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LangaList 2003-11-17 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- 30 Outlook add-ins that can make a difference! Find 30 Outlook add-ins that can save you time and increase Find out more <a href=" http://www.SperrySoftware.com ">here!</a> --------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------
1) Hybrid Maintenance: Power *And* EaseWe recently discussed how to automate Windows XP maintenance tools and tasks that normally require manual intervention. But there are cases where that automation method won't work as intended or may prove unwieldy--- the maintenance may fail or simply be too much hassle to set up. For example, XP's Backup applet is one of the most configurable--and thus most complex--of that operating system's built-in maintenance tools. A fully-manual command to launch the Backup applet with all the normal options can involve well over 300 characters' worth of obscure shorthand data, each element of which must be in precisely the correct position, format, and sequence. It's way too much data to try to figure out and enter accurately by hand! The XP Backup applet does come with a "Wizard" to simplify its use, but on its own, the Wizard produces a standalone task that may not integrate well with other maintenance tasks. If you want to perform a series of maintenance tasks, you may run into serious trouble if different tools compete for access to the system at the same time. So, at first glance, it seems that the command-driven way is powerful but very hard; and the Wizard-driven way is easy but inflexible! There can be other automation troubles, too, including very common problems
with permissions and passwords for scheduled maintenance events. But handcrafted scripts and batch files can have their
own limitations, too, especially when you're talking about automating a tool
like Backup that may require an enormously complex command line hundreds of
characters long. This easy-but-powerful hybrid solution is the focus of a new article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16100473 . There, we'll illustrate techniques that can work for many complex tools and utilities that have a Wizard or similar front end that integrates with Task Scheduler. We'll show you how you can use a Wizard to cut through the complexity of setting up some tasks, but then "steal" the Wizard-generated data for use as you see fit in your own custom scripts and batch files! It's easy and opens up incredible power to you. The new article also contains back-links to the original "Make Windows XP Self-Maintaining," in case you missed it the first time around. Come check out the articles at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16100473 , and see how you can unlock even more power in your maintenance tools! Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 2) Wx Geeks, Unite!I thought Web Weather was an offbeat topic ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-11-13.htm#5 ), but it turns out that a ton of you also like to keep an eye on the weather. I wonder if there's a curious psychological compensation at work in that people involved in a consummate indoor activity--- computing--- may seek a connection back to the natural world through weather sites or desktop-weather tools.... But I digress. Some of the many(!) emails asked about my specific weather monitoring setup here. For example:
Actually, there are many remote-reading weather instruments available: The wireless variety costs more, but is much easier to set up: http://www.google.com/search?q=wireless+weather+station ; but the wired versions work fine, and save considerable money: http://www.google.com/search?q=weather+station . I originally had a set of wireless instruments from Oregon Scientific, but (1) they didn't last very long (I had ongoing, after-warranty trouble with both the anemometer and rain gauge); and (2) although they were solar-powered and self-recharging with Ni-Cad primary batteries, their disposable backup batteries needed yearly replacement. I don't think I'm a wuss, but I can't say I enjoyed climbing 60 feet/20 meters to the top of a steeply-pitched roof every Autumn just to change some batteries. After several years of intermittent trouble and roof-climbing, I replaced that weather set with one from La Crosse Technologies http://langa.com/u/1r.htm . I've never had any trouble with those wireless instruments, and there's no annual battery replacement: The built-in rechargeables are supposed to last for up to 10 years. The only real downside I can see to the La Crosse design is that the wind gauge reports a short-term average speed and direction, updated every three minutes, instead of reporting the instantaneous wind speed. This means that individual wind gusts can't be seen in isolation; instead, they are subsumed into a short-term average. As for weather sites, many readers in the US wrote to suggest http://weather.gov , the public site maintained by the US Weather Service. It's the "big dog" in weather data; and the primary resource for many local resources that then fill in finer-scale data, although the NWS site itself lets you drill down to fairly detailed local images and forecasts, too. Sampling of other reader-recommended US sites of interest: Reader-generated private weather pages: Reader-recommended non-US sites: ... and many, many more. Thanks to all who wrote in! Click to email this item to a
