Chinese language under attack

The Chinese written language has survived thousands of years of turmoil and foreign invasion. It survived the transition from classical Chinese to the modern, simplified version, and it even survived the deadening slogans of Maoist propaganda. But it has never suffered anything quite like the indignities of the latest threat.

Storing Photos Online

There have been several place that I've used (or seen others use) to place their photos on the internet

One of the first I tried was photopoint which is now out of business. That's where I won my Fuji camera.

Another early one was webshots. I still have some photos there, but I haven't used it for new photos lately.

Then there is Yahoo! I'm using this as my stand-by for quick uploads of photos.

Lately, I've been uploading the photos to imageshack and then creating webpages linking the photos stored there.

I even used myspace.com and added photos to my blog (though the photos were uploaded to imageshack). Come to think of it, I probably could do that here on blogger too.

(For example, here's a pretty neat graphic that Brian posted as a comment on Bob's myspace.)



The Kodak Gallery seems to be popular with some people I know.

Now the latest one I'm looking at is flickr, which is now part of Yahoo!

[7/20/07] Yahoo photos will be closing on 9/20/07 and is being supplanted by flickr. Flickr is now the second most popular photo site trailing photobucket, which apparently leads by a mile. Yahoo is allowing users to transfer their photos to flickr as well as shutterfly, photobucket, Kodak Gallery, snapfish.

The Google Plan

The invention of the personal computer marked the first revolution in the way business is conducted. The advent of the Internet was the second. Google's expansion is the third.

It is by no means the end of the story, though. Ultimately, the original Google search engine, the Gmail, the Appliances, the virtual office--all of these may amount to the least of the company's accomplishments.

So, what does this brave new future envisioned by the young Turks at Google actually look like?

Restore deleted files

Restore files which are deleted from the recycle bin
or deleted while holding down the Shift key by
mistake.

Conversely, this program has another function that
makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted
files.

You can use it after deletion of confidential
documents, embarrassing files and so on.

http://www.sofotex.com/Restoration-download_L9327.html

-- from frwr-news

wikiHow

wikiHow is a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest how-to manual. It's apparently not connected to wikipedia, but seems to be created along the same lines.

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #381

Uncyclopedia

The Uncyclopedia is the greatest achievement of mankind at the height of his splendor.

Or alternatively -- Uncyclopedia, "the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit", is a parody of Wikipedia, although Uncyclopedia claims the reverse.

So what is Wikipedia? (Wilde wilde wicked) Wikipedia (also spelt "Wikipaedia" and sometimes they get all snooty and use one of these things, "æ" like this:"Wikipædia"), is a tragic parody of Uncyclopedia, although Wikipedia claims the reverse.

-- Uncyclopedia reference from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #344

Internet Explorer Headers and Footers

If you print a web page from Internet Explorer, you get a header with the window title and a footer with the url. To disable this, go to page setup and wipe out all the codes in those fields.

To find out what the codes mean, put the cursor in the field and press F1. Want to put them back? The defaults are

header: &w&bPage &p of &P T

footer: &u&b&d

What's the password?

Keep forgetting your passwords? One way would be to save them in a file on your computer. (I've been using bouncer software for that purpose for a while. I don't see it available now, but I see some similar programs available on the net.) But what happens if you're not on your computer? Or worse, if you computer crashes?

Lately, I've been using passwordsafe.com for saving my passwords on the internet. It's been around for a while, so I assume it's relatively secure. Of course, nothing is completely hacker-proof.

French to ban free software?

The French government may be about to make free software illegal.

-- from frwr-news

YPOPS

This background utility allows you to read Yahoo mail from your Outlook Express (or other pop mail client).

-- from WinXPNews #167

Chinese Practice

[from the author] I wrote Chinese Practice when I started to study Chinese and couldn't find any program that would offer the features I needed. Since that time I keep to update it with things that come handy as one slowly (in my case really too slowly) moves from beginning to intermediate phase. Chinese Practice is free and always will be including all the lessons published on this site, but I will not translate my own lessons anymore.

-- from frwr-news

Can Wi-Fi be stopped?

As you might expect, the cellular industry is less than happy to see the spread of Wi-Fi technology that threatens to make their systems obsolete--at least in urban areas. Not only does Wi-Fi do more, and usually faster, it's generally free or available for very little money. That's a tough combination to beat.

AOL unveils free Web TV

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said on Monday it planned to launch a free Internet television service by early 2006, in one of the technology and media industry's most ambitious designs to reach TV viewers online.

Yahoo Inc. (Research) and Google Inc. (Research) threaten to bypass traditional media outlets by linking computer users with TV shows online, striking partnerships with programmers or creating content. What they lack AOL now possess in abundance -- the shows themselves.

