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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2005-12-12

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

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1) Microsoft "Streets & Trips"

The article about  the best-ever free mapping/routing sites ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174402923 ) is still generating good email:

Fred: Have you ever checked out MS Streets & Trips? I have been using this program for years for multi-stop trips. It will also allow you to pick the roads you might want but you have to do a little work to do it.

It will give you the GPS Coordinate for any position on the map by positioning your mouse. I use the coordinates with the Magellan Map Send software to build a route with way points which I upload to my MAP330.

It also integrates with my Magellan MAP330 via a serial port to locate your position where ever you are on the globe.

I also bought their stand alone GPS receiver which uses a USB connection that is really handy while you travel because it gives you real time location as you drive.

I've also used it aboard cruise ships to track our location, even our Med cruise earlier this year. The best thing about it is it's on your hard drive and there is no need for the Internet.

Love your work, Del Paxton

Thanks, Del. Yes, I have a copy of S&T 2005, and like it: Its best feature (IMO) is its ability to plan a route in human-sized chunks. S&T lets you set a daily start and stop time for driving; it allows for rest stops at whatever frequency you want to set; it can take your vehicle's refueling range into account; etc. Most other routing tools simply show you the route as a whole, leaving it to you to flesh it out with the necessary details of food, fuel, comfort stops, and--- if it's a long trip--- sleep.

S&T is also cheap: If you wait for sales and rebates, you can often find it for $20 or less! ( http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=microsoft+streets+trips&btnG=Froogle+Search )

On the down side, S&T is optimized for producing paper maps and printouts of your route. Although it will accept input from a GPS and show your location on its map, it's not so great in the other direction: My copy, anyway, "speaks" the NMEA data format when communicating with a GPS. The NMEA format was developed by the National Marine Electronics Association  ( http://www.nmea.org/ ); one of the earliest civilian adopters of GPS technology. But because of their oceangoing orientation, their standards are optimized for straight-line navigation between points. The NMEA format is a kind of lowest-common-denominator among GPS-capable devices and software.

This is a major drawback because roads rarely are quite that simple. <g>. When you build a route on PC software like Microsoft Streets and Trips and then try to save that route to a GPS via NMEA format, you almost always lose detail; and often will simply end up with a series of waypoints connected by undriveable straight lines. Your GPS will then have to recalculate the route. If your original route had manually-set turns and side trips (say, to detour to a scenic spot), you may have to rebuild those manual sections. This is inefficient, at best.

Usually, the software that comes with GPS units is far more capable for transferring data: You can send routes to and from the GPS unit without losing any detail, and without having to rebuild anything. As GPSes become more prevalent, this also means you can share detailed routes with friends or driving companions: One person can build a route, and everyone with a GPS can follow it in its entirety. There are even companies cropping up that sell CDs with especially scenic routes pre-plotted and stored in GPS-specific format: You pick a route, squirt it into your GPS, and off you go. You can't do that very well with tools that only "speak" NMEA.

So, although I use and like S&T, it's not my primary tool. For short trips (within a couple day's drive of my home) I usually rely on the GPS alone. For example, I recently took my wife to New York City (about a 5 hour drive from here) to see a Broadway show for her Christmas present. The GPS, by itself, got us there and back; and also let us navigate around the city with ease, despite holiday road closures, traffic jams, spur-of-the-moment side trips and whatnot. Nothing special was required: We just got in the car, plugged in the hotel's address, and took off.

At the other end of the spectrum, for long trips, I use multiple resources. Next summer, for example, I'm thinking about stitching together several business trips and a vacation to create a driving route that loops around the entire US and Canada--- about 8,000 miles (12,800 km), and taking the better part of a month. (The business portion of the trip will include "House Calls" [ http://google.com/search?as_q=%22house+call%22i&as_sitesearch=langa.com ]; so maybe I'll be seeing you!)

