VIEW Home
MAIL Home
BOOK Reviews
©
This week:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
CHAOS MANOR MAIL
A SELECTION
Mail September 13 - 19, 1999
REFRESH/RELOAD EARLY AND OFTEN!
CLICK ON THE BLIMP TO SEND MAIL TO ME
The current page will always have the name currentmail.html and may be bookmarked. For previous weeks, go to the MAIL HOME PAGE.
Fair warning: some of those previous weeks can take a minute plus to download. After Mail 10, though, they're tamed down a bit.
IF YOU SEND MAIL it may be published; if you want it private SAY SO AT THE TOP of the mail. I try to respect confidences, but there is only me, and this is Chaos Manor. If you want a mail address other than the one from which you sent the mail to appear, PUT THAT AT THE END OF THE LETTER as a signature.
PLEASE DO NOT USE DEEP INDENTATION INCLUDING LAYERS OF BLOCK QUOTES IN MAIL. TABS in mail will also do deep indentations. Use with care or not at all.
I try to answer mail, but mostly I can't get to all of it. I read it all, although not always the instant it comes in. I do have books to write too... I am reminded of H. P. Lovecraft who slowly starved to death while answering fan mail.
If you want to send mail that will be published, you don't have to use the formatting instructions you will find when you click here but it will make my life simpler, and your chances of being published better..
This week:
Monday -- Tuesday -- Wednesday
-- Thursday -- Friday -- Saturday
-- Sunday
HIGHLIGHTS:
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Monday September 13, 1999
Just back from Japan, and once again it's Short Shrift Time, which is I suspect the normal here for a week or so...
There is only one person in Microsoft Support. Obviously with so many people having so many problems with so many products, he (she) couldn’t hope to deal with them all. So he invents all kinds of obstacles to anyone trying to solve a problem. For instance, I was asked to chose my product (Windows) from a drop down list which only reached down to Outlook. Or I got as far as asking for technical support and was refused because I didn’t work for a “high powered user.” I tried typing in my ID number and it wouldn’t fit the space. They can’t even afford a toll free telephone support number (hint to Microsoft: get one and just leave it off the hook,)
[The following does not appear in the letter but got put in here when I did a copy and paste from Outlook. JEP]
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Microsoft delenda est.
2. Anyway, my current little problem
is I type up a document in Word (2000), format it a little and save it. When I reopen it
later, all the formatting is lost AND at the end is a whole bunch of garbage like:
Normal.dot
Peter J. Michael
Microsoft Word 9.0
_PID_HLINKS
mailto????
:pmichael@tns.net
mailto:pmichael@tns.net
Root Entry
<link rel=File-List
href="file:///C:/wind
ml">
<!@
[s
rdDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
I think I might have
accidentally pressed some button or other. I checked for viruses and found none. If
anybody can help, you can.
My e-mail is pmichael@tns.net
I have no idea what is happening, but I haven't time to think about it either. I hope a reader can help. J
Jerry,
An interesting article, thanks. You have helped my understand the major
difference between FP extensions and no extensions. It
makes me rather more glad that I used HoTMetaL Pro. I
have found it possible to fix major problems that could not be seen in Notepad, or FP
using HoTMetaL Pro. Additionally it has a
really neat feature that allows my to toggle between views of the web page - HTML raw,
tagged or GUI - each has itsown advantage at different times.
I have also found HoTMetaL Pro to produce more
compact (so faster up and downloading) and cleaner (so more people get to see it as you
intended) HTML. I can’t comment on the
publishing facility, but I understand it is essentially an FTP utility built in. Nor can I comment on the latest version, actually
quite old now (v5), since I now provide Internet Server Support nearly exclusively and
have moved over to using Macs as clients in most cases.
Actually I have been astonished at how much
quicker I can achieve results using a Mac than a Windows PC, this despite having used and
supported Windows for 6 years. I used Macs
briefly at Uni (4 years ago) and was moderately impressed, then when iMac was released I
loved the style so decided I must have one! I
have been thoroughly impressed, far more than any other Mac encounter.
Excuse the asside - I encourage you to take a
serious look at HoTMetaL Pro - it could save you a lot of time.
Tim
Well, I will be getting a G4 shortly. And I really do need a better system than this one. Alas. But old habits die hard, and I know how to get around in this, sort of...
Jerry, I’ve just read your chaos manor
report that you are currently working on MAMELUKES. The fourth Tran novel. I hate that
title too. I just picked up and taped the cover back on my disintegrating paperback copy
of Janissaries. I came online to see if it was available in audio. It doesn’t seem to be. I tracked down your
page and I glad I did. October 99 is just
around the corner and its been a very long time since Storms of Victory. I think I reread
the series about three times a year since you wrote them. I started reading your work with
Lucifers Hammer. I wonder what you and Larry
thought of last years Deep Impact and Armageddon films. I collected most of your books
over the years and look forward to MAMELUKES and The Burning City, The Burning Tower and
Moonmites. Forgive me if I look forward to MAMELUKES or whatever you end up calling it
more than the others.
ADRISDAD
You hate the title and so does the publisher so it will probably have a different one: but then Janissaries wasn't a common word either... I agree it has been too long since the last book. I am working on the new one...
Jerry,
Looks like the Army’s stepping back a bit
from Windows NT even if the Navy isn’t.
It also looks like they must be pretty annoyed
if they’re switching to MacOS, which normally nobody in the ‘serious world’
will touch as a server platform.
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Sep1999/a19990901hacker.html
--Erich Schwarz
Fascinating. Thanks.
Drake Christianson writes:
"A one-question geek test. If
you get the joke, you're a geek: Seen on a VW Beetle's California license plate:
'FEATURE'."
