|
Please visit the LangaList
Home Page
Please note: Older issues
may contain information that is now
out of date
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/2003/2003-03-13.htm ">here</a>
The
LangaList
Standard Edition
2003-03-13
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!
--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links
Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---
Need Answers about
Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP?
Check out computer-related books personally recommended
by Fred Langa and available at Amazon.Com's deepest discounts!
<a href="
http://www.langa.com/books.htm ">Click!</a>
--------------( the above is
an advertisement )--------------
1) XP Home's Support
Ends 2 Years Before Pro's
Fred, Since users are coming to the end of the life cycle of Windows 98 and are
feeling compelled to change to Windows XP [or something else] another consideration may be the
life cycle of Windows XP! From looking at the Microsoft site, the End of Life
Cycle for Windows XP Professional is December 31, 2009 while the End of Life
Cycle for Windows XP Home is December 31, 2007. Is it worth the extra outlay of
money at this point to purchase Windows XP Professional to get an extra 2 years
out of the product without having to feel compelled to upgrade?--- Greg Kasper
It's a factor, yes. But it's also a shot in the dark,
as no one can say exactly what patches there will be, or how Microsoft might
modify the support lifecycle between now and then. Indeed, Microsoft has *already* altered the support
lifecycle that it first announced
back in 2001. It changed the original end-of-life date
for Win98, for example.
Windows support lifecycle schedules aren't always easy to figure out because Microsoft's own pages on the subject
are confusing and internally contradictory in some places. I recently waded in,
tried to make sense of the information available, and put it all in the current
InformationWeek column, available (free) now at
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030307S0018 .
In it, we walk through the currently scheduled "life cycles"
of Windows 98/98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 and XP Home
and Pro.
I also give you direct links to the five different
Microsoft resources I found on product lifecycles, so you can try reading the
tea leaves yourself, if you so desire.
This is important information for anyone using any
version of Windows; and for anyone planning to move to XP. Please click on over
to
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030307S0018 and check it out!
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
--- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------
2) *Hear* Fans
Before You Buy Them!
Fred, In regard to your recent LangaList article on fan noise (
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-03-03.htm#3 ), you ought to check out Sidewinder Computers --
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ . They have a "Listening Room" where you can hear what every fan they sell sounds like --
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/tecar.html . I don't mean for this to be an advertisement or anything, since this would be useful no matter where you buy your CPU/case fans. I thought your readers might find it useful.
---Peter
What a good idea! Even though playing back a recording of a fan's noise isn't
the same as hearing it live, it does let you compare the *relative* noise levels
of the listed fans. I wish other fan vendors did this!
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
3) Free "Trios"
Alternative
We discussed "Trios" in a recent issue (
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-03-06.htm#4 ) It's a way
to dual- or triple-boot your PC
without repartitioning, and without having to add boot-manager software.
A number of readers suggested a simple, free alternative that will work on
many newer PCs. For example:
Hi Fred: Regarding the Trios article in the 2003-03-06 LangaList edition here
are two other suggestions.
1) Many recent PC's allow you to select which hard drive to boot from the
BIOS. I don't know just when this became a useful function but if [a readers'] PC
has this ability he can do what he wants for FREE. (I love that word!) Just
install the hard drive with his old operating system then go into the BIOS and
set it as the boot drive when he wants to run the old OS. When he wants his new
OS he can go into the BIOS during bootup and set the drive that has the new OS
to be the boot drive. If installing the old drive on the same cable as the new
one (the one already present in the system), make sure to set the drive up as a
slave drive.
2) I have a couple of older machines that have a SCSI card in them. I use the
same principle as described above but have one OS on an old SCSI drive and
another on the primary IDE drive. To switch which OS will boot I just go to the
BIOS and set either the SCSI drive or the IDE drive to be the first boot device
depending on which OS I want to boot. I use method 2 to get use out of old
equipment that would otherwise be outdated and useless to me. It's perfect for
playing with Linux and Windows 9X.--- A Loyal Long Time Reader (ALLTR), Dan
Knauf
Thanks Dan!