For a driving trip of that magnitude, I'm pulling out all the stops: S&T for basic routing and to automatically break the trip into human-sized daily chunks; many of the best, free online mapping sites ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174402923 ) to verify, refine, and cross-check the basic routing; Google Earth ( http://earth.google.com/ ) for high-resolution 3-D views of the areas I'll be traveling through (to find scenic areas I might otherwise miss); numerous web sites for "local knowledge" and previous first-hand experiences in each area; paper maps from the travel bureaus of each state and province along the way; and so on. I'll boil all that data down via MapSource, and eventually produce a single route that I'll load into my GPS. That unit--- about the size of a pack of cards--- will provide visual and voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions for the whole trip, and also allow for spur-of-the-moment alterations and detours, automatically bringing me back on course when I'm ready. (And yes--- a firm believer in belts AND suspenders--- I'll also carry the state and provincial paper maps with me, as just-in-case backups.)

OK, so I'm a little nuts. But I won't lose my way; I'll be sure to see the best of each area I pass through; and will make my business appointments on time. Nuts, yes; but not lost. <g>

As with so much in tech, having a variety of tools is best. Something like S&T or the free online mapping tools we discussed earlier ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174402923 ) work great for producing paper printouts, or as a supplement to GPS tools. The GPS itself offers additional levels of flexibility and freedom; and the whole-hog approach (as above) lets you build tour-guide quality custom routing for trips of any type or magnitude!

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2) "Compacting" Vs "Cleaning" The Registry

Dear Fred, I've enjoyed your recent discussions of registry cleaners.  I mostly use JV16, but have a couple of others I judiciously play with sometimes. 

However, the whole topic has got me wondering about "compacting" or "compressing" the registry.  One of my utilities offers to do this each time it's run, but I have never elected to allow it. I've done a couple of Google searches and can find a great many pieces of software that claim the ability to do it, but why would you want to?  What are the advantages and dangers of compressing one's registry?

Thanks for the good work. ---Robert

Cleaning out the dead stuff from your Registry can offer real, tangible benefits, but "compacting" your Registry is a bit more questionable.

Registry cleaning is mainly to eliminate entries that point to files and programs that have moved or been deleted; or have changed; to eliminate settings that are out of date or otherwise unnecessary; and so on. This saves time at start up because the OS won't waste time loading and parsing dead, obsolete, or nonfunctional Registry entries. It may also help in routine operation because the Registry will no longer contain settings that could lead to some kinds of errors (such as a file association that references software no longer on the system).

That's most of the benefit of Registry maintenance, right there.

Registry compacting, on the other hand, is slightly different. First, it's only of benefit if the Registry has first been cleaned; a neatly compacted Registry that still contains bogus entries isn't going to do you a lot of good. And a routinely-cleaned Registry simply isn't going to contain that much wasted space, anyway.

For example, until Robert's question arrived, I'd had never, ever "compacted" the registry on my heavily-used primary XP system; but I had regularly and routinely cleaned the Registry, mostly with jv16 PowerTools and with EasyCleaner (those and others are discussed here: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=171203805 )

I used this Google search to find a registry compacting tool:
http://google.com/search?q=registry+compress+compact

I downloaded and tried one, after first making note of the original size of my Registry files. The compacted Registry did shrink: I saved 636 Kb--- less than 1 meg--- of disk space, compared to the non-compacted size. OK, compacting worked, sort of. But is saving 0.6MB of disk space--- roughly half a floppy-disk--- anything to get terribly excited about? I don't think so.

So: By all means CLEAN your Registry. That almost surely will do you some good. And if you want to "compact" it as well, fine; go ahead. It should do no harm. But if you're already regularly cleaning your system, I doubt that Registry compacting will deliver any meaningful additional benefit for you.

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3) Needs Anti-Spam Advice

Fred, There is constant discussion on everything related to spam. There have been many comments in your newsletter on spam.
I searched the archives to see if I could find some information on what you do to filter your emails. The only mention I could find regarding this was in the September 5,2005 issue. In that issue you mention that ISP level filtering isn't adequate to handle the variety of mail you receive. The volume of spam emails is increasing at an alarming rate. I have seen various suggestions regarding using various email accounts for various activities. This is, of course, a great idea but it only useful if done before the problem begins. I, unfortunately, sent off electronically for some travel information and have been plagued ever since. The amount of email continues to increase. I've tried using ISP level filtering and it just isn't sufficient for my needs which seem to me to be very basic.

