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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2004-10-21

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) Readers Post Their Favorite Tools

We're starting to see some nice reader posts on the subject of "Favorite Tools and Addons" over at InformationWeek.Com. For example: 

An essential and free tool for recording anything from your Microphone or Line In inputs which automatically converts to several digital formats is HarddiskOgg. You can find it at http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php The unique advantage of this program is adjustable "on the fly" normalization. Works great for recording live or for copying LPs and cassette tapes. --Leland Garner

Every PC I use gets the following essential utilities: Windows Commander, EditPad Pro, GRBakPro, FireFox, Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel. I find it difficult anymore to work without these tools. For E-mail at home, I am using Incredimail, although I used to use Eudora. Work E-mail is Outlook, I have no choice; however, if I had a choice..... David Rich

Several years ago I ran across "Popup Manager". It has been blocking the popups that used to drive me crazy. It is small and simple and only does what it is suppose to...block popups and it does it without any great fanfare or "A Popup has been blocked" message. If every popup produces a "blocked popup" message then I might as well allow the popup. The program ONLY works for IE and is available at Download.com. I install on every machine that I service or build. Check it out. ---Bill Bomar

And reader Ray Trygstad--- a computer instructor--- has posted a wonderful list of tools he recommends to his students, too. The list is too long to include here, but you can go to http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa and scroll down to Ray's post.

All of the above is in reference to an article I posted at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=49901840 . There, you'll find my own personal list of "must have" tools, the links to a variety of "setup secrets," and the place to add your own favorite tools to the list. Click on over!

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Just pennies per issue!

"Greetz, Fred! Never again will I let my Plus! subscription lapse as I did once, unintentionally. You are THE best source for up-to-date info & all-around content, plus so much more. Gotta have my Fred fix in my Inbox to keep me apprised ;-) Many thanks for ALL you do for us subscribers, Jolie"

Thanks, Jolie! <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.

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http://langa.com/plus.htm

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2) Reader Loves to BASK

No, not that kind of basking <g>: Rather, the "Backup, Archival and Synchronization Kit:"

Fred, I consider the Plus subscription worth every cent. Thanks. By the way, I did a search of the archives for Bask backup utility 7 didn't find it. It's donation/freeware, & I use it all the time. Bask does all sorts of stuff between source and destination including making separate copies of smaller backups to zip up.---bertsmith

Looks interesting, Bert, thanks. It's available from many download locations, including this:
http://freeware4u.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=35

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3) Ranganath Makes It To Third Grade

Remember Ranganath, from India? Some time ago, he became one of the children sponsored on an ongoing basis by LangaList Plus! subscribers (see http://freetune.com/newsletters/2002/meet_ranganath.htm or http://freetune.com/july_2003_update_on_ranganath.htm or http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-12-18.htm#4 and
http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-21.htm#5

We just got a new update on how he's doing, and a photo. In his last note, he'd said he was worried about his schoolwork, and asked for prayers to ensure good grades. Well, he passed his second-grade tests and has been promoted. 8-)

Note and photo from the local aid organization:

Plus! Subscribers:
http://langalist.com/plus/kids/ranganath200410.asp

Standard Edition Subscribers:
http://freetune.com/kids/ranganath200406.htm

Here's what this is all about: Those of us with computers and Internet access are vastly better off than most of the world's population. Because of this, I decided that a portion of the LangaList Plus! subscription fees would be donated to registered/legitimate charities helping the underprivileged around the world. The contribution does not increase the cost of a Plus! subscription in any way; the donation is taken "off the top" of any profits. (This is described in the pages at http://langa.com/plus.htm  )

Ranganath is one of the children sponsored on an ongoing basis--- week in, week out--- by the collective generosity of LangaList subscribers. LangaList Plus! subscribers also have collectively contributed to emergency earthquake relief efforts in India and to funds to help the victims of the Sept 11th attacks in the US. (To see all the donations so far, click to http://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 sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world.