--Freeland Abbott
Hello Jerry,
I was talking about Frontpage 2000 on the
Baen.com science fiction page and someone (Brian Hert) pointed out the fact that there is
a filter that takes out the extra xml tags in an export to HTML in word 2000. I thought
this might be a solution to your mail problems. I am leery to try the solution out myself
until I build a new machine that I would not feel bad about scrubbing if Office 2000 goes
bad, so I can’t tell you anything else about it, but good luck.
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/htmlfilter.htm
Abinder
Thanks. I've heard about that one before, and I'll have to go look when I get time. I really need a way to clean up this mess; if I don't find one pretty soon I'll certainly go to some other system.
I liked your article about FrontPage 2000, and I
agree, it has MANY bugs, along with the rest of Office 2000, especially Access. What irks
me more than anything is that the HTML Help is atrocious. It not only doesn’t display
properly, but does bizarre things to the Office programs, and if used more than a few
times, crashes the computer. I don’t understand how Microsoft screwed this up. The
HTML Help in Visual Studio 6 is excellent. Why didn’t they use that engine, with the
appropriate content for Office? I don’t understand why they released this buggy
thing. The bugs are so obvious, they can’t be missed. The wizards in Access, for
instance. Several of them just don’t work. You click on them and nothing happens. I
used Office 97, so it’s not because I’m unfamiliar with the product. Somebody
has to warn people about this piece of crap. I don’t know why the other magazines
were giving it such high praises. I guess they were working with beta software, and
figured the released version would be fixed. Fat chance!
I will never buy another software package when
it first comes out.
William C. Spaulding
Good advice. Thou shalt never bet thy business on Release 1.0...
Email to: Jerry Pournelle
Re: Your Byte column on FrontPage 2000 (6 Sept. 1999)
I thought your comments on FrontPage 2000 summarized well some of the odd changes that Microsoft made in the way FrontPage 2000 works vs. FP 98. My impression is that several of the new Office 2000 programs have evolved odd little quirks that are just as irritating.
PowerPoint 2000 on my system, for example, generates an illegal operation message and then terminates whenever I double-click on a .ppz file (packaged presentation) in Explorer. In PowerPoint 97 the presentation would just run without error.
I tried reinstalling Office 2000 Premium after reformatting the hard disk and replacing Windows 98 with Windows 98SE, etc, and my PowerPoint 2000 problem is still there. PowerPoint 2000 terminates itself when I double-click .ppz files created in either PowerPoint 97 or PowerPoint 2000. This could be a problem unique to my system though, perhaps related to my large amount of installed software. I have not had time to trouble-shoot the issue fully, except in terms of the fresh re-install of Windows 98 etc.
PowerPoint 97 seems to favor creating web-specific presentations that run only in Microsoft browsers. I resorted to this approach for a PowerPoint 2000 file posted at the page bottom at:
rather than chance using the .ppz format file. Unfortunately, Netscape users seem locked out by the approach. The one good thing here is that the setup warns Netscape users that the link will not work for them.
I find that on my main system (a generic 233MHz Pentium II with ASUS motherboard) FrontPage 2000 still causes the connection to time out fairly frequently even when I use its ftp option. I do like the way it deletes unused files on a web site.
A typical site that I manage, which FP 2000 has trouble using ftp to upload to is located at:
I have two other machines--a 450 MHz PIII system and a 350 MHz AMD K62-based PC--but these are dedicated to graphics uses and I would prefer to stick with the 233 MHz PII computer for FrontPage 2000 work. My PII has 80 megabytes of RAM, a 56K modem, and several gigabytes of free disk space. I would be disappointed if I need to upgrade the CPU just to make continued use of FP 2000 reliably. For this aging machine that will mean a new motherboard in addition to the new CPU.
The biggest disappointment in Office 2000 Premium for me, however, was PhotoDraw 2000. I found that its automated saving to web picture formats tends to do a poor job retaining the fidelity of text in small logos or images that I like to use for menus. I think Microsoft delivered PhotoDraw before its capabilities were fully matured.
Keith E. Risler
There are subsequent versions. I confess I haven't tried them yet. Front Page has decent image handling for most stuff.
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Tuesday, September 15, 1999
Outlook rules - this one works
Hi Jerry,
I’ve been there too. The answer is:
don’t use the Rules Wizard. Instead, try the Organize button on the Standard toolbar.
Move to the ‘Create a rule’ bullet. Here you can type in any email address you
want, which doesn’t have to be in your address book or contacts list. A little
screenshot (‘documentation’) has been attached to this message (hope you
don’t mind). B.t.w. the newly created
rule will also show up in the Rules Wizard!
Groeten,
RemKo Stouthart
ONS Nederlandse Softwarebedrijf B.V.
Productcoördinator Borland Delphi
Thanks. Gee, it works, too. I don't know why I didn't see or think of that before, but it sure does the job. I have to experiment, but this may solve the problems. THANKS!!
Given that, some of the rest of this isn't quite as important, but it might be.
Jerry,
Oh, I
can do it: I can specify that the rule look for those specific words in the header.
But
that isn’t want I want to do, because someone might send me mail with those
specific words in the subject, and I wouldn’t want that to go to the
outrageous
You want to select “specific words in
the sender’s address,” which will focus only on the address—any address (or
just domain) you want to type in. I don’t recall this being any different than the
way Outlook 98 did it, but it’s been a while since I’ve run Outlook 98 to recall
that.
And you can create your target folder when
creating the wizard. Notice the word “specified” in the “move it to the
specified folder” part of the rule is a hotlink. Once you click on that you can
create a new folder or choose an existing one.
