Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairmans Industry Comments (09/04)
The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org
TRIP FUEL COST CALCULATOR. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has a Web page that estimates how much it costs to drive from one city to the next. Enter your starting city, destination and your car's year, make and model. If your make and model isn't listed, you can enter your car's average miles per gallon. The distance, fuel consumption and price of fuel are estimated. It can't give an exact number but it's great to use for a budget.http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/
WHAT'S YOUR CAR WORTH? A visit to nada.com will tell you. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) publishes appraisal guides for automobiles, motorcycles and boats. Its Web site lets you instantly appraise your used vehicle. Enter the year, make, model and mileage. You can search for new and used vehicles in your area. Reviews and ratings for new and used vehicles are provided as well.
DOUBLE LAYER DVD. The latest thing on the DVD scene is double layer disks that can record a whopping 8.5 Gigabytes on a single disk. Unfortunately, their maximum record speed currently is only 2.4X and they are not universally compatible with standard DVD players. The technology will undoubtedly improve in time, but for the meanwhile you would be best waiting on this one.
FREE DIGITAL PHOTO SOFTWARE. If you have digital images, you should try out Picasa. It allows you to edit, organize and share photos. It scans your computer for all of your digital images. Add keywords to each picture to help organize them. Edit your pictures by cropping, removing red-eye and enhancing the color and contrast. You can print or e-mail directly from the program. Previously, you had to pay for this software but it was recently bought by Google and is now offered free. Get it at www.picasa.com/google/
CONTROL YOUR STARTUP PROGRAMS. StartupRun is a free utility that displays the list of all applications that are loaded automatically when Windows boots. For each application, additional information is displayed (Product Name, File Version, Description, and Company Name), in order to allow you to easily identify the applications that are loaded at Windows startup. If StartupRun identifies a spyware or adware program that runs at startup, it automatically paints it in pink color. In addition, you are allowed to Edit, disable, enable and delete the selected startup entries. You can also save the list of startup items into a text or html files, and even add a new startup entry to the Registry. http://nirsoft.mirrorz.com/
LOWERMYBILLS.COM is an interesting site to visit for suggestions on finding the lowest cost providers of insurance, internet service, credit cards, mortgages, cellular phone service, auto insurance and a host of other common expenditures.
LISTEN TO KIM KOMANDO. Every weekend, from coast-to-coast, you can hear Kim Komando, America's most informative radio show on computers, on over 400 radio stations. Don't forget to tune in on Saturdays. You can call in to join the live broadcast! The call is toll-free, 1-888-825-5254. And in case you're new, use a handy-dandy map to find her on a fine radio station near you. http://www.komando.com/findkimonair.asp
FIND A PET. It is amazing how a pet can contribute to your quality of life. They offer abundant quantities of love, loyalty and companionship and ask for little other than modest care in return. Petfinder.org lists pets available for adoption by shelters. Search by pet, breed, size and gender. Most profiles have pictures of the pets. You'll find cats, dogs, rats, bunnies, horses, pigs and more. www.petfinder.org
There are articles on pet care and breed information. There's a classified section if you need to give up a pet. Or you can use it if you're looking to adopt but don't want to go through a shelter. If you are a cat fancier, I have discovered the best place to adopt a wonderful companion is at the Cat Depot locally in Sarasota. It's a spotless place run by the head of the Manatee Humane Society and offers the greatest collection of cats for adoption you will find anywhere. The only fee is for their shots and neutering.
A MUST SEE-HEAR. A spoof on the presidential election that will tickle your funny bone can be found at http://www.plur.net/thisland.html Turn up your speakers. Thanks to Anita Plutchik, this is one of the funniest things I've seen. ?
STARTING A WEB PAGE? For those constructing a Web page for the very first time, a good starting point is the tutorial at http://www.html-helper.net/ .
ALTERNATE BROWSERS. Along the line, we have suggested alternate browsers that are more secure and perhaps have more desirable features than Internet Explorer. The one downside of using an alternate browser is that some websites demand only Internet Explorer. Our advice is to make your favorite your default browser, but keep Internet Explorer available to access a URL that your favorite balks at. A typical such is Windows Update which will only open in Internet Explorer.
COW TRACKING. Is it just me or does anyone else find it absolutely amazing that the U.S. government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington, and determine exactly what that cow ate? They can also track her calves right to their stalls, and tell you what kind of feed they ate. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around in their country, including people that are trying to blow up important structures in the U.S. My solution is to give every illegal alien a cow as soon as they enter the country.
BUG ME NOT! For a great parody on the questionnaires many websites and downloads throw at you, go to http://bugmenot.com/register.php It's a laugh and a half.
EXCELLENT FREEWARE is rated and recommended at http://downloads.csnnow.com/ There is also lots of other good info at this location. Give it a worthwhile visit.
MUTUAL INTERFERENCE. The question keeps coming up so it's worth repeating once again. Do NOT run multiple antivirus or firewall programs at the same time. They will mutually interfere with each other. Some such programs will not even allow you to attempt it. And once again for the umpteenth time, if your run your computer without a firewall and an up-to-date antivirus program you are asking for and will undoubtedly reap considerable grief! Hardly a day goes by without my PC-cillin software sending at least one and sometimes 3 updates daily.
GOOGLE CURIOSITY. Ever wonder about what people in different countries throughout the world are searching for most on Google? Go to http://www. google.com/press/zeitgeist.html It's fascinating!
MOUSELESS EMERGENCY? Windows XP has a little-known feature that might come in handy if your mouse becomes dysfunctional. Access the On-screen Keyboard at Start|Run, enter "osk" (without the quotes) in the run box, and touch OK. About now you may be asking how, if your mouse isn't working, you would get to the Start and Run locations in the first place. Touch the Windows key (that key between Ctrl and Alt keys in the lower left corner of your keyboard) and when the Start window opens, touch the R key for the Run function.
HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS COMPARED. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has evaluated the quality and safety of nearly 16,000 health care organizations and has compared them and made the results available online. Check them out before you make decisions that will be very important to you. http://www.jcaho.org/quality+check/index.htm
3D GRAPHICS. The monitor of tomorrow is now here. Now available from Sharp is a monitor which can show your graphics and video in 3D without the need of those funny glasses. It presents a slightly different image for the left and right eyes resulting in a 3D image. It can also operate in ordinary 2D mode for text. The cost is $1500, but you can bet that will come down as more manufacturers get on the 3D bandwagon.
RING IN THE CASH. Kim Komando offers an interesting tip for cell phone owners: Have you ever switched cell phone carriers only to be told that your current phone won't work with the new provider? Or, you're tired of your old phone and want a newer one with all of the bells and whistles?
Instead of sticking your old phone in a drawer, sell it for cash. Cell for Cash offers money for a variety of cell phone models. If your cell phone isn't listed, there's a link where you can send it to be recycled or donated to charity. Get the info at http://www.cellforcash.com
GO HACK YOURSELF. Anchordesk Editor Robert Vamosi says it's a good idea to see what the Internet knows about you. Start by going to the Google site or by using the Google toolbar. Next, either type your name in quotations or, for a more refined search, type intext: (intext with a colon) immediately followed by your name in quotes. Now type your address or phone number, and Google may turn up a church or a social group directory listing. If this doesn't surprise or outrage you, type into Google your social security number or credit card numbers. You may be surprised to discover that your privacy isn't much these days.
REGISTRY FIRST AID - A Registry Panacea
Don't mess with the registry! That's good advice for inexperienced computer users and for many of the more experienced as well. If there's any area in your computer that can get you into serious trouble quickly, the registry is the place! This "palace of the gods" is a database that basically controls the functions of all the hardware and software in your computer. It is the mystical master puppeteer that pulls all the strings. Improperly eliminate or invalidate any of its settings and you can find yourself with a computer in dire need of repair.
Now all these caveats are especially distressing when you consider that disregarding its fragility the registry does need regular intervention and care. As you change or eliminate hardware and software, in spite of the most precocious uninstallers, lots of junk gets left behind in the registry. In time, it becomes a trash can of invalid application paths, non-functional dll's, mutually interfering commands, and a host of other inappropriate entries that can seriously slow down and crash your system. There's no scarcity of utilities that were created to solve these problems by scanning the registry and eliminating the junk. I have examined an impressive number of them and up to now have found drawbacks in all that I have tried. The most common problems they share to one degree or another include:
- Some are overly aggressive and offer to eliminate valid and necessary items along with the bad.
- Some are insufficiently aggressive and leave behind lots that should have been discovered.
- Some give little or no reason for the cleanup choices they have made.
- Some offer no explanations at all and without further permission from you will delete what they consider should be deleted.
For these and other similar reasons I have grown to distrust utilities designed to cleanup and correct the registry. I have painfully experienced the agony of trying to correct their serious mistakes. None-the-less, I always approached each new registry correction utility with an open mind, albeit with extreme caution.
I have used my favorite registry search utility, Regseeker, from time to time to look for software entries from programs I knew no longer existed on my computer. Each and every time it turned up a whole slew of registry entries I knew no longer belonged there. When Windows XP came out, I installed it over my previous Windows 98, so I could only imagine how much Win98 garbage probably remained in the registry. Along with the many additions and subtractions in software I make from time to time in my user group evaluations, I felt sure that my registry probably needed an enema but I had not found the utility I trusted to do the job.
Then along came the recommendation for Registry First Aid from a noted columnist I trusted. I approached the task with my usual skepticism. The installation was a breeze and the utility was completely intuitive. I permitted it to do a registry scan and it reported back the number of errors found in each of the selectable areas of invalid paths, invalid fonts, invalid help files, auto run programs, invalid known dll's, obsolete start menu items, invalid application paths, invalid shared dll's and unused software entries- a pretty darn complete menu!
The results were astounding! Under the most error prone area of all, invalid paths, Registry First Aid uncovered over two thousand errors. Impossible, I thought. Each category of scan allows you to bring up a detailed list of the errors it found, the cause of the error, allows you to interactively access that area of the registry where the error exists if you wish, and recommends you either delete the item or retain it. Astoundingly, if the item can be corrected to reflect a valid path, it offers to do so and shows you the valid correction it has selected. There is no utility I have ever seen that so thoroughly scanned the registry, reported so completely it's findings, and recommended a valid course of action for each and every error.
The final test I gave it took the better part of a full day. I investigated individually each and every one of the more than two thousand entries and suggested corrections and astonishingly discovered every single one of them to be valid! I was convinced.
At long last I had found the utility I had searched for unsuccessfully for years.
On each and every error it finds, Registry First Aid permits you to select or deselect the recommended action, or eliminate it altogether. After you have made your decisions, it will carry out all the recommendations you have selected and will either eliminate, correct or ignore the registry errors in one fell swoop.
Registry First Aid will also allow you to search the registry for any word or term you specify. It also offers advanced settings that can be controlled by the more expert among us. Any way you slice it, Registry First Aid is the utility we have long awaited-a true panacea!
Registry First Aid is published by Rose City Software (rosecitysoftware.com). You can download a free trial version and purchase it for $21. This amazing utility has our complete and whole-hearted recommendation. On a scale of 1 to 10, it gets a 12! :
Return to Herb Goldstein's Index
Copyright 2004. This article is from the September 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.