Welcome to the 84 Online Newsletter

 

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 nightly from 8:00 to 10:00 PM EDT. 

Vol. 2, No. 44     

 

Back to tech news this week, with news of changes at Microsoft, an investigation of ties between the RIAA and Nazi Germany and some good news on the political front.

 

Those of you that still use Windows 98 or ME will notice a drastic change the next time you visit the Windows Update site.  Microsoft has migrated all of its supported operating systems to v.4 of the update applet to normalize the process.  If you’ve seen the website on XP you’ll know what to expect.

 

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) has announced that they will no longer publish ANY music CDs (other than in the US) without copyright protection.  It would seem that the EU will be the proving ground for ye old Cactus Data Shield technology prior to a full roll out that will include us Yanks.  This story from http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27960.html includes some hilarious excerpts from the response from BMG if you ask about this issue, including “The copy protection yet does not recognize wheather that burner technics is build in a cd player or in a burner. That's why the cd playern might not play a copy protected CD. Since burner technics are also built in car radios, this may be the reason, why you can't listen to a copyprotected cd in your car.”  The typos are in the original response from BMG.  Can you say “Greedy illiterate bastards”?  I thought so.

 

On a related note, Email editor Matt Dattilo stumbled across http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=340907 a few weeks ago.  His comments:  “According to The Independent, a British newspaper, the British gov't conspired to cover up Bertelsmann's Nazi ties during WWII. Bertelsmann's owns BMG, one of the largest record companies on the planet and one of the big players behind the RIAA. So, in summation: Nazis=>BMG=>RIAA”

 

On yet another related note, http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993020 says that copy protection on CDs is “worthless.”  Computer scientist John Halderman of Princeton thinks that it is “fundamentally misguided” and that software upgrades will “permanently undermine the usefulness of audio CD copy prevention.”

 

And for the really good news, Ed Engelking passes along http://www.msnbc.com/news/831476.asp, which heralds the death knell of Fritz Hollings (D-Disney) as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce committee.  His likely replacement is John McCain (R-Arizona), who has voiced reservations about Fritz’s extreme approach to Digital Rights Management  (see http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/cat_fritzs_hit_list.html).     

 

Since I don’t want to seem obsessive over the RIAA and MPAA attempts to break all of your electronic appliances (do I seem obsessive?) let’s talk about last week’s issue.

 

I recommended downloading and running the free utility from http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_mess_disable.htm to disable Windows Messaging on your XP machines.  Email this week suggests that some readers thought this would block Pop-Up ads.  Just to clear things up, this program WILL NOT block Pop-Up ads in your browser, nor will it filter offensive Spam.  This program only disables the relatively new ability of spammers to send Pop-Up messages to your PC when you don’t have your browser open.  As with all security/privacy programs, it’s not a panacea.  It’s just another tool like ZoneAlarm, IDCide, Ad-Aware, MailWasher, TheCleaner, POW and the antivirus program of your choice that will help you block offensive and bandwidth wasting security risks like Pop-Ups, Trojans, Viruses and Spyware.

 

We’ve discussed the “layered approach” to computer security ad-nauseum and the XP Messenger Disable program is just a new weapon to add to your arsenal. 

 

Arm yourselves and thanks for listening J

 

Kevin Mefford, Editor

84online@microdome.net

 

Download of the Week

 

Agreement! At Last!

 

You know, when Bob Sokoler and I get together at the sprawling Chez Sokoler high atop a bluff overlooking the majestic Ohio River, we seldom agree about anything.  He likes Norton’s, I like Panda Platinum; he likes AOL, I hate AOL; he likes Margaret Dumont, I like Cameron Diaz.

Imagine my delight, when I saw Bob touting MailWasher on a recent TV appearance!  Finally, we have found common ground.

 

A few months ago, I reviewed Spam Eater Pro, a $24.95 program that did a nice job fighting SPAM.  MailWasher accomplishes the same goal for FREE!  MailWasher is a program designed to remove Spam, viruses and unwanted attachments from your e-mail before they get to your computer. MailWasher connects to your e-mail server then retrieves and displays information about the e-mails waiting for you. Aided by Mail Washer’s inbuilt processing tools you can then decide what to do with each individual E-mail; download, delete, or bounce it back to the sender.