Brian
Well, I sure didn't figure that out. And I certainly tried putting, for instance, Jesse Bert's into the "sender's address" specific words, but I kept on getting AnchorDesk in the Inbox anyway. When I put those words in "header" it still didn't work until I had shut down and restarted. Then I was able to run the rule against existing mail as well as incoming. But not until I had done that. And I am still a bit nervous about these rules. It just doesn't always work right. But it is slowly getting better. The wretched documentation and help files don't help much.
A useful resource, passed on “for your
information”
From
the Lockergnome newsletter
<> Microsoft Knowledge Base
Mirror
Unearthed by David Thorarinsson
http://www.bugsoft.hik.se/mskb/
“If you have a problem with
Windows 98 or any other Microsoft product, enter a few keywords in this search page and
you will probably find some articles that will explain and help you solve the problem.
This is a mirror of the knowledge base at Microsoft, but the search page actually works,
as opposed to the one at Microsoft’s web site. Microsoft’s search page does not
return all matching articles to the queries, but this will. It is also a public site open
for everyone, use it as much as you want.”
Michael “Z”
If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would have destroyed civilization.
Thanks. There is a lot of information out there if you can only find it...
A simple query - In your
column today in Byte you mention that Princess runs win 2k professional. I spent the weekend building a new system and
loading win 2k on it, and am a bit confused. I
understood that the professional flavor of win 2k only supported a single processor. Am I wrong, or are the sources I relied upon wrong
(including the Microsoft site)? I loaded win
2k server on the new machine, a dual celeron built on an abit BP6 board, and it certainly
sees both processors, I did not even try to load professional b/c I read it was a single
processor o/s. Did Microsoft give you a
special version? As an aside, an abit bp6 and
2 celerons o/c’d a bit is one fast, cheap, powerful computer. I haven’t run any benchmarks yet, as I am
waiting a new video card, but impression even with the only video I had laying around
(real 3d starfighter AGP) is that it is fast and stable, perhaps significantly faster then
my dual Pentium ppro machine running NT. One
slight glitch tho - there do not seem to be any ATA66 drivers out there for win 2000, it
sees the controller chip and wants a driver, but none seem to be there. In fact, it sees the controller as some kind of
SCSI controller. I hope Microsoft irons out
this little quirk.
Richard Sherburne Jr.
I am running Windows 2000 and it seems to see both processors in Princess. Task Manager reports all well with them. However, 2 200's are going to be slower than a single 400. It's time for me to upgrade. I guess. I sure like this machine though.
The next is a bit embarrassing:
Mr. Pournelle, regarding your latest article “Office 2000: Not Recommended”, please try to investigate the different installation modes of Outlook 2000 before slamming it. The real annoyance is the fact that it sometimes doesn’t let you choose the mail mode during upgrade, not the fact that it no longer shows you the detailed progress when sending and receiving mail. You have obviously installed the “Corporate/Workgroup” mode of Outlook 2000, which doesn’t show detailed status (and never will because of the MAPI/GUI interface according to MS), as opposed to the “Internet Mail Only” mode which, in fact, does show progress reports. To reconfigure is simple: Tools->Options->Mail Delivery Tab->Reconfigure Mail Support... button (bottom right).
Colin Sewell
mailto:csewell@bc.sympatico.ca
Vancouver, BC
In fact that is correct. I did the proper reinstall, and that has cleared up some of the mail problems. This reinforces my vies, that Office 2000 is not intended for you and me; it's for big corporate outfits with collaborative efforts and large productions, not for people who just write and do small things. It may in fact be very good for all those people.
Certainly it helps to have the proper installation, though, and I have done that. Took about half an hour. Now I get a proper report on send/receive. I don't recall precisely why I used the other installation when I set this up. Once again, it's the instructions... or lack of. I know it is unreasonable not to want to spend hours on the internet looking things up that ought to have been in the manuals, but there it is.
My thanks to you for spotting the problem. Interesting that a number of Microsoft wizards did not. Now if I can just manage to make the copy and paste work properly.
Now that I have the proper installation
Jerry, I believe you can gain the details you
want by clicking on the details button, it will drop down that window to reveal a dual
pane area that will show you what it’s doing and any error messages that occur. I also that window on “always hide” (a
checkbox option in the mentioned window). This
causes the window never to appear, unless I want it too. Therefore,
I can still see it uploading/downloading messages by the little icon in the corner, and if
an error occurs the icon will change, and all i have to do in click on it for details for
it to pop up the window with the error message.
The changable menus annoy me more than anything
else in Office2k, (because sometimes i need an menu item, and I forget that it’s
there cause they hide it because I hardly ever use it)
The only reason I don't change them is that the menus to not do that (and there is
a way), it’s just that the menus are too big by default and I'm too lazy to modify
them to my needs. :)
hope this helps,
Shaya Potter
I can find those details, and thanks. I hate the way things flow so too. The other day the FIND menu item wasn't in there! I had to keep looking. Replace was there but not find, in the Edit menu. This is nutso.
Hi Jerry,
I read your review on Office 2000 --- and while I agree with what you say, I have found there to be quite a few more serious problems with the Office 2000 upgrade.
1. VBA compatibility seems somewhat of a problem. I haven't been able to install a major program (I won't name the vendor) who has a previous version of VBA since installing Office 2000.
2. "Compiled" Access databases (which are all over the place) won't load on my machine any more because Access2000 needs to convert them --- but can't because they are compiled.
3. Outlook hangs all of the time on me when I close it. I don't realize it -- and before I know if, I've got three or four copies of it loaded and it won't start up. I have to open the task manager and abort them all to get Outlook to run again.
Daniel Snoddy [danielws@home.com]
Well, as I said, I don't really recommend converting to 2000. Not just yet anyway...
