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The
LangaList
Standard Edition
2003-05-05
A Free Email Newsletter from
Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware,
Software, and Time Online
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1) Getting the Right
Linux Footprint
For all its advances in other areas, the Linux setup
process has long been a major obstacle to the operating system's wider
acceptance. In fact, until quite recently, installing Linux was like a trip back
in time:
Forget graphical interfaces. All too often, a Linux install was and still is
either fully or mostly a text-based operation, although some of the screens
might be dressed up a bit with colored backgrounds or multicolored text. For
example, Slackware 9.0--- the most-current release of that popular Linux
distribution--- sets up entirely through myriad screens of DOS-style colored
text, like software from the mid-1980s. Primitive? You bet.
Forget auto-detection of hardware. Despite the fact that today's hardware is
capable of identifying itself fully and openly to any software that knows how to
ask, Linux still often requires that you know, in advance, the brands and
models--- and sometimes, even exact model numbers--- of the video card, network
card, audio card, (etc.) in your system. If you pick the wrong driver, you might
end up having to perform the entire installation over, from scratch. (In my
office, you can tell the Linux boxes: They're the ones with the hardware cheat
sheets taped to their sides, so I won't have to try to remember minutia such as
which subspecies of network card is in a particular PC.) Yes, many current Linux
distributions now at least take a shot at identifying your hardware, but the
installation routine often still will stop--- unsure of itself--- and ask for
confirmation that its guess was correct. For example, even the most recent
version of Red Hat--- 9.0, "Shrike," which otherwise has one of the
most-polished installation interfaces there is in the Linux world--- still does
this. Primitive? You bet.
There are other items, too, including this: In most standard Linux setups, one
of the earliest stages of installation is the repartitioning of the hard drive
and the fundamental altering of the way the system boots. This isn't a problem
in the sense of something being wrong--- almost all OSes want the hard drive
partitioned in the OSes native format--- but this step alone prevents many
potential Linux users from ever trying the OS because it puts the user's current
setup at risk.
We've covered some alternatives in recent issues--- Linux distributions that can
install into a working Windows setup without gumming up the works; complete
setups on single, self-activating CDs that likewise change nothing on the host
systems; and so on.
In fact, I've practically melted my cable modem to
slag, what with all the downloads I've been doing of various Linux
distributions, looking especially at "small footprint" (almost nothing copied to
the hard drive, no or minimal system changes) and "zero footprint" (nothing to
the hard drive, no system changes at all) options.
They're interesting in themselves, but they're also
important because these "zero/small footprint" Linuxes also have *great*
installation routines, some of which work with absolutely no user intervention
required at all.
When this becomes common in the Linux world--- when
you can just pop in a Linux setup CD and automatically have a working,
fully-configured system ready to run a few minutes later--- the last major
obstacle to Linux's wider acceptance will fall away, and we'll have a whole new
ballgame.
I've picked the top three small- and zero-footprint
Linux distributions from among all I've seen so far, and made them the focus of
a new InformationWeek column that's available now at
http://www.informationweek.com/938/langa.htm
. I'll go into those
three in some details, and also provide links to literally dozens of others you
can try--- all for free.
Come check it out!
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2) Failed Updates
Lots of readers have trouble with Windows Update---
either the site itself, or the process of updating from one version of Windows
to another. Here's one specific glitch (and a solution), plus additional links
that may help if you run into this or any of a wider range of Update problems:
Hi Fred, I had some problems with updates failing to install on my XP machine. I received help from a Microsoft Tech devoted only to the Windows Update site. He was able to help me. A recent visit to one of Microsoft's Community Forums revealed many others with the same difficulties....Darrin
-----
Hello Darrin, Thank you for contacting Microsoft Update Support.
Thank you for providing me the log files and updating me that the steps
provided did not help to install the updates, after viewing the log files and as
suggested by you the installation of updates fails as it gives a message to run
cryptographic service to run on your system.
This error message occurs when the Catroot2 folder on your system is corrupt.
Please follow the steps mentioned below to rename the Catroot2 folder
1. Close all open programs, including McAfee or other Anti-virus program.
2. Rename the C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 folder to
C:\Windows\System32\CR2OLD
by rightclicking on catroot2 and choosing rename. (If you have upgraded to
Windows XP from Windows 2000, the CATROOT2 folder should be located in C:\Winnt\System32
folder).
Now try installing the updates. Please let
me know if this works for you... Thank you, [support tech]
Thanks, Darrin. Actually, deleting or hiding the
Catroot files (catalog root) solves a number of problems, because it forces the
Update "wizard" to look at what's actually on your system, rather than what was
recorded (perhaps incorrectly) in the catalog.
