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LangaList 2006-03-30 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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1) More On: A $500 PC with 1,000 GB Of StorageThink of it as maybe a quarter-million MP3s. Or 1,400 completely filled CDRs. Or 900,000 jpg photos at 3-megapixel resolution. Or a couple hundred full-length feature movies. I'm talking about a terabyte: A thousand gigabytes. A million megabytes. Something like 8.589935e+012 bits. No matter how you envision it, a terabyte is a *lot* of disk space. <g> Normally, that kind of storage doesn't come cheap. For example,
Buffalo Technologies offers a NAS ("network attached storage:"
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=nas
) device with 1TB of storage that normally lists
for around $1,400. With careful shopping, you can find it for much less; as of
this writing, the current best price I can find on Froogle is $750. (It's
possible to find even lower prices from time to time in one-off sales such as
eBay auctions, but let's look at normal
retail channels for now.) This kind of NAS is more or less plug-and-play; but also is
focused on one function only--- adding storage. Best of all, you could work the ideas in that article many other ways, too. Few
of us need a full terabyte of storage right away, so you could start
with just one or two drives, and plan to add more later, as needed. You also
could start with a less-powerful base PC--- simple file sharing is not a
particularly CPU-intensive operation, and if using the new PC as a desktop unit
isn't an important factor, you could get a bundle based on a simpler,
less-powerful motherboard and CPU and save even more. That's the beauty of this approach: You can get exactly what you
want and need, and often save a significant amount of money in the process! A terabyte PC for $500: I did it; and so can you! Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- "When I placed my order for the Langa List
Plus version, I didn't see --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 2) Free Temperature Tools
MotherBoard Monitor was a great tool, and still is for those boards it supports. ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=MotherBoard+Monitor&as_sitesearch=langa.com ) But it's no longer current, so it's frozen in time, with the final release from two years ago: If your board is one it supports, and if you can figure it out on your own, it works fine. But if not... My current favorite alternative right now (I'm using it on a new laptop I got) is the Speedfan (donationware) at http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php . We've covered it previously in this newsletter, but it's evolved considerably. It started as a simple tool to help control fan speeds on laptops, but now also monitors all the temperatures reported by standard system sensors (most PCs and laptops today come with two or three thermal sensors built in, although many users don't realize it...). It also displays the SMART status ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=smart&as_sitesearch=langa.com ) of your drives. It also has a new feature--- the paint's not quite dry yet--- for sounding alarms and triggering events (e.g. emergency shutdown) if temps get too high. Speedfan looks like it's on it's way to becoming a first-tier monitoring/reporting tool. (If you like it, use the "donate" button on the developer's site to toss him a few bucks, OK? If you don't support the stuff you use, it eventually will go away.) For newer Intel boards, Intel offers the free "Intel Active Monitor" ( http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm ). It's more limited, and doesn't do much except show you the real-time thermal and electrical specs of your system. It can sound an alarm if things get out of hand, but can't trigger any protective actions on its own. Still, it's better than nothing. There are other tools out there too--- Google is your friend--- but the ones above are what I've come to use: MBM where I can, Speedfan in most other instances; with IAM as a last resort. Click to email this item to a
friend 3) Problems With Floppy Copy
Let me first suggest a different approach: If you lash up a tiny peer network (which may take no more than a "crossover" cable costing a few dollars), you can share the floppies, CDs and hard drives between the two machines, copying or running anything on one to the other machine. It'll also probably be a lot faster than funneling everything through the floppy. See http://www.google.com/search?q=peer+network+windows As for copying to CD, you'll need to make sure that the PC from which you're doing the copying is seeing and showing you all files, including hidden and system files. http://tinyurl.com/qvbb5 . (If you're only copying the non-hidden and non-system files, you may be leaving important stuff behind.) Also you might name each folder on the CD with the name of the floppy's software "label"--- the name of the floppy as recorded on the floppy itself, regardless of whatever's on any printed label). Some installation software looks for the correct label when it starts. Some older, floppy-based software may also employ copy-protection techniques designed to foil simple copying. Without getting off into a deep-geek tangent (yes, such copy protection can usually be bypassed), the simplest thing is again to share the floppy drive via a peer network and install the software that way. Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 4) Public PC Worries
