Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairmans Industry Comments (11/04)
The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org
SP2 ADVICE FROM KIM KOMANDO. The "plain-talk" guru of computers, Kim Komando, offers some answers to important questions regarding Windows XP Service Pak 2. Check for more at Kim's website, Komando.com. Q. I want to turn off the windows XP firewall. but I cannot find it in control panel. Where is it?
A. Lots of people are having trouble finding the Windows XP firewall. It should show up in Control Panel after Service Pack 2 is installed AND the computer is rebooted. Control Panel is accessed by clicking Start>>Control Panel. However, there are two views of Control Panel?Classic and Category. Category view does not show Windows Firewall. When you open Control Panel, if you have a blue window with the heading "Pick a category," you are in Category view. Click Security Center, which is the bottom right icon. Then click Windows Firewall.
Alternatively, you can go to the left-hand panel and click Switch to Classic View. Classic View will give you all of the icons. One of those should be Windows Firewall. I prefer Classic View. If you still cannot find Windows Firewall, try another route. Click Start> Control Panel. Use Classic View. Double-click Network Connections. Right-click your connection to the Internet. Click Properties. Select the Advanced tab. Click Settings. Select Off and click OK.
Q. How can I tell if sp2 is installed on my machine? I'm set up for automatic download and installation. what if it installs in the middle of the night?
A. Part of the installation is a requirement that you reboot your machine. At the least, you should see a message telling you that. Your computer will show you if you have Service Pack 2. Go to Control Panel (use Classic View) and double-click System. Select the General tab. Under System, it should show you which service pack you have installed. At a minimum, it should show Service Pack 1.
Q. I get an error message when I try to download service pack 2. could my firewall be blocking it?
A. That could be the problem. Some listeners who use third-party firewalls have reported this problem. If you are getting an error message, disable your firewall. Then enable the XP firewall. To do that, click Start>>Control Panel (use Classic View).
Double-click Network Connections. Right-click your connection and click Properties. Select the Advanced tab. Turn on the firewall and click OK. If you still get the error message, turn off the XP firewall. If you go onto the Internet without a firewall, you will probably be probed by intruders. If Windows XP is updated, they will not be able to download a Trojan to you. Download SP2 and get off the Internet. Once SP2 is installed, reboot and activate one of the firewalls. If your computer has not been updated, going onto the Internet without a firewall is too risky. Instead, order a CD from Microsoft. You can get it at this Web address: http://snipurl.com/8umo
Q. I use zonealarm. when I installed service pack 2, it sensed zonealarm and turned off the windows firewall.
A. That happened with my home computer, too. However, one of my employees found both firewalls were still turned on after his installation. Other listeners have reported that Service Pack 2 asked if the XP firewall should be disabled. I did not get such a message. So the firewall situation is inconsistent. If it doesn?t ask, check to see if the XP firewall is enabled. Some readers (and at least one of my employees) say they are running two firewalls without conflicts.
I don't see much point in running two, since they duplicate one another's efforts. And a conflict could occur down the road. But disabling one or the other apparently is not critical.
WARNING: A small percentage of people are reporting severe computer problems after installing SP2. I suspect there are conflicts that did not turn up in Microsoft?s testing. Microsoft offers a number of options to help you. If you cannot get online, call 1-888-772-4357. The company warns that hold times can be lengthy.
If you can get online, Microsoft offers a chat option. Or you can send e-mail. Several people have reported excellent experiences using these methods. Microsoft is apparently taking these problems seriously. There is more information at: http://snipurl.com/8phj
WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 10. According to a recent review by CNet, the latest Windows Media Player, version 10.0, is a solid and comprehensive media-management program that will please anyone who uses a wide variety of audio and video formats and portable devices. At one end, it integrates compatible music stores and movie-download services, including the new MSN Music Service. At the other end, it syncs with more than 75 portable devices, according to Microsoft. In between are a bunch of feature enhancements, most notably the ability to rip songs to MP3 (no more plug-ins), as well as manage and display photos. The app still isn't as user-friendly as Apple's iTunes, and it works with only Windows XP, but it is a significant and worthwhile update. The most notable new feature is the Digital Media Mall, which gathers several online media stores and services within a single interface and offers a virtual one-stop shopping environment for digital entertainment.
Shutterbugs will appreciate the built-in photo slide-show feature. You can now rip CDs directly into MP3 files in Windows Media Player. All in all, WMP 10 is a very worth-while free upgrade.