This is a fine method, and can work well in many
cases. My reservation with this approach--- using the BIOS boot-order as the sole
discriminator between two bootable hard drives--- comes from having two live boot
sectors and two live primary partitions powered and spun up in the system at the
same time. In essence, after booting, you're depending solely on a drive-letter assignment to
keep everything straight.
For example, if you boot this way you may have both a
C:\Windows and a D:\Windows folder, or a C:\Documents and Settings\[user] folder
and a D:\Documents and Settings\[user] folder. Accidentally adding or deleting
files to the wrong folder, especially via automated search/replace or cleanup
operations, can mess up *both* the live and the dormant OS.
But I can see how it *should* work, with careful use of the
drives--- making sure no files were written, installed, altered, or deleted where they shouldn't
be; and that no disk utilities diddled with the structure of the "dormant"
primary partition.
In a way, BIOS-switched booting is similar to normal dual- or multi-booting, which
carries the same risks and benefits. There, too, you have be careful about where
files are written and deleted; where software gets installed; and where and how you do
deep disk maintenance, etc.
With that kind of careful use, this approach can work
fine. Indeed, millions use some kind of multi-booting--- software- or
BIOS-driven--- every day.
But my livelihood depends on my PCs working reliably, so I use a different--- and I believe fundamentally safer--- way to run
multiple OSes on the same PC. See next item.
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
--- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------
4) A Safer (But
Harder) Way To
Multi Boot (Pt. 1)
In a recent
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-03-03.htm#4 issue, I mentioned
that "One of my test PCs here contains a
perfect, error-free installation of every current version of desktop Windows---
Win98, WinME, Win2K, XP Home and XP Pro." Several readers asked how I did
that.
I'll tell you, but let me give some background first:
The purpose of my test systems is to let me see how
something works on various versions of Windows--- not "on Windows as modified by
various nonstandard add-ons that may or may not affect the outcome of the
tests."
For example, using a traditional boot manager might
introduce additional variables that would affect the results of different tests.
If something (say, a low-level disk utility) didn't work, I wouldn't be able to
tell if the boot manager was part of the problem or not.
So, I needed a *clean* way to multi boot, with no additional software at all
affecting the installed OSes.
Second, because these are tests systems, I sometimes
test destructively--- deliberately breaking the software to simulate what
happens in, say, a bad crash or a major user error. When I mess up a test
OS, I don't want collateral damage spilling over to other OSes that I have
installed elsewhere on the system. (This isn't as extreme as it sounds: This
kind of spillover damage can and does sometimes happen in real life with
standard multiboot procedures.)
Plus, with 5 OSes (and I actually had a 6th OS, Linux, on the same box, until recently),
it's way, way past anything I wanted to try with separate hard drives and
switching hardware like Trios or the BIOS
boot-order trick mentioned in the previous item.
Yes, these specialized needs go beyond what most people have to deal
with--- I admit it: I'm not normal! <g> But my solution might help either those
few in similar situations, or anyone who wants an alternate method of dual- or
multi-booting with essentially zero risk of cross-contamination and collateral
damage among the various OSes installed on a PC. (See next item)
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
5) A Safer (But
Harder) Way To
Multi Boot (Pt. 2)
First, I partition the hard drive with an EMPTY 8GB primary/boot partition (the size
is more or less arbitrary), and chop up the rest of the drive into convenient
sizes (again, it's arbitrary). Initially, all partitions are formatted in FAT32.
I use Drive Image on a boot floppy (but any
floppy-based disk imaging software should work) to
make an image of the empty, formatted 8GB partition, and store the compressed image on another
partition. I next install an OS into the empty partition, and then update/modify or otherwise perfect
the OS setup. When I'm happy that the OS is running as well as I can
make it, I image and store that.
When I'm done with one OS, I restore the empty 8GB
partition, and install the next OS into the empty partition.
In this way, each OS gets exactly the same starting point, and sees exactly
the same hardware. Any OS can do whatever it wants to the boot process and partition (including, say,
converting to NTFS). In fact, each OS can be set up in whatever way is best for
that OS, without affecting the other OSes. Each OS thinks it owns the PC
and the boot process, as if it were the only OS in the box. It's as clean a
setup as can be.
