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LangaList 2002-10-07 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) Happy Anniversary!Exactly five years ago, the very first issue of the LangaList was published to a small--- OK, *tiny* <g>--- number of subscribers. It was (to put it mildly) pretty lame. 8-) Back then, I also published the newsletter once a week, more or less. Today, the various editions of the newsletter are distributed twice a week, comprising something like 1.2 million outbound emails every month. And at the same time, the Langa.Com and BrowserTune/Hotspots websites also are busy pumping out a ton of pages. It's been a heck of a ride; all the more so because the LangaList and Langa.Com are basically a one-person operation. Thank goodness for caffeine! 8-) Your fellow subscribers hail from all around the globe--- 80% of the world's nations are represented here! As you might expect for an English-language missive, readers where English is the native tongue (the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, New Zealand...) tend to make up the largest part of the subscriber base; but there's a significant number of readers in places where English is not the primary language. You may be surprised--- I sure was!--- to find that the same newsletter you read also goes out to people in places like Kyrgyzstan, Mali, the Udmurt Republic, and Kiribati. Heck, you even have fellow readers inside the Vatican. <g> Many people have asked about how the List started: You can find a capsule history at http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/list_history.htm , if you're interested. In any case, five years into this project, you're reading the results. I hope you're enjoying the newsletter as much as I enjoy bringing it to you! There's lots more ahead, including some *major* announcements later this year. Stay tuned, and thanks for being a part of the LangaList community! Click to email this item to a
friend 2) USB To non-USB Systems & Peripherals --- Even In DOS!USB stands for "Universal Serial Bus," and some newer PCs take the "Universal"
part very seriously: These machines may have no parallel (printer) port, no
serial (comm) port, no keyboard port, no mouse port, no game (joystick) port,
etc. Instead, the system typically will have two or four USB ports, and that's
that. I actually started to bring you this information last week, but as I wrote--- and wrote, and wrote--- the information ended up taking what would have been about two complete newsletter issues! So instead of eating up multiple issues with one topic, or spreading the information out piecemeal over a half dozen or more many successive issues, I decided to bring you all in one place: as an InformationWeek column. In the new column ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021003S0007 ), we'll look at (1) connecting USB devices to non-USB systems; (2) connecting non-USB devices to USB-equipped systems; and (3) getting the software drivers that can enable USB devices to work in almost any OS--- including DOS. By the time we're done, you'll be able to connect just about any USB and non-USB devices and systems, regardless of port type or OS type! Click over to http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021003S0007 and check it out! (NB: During periods of high use, the InformationWeek servers sometime have trouble keeping up with the clickload. If you get an error message, just try refreshing the page once or twice; the error usually then clears.) Click to email this item to a
friend 3) Reprogram Your Power SwitchHere's an odd offshoot of our recent discussion of the Advanced Power Control Interface (ACPI): Many (perhaps most) users don't know they can actually reprogram what their PC's power switch does. You see, the front panel power switch on most newer PCs is not actually the system's on-off switch, but rather is merely a way to access and control the ACPI system. (To some people, this is an obvious thing, but to others--- especially the "I never read the documentation" type <g>--- it may be a surprise.) Many new systems have the true on/off switch on the back, mounted on the power supply itself; it's out of the way by design, because you're normally supposed to control power events via the ACPI system and the front panel "soft" switch. Try this: Explore the Power Settings applet in Windows' Control Panel. You may find that you can alter what happens when you hit the power switch--- shut down, suspend, or something else. And, depending on your PC vendor and the system BIOS, you may also find that the front-panel power switch performs different actions depending on how you depress it--- a momentary push versus a 4- or 5-second press-and-hold, for example. In any case, it may be worth checking the Control Panel Power Settings applet, your user manuals, and/or your BIOS setup to see what additional ways your system offers to control power events. There may be far more options than you ever realized! See http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20020927S0028 for more information. Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 4) How To Repair/Reinstall ANY Version Of Windows
Thanks, Greg! I was misled at first by the site's design--- I thought it just or mostly was about XP. But it actually covers *all* versions of Windows:
Tons and tons of info--- great find! Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 5) Bugged By BugbearA new email/web worm, "Bugbear," appeared last week, and at first seemed to be a minor annoyance. But by late in the week, it had grown to be a full-fledge pain in the posterior. The worm tries to disable any software firewalls or anti-virus apps you have running, copies itself onto your system using random and variable file names, looks for any network connections it can exploit, and attempts to reinfect others by network and by its own built-in SMTP (email) engine, so you may never know the bad emails are going out to your friends and colleagues. It's also a keystroke logger, and more. According to the folks at Symantec, the worm can:
All the major antivirus makers have patches that catch and fix Bugbear, but from the volume of infected emails I'm getting, way too many people are running unprotected and have been infected. Symantec has a free tool just for removing BugBear: See More Info: For general info on how to make your PC secure from this kind of attack, see http://www.informationweek.com/840/langa.htm Click to email this item to a
friend 6) Margo Got A $30 Gift Certificate. Want One?Reader Margo just got a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at
Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and more. Margo got
it by using the "Recommend" link at
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm . Either way, thank you, and good luck! Click to email this item to a
friend 7) Two More Security HolesOnce again, the #1 blind spot among Microsoft programmers--- "unchecked buffers"--- is causing trouble: "Unchecked Buffer in File Decompression Functions Could Lead to Code Execution" in Windows 98 with Plus! Pack, Windows Me, and Windows XP. Impact: "Run code of attacker’s choice." Info and patch: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-054.asp "Unchecked Buffer in Windows Help Facility Could Enable Code Execution"
in Windows 98/SE/ME, NT 4.0 and Terminal Server Edition, Windows 2000 and
XP. Impact: Attacker could gain control over user's system. Info and patch: Click to email this item to a
friend 8) They Loaded The CodeDo 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 Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date
Sites Starting At BlueOnion (Free) Software Ham radio site of VE9TS (BC Canada) Snazzy Jazzy Postcards Phil & Moke's Secret Free Place Paul Lantz Noticias Pro Audio RX Small business consultants in Calgary
Alberta Bayou Des Allemands Robert O. Zehr SweetDreams Digital Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) More on eMachines WeirdnessAs usual, there's no topic that some LangaList reader, somewhere, doesn't have down pat. Consider this:
Thanks, guys! A lot of people ended up with eMachines (because they were priced low and aggressively marketed); and a lot of them ended up as unhappy customers. The info--- and the link to "e4All"--- will help them a lot. Click to email this item to a
friend 10) Just For GrinsWhen I first read this email, I *almost* deleted it because I though it was just another crank letter on a subject we'd already done to death. But I kept reading--- and ended up laughing out loud at what turned out to be a wonderful parody:
Migosh, Mano--- they've been here in New Hampshire, too!
See And in Georgia, too! <g> Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 11) Plus! Edition Highlights:
Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: A simple way to make any application, task, or process run faster inside Windows 2000 or XP; a fast, easy way to transfer data between machines via an ultra-inexpensive network; and a spectacular way to ensure that old CDs can never be snooped by anyone. C'mon--- it's just a buck a month! Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm Click to email this item to a
friend See you next issue! Best, 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. UNSUBSCRIBE: From the same email account you
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