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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2005-07-28

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) Audio Tools And Tips Galore!

Hello Fred, I have been using MP3s since the beginning. My MP3 music collection now has 9558 songs. The vast majority of them are ripped at 320 Kbps. At 320 Kbps rate, the music from the CD is ripped at Lab quality. There are various CODECs available for encoding MP3s. There are also even more opinions about which one is the best. I have been using Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (advanced) for a long time. Some others are Ogg Vorbis, Lame and Xing.To me what makes more difference in the quality of the MP3 is the sampling rate. At 128 Kbps the music sounds like AM radio, if using the Fraunhofer IIS CODEC. At 160 Kbps the quality improves. The rate can be as low as 8 Kbps and up to 320 Kbps. 160 is good, 192 is better, and 224 is almost indistinguishable from the original. 256 is considered Studio quality. The down side to this is that the higher the bit rate, the larger the MP3 file size will be. Of course the file size is also affected by whether you are using "Fixed" or "Variable Bit Rate" Encoding. 

The reason I have so many MP3s, is that I have Ripped my entire music library of Music CDs. By the way, "Ripping" is the process of taking the wave audio that is on the CD, and converting it into an MP3. Since I spend a lot of time at my PCs, which are networked, I can listen to any of my songs at will. Also, I spend a lot of time driving. So I installed an after market receiver into my car that includes a CD player. It accepts CD-R/RW and plays MP3s. This is my favorite part. A music CD with wave music, such as one you buy at a store, will have only maybe a dozen songs on it. A CD-R burned with MP3s, even at 320 Kbps, can hold around 80 songs. I have 48 MP3 CD-Rs in my car that I burned. That is over 3000 songs. Broadcast FM radio has become so boring, commercialized, mass market, conglomerate owned, that I have come to dislike it very much. I used to have a Short Wave radio in my car, so I could listen to Radio Netherlands, BBC, VOA, The Peoples Republic of Free China, and others. It was great. Now with my MP3s, I can listen to my favorite music. And with over 3000 songs, it takes awhile to hear a repeat. And, Audio Books are available in MP3! Two of my nieces have published some great stories for audio books, much like old time radio shows. Remember Orson Wells?

Now to answer the main question that was raised, about burning. For some years, I have been using MusicMatch Jukebox. It is available in a free version and a Plus version for $20.00. I have used both and they are excellent. The free version is ad and spyware free. It is just stripped down and slower than the Plus version. With MMJB you can rip your music CD collection and also burn your MP3s to CD-Rs. It works with no problems. MMJB is currently at version 10. I like version 9.X better. Another excellent feature of MMJB is its database function. With my large library of MP3s, it is essential to me. Check out http://www.musicmatch.com . I have also been using Nero 6 Ultra for a long time. It will burn CD-R/RWs and DVDs with out a hiccup. It also will rip, make Video CDs/DVDs, edit audio, and much more.

One more item that makes a big difference in ripping capabilities and quality is the CD/DVD drive used. Different brands and models have different features and capabilities that go way beyond burn speed. Such as "Burn Proof". Being able to read sub channels, handle CDs and DVDs with copy protection, etc. Ever hear of coasters. The quality of the blank, the software used to burn and the drive used to burn are the key.

I have used Plextor burners for years. Plextor makes full featured, full capability, rock solid hardware. There are various web sites devoted to ripping and burning. They have spent many hours testing different brands and models of burners with different software. Charts are available showing the test results. Plextor is one of the top for compatibility. ---Garrett Stevens

Nice, Garrett--- *lots* of info!

Picking up on just one of your points: Bitrates do indeed make a huge difference, and that's one of the things you have to watch for when you read about some compression format sounding better than another. If the bitrates are different, it's an apples/oranges comparison, and is meaningless. For any audio comparisons to be fair, both compression formats (eg MP3 and WMA) must be at the same bitrate. Then, and only then, can you meaningfully compare audio quality and file sizes.