Because the stored OSes are in image files on a separate partition
(and stored on CD, to tell the truth), there's no possibility of one OS
cross-contaminating another, and no files can accidentally get installed into
or deleted out of another OS.
Thus, I can test any OS, making aggressive or even dangerous
tweaks and changes: It doesn't matter: The others OSes are safe, and if the
active OS blows up, I'll simply restore the perfect
copy.
Once a month or so, as a background task as I work on another PC, I'll update
each OS with whatever new patches have emerged, and then make a new image. This
way, all the stored OSes stay current and fully patched.
Working from images stored on a hard drive, I can switch from OS to OS in 2-3
minutes. This is longer than the simple reboot needed for the other multi-boot
methods, but the trade off--- of having a bulletproof multi-boot system---it's fine for me.
Yes, it's a specialized application, and it's slower than standard
multibooting. But if you need an utterly safe way to multiboot while avoiding
all problems with cross-contamination, collateral damage, or other or
multi-boot weirdnesses, it might work for you too.
6) Want $10,000 To
Spend This Season?
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/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
7) Dust Bunny Hunter
Crikey! That dust bunny's a mean one--- look at the
evil gleam in his eye. Watch out! He's trying to hide inside that PC! He
won't escape, though: Reader Mike Bell is hot on his trail...
OK, OK, I'll stop. The above was prompted by
this---actually quite serious--- letter from Michael Bell, sent in response to
our recent discussions of PC and laptop cleaning. Here, he describes the
practical, real-world steps
he took to avoid PC overheating problems caused by dust and dirt. Mike's
first-hand advice
is excellent even if, as he says, some of the cleaning steps may make your
co-workers laugh. <g>
Fred: While working for a major corporation, 42,000 nationwide workstations, we've had overheating problems (why we don't use Gateway or Dell). These problems usually change me from a technician to a janitor. Don't forget, common dust (and dust bunnies) is made up of 85% or so human skin cells. In large buildings you have a large supple of these. Air handlers in large buildings don't handle dust well. So, here's a couple ways I've learned to clean the insides of a pc
1. Those cans of compressed air work well as long as you take the pc out of it's work environment to clean it. Blowing the dust out of a pc in the air where it will stay just invites the dust back to the pc. Take it outside, the file room or somewhere else before blowing it out.
2. You can use a drinking straw and blow through it, directing the thrust to certain points inside the pc. But don't inhale while the straw is in the pc case. The stuff taste terrible. Again do this outside. Co-workers laugh for a long time.
3. It's better to use a vacuum of some kind to suck the dust out. Caution should be used here to avoid jarring the insides of the pc.
[Static electricity can be an issue, too.] Use a special pc tool (thin tube with a small brush on the end), or the crevice tool that comes with a regular vacuum. Use an old (but soft) paint brush to loosen the accumulated dust from corners, fans, the mother board, etc. I paid $12.00 for a good boars hair "sash" brush from the paint store. It's soft, does a good job and lasts a long time. Don't forget to clean the vents of the case, not just the parts inside. Better yet, tape a drinking straw to one end of the crevice tool slot opening and tape the rest of the opening closed. This concentrates the vacuum strength for better pick up.
Do this twice a year, spring cleaning time and at Christmas. It's like changing the oil in a car. Just something you should do. Thanks, Michael H. Bell
Excellent advice, Michael. Thanks!
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
8) They Just
Keep Coming And Coming And Coming...
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
Cosmic Plumcake
http://groups.msn.com/CosmicPlumcake
The Goulart's Page (Uzbekistan)
http://webcenter.ru/~gvg/
K's Unity Trading
http://ksunitytrading.com/
Squalor Lodge Productions
http://www.tassie.net.au/~squalor/
TLS WEB DESIGN
http://www.tlswebdesign.com/
A K Gupta.com
http://www.akgupta.com/
Circle Of Friends
http://bayareapc.net/v2.1/
Acoustic Words
http://www.freewebs.com/acousticwords/
Big Zee's Home Page
http://zaske.r.home.att.net/
Italian Genealogy
http://www.mangeruca.com/
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
--- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------
9) Three Great
Freeware Utilities
Hi Fred, Over the years I have
received so much good stuff from the LangaList that I thought it's time for a
little payback. I've got three wonderful applications that I would like to
recommend to your readers and I don't recall having seen them being mentioned
before in your newsletter.
