office; and regularly move the older backups to a small storage locker I rented a few miles away. (It costs me a buck or two a week to rent the space.) This way, if something takes out my PC or even my entire office, my daily backups probably will be unaffected. And even in a worst case scenario--- say, a fire that takes out my office *and* the at-home backups--- I still have the offsite backups in safe storage, so I can resume business quickly.

This may be more data protection than you need, but I believe *everyone* needs some sort of backup that separates their live data from the backups, so that no single problem or failure can take out everything at once. 

To me, putting your live data and your backups inside the same PC is just asking for trouble; it really *is* like putting all your eggs in one basket!

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

return to top of page

6) Could You Use An Extra $10K?

The Recommend-It site gives away up to $10,000 as an incentive to use their service to recommend newsletters like this one!

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 or other prizes from the folks at "Recommend-It:"
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/sendit.htm

return to top of page

7) New Deception: "Sell-By-Stealth?"

The recent item "New Scam Misleads, Legally" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-08-29.htm#3 ) prompted reader Howard Reynolds to wonder about another class of sales-oriented site:

Hi Fred: Your correspondent who highlighted the SBF phenomenon (sell-by-fear) is correct in warning folks to stay well clear. [But] I'm growing concerned about what I would describe as SBS (sell-by-stealth).

Hop along, if you will, to www.inboost.com, a site that appears to be full of objective techie information relating to Internet speeds. ...It describes itself as a website dedicated to "computer and internet speed boost solutions". It recycles information already available elsewhere on the Web but does it accurately and responsibly. And it looks exactly like an independent, objective source of specialist knowledge, the kind of site you'd go to in hope of harvesting unbiased, factual information.

But then we come to the list of programs which this internet-boost website apparently exists to scrutinise and report on.

A quick glance will tell you that the site only endorses one product, and does so at some length. The product is from a company called Ascentive. There are no exhaustive comparative tests of other software programs (I can think of at least a dozen offhand...). Instead, the site [gives an unsubstantiated testimonial and concludes] "This product is a winner..."

The impression I have, rightly or wrongly, is that inboost.com is more closely associated with the makers of the 'recommended' software product than is apparent.

However, as no information is given as to the independence, or otherwise, of www.inboost.com from the company whose product it so enthusiastically endorses, my grounds for being suspicious may be misplaced. In which case, then, if I'm doing inboost.com an injustice, then apologies -- though candidly, it leaves itself wide open in much the same way that an ostensibly independent website established to report and review new cars would do if it only mentioned Ford.

The niggling question remains though just how independent is www.inboost.com?... All best -- Howard Reynolds

It appears that "Inboost" is an affiliate of Ascentive, which is to say, they get a kickback on every sale made through their site. I say "appears" because there's no way to know for sure, but the hint is that when you click on an Inboost link to download the Acentive software, the resulting link contains the following pathing:

...cgi-bin/click/@49178786208/download

That might be entirely innocent, but it sure looks to me like a tracking number so Inboost can get credit for the trial and/or sale.

Further, if you go to the Ascentive site, they do have an affiliate program--- they call it "revenue partnering"--- that says: "Send visitors to Ascentive's web site, and start earning monthly checks. Every month, we'll send you a check for 40% of the sales generated from a unique link you get right away when you sign up."

The problem here isn't that Ascentive has an affiliate program (nothing wrong with that), or that clicks are counted in order to credit the originating site (nothing wrong with that, either; none of the users' information is being passed along--- it's just a counting mechanism, like a turnstyle). Rather, the problem is that it's done on the sly: You have to peek under the covers to see that Inboost has a vested interest in sending you to their "recommended" software site. Indeed, it appears Inboost is using "sell by stealth."

It doesn't have to be that way. For example, I try to avoid any blurring of the lines between advertising links and non-advertising links in the LangaList Standard Edition by physically separating the ads from the rest of the content, with the separator that follows each ad explicitly stating: "The above is an advertisement." Ad links can thus be made *extremely* clear.

"Sell by stealth" tries to blur the distinction between objective editorial content and advertising copy: What appears to be an independent recommendation is actually a form of paid endorsement. That's a form of deception; it's wrong.