There's nothing--- literally nothing--- you can do to make an open, public connection truly secure. For example, there are *hardware* based loggers and sniffers that are invisible to any OS or security software; they could be installed on the PC, and you'd have no way of knowing, or bypassing them. You also have no idea what's going on in the "back room" of the establishment offering the public PC. That said, yes, using a per-session OS that goes away when you do is much safer than using whatever's installed on the public PC already. But even there, if your copy of Linux creates directories/folders or temp files on the hard drive, you still may be leaving data behind. I hate to beat a dead, er, puppy, but this is one of the things I really like about the "Puppy Linux" I've mentioned a lot lately ( http://www.puppyos.com/ ) When you boot it from a flash drive, it sets up a RAM drive on the host PC, and copies itself into RAM. Nothing's written to the hard drive. (And separately, but also importantly, nothing's interactively written to the flash drive. This makes things much faster, and also increases the life of the flash device by not needlessly consuming the device's finite number of write cycles.) When you exit Puppy Linux, the contents of RAM are copied back to the flash drive, and nothing's left behind on the host PC. This approach doesn't prevent hardware-oriented sniffers and backroom shenanigans from snooping on you, but does eliminate the #1 problem with public PCs, which is data cached or otherwise left behind on the public system. The only way to be completely safe on a public PC is never to use it for anything private or personal--- enter no logins, no passwords, no personal info, etc. But if you *have* to use one for personal stuff, then booting to a temporary, per-session OS is better; and booting to something like Puppy Linux on a flash drive is better still. Click to email this item to a
friend 5) Change Menu Formats At Will
As a general rule, the trick to remember with almost everything in Windows is that you can make many adjustments via the "Properties," which are usually accessed via a right click. In this case, if I understand your question correctly, you're trying to modify the behavior of the Start button's menus. The Start button is on the Taskbar, so you right click on an empty spot on the Taskbar, and select Properties. That brings up the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" dialog. Because you want to adjust the Start menu, select the "Start Menu" tab. There, you'll see the choice of either the XP-style menu or the Classic style menu, as well as a button to make additional customizations, if you wish. Click to email this item to a
friend 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.) Click to email this item to a
friend 7) StopBadWare
Thanks, Jocelyn. As this site develops it may become important as a one-stop resource. Of course, you can get the same information via various anti-malware sites and through Google groups, but the information is sometimes scattered. If StopBadWare succeeds as central repository of malware info, it'd be a very good thing. Click to email this item to a
friend 8) Another Code Load Success StoryAfter his site was listed in the "Load The Code" section, Steve Henthorn,
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 ) Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At Cyberspace Virtual Services (AU) Computer Aid Lee Marshall Photos (UK) Computer Plus (UK) Oil paintings (US Western) Ten Mile Software Donarius Church Management Software Free Links Roll Offs East Valley Geeks Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 9) Feed Me! Feed Me Now!No, it's not Audrey, the carnivorous plant in Little Shop Of Horrors; it was ravenous software consuming a reader's CPU cycles and making his machine crawl. We covered possible causes and cures in "What's Eating His CPU Cycles" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-01-12.htm#3 ) and again in "More CPU-Hungry Software" http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-01-16.htm#7 . Here's more on what may be the culprit; and a nice (free) tool for further diagnosis:
Ooooo, that looks very suspicious indeed, Tom. I haven't used SpeedUpMyPC myself. (And I certainly won't now! <g>)
Nice Dan, thnx! Click to email this item to a
friend 10, 11, 12, 13) Plus! Edition Only:Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains 40% more content including:
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 about $1 per month! Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 14) Just For GrinsPsssst. They're watching. I can feel it. I'm sending this to you before it's too late. http://tinyurl.com/6valr (And BTW, some issues were missing the "Just for Grins" section last Monday. I'd say "fire the production crew," except that it's just me here. <g> It was entirely my error--- an errant cut-but-no-paste--- and I apologize. If you want to see the missing piece, it's: http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-03-27.htm#15 ) Click to email this item to a
friend (Give a gift subscription to
the LangaList Plus edition! The LangaList is published about 72 times a year, or about 6 times a month. See you next issue, 2006-04-03! Best, 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. UNSUBSCRIBE (instant removal!):
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