In its first year, in an exclusive deal, the advertising-supported service, In2TV, will feature approximately 3,400 hours of programming from 4,800 episodes spanning 100 series of Warner Bros.-produced shows from the past.

They include past prime time hits "Welcome Back Kotter," "Growing Pains" and "Kung Fu" organized under six channels divided by comedy, drama, animation, action, classic and superhero/villain genres. Two more channels may launch in 2006.

-- talked about on cnbc

Woot.com

Here's an interesting e-commerce site, woot.com. At the rate they're going, they're not about to put ebay, amazon, or even overstock.com out of business. They sell one (1) item per day and, according to their faq, are anticipating profitability by 2043. I think they're modest (another word for lying) and are already profitable.

-- fool.com story

The Archimedes Death Ray

A team from MIT produces smoldering from 150 feet away

- starbulletin, 10/23/05

Razza The Rat

Razza the rat eluded traps, baits, and sniffer dogs for over four months.

- starbulletin, 10/23/05

Microsoft Office substitutes

[12/10/14 frwr-news] Yeah, I guess it's free because it's now called Softmaker FreeOffice.

And I guess I never wrote it here, but OpenOffice has branched out to become LibreOffice.  What's the difference?

[3/29/12] Apparently Softmaker Office is now free?
SoftMaker Office is a complete and full-featured office that comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation-graphics program. This is a fully-functional, non-crippled, not time-limited version...totally free of charge, without any obligations.

Works on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

The complete office suite for Windows and Linux as a free download.
Free registration: http://www.softmakeroffice.com/register_en.htm

[9/29/08] Softmaker Office looks pretty good (just from the pictures). The 2008 version is pay, but the 2006 is still free [non-free version mentioned in frwr-news]

[8/21/08] Suggested web-based applications are Google Docs, Thinkfree Online, Zoho Office

[4/6/08] Here's one that I haven't tested called tiny USB office. It's under 2.5 MB, so it should fit easily on your USB drive. [via frwr-news]

[10/8/07] I took a look at Polar Office [via frwr-news]. It looks like it's old software which is now free because not that many people were buying it. Old is fine with me, but I couldn't import my Excel 97 spreadsheet, so I won't be using it.

[9/20/07] IBM is now offering Symphony for free

[7/28/06] Google Spreadsheets in beta looks like it has good potential, but it doesn't look like it'll have full Excel functionality any time soon.

[7/10/06] Multimedia Office from Plata Software sounds like something new. But it's pretty much just the packaging of Open Office with some other freeware multimedia programs. The Open Office version used is 2.0 and it looks improved from the last time I checked (though maybe a little slow). [from frwr-news, 6/30/06]

[12/22/05] SSuite Personal Office looked promising. But when I tried to open an Excel document, nothing appeared. And when I tried to open a .doc file, that option doesn't appear. [link from frwr-news]

[1/11/09] From another post from frwr_news, I tried the Advanced Edition 2.2. I tried to open my Excel files created in Office 97 and I got an "unable to open file" message. Maybe it works fine for newer Excel files (?), but I believe OpenOffice and Google Documents opens these files without error. And in fact to double-check, I just uploaded the file the errored in ssuite to google documents and it uploaded OK.

[10/24/05] The most popular one seems to be OpenOffice.

But I liked 602PC Suite better in the short time I tried it.

I wasn't overly impressed with EasyOffice though it got a good review at download.com.

Writely looks like an interesting online word processor.

gOFFICE looks like an interesting online office suite.

-- inspired from the article Microsoft Hits 30 <!- starbulletin 10/10/05 -->

2005 DARPA Grand Challenge

Stanley wins the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge

online file storage

[1/15/14] Box.com offering 50 GB for IOS

[6/3/11] AVG Livekive gives you 5 GB.

[5/15/11] Noticed Amazon Cloud Drive gives you 5 GB. But Skydrive is up to 25 GB.

[6/22/10] Backing up your hard drive has never been easier or less expensive. You can either buy an external hard drive (we like the LaCie Rugged 500 Gigabyte model that retails for $139 on NewEgg.com), or rent virtual backup space via companies like Dropbox.com, Mozy and iDrive. I personally use Dropbox. Any file I create I save to a Dropbox folder on my computer. While I work away, the document is being saved to a virtual server. The best part? I can access all the files on my computer from any machine, anywhere.

[7/11/10] Trying out dropbox. Quite easy to use. Acts just like another folder on your computer. Trying out idrive too. Seems more like mozy as it does scheduled backups. Both offer 2GB free.

[7/9/09] Digital Slob features dropbox which offers 2GB free which allows you to put virtual folders on the internet to share with other computers

[6/12/09] l4rge is now working again. And so is the website access which never worked before. We'll see when the ads start popping up.