If you're not yet a Plus! subscriber check it out: With a Plus! subscription, you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Ranganath) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help!

http://langa.com/plus.htm

or give a GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to the Plus edition:
http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm

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4) Nice Guide For "Non-Admin" Accts

I just read your latest newsletter and read item "Single User / Multiple User Accounts" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-09-23.htm#5 ).  I think your readers would be interested in reading Aaron Margosis' WebLog ( http://weblogs.asp.net/aaron_margosis/ ) subtitled "The Non-Admin blog - running with least privilege on the desktop."

Aaron is one of the many Microsoft bloggers.  He has solved some of the issues I've had in running as a Non-admin.  The explorer trick really helped me. Keep up the good work.---Perry Harris

Thanks, Perry!

In brief, the idea is this: On your XP or 2K system (or Linux box, for that matter), you should set up at least two accounts, even if you're the only user. One account should have full admin privileges, and the other should have much more constrained settings. You "live" mostly in the second account so that if that account gets hacked, infected, or otherwise compromised, the risk to the system as a whole is reduced. You then use the Admin account to do cleanup and system-wide maintenance.

There are a number of tricks and shortcuts that make this arrangement less cumbersome than it sounds. We've covered some of them (see link above); and sites like Margosis' can help a lot, too. Nice find!

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5) Wants To Avoid Reinstalling All Apps

Hi Fred, I'm a plus subscriber since the beginning. Plus is the Best of the Best.

Following yours and Paul Thurrott's instructions ("How To Save an Hour Or More On XP Installs" http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=47212312 ) I was able to slipstream SP2 and my OEM WindowsXP Home CD onto a new CD. This will certainly save some time on the next install. But, by far, IMHO, the most time consuming thing is redownloading and reinstalling all my apps. Is there any way to shorten this process? Sincerely, Paul Lindee

In some reinstalls, you *may* be able to use XP's "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard--- but it's dicey: Only some software and settings can be moved this way. (See "Moving Disk Images From PC to PC" in http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-10-04.htm#4 )

What I did was use the prepatched setup CD to do a fresh install of the OS. Then I installed all my apps and utilities; and then imaged that fully-installed, fully-patched, perfect setup to CD (actually, to DVD-R, but the medium doesn't matter) as a new "master" install. If or when I need to roll my system all the way back to "like new" cindition, I'll simply use that image to get back to a perfect setup, with everything installed, patched and running perfectly, in one giant step. Instead of taking hours or days, future installs--- which are really just rollbacks to that perfect setup--- will take only minutes.

In other words, you take the hit *once* in time and hassle to set everything up perfectly, and then use that perfected image over and over again--- possibly for years--- avoiding a laborious re-setup each time.

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6) Last Full Week To "Recommend And Win"

At the end of the month, I'll choose three more monthly winners who each will get 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.)

To have a shot at winning, 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 a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION! (Full details also available via this link): http://langa.com/recommend.htm

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7) SWF?

No, it's not "single white female..." 8-)

Fred: Some of the recent Langalist newsletters have had links ending in .SWF. I have been unable to open them and only get the square, circle , triangle in the box at the top left of the page. I thought originally that this was because of my slow, less than 10kbps, dialup connection. However, I have recently been able to get a high speed wireless internet connection put in and am still unable to open a .SWF file. I am obviously missing something. A google search brought up links to multimedia flash sources. However, I was unable to understand what I should get to view .SWF files. Can you help? Thanks for all of your past help and of course the Langalist. ---Dean E. Ewing

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8) Code Load Success Story

After his site was listed in a recent "Load The Code" section, code-loader John Carson wrote:

Hi Fred, Just a quick Load the Code success story. My site http://www.kibbutzvolunteer.com appeared in your last e-newsletter; my visitors jumped [twentyfold]! Many thanks, John Carson. Kibbutz Volunteer

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://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://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

Freightmovers
http://www.freightmovers.com/

RainChute
http://www.rainchute.com/

Indonesian recipes
http://www.kochconnect.com/modules.php?name=Recipes

Knoyle Family Scrapbook
http://lem503.home.comcast.net/index.htm

Cross-Canada Road Trip
http://www3.telus.net/public/myweb/

Dayton Democrats
http://daytondemocrat.ods.org/

Collins Investments
http://www.bizbrokersfl.com/sitefl/resources.html

Cain Family
http://www.blcain.com/

Best Movie Sites
http://www.allsitecafe.com/hollywood.html

Hammil (NZ)
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rahamill/

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9) Outlook Express/IE Text Size

Fred -- Thanks for the great newsletters--I always seem to learn something.  I discovered a small tip that  might be helpful to someone else.