And Eric says---
Speaking of the rules wizard, why is it so hard for them to understand that you might want to process messages based on their domain of origin? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sort everything from, say, atitech.com, into whatever way is desired? On a hopeful note, the rules in Outlook Express 5 has a 'blocked sender' list that lets you type in whatever you want, quickly cutting and pasting address from bad e-mail. Although I fear the list would grow to megabytes in volume if I tried to block the sender of every spam I received from now on. This really needs to be an ISP-level service.
I seem to recall using software that had a right-click menu selection for creating a rule based on the message you were pointing to at the time. I can't remember if this is something an MS program had and lost in an 'upgrade' or where I used it. It was certainly a convenient way to get things set up.
Eric Pobirs
And now for a little perspective:
Dear Jerry
Naturally I've read most of your writings.....
However, if you think Word 2000 has bad Human Interface Engineering, you should look at the medical software used in Hospitals. Then offer a prayer to the software gods that you never have to be admitted.
Larry
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Wednesday
Regarding Richard Sherburne’s question
about multiprocessor support in Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft first announced that
W2KP would support only one processor and shipped early builds that did not have SMP
support. Microsoft later changed their minds,
and the later builds all support SMP.
Robert Bruce Thompson
Sir,
I follow with interest your reports on the
latest and greatest from Redmond. I
don’t do much upgrading in that sort of productivity software, because my needs are
simple. I work in WordPerfect 6.1 because it
works simply and well. If I have a need for
something it can’t do, I’ll upgrade. Thanks
for keeping me knowledgeable about what I may someday need.
However, your travails are typical of my
experience in another software realm: games. I
buy many games a year, and my experience there grows more and more frustrating. I recently bought the game Birth of the
Federation, a Star Trek based empire building game. This
game is wonderful when it works, which is unfortunately 10% of the time. It is certainly no more than an early beta build,
which is now the industry standard. The
problem is, Microprose has released one patch which created more bugs than it fixed, and
has stated that it will no longer support the product, despite the fact that it is still
selling it. Emails to the company reveal no
intent to patch the game further.
I also recently purchased Starfleet Command.
(yes, 2 “trek” games, but it’s just a coincidence). This is also a fine, but clearly beta, game. After the first patch, much is fixed, but more
must be done. I believe the company will
continue to support the game as needed, but why was it released this way? If a gamer has slow (or no) internet access, how
does one get the patch, which runs 1 to 5 megs?
Of the major game companies, only Blizzard
actually releases “final” versions of their games. While some may not enjoy Blizzard games, they are
virtually bug free. If they can do it and
make money (huge sums of money) why can’t we reasonably expect companies to do the
same? One of the problems is, I speculate, it
is virtually impossible to return a game. First,
most retailers are very sticky about returns due to pirating. Second, even if returned, I don’t believe it
impacts on the maker of the game, but only on the retailer.
Finally, reviewers don’t make a big enough deal about these bugs.
I realize that games are even more difficult
than other software because of the diverse hardware requirements, but still. I expect to buy a reasonably finished product. I guess the answer is to never buy game on initial
release, but wait until the updates are part of the release cd. That is a sad state of affairs.
Bryan Broyles
It seems to be traditional to rush games out before they are finished and let customers be the quality assurance department for the game company. Apparently they can get away with that.
I have Star Fleet Command and was looking forward to having time to play it. Apparently I'll need updates to make it work. Thanks for the warning. I generally don't review games when they first come out precisely because they don't work. A few have. Baldur's Gate worked just fine in both Windows 2000 and Windows 98 systems. Fighting Steel, on the other hand, has yet to work properly on any machine I have. I presume there's a download bug fix. It is certainly annoying to have to get bug fixes for nearly every game, and often I just don't have time.
How fallen are the mighty. There was a time when MicroProse was one of the best game companies with some of the best titles, and a few of their classics are still being played at least here at Chaos Manor. I haven't seen their new stuff. They apparently don't send out review copies any long, and I haven't got around to asking them again. I get a lot of games anyway, and only choose one a month to review, and I generally won't talk about ones I don't like. Fighting Steel was in that category: if it had run properly I would have liked it a lot, but it doesn't.
It certainly is odd that games companies can get away with putting out games that don't work, and even stop fixing them before they stop selling them.
I confess that I at first
thought you were kidding when you mentioned using snake oil to treat your sinuses. When it
became clear that you were serious, I figured that you were simply desperate enough to try
anything. And speaking of desperation and non-traditional remedies, here’s something
I posted today on my page:
“A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned my experiments with a field-expedient treatment for Athlete’s Foot, so I thought I’d update everyone. After trying unsuccessfully to treat this problem for about six months using every commercial Athlete’s Foot remedy available, I finally decided to try using Soft Scrub with Bleach, on the assumption that sodium hypochlorite kills everything it touches. And it worked. I used a small foot brush (I can tell it’s a small foot brush because it’s shaped like a small foot) to apply Soft Scrub with Bleach while I sat on the floor of the shower. I scrubbed very gently in a circular pattern, and allowed the stuff to work for a couple of minutes. After one treatment, the problem had just about gone away. After two, it was gone completely. I did a third treatment just to make sure, and I’ll probably continue to treat once or twice a week for a couple of weeks. But the fact is, this works. I am not a physician, so try this at your own risk. Your feet may fall off for all I know. But it worked for me. “
Bob Thompson
Well, the snake oil, or something, worked. Got rid of the sinus infection. The stuff wasn't snake oil, it was "guaranteed to be made from the freshest of snake biles" according to the label... And it did work, and I want to thank the reader who sent it to me.
I am not the world's biggest fan of oddball medicines, but I was an early adopter of mega vitamins and SAMe, and PS, and some other stuff that is now becoming "traditional medicine" but was not only rejected but criminalized by the FDA at one time. But the purpose of the FDA, according to some, is to see that we don't live long enough to collect Social Security. Actually that's not true. The purpose of FDA is to hire and pay FDA employees.