Some of your readers might be interested in comparing the sound quality of mp3 vs. wma files. Microsoft (biased? never!) makes it convenient at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/demos/audio_quality_demos.aspx#
Regards, David Schreiber

Thanks, David! Windows Media compression for both video and audio is actually pretty good stuff, offering high quality with very small file sizes... even if it is from the Great Redmondian Evil that everyone loves to hate. <g>

There's an additional treasure-trove of real-world information on MP3s waiting for you (free!) at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166401664 . Come check it out!

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

"Hi Fred, I was receiving your free newsletter for a while and
subscribed to the Plus! edition with a few reservations. After a few
weeks however, I think it would be cheap at twice the price. The
newsletter is great! I have recommended it to a few of my less computer
literate friends and they have told me that they are learning things at
a prodigious rate. I find your hints and links invaluable and await each
issue. Please keep up the good work. --- Tom Sobieski"

Only about $1/month--- pennies an issue!

Get all the details:
http://langa.com/plus.htm

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2) Password Generator: Caution!

In the langalist I read "Looks strong but don't be fooled"( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-06-23.htm#1 ) about passwords not being as safe these days. have you ever seen or heard any reviews on
http://www.goodpassword.com  I have this site as a favourite and thought this could be very helpful ---leomccarron

Thanks, Leo. The passwords generated there *look* OK, but there are questions. You can't tell what mechanism they're using to produce them, for instance. Is it truly random, or might someone else get the same or nearly-the-same passwords when they use the tool? Does the site keep an internal record of the passwords generated, and the IP addresses that asked for those passwords? (It wouldn't be hard to do that.) And so on...

The site might be perfectly fine, but with so many unanswerable questions, I'd prefer to stick with a local tool whose operation I understand a little better.

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3) A Year's Worth Of Updates on Derlan

Remember Derlan? He was one of the very first of the now-dozen kids supported each and every month through the LangaList Plus subscription fund. Derlan lives in a farming community in Brazil. The per-capita family income is less than US$50.00 per month.

You can catch up with Derlan's past communications, photos, and drawings via the links here: http://langa.com/plus2.htm#kids

Now, for an update: With a dozen kids being supported by the Plus! subscriptions, I thought it would be easier to keep track of what's happening with each kid by focusing on one each month; gathering all the correspondence from the previous 12 months and presenting it all at once, rather than dribbling it out in the scattershot and irregular fashion in which the mail arrives.

The latest batch for Derlan includes school and health reports (bad and good, respectively), a photo (he's getting big!), a crayon drawing that shows some talent, and additional info:

Public Site:
http://www.freetune.com/kids/derlan/derlan_200507.htm

Private Plus Subscribers Site:
http://www.langalist.com/Plus/kids/derlan/derlan_200507.asp

What's this all about? Very simply this: 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 )

Derlan is one of 12 kids sponsored on an ongoing basis (via an international relief agency) by the collective generosity of LangaList Plus! subscribers; Plus! subscribers also have collectively contributed to emergency tsunami and earthquake relief efforts and to funds to assist those hurt in terrorist attacks. (To see the donations so far, click to http://langa.com/plus2.htm#kids )

As the year goes on, and as more readers sign up for Plus! subscriptions, I hope we'll be able to sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world.

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.

If you're not yet a Plus! subscriber check it out: With a Plus! subscription, for about a dollar a month you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online with expanded content and no advertising--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Derlan) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help!

http://langa.com/plus.htm

or give a GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to the Plus edition:
http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm

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4) Wait A Bit With The New ZoneAlarm

Hi Fred,  Just FYI the latest ZoneAlarm Security Suite is out, and includes a new "OS Firewall:" 
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2005/pr_10.html  ---Marcus

Thanks, Marcus. It's been in the works for a while; I got a beta version some time ago. My main concern with this and similar tools that are getting more and more complex is the possibility--- maybe even probability--- of negative interactions between different tools as each tries to carry out a similar function. Colloquially, we've referred to that as security tools "stepping on each other's toes."

