The LangaList 22-Jul-99 A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa About BrowserTune, HotSpots, Columns, Tips & Tricks, and Other Activities In This Issue: Days of WINE and Trumpets Wow! What a Response to the Win98 SE discussion! Decoding Numeric Error Messages (Or Solving Almost Any MS Software Problem!) Lunar Landing Celebration Continues on the HotSpots Page Just For Grimaces Bugs In the Bug Fix: Red Faces In Redmond A Reader Reg Hack Tip FREE Palm III Giveaway Continues! Just For Grins More! Days of WINE and Trumpets Before Microsoft realized that the Internet wasn't just a passing fad, getting a Windows PC online required that you gather together quite a collection of separate software apps. You needed socket services, an FTP client, a gopher client, a dialer, an email reader, and so on. Trumpet Software International, operating out of Tasmania, Australia ( http://www.trumpet.com.au/ ), stepped into the breach with a series of products that became the de facto standard for millions. Although the need for assembling your own Internet connectivity components decreased over time, Trumpet stayed in business and is still turning out interesting software today. For example, the company is about to release an alpha version of something they call "PetrOS;" a Windows- compatible operating system that's designed to be far smaller and more stable than Microsoft Windows. Their idea is that PetrOS will give you many of the advantages of (say) Linux, but still let you run your Windows applications! Then there's WINE, a completely separate WINdows Emulator that lets you run DOS, Windows 3.x and Win32 executables on Linux, FreeBSD or Solaris x86. Neither project is ready to roll. PetrOS isn't even quite in alpha yet, and the WINE people freely admit that WINE still has "many bugs and unimplemented features. Most applications still do not work correctly." And while their goals are similar, WINE and PetrOS are very, very different; one is open source, the other is not; one is free, the other is commercial; one is a layer atop another open (and free) OS, the other actually is the OS.... But both bear watching. My guess is that if any new OS can unseat Windows, it will be one of these, or an OS like these that lets us make use of the new OS without having immediately to trash all our existing applications in the process. Come get the details and then join in the week-long discussion: Do PetrOS and WINE sound interesting to you, or have past failures at Windows emulation soured you on the whole idea? Do you think Microsoft will allow both projects to go to completion, or will they raise legal objections to Windows emulation? Does the ability of a new OS to use your existing apps increase or decrease your chances of trying it? Join in at http://www.informationweek.com/langaletter ! -------( Please Visit This LangaList Sponsor!) ------ >>>> No more lost or forgotten passwords! <<<< Tired of filling out web forms? Then grab Gator! Gator fills out forms and remembers passwords. FREE software safely & securely stores your user names, passwords and other info on your hard drive. When needed, Gator surfaces to help automatically! http://www.gator.com/offers/ads/penn01/ --------( the above is a paid advertisement )-------- Wow! What a Response to the Win98 SE discussion! Talk about a hot button! In the first 24 hours after the column on Win98SE problems went up, there were over 200 posts from readers added to the discussion! As I suspected, many, many people are having trouble. As of today, just a couple days later, the discussion now has close to 500 reader contributions and is growing by the hour! I'm keeping track of the posts and trying to sort them into categories so we can provide some answers to at least some of the problems in the next column. Have you tried any of the seven Win98SE variants? If so, which one(s)? Did it work for you? Did you have to do anything unusual to get it to work? Are you satisfied with the results? Let's continue to pool our knowledge, and just maybe we can cut through this seven-option confusion and figure out which version(s) of Win98SE are worthwhile--- and which ones we should avoid! Join in the week long discussion at http://bbs.winmag.com/columns/archives/071899/monday/column.asp?frames=yes Lunar Landing Celebration Continues on the HotSpots Page All this week, my "HotSpots" page has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon--- one of our species' crowning technological triumphs. In this jaded age, it's easy to feel that space flight is passe, but in the longer view, I believe the lunar landing will come to be regarded as a step as momentous as the first hominid migrations out of Africa, or the crossing of the land bridges to Australia and North and South America, or some of the fabled voyages of discovery by the likes of Columbus, Ericson, or Cook. All these events opened new horizons for humanity by reaching beyond the safe and familiar: They were all small steps that eventually had giant payoffs for humanity as a whole. OK, so maybe I'm a romantic at heart. I plead guilty. 8-) But even the most jaded eye can find beauty in the stark lunar landscape; even the hardest heart can feel some awe at what it must have been like to be the first human to set foot on an entirely new world; even the bravest soul can marvel at the unheralded isolation of Mike Collins as he orbited around the far side of the Moon, alone and totally cut off from all contact with humankind as no one had ever before been. In celebration of the landing, so far this week, Hotspots has covered: Inconstant Moon: http://www.inconstantmoon.com The official Project Apollo NASA Web Site: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo.html "Exploring The Moon:" http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/moon.html "The Face of the Moon from Galileo to Apollo:" http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/pubserv/hos/moon/cover.htm There's much more to come--- check out the HotSpots page each day for a great new site: http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hotspots.htm -------( Please Visit This LangaList Sponsor!) ------ Do You Run A Web Site Hosting Or Design Service? "The Web Site Hosting And Designers Promotional Guide" offers 100+ tips, techniques and resources to help you increase your revenue, obtain more sales and expand your customer base. Order now - download the e-book immediately - only $49. http://www.PromoteWebServices.com --------( the above is a paid advertisement )-------- Decoding Numeric Error Messages (Or Solving Almost Any MS Software Problem!) Reader "Bill2" wrote to me about an all-too common problem--- probably one you've experienced! For some time now I have been wondering about numbered error messages.. To give you an example of what I mean. I have seen the