|
Please visit the LangaList Home Page Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date How To
Subscribe and Unsubscribe is at the end of this
note. Mailing List Trouble? See
http://langa.com/help.htm Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!) An easier-to read formatted
HTML version of this newsletter is available The
LangaList 2006-04-17 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- Free Computer Performance Scan! --------------( the above is an advertisement )--------------
1) XP's Little-known "Rebuild" CommandHave you ever run into a "Missing HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini,"
or "Windows could not start..." message? That was when I learned about XP's built-in "Rebuild" command. It often can easily fix "missing HAL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," "Windows could not start..." and similar problems in just a minute or two. I'm mentioning this now because of our recent coverage of disk swaps and other activities; which have caused a number of your fellow readers to run into exactly this kind of trouble. But even if you've escaped problems like this so far, it's worth knowing about because you can potentially save yourself hours and hours of manual reinstall/rebuilding of a failed OS if you ever *do* encounter this problem in the future. A full "rebuild" command how-to, including the full method and shortcut versions, is now posted, free, at: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301251 Click on over! Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- What's Wrong With Windows Programming Today? --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 2) Free "SiteAdvisor"
Boy, the world of online security moves fast! Leslie sent in that note less than two weeks ago, and in the time between that and when I started prepping it for publication, SiteAdvisor changed: It was bought out by McAfee! It's still there, and it's still free, although McAfee now refers to the base download as a "trial version." Still, it's an interesting idea, and if McAfee doesn't bog it down with needless extra features, or get rapacious about the basic features, it could be a good thing... Click to email this item to a
friend 3) Annual Report: Faisal Eko BudiayantoRemember Faisal, from Indonesia? He was the seventh of the 13 kids sponsored on an ongoing basis by LangaList Plus! subscribers.
You can read his full intro at http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-09-19.htm#3 and see an update here: http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-09-18.htm#5 Faisal's aid group is not highly communicative--- there's a steep language barrier, the village is very remote, and frankly, I'd rather they spend their time and money on improving the kids' lives instead of laboriously communicating to the sponsors. But still, over the last year, some info has dribbled in, and I'm happy to share it with you. Faisal's getting bigger, is still very camera shy, and likes to fly kites. <g> The mailings include Faisal's wonderfully goofy drawing of a sheep--- at least I think it's a sheep--- stats from the aid workers about Faisal's progress, and some photos, including a nice shot of Faisal arriving for school with his mother. Public Link:
Private
Plus Subscribers link: In that schoolday photo, their clothing (Faisal's barefoot), vegetation and such, let you infer a *lot* about their lives. It got me to thinking of what a photo of my wife or me--- or probably *you*--- would have looked like when we were bringing our kids to school. The differences are sobering. And that's really 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 ) Graham Greene once said, "There is always a moment in
childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...." If you're already a
LangaList Plus subscriber, thank you! You can feel good about giving back a
little to those less fortunate, and opening "a door to the future" for a child
in otherwise-desperate circumstances. or: give a gift subscription: Click to email this item to a
friend 4) Windows On New Or "Alien" Hardware
You're right in that the *hardware* parts of the Registry are indeed machine-specific. But your image backups probably would still work fine. Here's why: Let's say your hard drive died and you put a new drive in the PC, and then restored an image created from the original installation on the now-dead drive. Everything else in the PC is the same--- only the hard drive has changed. And that's usually not a huge deal because the overwhelming majority of hard drives use utterly-standard drivers that are built into Windows. So, the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of the restored version of Windows starting normally, without missing a beat. You *might* run into an inconsequential speedbump or two: If the new drive is very different from the now-dead one, Windows might run the "new hardware detected" process to set up the new drive, and then ask you to reboot once. On the other hand, if the drive is the same as or very close to the original drive, you may not even have this one-time reboot. You *might* also trigger Windows Product Activation, especially if you've made a number of hardware changes at the same time, or have made many smaller changes over the last half year or so. But Microsoft allows for this, and the re-Activation almost always goes through without a hitch. And if the hard drive change is the one and only change you've made to the PC in quite some time, WPA may not even ask for the reactivation at all. (I was one of those who worried aloud about WPA when it first came out, expecting it to be a major hassle. But I'm glad to say I was wrong about it: WPA is almost always just a minor inconvenience, at worst.) And you *might* run into the kind of easy-to-fix "missing hal" problem we discuss in item #1 in this issue. But usually, everything just works. Any hassles tend to be truly minor--- especially compared to rebuilding your OS from scratch! <g> Virginia specifically asked about replacing a drive, and that's what we covered, but the same applies even for wholesale OS moves: The more changes between the new PC and the one the image was created on, the more likely you are to run into the need to install new drivers, to let the "new hardware found" wizard work, and to re-Activate your software. But the image still will probably restore OK to the new hardware. Windows actually can do a pretty remarkable job of getting itself going on alien hardware--- far, far better than Linux or the Mac OS usually can do. That's one of the reasons why I'm OK with keeping my business records in Windows images, for example: I can take those CDs almost anywhere, and probably be able to get them going in fairly short order. To me, that kind of easy recovery, with near-universal hardware support, is key to having backups you can trust. Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 5) Undetectable Hardware-Based Malware?
