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THE
LANGALIST
8-Apr-98
A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
About BrowserTune,
HotSpots, Columns, Tips & Tricks, and Other Activities
THIS ISSUE:
- LANGALIST Returns
- Windows "Magic"
- Apple's iMac: Salvation or Sideshow?
- Win98 and Microsoft's Legal Woes
- An Award
- New Version of IE ("IE5") Out Soon
- Another IE4 Bug
- Don't Buy This Product!
- Over 1,000 New HotSpots!
- Much More!
HE'S BA-A-A-A-CK!
It's been a while since the last LANGALIST. I ran into a series of---now
solved!---technical problems. I was off in the weeds for a while, but I'm happy
to say the LIST is back on track.
If you're interested in the specifics of what went wrong---it is kind of
morbidly fascinating, the way a car crash or burning building is 8-)---I'll
include that info at the end of this email.
Please also note that I'm no longer mailing the HTML version of the List. You
can always get an HTML version of the latest LangaList in the What's New section
of http://www.langa.com; but the HTML email attachment is gone in an attempt to
streamline and simplify the mailing.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN WINDOWS "MAGIC?"
Arthur C. Clark's "third law" is, "Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic." I'd like to propose a
variation: "Any sufficiently obscure technology can be indistinguishable
from magic."
Here's an example: Sometimes, for no reason I can fathom, one or another of my
Dial-Up connections will cease functioning. Seemingly out of the blue, I'll
start getting "cannot negotiate a compatible set of protocols" error
messages. The modem will dial out fine, the connection will be made, but I just
plain won't be able to log onto the network.
Peeking inside the applet doesn't help. All the settings will be exactly as they
should be. Erasing the settings and re-entering them has no effect.
But one thing does work: I'll delete broken connection, and recreate it from
scratch with exactly the same settings as before. Guess what? Even though the
applet has exactly the same name and user settings, what was previously broken
now works: Magic.
Well, OK, not really. Chances are something got munged in the network software
plumbing; some bit got flipped or some invisible setting got altered in such a
way that user-level diddling couldn't detect or fix it. But deleting the
connection and rebuilding it---even thought it looked 100% identical from the
outside---set things right.
As I said: Magic.
Chances are many of you use some kind of "magic" fix when the gremlins
strike and rational fixes don't work. I'll tell you of some more
"magic" fixes, and I'd love to hear yours, too! Let's convene a
silicon coven and share our list of useful high-tech spells and
incantations...Watch for my column this week on the WinMag site---you can link
to it via http://content.techweb.com/winmag/.
GODSEND, OR TOO LITTLE/TOO LATE?
You probably heard and saw coverage of the newly announced iMac (see
http://www.apple.com/thinkdifferent/whoahw.html).
When it ships, the $1300 box will come reasonably well-equipped with a 233MHz
PowerPC G3 processor, 512K cache, 32MB of RAM, a 4GB hard drive, Mac OS 8.1, two
USB ports, an infrared port, keyboard, mouse, a 24x speed CD-ROM drive, a
built-in 15-inch monitor, a 33Kbps modem, and built-in stereo speakers.
It also looks very cool---it's not just another angular beige box.
A year ago, the iMac probably would have rocked the world and jump-started
Apple's sales. It would have reaffirmed the beliefs of the MacFaithful and won
new converts from the Wintel camp.
But in light of today's market, the iMac comes with a couple of big
"Gotchas!" that led me to think the iMac won't make much of a
difference in the long run. I wrote about the gotchas in my current CMPnet
column (http://www.langa.com/badlink.htm ) which runs through Tuesday (5/19).
The Mac fanatics are after my hide, and basically think I'm just Mac-bashing.
Some are claiming the iMac (at 233MHz) is faster than a 400MHz Pentium II (!),
and that it will be a huge success.
What about you? Please check out the column via the above link, and then join in
the very, very heated discussion!
WIN98 AND MICROSOFT'S LEGAL PROBLEMS
I have a special report on Win98 ready for all regular readers of the LANGALIST,
but I can't release it until I know whether there will be a Win98, or if it will
be the same one I've been using in beta. The legal mess looks like it will come
to a head this week, so I'm hoping to have the special Win98 coverage posted for
you next week. Stay tuned for the URL!
Meanwhile, I'll be hosting a discussion on Win98---and how Microsoft could have
gotten out of this mess---this week on CMPnet. Please stop by at
http://www.langa.com/badlink.htm starting this Wednesday (5/20) and join in the
discussion!
AWARDS
I'm happy to say the LANGALIST was named a top 5 pick by the eZines Database.
(see http://www.dominis.com/Zines/Top/1998/01/) Thanks to all who voted!
IE5 DUE SOON; NEW IE4 BUGS SURFACE
A beta, or prototype of IE5, should be out very, very soon. Meanwhile,
if you're using IE4, you should note that you can unknowingly break your browser
by installing new components. Unfortunately, many sites automatically stuff new
ActiveX components on your system as you surf, and any one of these can cause
parts of IE4 to stop working.
Fortunately the fix is easy, although geeky. Shut down IE4, then:
1.Click Start, and then click Run.
2.In the Open box, type the following line: regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
3.Click OK, and then click OK again when you receive the following message:
DllRegisterServer in actxprxy.dll succeeded.
4.Click Start, and then click Run.
5.In the Open box, type the following line: regsvr32 shdocvw.dll
6.Click OK, and then click OK again when you receive the following message:
DllRegisterServer in shdocvw.dll succeeded.
If this doesn't work, your best bet is to uninstall and reinstall IE4. This is a
major pain, but it's a sure way to correct all manner of subtle problems that
can crop up with the browser.
BTW, BrowserTune98 offers free tests for the overall "health" of any
browser. You can, for example, test for the most common symptom of a broken
browser---a malfunctioning "target" function---in less than a minute.
Click on over to HTTP://WWW.BROWSERTUNE.COM
and check it out!
AVOID THIS PRODUCT!
I'll write more on this later, but I had to warn you about this right
away.
I loved the 2GB parallel port Ditto tape drive, and still have one. The docs
were a bit weak, but I got it running with little trouble and use it regularly
for total system backups.
I was very interested when Iomega released to 10GB "Ditto Max
Professional', and sprung $300 for one.
I installed the hardware on four different machines and couldn't get it to work.
I tried Iomega's fax-back service three times, and never got even a single fax
sent back to me. I tried all their online docs, but they didn't help. Iomega's
tech support is $15 per call---and I refuse, on principle, to pay $15 for tech
phone support to solve a problem I *know* I did not cause through stupidity or
failure to follow the instructions.
I sent the internal unit back and exchanged it for an external, which I figured
would have fewer compatibility issues. No such luck.
The hardware seems fine, but the software is very funky, and the docs and tech
support are awful.
Even if the patient people at CDW take the hardware back, I'm still out $120 on
used, and now useless, tapes. Grrrr. Iomega's stock has been taking a beating
lately, and man, if my experience with the new Dittos is indicative, they really
deserve it. I'd recommend avoiding the new Ditto drives at all costs.
OVER 1,000 NEW HOTSPOTS!
I've been working through an incredible flood of HotSpots nominees
lately and have added over 1,000 new URLs in the form of formal HotSpots and
"Reader's Choice" picks. Earlier in the year, the quality of new sites
seems to dip--- maybe it was the holidays, maybe something else, but there
weren't a lot of stellar new sites. That's changed, and I've very glad to report
that the quality of sites is as high as ever! Come check 'em out at http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hotspots.htm.
OK, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE LANGALIST?
About a month ago, I went through one of the ugliest, most-painful and
embarrassing technical snafus of my life: I sent out a copy of the LANGALIST
normally, but somewhere on the net, a mail server or relay choked on several
addresses. The server bounced back whole chunks of the list in such a way that
the originating server then sent out those entire portions of the list
again---but with the bad addresses still inside. This causes a second bounce,
which caused a third, which... well, you get the idea. It was email Ping-Pong
with thousands of addresses in each bounce.
None of this happened on my PC. It was all out in cyberspace, totally beyond my
reach. Because I CC myself on all email I send out, I was getting flooded with
these bounce-mails, too. I tried to dissect the raw email headers to find out
where the bounces were originating. I worked with several helpful email gurus
around the web, but to little avail. Eventually, the bounces stopped, but not
before a significant number of readers received a significant number of
duplicate emails from me.
If you were one, I sincerely apologize. I detest spam, and have never sent an
unsolicited mass emailing. It was deeply embarrassing to have email from me
unintentionally filling people's mailboxes.
It was also painful. Although many readers assumed it was just a tech glitch,
some assumed I was somehow doing this deliberately. Even though the LANGALIST is
free, done on my own time and on my own dime, they assumed I was spamming them.
I got literally thousands of angry emails---it's a large mailing list--- that
typically began with began with sentences like "F**K YOU, you scummy
spammer!" I answered all the emails, and honored every request to be
removed from the mailing list.
I can smile about it now, but when you get a couple thousand emails like that,
it's a little hard to stay motivated to produce more free newsletters.
A few folks were upset enough to try to get my web host to pull my account;
others tried to get my ISP to shut me down. Two reported me to the InterNIC.
Sigh.
Fortunately, the ISP and web host folks getting these complaints realized what
was going on. Even if they had shut my accounts, it would have had no effect on
the bounces because they were happening out in web-land somewhere, and not on my
system or in anything I could control. Plus, you need only read the LIST to
realize it's not a get-rich-quick mailing or a sex-site come-on. 8-)
Anyway, I've changed software and procedures, and have done everything I can to
ensure that nothing on my end will cause further duplicates or bounces. But I
can't control what happens out of the web, and so all I can do is promise that
my part of it will work. If you did, or do, get duplicates, I sincerely
apologize.
One alternative I hope to avoid is to move the list to a professional list-host.
This would cost me a significant amount of money, so I'd have to charge a token
fee to recover my costs. I don't want to do this, so I'll keep trying the
totally free method... which is why you're getting this newsletter again. 8-)
A FAVOR?
If you're glad the LIST is back, could you ask a friend to sign up? The
only compensation I get for producing this letter is seeing the new subscriber
list grow and knowing that people want to read it. If you like the LIST, you
probably have a friend who does too---could you please forward this issue to
them, and suggest they sign up? It's free and easy--- and I'll thank you for it!
COMING UP
Exclusive Win98 Coverage just for LANGALIST subscribers
New brain-dead easy backup methods
Two Fabulous New Products
A FrontPage Bug
Test Driving a 400MHz Pentium II
Much, Much More!
See you next week!
Fred (fred@langa.com)
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. Please include your preferred email address in the body of the note, and if
you know what the incorrect addressing was, I'll be sure to manually weed out
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If you're receiving duplicates at different email addresses, just unsubscribe
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This newsletter is a free service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright (c) 1998
Langa Consulting LLC. All rights reserved.
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