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LangaList 2003-03-27 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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1) Fred Trips Over Own Security MeasuresMany readers pointed out an error in the last issue, one inadvertently caused by my own security measures. For example, Ron Scheldrup sent in this gentle correction:
Thank you, Ron, and all the others (blush!) who wrote in. You're right--- by default, XP does provide Fast User Switching. But when I went to research the original item, I used the closest PC that had XP Home running, and it did NOT have "Fast User Switching." In fact, it still doesn't. Let me explain: By default, when XP is installed with multiple users, it employs a "friendly" logon process where all user names are displayed on the Welcome screen. You click on your name, enter the password, and you're in. While that's indeed friendly--- and fine in most cases--- it also slightly reduces your security because it displays all valid logons to anyone who can get to the Welcome screen. And, although the passwords aren't shown, the friendly logon will provide a hint to help you remember your password. This makes things easier for potential hackers--- all the valid user names are shown openly, and there are even explicit hints about what the passwords are. But XP also provides a "classic" logon as a more secure alternative to the "friendly" logon. In the classic logon, you're simply presented with a name/password dialog box. The most-recently-used name does appear automatically, but no other names are shown at all: You have to know them, and type them in manually. No password hints are given for any user; you have to know your password cold, or you don't get in, simple as that. In most cases, the friendly logon is fine. But in my case, because I have a cleaning crew come through my office once a week, I wanted to avoid creating a temptation, so I enabled the classic logon for that shared XP Home box, which is always running, 24/7. The default user is a limited account that can't do much; this is the only name that someone would see in the logon box, and they'd still have to guess the password, with no hints given. The more dangerous Administrator-level accounts on that machine have obscure names that would be hard for an unauthorized user to guess; and they're also protected by good, hint-less passwords. This small extra step makes it harder for a casual hacker--- say, a bored member of the cleaning crew--- to break into the machine in the short time they're allowed to be alone with the PC. But here's the catch: If you turn off the "friendly" logons, you also disable Fast User Switching. Thus, when I went looking to see about Fast user Switching on that PC, it wasn't there. I'd simply forgotten that it went away as a secondary consequence of using the classic logon method. So: My error was in using a modified, production PC to verify this operating system feature. I should have used a pristine, fresh install of the OS. My apologies! The silver lining to this is that we've now had the opportunity to talk about "classic" versus "friendly" logons. <g> If you'd like to try the slightly more secure classic logon, you may easily do so: From an Admin account, go to Control Panel/User Accounts, and select "Change the Way Users Log On or Off." If you deselect "Use the Welcome Screen," you'll see that "Fast User Switching" also goes away. As Ron says, you also can separately just turn Fast User Switching on or off via the same menu, although that's not what tripped me up--- I would have remembered doing that. Fast User Switching gets turned off *as a secondary consequence* of selecting the classic logon, and I (blush) did not remember that. BTW: The above works on both XP Home and Pro. Believe me, I checked on non-modified, pristine copies. <g> My apologies for the earlier error. Click to email this item to a
friend 2) Karen's Free "Replicator" Saves Public Radio!I got this note with the subject "HELP...we're in big trouble...:" from the IT Director of Public Radio International, in Minnesota:
I replied:
I soon heard back: Indeed, it worked! I regularly use Karen's Replicator to keep my laptop in synch with my main desktop PC, and to synch several libraries of software I have spread over various drives. On a LAN, Karen's free tool is just as fast as some commercial synching tools, like Laplink. It's a really nice little program! Check out all of Karen's stuff: http://www.karenware.com Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 3) SpyBot and BeClean ProblemsTwo promising pieces of free software have been causing trouble for some readers. First, Spybot:
Me too, Jen. It's best to uninstall the old Spybot version, and give the new one a fresh start, but even then you're not out of the woods: The new version is also hard to download and update (too many people trying it at once?), and has several very-poorly-described new features whose operation is somewhat mysterious. I need to know more about what's actually going on before I can tell if the new features (like "Immunize") are really worthwhile. I'm assuming most of this is Spybot's growing pains, and if things improve soon, perhaps Spybot will again rate an unqualified thumbs-up. But for now, caution is advised, as it is with BeClean:
While no software works for everyone all the time, I've heard from an unusually large number of readers who had trouble with BeClean. The trouble isn't universal--- BeClean also has worked fine for many--- it even got a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating at WebAttack. But until the software author sorts out what's causing some users to have major trouble, it'd probably be better to stick with tried-and-true disk cleanup tools like http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm, and known-good Registry cleaners like http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/jv16powertools.shtml . Click to email this item to a
friend 4) LCD "Contrast Ratio?"
