Issue 147 - August 08, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
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Welcome to the 147th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN
consists mainly of news and tips. There is something for everyone,
and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something
for you.
You can reach me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions
or comments. If you give me two or three issues, I know that
you will come back for more!
Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.shtml
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
Last Wednesday was the first day that Lisa and I had central
air in our house. I got home, started working on PCIN, and
sent it out. Well, my Dad is a subscriber and he and my mom
were a little ticked that they found out about the central
air in the newsletter and that I hadn't called them personally.
Oops :-)
The Code Red worm is alive and well. I get about 30 requests
to my PCIN web server everyday trying to exploit a particular
weakness in IIS (PCIN is on a Linux web server). The request
is for a default.ida file and the query string requested is:
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
%u9090%u6858%ucbd3%u7801%u9090%u6858%uc
bd3%u7801%u9090%u6858%ucbd3%u7801%u9090
%u9090%u8190%u00c3%u0003%u8b00%u531b%u
53ff%u0078%u000
I don't know if that is the whole string, but it is at least
356 characters long and I guess a request this long will cause
IIS to crash. This hasn't affected the Linux web server, but
it is eating up my bandwidth.
Lastly, I finished the FrontX CPX review. There is a short
review below in the Tips section, and the full review is on
the site.
The NEWS
Software Called Capable of Copying Any Human Voice
"AT&T (news/quote) Labs will start selling speech
software that it says is so good at reproducing the sounds,
inflections and intonations of a human voice that it can
recreate voices and even bring the voices of long-dead celebrities
back to life. The software, which turns printed text into
synthesized speech, makes it possible for a company to use
recordings of a person's voice to utter things that the
person never actually said.
The software, called Natural Voices, is not flawless - its
utterances still contain a few robotic tones and unnatural
inflections - and competitors question whether the software
is a substantial step up from existing products. But some
of those who have tested the technology say it is the first
text-to-speech software to raise the specter of voice cloning,
replicating a person's voice so perfectly that the human
ear cannot tell the difference."
For more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/31/technology/31VOIC.html
Microsoft Passport Security Flaws Now On The Radar
"A scathing critique of an e-commerce service from
Microsoft is suddenly causing a buzz among computer security
enthusiasts - more than a year after it was published.
Microsoft's Passport service, in use today at dozens of
online merchants, 'carries significant risks to users' according
to researchers at AT&T Labs, who concluded that until
fundamental changes are made to the single sign-in and electronic
wallet service, 'efforts such as Passport must be viewed
with suspicion.'"
For more info:
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168725.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20855.html
McAfee granted patent on software as a service
"McAfee.com announced Monday that it has been granted
a patent by the U.S. Patent Office covering the company's
method of delivering software as a service through Web browsers.
The patent covers both the business and technology models
currently used by McAfee.com to deliver its security, management,
and optimization services, Srivats Sampath, CEO of McAfee.com,
said in an interview with the IDG News Service. The technology,
which McAfee.com has been working on since 1998 according
to Sampath, integrates a series of scripts, software objects,
and back-end systems, with a mark-up language like HTML
or XML to deliver up-to-date applications through a standard
Web browser, he said."
For more info:
http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/08/06/010806hnmcafee.xml
The Search Engines' Little Secret
"Ralph Nader has a beef with search engines. A watchdog
group headed by the self-styled consumer crusader filed
a petition with the Federal Trade Commission on July 16,
alleging that eight search engines violate truth-in-advertising
rules. Why? According to the Commercial Alert complaint,
search results include ads, "without clear disclosure
that the ads are ads." So, if you ask for pages about
"widgets," you may get not just Web sites with
references to widgets on them but links to ads or companies
hat sell widgets."
For more info:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2001/nf2001086_115.htm
PCIN POLL of the WEEK
Here are the responses from the last poll:
If you were to think of the Internet, which of these companies
would you think of first?