[6/10/09] With diino going away (the free version anyway), I tried l4rge. It has massive file storage [15 GB]. FTP worked, but for some reason the web access don't work. No problem. I wanted to use it for storage anyway.

But now, when I tried today, I can't log on. Maybe they're gone now. So I tried another search and wound up with teradepot which gives you like 10GB. But I can't figure out how to do multiple uploads and apparently the files are erased after a period of time.

[3/3/09] Here's one I found while searching for free online file storage. Adrive gives you 50GB! However the free version has some ads. And the file dates aren't preserved (like diino). Seems to upload pretty fast.

[2/1/09] A site called drop.io allows you to upload and share on the Net anything up to 100 MB in size for free, and provides password protection for access to that data. Also, assuming what you want to store or share is faxable, it allows you to send and receive up to 20 pages at a time FOR FREE without a fax machine. Finally, a toll-free bridge from your computer's desktop to the nation's engine of commerce (which remains technologically stuck in 1989).

[6/12/08] I'm finally trying out mozy after they sent me an email that they have a new version out. It's kind of different and kind of neat. It runs in the background and backs up your system automatically every day. You can choose what you want to backup. One things that's nice is that it's smart enough to know how to back up your email from Outlook Express. It can only backup 2GB on the free account though. It's $4.95 per month for unlimited space.

[5/20/08] While doing a search on the web, I came across 4shared.com which gives you 5 GB. Seems to upload pretty fast.

[4/9/08] Windows Live Skydrive gives you 5GB <!- found while looking for gdrive -->

[2/11/08] Another one is Mediamax.

[12/10/07] I'm trying out diino [via frwr-news] which gives 2 GB free and after getting used to it, I find that I like it the best so far. It works with a client in which you can drag and drop files. File transfer speed isn't the fastest though.

[6/26/07] I notice esnips is now offering 5 GB.

[3/28/07] xdrive has been bought out by AOL and offers 5 GB. Unfortunately, they didn't give it to me when I signed up. Mozy offers 2 GB but requires software and works only on XP and up.

[11/12/06] Box.net is mentioned over in the Hardware Junkies MSN group. They give you 1 GB and seems more responsive than the sites I tried before.

Still waiting for gdrive (google drive). Haven't tried gmail drive yet.

[12/25/05] I'm trying esnips (tip from brknews of all places) which give you 1GB of storage. It seems a little clunky and doesn't allow folder inside folders. One large file (mia.htm) errored out. Another one seemed to upload OK.

[10/22/05] Here's another one, streamload.com (from Bill Husted's column in the 10/9/05 starbulletin.)

[10/19/05] I tried a couple of places. Flipdrive seems OK, though I had trouble uploading using IE. It worked fine with FireFox. A mainstream solution is Yahoo! Briefcase. I just tried it and had no problems. Flipdrive gives you 25 MB. Yahoo! Briefcase gives you 30 MB.

[10/18/05] How about free online file storage? You know places you can back up your files to some hard drive somewhere on the internet? Freewebspace.net mentions six of these places.

If you just want to save photos, I've been using imageshack. Another one I've tried is imageshare.biz (though this one leaves a little "hosted by" message at the bottom). There are a bunch of others that I haven't tried yet.

Windows Vista

If you were confused by the different editions of Windows XP (Home, Pro, Tablet, Media Center), get ready to be even more overwhelmed by the choices you'll have with Windows Vista. At last count, Microsoft was planning no less than nine separate editions.

- from WinXPNews #198

Blingo

What is Blingo? It's like google but with prizes. Actually it uses the google engine, so you'll get the same results. But with the added possibility of winning a prize.

In addition, if you add me as a blingo friend, if I win then you win. (For some reason, I had trouble accessing this option from Internet Explorer, but it seemed to work fine using FireFox.)

- from On Computers by Joy and Bob Schwabach

* * *

Here's the invitation, so we can all start winning prizes!

Join Blingo Friends with Me

Blingo is a new search engine that gives away prizes every day
like Sony PlayStation Portables, Apple iPods, Visa gift cards,
a year of free movies from Netflix, and more.

By joining Blingo Friends you can invite your friends to use
Blingo, and when one of them wins a prize you win the same prize.
That means if one of your friends wins an iPod, you win one too.

Just click this link to join Blingo Friends (it only takes 15
seconds), or copy it and paste it into your browser:

http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=PuEjR1cZskkJCRoZnTZp0acQtwA

Thanks,
Mike and Blingo

--
Blingo
http://www.blingo.com

Borland Museum

Borland has made available free of charge its classic programming languages Turbo Pascal and Turbo C.

Irving's Info Page

Irving Stein has a lot of computer tips for you.

- Cool Tricks and Trinkets #371

glad you called

Desperate? Nobody calling you?

