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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2002-10-03

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) Save Wear And Tear... And Energy, Too

Picking the right "sleep state" out of the six available to most PCs not only makes your PC more convenient to use, but also saves wear and tear on your PC's moving parts (such as hard drives and fans), makes the area around the PC quieter, and can save energy, too.

The energy savings may surprise you: Some sleep states let your PC draw as little as 5 watts (!)--- like a nightlight--- instead of the normal current, which can reach into the hundreds of watts. Proper use of "hibernation" can further cut the wattage all the way to zero in some cases, yet still let you resume PC operation swiftly and right from where you left off.

Not only will you receive a direct benefit in using less electricity, but you may also receive a compound benefit if your PC is in an air-conditioned space: Almost all the energy used by a PC ends up as heat in the room air: Running a PC and its monitor can produce as much heat as a small hair dryer! Thus, slowing down or hibernating your PC cuts your A/C costs.

And there's a social benefit too: In the US alone, it takes the energy output of seven average-sized generating stations just to power all the nation's electronic devices left in a light sleep "standby" mode. Imagine the benefits to the economy, to the environment, and from reducing dependence on foreign oil, if many of those devices could go into deeper sleep or full hibernation.

Get the full scoop on PC power management in the current FREE article online at http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20020927S0028 .Once you know the power-management choices available to you, you can make better use of them, saving energy, money--- and hassles!--- in the process.

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--- ( advertisement ) ---

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Glad you found it useful, John. The Plus! Archives are indeed offered FREE
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right on your local hard drive.

It gives nearly instant answers to any question
we've ever covered in the last five years!

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2) More Excellent Anti-Spyware Resources

Hi Fred: re "Free Anti-Spyware Info, Tools" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-09-23.htm#4 ), another good idea (of which I'm sure you're aware) is to check and see if a certain freebie download contains spyware before ever downloading it in the first place. 'Nip it in the bud', as Mayberry's Deputy Barney Fife was so fond of saying.

Some good resources not yet mentioned are:

http://www.spychecker.com/
http://www.tom-cat.com/spybase/spylist.html
http://cexx.org/adware.htm
http://home.tvd.be/ws36178/security/spylist.html
http://www.simplythebest.net/info/spyware.html

I normally find that SpyChecker.com suffices, but it never hurts to have backup resources, does it. Belt-and-suspenders, as you say. : -) --- John Howard

Excellent resources, John. Thanks!

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3) Fresh Look At On-Board Video

We recently discussed "on board video," where video is handled by circuits built into the motherboard instead of a separate, add-in card. (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-09-09.htm#4 .) That article prompted this note from a reader (who asked to remain anonymous) whose work gave him experience with on-board video that actually performs very well:

Fred, I didn't feel at liberty to write this from work. and, before I go further I must ask you to, if you use any of this, to ID me as just an 'industry insider'.

For the past year I have been working for [company name withheld] on a contract for [a major vendor]. We have been doing chipset validation on the 845-G chipset.

I have been *very* impressed with the engineers I have been working with. And, I am not easily impressed... This goes doubly for chipsets and especially for stuff 'on-board'.

I don't like 'all-in-one' anythings! My system at home [has an] implementation of on-board sound that prohibits my SoundBlaster Live! from supporting my pure DOS games. On-board video is pathetic. It won't even allocate enough memory to play most of my Windows Based Games.

When I bought a copy of Return to Castle Wolfenstein I was hoping that the purchase of [a new] ATI card would at least allow me to play the game. But, my system just can't build the frames fast enough.

So, I decided to take the game to work and do a little 'testing' of my own. All I could get out of people was that the chipset supported 8MB video. And, RTCW requires 16MB. But I installed the game and had no problems with it at all. Played several levels before I was 'found out' and returned to 'real' testing. (There is another group that is doing the actual Windows and Graphics testing...)

What I am saying is that the Intel 845-G may be a valid option... Even for some high end gamers. Only, time will tell. More games will have to be tried on it especially ones that require a lot of bandwidth and raw memory. But, it looks *very* promising.

I am saving up for a new system. Right now I am looking at an Albatron 845-G Pro 2 or and 845 Pro 2. I don't *really* need the Graphics... I've already bought the Radeon. Looking at 256MB DDR 266 which is what I played with at work. Can't tell you the processor speed, though. ) But, I did also use a (slow) 2.4GHz Northwood, too.

