Minutes of the Meeting held 15 January 2002
1. CLEANSWEEP 2002
The new issue of PC User magazine has a free full version of this
program on one of the CDs supplied with the magazine. (JimH)
2. EXPERIENCES WITH INTERNET EXPLORER 6.
3. BBC WEBCAMS
The BBC had placed webcams in major English cities that
allowed you to view the current weather, including rain and snow, at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/webcams/ (PeterH)
4. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH WINDOWS XP
1. XP Upgrade - JohnS
A. Installed on 26th Dec - nothing that could be described as a crash
since. No reboots or BSODs. But chickened out and did an "over the top of
ME" installation, instead of the recommended clean install over a format C:
B. Various things work much better.
1. Faster boot up and shut down (Probably mostly due to MSIE6).
2. Hibernate to disk finally works for me - but unfortunately STR
(Suspend to RAM - supported by my motherboard) does not. So Hibernate takes
almost as long as a normal shut down & re-boot, but does have the advantage
that you "pick up where you left off".
3. Home networking is much improved. Had to change from Netbui to
TCP/IP, but it took all of 10 mins "go to woa", including a single tick to
allow the "slave" system to access the net via the "main" system.
4.In typical MS fashion there are still more "built in"
applications. CD burning, image manipulating, etc.
C. On the minus side - rather too much "hand holding" for people who are
reasonably familiar with things like the control panel. Also the built in
ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) is totally un-configurable. It is either
on or off. I have returned to the latest ZoneAlarm.
D. Installation:
1. Was very careful with preparations - brought the $19.95 PCUser
magazines "XP Pocketbook" and am still finding it very useful. Backed up all
data of course.
2. Ran the compatibility tester (on-line) several weeks before the
installation, and downloaded recommended drivers at that time.
3. Downloaded and installed the latest Motherboard Bios and VIA
chipset software including busmaster drivers, etc..
4. At various times (not vital at time of upgrade), downloaded and
installed.
Video and sound drivers.
Scanner driver - for Plustek Optic Pro U12. This turned out
to have a massive 1 Mb per SECOND memory leak - which after a few 10s of
mins or so (running in the background waiting for a button to be pressed!),
will overflow conventional RAM (768 Mb) and completely fill 1.2 Gb of
virtual memory! The workaround is not to run in the background but just as
needed. Needless to say I have written to Plustek about this - no reply yet.
Palm Desktop - for Handspring Visor.
Task Info - Hardly needed now as very similar functions are
built into the Windows Task manager (invoked by the 3 finger salute,
CTRL-ALT-DEL).
EZAntivirus
Many windows critical and other updates from MS. NB. One of
these caused Internet Explorer to completely disappear from the desktop and
quick launch bar (and add/remove programs so I could not "repair" it). Also
could not reinstall as I "have the latest version already installed". A nice
little catch-22. It also caused MSIE to think it was no longer the default
browser. The workaround was to just browse to the program at C:\Program
Files\Internet Explorer find IEXPLORE.EXE and create a new quick launch bar
short cut. If time permits - one can remove updates one by one.
TICK - couldn't do without it. Eventually had to revert to a
slightly older beta version kindly provided by the writer, as the new
version does not monitor data bits received.
AdAware - etc etc.
5. Needless to say - my system is reasonable new and powerful.
N.B. Had a power supply failure shortly after installation. Easy to replace,
but A.B & T. who sold me the new one, said that they had almost run out of
them "due to the hot weather". (JohnS)
5. POPCORN.EXE v. TELNET.EXE
The consensus was that Popcorn.exe was far superior in features. Both allow
to you to see and select your mail on the PCUG server without much chance of
getting a virus. (TedM)
6. "MENUET" OPERATING SYSTEM THAT FITS ON A FLOPPY DISK.
Being a Beta version, it is not suitablefor beginners or those not familiar
with assembly language and dos
Menuet vs 0.63 Beta is a fully compatible operating system with windows
(not microsoft windows). It was written mostly by one person Wille Tutjanma
of Finland. It has been written entirely written in raw assembly code. The
kernel is is less than 1,440,000 bytes long and will fit on a floppy disk.
The site comes with examples, games, an editor, a very basic telnet program
and examples etc. The picture of many windows open in colour on page 36 is
very encouraging. The system was described in the December issue of Dr.
Dobbs Journal p. 32. see it at : www.ddj.com
The url for the operating system is www.menuesos.org.org/
The system is fast, free and much like a new kind of Linux.The Scandinavian
weather seems to encourage people in the desire to give Bill Gates
nightmares.
You also need a program called DMPI (free) as it gives services, alowing
this dos operating system to run in 32 bit form but with direct access to
dos routines through interrupts.
The program must be run from a floppy disk, in "pure" dos. i.e. start your
computer as a dos machine not in a dos window. Download the program, save it
to a floppy disk leave the floppy disk in the disk drive and reboot your
computer.
If anyone else is feeling courageous and tries it out, please let me know of
your experience. This system could give Microsoft a headache but they will
soon get over it! (Ted M).
7. MAILWASHER.
Users of this program which allows you to see your mail and delete
unwanted messages before downloading them to your system are requested by Jeremy
Bishop not to use the 'Bounce' feature. (GloriaR)
8. REALPLAYER
AllanM reported that he had received some real player video files on CD
and had installed the free version of RealPlayer to look at them, as
very little else seems to play "Real" files. While the program is free,
it requires online registration after three uses or will not work. It
is installed on a PC without internet connection and thus cannot be
(easily) registered.
Suggestions included register on another PC and note the registry
entries and transfer them to the required PC, look at one of the crack
sites, or find another alternative. Emil later suggested the shareware
Merak Media Player ($15) with a free trial version available at
http://www.share2.com/merak/download.htm
9. REPORT ON UPGRADES TO TIP
10. PASSWORDS
. Several people asked about a password viewer program which decodes all
those *********s when you have forgotten the password. Try PassView Vrs
1.0.17 from www.kanastacorp.com (JohnS)
I wanted to set my laptop up with the same internet access I have on my
desktop machine. I established the TIP connection OK (using the new beaut
no script method), but had trouble connecting to TPG Niterider. It seemed
that the password I had set up was not what I thought it was. It worked OK
on the desktop, but of course I couldn't read the password I was using as it
was *'ed out. I had heard there were ways of reading behind the *'s and was
pointed to PWLVIEW which allowed you to read the contents of the PWL file
which contains your Windows based passwords.
Downloaded that, and clunky as it is (DOS Based) it did the job.
Also downloaded Info-Ice from http://www.anticodes.com/ and it works by
revealing the code when you hover a spyglass over the password. Very
effective.
Incidentally, during my search for such programs using the terms "Password"
and "Reveal" in Google, I was pointed at numerous somewhat dubious sites.
I downloaded another program which InoculateIt identified as containing the
Password Trojan. Interesting to note that Norton AV 2002 did not detect
this virus though it was contained within a zip file. That didn't seem to
phase InoculateIT. (above 4 paras. from CharlieK)
I read about this password program in PCworld Feb Page 42 by Brad Grimes
and how he manages his passwords. Program called Yodlee and he say's most
banks have this on their sites as well, it is free at www.yodlee.com.
I am going to download it when I log onto the Web. (MervC)
11. USING STREAMING AUDIO TO SEND AUDIO MESSAGES TO FRIENDS.
12. TRANSACT UPDATE FROM SIGNED-UP CUSTOMERS.
***DON'T FORGET THE MAIN MEETING ON MONDAY 28 JANUARY.***
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