Microsoft: 39.76%
Yahoo!: 31.33%
None of these: 13.25%
Amazon.com: 8.43%
AOL: 3.61%
eBay: 3.61%
Total Votes: 83
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/
to participate in the new poll this week:
How many computers (desktops or laptops) do you have in
your home?
MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES
Are cell phones the only way for wireless providers to
make money? Japan's DoCoMo plans to introduce wireless non-voice
terminals that track cars & bikes if they get stolen,
that provide wireless internet for laptops & PDA's,
and that track lost pets. They also plan to seek new
revenue streams with terminals for TV's, ships, vending
machines, cameras, refrigerators, and even courier packages,
each providing a unique new service.
Brought to you by Shawn Bremner and The Wireless Web ezine.
Sign up by sending a blank email to mailto:wirelessweb-subscribe@topica.com
FREEHELP FORUM
Visit the PCIN FreeHelp Forum to post your questions or answer
others. Each week I highlight a question, and where to go
to get the answer.
Question
My USB Root Hub is disabled and I can seem to get it re-enabled.
I have deleted it and re-installed through auto detect with
the same disable mark through the USB root hub. When I attempt
to reinstall the drivers for USB I get an error message
that states NTKERN.VXD cannot load the driver. Three months
ago I did not have a problem. I like to use my scanner but
cannot connect. I also have and IOMEGA photo show that cannot
connect. Any ideas?
Answer
Have you tried to go into Device Manager, highlighting
USB Root Hub, clicking properties and checking to see if
the box titled "disable in this hardware profile"
is checked? Just a thought. If it is, uncheck and then try
to reinstall.
Visit http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi
and check out the Software Forum to post your suggestion,
or to post a question of your own.
PCIN.net UPDATE
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
FrontX CPX Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/frontx.shtml
Tips of the Day
http://PCIN.net/help/tods/index.shtml
Support PCIN
http://pcin.net/donate.shtml
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Show me the menu**
Do the new shortened menus in Word, Excel or other Microsoft
programs since the 2000 version drive you nuts? Tired of
having to click on the arrows at the bottom of menus to
expand them to include the command you want?
Well, you know you can always change this permanently. (Select
Customize in the Tools menu and you'll find the options
you want.)
But you can also call up the full menus quickly without
making this permanent change.
Just double-click on a menu heading and the whole shebang
will appear with recently used items in relief. In fact,
once you double-click on a menu, all the menus will open
in full until you click elsewhere.
Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap
Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/
FrontX CPX
I rarely play games, and so I don't like to have my game
controller out on my desk all the time. I have a laptop
and a desktop and like to be able to use my digital camera
with both, but it is a pain moving the USB cable from the
back of the desktop to the laptop.
The solution to both of these problems is the FrontX Computer
Port Extension (CPX). It is essentially a collection of
extensions cords that bring your ports from the back of
the computer to the front.
I recently received a set, and have a full review at http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/frontx.shtml
The FrontX site is at http://FrontX.com/
Help with Windows 95/98/ME Error Messages
Visit the following sites for good information on common
error messages in the above versions of Windows:
Windows 98 and Windows Me Error Message Resource
(Microsoft's own explanations)
http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/topics/errormsg/emresctr.asp
MS Windows Error Messages
(A database of error messages)
http://www.gregorybraun.com/MSWinErr.html
A Better Search Engine?
Subscriber Brian Hall sent me this:
"A recent report indicated that the search engine Vivisimo,
accessed at http://vivisimo.com/
was the one that used the fewest paid listings in its results
pages, so I tried it out. Very powerful, excellent organization.
I now prefer it even over Google and Ixquick."
DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF
PCIN is brought to you by PC Improvements. The opinions expressed
are those of the editor, Graham Wing. PC Improvements and
Graham Wing accept no responsibility for the results obtained
from trying the tips in this newsletter.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line,
you may have to cut and paste.
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and be entered in a monthly draw.
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You have either been subscribed by filling out a subscription
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Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2001, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part,
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Support PCIN by visiting http://www.pcin.net/donate.shtml
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