Frame rates sound real good on paper. But, there is a limit to what the human eye can actually follow. Past that you're just wasting bandwidth...

BTW Tiger-Direct has the 845 Pro-2 w/ a 2.4G Proc for less than $400 now...

Regards, 'industry insider'

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-------

4) Interesting Anti-Spam Tools

I'm still sorting through the huge number of emails I've been getting about various good and bad anti-spam tools. But one promising new class of tools seems to warrant immediate discussion:

Fred: I just started using a fairly easy to use Anti-Spam software called SpamNet from Cloudmark ( http://www.cloudmark.com ). It's currently a free download in pre-release but I've had no problems using it (and it doesn't "spamify" your newsletter!). You just connect to the common server and upload all your identified spam and it lets others in the network keep informed of the latest versions of spam circulating out there. It does only work with Outlook 2000 or Outlook XP right now, but other versions are promised. --Gil Levesque

Thanks, Gil. SpamNet is starting to get quite a buzz because of the way it works. It's actually conceptually akin to two other systems, as explained in the excerpt from David Strom's "Web Informant" newsletter (see http://www.strom.com/awards/index.html and http://www.strom.com ):

[T]hree products that I looked at, and used over the past several months, are Cloudmark.com's SpamNet ( http://www.cloudmark.com ), MailFrontier.com's Matador ( http://mailfrontier.com/ ), and Sunbelt Software's IHateSpam ( http://www.sunbelt-software.com ) . The first two are free, the Sunbelt product costs about $20.

Sunbelt makes two versions one for Outlook, and another for Outlook Express. All of the products make use of peer-to-peer networking in a new and unusual way. Every time a user  identifies a message as spam, a note gets sent to the vendor's server. As more and more people make this designation, more and more messages get blocked by the software. It is a neat idea, and in my tests I found each product was able to block about 75% of the hundreds of spam  messages that I receive daily. It isn't perfect, but it helps to keep the traffic down in your mailbox. And the nice thing  about these three products is that they didn't make any mistakes, as far as I could see none of the messages that were marked as spam were actual messages from my correspondents that I wanted to keep. In science, this is called a lack of "false positives" and it is a good thing indeed.

Each product has slightly different user interfaces and controls, although each allows you to add people or domains that you want to correspond with to be added to a "white list" (meaning that messages from these individuals will always be delivered to you) and people or domains that you  never want to see can be added to a "black list." I liked  SpamNet the most, and IHateSpam the least, although the differences among the three products were not that significant.

Fighting spam is a tough war, indeed. But these three products give us all a chance to take back control over our Inboxes.

It's an interesting approach--- an application of Napster-like peer-to-peer networking. But instead of sharing music files, users share information about what is--- and what is not--- spam. This approach has the potential of being just as effective at blocking true spam as anything else out there, but without the collateral damage caused by "false positive" reports of spam.

This is radically different from approaches like SpamCop's blacklist, where the system only tracks negative reports. There, a handful of malicious or intellectually challenged people can totally skew the rankings. I won't beat the dead horse, but in one recent instance 17 (false) reports of spam from among my 160,000+ readers were enough for SpamCop to decide I was a spammer.

In a peer-to-peer service like SpamNet, if most users agree that something is spam, it will be flagged as such. But if most users agree that something is NOT spam, it won't be listed. In other words, false spam reports can be "outvoted" by positive reports from other users. (I'm oversimplifying, but you get the idea.) Plus, in SpamNet, suspected spam mail isn't blindly blocked; it's moved to a "spam" folder, so even if something is incorrectly labeled as spam, your mail won't be lost.

It's a noteworthy approach that places control over what is and is not defined as spam in the hands of the *total body of recipients* instead of a small group of self-appointed censors. Non-spammers won't get blocked, but spammers definitely will. In fact, even the most subtle, clever spammers will be caught because--- as the saying goes--- "you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Very interesting!

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5) "WellSpent" Site

Thanks, Bill. I hadn't heard of that site before.

There also are some sites where you don't even have to make a purchase to do some good. In these cases, corporate sponsors donate to a charity in direct proportion to the number of unique daily clicks received through specific links. For example, see:

http://www.stopthehunger.com/hunger/
http://www.thenonprofits.com/
http://www.feedahungrychild.com/donate.htm
http://charityfocus.org/support/ways/p.php?pg=click
http://www.therainforestsite.com/

... and more.  Check 'em out!

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6) New Month, New Chances...

It'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!