FREE SOFTWARE/SHAREWARE REFERENCES. A huge collection of all free software/shareware links posted alphabetically is what you will find at http://www.dma.org/~millersg/CoolSoftware.html
PHOTOSITE ALBUMBUILDER. For a free program, this online photo-album-creation tool offers quite a lot. Upon launch PhotoSite AlbumBuilder walks you through the process of building and publishing an album, eliminating the need to spend time investigating the program. Once you've selected your images, you can choose from several album templates, then change the frame style, the background color, and add captions or notes. If you need to touch up your pictures before you show them to the world you can perform basic edits, such as rotation, red-eye removal, and sharpening. Once you're happy with your photos and your album's layout, you simply register your account, and the program quickly publishes your photos to the Web and generates a customized URL you can send to your friends. Since the program is so easy to use and doesn't cost a cent, there's no reason any shutterbug shouldn't download PhotoSite AlbumBuilder. www.download.com/PhotoSite-AlbumBuilder/3000-2204-10263267. html#cnetReview
RESTORE DESKTOP is a free Windows Context Menu addition that automatically saves and restores the icons' positions on the Windows desktop after a resolution change. How many times have you changed screen resolution and discover that your neatly placed icons have scattered all over the screen. No more! Restore Desktop magically restores icons' positions after display resolution changing. You can also restore saved icons' positions manually by control-click on the desktop. The utility is very small, works automatically and requires no training at all. Just install it and forget about improperly placed icons on your Desktop. http://www.softwarium.com/rdwin.html
EARTHLINK BEST PHONE ISP. EarthLink takes top honors in customer satisfaction, according to J.D. Power and Associates. In a recent J.D. Power survey of consumer attitudes, the ISP beat out nine dial-up and 12 high-speed service providers to take the top spot in both categories.
HI-DEFINITION CAMCORDER. Sony is expected to release a hi-definition camcorder in November. If you are looking for something that will shoot hi-definition movies, this baby will run you about $3,700.
ROUGHDRAFT V2.11 Sometimes writing with a full-featured word processor like MS Word feels like hitting a nail with a jack hammer. Word is just too big and bloated for everyday use, with distracting features that specific users rarely need. Enter RoughDraft v2.11, a simple freeware word processor with writers of novels, short stories, articles, poetry, plays, and screenplays in mind. This text editor can manipulate text files and the universal Rich Text Format files (RTF).
Being able to handle RTF files means that you can do simple formatting functions with your text with available fonts, colors, and indentations, just like you can in Windows Wordpad. But unlike Wordpad, this freeware gem even includes a fast spelling checker that can have an extended functionality if you download Word Web, a standalone freeware thesaurus. RoughDraft also enhances productivity by using Multiple Document Interface (MDI). This means that you can open about a hundred tabs in the same window.
Speaking of productivity, RoughDraft can also import files in Word 6.0, Word 97, and HTML formats. This word processor also has a built-in side panel for a directory tree, find panel, and small utility called pad. This small pad can be used for reminders or maybe a plot for your story. If you need a replacement for Word, look somewhere else, as RoughDraft does not claim to be a Word replacement. But if you are a writer on a budget who wants a no-nonsense application, check out RoughDraft - it's a keeper. http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm
STOP CLIPPING COUPONS Save with coupons without having to pick up a pair of scissors. Coupon Cabin has coupon codes for popular online stores, such as Amazon, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Sony, Spiegel and others. These codes will get you free shipping or a percentage off goods. It monitors more than 500 online stores and updates the codes daily. You can search for codes by store name or by category. http://www.couponcabin.com
FUTURIS IMAGER is a free image viewer/editor. This software has the normal set of features that you have come to expect in an image viewer - support for multiple formats, scanner and camera integration, and printing capabilities. Along with this, it also permits you to mess with your photos in a number of ways, thanks to the included filters. Screen capture is also built in, allowing you to capture content in a variety of different ways.
Those of you who enjoy viewing your photos automatically will appreciate the slideshow functionality. Once you're done editing your image, you can then use Futuris Imager to send it by e-mail, or even create HTML for the image.
Most of the features of this software will look familiar to you, but there's also some new stuff here that keeps things interesting. http://www.knives-out.org/imager/index.php
AMAZON STOOPS TO SNOOP. Amazon.com has launched its A9 search service, which offers unprecedented personalization options and is getting rave reviews. But check out this tidbit from the A9 Toolbar user agreement: A9.com's Toolbar service collects and stores full URLs for every Web page that you view while using the A9.com Toolbar service. It also sends all your browsing habits back to the Amazon mother ship if you have an Amazon account. Proceed with caution!
FIREWALLS: XP SP2 VS. ZONE ALARM. The Windows XP SP2 firewall blocks only incoming traffic; it does nothing against spyware or Trojan horses that will try to broadcast your Web-surfing habits or credit card information out to the Internet. A good third-party firewall such as ZoneAlarm will stop malicious traffic that?s both inbound and outbound.