More help, moving from the specific to the general:
"Catroot" issues:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Catroot
Discussion on 'Failed Windows Update Problems:"
http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/67/lev3/70/pid/615/qid/534059
Google searches on various "cryptographic" failure
messages:
http://tinyurl.com/ar4b
http://snurl.com/19n1
General Microsoft Knowledgebase search on "update
fail:"
http://tinyurl.com/ar4m or
http://snurl.com/19n2
General searches on update failures:
http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+update+fail
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3) Amazingly Tiny,
Free Bayesian Spam Filter
Hi Fred, Just to give you a quick heads-up on K9 by Robin Keir (
http://www.keir.net/k9.html ) . It has reached version 1.01 already and is very stable. It is a bayesian
(statistical) spam filter for the Windows platform. The installer can autoconfigure Outlook (Express) to work with the K9 proxy. And it is feature rich for such a small application. Also it's receiving a lot of praise in the news.grc.spam groups.
---Lourens
Astonishingly, the Zip version of the program is just
52KB--- that's right, kilobytes!! The version with a complete self-installation
program is just 88KB.
The site says:
K9 is an email filtering application that
works in conjunction with your regular POP3 email program and automatically
classifies incoming emails as spam (junk email) or non-spam without the need
for maintaining dozens of rules or constant updates to be downloaded. It uses
intelligent statistical analysis that can result in extremely high accuracy
over time.
K9 learns from it's mistakes and
becomes better and better at being able to identify spam. More importantly it
learns to recognize what you consider to be spam.
K9 is for standard POP3 email accounts
only. It does not support Hotmail, AOL or any other kind of webmail type
systems.
Definitely worth a look. Thanks, Lourens!
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4) Where To Put The
OS In 2-Drive PCs?
Fred: My question is, if one has two drives, one large and one small, which drive
is better to use in the primary position for an XP setup? ---Jacques Trudeau
Actually, for almost all OSes (not just XP) drive speed is more of an issue than
drive size, as long as the drive is large enough to hold your OS and main
applications. (I generally find 8GB is a good size for XP, Win2K and Linux; and
2GB for WinME/98.) In general, put the OS, your main apps, and the swap file, on
the faster drive.
If space is an issue, then set things up so that at
least the most-accessed files (minimally, the swap file, if nothing else) is on
the fastest drive you have. (The "swap file" may also be called a "paging file"
or "swap partition" or something similar, depending on the system you have.)
In the case where you have two drives of the same
speed, XP offers an interesting twist: You can get better performance out of XP
by splitting the swap file across the drives. It allows a limited form of
parallel processing in that data can be written to one swap file while being
read from the other, saving time.
It doesn't take anything fancy to do this: It's a
function built into XP, and you can set it up with a couple mouse clicks: See
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009
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5) Web Pages Not
Updating?
Hi Fred, My name is Raman and I am a big follower
of your literature. In fact I have tried to spread the LangaList mails to most
of my friends.
I have this peculiar problem with my web browsing,
I don't know whether it is because of the browser or something else.
On some of the websites especially newspaper ones,
I do not get the latest page. In fact some times it is 2 -3 days old page. No
matter how much I refresh the page it doesn't work. I have tried to delete
cookies, history, temp files, everything... Strangely if I [visit the same
sites] from office or cyber cafe there is absolutely no problem. Thanks &
Regards, Raman Bhushan
My guess is that your browser isn't seeking a new
page from the site, but--- even when you click "refresh"--- is simply displaying
the page stored in your local cache.
The usual fix is a two-step thing:
1) flush your browser cache and ensure the cache is a reasonable size
2) set the browser to check for a newer version of the page at every visit
The steps vary from browser to browser, but the
concepts are the same everywhere:
In Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and up, for example,
Click Tools/Internet Options, and on the General tab, click on Delete Files in
the “Temporary Internet Files” section. Then click on Settings,
and under "Check for newer versions of stored pages" select "Every Visit To The
Page." Below that, in the "Amount of disk space to use..." set the slider
to 10MB or less if you have cable, DSL, or any other kind of fast connection;
and 25MB or less for a slow connection.
On your way out of the dialogs, flush the cache again
(to ensure the new size takes effect), and you should be OK.
Other browsers use different nomenclatures, but the
idea's the same. For example, in Netscape 4 and up: Click
Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Cache, then click both “Clear Cache” buttons; you can
set the cache sizes from the same menus.
If you can't find the settings for your browser, try
the browser's help file; the info will be in there somewhere!
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6) Is This
Information Useful?
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 $10,000 for your trouble (full details also
available via this link):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182
Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any
item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more.
(Full details also available via this link):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm
Either way, thank you, and good luck!
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7) DVD Alphabet Soup
OK, there's DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+R,
DVD+RW, and maybe a couple more I'm forgetting. Confused? You're not alone!
