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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2004-10-07

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!

1) GPS Article Causes Server Meltdown

Wow, what a response! So many of you tried to access the GPS-related photos that you smoked the LangaList servers! My apologies to anyone who tried to access the photos during the meltdown.

There's a reason for GPS's popularity: It's both immensely practical, and a "way cool" technology as well. I use my GPS almost all the time. It's helped in routine driving, such as navigating the new streets and exits in Boston's "Big Dig." It's helped in recreational travel, such as on a motorcycle trip I recently took to the far reaches of northern Maine, bouncing along mostly-unmarked logging roads in deep woods near the Canadian border. It's helped in emergencies, such as when friends of ours were in a car crash, and we needed to get to an unfamiliar, distant hospital by the fastest possible route with no time for missed turns. We even use it for pure sport: http://www.geocaching.com/ ; and more.

And it's also just plain fun to see exactly--- and I mean exactly!--- where you are on a real-time, moving map display. <g>

Many of your fellow readers are old hands with GPS technology. For example, here's a letter from Sweden:

Hello Fred, I used the GPS for the first time almost 20 years ago for synchronizing a
scientific experiment between Svalbard and Kiruna in northern Sweden. The GPS works best at low latitudes. At 70 degrees North it's a bit tricky to synchronize. The three satellite GPS used at that time needed half an hour in Kiruna before one could trust it. Today's 12 satellite GPS synchronizes in 2-3 minutes [and often less than one minute] even from a cold start.

The GPS is very popular among hunters and fishermen up in the artic. However not to find the roads. In Kiruna there is only one road so this is a minor problem. Local use of the GPS is as a "take me home" device. The hunter can park his car and use the snow scooter to go off road using the GPS to find his way back when ready to go home. Regards, Stig Boberg

Indeed, most GPSes let you make a "waypoint" anywhere, so you can find your way back to that exact spot again, at any time. Prosaically, I've even used this feature to help remember where I've parked my car in an unfamiliar city! Some GPSes also keep a running record of your track--- the exact path you take--- sort of like dropping electronic breadcrumbs as you go. This can be useful for finding your way where there are no trails or roads, and also for more mundane uses: For example, I once dropped my sunglasses somewhere on a hike in a forest, and simply used the GPS "track" feature to retrace my steps *exactly.* I found the lost glasses, which otherwise would have been gone for good. 8-)

The pictures are fun, but the full story's better: For an up-to-the-minute update on Hand-Held Units, Permanent-Mount GPSes, GPS-Enabled PDAs And Laptops, Hybrid Units, Low-End Units, and more; please click to http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=49400016 .

See you there!

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subscribed to the Plus! edition with a few reservations. After a few
weeks however, I think it would be cheap at twice the price. The
newsletter is great! I have recommended it to a few of my less computer
literate friends and they have told me that they are learning things at
a prodigious rate. I find your hints and links invaluable and await each
issue. Please keep up the good work. --- Tom Sobieski"

Just $1/month--- 14 cents an issue!

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2) Pre-Patched XP SP2 Setup Without CDs?

Fred, I enthusiastically read every issue & get GREAT tips that help me solve other users problems.  I am working on a Sony Notebook that the user had started the system recovery CD & did not have the product key.  They are original owners.  My question: is there a way to get that key off the recovery CD?  Also, when I boot from a Win98 startup diskette, the CD drive is not found & therefore I cannot just install a WIN98 SE system.  On this VAIO 505 Super Slim Notebook system the CD & Diskette are external. Any suggestions? Sincerely, Wayne Sampson

Hi Fred, In your recent newsletter you described how to do a fresh install of Win xp and how to bring it up to sp2 level and have "the luxury of never having to upgrade again." Question:  When I purchased my PC --- HP Pavilion 734n --it didn't come with any CD disks.... it has the XP program on a separate partition in the hard drive. How can I still do your suggestion -- if I don't have an original XP CD? Thanks, Fred. James Revie

Missing Key: Many--- but not all--- original equipment manufacturer (OEM) installations are configured so that no product key (or later, activation) is needed: as long as the software is installed or reinstalled on the PC it came with, it will work without requiring keys or activation codes. But if the recovery tools are asking for a key or code, then the user probably got one as part of the original documentation--- perhaps affixed as a sticker somewhere on the PC, or on the user manual or other documentation. If the hardware was registered when new, the vendor may have a record of the missing numbers; or could provide a new one. Some tools, such as the free Belarc Advisor( http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html ), may also be able to display product keys for you, if the previous system is still bootable.