MICROSOFT FREE TRIALS. A most welcome trend in the software industry has been the "try before you buy" option. Microsoft has finally joined the trend by offering trial-no obligation copies of its software at Microsoft.com/downloads.
EVEREST HOME EDITION Here's a free program that will give you an in-depth look at what's in your system and how it is running. This really is a fantastic program. You'll probably find information on stuff that you never knew existed. Complete details are provided on your hardware and software, and not just the obvious stuff - low-level information is brought to the fore as well. Expect to find out what the temperature of your CPU is, along with the status of your cooling fans. You can also benchmark your memory in this program. Once the analysis is concluded, a graph is displayed comparing your system to other systems. In order to put all of these details in one simple document, all you have to do is generate a report. EVEREST Home Edition really does a great job of filling you in on everything that?s contained in your system. http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview. php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=1
DIMENSION 4 is a free utility that synchronizes your PC's time using either SNTP or The Time Protocol. You can setup Dimension 4 to check and synchronize your time every time you connect to the Internet. You can select from a large list of time servers or add your own. Once the time is verified, the program can be set to exit automatically.
Also provides long-term statistical data for time correction. www.snapfilespro.com/gnomeapp.php?id=101023
CLIPOMATIC is a free clipboard cache program - it remembers what was copied to the clipboard even after new data is copied, and allows you to retrieve the old data. While there are many programs that do the same, none are quite so convenient, simple to use, or efficient as Clipomatic. Be sure to read the included help file - there are a lot of great features that aren't immediately apparent! The latest released version of Clipomatic is 2.01. Clipomatic works with all modern versions of Windows (95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP).
Using Clipomatic is simple. All you have to do is start it up, and it will start monitoring the clipboard and recording its changes. When you want to paste an old item, you just put the keyboard cursor where you would like to paste and press Ctrl-Alt-V instead of Ctrl-V. A menu pops up with your clips - you can select one with the mouse or with a single keystroke. The menu then disappears, and the item is pasted with no further work on your part. This is the easiest to use application of its kind that I have seen to-date. www.mlin.net/Clipomatic.shtml
ZIPGENIUS is a free, powerful zip tool suite that offers a variety of features. It offers support for more than 20 different compression formats, including 7zip, ZIP64 and many others. It supports drag and drop, 5 compression levels, full customization and integration in Windows Explorer. The program also comes with a built in FTP client that allows to download and upload files from within the software. The signature features allows you to add your signature and contact information to any zip file you create. ZipGenius also supports the creation of self-extracting exe files, complete with custom setup launch and icon. This very complete and unique tool package also comes with additional features like encryption, scanner support (acquire pictures and zip them into files), backup, statistics, download time calculator, disk spanning, file export, support for OpenOffice and more. ZipGenius can also interact with your Pocket PC device.
MY-CAST. A free service at http://www.my-cast.com provides personal weather forecasts by Web and email (HTML or text) within the 48 contiguous states. These are created every three hours within a four-mile grid, more specific and frequent than information received from the National Weather Service. You identify those indoor and outdoor activities that are important to you, and the service reports the affect the weather will have on those activities.
CDCHECK V3.0.1 Some CD-R manufacturers claim that CD-Rs can last 100 years if cared for properly, but before that theory is fully tested, why don?t you periodically check to be sure your data is where it's supposed to be? This utility detects and recovers damaged files on CD-ROMs. You can discover which files on your CD are corrupted. You can also use the program proactively, to insure that your data on CD-ROMs are safe. In addition to CD-ROMs, the program can be used with other local or removable media, such as disk drives, floppy disks, and ZIP drives. The file is free for non-profit use. /www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22892,tk,hsx,00.asp
PRICEGRABBER.COM is a good site to visit if you are looking for the lowest price on whatever. Enter the name of the item you are seeking and you will get a readout of a number of retailers that carry it for the lowest prices. The info includes shipping and tax charges if there are any.
TRUESPACE3.2 3D animation has advanced above and beyond what we ever thought was possible. Just look at movies such as Finding Nemo and Shrek. Technology keeps advancing, and with these improvements, our eyes are going to be surprised even more as time goes on. The ability to create complete 3D characters and worlds has intrigued some people to the point where they want to learn how to do it, as well. This usually means laying down massive amounts of money for complex design software. The money alone may deter some people from getting into this field, but it doesn?t have to be that way.
