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Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date.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://www.langa.com/help.txt Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !) An easier-to
read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available on line at The LangaList 2000-09-28 A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred
Langa
1) Don't Wait Too Long To "Bullet-Proof" Your SystemSometimes, the dice just roll the wrong way. Consider what happened to reader Virginia Brown:
GoBack is a fine app, but as Virginia discovered, there are instances where it can't help, and alas, those instances are sometimes the very worst errors--- the ones you most need help recovering from. And that's what "drive imaging" can do for you: It gives you a bulletproof way to recover from any problem, no matter how severe. In fact, with the CDR option discussed in the article, even a total, catastrophic hard drive failure won't slow you down much: You can pop in a replacement hard drive and restore everything from your CD to the new drive in one step, and in a fraction of the time it would take you to do a manual format, install the os, tweak the os, install the apps, tweak the apps, etc. etc. etc. If you want--- or need!--- that kind of total security, then check out the article at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/20.htm ! Click to
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In "Scrub Your Hard Drive
Clean" ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/19.htm
), we discussed many, many file types to look for--- files that can silently
grow in size until they eat a truly huge chunk of your available drive space. Reader Bob Engle found one we
missed: Because of the response
to cleanup.bat & the amount of 'junk' files that its able to clean out (see http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm
), I thought I'd send you this info on another possible problem area: After running IE5 with
Outlook Express on my system for a few months I started to have a problem
constantly running out of drive space for no apparent reason. I was only able to
find the cause after doing a folder-by-folder inspection where I found that the
Pop3.log file in the Outlook Express folder was over 300MB! This happened
because my system is always running & logged-in and I have OE check for mail
every minute.... Many apps create log files: Open
Start/Find and look for files names *.log ; you may be surprised at what turns
up. Fortunately, most log files are relatively small. Some apps let you limit how large
a log file gets; others don't. Some log files are important in that they track
system and other changes, enabling uninstalls and "go back" type apps
to work. But many log files are there only there so that you can, if you choose,
see what a program did at some time. This can be useful as a troubleshooting
tool, but only to a point. In Bob's case, for example, if he
doesn't need to know his connection history going back to the beginning of time,
that particular log file is pretty useless. Because log files can be useful,
you want to use some care in whacking them: Open suspicious log files with (say)
NotePad and see what the file contains. If the file contains useless clutter,
make a backup of the file so you can put it back, if you need to, and then
delete it. Log files aren't likely to be a
major housecleaning item for you, but if you're like Bob, you just might find
another significant chunk of disk space you can free up! Click to
email this item to a friend Microsoft "MediaPlayer
7" has drawn mixed reviews, but I generally like it. Alas, it does contain an unusual
(and minor) security bug which malicious hackers could theoretically exploit to
crash some email readers. For this bug to be an issue,
someone would have to send you email formatted as an RTF ("rich text")
document, and embed a particular OCX/ActiveX control inside the RTF document.
Then, after viewing the email, the OCX could cause your mail app to crash. Yes, that's weird, and yes it's
not exactly a "stop the presses!" kind of bug. But still, a patch is
available, and it's worth downloading if you're using the otherwise pretty good
WMP7: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=24421 More info about the bug: Click to
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Today, what passes for radical
computer design is often literally no more than skin-deep, such as in the shape
or color of a computer's case.
Inside, in their silicon hearts,
today's computers all tend to use more or less the same materials in more or
less the same ways. Regardless of brand or model or chip type, they all use the
same conductors and semiconductors, the same fundamental logic gate designs, the
same electromagnetic principles, the same physical processes. Most of the PCs in
use today are direct, lineal descendants of the designs first hammered out in
the mid-1980s.
Recently, an MIT physicist named
Seth Lloyd performed a gedanken experiment--- a thought experiment--- to
determine what the absolute high end of computing might be, as determined not by
current technology, but by the actual physical laws of the universe as we know
them.
When he was done, he estimated
the theoretical maximum speed of a laptop-sized computer was about 10^39 times
faster than today's systems.
Ten to the thirty-ninth ... I
don't know about you, but I have a really hard time getting my frontal lobes
around a number like that. It's truly huge. For example, you can span distances
from less than the diameter of a single proton up to the size of the observable
universe in only about 36 orders of magnitude! (See http://www.alcyone.com/max/physics/orders/metre.html
)
Living in today's real world
where a meager 15 percent speed increase can be touted as
"revolutionary," I have a hard enough time imagining what a computer
just 10 or 100 or 1000 times faster -- a lousy three orders of magnitude
(10^3)--- might be like. But 39 orders? My imagination fails me.
My column at Byte.Com this month
explains and explores the rest of that gedanken experiment, and looks at
for-real work in exotic computing materials, configurations, and designs at
places like MIT and the IBM research labs.