As a result, I suggest waiting a bit when the new ZoneAlarm is offered (some users are getting the update notices right now...). The pre-update version is fine, and works well--- there's no urgent need to upgrade. Let other braver or risk-loving souls take the plunge, and watch for feedback. Once the new tool has been installed on a couple million systems (it won't take long) we'll *know* if there are problems with the new ZoneAlarm tool conflicting with, say, Norton or Sygate or AntiSpyWare or other tools. My guess is that some conflicts are almost inevitable; but I also think the folks at Zonelabs will get things fixed pretty fast. So, a few weeks or a month or two after release, the new ZA tools should be stable and ironed out enough to be fine.

As this is not a minor upgrade of the current ZA, but something far more complex, I *strongly* urge you not to jump in headfirst as soon as the new version is out. Let others see if the water's safe, and when it is, *then* dive in. <g>

(OTOH, if you're an experienced user with a stable, well-backed-up system, and decide to take the plunge early, drop me a line and tell us what your experiences were. Please put "Zonealarm" in the email's subject line. Thanks!)

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5) MS vs Google

Speaking of Google Maps and Microsoft's Terraserver ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-04-11.htm#7 ), Microsoft is preparing MSN Virtual Earth for launch this month at: http://www.virtualearth.com/

I saw a demo in San Diego a short time ago (and it did not crash!). It uses the Terraserver data and MapPoint technology much like Google Maps, but adds a number of nice features (overlay street names onto the satellite/bird's eye photos, 45 degree side-view, etc.) The mapping race is on between Google and Microsoft, and the winner will be....us!

There is a video interview of the MS Virtual Earth developer team and the demo at:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=71140
---Irv Yokoyama

Competition *is* a good thing, Irv. They're competing in other areas too, including in their respective search engines. This one will be fun to watch, and useful too!

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6) PR Budget = $0.00

Long-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.

May I ask you a favor? 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?

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information and you just may win one of three FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Plus! Edition that I award each month.

Full info and "Recommend" form: http://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thank you for helping to spread the word about the LangaList!

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7) Reader Find Gigs Of Wasted Space

Fred, Thanks for the great info every week!  With the talk about imaging hard disks, I thought this may be helpful to reduce the image size, and don't remember reading about it here. I use Ghost to create images, and noticed over time that the images were increasing in size by several Gigabytes.  Using diskuse.exe to get the size of directories, I noticed that there were Gigabytes of space being used by the "System Volume Information" directory. If you try to go into this directory you get an "Access is denied" error message. This directory is used to store the system restore information, which can accumulate and become quite large. The size setting is in "System Properties" under "System Restore", select the drive and then set the limits on it. To clean out what is already there, you need to use disk cleanup. Right click the drive in explorer, select Disk Cleanup.  The dialog box will come up and start scanning the disk, this can take some time. When it completes it will list areas where files can be compressed or deleted to save space. Go to the "More Options" tab at the top and then select Clean up? under the System Restore section at the bottom. It will prompt you with the "Are you sure ", select yes. Click OK and it will cleanup the selected items and clean out the system restore area. This cleared several GB on the images that I work with. ---Greg Schley

Thanks, Greg. Some additional, related ideas:

First, you can control System Restore's appetite directly, too. See "Maximizing 'System Restore' In WinME and WinXP" ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020711S0009 )

Second, Disk Cleanup in XP and Win2K actually has many options that can be set and saved to make it do much more than the default settings. Further, it can be automated through use of the "sageset" and "sagerun" commands. It's all explained here: http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-04-04.htm#2

Third: many other cleanup tasks and likewise be automated: "Make Windows XP Self-Maintaining" http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=15600170

And fourth, using a disk-usage tool can be very handy. DiskUse is described here: http://www.google.com/search?q=diskuse%2Eexe  I personally like the "cushionmap" views produced by the free, excellent SequoiaView ( http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ ); and there are many other good tools available, too.