To get your design groove on for free, check out trueSpace. This is an older version of the software, but it still works just fine. Seeing as this software is free, you may start to think that it skimps on features. Not true. The software contains tons of tools that will help you to get your feet wet with how you can create your own 3D models and animation. The interface may appear to be very daunting at first, but the interactive tutorials will help you to feel right at home. Try and see what kind of cool stuff you can create with trueSpace. http://www.caligari.com/products/truespace/ts3/
SPAM INSPECTOR ? A Great Way to Can Spam
It sometimes seems that there is almost as much anti-spam software around as there is spam. Vigorously attacking spam is the order of the day as a result of the nuisance value spam poses to almost everyone who uses a computer. The fact that e-mail is probably the most widely used application on just about every business and home user?s computer, spam has become the prime conveyor of in-your-face annoyance advertising. From time and effort wasting and pornographic home invasion to outright fraud, spam occupies a lofty place along with viruses, spyware, hacking and a host of other malware that plague every computer owner who dares to receive e-mail. Anti-spam software occupies a prominent place among the numerous means of attacking this scourge in today?s world.
Most spam-fighting applications work reasonably well to one degree or another, and most share common attributes. After trying a good representative number of them, I found myself most comfortable with Spam Inspector for a variety of good reasons.
The "Achilles heel" of most anti-spam utilities is their inability to separate the good from the bad. If they are too vigorous, they may eliminate some of the good email along with the bad. On installation, most will take all the current addresses in you address book and mark them friendly. Further separation is a matter of what is called Bayesian filtration which uses a variety of examination methods to determine whether a message is probably spam or not. How well they do the job is a measure of the effectiveness of the utility. Spam Inspector scores very high.
In addition to filtering, Spam Inspector allows you to easily mark mail mistaken as spam as friendly, or perhaps that mistakenly marked friendly as spam. You can easily indicate that the resulting sender should be added to the list of either your friends or enemies that Spam Inspector maintains and you can modify with a single click. Spam Inspector's Bayesian filtering also does an exceptionally good job in learning to recognize spam as you point out acceptable message from those that are not.
Here are some of the other qualities that make Spam Inspector an excellent choice. Spam Inspector is a quick download from Giant Company Software at giantcompany.com. Installation is effortless and although the software will work with any email client, it was developed to be hand-in-glove with both Outlook Express and Outlook, the two most common email programs. My list of people in my address book was adopted instantaneously as friends.
When you open your email, Spam Inspector goes to work instantaneously and automatically to examine each message and separate the spam into a quarantine folder whose contents it presents for your viewing and possible further determination. Spam Inspector provides a comprehensive list of options that enable you to determine how you want your mail and spam handled.
Some other spam utilities work at server level giving you the additional job of going into your server to check on what messages were sorted out, an extra job that Spam Inspector does not put you through. I like the mail to come through where I can check the selection made by the anti-spam program myself. Other utilities require an unknown sender to identify itself and its business on a form then submitted to you for approval or not. That's a hassle a legitimate sender may balk at doing.
In practice, Spam Inspector's spam recognition was about 99% perfect and 100% so for porn spam. A colorful button bar allows you to peg a message as a friend or enemy and dispose of in the manner of my choice. It also provides a ?bounce-mail? feature that permits you to bounce selected mail back to the sender with an official-looking refusal. Unfortunately or not for me, the bounce feature does not work with Comcast's email configuration, although it may work fine with your ISP.
Spam Inspector gets top score in my opinion. That opinion is shared by CNet's professional gurus that gave it their highest and most coveted 5 star rating. It combines extreme ease of use with world class effectiveness and has all but completely eliminated spam for me. The only somewhat negative feature I found was in its email tech support. I asked a question on two occasions that required a very specific answer. The email answer essentially was, "read the help file!" Not very helpful, but on the other hand the program is so simple and intuitive that tech support will probably be completely superfluous for most anyone.
If spam is annoying you, or your current anti-spam utility leaves something to be desired, download Spam Inspector at giantcompany.com. You get a generous free trial period to fully use and evaluate the software. The purchase price is only $29.95.
GROSSFADER?S WISENSPOUTEN
1. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don?t have film. 2. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
3. A day without sunshine is like, well, night
4. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
5. Back up my hard drive? How do I put it in reverse?
6. I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory. 7. Seen it all, done it all. Can't remember most of it.
8. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
9. I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe. My personal favorite, LOL
10. He?s not dead. He?s electroencephalographically challenged.
11. She?s always late. In fact, her ancestors arrived on the "June flower."
12. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted and used against you. 13. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
14. Honk if you love peace and quiet.
15. Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how it remains so popular?
16. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
17. It is hard to understand how a cemetery can raise its burial costs and blame it on the higher cost of living.
18. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there?s a 90% probability you?ll get it wrong. 19. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and pass them.
20. You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
21. Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world population.
22. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
23. The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those who got there first.
24. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
25. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture.
26. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
27. Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter since nobody listens.
28. I wished the buck stopped here, as I could use a few.
29. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.
30. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people that weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. :
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Copyright 2004. This article is from the November 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/
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