following error message(s): Setup Error 544..Runtime error 7 [and so on]. Any light you could shed on this matter would be greatly appreciated by all your subscribers. You can track down numbered errors via the free Microsoft "Knowledgebase." If you don't know which Knowledgebase to use, start at: http://www.microsoft.com/support/kb.htm For general question, I use the "Personal Support" Knowledgebase. It's easy to use, but may take several steps to dig out what you want. For example, if you use the "Ask a question using free-text query" option and put in "Error 544" as your query in the "My Question Is" text box, the Knowledge base will return a pile of possible answers. You then can select the one that most closely fits the situation you were in when you got the error message. Starting at the top, you're led to a Win98 mini-FAQ, which is close but not quite what you want. However, that brings you to the full-blown Win98 interactive "Automated Personal Support Assistant" at http://206.132.93.108/ and that's perfect for answering this question! Ask the Assistant "what is error 544" and it brings you to a page that suggests that what you really want to know is "How do I resolve the specific error message: Setup Error 544." Clicking on that finally brings you to the appropriate Knowledgebase article (at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q193/5/00.asp?SS=sam ) that then tells you: "This issue can occur if you try to install the trial version of Microsoft Picture It! 2.0 by double- clicking the Acmsetup.exe file instead of Setup.exe. To resolve this issue, double-click the Setup.exe file instead of the Acmsetup.exe file." And from that, you can generalize to similar install errors where you might have used Acmsetup insteadup of Setup. So, it may take several steps, but if you dig a little, you often can find answers to just about any question about a Microsoft product. Try it yourself the next time you're faced with a mysterious error message--- or if you have any question! Just For Grimaces: I actually got some angry emails last week from readers who thought that the "Just For Grins" item about Microsoft selling banner ads in its error messages was a true story. (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/Jul-19-99.htm#grins ) One reader even said that this was the last straw for him, that Microsoft had finally gone too far and he was going to reformat his hard drive and switch to Linux. (I am not making this up.) Just to be totally clear: The ads-in-the-error-messages item was (and is) a joke. In fact the entire "Just for Grins" section in each issue of the LangaList is NOT to be taken seriously. Like the last page in many magazines, it's intended to be some lighthearted fun: Nothing more. In short, don't reformat your hard drive, sell your house, or do anything---except maybe smile---based on anything you see in the "Just for Grins" section, OK? 8-) Bugs In the Bug Fix: Red Faces In Redmond Microsoft sent this out this week: "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS99-025.discussed a vulnerability associated with Internet Information Server and Microsoft Data Access Components. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for this bulletin. provided instructions on how to manually change the registry in order to protect vulnerable systems, and also provided an automated method for making the changes. However, we have discovered that the automated method is incorrect." OK, we all make mistakes. If you think you might be affected by this problem, see http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/MS99-025.asp or go right to the FAQ at http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/MS99-025faq.asp to get correct instructions and a link to a corrected REG file for the automated fix. -------------- your ad here? ------------------------ It's more affordable than you think! See http://www.langa.com/rate_card.html ----------------------------------------------------- A Reader Reg Hack Tip The reader asked to remain anonymous, so we'll just call him "John." He wrote: Fred, On my Win98 machine at work, I have had a really annoying problem for months, and nobody could figure it out. And of course Microsoft was no help at all. I was just told to reinstall Windows, which would have been a real pain on this particular computer. The problem was that when I would choose to view any Explorer window in "Details" mode (where I can see the size, date, etc...), the window would be completely blank. There were no scroll bars, and trying to scroll with the keyboard had no effect. So I had to change my Explorer views to "List," which is really crappy because you don't get any info about the files. Even creating a new Windows username didn't help - logging in as the new user had the exact same problem. Today I got fed up with it once again, and I started messing with the registry. The solution is to delete the "DirectoryColsX" value in the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer Then, either restart Windows or do an End Task on "Explorer" in the Ctrl+Alt+Del "Close Program" window (just cancel the "Shut Down Windows" dialog that appears, and wait about 10 seconds for the "Program not responding" window to appear, and then click on End Task. Cool! Thanks, "John!" FREE Palm III Giveaway Continues! Just use this link to recommend the LangaList to a friend, and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a Palm III organizer (full details also available via this link): http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182 Recommend-It is an ad-based site (you'll see banners and such). The advantage to you of using the Recommend-It service (above) is that (1) you can win a Palm III and (2) you can add a personal message to your LangaList recommendation. But if you'd rather use the tried-and-true, ad-free recommendation form, you'll still find it at: http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm . You can't win anything there-except my thanks for helping the LangaList to grow! In fact, either way, thank you! Just For Grins: The last time this newsletter started running long (like this issue), I signed off with a short "just for grins" aphorism: "Age doesn't always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone." And that led to a mini-flood (a leak?) of reader mail with more aphorisms. One I especially liked was from Fred E. Robinson, who said: True, but to which I reply with a quote from somebody (in)famous, whose name I don't recall: "The race isn't always to the swift, nor the battle to the Strong... But that's the way to bet." See you next issue! Best, Fred ( fred@langa.com ) -------( Please Visit This LangaList Sponsor!) ------ InternationalTimes.com The World's Free Daily Print Newspaper. 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