I would appreciate any information you are willing to share on how you handle your problems with spam.

Keep up this terrific newsletter. I so love having access to information that is more advanced but written for all. Thanks, Pam Newberry

The best-available anti-spam tools use a kind of statistical analysis to "read" the text of emails and see if a given message is likely to be spam, or not. This kind of statistical analysis uses techniques first perfected by a mathematician named Bayes, and so these kinds of anti-spam filters are called "Bayesian."
http://google.com/search?as_q=bayesian&as_sitesearch=langa.com  My primary filter is Bayesian. (It's Spamnix for Eudora, but there are many excellent Bayesian filters available, some that will work with almost *any* email client. See the free and excellent Spambayes http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ , for example.)

A second class of filtering is called "rules based." It's simpler and cruder, and is easier to fool. Rules-based filters can be useful as a secondary tool to process and sort the mail that a Bayesian filter has let through as "probable non-spam"; but rules-based filters are much too crude to be a first line of defense. In fact, most anti-spam "blacklists" and "block lists" are rules-based, which is why they have such an astonishingly high error rate. They often throw out more good emails than spam; actually doing far more harm than good!
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=%22blacklist%22&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000  My secondary filters are rules-based (Eudora has extensive filtering ability built-in.)

A third category of filter is collaborative; where many users share examples of what they consider to be spam or not-spam. (Some of these tools refer to not-spam email as "ham." Really!) Collaborative sharing allows the centralized software (usually Bayesian, but sometimes rules-based, or both) to "see" more examples and thus to develop refinements faster than products that only have one user's mail to examine. The downside is that you may not agree with what others think, and may end up having to develop your own local rules anyway.
http://google.com/search?q=bayesian+collaborative+antispam
http://google.com/search?&q=collaborative+antispam

A fourth category is challenge/response (
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=challenge%2Fresponse&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ), an interactive variant of rules-based filtering: The anti-spam tool only allows in mail from people you've listed as OK to receive mail from ("white listing"). If mail arrives from an unknown party, the tool holds it, and sends a reply mail (the "challenge"), asking the original sender to verify that they're a real, live human being by sending back another email, sometimes with a special subject line (the "response"). Some go even further, and ask that the original sender include a note explaining what the first note was about, and why it was sent.

Besides cluttering the mail system with still more back-and-forth emails, challenge/response systems are impossible for heavy email users to keep up with because it amounts to having to send every first-contact email twice. It's just not a practical solution, except for people with very, very low email volumes. (In my case, with thousands and thousands of emails coming and going every day, I just don't have time to send some of them twice, or to prove that I'm really me, or to write little essays explaining what each email is about. <g> Sad to say, I never read or reply to challenge emails; I simply can't take that much time.)

That's the anti-spam playing field in a nutshell. But if you want additional info:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021115S0018
http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-08-22.htm#7
http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-09-12.htm#5
http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-08-05.htm#9
http://www.overcomeemailoverload.com/advice/AntiSpamTools.html

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4) Ants In His... Lap

Dear Fred, perhaps this question is weird, but can ants harm a laptop? Since winter began, we have them everywhere, and I see them crawling out of my keyboard. Any suggestions? ---Jonathan Omer-Man

The ants themselves probably aren't hurting the system--- they won't eat wires or anything like that--- but who knows what else the little buggers are doing in there? If you spilled a sugary drink or some food on the machine, that's a problem in its own right. And if the ants are actually trying to *live* inside the machine, then there's another problem, as the food they bring in, and the resulting waste, accumulates.

I suggest this: First remove all the ants you can, and kill the rest. Most insecticides contain solvents that may harm plastic, so I wouldn't suggest spraying the laptop. But you might be able to rig something where you place the laptop in a heavy plastic bag, and then spray a paper towel with an ant-specific insecticide, and place the paper towel inside the bag, next to but not touching the laptop so the vapors can circulate to fumigate the inside of the bag and the laptop. Lots of handling precautions here--- use common-sense; read the labels and follow the directions; and thoroughly clean the laptop after you take it out of the bag.

