Brought to you each week by
the 84 Online Team, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana
region.
84 Online is broadcast live
each Sunday from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT) on WHAS radio, 840 AM. You may call the show directly during
this time period at 502-571-8484 or toll free at 1-800-444-8484. You may also interact with the team
online by visiting www.84online.com and
clicking on Chat Room. IRC users
can access the room through server ucanweb.com, channel #84online. Chat hours match the show on Sunday and
generally some of the members are in weeknights from 8:00 to 9:00 PM
EDT.
Vol. 1, No.
7
5-29-01
The World Wide Web is rife with all manner of advertisements, from the ubiquitous ad banners on websites to downright annoying pop-up windows. While this commercial onslaught is excruciatingly bothersome unfortunately it’s also necessary. Many free services are supported solely through ad revenue and those banners and pop-ups pay the bills.
Basically you’re better off ignoring the things than you would be if you installed one of the multitudes of ad-blocking programs available on the web. Blocking the ads keeps websites from getting paid for page views and in the long run could result in a pay-as-you-go Internet.
That said there are some ads that should without a doubt be outlawed. Most ads are readily identifiable but some companies format their ads to look like Windows error messages. Probably most prevalent of these is the one that exclaims “Warning” and advising “Your Internet Connection Is Not Optimized.” This ad has a gray background with a blue bar across the top, which includes icons for Minimize, Restore and Close, just like a standard Windows dialog box.
Clicking anywhere on this box takes you to the Internet Boost homepage, one of a family of software offerings from Bonzi.com. Bonzi, of course, is home to Bonzi Buddy, probably the most resource hogging do-nothing application known to man. Internet Boost claims to dramatically speed up any Internet connection by adjusting some obscure registry entries like MaxMTU and RWIN. For this service they ask users to buy their software for $30. They even sport a blurb stating that the regular price is $55.
There are two problems with this approach. First off it smacks of the same kind of misleading information that Publisher’s Clearing House was recently convicted of. While PCH was found to have mislead mail recipients into believing they had won millions, Bonzi purposely misleads surfers into believing that Windows is telling them that they need this software.
Secondly there are freeware programs that will do the same thing (like EasyMTU from http://members.tripod.com/~EasyMTU/ ) as well as literally hundreds of websites that offer instructions for making these changes manually.
Bonzi aims to mislead inexperienced users into buying software that they don’t really need by making them think the Windows program itself is directing them to do so. In my thinking that’s just plain wrong.
Many States’ Attorneys General went after PCH. Perhaps it’s time they started paying attention to the Internet as well?
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Download
of the Week
A Free Registry Cleaner
RegClean is a free utility
from Microsoft that’s designed to remove errors from the Windows 9x/NT
Registry. These errors usually
consist of corrupted, unused or unnecessary information. The program scans your Registry for
problems and provides you with the option of canceling or automatically fixing
the errors. It creates an Undo.reg
file in the RegClean folder; double-clicking on the file in Explorer reverses
the deletions or modifications and returns the values to the Registry. Although RegClean is designed to improve
the state of your Registry, it intentionally errs on the side of caution (better
safe than sorry, I guess), and leaves many questionable entries behind. You can get RegClean from download.com
.
Some of the debris that clutters your system’s hard drive are orphaned DLL files. A DLL file (Dynamic Link Library) is a small file that tells a program how to function within the Windows operating system. While DLL files are small, deleting one that is shared with another program can be disastrous. We always recommend that you do not remove any shared DLL files when uninstalling programs you no longer need. I think a nice companion to RegClean is “DLL Archive” from AnalogX. As with all of the programs from this site, this utility is small and simple to use, just click search and let it do its thing. Once done, you’ll be presented with a list of all the DLL files that don’t have references in the system. Then just select which ones you think aren’t necessary anymore and archive them. If you archive a DLL by mistake, it can be restored from the archive. No files are deleted until you actually delete them. You can download DLL Archive from http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm .
Art Maley
AOL Tip
of the Week
You're online, surfing,
reading email, chatting, etc. And up pops an annoying IM or Buddy Chat Invite (a
form of IM) with "Click here xxxxxxxxxxxx". DON’T do
it!