What we OUGHT to do is require labeling to be accurate. If it says "The FDA thinks this stuff does you no good, and might kill you," and I want to take it, I should be able to. But if it says it is made from fresh snake biles, then by gollies it ought to have in it fresh snake biles. I'd pay the government to enforce truth in labeling...
Interestingly I have just been walking the dog and reading the latest DISCOVERY which had letters about their coverage of "allopathic" and "non-traditional" medicines in a recent issue. One letter said it all: if you're really sick you go to "allopaths" but if you're just not feeling too good and have something that will go away anyway, drink some green tea and munch a couple of herbs, and attribute the "cure" to non-traditional medicines.
That's not QUITE my view. Some non-traditional methods work very well: after all, blue bread mold was considered an old wives' tale folk remedy for a long time; but it was science that turned that into anti-biotics and made a really revolutionary change in medicine, about the first positive thing for a thousand years (although Ignatz Semmelweiss made an enormous negative difference when he persuaded physicians to wash their hands between surguries and deliveries...).
I believe in science. I also believe that establishments hate innovation, and the purpose of firms is to make money. Adam Smith noted that the worst enemy of capitalism is a successful capitalist, and two manufacturers can't get together without discussing ways to get the government to bar entry into the competition. Why should pharmaceutical firms and medical corporations be much different? So the FDA acts to bar entry into the drug business, and does it very well indeed. Why be surprised at that? It insures employment for FDA people, and cooperation from the established pharmaceutical houses. One may wish to change all that, but the only way to do it is to restrict the scope of the FDA and if you say you want to do that, you will be accused of wanting to poison children. Thus was it ever....
I visit an excellent web site, http://www.slipstick.com, for tips on MS Outlook. I recommend taking a look if you haven’t
already.
Dave Kickbusch
Thanks. I'll have a look. There is also this:
This sounds like something you want to have.
Automatic backup for Outlook 2000 .pst files.
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/Pfbackup.htm?s=/downl
oadCatalog/dldoutlook.htm
I haven’t tried it yet, but Tom Syroid says
it works and is reliable.
Robert Bruce Thompson
I have got it. What an incredible runaround Microsoft gives you when you want to download some of their freeware! Passwords, and they want to get you on record as allowing them to sell your name to every sucker list in the country, and on and on, endlessly; it took about 4 minutes to download, three more to install, and about fifteen to get to the point where it was possible to download it from their web site. But having got it, yes, it looks to work, and make real backup copies and everything. Thanks.
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Thursday September 16, 1999
Subject: Absolutely Bogus HP Response
From: Gary Mugford <mugford@aztec-net.com>
Jerry,
I ran across an example of what apparently is a bug in Hewlett-Packard Lasterjet Printer drivers. A client found himself unable to contend with a printer driver that appeared to take over his 6L recently. It was called the Absolutely Bogus WP driver. Try as he could, the goshfurlingerer driver prevented him from printing AND from switching to the 6L driver, still listed as available in the Driver properties dialog. The only solution was to delete and re-install the printer. Whatever triggered the driver swap re-occured two days later and the process repeated itself.
The juvenile name of the intruder led me to suspect a virus. But none of the major virus houses were detecting it, and I couldn't provide a virus sample for them to work with. The victim user was the one to actually find the info on the internet that revealed we weren't the victims of a virus, but of incompetent (probably a juvenile easter egg gone wrong) programming.
The site that cleared up the matter was the F-Secure site run by DataFellows. The url is http://www.europe.datafellows.com/v-descs/bogus.htm
There, you will see the following statement from the F-Secure Virus Information Pages:
"NAME: Bogus
There is no virus by this name, but we occasionally get queries about "Absolutely Bogus Printer Driver WPS" listed in Windows as the default printer. This is a bug in some (apprently HP-made) printer drivers. Reset the printer and ignore it - it's not a virus. [Analysis: Mikko Hypponen, Data Fellows]"
While I'm sure you find the information interesting to a certain degree, the crux of this missive is my inability to get any email access to a party at HP to complain to. Or even to find out if there was a paper somewhere detailing the problem (and the rather simplistic solution). I couldn't even find the drivers page through the HP site, ending up getting there through Frank Condren's site instead. And sending a letter asking about the problem got back the robo-mailer response:
"Thank you for your inquiry to Hewlett-Packard. Currently Hewlett-Packard does not offer technical assistance via e-mail for your product. However, Hewlett-Packard does have many resources available on our website where you may find the answer to your inquiry. Below we have included some links to sites that may prove beneficial to you."
And none of them provided one scintilla of help in the matter. I spent a whole night going through them document by document. Given the HP complete stonewalling of trying to find anthing BOGUS about their drivers, I'd still be looking for a virus if I trusted them.
As a personal owner of several HPs and the recommender of the purchase of dozens more, I find myself reluctantly asking you the question, "What do YOU recommend in the laser printer world that doesn't have an HP logo on it?"
Thanks for reading this far,
Gary Mugford Bramalea ON Canada
I must say that’s a bit surprising. I have found HP to be pretty responsive; and my usual recommendation for laser printers is "get the best HP you can afford, and think about one grade higher than that. It’s going to last forever, it will work, and it won’t give you problems." I’ve been doing that since they began with laser printers and I have not regretted it yet…
From: "Tarun Ghosal" <alpana@cal.vsnl.net.in>
Sub: IE 4.0 Easter Egg's secret code unleashed by S.S.Ghosal
Sir,
This is Soumya Shankar Ghosal, a 19 year old from Calcutta, India. Everyone knows how to crack the Easter Egg of Internet Explorer 4.0 but how about saving the file for future. It doesn&;rsquo;t allow you to do so. Whenever you try to view the source code, a blank page appears immediately. Here is a trick I found out how you can break in to the source code and save the file for future.