Or: You might try extreme cold. Remove any batteries, and put the laptop in a tight-fitting, sealed plastic bag and freeze it. Let it thaw slowly, and inside the bag. When all the frost has melted from the bag, remove the laptop and place it in a warm, dry place with good air circulation. Let it sit for a long time until it's at room temperature and is thoroughly dry, inside and out.

The above are generic answers--- you can probably think of other, better options: Carefully use whatever you think will work best, depending on the specific design of the laptop and your available resources.

Once the ants are dead, you need to remove the little corpses so as not to attract insect scavengers. This is also a good time to remove whatever it was that was attracting them to the machine in the first place. There are lots of ideas for cleaning laptop and PCs here
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60300177 and here http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472. If they keyboard itself is a removable subassembly, you might consider giving it a good washing in distilled water:
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=wash+water+keyboard&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000
http://google.com/search?q=wash+water+keyboard

Once the ants are dead and gone, and you've removed whatever it was that was attracting them in the first place, a little caution with what you eat and drink around the keyboard should leave you only having to deal with the normal kinds of "bugs" found in software. <g>

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5) MSConfig/Startup Problem

Fred, Recently my system had been running rather slow and sluggishly and having used it before numerous times, I decided to check things out with PC Pitstop http://www.pcpitstop.com/
 
I ran their Full test and indeed, it came up with several items that it said were programs, that although they were running, were really not necessary for the normal operation of the system. Things like Sun Java Update, Office XP Speech, Creative CD-Rom and several others. Perusing the list of items, I decided several could be prevented from running and using MSConfig/Startup, I unchecked each of them and rebooted my system. Now whenever I reboot, I get a Windows message saying that I have made these changes and suggesting that I should reverse my decision and  let them all continue to start up again. I keep closing this message since things are running just fine and quite quickly as opposed to before. I am wondering if I can prevent it from recurring all the time. I have been reluctant to do so because it intimates that I am running in something akin to a diagnostic mode. Any thoughts on this? ---Bruce Starling

MSConfig/Startup is indeed primarily a diagnostic tool. It's meant to let you selectively turn off or bypass parts of the normal startup sequence during troubleshooting. If you need to prevent something from loading on a permanent basis, it's best to repair, uninstall or remove the software that's causing the trouble, rather than leaving it installed, but broken and disabled.

That said, there are many "startup editors" that go beyond a relatively simple on-off tool, like MSConfig/Startup. See, for example
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=startup+editor&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000
http://google.com/search?q=startup+editor

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6) Recommend This Newsletter And Win!

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://langa.com/recommend.htm. Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) Security Present, But Unaccounted For?

Dear Fred: Windows Security Centre tells me I have no anti-virus or firewall protection, even though it happily reported I did have about a week ago.

Have Microsoft changed something about detecting non-Microsoft solutions?

I have the free AVG anti-virus and Sygate Personal Firewall installed.

Best regards and thanks for such a brilliant newsletter! ---Giles Chipping

The "Windows Security Centre" is a pretty basic tool meant mainly as an awareness-boosting device for the millions of users who employ no security tools at all. It's design to alert them to the fact that, hey, you know, it might not be such a bad idea to consider using one or two security tools, like a firewall and an AV program; and maybe to run an update every now and then. Online security--- what a concept!<g>

With a basic focus like that, the tool isn't very sophisticated: There are many firewalls and AV tools that the Security Centre doesn't recognize.

As long as you have a firewall and an AV tool, and you know they're both working, I wouldn't worry about it if Security Centre loses track. You can either ignore the Security Centre's warnings, or select the option to "stop nagging me; I'll monitor this stuff on my own."

How do you know if your firewall and AV tools are working? Funny you should ask! <g> See:

How Do You Know If Protections Are Really Working?
http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-06-27.htm#2

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8) Yet *Another* Code Load Success Story

After his site was listed in the last "Load The Code" section, this reader wrote:

Just wanted to say a big "Thank you". Your newsletter is incredible, Backup4all ( http://www.backup4all.com  ) was mentioned, and the number of hits increased 400%! That's incredible for us as we usually have a lot of traffic but it's a big boom. Thank you very much, your link is now posted on every page of our website and it will stay in there forever :)).