The first one is called Favorites Search freeware available at
http://www.dzsoft.com/favseek.htm
It does what it says. If others are like
me, they've got hundreds if not thousands of Favorites in IE and even if they
are categorized it can be a pain to find one. This program puts a button in
the IE toolbar that brings down a search folder allowing you to search for
keywords in the Favorites. Simple, fast, easy... great!
Next, is the unsung hero of my PC
Servant Salamander. This workhorse is a file manager that replaces Windows
Explorer. A free version (1.52) is still available at
http://www.altap.cz/download.html#salrel
Forget Windows Explorer. This one is
small, fast, very stable and has so many features you'll wonder how you ever
got along without it. Double panes makes cutting, pasting, comparing a snap.
The Find feature is so fast compared to the Windows Find that it will leave
you gasping. Try it you'll like it.
And, finally, I have recently discovered
Windows PowerPro, another freebie you can find here:
http://www.windowspowerpro.com/
(makes sense :-) )
I cannot understand why I have not come
across this beauty before. It is a kind of Quick Launch Bar Plus. I don't
think I am exaggerating when I say that it has HUNDREDS of features. It
creates a bar that you can size and install just about anywhere you want. The
configuration possibilities are ENDLESS. You can create buttons for just about
anything you can imagine that you might want to automate. Run programs,
scripts, macros automatically. Install dynamic resource monitors for CPU,
memory, etc. Put in Volume controls, Shutdown Restart, Logoff controls. Create
Hotkeys, Schedules, Timers. How about configuring your date and time display
and displaying a calendar? You name it, it's got it. I spent many joyful hours
configuring this baby!
Thanks for a super newsletter, Fred, and I
hope that this will add a little to it.---Jay Rumanek, Quebec
Thanks, Jay. I hadn't seen any of those before---
always nice to be exposed to new useful tools.
BTW, the Windows PowerPro site was having trouble
when I visited, but there appear to be many other places to get the file:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Windows+PowerPro
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
10) Just For Grins
My younger sister, who works in health care, sends this along:
Ten Top Indicators that your Employer has changed to a cheaper HMO:
10. Your annual breast exam is done at Hooters.
9. Directions to your doctor's office include "Take a left when you enter
the trailer park."
8. The tongue depressors taste faintly of Fudgesicles.
7. The only proctologist in the plan is "Gus" from RotoRooter.
6. The only item listed under Preventative Care coverage is "An apple
a day."
5. Your primary care physician is wearing the pants you gave to Goodwill
last month.
4. "The patient is responsible for 200% of out-of-network-charges" is not a
typo.
3. The only expense covered 100% is embalming.
2. With your last HMO, your Prozac didn't come in different colors with
little M's on them.
And the number 1 sign you've joined a cheap HMO:
1. You ask for Viagra; you get a Popsicle stick and duct tape.
(Note: Please see the original version of this item
at the very funny TopFive.Com:
http://www.topfive.com/arcs/t5020199.shtml
http://www.topfive.com/arcs/tr020199.htm )
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm
return to top of page
--- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------
11) Plus! Edition Highlights:
-
Expand To Multiple
Desktops
(one monitor can support many
simultaneous desktops)
-
From Finland, A Library
Of Old Software
(need an old DOS
or Win3.x tool?)
-
Identity-Theft
Follow-Up
(info for those
making purchases online)
Plus! edition subscribers also have access to a
private web site with over 100,000 words of special content and features not
found in *any* issue of the newsletter, dozens of downloads, and much more.
Get it all for just a buck a month! Check out:
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
PLEASE NOTE:
Due to scheduled monthly system maintenance,
the next issue will mail on:
March 20
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.
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 © 2003
Fred Langa / Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN
1533-1156
return to top
of page |