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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2005-02-03

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) Real-Life RAM Disk Use

Fred, I been using "Ramdisk" by QSoft, http://www.ramdisk.tk/ , & found it works/suits my needs.  There is a free version but the pro version is about $20.00 for this great little program.

The great point w/ a "ramdrive/ramdisk" is setting temporary files to the drive especially IE temp files along w/ any other pesky temp files.  Once the cpu is turned off or rebooted, you have cleaned your system of those pesky things.

As an Architect, my cad program works great w/ the ramdrive.

I'm going to review the article on Ram Drives ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57704017  ) so I can tweak mine. Take care, Jerry Headley

Indeed, Jerry, RAM drives can be used not only to speed up disk-intensive operations, but also can be used to enhance your system security by ensuring that temp files--- including the, um, crud that your browser accumulates as you surf---are totally disposed of: You can use a RAM drive as a self-emptying, high-speed cache!

That, and several other uses are discussed in the article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57704017 . Plus, we'll cover:

What's A RAM Drive Best For? Worst For?
Avoiding Misconceptions About "Running Programs In RAM?"
RAM Tradeoffs: System Use vs RAM Disk Use
Real-Life Examples: Small RAM Disk Use
                              Medium RAM Disk Use
                              Large RAM Disk Use
RAM Disks resource list (including many free ones)
...and more

Click on over!

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2) Free HTML Editor

Fred, searching for a freeware WYSIWYG [what you see is what you get] HTML editor seems to be a lifetime occupation with me. Tried 'em all.
 
THEN I find this one which looks, after a wee bit of playing-with-it, fantastic.
 
http://www.nvu.com/index.html
 
--Ken Laninga

Thanks, Ken, Nvu (pronounced "en-view") is causing a bit of buzz: It's open source (IOW, free) and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Definitely worth a look!

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3) Surviving A Deep Freeze

Due to the accident of geography, some seasonal topics in this newsletter are out of synch for some of our readers. For example, it's the dead of winter here in New Hampshire, but our friends in the southern hemisphere are enjoying summer.

One annual topic in this newsletter involves surge suppressors, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes), even portable generators; things to keep your computers humming even when the home or office power supply is less than ideal--- or even absent!

Usually, it's a late Spring topic here, as the local thunderstorm season approaches. But even as I write this, a huge swath of the mid-Atlantic coastal states here in the US are without power due to an ice storm; and we had our own interesting run-in with a midwinter power outage last week:

On a recent cold morning, with outside temperatures hovering at about -12F (-24C), we heard a loud pop somewhere down the street. The house went dark, the heating system shut down, all our uninterruptible power supplies started bleeping, and everything else electrical stopped.

I shut down the PCs that didn't do so automatically (many of the better/newer UPSes can send a shutdown signal to a PC, letting it shutdown gracefully while the UPS still has battery power left). I then tried to figure out what was going on with the power.

It turned out that a neighborhood transformer blew. Once the work crews arrived, they tried to find the electrical fault, but were hampered by subterranean electrical lines buried in deeply-frozen, snow-covered ground. At one point, they were talking about having to rewire the neighborhood, abandoning the buried cables and going back to wires on poles--- a process that would take days. I started thinking dark thoughts about frozen pipes, frost forming on delicate electronics, dead house plants, having to use our camping gear to stay inside the house, and (not least) trying to run an entirely electronic newsletter business with no external power.

It made for a long and interesting day: With the potential for having to go for an open-ended duration without external power in very cold weather, I didn't immediately fire up my small emergency generator, preferring to save that in the event that we *really* needed it later. But it turned out not to be necessary: Some eight hours and several hard restarts later (two more neighborhood transformers blew before the work crews got things truly fixed!), the power was back. Fortunately, our backup wood heat kept us (and the house's pipes) warm in the subzero (F) temperatures; and the UPSes and surge protectors completely shielded all our computers and other electrical gear from the repeated surge/crash cycles. (I unplugged some of the critical gear after the second transformer went….)

So, while it's normally a summer-ish topic around here, surge protectors and UPSes can help you any time of year, and in either hemisphere! For lots more on this topic, ranging from the raw basics up to using portable generators for power, see items #1-3 in
http://langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-06-18.htm ; and also http://langa.com/u/5c.htm . Plus! subscribers can find additional, Plus!-only coverage by searching the Plus! standalone archives ( http://langalist.com/plus/archives/archives.asp ) for the following:

uninterruptible OR surge

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4) "Great Software" List

Hi Fred, thanks for your newsletter. It's been great for curing a number of problems I've had with Windows. I also like how you suggest websites, and the next time you do, consider my own suggestions for great software, The Great Software List at http://www.anova.org/software/ . Take care, keep up the great work, and thanks for all you do for the rest of us! --- Zaine Ridling

Zaine's list is interesting, eclectic, slightly irreverent, and describes itself this way:

The Great Software List is an advocate of great software and ignores mediocre software. The Great Software List is composed of high quality programs that share most or all of the following features:

          (1) Ease of use with a well-designed user interface;
          (2) A generous array of keyboard shortcuts (preferably customizable);
          (3) High degree of customizability where applicable; and
          (4) Affordability. 

The list is also highly selective--- it's not just a data-dump of every kind of software in each class.

Looks good. Thanks, Zaine.

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

Reader Saves $150!

"Hi Fred, I just wanted to tell you that I love the Plus! site and the help.
It's well worth the price. More to the point, I figure that this year alone
you have saved me about $150 in tech support calls and solved problems.
I WILL be Renewing my Plus! subscription! Thanks, Jay Koenig"

Thank *you,* Jay. <g>

The LangaList Plus! Edition--- only about $1 per month--- is ad-free,
spam-proof, and contains even more tips, tricks, advice, and downloads
than the Standard Edition you're now reading.