Diane will call anybody in the U.S. or Canada

-- from Tricks and Trinkets #371

Calculator.com

Looking to calculate something? Chances are you'll find an appropriate calculator at calculator.com

- from frwr-news, 2/15/05

Xena and Gabrielle

Astronomers on Mauna Kea who found a possible 10th planet on the edge of our solar system have made another discovery -- it has a moon.

Using the W.M. Keck Observatory, a team of astronomers spotted a faint object trailing next to it on Sept. 10.

The new planet has been temporarily nicknamed Xena after a "warrior princess" character on a television show, so the moon is being called Gabrielle, after a sidekick of the television warrior, the Keck Observatory said.

NerdTV

NerdTV is a new weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. Guests like Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy or Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak are household names if your household is nerdy enough, but as historical figures and geniuses in their own right, they have plenty to say to ALL of us.

Dictionaraoke

I thought this site was rather clever. You know those audio samples from the online dictionaries? Dictionaraoke combines them with background music to recreate popular songs.

-- from Tricks and Trinkets 369

ethanol is finding new life

A week ago, Benjamin Kleber was spending $3.39 a gallon at a gasoline station in Maryland when he noticed an obscure decal on his minivan.

"It's this sticker about the size of a business card that's stuck on the side of the gas flap that I never really paid attention to," said Mr. Kleber, a 25-year-old electrical engineer for a government contractor. The decal said he could be using E85, a fuel cocktail that consists mostly of grain alcohol, or corn-based ethanol, with a splash of gasoline.

<!- starbulletin 9/10/05 -->

Wireless Security

Some folks will tell you that it's impossible to attain an acceptable level of security on wireless networks and you should just stick with cables, inconvenience and all. Some companies and government agencies have banned wireless networking as a matter of policy. Should you just give up on wireless, too?

Ram Idle / FreeRAM

[2/18/05] My computer (HP Pavilion running Windows ME) slows down and occasionally locks up if I run too many programs on it. I suspect it's because it's using up too much memory which is not being reclaimed.

I noticed in freeware news a program called RAM Idle which is supposed to free up memory when it becomes too low. I had tried another program which didn't seem to help much. We'll see how this one goes.

[9/15/05] Windows ME still slowed down even with RAM Idle. It may not strictly be a RAM problem. But I'm now trying another one called FreeRAM XP Pro.

250 miles per gallon?

How about 500 mpg?

* * *

Just as shade-tree mechanics made an industry out of boosting the power of automobile engines, engineers and tinkerers now modify hybrid cars to get amazing gas mileage.

While the typical showroom Toyota Prius hybrid, regarded as one of the best hybrids on the market, can get in the range of 45 miles per gallon, depending on the type of driving, modified plug-in models of the Prius have gotten three to four times better gas mileage.

The fast-growing cottage industry of modifying hybrid cars into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) is gaining such popularity that the city of Austin, Texas, has announced plans to set aside $1 million to help people buy these new plug-in hybrids.

* * *

George Westphal's sky-blue 1985 Nissan Sentra has braved two decades of harsh winters in Pearl River, N.Y. - and looks it. Rust spots the hood. Door hinges creak. A thick stripe of duct tape holds a cracked dashboard together.

But inside, this unassuming old car holds some hidden surprises. Behind the fuel door, where a thirsty black hole used to be, is a three-pronged plug. Pop the trunk open and eight lead-acid batteries reveal themselves, aligned neatly in two rows. Where the engine used to be are two more batteries, along with a platform of wires and electronic casings. Sit behind the wheel to find an amp meter and a battery indicator in place of fuel and oil-pressure gauges. Westphal's ex-gasoline drinker has taken on a new identity as a purely electric car - and he did the conversion himself.

With gasoline prices soaring - in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, they went well above $4 in some states this week - drivers are taking a new interest in electric cars.

classic computers (they're old)

[8/22/05] Engadget 1985: the latest in 1985 technology

[8/30/05] Dinosaur sightings: old-school computer hardware (from WinXP News 191)

[9/2/05] How It Works... The Computer (from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #366)

free email and internet services

[3/29/06] Mail2Web is a service that allows you to read your pop mail from any web browser

[8/28/05] Yeah, you know there's plenty of free email addresses out there, but there's still some free internet services too (on a limited basis).

internet slang dictionary

Internet slang consists of slang and acronyms that users have created as an effort to save keystrokes. Terms have originated from various sources including Bulletin Boards, AIM, Yahoo, IRC, Chat Rooms, Email, Cell Phone Text Messaging, and some even as far back as World War II.

Internet Slang is also called AOL speak, AOLese, AOLbonics, netspeak, or leetspeak (although leetspeak tradionialy involves replacing letters with numbers and is reserved for games). While it does save keystrokes, netspeak can prove very hard to read. Below is a list of some 890 user submitted internet slang terms and acronyms.