 

MailWasher deletes unwanted messages at the server, without downloading them - or it can bounce E-mail back to the sender so that it looks as though your address is not valid, making the spammers think you don't exist.  MailWasher is available here: http://www.mailwasher.net/.  When you click to download the program you will be given the choice to get the newest beta version or the last general release version.  I have been running the beta version on a system using Windows XP SP1, without any issues at all.

OK, since MailWasher is free I thought you might want to explore some other free programs and files.  Take a look at the stockpile of stuff here: http://www.thefreesite.com/.  As always, be sure to virus scan any files you download before you open them. 

 

Subscribers’ Bonus:  CAUTION:  This may be too steamy for some of you, http://www.geekculture.com/culture/erotica/erotocam.html.

 

Art Maley

artman@insightbb.com

 

Windows Tip of the Week

 

We’ve covered the procedures for formatting and reloading Windows many times in the past and the toughest part has always been how to find drivers for your hardware (modem, video card, sound card etc.).  A recent Langalist (www.langa.com) newsletter featured an email from a reader that suggested a backup utility called WinDriversBackup.  This is probably one of the most useful utilities I’ve ever seen.  It will back up all of the drivers for your system to one folder, which you can then burn to CD, copy to Zip drive or otherwise save to a convenient location.  After you get Windows reinstalled you just access that folder and reload all the drivers.  Get it at http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm.

 

Email Question of the Week

 

Q:  I have been trying to run a thorough Scan Disk on my computer and it says:  Scan Disk has restarted 10 times because windows or another program has been writing to this drive. Quitting some running programs may enable Scan Disk to finish sooner.  Do you want to continue receiving this warning?  Then, I click yes and the warning comes on every 10 minutes, I say no and it runs for 8 hours or so and doesn't finish.  Can you please tell me what to do?

 

A:  I am glad to hear you are using Scandisk on your PC.  What many people don't realize is that there are a few very simple things you can do to your computer to help keep it running better and faster. Scandisk and
Defragmenter are the two that top the list. Although, in order for scan disk and defrag to work more effectively you have to make sure there are no
programs running either on the desktop or in the background.
 
There are 2 ways to make sure no programs are running:
 
METHOD 1.
Before you start the scan disk, give the ole 3 finger salute, which means...press the "CTRL, ALT, and DELETE" keys at the same time and when the task box pops up, kill any program that's running by highlighting the program and clicking "END TASK." The only thing you want left in that box is "EXPLORER" and "SYSTRAY", so don't kill these items in the box.
 
Now make sure you do not have ANY screensaver turned on, and for good measure, I always make sure that my hard drive does not go to sleep. You can check both of these items by "Right Clicking" anywhere on your desktop and go to "PROPERTIES." You turn off screen saver and keep your hard drive from going to sleep in there.
 
METHOD 2.
The best way to run scandisk and defrag is by starting your PC in safe mode and run them. By starting in safe mode, you are automatically killing any background programs (which are called TSR's). But you still have to make sure there are no screensavers turned on or your hard drive is not set to go to sleep.
 
You can get to safe mode very easily in two different ways.
 
A. Power on your machine or if it is already on, reboot your PC and watch the start up screens VERY closely. When you see the line that says "VERIFYING DMI POOL INFORMATION" press the "F8" key on your
keyboard a couple of times. This will bring you to a boot option screen where you can choose to boot up in safe mode.
 
B. Here's a trick I learned long ago when I am having trouble getting to Safe Mode. Take a regular "Non-Bootable" floppy disk and stick it in your floppy
drive and turn on your PC. Now sit back and wait for your computer to display a message that reads "Non-Systems Disk, Please insert a bootable disk and press any key to continue" or something to that affect. When
you see the message, eject the disk from your floppy drive and then press the F8 as the "ANY KEY TO CONTINUE." This will throw the PC to the boot up option screen and you can choose "SAFE MODE" from there.
 

Matt Mercurio

mgmercurio@insightbb.com

 

Contact info and legal stuff

 

If you have tech support questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please email them to bob@iglou.com.

 

Copyright 2002, The 84 Online Team.  All rights reserved.  Publication, rebroadcast or storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and B) no fee is charged.

 

Information provided in this publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.  Although the information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL systems.  Make use of any information supplied at your own risk.

 

The 84 Online Team is a group of volunteers who provide support for the 84 Online radio broadcast.  Team members are not directly affiliated with nor employed by Clear Channel Communications or WHAS.  Views and opinions voiced in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views held by Clear Channel or WHAS.

 

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