I was having a problem with the Text Size command on the view menu of IE6.  I could change it, but it would always revert back to the previous setting.  A search of the MS knowledge base did not turn up anything, but a search on Google gave several answers.  There was a fairly complicated workaround that involved a registry file in the startup folder, but I decided to keep looking. In one of the forums I found that the text size setting in Outlook Express could create this problem in IE.  Since I use Eudora, I decided to try changing the text size in that and then change it again in IE.  It works!  I'm not sure why, but it is a very easy fix.

Keep up the good work. ---Judy Hector

Thanks, Judy.

One of the strengths--- and weaknesses--- of Windows is that browsing is built into the OS: The HTML rendering engine can be shared among different internet-enabled apps and utilities. On the plus side, it provides consistency, and prevents different software authors from constantly having to reinvent the wheel: When they need to display HTML, they just call the built-in engine instead of having to create a new one and add it to their software.

But the downside is that problems with the HTML rendering--- from cosmetic issues to security holes--- can ripple throughout the system and affect seemingly unrelated components.

Outlook Express will use some of IE's rendering system to display HTML email, for example; and Eudora *can* be set to use IE to display HTML email (although, for security reasons, I tell my copy of Eudora to use its own simpler, less-vulnerable HTML display engine). Munged settings in one app that accesses the HTML engine can, and sometimes will, spill over to other programs using the same code. If you don't know exactly which setting went awry, then doing what you did--- correcting the settings in several places--- increases the odds of getting things back the way you want it.

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10) Just For Grins

Hi Fred. I don't know if you covered this or not, but it's a site full of silly computer stuff. I thought you might want to use some of it in Just For Grins. Best, Anthony Augustine
 
I got this from http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/. It's a web site that covers stupid computer stuff. This one came from the topic Tech Support, Calls From Hell:
 
========

I had this conversation recently with a lady who swore she had been using computers since forever.

• Tech Support: "All right. Now click 'OK'."
• Customer: "Click 'OK'?"
• Tech Support: "Yes, click 'OK'."
• Customer: "Click 'OK'?"
• Tech Support: "That's right. Click 'OK'."
• Customer: "So I click 'OK', right?"
• Tech Support: "Right. Click 'OK'."

Pause.

• Customer: "I clicked 'Cancel'."
• Tech Support: "YOU CLICKED 'CANCEL'???"
• Customer: "That's what I was supposed to do, right?"
• Tech Support: "No, you were supposed to click 'OK'."
• Customer: "I thought you said to click 'Cancel'."
• Tech Support: "NO. I said to click 'OK'."
• Customer: "Oh."
• Tech Support: "Now we have to start over."
• Customer: "Why?"
• Tech Support: "Because you clicked 'Cancel'."
• Customer: "Wasn't I supposed to click 'Cancel'?"
• Tech Support: "No. Forget that. Let's start from the top."
• Customer: "Ok."

I spent the next fifteen minutes re-constructing the carefully crafted setup for this lady's unique computer.

• Tech Support: "All right. Now, are you ready to click 'OK'?"
• Customer: "Yes."
• Tech Support: "Great. Now click 'OK'."

Pause.

• Customer: "I clicked 'Cancel'."

And people wonder why my mouse pad has a target on it labeled "BANG HEAD HERE."

Rinkworks is a great site indeed--- lots of fun to browse it. <g>

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Don't Use HostCentric Web Hosting
     (Fred tells you why....)
• "Recovery Console" Trouble
     (how to access it even if it's not installed; how to use it if it is)
• Norton Fights With Chkdsk?
     (easy workaround)
• Moving Free Space Between Partitions
     (put extra disk space where you need it)

Plus! edition subscribers not only get much more content in every issue (like the above), but 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; along with dozens of private downloads and much more--- all for just $1 per month!

Plus! Edition info: 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, 2004-10-28!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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

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