The only way to guard against it is to have your BS detectors well-tuned--- as Howard's were--- so you can pick up the cues that suggest a site isn't being fully honest; and/or to do what I did (to see if the referring site is trying to pass off a sales link as something else) by looking at the links and seeing what the target site offers to referrers.

If sales-related links and ads are clearly labeled as such, there's no ethical issue at all. But "sell by stealth" is just plain sleazy.

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

return to top of page

8) Code Load Success Story

A code-loader writes:

Hi Fred, just wanted to say thanks for listing my site "Techzonez" in the readers sites list. http://www.techzonez.com/forums/  The extra traffic we have received today is amazing. Many thanks, Mark

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 thousands 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
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

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

Rotary Club of Garden Grove, CA
http://www.gardengroverotary.org/

Biker Fan
http://home.att.net/~knucklehead-47/

Broughton Village (UK)
http://www.broughtonvillage.com/

Annette Crouch Personal Site
http://www.angelfire.com/nc/newvanity/

Kris & Susanna Carlson
http://www.krisandsusanna.com/

N & B Enterprises
http://www.freewebs.com/halotech/

Daniel McVay
http://danielmcvay.tripod.com/

Cochise & Western Model Railroad Club
http://cacole.mystarband.net/

Shareware, CDR Sites, More
http://www.philsworld.com/

Computer Security and Privacy Links
http://www.gmavt.net/~folder1/compsec.htm

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

return to top of page

9) Gator/Form-Filler Replacement

Fred, I'm a long time reader of the PLUS edition and really enjoy it. I've been using Gator for passwords, credit cards etc and I Feel it's does a good job, but I'm fed up with all the trash that goes with it. Is there a program that I can buy that will perform as well as gator and be trash free? Thanks, Don Nicholson

Indeed there is: We first discussed it about a year ago in http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-08-20.htm#4 : It's "RoboForm," available from http://www.roboform.com/ .

There's a free version, but I liked it well enough to go for the Pro version; I have my copy running all day, every day. Highly recommended.

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

return to top of page

10) Just For Grins

Reader "G.C." writes:

Hi Fred: We all know perfect voice recognition is the hope of the future. But one person who isn't convinced is David Pogue, computer writer for the New York Times. Though Mr Pogue has himself used voice recognition software to write his articles for the past three years, he maintains that there are too many words (in the English language at least) that sound alike for perfect transcription and that it will still be a long time before a computer will be able to make a distinction so subtle that we ourselves often fail to make it.

He continues "... over the years I've kept a log of the "mistakes" made by my speech recognition software. These examples are hilarious, but they make a very serious point. In most of these cases, what I really said and what the computer typed out are sonically identical.

What I said -> What was transcribed

* bookmark it -> book market
* Motorola -> motor roll a
* modem port -> mode import
* a procedure -> upper seizure
* and then stick it in the mail -> and dense thicket in the mail
* movie clips -> move eclipse
* I might add -> I my dad
* inscrutable -> in screw double
* hyphenate -> -8
* suffocate -> Suffolk 8
* a case we summarily dismissed -> a case we so merrily dismissed
* or take a shower -> Ortega shower
* the right or left -> the writer left
* oxymoron -> ax a moron
* ArialPhone guy -> aerial fungi

My conclusion no matter how good the software, read it yourself before it goes out the door (or down the line). Cheers, G.C.

BTW, David Pogue's own (excellent) home page is here: http://www.davidpogue.com/

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

return to top of page

---

11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Free Spell-Checker For IE
• A "Tip Of The Iceberg" Download Site
• More Ways To Remove "Balloon Help/Tool Tips"

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: a free add-in for IE that provides fast spell checking for any web-based text entry, such as web mails, forums, blogs, diaries, etc.; a "Tip Of The Iceberg" download site with links to many freeware, shareware and info sites; and a free site with additional, ultra-simple ways to remove or disable annoying "balloon help" or "tool tip" mini-dialog boxes.

It's just pennies per issue! Complete Plus! Edition 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

Best,

Fred
( Editor@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 newsletter is SPAM PROOF and requires two levels of subscriber confirmation before delivery begins: 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 any information presented here.

This newsletter is a 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