This stuff--- including
"quantum computing" and computers that process information with beams
of light--- isn't fantasy, but is being built and demonstrated in labs today:
Some of it almost surely will be the basis of the *next* computing revolution. It was fascinating to research,
and I think you'll find it interesting to read. Check it out at http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000920S0001
! Click to
email this item to a friend It's taken a while, but local
consumer-protection and law-enforcement local agencies are beginning to enter
the digital world. For example, LangaList reader (and police sergeant) Danny
Farrell writes: Dear Fred: Let me begin
by saying how much I enjoy your newsletter. I have found the information
provided by you and your readers very helpful in many cases. Next, let me offer
a tidbit of info for you and your readers who may not be aware of it. As a
police officer and resident PC enthusiast I recently registered my department as
a cooperating agency with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. It is a joint
venture between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. Anyone who
feels they may be a victim of internet fraud may file a compliant with them and
they will open an investigation and forward the information to the responsible
local police agency if that department is registered with their office. The site
can be visited at http://www.ifccfbi.gov/
. Your readers may also contact their local police department to inquire if they
are a registered agency. Excellent, Danny, thanks. Also here in the US, the Better
Business Bureau has a national-level site where you can check out a company,
have disputes resolved, and file complaints: http://bbb.org/ With online commerce burgeoning,
sites like these are very, very good to know about! Click to
email this item to a friend On Sept 30, I'll choose THREE
winners of copies of "Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing: Creating
Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communications
Tools." This book has been described as "An excellent, straightforward
manual on email publishing, banner ads, driving traffic and especially
ethics." It normally retails for $30. To have a shot at winning, just
use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just
may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber;
and you just may win a book! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 The more times you make a
recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning! Or, if you'd like to try to win
$10,000(!), try this link (full details also available here): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Either way, thank you, and good
luck! Click to
email this item to a friend Reader Michael D. Lawler (who
works as a support tech at GW Micro) found a cool--- and free--- utility: Fred: check out resman
from http://www.entechtaiwan.com
. This program is a great tray-based process killer for when control-alt-delete
doesn't work. It also lists your system resources and allows you to free RAM
like you describe with rampage when you feel that you need to do so. Nice, Michael. It's sort of a
combination of Resource Meter, a Task-Killer, and RamPage all in one. Thanks! Click to
email this item to a friend Hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of sites now have "Loaded The Code." Do you have a home page
or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click on over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm,
and maybe you can join the growing crowd! And check out http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm,
which is a permanent repository for "code loader" pages. It's kinda
fun to see what your fellow readers are up to! There's even a "Reader Site
Roulette" link that shows you a new Reader Site with every click! Speaking of which: Here's another
eclectic selection of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal: Click to
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Reader Terry Widner is a beta
tester for a new browser that has a kind of nannyware built-in to keep kids from
poking into some of the web's nastier corners: Fred ~ There is a new
kid's internet browser (beta) that is already available for Mac and shortly will
be available for PC. (This week). The company name is Heartsoft and the browser
is named 'Internet Safari'. The browser supposedly
blocks porn not only through words and phrases (and sites) but claims are being
made that they can block sites using a (patent pending) software using
mathematical formula for Image Recognition. I have signed on as a beta tester
for the PC version.... http://www.heartsoft.com/
and http://www.internet-safari.com/is_beta_step1.html Most nannyware parses the
language of web pages and the code and links underlying the pages; it checks the
words against a list of offensive terms, and blocks pages or links (including
links to images) that contain those words. I'm not sure how browser software can
interpret the actual contents of images (that would require an astonishing
level of pattern-recognition). And unfortunately the web site doesn't give any
details. But even a linguistic-based
built-in nannyware app could be useful for young surfers. Thanks for the tip,
Terry! Click to
email this item to a friend A thousand years ago, I used to
be a long-distance runner. I was never particularly fast, but I could and did
run for considerable distances. In those prehistoric times, running shoes
weren't common, so I wore tennis or basketball shoes---"sneakers."
Because of that and because most of my running was on paved surfaces, the end
result was that I pounded the life out of my knees. My running today is limited to
treadmills, where the combination of good running shoes and a shock-absorbing
running surface mean I can exercise without my knees feeling like they need to
be oiled. <g> But reader (and frequent writer)
R. Dan Park had an even better idea, which he sent along last week: Physical exercise is
good for you. I know that I should do it daily, but my body doesn't want me to
do too much, so I have worked out this program of strenuous activities that do
not require physical exercise. You are invited to use my program without charge. 1) Beating around the
bush Whew! What a workout! I think
I'll exercise my caution now, and sit down. <g> Click to
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LangaList has grown by over 50,000 new subscribers so far this year! See you next issue! Best, Please recommend
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Abbreviated version: The tips and other information given in the newsletter are
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