You can prevent those you
don't know from IMing you by using the Buddy List Privacy Setup features, and
still receive IM’s from those you want to hear
from.
* Click on "Setup" on your
AOL Buddy List. Click on "Preferences" (if using 4.0 / 5.0, click on
"Privacy").
* In the window that opens,
you will be given a choice of options. In the top list, select which one you
want to use.
* At the lower part of the
window, select if you want these options to apply to just the Buddy List, or to
IM’s and the Buddy List.
* The best choice, for most
members, is "Allow only the people at the right". Be sure to list the screen
names of all AOL and AIM users that you want to be able to receive IM’s from in
the window to the right. You can add to or delete from this list at any
time.
* Be sure to Click
"Save"
·
Remember, if you select
"Block All", you will not be able to receive or send IM’s -- anyone trying to IM
you will receive a message that you are not signed
on.
Also, if you
receive an IM or Buddy Chat Invite with an obviously vulgar or threatening
message (or link), you should report it to AOL. At the bottom of the window you
will see "Notify AOL". Click on that and it will be promptly reported to
AOL.
Red
Windows
Tiplet of the Week
Do you have a CDRW, Zip, Jazz or other large removable media drive? Wouldn’t it be nice to move important files to those drives with just a couple of clicks? You can, and it’s easy. Just add them to the “Send to” menu! Open My Computer and right click on the appropriate drive letter. Choose Send to, then Desktop as Shortcut. For CDRW drives you must have a packet writing program active (such as DirectCD or Prassi ABCD) and a CDRW disk in the drive (CD-R disks won’t work). Once you have shortcuts to all the drives you want, hold down the <Ctrl> key and click once on each of them, then right click on any of them and choose Copy. Then open My Computer again, open the C: drive and scroll to Windows and open the SendTo folder. Right click any blank space in that window and click Paste.
Now you can right click on any file and choose Send to and the drives you just added will be listed. This will even work with folders on your hard drive!
Email
Question of the Week
Q: Bob, I really enjoy your Sunday
afternoon show; it’s very helpful and there's nothing else on TV or radio
that compares. You recently discussed protectors for surges and brownouts,
would you mind to recommend 1 or 2.
Thanks.
A: In recent months, battery
backups (UPS’s, or uninterruptible power supplies) have come down in price an
incredible deal ... compared to a year or two ago, they are plain dirt-cheap
now. I strongly recommend that you go with a UPS rather than a plain surge
protector for several reasons:
1) Many computer problems
can be caused by brownouts, not just surges. A battery backup protects you
from both.
2) A battery backup, even if
it only lasts for a few minutes, gives you an opportunity to save your work and
shut down properly.
3) A really good quality
surge protector should cost you at least $30 ... I paid around $50 for
mine. You can now occasionally find battery backups in the sale catalogs
for as little as $29.95 after rebate.
For surge
protectors (not battery backups) the most important thing to look at is the
Joule rating. This determines how big of a surge it can protect
against. I recommend 1000 joules at the absolute bare minimum. 1600
joules or higher is a good, safe number.
As for
battery backups, you shouldn't have to worry about the joule rating because they
all should have sufficient surge protection. However, you need to be
careful to choose one that supplies enough power for your computer. You
should check on the box of the battery backup to see if it will support your
computer and monitor for a reasonable amount of time. Most of them will
have a table. The monitor is the main determinant in the length of time
that you should get; if you have a 15" monitor, a 250VA UPS may do the
trick. I would recommend at least a 300VA UPS if you have a 17" monitor,
and a 500VA UPS if you have a 19" monitor.
As for
the brand, for surge protectors, I strongly stand behind Belkin. They make
excellent products. When it comes to battery backups, APC is the most well
known brand. However, I have had excellent luck with all the brands in
local stores now. I pretty have a UPS from every brand in local stores
now, and they all work excellent. I honestly would just look for the best
deal.
Kyle
Harmon
If you have tech support
questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please email them to bob@iglou.com .
Copyright 2001, The 84
Online Team. All rights
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Information provided in this
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