Almost every system has at least some wasted space on it, and some may contain literally tens of gigabytes that can be recovered with minimal effort. It's surely worth taking a quick look!

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8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming...

Well over three thousand of your fellow readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (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 )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

dce software
http://www.dcesoftware.com/

Rick Henkel
http://rickhenkel.gomain.org/

5 O'Clock Somewhere
http://katebaumgartner.blogspot.com/

Shadowed Palm Gold & Gems
http://www.palmgoldandgems.com/

Pool Removal
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ephil.detweiler/PoolDemolition.html

Venneberg Family
http://venneberg.com/usa/family/display.htm

Complete Seniors
http://www.completeseniors.com/technology.html

Across-the-Board
http://acrosstheboard.blogspot.com/

Freebies and More
http://tinyurl.com/csdrz

Panama Jim
http://www.panamajim.com/

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9) Laptop Drags Its Heels

Hi Fred: I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop which has 256mb RAM and has a 1Ghz CPU. It runs very slowly and I think it might be because I run the usual spyware, antivirus, firewall etc software. Besides these background applications, I use the laptop for simple Office work etc word, excel. I was wondering if it was worthwhile to upgrade the memory to 512mb for a cost of AUD217.80 or am I just wasting my money? Thank you. Regards, Soon

Well, you're really asking three questions: Is it worthwhile to upgrade the RAM; is the price you quote reasonable for the upgrade; and will RAM solve the slowness problem?

You don't mention your OS. I think 256MB is more than ample for Win9x and ME, and adequate for XP; but XP is happier with 512MB and up. I have 2GB in my desktop system, for example, and it pays off when I'm maximally multitasking with large files open; and using tools like Virtual PC. ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=virtual+pc&as_sitesearch=langa.com)

But RAM uses energy and generates heat, so I generally don't max out my laptops with the most RAM they can hold; instead opting for an amount that gives good performance without killing battery life or cooking my thighs too much. <g> My Dell laptop has 512MB, and it operates fine.

How much is an extra 256MB laptop RAM module worth? I just checked LangaList advertiser Crucial (where I buy my RAM: http://langa.com/sponsors/crucial.htm ), and they have a guaranteed-compatible 256MB module for a Dell Inspiron 8100 for US$64, which currently is equivalent to AU$78. So a price of AU$217 is slightly nuts--- you surely can do better than that. There are many other dealers, too, if you don't like Crucial for some reason.

Will the extra RAM, by itself, resolve your issue with speed? Maybe, but there are many other issues that also could be slowing things down. Depending on your power settings and thermal controls, your CPU may be "stuck in low gear," for example; or a cluttered hard drive may be making disk accesses a bottleneck. See item #7, above, for help with the latter, and try a site like http://PCpitstop.Com to test your machine's performance and compare it to others in the same class. That way, you'll *know* if you're getting the speed you should.

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10) Just For Grins

Now, this is amazing to me... 
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,67695,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
Almost as amazing: that there's an "IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium," and that the professor in the story initially tried to develop a slugbot! ---John Cosgrove

Thanks, John! I guess, if you can't get the bugs out of the computer, you put the computer into the bugs... <g>

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 40% more content including:

• New Version Of Archives En Route
     (Coming soon: all the LangaLists ever published, at your fingertips!)
• Finagling Around "Private File" Blocks
     (less secure than you may think...)
• Active Mail Forging Prevention
     (free tool/technique gains support)
• Plus! Edition Extra: Too Many Browser Security Prompts?
     (control unnecessary browser warnings)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose? Check out the details: http://langa.com/plus.htm

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

The LangaList is published about 72 times a year, or about 6 times a month. See you next issue, 2005-08-01!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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.

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This newsletter is a service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 2005 Fred Langa / Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

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