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

How to get stuff for free
http://ian.troop351.com/free.html

Pinkish Rain Physical Theatre
http://www.nebahat.dcpc.com.au/

The banality of celebrity
http://eavesdropperblog.blogspot.com/

Home Cinema
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~aihomecinema/

Emusings on Web Stuff
http://www.emusings.info/

LVWnet
http://lvwnet.com/index.htmls

Farris Enterprises
http://www.farris-fe.com/links%20blue.html

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
http://www.livingwithme.org.uk/

DreamWink
http://www.dreamwink.com/

Purple Dreams
http://members.fotki.com/PurpleDreams/

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9) Defining Terms; and Protecting Credit Cards

Could you explain the differences between viruses and malware. I assume both could steal your credit card number as mine was stolen a little while ago. Regards, Norm

First, Wikipedia to the rescue: A computer "virus" is "a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host." A virus usually depends on humans as the transmission vector: People sharing infected files online or by email or by floppy.

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus, but often capable of some degree of self-transmission; for example, using the host computer's mail program to send itself out to other PCs. Furthermore, while "... a virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program... a worm is self-contained and does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself. They are often designed to exploit the file transmission capabilities found on many computers."

A Trojan Horse is "malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software." In fact, it may *be* a legitimate program, but one that also contains a virus or a worm as its hidden "payload."

Spyware "covers a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party.... Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware - by design - exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites."

"Malware" is a generic term simply meaning "malicious software." It's nonspecific. Malware is any software that's deliberately harmful, including (but not limited to) Trojans, worms, viruses, and spyware.

OK, what about the credit card info? Usually, when data is stolen from your PC, it's by the kind of malware known as spyware.

But also note: There are actually fewer instances of credit card problems online than in the physical world; and most of the online problem happen at the merchant's end rather than on the end-user's PC. This makes sense when you think about it. If you were a hacker, would you rather break into a random PC that may or may not have any credit card info inside, and if it does, whose credit card may or may not have a high spending limit; or break into the billing department of a merchant and steal tens of thousands of card numbers at once? It's the latter that's the real problem, of course--- there are actually very few cases where individual PC's are hacked with the intent of grabbing credit card numbers.

Related side note: Have you ever gotten new credit cards mailed to you by your bank for no apparent reason (ie not the end of a membership year, and not because you requested new cards)? A common reason for that is that the bank itself had a (ahem) security problem, and is re-issuing cards to invalidate the old ones, making any hypothetically misappropriated card numbers useless. Once again: Most credit card problems are NOT inside end-user's PCs.

There are many PC security tools to fight malware, but to be well-protected, you need one that specializes in fighting each major type of malware. See the list of recommended tools in http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-06-27.htm#2 .

More detail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_%28computing%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

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10) Just For Grins

Fred: I recently found a web site that I think you'll find really amusing...maybe even appropriate for your Just For Grins list.  It's a site where you can create a custom song that sounds professionally created in just minutes.  Great for the person who can't remember their spouse's/significant other's birthday, anniversary or other important date.  It's called instasong ( http://www.instasong.com ) and it's a real hoot.  Yes, there is a charge...but it's just $5.  I think you'll agree this qualifies as a great place for a fun, inexpensive holiday gift. Cheers, Steve Lawton

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 40% more content including:

• Free Replacement for Visual Basic and REALbasic
     (powerful, and you can't beat the price!)
• Free "New Super Utility"
     (seven modules, all free!)
• Reader Recommended Linux Distro
     (very easy to set up!)
• Long Path Length = Trouble
     (reader's clever fix for a common problem)

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 HOLIDAY GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

The LangaList is published about 72 times a year, or about 6 times a month. See you next issue, 2005-12-15!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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

An easier-to read formatted HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://langa.com.  (The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the issue date.) All past LangaList issues are also available at the Langa.Com site.

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