Missing CD Driver: You need to add a DOS-level CD driver to the boot disk. This isn't hard--- you have to copy one small file to the floppy, and then add one line each to the plain-text "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" files; you can do this in Notepad. Full info:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=13000138
http://langa.com/u/6c.htm
http://langa.com/u/6d.htm

No Setup CD: This is a harder one to resolve, and is highly dependent on exactly what recovery tools were included with your system, so (alas) there's no way I can give a "one size fits all" answer. But so many people are in this situation that brand-by-brand solutions are beginning to appear. For example, reader Ollie Ekstedt (thanks, Ollie!) sent along a heads-up to this info that's specific to Dell PCs, but that might be adaptable to similar setups for other brands:
http://langa.com/u/6e.htm

If there's no other option, then the best alternative is a bit laborious, but will work. See next item.

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3) Pre-Patched XP SP2 Setup From OEM "Recovery Tools"

(continued from above)

If your PC only came with "recovery tools" or some such, and lacks a true setup CD or separate setup files, then prepatching that setup takes a bit more footwork, but still can be done. When you're finished, you'll have a ready-to-go, prepatched recovery setup--- including SP2---- that you can get back to in one step at any point in the future, shaving hours off the reinstall because everything will be done in advance for you--- no more re-downloading and re-installing patches and updates every time you reinstall your OS.

Here's how:

1) Back up your current setup, preferably with a disk imaging tool. ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-07-03.htm ) Verify the backup/image is good, and store it on CD, tape, or other off-disk medium.

2) Use your vendor-supplied recovery tools. This will put your system software back in the as-delivered condition.

3) Update the newly-restored original setup with SP2, from the web or from the free Microsoft CD ( http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=914701 ).

4) Install any/all software you need that was not included in the original factory setup.

5) Make any/all further tweaks, adjustments, tunings, alterations, patchings to your system. (See http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-10-04.htm#5 ) Get *everything* as up-to-date and as perfect as possible.

6) Using your backups/images, restore your DATA ONLY (just your user files) to the new setup.

7) When the new setup is perfect--- fully-tuned, everything installed, all data current--- make a new image/backup of that perfect setup. This new setup becomes your new "master install" disk that you can use at any time in the future to roll your system back to a like-new, fully-patched, perfected installation, in one step! (NB: If you wish, you can do this after step 5, giving you a perfect setup *without* your data files. Either way works; what's best depends on what fits your work style and backup methods.)

Yes, this method takes a while, but you only have to do it *once* and you'll never have to do a "from the ground up" install again on that system.

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4) GDI+ Security Flaw

This is an example of a totally avoidable problem: Already, some users' systems are being compromised by a trojan/worm--- and some security experts are claiming that this will be the "next big worm" we'll have to face--- even though a fix was available before any instances of the worm/trojan appeared in the wild. No one's system need be vulnerable to this worm, but if history is a guide, millions of users will ignore the fix, and we'll all suffer the consequences as system and servers bog down with totally unnecessary worm traffic. Sigh.

A buffer overrun vulnerability exists in the processing of JPEG image formats that could allow remote code execution on an affected system. Any program that processes JPEG images on the affected systems could be vulnerable to this attack, and any system that uses the affected programs or components could be vulnerable to this attack. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system.

This issue affects software that supports this image format....

JPEG/JPG is a ubiquitous image format, so this means that essentially *all* version of Windows and all versions of Office can be affected. But the fix is tiny, fast, and free: http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200409_jpeg.mspx

In fact, if you've been keeping up with your patches, or have allowed your system to patch itself as needed, you probably already have this fix. If so, please make sure your friends and family have their systems patched. Again, this is a wholly- preventable problem, as no instances of this worm appeared on the web until *after* the patch was released. This is a worm that should go nowhere--- but probably will find a ton of unpatched systems to infect.

More info:
Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+) Could Allow Code Execution
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-028.mspx

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5) Sharing Web Space

Hi Fred. I ran out of my 2 ISP's webspace. 10 megs each. So, I bought a domain name and 1 gig of webspace to put my Homepage on it. So far so good. How can I implement people, anyone, uploading in "html" on my page, which I subsequently vet, then put into the appropriate pages for others to look at or even download. My new  webspace allows Php, MySql etc. Any help would be appreciated. Ta, John Fichtl

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6) PR Budget = $0.00

Long-time readers know this newsletter is a one-person private project of mine: It's not part of some publishing empire's stable of publications. It's just me here! <g> There's no budget, staff or facility to handle outreach and promotions: The newsletter depends on word of mouth to grow.