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #365

bugmenot.com

Want to see what's on a registered site? You might be able to pick up a password at bugmenot.com.

-- from On Computers, Bob & Joy Schwabach, MidWeek, 8/17/05

Using RSS

Many of us scan the Internet daily for business or pleasure. I sometimes read up to a dozen technology sites in course of the day to keep up on the latest products and to gather ideas for this column.

Fortunately there's a solution for hard core Web surfers at hand in a new technology called RSS, aka Really Simple Syndication. It's essentially a software program that anyone can download for free and install to make Web sites easier to scan. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) provides a simple way to monitor fresh content.

Intel to switch technology

For the first time in five years, Intel Corp. will make a major change in the plumbing of its chips by switching to a new design that promises better performance and lower power consumption than today's Pentium 4.

Beams, Rays, and Streams

The greatest beams, lasers, death rays and photon streams in movie history

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets

recording streaming audio

[6/3/06] I tried Solway's Internet TV and Radio player [from frwr-news]. It plays, but the recording is barely audible.

[5/29/06] Freecorder does exactly as it sounds -- it is an easy-to-use FREE software program that lets you record sounds on your PC. The benefits: Records what you hear from your speakers, Saves recordings as MP3 files, Easy to use. [frwr-news, 5/10/06]

[4/7/06] Here's another one to try: MP3myMP3 Recorder (saves any audio you hear on your computer straight to mp3 or wav. IF YOU CAN HEAR IT, YOU CAN RECORD IT!) [from frwr-news 5/30/05]

[1/29/06] Here's an easy way to do it, XstreamRadio, an integrated radio player and MP3 recorder. However it probably doesn't have the stations I want. Especially now that kccn1420am has become a pay-per-listen. Actually it looks like it's no longer on the net? [5/29/06 - no it's KKEA 1420 now known as sportsradio]

[8/18/05] One of my future projects in mind is to record streaming audio off the internet.

I haven't tried too hard yet, but I'm saving some links to try for future reference.

Hi-Q Recorder is free sound recording software to record streaming audio, Internet radio, webcasts, music, meetings, classes, seminars, convert LP's, records, tapes and a lot more. It's an MP3 sound recorder to record anything you can hear!

[10/27/09] Finally (four years later) tried Hi-Q recorder after seeing again in the frwr-news list. I like it. You can adjust sound quality and volume. The major problem is that the free version doesn't support scheduled or timed recordings. Gasp, I'm even considering paying money for the full version to get that feature.

Windows Media Center 2005

[12/13/06] OK, I tried to set up my WMC computer again because my neighbor June wanted to borrow a computer and I remembered to try the fix that Vern emailed to me. And it worked.

In case the fix disappears from the web, here it is:

You may access the system registry by running the Registry Editor. To do that, simply go Start>Run and type "regedit" in the Run dialog box.

Once you are in the registry editor, you can navigate through the registry as you would for a regular windows directory.

To access the two specified keys, click on the following folders situated on the left hand side, in the specified order.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Class
{4D36E965-E325 -11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Once you have opened the last folder, you should see two keys on the right hand side ("Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters") which you may select and then delete by right clicking and selecting "Delete".

Alternatively, you could search for these keys instead of manually navigating to their locations. To do so, go Edit>Find and type either "Upperfilters" or "Lowerfilters" in the search field.

If you are unable to find these registry keys, it may be that they do not exist on your system. In such a case, this fix will probably not work for you.

[9/15/05] Maybe I should just build my own PVR [lifehacker link from Tricks and Trinkets]

[8/15/05] No, my WMC still ain't working right. When I tried to check the link to restore my DVD/CD drives, I see the link isn't active any more. I'm using it to try to try to troubleshoot my screwy DSL connection and I notice I don't see any network connections anywhere. Even after running the networking wizard, no My Network Connections (or whatever it is) appears. I think my best best is to try to get the DVD/CD drive working and restore the whole thing.

Maybe it's something like this problem mentioned at LockerGnome.

[5/2/05] The WinXPNews guys try out Windows Media Center 2005.

* * *

[10/19/04] So a few months after I get my Media Center and after weeks of frustration (the thing still ain't working right), Microsoft comes out with a 2005 edition (I got the review site from WinXPNews.)

It supports two things I missed in the 2004 version: the ability to save shows to DVD and support for watching one channel while recording another. I would have expected it to be in the beginning, since that's what a VCR does.

It states that HP will support the upgrade. I'll have to go look. But first I want to get my current one working.

How is it worked out so far? Not as well as I had hoped.

The first thing is the picture was very harsh. The tuner card puts out a overly bright picture that is harsh to the eyes. The harsh effect may be made worse by a slow frame rate.