Get all the details:

http://langa.com/plus.htm

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5) Another Sound Fix

The item "Lost Startup, Exit Sounds" in http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-01-31.htm#5 brought a lot of suggestions like this one:

Hi Fred:  I had the same problem with my sounds not working and it drove me crazy.  I could hear them fine when I clicked on them but no matter what I did, make new sound themes, moved them to a different part of the computer, etc. etc. etc., nothing worked until I found an obscure site that gave me instructions on fixing the problem.  It was based on the fact that I use Tweak UI or the XP version of this and I had unchecked the little box that says to beep on windows errors.  When I checked it again my start and exit sounds came back.  So if this other fellow is using Tweak UI or Windows Power Toys, I would suggest opening it up and making sure there is a check mark in the box that says to beep on windows errors. ---Colleen

Thanks, Coleen, and all who wrote in. I'd forgotten about the TweakUI sound options.

TweakUI--- and all the free PowerToys from Windows ( http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx ) are very cool, but they're also all unsupported, and perhaps slightly funky. Use them if you wish--- but with caution! <g>

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6) New Month, New Chances

It's a new month, and right now your chances are the best they'll ever be!

To have a shot at winning one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the
LangaList Plus! edition I give away each month, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList. (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://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) Motherboard Monitor Defunct

Hi Fred, I know you have mentioned that you used MBM ( http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ ) in  the past. Since it is no longer supported I wonder what your latest recommendation is for monitoring temperatures inside a Windows PC. HMonitor ( http://www.hmonitor.com/ ) looks nice but rather pricey at $30 and it will only run for 10 minutes at a time in the trial version which is only good for a week. I would be interested to here your current recommendations. Love the LangaList Plus. ---Rob Anderson

MBM is no longer supported, but it still works on most systems, and is still available (free) from many download sites.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22motherboard+monitor%22

I think it's still worth running. In fact. I'm running it right now on the P4 box I use to produce this newsletter. 8-) My CPU is loafing along at 95F/35C, my hard drive a comfortable 87F/31C, and my case a nice, stress-less 89F/32C. (More on case temps: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=21401323 )

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8) More Reader Sites!

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 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://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 From Among All Listed
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

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

DCliff's Looney Bin
http://members.cox.net/dcliff_817/dcpage2.htm

Virtual Vacations
http://www.keepontrippin.com/

The Swingin' Carpenter
http://hammer90.tripod.com/

Centerville High School (PA)
http://geocities.com/munwele/chs.html

Townies Too
http://dannymac7.tripod.com/

"MySite"
http://home.earthlink.net/~kales2/

Carolina Discounts
http://www.carolinadiscounts.com/

Pet Portraits
http://www.petportraitsite.com/

SuperStar SuperStore
http://superstarsuperstore.biz/computers_and_supplies.htm

Backup4all
http://www.backup4all.com/

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9) Browsing And Emailing Safely, Even As Admin

In the past, we've talked about using user accounts with different "rights," preserving the (dangerous) Admin account only for maintenance. That's good policy, but it's clumsy and most people don't do it. Instead, they do *everything* as Admin, which means any problem in or compromising of that account can torch the whole PC.

One alternative: The "Run As" command, which we've discussed previously: http://langa.com/u/7n.htm

But here's a slightly different approach: A free tool that lets you, as Admin, start a web browser, mail client, or other software in reduced-rights mode without having to leave the Admin account.

Fred, I found something in the MSDN Security Developer Center Columns that I believe is important to your readers.  It is an application that allows you to launch applications, such as your email or browser with reduced privileges.  This is especially important on home PCs where the user is logged in as an administrator.  Trojans will often take the users security context, and if the user is an administrator, then so is the malware. The MSI file is a link in the article here: http://langa.com/u/7m.htm

Thanks for your great newsletter and your charitable contributions.  The
Plus edition is a terrific value. --- Alan M. Kaplan, MCSE

Thanks, Alan!

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10) Just For Grins

Dear Fred: In light of the http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-12-16.htm#10 LangaList  about the universe:

Here's a rather interesting description of the universe I came across in one of my Y! Groups...it looks like something that one would find in "The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy" (which, I'm pretty certain, is where this came from):

=====

Here are some facts about the universe:

area:  infinite - bigger than the biggest thing ever and then some.   much bigger than that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, real "wow that's big" time.  Infinity is just so big that by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy.  gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied by staggeringly huge is the sort of concept I'm trying to get across here

Imports:  none.   It's impossible to import things into an infinite area, there being no outside to import things from

Exports:  none:  see imports

Population:  none. It is known there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in.  however, not every one of them is inhabited.  Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds.  Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the universe can be said to be zero.  From this it follows that the population of the whole universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination

Art:  none.  the function of art is to hold the mirror up to nature, and there simply isn't a mirror big enough.   see area

=====

It does look suspiciously like something the late Douglas Adams would have written, doesn't it? Especially the part about the universe's population being zero...

Thanks for a wonderful newsletter, Fred...always enjoy the Just For Grins! ---Doug Graham

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Free Cleanup For Bad Installs
     (including bad installs you may not know you have!)
• Free Remote Shutdown Tool
     (trigger shutdowns or reboots on remote PCs)
• Admin Logon Rejected?
     (here's the answer!)

For only around $1 per month---- pennies per issue--- you get access to over 100,000 additional words in special features, extra content and private links, all on a private web site-- - plus 30% more content in every issue! And there's a MONEY- BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you go wrong?

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, 2005-02-07!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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

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