In screen technology, contrast ratio is a number representing the relative difference in intensity between the whitest whites to the blackest blacks. Generally speaking, the higher the number the better, because you want whites and blacks to be as different as possible! Old, reflective grey-on-green passive LCDs had contrast ratios of only around 15:1; text and images were washed out, and the screens had to be held "just right" to be readable. Cheap, active, backlit LCDs mostly get above 100:1 now, although no one would want to read text on such a screen all day. Most decent LCDs now ship with contrast ratios in the 350-600:1 range, and that's getting pretty good on the high end: For comparison, a conventional 35mm slide has a contrast ratio of around 500:1 (albeit with much higher resolution than any LCD). Some special screen technologies go higher. For
example, some plasma screens offer 1000:1 contrast ratios (example: So, the broad generalization is that higher contrast ratios are better, just as higher resolutions are generally better. But--- and it's a huge "but"--- don't buy any LCD just on specs. You really need to see it with your own eyes to know what will be OK to you over hours and hours and hours of viewing. See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-03-20.htm#1 for more info. Click to email this item to a
friend 5) Fat32 and NTFS
Well, there's a couple things going on in your question: First, although NTFS (the "NT File System") is the default for all versions of XP, both XP Pro and Home can and will usually install and run just fine on drives formatted in Win98-style FAT32. You do give up some features with FAT32, such as the
ability to use XP's built-in file encryption, or automatic compression of
little-used files; or to format very large hard drives at initial installation.
See "Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314463, and "Description of the FAT32
File System in Windows XP" at This article gives the Microsoft spin on choosing which file system is best for Windows. Note that although the article references Win2K, the same logic applies for XP: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/help/choosing_between_NTFS_FAT_and_FAT32.htm In general, it's usually better to use NTFS if you can. Second, it's true that Linux can't be installed onto an NTFS partition. In fact, Linux prefers to use its own file system, "ext2," although there are ways to get Linux to work on some other file systems. Usually, to run Linux and XP--- or Win9X or any other OS--- it's best to set up separate partitions, each of which can be formatted in whatever file system type the OS prefers. That way, Linux can have an ext2 partition, XP can have an NTFS partition, Win98 can have a FAT32 partition, and so on. Keeping things separate not only allows each OS to
have the file system it prefers, but also keeps the OSes from stepping on each
other's toes. In fact, this is the essence of "dual booting." More info:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=boot+manager&as_sitesearch=langa.com and Click to email this item to a
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"BigFix" has been around for a long time, and is still going strong at http://www.bigfix.com Past coverage: http://www.google.com/search?as_q=bigfix&as_sitesearch=langa.com 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 The Big Zee home page The Bill Johns Home Page Web Design by Puamana The Walrus Siempre W.Va Justin's-Sportsmen-Location-Links Designs on You Joyzine (Australia) Search2Go Weather Info (USA) Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) Going To Washington DC In April?
Man, I'd love to be there, too. It's a "Public Forum: Spam Email" held by the US Government's Federal Trade Commission, running all day each day from April 30-May 2, 2003. Fourteen separate panels will discuss everything from the "daily experience" of spam among consumers, to blacklists, the use of embedded email tracking tricks ("beacons" and such), to emerging technologies and legal remedies. Even though there are far larger issues to be dealt with in Washington these days, the level of spam has reached ridiculous proportions; and many current anti-spam tools (like blacklists) actually do far more harm than good. I'm not a fan of intrusive government activity, but spam does need regulation, just as fax and telephone marketing is regulated. Click to email this item to a
friend 10) Just For GrinsI recently ran a spoof piece in the "Just for Grins" section in http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-03-20.htm ; it purported to announce the "discovery" of a new pirate-proof method of distributing music: the vinyl phonograph record. Then this arrived:
It's a phonograph turntable that uses a laser instead of a stylus, and that connects to the Audio-In of your PC (or any amplifier), so you can indeed play vinyl records on your PC. But many other readers sent in an even more amazing link--- one that made my jaw drop: A guy named Ofer Springer decided to see if he could optically scan a vinyl record (on a standard flatbed scanner) and digitally process the image, via software, to extract the music. He succeeded: http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~springer/ That's got to be one of the best tech tour de forces--- and coolest hacks--- in a long, long time! Click to email this item to a
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