Secondly, as mentioned above, it doesn't natively burn to DVD. There was an application that is supposed to do it, but it kept locking up while trying to edit the video. I finally was able to burn a DVD of a volleyball game. The picture looked OK, but the frame rate was annoyingly choppy.

After searching the internet, I plunked down $80 for CyberMedia Power Director which is supposed to import the propriety ms-dvr format and burn to DVD. But the thing wouldn't install.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&th=543170ce65235f18&rnum=5

After much mucking around, I got it to install by uninstalling that first application. Power Director would still seem to lock up but not as badly as the first app. So I finally was able to edit a video, but when I tried to burn the DVD, the DVD drive was missing on the system!

I think the DVD (and CD) drive was affecting by the uninstalling of the first program. I was able to get it recognized by deleting a couple of items from the registry, but then it disappeared again when I ran Power Director.

Ugh.

I think I'm going to try to partition the drive and install WMC from scratch. But first I have to create the install CDs since the system doesn't come with any.

Stay tuned.

* * *

11/28/04

I'm going to try to get the DVD drive working again. Except I don't remember exactly what I did to get it working the last time.

Looking on google again, I seem to recall it involved editing the lower filter on some registry key.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=058801c32e74%24916debd0%24a601280a%40phx.gbl

http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport/ccsearch/getdoc?doc=bph07162

See in particular step 8. I think I'll try that and see if the DVD drive reappears. Once I get to to reappear I will try to create the system restore CD drives. Then I will try partition the drive and install a fresh system to experiment on.

DSL connection problems

[8/7/05] There's something odd going on with my computer. All of a sudden it stopped connecting to the internet. I traced back the connection to the hub (which is connected to the DSL modem) and everything looks OK to me. I reset (unplugged and plugged back) the modem and hub. I hooked up one of my other computers to the hub (with a different cable) and it connected to the internet. So apparently the problem is either with the computer or the cable connected to the hub.

However when I connected the cable directly to the DSL modem, the connection worked. So evidently the cable and the computer are OK. Beats me what's going on.

I think the next thing I could try is to bring this computer over to where the other computer is and see if it connects using the same cable as the computer. If it doesn't then I'll know it's something odd going on with the computer. Funny though. It was working all this time.

[8/15/05 AM] It looks to me that it's a problem with Verizon. I tried two other computers using and not using the hub and they all had problems connecting eventually. I first suspected that Windows ME was at fault because my WMC computer seemed to connect better. But then later even that lost connection. As I'm typing this, I'm now (Monday AM) on a newly installed ME on my HP computer (on a new partition) and the connection has been working from about 3:00 AM to now (5:00 AM). It also worked about this time on Sunday morning, then died later that morning after I went back to sleep. I'm still getting only about 500 kpbs on the connection though. But I'll take it.

[8/15/05] Later that same morning, the verizon tech called, a nice lady named Raynella from California. My connection was still up when she called, but she ran some tests anyway. Everything looked OK from her end, but my speed seemed a little slow (like 600 kpbs). Then we switched to my other computer (Paula) and the speed ramped up to like 1.1 mbps. So my first computer became the suspect. But then the connection died again. Since the connection tested OK when we first tried, Raynella thought the problem was with my computers. But I maintained that wasn't necessarily the case since it would be unusual to have two computer having the same problem. (Not to mention my third (WMC) computer which I had tried earlier.)

Anyway, she agreed to send out a tech saying maybe it might be my modem. Scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Later that afternoon, the guy from Hawaiian Telcom surprisingly came early. (Another pleasant guy.) My DSL was still down. I told him the problem was intermittant and I hooked up WMC to show him. I think it worked at first but died a little later. He checked the line and it looked fine. But he went to retrieve his test modem and laptop to double-check. Luckily for me, the connection was dead on him too. So they can't blame my equipment any more. He made a call to the mainland. In the meantime, I hooked up his computer to WMC and tried. It didn't work. But while he was on hold (for quite a while), the connection finally took just before they answered his call. And I got pretty good speed from the infospeed and midco tests. Anyway they're going to try to change my circuit or rebuild my circuit (whatever that means) to see if that helps. I hope it works because I think we've eliminated the computers (the problem occured on three of my computers and the guy's laptop), the hub (the problem occurs even when plugged directly into the modem), the network cables (the problem occurs on both network cables that plugg into the modem), ZoneAlarm (if the connection works it also works with ZoneAlarm running) and the modem (the problem occured on his modem too). Don't know what else is left. Maybe the phone cord?

After the guy left, I plugged back my modem after it cooled off and still got no connection. So I don't think it's a overheated modem problem. I'm typing this on a dialup connection. Stay tuned.