And that's where you come in: Each issue, I try to offer you useful, interesting and amusing factoids to help you with your hardware, software, and time online. Can you take just a minute to help me out in return?

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 and you just may win one of three FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Plus! Edition that I award each month.

Full info and "Recommend" form: http://langa.com/recommend.htm Thank you for helping to spread the word about the LangaList!

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7) Cell Phone Erases Pen Drives?

Fred,  I notice with interest the robustness of the pen drives (see http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-09-02.htm#3 ) but I would not recommend keeping them in your pocket next to your cell phone. I have lost the magnetic strip data on security card, hotel room keys and my PDA which has a 64 MB storage card. The only common denominator as far as I can see is the presence of my cell phone in the same pocket for a time. Am I on the right track or just imagining things. Cheers, Robin D G Cooper

If your cell phone has a "vibrate" mode, then I can imagine one possible cause of the problem: Vibrating phones and pagers typically use a small electric motor to spin a deliberately imbalanced weight on a shaft. The imbalance causes the vibration.

Electric motors use magnetic coils--- electromagnets--- to generate their motive force; and magnets of any kind can be bad news for something like the "swipe strip" on a bank card, security card, key card, or suchlike: The strip is really just a length of magnetic recording tape laid flat and bound to the card. Any magnet can delete or scramble the data there.

Plus: The ringer/beeper in a phone, pager or PDA also generates a small magnetic field when it goes off. Likewise, the antenna on any radio-type device also generates at least a weak electromagnetic signal when the device is in use. These additional EM sources could contribute to the problem.

It's a little harder to see how a cell phone would wipe out a PDA storage card, but magnetic effects could play a role: Electrical and magnetic effects are inextricably intertwined.

Simple static discharge might be an issue too, either from the electronics themselves or simply from the plastic casings of the devices rubbing against each other, and against the cloth lining of your pocket.

None of which is to suggest extreme fragility for most pocket-type devices: Normally, they're quite rugged. You might go for years, or even a lifetime, with no problems. But you also could run into trouble five minutes from now. There's just no way to know.

That's why *all* your data needs to be backed up regularly: Bad stuff can happen anywhere: in your PC, in your laptop--- or in your pocket!

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8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming...

Well over three thousand of your fellow readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to http://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://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://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

Keewaytinok Native Legal Services
http://www.keew.org/keew/default.htm

Janette's Kitty Corner
http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/rescuecats/

Precision Productions
http://cgi.ppltd.plus.com/php/precision/precision.php?index_body.htm

Tim Potter
http://www.timpotter.ca/

Free Software
http://gvcc.apcug.org/download-links.htm

Redneck Pickins
http://www.freewebs.com/redneckpickins/

Irfan Online
http://irfan.atspace.com/

Farmer Blog
http://farmerblog.net/

Pension Analysis
http://www.pensionalysis.com/

African Charity Drive
http://www.africancharitydrive.org/links.htm

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9) Browser Alternative

Hi Fred, Thanks as always for a great newsletter. I read about the firefox gripes with interest.( http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-07-22.htm#7 )  I gave up on firebird, simply because of site incompatibility issues -- and, of course, roboform doesn't work with these browsers and I became tired of using "open in IE" in firebird to get my roboform data into web forms. <g>

But I wanted to recommend an IE wrapper that I use instead. Once called "MyIE," it is now "Maxthon" and available for free at http://www.maxthon.com . While not quite up to firebird or firefox in terms of functionality, it does provide a lot of it and now has plug-in support -- although not many plug-ins yet. But it does support IE plug-ins, so I get to use my google toolbar, which is what I am most interested in using.

It is also highly customizable.

You can use this and lose none of the advantages of using IE. Unfortunately, you still use IE -- it just looks very different.

Cheers, Ken McLeod

Thanks, Ken!

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10) Just For Grins

Hi Fred, Speaking of amusing Microsoft Knowledgebase articles:

Hair Color of the "Person" Icon...
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q281/9/23.ASP
---Paul

Thanks, Paul. I wonder if my barber can edit *my* registry?

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• New Version Of Archives En Route
     (fast, local searches of all the LangaLists ever published!)
• Two "Views" On The Menu
    (Windows Explorer's two "views" cause problems)
• Canon Printer Problems Solved
     (SP2 issue fixed, for free)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose? Check out the details: http://langa.com/plus.htm

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

See you next issue, 2004-10-14!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

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