1.Select Help/About Internet Explorer from IE4's main menu. A dialog box will pop up. While holding down the Ctrl key, use your left mouse button to select the IE "e" logo and then drag it all the way to the left over the globe. Next, while still holding the key down, move the logo to the right, going over the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 black text. An Unlock button will be revealed. Click it, and the globe graphic should start to shake. Hold down the Ctrl key again and drag the IE4 logo over the globe and click the Unlock button.
2.When the Credits file pop up hit the right-click key located between Winkey and Ctrl. Choose 'View Source'. A coded temporary file should pop up. Save this file as an HTML document. Note here neither right mouse click nor Shift + F10 will work in this case.
3.Close the Credits screen and IE 4.0. Open the newly created file in Notepad and locate 'function OnLoad()' (without quotes) by Find. Here comment out the following using this symbol /* at start of "if (DecodeStr("gurjPRR") != window.name)" to "document.onkeydown = OnKeyDown;" and end the comment by this */. Save the file.
4.If you had done exactly the same you should get the Credits list, when you execute the html file. Here only the Logo will be invisible so save any GIF image as ierocks.gif in the same folder where the html file is kept. And next time when you execute you will see the Credits list along with your GIF image.
Here Microsoft made a small mistake by not trapping the right-click key ASCII value, and this loophole in the code makes possible to crack their Easter Egg code very easily.
Here is one request, if you publish this please include my Name and my URL also please let me know the location where it will be published, so that I can link it from my site. Waiting eagerly for your reply.
Regards, Soumya Shankar Ghosal
Email: alpana@cal.vsnl.net.in Visit me at http://soumya.indianet.org
Thanks. Alas, on the road, replies tend to be short. Maybe when I get back…
Jerry,
Until just a few months ago I was the Network Administrator for a small biotechnology firm involved in developing vaccines and diagnostic tools. This was my first foray into the biotech industry, and I learned quite a bit in the two years I was there. When I entered I had the same feelings as you, that the FDA was a "big brother" bureaucracy and generally didn't do much. I have to tell you that now I have completely different feelings.
It is probably true that the FDA has a large bureaucracy, but then what Federal program doesn't? However I do argue that what the FDA does is essential to the health and safety to millions of Americans (and countless more worldwide). Look at it this way: when you have a vaccine that is going to be given to millions of children in America, a 1% failure rate or history of complications is too high. The FDA tries to make sure that the drug companies are honest, that they follow proper science and that they have done every possible precaution to prevent further injury.
If you think the profit rates for Internet companies is staggering, take a close look at the money biotech companies can make over 30+ years with a good product. Biotech companies want desperately to get their product out the door and making money, just as any other company. However the FDA acts as a brake on their capitalism. Another point - Biotech is seen as the "next big thing" after the Internet, so lots of eyes and money are starting to move in this direction. Would you enjoy it if your medicines changed/upgraded as fast as your web browser?
Now, many people argue that products that serve a small population usually don't get supported because the cost/profit margin is so slim. This is a problem with capitalism in general, not the FDA. In fact, the FDA and a few other government agencies actually spend large sums of money trying to support these smaller ventures because they see the value of it, and it isn't based in profit. Millions of people have been helped by drugs or devices that larger companies didn't want to touch because it wouldn't make the profit.
I could tell you several interesting stories that I have accumulated during my time in the biotech firm, but I can't because of the Non-Disclosure agreements (heck, I can't even mention the name of the company). Nevertheless I urge you to spend some time talking to some people in the industry. I think that most of them will generally fell that the FDA is a pain in the butt, but at the same time has a function that is necessary. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, but I can tell you that as a reasonably intelligent member of this country, I felt much better about the FDA after this job than I did beforehand. I think that yourself, as a person with a large scientific background, would feel the same.
On a slightly different note, I worked very closely with the Quality Assurance Manager at the company. Much of the time was spent fixing various problems in Microsoft-based products. The QA Manager often grumbled that if didn't think the software industry had a QA department, and that if she was in charge software would have a nearly perfect operation record (and I believe her, she was notoriously strict when it came to a good, safe, quality product). My response was that if she was in charge, software would have a 10-year development cycle - just like the biotech industry. Imagine how that would work!
I fear you miss the point. I don’t mind if the FDA does a lot of testing. I don’t mind if they label products. What I don’t much care for is the mandatory nature of it. When FDA agents with machine guns burst into a vitamin warehouse – and they have done this – because they claim you can’t sell vitamins as health aids without FDA permission, there is something wrong. Sure, make people prove things aren’t harmful; but beyond that, isn’t it up to the consumer to determine what to buy? Or is it always the case that Big Brother knows better? But we were born free.
The case of SAMe is one I know well: for years we had to smuggle the stuff into the US, because the FDA was seizing shipments. Not because it was harmful, but because the FDA didn’t think it would do anyone any good. Now they find it will. It’s now for sale in drug stores. Meanwhile many of us are older than we would have been had they allowed it. Federal Death Agency, existing to see we get older? Bureaucratic meddling?
I suppose I have more faith in people than many. Madison said we had to entrust the liberties of the people to the entire body of the public. Adams said "We here hold that each man is the best judge of his own interest."
Those were considered radical statements at the time. I guess they still are. But we were born free.
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Friday September 17, 1999
Subject: Windows and Office 2000 Woes
From: Doane Bob <Bob.Doane@at.siemens.com>
Dr. Pournelle,
Please accept my two cents worth (probably inflated) in the e-mail discussion of your woes with Windows/Office 2000. Having spent a lot of time Microsoft bashing (and fully intending to continue to do so), I'd like to offer the following opinion. This opinion is based on the most probable answer to the question; Who is Microsoft's target customer?
The obvious answer, in my opinion, is that their target is the corporate license buyer. Individual buyers/users are probably only a drop (well, maybe several drops) in Microsoft's cash bucket (vat, lake, sea?). Fairly obviously, Microsoft is aiming Windows and Office at corporations. How many individuals/home/SOHO computer users NEED these products? Please note I emphasized need. Yes, many of us want them because they are the latest, the most powerful, the greatest, ... you get the idea. Even in your case, with your relatively large (well, to me, it's huge) LAN, I believe your stated reason for going to Windows 2000 was stability, not features or power or... My son and I both have Windows 98 2nd edition and our PC's are networked with an EZ-Link USB system. This works very well for us and is quite stable.
We certainly don't need (and in my case don't want) Win 2000. Personally, I wouldn't be using Windows of any sort, except my computer hobby is running simulation games (naval combat and air combat mostly). There are no programs being written for DOS any more. Ergo, I must use Windows. Like you, I long for a stable operating system. The Win 98 2nd ed. is more stable than the first. I switched.
While it is remotely possible that you were consulted by Microsoft as to your "wish list" for an operating system, I certainly wasn't. The only entities who even remotely NEED all the power and features offered in Win and Office 2000 are corporations. That's been true since Microsoft sold the first version of DOS to IBM. In all fairness to Microsoft (did I say that?), they must be doing a good job because corporations are buying Microsoft's products in legions. Just look at Microsoft's profits. This has the (unfortunate) effect of creating a standard "everyone" wants to follow, justified or not; computer software as trendy fashion.
Essentially, the point is that people like you and I are using these products for "dumbed down" operations. That certainly applies less to you due to your professional status, the size and complexity of your network and your web publishing, but in terms of resources available, I feel you are still in the SOHO size organization. If we are using corporate level systems to play games and run SOHOs with only individual or SOHO level resources, we have to expect problems. This doesn't even cover the waste in money because, at least some (if not most) of us will never use all the features (real, imagined or bugs) we purchased. Oh, excuse me, the bugs will, of course, be used. Murphy' law requires it.
Given that the above can be interpreted as either lenient on or apologetic for Microsoft, you may wonder why I stated that I am a Microsoft basher. There are at least two reasons. The first is that, as we have all painfully learned often, Microsoft releases their much touted software ridden with bugs. As a quality engineer, I find this inexcusable, especially as it has attained nearly art form status. The second is that Microsoft, in their zeal for profit, forgot about (or never cared in the first place) the small user. Microsoft, through its corporate associations, has decided how you and I will have to use our computers. Some of these changes have been huge advances. Maybe it took three, four, five...etc iterations for them to work, but eventually they became improvements. Possibly, that's what is happening in Office 2000 now. Office 2007 may be just about perfect for somebody's needs. My problem is that Windows 9X or Windows 20XX may not be, and in my opinion isn't, the best way for me to use my computer. DOS was, with a little study, easily customizable. Windows 3.X was customizable with difficulty and a steep learning curve. Win 9X/Win 2000 are very uncustomizable by the average user. Remember I just want to fly virtual planes and operate virtual ships. None of us at my level and, I suspect, yours, ever had a choice as to what we wanted.
We can't buy the base price "Geo" or "Escort" level system for an equivalent price break. We must buy the fully equipped "Cadillac" or "Mercedes" level system, for the full price. Maybe it's my American heritage or my ancestral Scot's frugality, but I simply don't like being forced into something I don't want or even need. Maybe if Microsoft comes to me politely, hat in hand, and asks what I really want in an operating system, then provides it at a reasonable price and it works relatively free of bugs, I'll stop bashing Microsoft. I think my position is relatively safe.
Bob Doane
Well, actually there’s a very good DOS; the problem is that no one is developing games to run in it. I actually have to keep an older system going to run some of my old games, though. BeOS works well too, but so far there’s not much being developed for it. Apple, on the other hand, seems to be making a comeback and my games magazines report a lot of new stuff for Apple.
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Saturday
Was taken up by matters social. See VIEW for pictures.
©
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Top
Sunday September 19, 1999
There's a lot of mail in favor of consolidating MAIL and VIEW and I may well do that. But not tonight...
Hi,
Refreshing to read a computer
writer who uses both Mac and Windoze and don’t show inflexible contempt
for either.
I’ll look forward to what you
have to say about the Apple G4. I want to buy one myself next year, as I
start film-creating (digital video).
I hope you have noticed that the
first available model, the 400 mhz, does not have the intended G4
motherboard, it has the G3’s, and so is not totally optimized. (Though
it is not exactly bad. Macintouch.com had a review, and they were
positively surprised by some tests. The multiprocessor machines (with OS X
especially) should be all but revolutionary when they come.)
Yours, Eolake
Beauty
is no crime, looking is no crime, nudity is no crime
Celebrating female beauty since
nineteen-thirty-six
“Knowledge is the food of the Spirit, and Beauty is the drink.” -Stobblehouse
Yes, given that I think I have to buy this because Apple seems to have ceased to talk to me at all, I'll wait for the updated G4 with the optimized system. It should be interesting.
Since you have this problem
too, perhaps you can help me. How
do you stop the insertion points from blinking on Microsoft editors?
I’m about to have a seizure here.
Thank you.
Stephen M.
St. Onge
Don't know but I bet one of the readers will. I remember once knowing, but I have given up and got used to it.
Dear Mr. Pournelle,
Why
struggling with MS Outlook 2000 :{ when Pegasus for
Windows doesn’t disencourage
using e-mail....= O
I’m using it (version 3.12)
with success, it doesn’t take too much memory, is working without those
infamous X-controls and therefore less vulnerable to hackers and more of
those nosy persons. It’s not using any macro and is fully in harmony
with MS Windows 98 :\’-)
Besides that it’s so easy to
back up by saving all the files from the Pmail\mail regularly.
Try to download it at ftp://ftp.let.rug.nl/pegasus/winpmail/
or at http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/
or at http://pmail.usa.com/ftp.htm
Most
likely you will enjoy e-mailing again, which in fact should be an activity
as eating: enjoying it without getting an upset stomach...2B|^2B
Why don’t you try it and
compare it to MS Outlook 2000 in a coming article...<:-)
Centro Medico Rio Canario
Gosieweg 8, Willemstad
Curaçao, Dutch West Indies
tel: 011-5999-737 4660
tel: 011-5999-737 6927
fax: 011-5999-737 1484
Attn: J.R.Krishnadath, M.D.
Thanks, but I really do need the rules that Outlook gives me. And it's not all that bad. The real problem is going on the road, and what I did this time was use Netscape with the thing set to leave all messages on the server; thus I have them all now on Princess. Thanks.
Dear Jerry,
The link to the Microsoft
Knowledge Base mirror site
(http://www.bugsoft.hik.se/mskb/)
reported in Tuesday’s mail no longer works. A note on their home page states that they removed the site
due to complaints from Microsoft. So
it goes.
I wanted to comment on Bryan
Broyles letter about games. I have Birth of the Federation, but I
haven’t had any problems with the game, even straight from the box. I
did download the patch, which added some improvements, and it works, both
on my main machine (a PII 350), and on my laptop (an AMD K6 300). The
game is similar to Master of Orion II, with the addition of minor races
along with the major players. Players must stay in character to succeed. A
warlike Federation player will be penalized, as will a diplomatic Klingon.
The minor races are in
character also. The Bajorans hate the Cardassians. I enjoy the game a lot.
But I do sympathize with his
point, because I’ve bought a lot of very expensive, buggy games, too.
While I do think some of the problem with games is marketing pressure, but
I think a lot of the problem is just that there are too many possible
hardware combinations to test. It seems like there are a zillion video
cards out there. Is the problem the game or the video driver? Game
designers do like to push the hardware envelope (and that’s probably the
biggest reason games are buggy).
Ed Martz
I really liked MOO 1, wasn't so intrigued with MOO 2; but I'll give Birth of the Federation a try. I have had real problems with Fighting Steel, a game I would like, but which has blown up three of my machines, alas...
Jerry,
In your Current Mail, you wrote:
“Certainly it helps to have
the proper installation, though, and I have done that. Took about half an
hour. Now I get a proper report on send/receive. I don’t recall
precisely why I used the other installation when I set this up.
Once again, it’s the instructions... or lack of. I know it is
unreasonable not to want to spend hours on the internet looking things up
that ought to have been in the manuals, but there it is.”
As I recall, you chose to
convert Outlook 98 to the Workgroup option on the advice of a reader. It
is documented on your site though ,without the benefit of a global search
facility, I cannot find the original reference. I think it had something
to do with the handling of multiple mail accounts.
This may be yet another example of things changing (apparently for
the worse) between the two versions of Outlook.
Regards,
Kendall
Ah. Thanks. It's bad when you have to go back to your log to figure out what you did. But I fear it's that way with me lately. Just too much to keep track of. Alas.
Dr. Pournelle,
Bell South is my area.
Bellsouth.net is the ISP owned by bellsouth.com.
Spamcop is probably some wiseguy’s idea of how to get readers to
open his mail. I have problems with Bell South (like why does it take
three months and three missed deadlines to put in one (1) fractional T1
line in my city, we are probably losing a lot of revenue from this at the
moment) but I don’t think spamcop to be Bell South proper, probably just
a customer. Floyd went as
left as possible. It missed NASA because NASA is about as far left as we
can go here in the US. I disagree that wiping Canaveral off the map would
have moved us foreward- probably the reverse. I believe that would have
been the end of a manned space project for the US, at least within our
lifetimes.
I have family in Titusville who
are no doubt relieved.
George A. Laiacona III <undead@duesouth.net>
“One for all,
And all for one,
If he’s out of arms reach,
Then go for your gun.”
-The King’s Musketeers
Well, you may be right. The problem is that Shuttle is doomed at some point, and we have not much in the works to take its place. I don't really wish ill on any major program, but NASA has to become irrelevant before we have a real space program I fear. If you want well thought out space policy, write Henry Vanderbilt, hvanderbilt@bix.com and get on his mailing list and also subscribe to the Space Access Society. That's the best way to keep up with what we ought to be doing. Henry used to work for me, sort of. SAS is the best space policy outfit I know of now.
Mr. Doane may be in a work
situation where he never takes any of it home, but there are certainly a
LOT of us who need an economical system for the home, where we can process
tasks in much the same manner that we do at work.
And there can be little doubt that more of this is going on, not
less.
I, for one, am happy that
Microsoft produces products powerful enough that we can take work home and
do it there—it’s mandatory these days. As
for games, I haven’t touched one on the home computer for years—too
much work to do before there is time for that.
And it’s hard to believe that I’m alone.
--Chuck Waggoner [waggoner at gis dot net]
Fortunately I get paid to review games. At least sometimes. Thanks.
Thanks. I have found a reference to Bentham.jpg and fixed that. You know, I used to fiddle with sample rates for mice, and have forgotten about doing that. I'll have to try it. Thanks. You have a nice day too, which in Narvik I gather can be a very long or very short day...
Entire
contents copyright 1999 by Jerry E. Pournelle. All rights reserved.
Comments and discussion welcome.