[8/17/05]
connection seems to be working at 730 28,27 ms (ping)
slowing down again at 1030 68,69 ms w/ some time outs
but still connecting
1039 27 mixed with 69 trouble connecting (marginal)

[8/18/05]
302 - default gateway 4.16.84.1
getting 27,14,28,27,14,14 (good)
sleep
845am still looking good
851 spoke too soon, slow again
907 looks good again
908 bad again
913 ok again
915 bad again
1133 ok
1134 bad again
1146 ok
1149 bad
1152 ok
1154 bad
517 working
520 bad
628 working (yahoo is down)
down later

[8/19]
230 working fine
705 still good
nap
856 still good
1240 hey still working!

[9/15/05] So what was the problem? The Verizon guy was supposed to reset my connection or something. But when they called back a couple of days later, I still had the problem. I asked the tech guy who I asked how he would get an IP address. He said there were various ways and I told him I was using IPCONFIG. That seemed to trigger something and he told me to use IPCONFIG and ping the gateway. I was getting lost packets once in a while and the ping time was slow. After that he found that there were a lot of people with connection problems and they thought that the problem was an overloaded switch which was to be replaced. It seemed to get a little better after that but was still sporadic. Then a day or so after that, the problem went away. So it was a problem on their end after all.

The good news is when I called them to see if I could get credit for the lost service, their computer was down. So they're going to give me a month of credit (or was it two) when I was hoping for a week. I'll take it.

[4/20/10] - I don't think I ever got that credit

automated backup

I've been looking for backup program to do automatic backups at a scheduled time. Cobian Backup looks like it might fit the bill. Haven't tried it yet though.

[12/7/07] Replicator v3.5.3 - 2097 KB
Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen's Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network.

[11/22/09/frwr-news 3/6/09] EZBack-it-up is a personal file backup utility. It is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up includes a built-in scheduler, command-line switches, logging functionality, and more.

[11/26/09/frwr-news 11/18/09] FBackup is a free backup software for both personal and commercial use. It protects your important data by backing it up automatically to any USB/Firewire device, local or network location. The backed up data can be either compressed (using standard zip compression) or an exact copy of the original files.

[3/7/10 frwr_news] GFI Backup 2009 allows you to back up all your important documents, photos, music, emails and program settings using a simple but smart wizard-driven interface to nearly every storage device (including local and external disk drives, LAN, CD/DVD, removable devices, remote FTP servers, etc.). Download and use GFI Backup 2009 today - a FREE easy-to-use backup software solution, designed for secure backups of all your important data.

[3/15/10 frwr_news 2010-03-02] Handy Backup is an easy-to-use backup program, with user-friendly interface designed for automatic backup and synchronizing of critical data. Handy Backup copies, saves and restores your files, accidentally lost through system errors, hardware failures, viruses, laptop theft etc.

[7/4/10 frwr_news] Zback - portable backup and synchronize tool for Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista, Win7.

A community of scammers

In Festac Town, an entire community of scammers overnights on the Internet. By day they flaunt their smart clothes and cars and hang around the Internet cafes, trading stories about successful cons and near misses, and hatching new plots.

The eBay Way

[11/20/05] Kailua resident Mark Macowitz credits eBay for launching his Internet business after he turned the $3 purchase of a 1940s Duke Kahanamoku aloha shirt into $1,800 when he offered it for sale on the world's largest auction site. But now, after four years of selling on eBay, Macowitz, 41, has moved on. He sells his vintage Hawaiian shirts through his own Web store and only uses eBay to attract people to his site.

[8/14/05] Tiffany Tanaka, owner of Wesellthings4u, sells merchandise for people on eBay

DSL vs. cable

With all the problems I've been having with my internet connection (I'm suspecting more and more that it's Verizon that's at fault. It may have something to do with lowering my throughput to 500 Kbps since I'm on the cheapie package now. I used to get something like 1.3 Mbps on the mcafee speedometer).

I wondered perhaps maybe the problem was running Windows ME since my WMC computer seemed to perform better when I hooked it up. It looks like it meets system requirements, but then I ran across the verizon page comparing DSL to cable.

Naturally DSL beats cable in cost, but it lagged in probably three most important categories: performance & reliability, customer service, and email. Here's the results:

                                 Verizon  RoadRunner
cost                              *****      ***
billing                           *****      ****
image                             ****       ****
performance & reliability         ***        ****
customer service                  ***        ****
email                             ***        ****

hubs, switches, and routers

what's the difference?

(I encountered the above link while struggling with my DSL connection.)

clean up your system

[7/30/05] Windows automatically files great amounts of data on your hard drive that document your work and your usage of the internet. In time this data gets to be so large that it influences the efficiency of your system. Additionally, this data can be used by spyware programs to document your internet history and to accede to your personal data. Sweepi will help you find the unnecessary data quickly and safely destroy it.