Neither are we, Dennis. <g> *Could* that kind of thing be done? Well, maybe; especially if something nasty was inserted at the hardware level (say, in the BIOS) where it could operate "below" the operating system and normal software tools. But it would be very hard to do, and I doubt it would get very far, undetected. Yes, some number of systems could be sold or shipped, but the number would likely be tiny, percentage-wise, before the evil code came to light. It'd follow the same pattern as the original stealth adware, rootkits, and so on--- brief success, followed by exposure and then permanent protection. BTW, you don't have to go overseas for that kind of thing. Remember when I talked about the new Intel-based Apple Macs? I said the Mac OS would look for a special chip or circuitry and refuse to run on any non-Apple hardware, even if the hardware was otherwise identical. But the converse would not be true: Windows doesn't care much what hardware it's on--- it'll try to run on just about *anything*. Well, no big surprise, Apple's recent announcement of how its new Intel-based PCs can seamlessly run Windows was hailed by some as an example of wonderful Apple technology. But along with that came the other news: Apple is using DRM code--- digital rights management--- built into the Intel CPUs it's using to ensure that the Mac OS can only run on Apple hardware. It's a wholly arbitrary restriction: There is no technical reason whatsoever why Apple couldn't let its OS run on Gateways, or Dells, or whatnot. But Apple wants all the profits--- software *and* hardware--- for itself. So you don't have to look to evil governments to find examples of the use of low-level hardware trickery. It's happening right here, right now. Click to email this item to a
friend 6) PR Budget = $0.00Long-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? Full info and "Recommend" form: http://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thank you for helping to spread the word about the LangaList! Click to email this item to a
friend 7) Reader-Recommended Disk CatalogerIn "What's On Those Old CDs? ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-04-10.htm#3 ) we looked at some tools that could help you keep track of files, songs, photos, and whatnot stored in your CD collection. Here's another:
Thanks, Kevin! Click to email this item to a
friend 8) Code Load Success StoryAfter his site was listed in a "Load The Code" section, code-loader "Ace" wrote:
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 Blind Computer Instructor's Site Dutch site, mainly about MS Word Cruce Computer Consulting personal music site Multi Cross Trading System Prescott Pines Real Estate Ian Johnstone - Children's Singer / Songwriter Accelerated Office Corporation Spam, Scams and Outright Lies Mike Computer Home Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- Just pennies per issue! --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) Workaround For Public PC WorriesIn "Public PC Worries" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-03-30.htm#4 ), we discussed some of the problems and solutions to using vulnerable hotspot connections and/or public PCs such as those at internet cafes, coffeeshops, and the like. Here's another idea:
For those with a manageable contact list, it's an excellent idea, Charles--- a temporary, sacrificial account that doesn't need long term protection. Nice! Click to email this item to a
friend 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) Plus! Edition Only:Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains about 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 around just $1
per month! Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 15) Just For GrinsA recent article on "hex editors" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-02-16.htm#1 ) and counting generated quite a bit of mail--- a lot of which argued the pros and cons of whether we really start with "1" or "0" when we count. Actually "zero" is a fairly sophisticated concept, and is a newish thing in human thinking. Even the simple use of zero as a placeholder only goes back to the Babylonians; and the full-fledged use of zero *as a number* didn't really catch on until about 500AD (or 500CE, to be more politically correct). In other words, the use of zero as a number is a more or less modern thing; a very recent technical convention in the 6 or so million years of human evolution, rather than anything innate or "natural" inside us. We made up zero as a technical convenience. Not convinced? Well, as the Zen master might say: "Show me zero, grasshopper." You can't show something that isn't there. You can't show absence. Zero is an abstract idea. Still not convinced? Ever see parents start teaching their kids to count by first introducing the toddler to the concept of "zero fingers?" Nope, neither have I. C'mon! In daily life, we start counting with "one." <g> There were some other interesting emails sparked by the discussion on hex and counting, including this:
Nice, Steve, Thanks. Now, back to the zero thing: I'm off to rewrite a bunch of songs. "Zero as a placeholder, one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready..." "This old man; he played zero; to mathematicians, he was a hero... "On the zeroth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me; no-oo-oooo-thing...." 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, 2006-04-20! Best, 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. UNSUBSCRIBE (instant removal!):
http://langa.com/leave_langalist.htm This newsletter is SPAM PROOF and requires two levels of subscriber confirmation
before delivery begins: See
http://langa.com/info.htm |
|
Please visit the LangaList Home Page |