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The
LangaList
Standard Edition
2003-06-05
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!
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1) Keep Your Files Safe From Prying
Eyes
Do you use encryption tools? I do: I have a number of
business files on my PC, for example, and I want to ensure that no one can get at
the contents. Yes, I use multiple levels of firewalls and other techniques to keep
hackers out of my PCs, but I want to be very, very sure that those files stay
private even in worst-case scenarios: For example, what if someone did somehow manage
to break through the electronic defenses, or even physically broke into my
office and stole the PC? Encryption helps me to ensure that
my private files will stay private even in these extreme cases.
You probably have files that need to be kept private, too: tax or banking
info, private emails, a journal or diary, and so on. The list of "stuff that's
better off private" is nearly endless, and encryption is the key to securing it
all.
In the current article at
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10100525 , I'll run through the pros and cons of
file-level versus disk-level encryption, and tell you which I prefer, and
why. We'll walk through XP Pro's (and Win2K's) built-in encryption tools--- and
I'll tell you why they may not be worth using! I'll also provide links to a
variety of third-party encryption tools--- some free--- including PC software
than can provide military-level encryption that would probably take a
team of experts and a supercomputer to crack!
That and more is on the InformationWeek site, above. Please click on over,
and then join the discussion! What tools do you use to make sure your private
data stays private? What encryption methods and strengths have you used? How
much encryption is enough? Have you tried non-encryption security methods, such
as hardware keys, biometric sensing, or more elaborate techniques; or are these
overkill when 1,344-bit software-based encryption is easily available? Please
join in at
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10100525 , and add to the discussion!
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2) Prevent/Remove
Outlook Duplicates
Ever have unintentionally duplicated emails, addresses, calendar items,
tasks, etc., in Outlook?
Fred; As always, love your magazine. I wanted to mention two great pieces of software
that totally blew me away (well, ok, I really liked ‘em).
If any of you have ever imported a .pst file in Outlook and
found that you ended up with a file the size of a small hard drive, then this is for you:
http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook-Duplicates.asp
.
The software to remove Outlook duplicates really truly works!
How's this; from 2.1 gigs down to 650mb? How about "5,645 items removed?" (It even tells
you how many.)
The other piece of software? Why the one I used to find it of course,
Copernic basic, http://www.copernic.com/en/index.html , it's free and a neat
tool. Give it a try. --- Rik
Thanks, Rik. The Outlook site first shows you how to prevent unintentional
duplication in the first place:
Many things cause duplicates to appear, including
synchronization with Palms, Blackberrys, or Pocket PC PDAs, restoring Exchange
public folders from backups, using Netfolders, incorrect Outlook rules and many
other reasons. Preventing them from occurring in the future is the first step to
eradicating them.
1. How to stop receiving duplicate email messages
2. How to prevent sending duplicate email messages
3. How to prevent seeing duplicate names when viewing the "Select Names" window
after clicking "To:"
It then goes on to assist you in actually removing duplicate emails,
contacts, appointments, and tasks; duplicate Outlook Today and Personal
Folders; duplicate Outlook address book entries; duplicate holidays; etc. The basic how-to info is
free, and the site also sells moderately-priced tools to automate the process, if
you prefer that approach.
BTW, Copernic is handy--- we've covered it before,
describing it as "a popular, fast search utility; it provides a consistent front
end that simplifies the digging out of information from as many as 1000 or so
(!) internet search engines and data sources. Its users like its raw power and
its ability to analyze and sort the returned links for relevance, adding an
extra layer of intelligent filtering to whatever the search engines provide on
their own."
Note that Copernic is not a search engine but a program that resides on your hard drive. I have nothing against Copernic
per se, but personally prefer the simplicity of direct searching with web tools like Google, in part because I try to avoid adding any unnecessary programs to my
system. That said, Copernic is hugely popular--- there's a free version and
several commercial versions--- so clearly many, many people feel it's
worthwhile.
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3) A Dozen Great,
Free Tools (Pt 1)
Believe it or not, I'm still getting great emails regarding our recent
coverage of excellent, free (or mostly free) tools (
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=8800348 ).
In fact, this writer sent so many suggestions, I had to break them into two
separate items:
Fred: Thanks for the great links to Free Tools. I too have a few
contributions of my own, so here goes:
1. FTP FileZilla (
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net ) is a free FTP client that supports SSL
and can transfer multiple files either way. It's available at . Seems the app
was built as a college project with a difference its something you can
actually use instead of being an academic exercise.
2. Web Bowser MyIE2 ( http://myie2.yeah.net
) is a multi-tab browser with some rather cheesy add-ins that support FTP,
view source, save Flash, etc.
3. Text Editor NoteTab Light (
http://www.notetab.ch ) IMHO is the best text and HTML editor available.
Period. It's big brother Note Tab Pro adds spell checking
4. Download Manager Download Expert (
http://www.yanew.com ) is a neat multi-thread download manager that works
with almost all downloads. If anything it's a bit aggressive using up to 30
threads for a download until you teach it better manners )
5. Spam Detection Spampal (
http://www.spampal.org.uk ) a neat app that inserts itself between your
mail client and POP3 server (an IMAP version is expected soon). There are
multiple plug-ins including a very effective Baysian filter that learns as it
scans. Spampal scans mail headers against active DNSRBL lists (can be slow but
is very effective). Customizable too with your own white- and black-lists.
6. Email Popcorn (
http://www.ultrafunk.com ) hearkens back to Ye Olde Pine. Grabs just the
message header. Click a header to view the whole message. Works in plain text
so zero risk of malicious scripts running to ruin your day. Iffy attachment
support, tends to download attached file as ACSII text!
(continues below)
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4)
A Dozen Great, Free Tools (Pt 2)
(continued from above)
7. Web Browser #2 Phoenix aka Firebird -- this Mozilla base browser (
http://texturizer.net/firebird )
component is written in XUL a new optimized language. Supports multi-tabs,
inline search, popup blocking (requires free third party add-in), custom view
using CSS and more.
8.Email Add-in Outlook Express-Quote Fix (
http://www.jump.to/oblivion )
resolves OE's poor handling of quoted mail. Separate version available for
Outlook (which is pretty buggy both add-in and client ). Also support optional
colorization for plain text mail and smilies.
9. Blog Edit WBloggar (
http://www.wbloggar.com ) is a neat Blog editor that connects to nearly
all Blog servers including Blogger.com and even Moveable Type. Makes it so
easy to post when not online. Includes a spell checker.
10. Music Man #1 NotifyCD (
http://notifycd.com ) player is the coolest CD player (and the lightest in
memory use too!
11. Music Man #2 Thompson Mp3PRO player (
http://www.mp3prozone.com ) supports
both conventional MP3 files as well as the enhanced MP3PRO format. This app
includes a PCM decoder and a .WAV to MP3Pro encoder. MP3Pro files use better
compression to deliver higher quality at smaller file sizes. A 3 minute rock
track clocks in at 1.5-2 MB vs. 5-6 MB for MP3. This one lacks the fancy stuff
but beats Winamp flat!
12. Microsoft's TweakUI utility (
http://tinyurl.com/dcgb ) unsupported but
one of the best apps out of Redmond. Makes it so easy to tweak Windows 9x,
2000 and now XP.
Regards, Govind "If it's Free I gotta use it" Menon
Awesome list, Govind. Thanks!
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5) Old Backup Tapes
Empty?
Fred, I have been scouring all sources (and watching for clues in your newsletters)
trying to find a way to restore a 121 Mb "QIC" format backup file I made many
moons ago with MS BACKUP. I did that in my previous Win98SE system - before I
upgraded to XP Home. My qic file contains about 500 Wordperfect pages,
drafts of material for a book I planned to publish, amongst other less crucial
files. I have been through the routine of reverting to Win98SE on my machine,
using other machines with win98, etc, but always get the same depressing result.
The problem is that MSBACKUP's restore function creates only the empty
directory structure of what I backed up without one single byte of the
original files. I am convinced the data is there in a compressed, verified form
and just does not want to come out for some mysterious reason. Have I done
something stupid (apart from relying implicitly on MSBACKUP) or is there a
simple remedy?
I have been able to view the file in ZTree's view panel and can see evidence
of the directory structure with a lot of 'garbage' characters which would seem
to be the compressed data, but have no idea what is preventing the program from
restoring it.
Needless to say, I have learned the hard way, but now back up critical files
to CD. I do have a printed version of the backed up material, but dread the
thought of having to retype almost 500 A4 pages!!
Regards, Pat Cusack, Australia
You have two things working against you: MSBackup isn't much in terms of software; and on the
hardware side, tapes are
not reliable as a long-term storage
medium, unless you have VERY careful environmental controls (as in a data center
or museum).
If I were you, I'd see if I could try another tape machine--- perhaps someone
at a local computer store would let you try one of their machines. That would at
least let you see if the tape itself was the problem or not.
If no tape machine can read the tape, then you're probably toast, unless you
want to try paying a "data recovery" service to take a shot at digging data off
the tape. It'll be expensive. 8-(
This is one reason why I do NOT recommend MSBackup, except as a last resort,
and I DO recommend CDs as a backup medium.
See: Tape troubles and CD longevity:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010719S0003
Backup Options That Work:
http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm
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6) Now Three Times The "Recommend" Winners!
First, the bad news: Something not-good happened at the third-party
"Recommend-It" site we've used in the past. Most often, the link now just times
out or gives a "page not found." I've gone into their site and checked
repeatedly: I'm using the correct link, but it often simply doesn't work. I
don't want to waste your time by sending you to unreliable links, so it's time
for a new "Recommend" process.
Now, the good news: Starting now, each month, I'll pick not one but THREE
names, at random, from among all those who use my "Recommend To A Friend"
form; each selected person will qualify for a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to the
LangaList Plus! edition. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus!
subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.) This
way, instead of one winner per month, we'll have three winners--- a full 36
winners every year! Your chances of winning just got much better! <g>
Check out the details at
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!
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7) Remote "Trigger"
Files
Fred, Great newsletter - love the Plus edition.
I have a problem you may be able to help me with. I run a daily backup process on one machine, copy the backup to another machine and restore it. I'd like to run these tasks sequentially, each task starting as soon as the prior task ends. Unfortunately, since these tasks run on two different machines, I don't know how to let the next task know that the prior task has completed. I want to do this in the shortest time possible. Currently, I schedule the restore task to run after 10 minutes. Usually, the backup completes and copies before the 10 minutes is up but sometimes the copy process takes a lot longer than usual and the
restore does not work properly. Is there a way to run tasks sequentially on different networked computers?
---Jeff Cook
There actually are lots of ways to do it, but what's
best depends on your network setup,
infrastructure, tools available, and skill level.
At the low end, one easy way is to control the process through scripts or
batch files.
For example, you might be able to have one PC control everything, including running the software
on the remote machine: A normal, serially-executed script or batch file usually will
finish one step before moving on to the next.
If the programs must be run on separate machines, you could have each
step in your process create a uniquely-named empty file in a known location---
like "C:\backupdone.txt" or "C:\copydone.txt" or whatever--- that can be used as a signal or trigger for
the next step in the process. The scripts or batch files running on one PC
could periodically look across the net, (say, to the other's C: drive) and not execute until
the correct "trigger" file appears, signifying that the previous step has
completed.
Of course, the very last step would be to wipe out all the trigger files so
you'd have a clean start the next day.
There are much slicker, more sophisticated, process automation tools and
techniques, but the above free solution will work on any PCs that can see each other's drives
across a network, and whose applications can be controlled by simple
command-lines, as in batch files.
Lots more info:
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/21.htm
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/17.htm
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/16.htm
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/15.htm
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8) Code Load Success
Story
Code-loader Laura Look writes:
Dear Fred, Thanks so much for including the link to our site
http://www.bitsmithsoft.com
in your newsletter! That day, we had record high
traffic to our site, about ten times our average normal daily traffic. The next
day, traffic was still almost four times normal. The next day, twice normal. Langa.com has been our top referrer throughout this time, higher even than
Google, and that doesn't even count the folks clicking through from their email
clients. Thanks for providing a useful and relevant newsletter. Sincerely, Laura Look
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
DotXLS
http://www.dotxls.com/
Innovative Imaging Studio
http://www.iistudio.com/index.html
KeystoneSoldiers.com
http://www.keystonesoldiers.com/index.php
Shearologist
http://www.shearologist.com/
Computer Problems Solved
http://www.pcprobsolver.com/
DoneDealDOMAINS
http://www.donedealdomains.com/
Creative Woodworking
http://www.jmcw.com/products.htm
By His Design
http://www.byhisdesign.net/
Peter Sampson
http://www.petersampson.tk/
B-BOP BALLOONS
http://www.bbopballoons.com/
TightwadTech
http://www.tightwadtech.com/
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$12 For A Full YEAR!
"Fred, I can't tell you
the number of ways I have spent twelve bucks - but I can tell you the best
twelve bucks I've spent in a long time was to upgrade to the Plus Edition of the
LangaList. And so darn organized too, your operation that is. I've already got
another twelve just waiting for next year! ---John"
Thanks, John! <g>
The LangaList Plus! Edition is ad-free, spam-proof,
and contains even more content--- tips, tricks, advice, downloads....---
than the Standard Edition you're now reading.
Just $1 a month!
<a href="
http://www.langa.com/plus.htm ">Click!</a>
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9) Minimize
*Anything* To The Tray
In an odd bit of synchronicity, several readers wrote in at almost the same
time about "AllToTray"
http://www.dntsoft.com/alltotray/ .
"AllToTray allows you to minimize ANY window to your System Tray. It
adds the option -Minimize to Tray- to the System menu of the window. If you
have checked this option, this tool will minimize the window to your System
Tray any time you minimize it. You minimize the window as usual (mouse or
keyboard). To restore the window just click on its icon from the System
Tray...."
There's a 14-day free trial, after which it's $10 (or $8 through PayPal).
Thanks to those who wrote in!
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10) Just For Grins
Larry Geng wrote:
Think you're a geek? Afraid that you're a geek? Hope you're not? Well, I
have the site for you. Go to
http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html
, take the test (takes about 5 minutes) and see your score. You can also
submit your score, and view those of others. (Optional) BTW, I scored 22.512
%. Moderately geeky. Chris Pirillo (LockerGnome) scored 33.72781%.
OK, I took the test and got 36.68639% , which earns the rating of "Major
Geek." Yikes! 8-)
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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:
-
New Free Antivirus
Tools, Test
(little-known company, high-quality tools)
-
Restoring The "Save
Password" Option
(can't
save your dial-up password any more?)
-
Extra Caution With
Linux?
(an
expert lists some pitfalls)
You can't lose! The Plus! edition is
only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. Check
out the details:
http://www.langa.com/plus.htm
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friend
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See you next issue!
Best,
Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )
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
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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
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