I tried it and it sure wipes out a lot of stuff. It not only deletes temporary files, but old shortcuts, and cookies (hope you remember your passwords). So far I've found no problems after running it, but if you have trouble with your computer after using it, forget where you read this.

[10/5/05] Here's another one that sounds less drastic. And I like the sound of its name: Crap Cleaner (haven't tried it yet).

PC Wizard

PC WIZARD 2005 is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware.

PC WIZARD 2005 is also an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance.

The Ultimate Solution to Spyware

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/technology/17spy.html?8bl

On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.

How to remotely control another PC

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freeware-news/message/4571

Apparently the article originated from PC Magazine.

Beware of Anti-Spyware

Not only do you have to worry about spyware these days, you can now worry about anti-spyware!

- from Robin C via freeware-news

resetting a BIOS password

WXPNews has a link, but this site has much more

PrintMaster Express

PrintMaster Express is a Print Shop type program available free from Broderbund. (The link was from freeware news.)

I haven't actually tried it but it must be pretty good since the folks at Broderbund are known for high quality software. They were the original publishers of the Print Shop program I used to use on my Apple II. They are now the publishers of both the Print Shop and PrintMaster (I think they bought it from somebody else). I guess that's one way to corner the market.

Introduction to JavaScript (and Java too)

This was from a link given in freeware news. But it looks like fortunecity has taken down CosmoSoft's page. (Or maybe Cosmo himself took it off.)

Anyway, the text is here at another site on fortune city. And also here.

And while I'm at it, here's a free online textbook, Introduction to Programming Using Java.

[7/16/05] more at tech books for free

ActiveX

What do you need ActiveX for?

Programming Jobs Losing Luster in U.S.

As an eager freshman in the fall of 2001, Andrew Mo's career trajectory seemed preordained: He'd learn C++ and Java languages while earning a computer science degree at Stanford University, then land a Silicon Valley technology job.

The 22-year-old Shanghai native graduated this month with a major in computer science and a minor in economics. But he no longer plans to write code for a living, or even work at a tech company.

holographic data storage

What's after Blu-Ray? It could be holographic data storage.

It promises to store up to 1.5 terabytes (equivalent to 320 DVDs). But here's the problem, "data storage times for most materials available for HDS have ranged from a few thousandths of a second to a few days -- at most".

configure gmail to work with Outlook Express

http://www.winxpnews.com/?id=178

free auctions at Yahoo!

Yahoo will no longer charge fees for people auctioning off stuff at their site. What does this mean? This means eBay was trouncing them and they hope this will drive traffic up at their portal.

For the consumer this is good news for the buyer. More people will put stuff up for sale so the buyer should be able to find more of what they were looking for. And they will should getting items at a better price than at eBay since they will still have far fewer bidders driving up the prices.

Here's more.

Fujitsu M2682TAU

Hard drive specifications:

cylinders: 992
heads: 11
sectors: 63
WPcom: 0
LZone: 0

This is a 351.98 MB hard drive. The one I have was manufactured in Thailand in 1995-05.

Star Wars: Revelations

The "homemade" Star Wars movie

The question now is how can I see it?

elitum.elitebar

This was a annoying virus/trojan which kept coming back despite removing it with spybot and ad-aware.

It was finally eradicated by going to google and finding this post which referred to the EliteToolbar Remover.

After running it in safe mode, ran ad-aware, spybot, and NAV (three times) to remover the last vestiges of it.

[9/4/06 frwr-news] Here's another one, El.Toolbar Killer

The Digital Packrat

A project by Microsoft, MyLifeBits, aims to digitally capture a lifetime of stuff.

resetting TCP/IP

WinXPNews passes on this tip in case the TCP/IP stack gets corrupted in XP.

I think I may have tried this before though and it didn't work. I wound up using some utility I found on the internet to reset it.

[5/5/05] Here it is on my hard drive. The utility is called WinsockXPFix and can be found here.

[8/19/05] LSP-Fix is another one to try

Mini Arcade

An online museum of handheld video games

- from Tricks and Trinkets #340

connecting to "invisible" computers

How to Connect to a Computer on your Network that you can't "See" in My Network Places

You're probably used to connecting to shares on other computers on your local network by opening the "browse list" in My Network Places and clicking on the name of the computer to which you want to connect. But did you know that you can still connect to shares on a computer that doesn't show up in My Network Places? You do this using the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path. Here's how:

Click Start, Run.
In the Run box, type the following: \\[computer]\[share]
In this example, "[computer]" should be the computer name or IP address of the computer to which you want to connect, and "[share]" should be the name of the shared folder on that computer that you want to access.

- from WinXP News 149

Usenet Timeline

20 years of Usenet

more google options

google is also a calculator, dictionary, phonebook,

The Evolution of a Programmer

http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/The_Evolution_of_a_Programmer.html

- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #332