PETE'S SOMETIME
NEWSLETTER
May 17, 2000
No matter where you go, there you
are
Hi Ya'll,
Boy! That last newsletter got a tad heavy, didn't
it? I think you'll find this one a lot better.
Last minute
additions
If you haven't installed the Windows security fix
"scriptlet.typelib/Eyedog", DO IT NOW.
Click here to see
why, then click the second link at the top of that page to install the
fix.
On May 22, Microsoft will release a security patch for Outlook
98/2000 (not Outlook Express). If you use this program,
click
here to read about and decide whether you want to install the
patch.
Recommended Free
ISP - Windows only
I can now recommend WorldSpy if you're looking for a free ISP
without a floating ad bar. They've removed the debugging pages, which
makes the connection process much cleaner and faster. The time now from
clicking desktop icon to browser opening is 46-56 seconds with modem connecting
at 50,666bps (which is the usual speed I get on my phone line with my 56K v.90
Win-modem), and hang up speed is down to 2 seconds (time required to
close browser and click a Disconnect and an Exit button on a panel
that appears when the browser is closed.)
Thumbnail recap of my evaluation:
-
Consider WorldSpy as a replacement for your paid ISP, or
as an unobtrusive backup in case your ISP crashes or suddenly goes out of
business.
-
There is no ad bar to sit on top of what you're trying to see,
and which takes up a big chunk of screen and has to be constantly clicked
to keep your connection alive.
-
They do NOT monitor your connection for keyboard or mouse
activity, so you're free to start a long download and go to dinner without
fear of being disconnected because of "inactivity."
-
They do NOT attempt to track your Web movements like so many
other free ISP's do (NetZero and AltaVista, for example.)
-
When you dial up, you get taken to their Home page, but
they haven't messed with your browser in any way, so as soon as their
page starts to display, hit Esc and click on your
Home Page icon to go to the site at which you're used to starting your
browsing.
-
Their e-mail system is POP3. It can be
accessed from the Internet (
http://mail.worldspy.net)
and/or by using an e-mail client such as Outlook Express (and many other
Microsoft mail handling programs), Netscape, Eudora, Pegasus.
-
Possible downside: Only one e-mail account, no newsgroup
access, no Web page storage.
Sign up at
http://www.worldspy.com/freeisp/isp.asp.
Before beginning the sign up process, be sure to read the system requirements
and the rest of the items on the left side panel. Allow yourself
about 30 minutes to complete the download, install, register, and e-mail
set up process.
Why Use A Separate
Free E-Mail Account
A POP3 (Post Office Protocol, Version 3) e-mail account
independent of any ISP allows you to have a consistant email
address. It matters not what ISP you're using at the moment.
All your mail goes to the same address, and you fetch it with Outlook Express or
other POP3 compliant program, just as you would mail delivered to your
ISP.
When you're on vacation (and have access to a computer) you
can read your mail from the Internet. All mail you don't delete, and
leave in the account's Inbox, will still be on the server when you get home and
fire up your Outlook Express.
The Dark side: Your allotted server space
is small, maybe 2, 3, or 4 megabytes. If you get a lot of mail, and
can't get it off the server while you're on vacation, your space limit may be
reached in a couple of days and they may refuse to accept any more mail for
you. If that happens, mail senders will be notified
their mail couldn't be delivered because your mailbox was full.
The Bright side: You may be able to reconfigure the
account to automatically forward all mail to your ISP mailbox, which is usually
of essentially unlimited size. But, from my experience with Yahoo, this is only
about 98% reliable. Occasionally I'd receive only headers - the message body
would be missing. This happened with both HTLM and plain text mesages which,
oddly, were sent from particular addresses; everything else was forwarded
just fine.
WorldSpy
Update
If you're considering giving WorldSpy a try, you may want to
read
this
article by a crystall ball reading firm which thinks all, or nearly
all, on-line only retailers will go bankrupt within two years.
But, if you keep your prime e-mail account elsewhere, does it
matter? If you do use WorldSpy, and their spy glass breaks, there are
scads of other free ISP's to jump to -- no one is predicting the demise of those
-- and you can do so at a moment's notice because there are no "Change of
Address" notices to send, or sites to visit to update Registration and
Newsletter e-mail addresses.
PESKY AOL 5 DIAL-UP
BUG
Even if you don't use AOL and never intend to, I still suggest
reading this item and the linked article at the bottom. Together they
are a good illustration of how one program can step all over another one,
and they may give you some remediatory hints if something similar happens to you
in the future.
From TipWorld "Bug of the Day" 4/19/2000:
"Much has been made recently of AOL 5's alleged interference with other
ISPs when multiple accounts from multiple ISPs exist on a single computer. While
not all the alleged problems exist on all machines, Bugnet (with the assistance
of KeyLabs) has discovered what it believes to be an actual bug in the AOL
software, version 5. Even though you may not have AOL set as your system's
default Web and e-mail service, when you obtain a TCP/IP or PPP connection to
any service provider, AOL invariably asks, 'Would you like to start AOL now?' If
you choose Yes, your system generates a blue error screen and crash. At that
point, you have to reboot.
"Bugnet offers the solution of turning off AOL's Auto Start
options. Right-click the AOL icon in your system tray and select AOL Auto Start
Options. Click the button indicating that you wish to disable all Auto Start
Options. Click OK."
For more information, check out Bugnet's article
"AOL Found Unruly But
Not Reprehensible". Even if you don't have any problems with AOL 5.0
now and/or you're not a Prodigy user, I strongly suggest reading this article,
as its information may keep you out of trouble in the future.
Love Bug
Updates
So far, one reader in N. Calif. (or 8.33% of last
Newsletter's readers) reports having received ILOVEYOU or a variant.
Look
here for short descriptions of all the Love Bug variants (29 reported
as of May 9).
Friendmess (Friend Message) is a new LoveBug variant, but
different enough that it's considered a new virus (actually a worm) in its own
right. Spread by e-mail only. Subject: FRIEND MESSAGE.
Attachment: FRIEND_MESSAGE.TXT.vbs. If the attachment is opened, it writes
instructions to AUTOEXEC.BAT to delete all files in C:\WINDOWS and
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directories. The next time you turn on your
computer (or reboot) AUTOEXEC.BAT is executed as part of the boot process before
Windows is started, and ...
BOOM!
No more Windows. And after you reinstall Windows and reapply all the
Windows, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express updates, you'll find many of your
programs won't work because one or more pieces of them were installed in
those folders. Details on this
Symantec
(Norton) AntiVirus Center page.
In The
News
Parkinson's
disease: People exposed to bug sprays in the home and garden
may have a higher risk of Parkinson's disease.
To Windows or Not
To Windows
Windows Me (Windows Millenium edition) will be on store shelves
in July or August. This will be the end of the Windows 95/98 line.
The next "new" Windows, code name "Whistler", will be out in 12 - 18 months
after that. It will be a merge of Windows 2000 (previously Windows
NT) and Windows Me, and come in consumer and industrial strength versions.
The big question: Keep what you have, upgrade to Windows
Me, or wait for an unproven new model. Microsoft is saying that
Windows Me is more stable than Windows 98, but not as stable as Windows 2000,
but that since the core code of "Whisler" will be the Windows 2000 core,
consumer "Whistler" should be very stable.
If you're still running Windows 95, it's obvious you don't jump
on each new upgrade since "it still works." However, you may want to
consider moving to Windows 98 or Windows Me. I have an uneasy feeling that
support for Win 95 will fade away rather quickly. Right now, Microsoft has
to issue some fixes and security updates in separate Win 95 and Win 98 versions,
and with Win Me coming on line, that will mean three not totally compatible
versions of consumer Windows to support. Just as users of Windows 3.x have
been left to fend for themselves, I think users of Windows 95 will soon be in
the same boat.
You can see the writing on the wall by looking at Internet
Explorer. IE 5 has been out for only a year or so, and already support for
IE 4 is dying. Microsoft released a security fix a few months ago, but the
only way to get it was to upgrade to IE 5.01 because the fix only existed as
part of the IE 5.01 code.
To be fair, not all fixes can be applied as patches.
Sometimes a fix can only be done by rewriting part of the program,
and apparently Microsoft decided not to spend the time and money to create
another version of IE 4. Sooner or later, another security patch will be
released which needs the IE 5.01 code to work, and at that point I suspect
Microsoft will officially halt all further support for IE 4. And
conceivably at some point, Internet Explorer, probably Vers 6, will require
a minimum of Win 98. When (if) that happens, you'll know support has been
dropped for Win 95.
