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(This is an HTML version of the LangaList. The
content is identical The LangaList A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa About BrowserTune, HotSpots, Columns, Tips&Tricks, and Other Activities 29-Mar-98 Back Online (Take
2...) Final kicker: In leaving the city, I was rear-ended by a maniac cab driver. Although the cab skidded into me with locked brakes and burning rubber, it had managed to dissipate enough energy prior to impact so my bumper could absorb the blow without damage---except for some canary yellow paint embedded in the plastic as a permanent souvenir of the city. Grrrrr. Anyway, I'm back now, and the publication schedule should settle down. A Trick and a Tweak Here's how: Click on Control Panel/System/Performance/File System, and select Network Server from the pull-down box. But last week reader Dennis Deveaux reminded the WinMag BBS participants of a bug in the early versions of Win95 that prevented it from making proper use of the "NetWork Server" setting. Dennis said:
Thanks, Dennis! Spring (PC) Cleaning
Well, I'm not sure how pleasant a person I am, but I'm pleased to be working with Larry on this chat. Larry's a nationally syndicated columnist and has made a name for himself as a passionate spokesman for the end user. (And here's a secret: He's actually the nice guy. 8-) ) Please join Larry and me next Thursday! By the time the discussion ended, those numbers held up pretty well---except for some important caveats. For example, some PCs aren’t well-equipped to make use of RAM in amounts higher than 64MB. Mostly, these systems with "Socket 7" type Pentium (not Pentium II) motherboards using the Intel Fx, Vx or Tx chipset. While these systems can use RAM in amounts greater than 64MB, they do so inefficiently, sometimes incurring as much as a 20% speed drop going from 64 to 128MB of RAM! Other chipsets don’t have this limitation. The Intel Hx chipset works fine with large amounts of RAM, for example. So do the VIA ApolloVP2 or VP3 chipsets. A great source of info on chipsets that can help you identify the capabilities of what’s in your system is Tom’s Hardware Guide, at http://www.sysdoc.pair.com/. There were several other interesting and very useful items in that discussion too---so much so that I felt it deserved expanded coverage. Watch for my print column in the June issue of WinMag for the full story!
Weeeellllll, we burned through the first three gigs in six days! I think it was a combination of factors that led to the huge increase in usage: BT98 came out of beta, so many readers who are uncomfortable with beta versions had held off trying BT98; and the new server (because it also isn't hosting the busy WinMag files) is usually much faster, and that made the tests easier to run. The one time the new server isn't faster is at peak activity: with tens of thousands of tests being run, some users would get timeouts (which they'd see as a "file not found," even though the file was there). So this weekend, I split the site: now, the HTML is served from one server, and all the static graphics are hosted on a completely separate server. It should be transparent to users---except that things should move along faster than ever. Check it out! Also, next week, I'll begin formally spec-ing out BT97a---adding new and expanded tests to keep BT98 current. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em!
Large and small, targeted and general, commercial and free, fast and slow, it’s almost reached the point where you need a search engine to find the best search engine. I like Alta Vista because I’ve found its "spiders" seem to get to the sites I most often look for. Some other sites use different indexers, and sometime come up dry when Alta Vista delivers. On the other hand, the volume of the information Alta Vista delivers is, um, kind of overwhelming at times. But that’s just one guy’s opinion. As we’ve in the past, let’s pool our knowledge so we can make use of the enormous collective experience here. What’s your favorite search engine, and why? What’s your least favorite, and why? Do you use any specialized engines? Any for-pay engines? And perhaps the most fun---do you use any special tricks or tips on wringing the most from search engines? Join in this week's WinMag column on Search Engines, which will be live Monday, Mar 30 around noon Eastern time, (that's 1700 GMT, for our readers outside North America). Please check the WinMag home page (http://content.techweb.com/winmag//) for the link to the column as of about noon on Monday. Win98 vs NT There are times when a "business" operating system just isn't right for business. Maybe this is one of them. It's not something that Microsoft likes to talk about, but its business-oriented operating system, Windows NT, just isn't the best fit for many companies. Windows 98 could be better. I think Win 98 will meet the needs of most mainstream business computing much better than NT. I'll even make a prediction: A year from now, there'll be more businesses running the "consumer" OS, Win 98, than there will be running the "business" OS, NT. Join in my current CMPnet discussion on Win98 vs NT at http://www.langa.com/badlink.htm. The CMPnet column changes every Wednesday; this Wednesday, April 1st, I'll tell you about three little-known (and revolutionary) products Microsoft plans to ship in about 2 years. Check it out! Updating Windows Without A Prior Setup Disk If you have a Windows Update CD, it will ask you for "Disk 1" or a setup disk from a prior version of Windows every time you use the CD to install or reinstall Windows. It gets to be a pain. If you are legitimately using the upgrade---that is, if you really do have a prior version---you can bypass the "show me the old disk" step by creating a file called "WIN.CN_" in your C:\ directory. It doesn't matter what's in the file; you can even create an empty file with Notepad and just name it WIN.CN_. Then when you run your upgrade CD, tell it to look for the previous version in C:\; it should happily proceed with the install. From Bangkok... Reader Charnchon Lavitrangsima writes from Bangkok to tell us about a competitor to www.webhostlist.com, the service I've often cited as an excellent way to search out and compare companies who offer to host your web site. Charnchon manages a site called "HostSearch", which allows visitors to use a variety of criteria such as price, disk space requirement, location of a server, and add-on features to search for web hosting providers. It's online at http://www.hostsearch.com Thanks, Charnchon!And Speaking of our International Readers... Check out this analysis of the domain names of the people visiting BrowserTune and Hotspots in just the first week on its new server: Most of the developed world is represented in this rank-ordered list! USA See you next week! Fred A live web version of this note is online in the "what's new" section of http://www.langa.com. Why are you getting this newsletter? My
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