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7) "Slap" and Other Unusual Freeware

Hey, Fred. Take a look at this page of freeware. There are only a dozen or so apps available but many are unique. I especially enjoyed Slap, which may not be exactly ethical but sure could be a whole lot of fun.

http://www.securitysoftware.cc/apps.html

Take care--- Anthony Cook

Thanks, Anthony. "Slap" is a kind a grayware--- it basically lets you counterattack people who try to probe your firewall. It's not illegal, but does raise the question of whether "two wrongs make a right." Hmmmm.

But there are other unusual programs on the page too--- and some could be quite useful. As a whole, the site is rather quirky, but interesting!

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8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming And Coming...

Well over two 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 )

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

EARTHmatrix
http://www.earthmatrix.org/

JSTech "Huge Page Of Links"
http://www.gct21.net/~jstech/

Palm Software ($10 CD)
http://home.stny.rr.com/raf1/palm_os_pda_software_collection_.htm

Roy Gehris' Homepage
http://www.geocities.com/mwkop/index.html

Hearts Content
http://donettesfair.tripod.com/index.htm

gtmcKnight
http://gtmcknight.com/

FUN ON THE INTERNET
http://www.internet-fun.net

MajorHead
http://www.majorhead.net/

PC's n Dreams
http://www.pcsndreams.com/

TOMBOB48
http://www.geocities.com/tombob48/

Peter Ericson's Web site
http://www.pericson.com/

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9) Time Servers

As the seasons change and "daylight savings time," "summer time" and various other time-adjustment schemes come or go (depending on where you live) this note from Tony King might prove useful:

Just a brief note to point out two interesting websites:
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/
and
http://www.worldtimezone.com/

Although they do not seem to be associated with each other, they both offer handy information on the world's time zones, where the sun is now overhead, what time it is in just about ANY country or territory on earth, and what territories follow daylight saving time.

WorldTimeServer: There are some nifty graphical displays that show not only the time in, but the LOCATION of a particular place on a world map. Some of these I've never even heard of before! Great for schoolkids' geography research. As well, it has a small FREE program that you can download and install on your Windows (sorry, Mac guys!), which will run in the system tray and keep your computer's time synchronized within a second or so to one of the world's standard Atomic clocks. EXACT Time all the time!

WorldTimeZone: will show you what territories on earth follow daylight savings time, and will show what parts of the planet are now in daylight at this moment. (Click on Sunclock) However, strangely, THEIR clock on the main page was off by about two minutes ! Don't trust it! ---- Tony

Thanks, Tony. I noticed that the "WorldTimeZone" clock is off, too; I don't know if it's just that their server is set wrong, or if (perhaps--- I'm reaching here) they're doing some kind of solar time based on exact geography rather than merely being within a broad timezone.

In any case, I'll stick with atomic clocks to know what the exact time is for me, and use these sites to see what time it is for others. <g>

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10) Just For Grins

"Tyrell" sends this in, saying, "Not my doing, no idea whose, but thought you may find it amusing...:"

Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, paid me a visit. As we were talking I mentioned that I had recently installed Windows on my PC, I told him how happy I was with this operating system and showed him the Windows CD. Too my astonishment and distress he threw it into my micro-wave oven and turned it on. I was upset because the CD had become precious to me, but he said 'Do not worry, it is unharmed.' After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said 'Take a close look at it.' To my surprise the CD was quite cold and it seemed to have become thicker and heavier than before. At first I could not see anything, but on the inner edge of the central hole I saw an inscription, in lines finer than anything I have ever seen before. The inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a great depth:

4F6E65204F5320746F2072756C65207468656D20616C6C2C204F6E65204F5320746F
2066696E64207468656D2C0D0A4F6E65204F5320746F206272696E67207468656D20
616C6C20616E6420696E20746865206461726B6E6573732062696E64207468656D

'I cannot read the fiery letters,' I said.

'No,' he said, 'but I can. The letters are Hex, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Microsoft, which I shall not utter here. But in common English this is what it says"

'One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them...."

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Warning: CPU Hog Inside "Real Player One"
• Heavy-Duty (and Free!) Outlook Replacement For Linux...
• ...And A Free Calendar (And More) For Windows

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: information on a component of Real Player One that can hog up to 99% of all your CPU's cycles; a high-quality, free application that's like Outlook, but runs on Linux; plus a free calendar, timed-reminder tool, animation tool and more, for Windows.

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

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See you next issue!

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.

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