But this reader has help to offer:
Dear Fred, I enjoyed reading your newsletters. I and a few of my friends
are very frustrated about types of DVD formats that can be used to play on set
top DVD players. I had to think of good keywords to search the right
information that I need to know by using Google.com search engine. The
keywords I used were types of DVD format. Here is what I found that I think
would be very useful to anyone wanting to know about DVD types, formats:
http://www.dvdirect.com/TSS/charts/DVDFormats.htm Take care, Bob Purvis
The whole DVD world is in major flux, reminiscent of
the early days of videotape when the VHS and Beta formats were duking it out---
only worse! Sites like the one above can help keep things straight until the
dust settles. Thanks Bob!
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8) WebRing For
Code-Loaders
Hi Fred, wanted to give you an update on my efforts
with the Unofficial LangaList WebRing.
I've been able to finally get a logo to load up
with the code of the WebRing, so it now shows Langa.com as part of the WebRing
display.
I've also gone through and eliminated any sites in
the WebRing that did not have the WebRing code loaded to display the banner.
For now, I have started to spot check pages
(manually, a tedious task), to make sure they have actually 'loaded the code',
which was the basic reason the Unofficial LangaList WebRing was created. As I
check each page, if they have not 'loaded the code', I email them and give
them a time frame in which to do so before they are dropped from the WebRing.
Sounds kind of strict, but in my mind frame that's
the only way a WebRing can function the way it is supposed to, and was meant
to.
Just wanted to give you an update, and let you know
the WebRing was still alive and kicking!
http://i.webring.com/hub?ring=thelangalistwebr;id=161;hub Keep up the
excellent work! ---Michael Kelley
Thanks, Michael.
Michael is actually the third person to manage the
LangaList webring. I haven't done it myself, due to lack of time, so it's always
been a volunteer thing, done by LangaList readers on their own. (That's why it's
"unofficial;" it's a reader-to-reader thing--- not something from me.) It *is* a
lot of work, and I thank Michael and those who went before him for taking on
this task.
Of course, the "official" Code-Loader site--- an
entirely separate thing--- is still at:
View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm
Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm
And the whole process is explained at
http://www.langa.com/code.htm
This issue's new pack of code-loader sites:
"Utterly Boring"
http://utterlyboring.com/blog/
Sort (Bates College Rock Band)
http://www.sortband.com/
TGIF
http://www.mnsi.net/~brucpatt/index.htm
ZenSquared
http://www.zensquared.com/
mdtnetwork
http://mdtnetwork.com/
Alaskan Site
http://www.cvinternet.net/~smokydog/
SLR Systems
http://www.slrsystems.com
"Has Your Snake Hugged You Today?"
http://www.reptilespectacular.com/index.html
Salle Rose
http://www.sallerose.com/
FACS Talk
http://www.facstalk.com/
Battle of the Bulge Veterans
http://home.att.net/~j.lepse/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html
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9) More Free Software for
All Your Needs
This is nice--- a reply from a reader who saw the recent items on freeware,
and who provided a link to his own excellent resource:
Fred: Excellent article (
http://www.informationweek.com/936/langa.htm ) , and some great choices. I wrote a similar article aimed at mature students who may not have particularly advanced computer skills, wanting to set up software appropriate for their studies and general computer use for one of my web sites at
http://www.rbcdl.org.uk/article/136.html
---David Chadderton, Manchester, England
Thank you, David!
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10) Just For Grins
Reader Jim Montgomery writes:
My son found this great [video].
Supposedly it is not animated. Almost everyone that I have shown it to has
watched it at least 4 times. You will need a good internet connection for it
to work.
http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/honda-ad.html Thanks for the newsletter.
Thank you, Jim. Indeed, it's an amazing clip, and all the
more so because it appears to be real--- shot on video or film, and not a
computer-generated illusion. It turns out to be a car ad (for Honda), but the
rest of the video is so amazing, I didn't mind when the sponsor was revealed.
I would have loved to have seen this first hand!
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Repeat Advertisers In The LangaList?
Many advertisers come back issue after issue
because advertising in the LangaList
is both EFFECTIVE and AFFORDABLE.
Give it a try for your product, service, web site
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and you'll like the results!
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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:
-
Tons Of Free
Spellcheckers
(add spell-checking to almost anything...)
-
Admin Tools Shortcuts
(save time accessing deeply buried items)
-
Free Windows Media
Player Alternative
(small, fast, free... )
DID YOU KNOW--- that Plus! subscribers
have access to additional special
features, extra content and links on a private web site? All that, plus 30% more
content in every issue, for just a dollar a month. Full
Plus! Edition info:
http://www.langa.com/plus.htm
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See you next issue!
Best,
Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )
Please
recommend
the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)
An easier-to read formatted HTML version is
available in the "Current Issue" section of
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(The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the
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