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Vol. 6, No. 34
8-18-06
1 Dell fire hazard
2 Recall
3 Microsoft playlist, ICANN vs. UN, patching a patch, Live Long and Google
4 Process Library
5 Mac password recovery
After three weeks of weirdness with blocked newsletters, unrequested subscription cancellations and a ton of email, here’s to week one of regained stability.
One noticeable change is the new auto unsubscribe feature at http://thepcgurus.com/mailman/listinfo/team_thepcgurus.com, extended testing of which led to a days delay in this week’s missive. In the past I’ve always removed readers manually when they requested it since the number was so small but, to meet the anti-spam requirements of some ISPs, we’ve had to add the automated option.
Once on the page (which handles many functions for the website and team members as well as newsletter duties) scroll to the bottom and you’ll see a button labeled “Unsubscribe or edit options”. Type your email in the field to the left of that button and then click it and you’ll be taken to a page where you can change your options for the web site, unsubscribe from the newsletter and get a password reminder if you’ve forgotten your site login info.
Just as our subscribe process is double opt-in (meaning you sign up on the web site and then click a link in a confirmation email to complete the subscription), the unsubscribe process is a double opt-out. Once you enter your email address and click the unsubscribe button you’ll get a confirmation email with a link to click to confirm.
With that out of the way, how about some real news?
Dell this week announced that they were recalling some 4.1 million batteries due to the possibility of explosion and fire. The batteries, manufactured by Sony, have so far resulted in six actual incidents in the past year of blowing up and setting surrounding materials on fire.
Given last year’s rootkit fiasco, the $600 PS3 and the outright lies about Blu-Ray movie availability (http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/sony-lied%2C-blu+ray-died/) one wonders if Sony can do anything right.
The volatile batteries were included in machines sold between April 2004 and July 2006 and include the following models:
Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810
Inspiron: 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705
XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, XPS M1710
Precision: M20, M60, M70, M90
You can check to see if your Dell product is affected by visiting https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/batterymodels.aspx or calling 1-866-342-0011.
Until you check out your status, DO NOT use a Dell laptop on your lap! I’d hate to lose readers to… well, let’s just leave that alone.
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Ever since
rumors began that Zune would come preloaded with some
tunes and videos, we've
been wondering what Microsoft's music taste is
like. And now we
know:
http://www.stuffmag.co.uk/hotstuffarticle.asp?de_id=2205
The
US government has renewed its contract with the Internet
Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for managing
top-level technical functions
for the internet. The UN, in an
emergency meeting, threatened to
threaten to do something about it at
some point in the future:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2162519/government-renews-icann
Microsoft
on Thursday issued a "hotfix" for a fault in a security
patch designed to
correct a flaw already being targeted by worms. In
other words, a fix
for a fix:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6107191.html
Finally,
a little levity on a Friday---Google Founders Argue Over Who
Gets Star Trek
Booth on Company Jet:
http://oraclewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/08/18/12537.aspx
Copy
us on the good stuff, especially mindless rumors about crazy rich kids
;-)
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
When we look at Windows Task Manager's processes tab, we see all of the running processes on your machine. Most of us don't have a clue as to what some of the entries are. We used to recommend a site called www.blackviper.com to find out which processes were necessary and which ones could be closed, but that site has been dead for some time now.
Not to worry, I've found a tool that could help. "Process Library Quick Access Info Bar" will help you identify processes run silently in the background. Armed with information, you can protect your PC from resource hogs, privacy-violating spyware, and Trojan horses that give hackers carte blanche on your system.
This Windows Task Manager plug-in provides process information and advice from ProcessLibrary.com, a free online knowledge Web site that's home to over 9000 process definitions. It's free at this location:
http://www.processlibrary.com/
Note: Last week's link had some errors and I apologize; here is a working link to "Starter":
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/starter.html
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: Guys, I have a business customer who
uses Macs and he has a database
he can't open. It seems he had an employee
resign and he changed the
password before he left, now nobody knows it. I
believe the file was
created with Filemaker Pro. Any of you Mac types know of
a way to
crack that out?
A: There is a password manager in OSX
called Keychain. It stores passwords so that one doesn't have to keep
typing it in. The Keychain app has a good feature that one can recover
passwords from it if you know the
master password which is usually the
password for that account or an
admin password. I have used it before
to recover passwords for websites
that I use once in a blue moon.
The
app is called Keychain Access and it is under Applications/utilities. Open
Keychain Access and do a spotlight search for Filemaker Pro or scan through the
whole list. Double click the item when found and click on the show
password checkbox. It will then ask for the admin password. Of
course this assumes that the employee used Keychain to store passwords.
It's a long shot but thats what I can think of right
now.
Hash
Contact info and legal
stuff
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