But before you say, "You've got a point there, Pete. Maybe I
will move up to Windows Me", I think I read somewhere that either Windows Me or
"Whistler" will be a strictly 32-bit operating system, so read the box
before you buy it. A strict 32-bit OS won't run any Windows 3.x
programs (16-bit programs), and it won't have DOS, so DOS programs and
games can't be run either. When DOS does go away, I'm really going to miss
CHKDSK (Start, Run "chkdsk"). It's the only program I've found which gives
me a rapid true report of available disk space.
Disneyland
Memories - Mine (& Yours?)
Lunch
at Tahitian Terrace: Broiled Teriyaki Steak meal $3.25, Coffee $0.15,
Iced Tea $0.25 (surcharge for ice machine water & electricity?)
Rare Northern
Lights
Brushfires in
the Sky. On the night of April 6-7, over most of the Northern
hemisphere, the sky turned red; in the U.S. as far south as Florida. I
happened to be outside about 11pm that night, but didn't see a thing - too much
light pollution. Visit this site to see some fantastic photos taken from
Italy to Alaska. Oh - do NOT click on the prominent link to the Photo
Gallery; that will jump you to the bottom of the page and you'll miss all the
interesting explanatory stuff in the middle.
Most
Unusual
Is it a Greenhouse? Gazebo? Place for Meditation or Mint
Julep sipping? It's a
T
house! Look here to
see what it is. You'll one-up your neighbor big time with one of
these most unusual items in your garden or backyard.
Misc
Alarm
Clock, a San Francisco-based e-magazine about the intersection of culture
and technology.
SatireWire
e-magazine. New Economy journalists make fun of themselves. "In
consumer terms: We give business the business. In corporate terms: we leverage
our platform-agnostic satirical skillset to facilitate enterprise-wide cynicism
of the new economic paradigm." (Mature nature, rated R-18.)
Busy
cooks: Fairly easy, mostly short prep time, recipes.
USB 2.0 On The
Way: Updated ports that run 40 times as fast as first generation USB
could appear in PCs this year. Look for scanners with USB 2.0 next year -
they should be pretty zippy.
Intel®
Processor Frequency ID Utility, a downloadable Intel program that will
verify (or not) the Intel CPU in your machine is the Model, Speed, and Cache
size the salesman or advertisement said it was.
DSL Lookup
Service will tell you whether DSL is available for your phone number,
maximum possible transmisssion speed, providers, costs, customer reviews
(be sure to read them for possible problems with providers.)
Incredible
Exploding Whale. News footage demonstrates how
not to dispose
of a whale which died in your front yard. 11.2MB QuickTime movie.
How fast is your modem? TIP: Start download at bedtime. In morning,
make "Movies" folder in My Documents folder. FIND whale*.mov. MOVE
it to Movies folder. Rename it if desired. Download free QuickTime
player
from here if you don't have it. Double-click
whale.mov when ready to watch the show.
Why Your Next
Computer will have at least a 1-GigaHertz or better CPU, 3 50-GigaByte
disks, 7 speaker Dolby surround sound, 21" monitor.
Why we NEED
Optical Computers. Electronic computers just won't cut the mustard
much longer. The Internet's expansion of almost 15% per Month demands
faster speeds and larger bandwidths than electronic circuits can provide.
"... a calculation that might take a conventional electronic computer more than
eleven years to complete could be performed by an optical computer in a single
hour." (Bet the Gov & Military code breakers get the 1st ones.)
Okay,
What the heck is a Quantum Computer? Cryptographer types are
saying those are needed to provide truly unbreakable codes. Is the optical
computer's speed required in order to design one and run simulations to see
whether a quantum computer would actually work?
Now, That's
Pretty! Click on the blue picture to watch the sun blow up as the
planets move into alignment.
I didn't have time to take the long "IQ Test", but did take the
short "Coffee Test." I totally disagree with their
interpretation.
And Now For Something Entirely
Different
Start
here and click the
Forward icon 5 times to view the series,
And
As always, your mileage may vary.
'Til next
time,
Pete
If my musings don't interest you, or you want them sent to a
different address, have feedback, etc., just hit the REPLY button and I'll make
it so.