friend 3) Hello, From SuradonRemember Suradon Janno? He's a young boy living in Thailand. (He's in the middle here: http://www.freetune.com/images/suradon2.jpg ) His family is extremely poor (less than US$290 per capita per year) , and ekes out a marginal living doing odd jobs and some farming. When we first heard of him, the local relief agency wrote that "Suradon badly needs food, clothing and medical care." Suradon is one of 10 impoverished kids around the world who are given sustained, ongoing help--- week in, week out--- through LangaList Plus! subscription contributions. These contributions do not increase the cost of a Plus! subscription in any way; the donation is taken "off the top" of any profits. Since we've started helping him ( http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=surudon&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ), Suradon's life has improved substantially. His first letter ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-06-06.htm#4 ) spoke of his attending school, and getting the necessary supplies. Now, he's written again, this time to tell us about his adventures as a third grade student. <g> Links to letter: In addition to supporting Suradon and nine other kids, we've also been able to contribute to emergency disaster relief around the world, including help for the victims of the Sept 11th terrorist attacks on the US. (To see all the donations so far, click to http://www.langa.com/plus2.htm#kids ) As time goes on, and as more readers sign up for Plus! subscriptions, I hope we'll be able to continue with our sponsorship of all the kids we've signed up so far, and also to sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world. If you're already a Plus! subscriber, thanks! If not, check it out: With a Plus! subscription, you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online with expanded content and no advertising--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Suradon) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help! New Plus! subscriptions: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm Give a Plus subscription as a gift: http://www.langa.com/plus_gift.htm Click to email this item to a
friend 4) Excellent Free Password Generator
Wow, that is indeed a good one! You can generate passwords from 4 to 64 characters long, and can even generate a phonetic equivalent to help you memorize the generated password. Thanks, Judy! Lots more password-related info: Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 5) Free! XP/2K/NT Tips By The Bucketful
http://is-it-true.org/nt/xp/index.shtml Nice find, Doug! Tons and tons of tips there for the entire NT-based family of OSes--- NT, Windows 2000 and XP. The sub-page at http://is-it-true.org/nt/xp/hottips.shtml shows you the most-accessed tips, which gives you a clue either to what the most common problems are, or what the best tips are. Click to email this item to a
friend 6) Is This Newsletter Interesting? Useful?If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the LangaList---your friend may find a new source of useful information and you just may win one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the LangaList Plus! edition given each month. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.) Check out the details at http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck! Click to email this item to a
friend 7) Nineteen Thousand Jumper Settings!They're slowly going away--- "jumpers," that is: They're those tiny little switches or electrical clips on hardware devices that you can use to set certain parameters. Once upon a time, you had to use tweezers or a pencil point to "set the jumpers" on virtually every new piece of hardware. Now, with the lingering major exceptions of motherboards, hard drives, and CD drives, most new devices are fully software-configurable, and no longer require jumpers. Good riddance! But there's still a universe of older in-use hardware that uses jumpers, and some new hardware still does, too. If the manuals are missing and the jumper options aren't printed right on the device itself, how on earth can you know what the jumpers do, or how they should be set?
Wonderful, Alan, thanks. And what a list--- almost 19,000 devices including
Motherboards, Hard Disk / Floppy Controllers, I/O, Memory cards, Graphics cards, A definite bookmark! Click to email this item to a
friend 8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming...Well over 3,000 of your fellow readers have "loaded the code." Have you? Check out http://www.langa.com/code.htm for the details. 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 Wolverine Design Tom's Digital Photography Corkys Cookies Orlando Pro Tours Raymond Erdey The Horse Show Planner PANNI...sul Portale Italia
tools for bookauthors
Goody
Travel GJsystems Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 9) Free, Powerful, Versatile Backup AppletHere's something you don't see everyday--- a complete, free backup applet, with some nice bells and whistles (including automatic on-the-fly data compression), written completely in Java (so it runs on any Java-enabled operating system) by a LangaList reader!
Very nice, Ashok! Thank you! Click to email this item to a
friend 10) Just For GrinsWilliam Fleming writes:
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 11) Plus! Edition Highlights:
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