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Saturday, October 16, 2004

Show #83

I’ve just received my author’s copies of Leo Laporte’s Guide to TiVo and I must humbly say it’s the best Tivo book ever. All credit to Gareth Branwyn who knocked himself out writing it, Rick Kughen, my editor at Que who polished it to a gleaming shine, and the guys at Weaknees.com who gave us outstanding support all along the way.

This is the book that should come with every Tivo sold.

 toc | toc 

Today’s news items

Microsoft has released 10 new security fixes - seven of them critical. Run Windows Update kids. One of the patches fixes the JPEG patch released last month because it didn’t work on machines with Office XP. Surprise! Run Windows Update now.

The FDA has approved the implantation of VeriChips in humans. The RFID chips are the size of a grain of rice and can contain a patient’s medical records. Or, as in the case of some Spanish club hoppers, credit card information to speed the purchase of drinks and food.

The FCC has approved BPL: broadband over power lines, and utilities in Washington State and Ohio are moving to implement it. The technology could bring high-speed Internet to areas unserved by DSL and cable modems. The ARRL, which has been virulently opposed to BPL, said they were cautiously optimistic that the new rules would protect hams.

Project Fluffy Bunny has seen the light of day. Google is extending its search business to your desktop. The new Google desktop search indexes Outlook and Outlook Express email, Microsoft Office files, filenames, web history, chat logs, and text files. It integrates into Internet Explorer, and future Google searches will include results from your own hard drive as well as the web in general. It’s a great product considering the price, but I still prefer X1 for its speed and the wider variety of files it searches. I’ll have my full review on the show today.

Intel has announced it won’t produce a 4GHz Pentium 4 after all. Overheating problems with higher clock speeds are forcing the company to focus its efforts on multi-core chips - single chips with two processors - and improving efficiency in the Pentium 4 line with larger caches.

Meanwhile AMD continues its march to eclipse Intel. Tuesday the company will unveil the Athlon 64 FX-55 and the Athlon 64 4000+. The FX is currently the best performing desktop CPU on the market.

Noon-1p

Joe in Long Beach - can’t download EXE files

None of his three computers can access .EXE files. He even tried removing the router from the connection and a clean install of XP with nothing added - still no go. Sounds like it has to be his Internet Service Provider. He uses Verison DSL.

CalExplorer adds: Possible Reasons why EXE files won’t download:

1. Your Virus Scan program is blocking the download
2. Files assoicated with your Virus Scan program have been damaged, corrupted or modified by a trojan or worm.
3. Sometimes there is a conflict between USB and the download function. This can occur when you don’t have the correct USB drivers and USB dll’s installed for your particular OS and Motherboard. VIA and NVIDIA have additional USB 2.0 bios and dll driver extensions that may be required. Especially for the higher speed USB 2.0
4. If you can’t download .EXE files, it may be that that the EditFlags item at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile is incorrectly set.
   

• It should look like xx xx 00 xx where xx is any value.
• If it is set to xx xx 01 xx, change it.
• Save and exit the Registry.
• Reboot

If you using a software firewall EX: ZoneAlarm, I have also noticed an entry in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe which has 2 name and data items as well, both dealing with download of exe files and in particular Microsoft Downloads or updates.

• Name = (Default) | Data = exefile
• Name = Content Type | Data = application/x-msdownload

• Name = ZAMailSafeExt | Data = zl9

Tricia in Studio City - couldn’t install SP-2

Called Microsoft and they said to run Spybot and Adaware (good!). Her registry had been changed - some spyware and viruses do this to keep you from removing them.

Alice in Corona - can Google index Hotmail?

Nope. Google only indexes publicly available web sites. It doesn’t have access to password protected web pages like your web mail. On the other hand, system administrators should be careful not to inadvertantly make private information public.

Update: But wait… Google’s new desktop search tool can index Hotmail caches, so if you’re on a shared computer with the desktop tool installed, someone could theoretically read your email, according to this article in USA Today.

Barbara in Vista - Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard

Barbara is having trouble with her cordless keyboard. I have to admit I’ve never been able to keep them working for longer than a few months. The Logitech devices use 27Mhz - that’s the same band as CB transmitters. Might be interference from a nearby CB radio. Trent thinks you should check out this on the microsoft site about setting up a cordless dekstop.

A listener writes: Things I’ve found that cause interference are:

- Proximity of another wireless keyboard or mouse (sometimes; a former co-worker and I once had to sit at opposite ends of the office from each other for this reason)

- Low batteries

- Strong solar flare activity

1–2p

Steve in Ventura - is there any way to get firewire working in NT 4

Trent says Firewire (IEEE 1394) will not work on NT 4!

Howki in Stanford - reporting scam emails

He knows there’s no point in reporting spam - it’s impossible to track down spammers. But what about blatantly illegal emails?

The FTC has an address you can report spam to (they’re collecting stats): spam@uce.gov or fill out the form at the FTC’s web site.

Report phishing scams to The Anti-Phishing Working group at reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

Kared suggests 419 revenge stories at http://www.419eater.com/

Jim in Lakewood suggests visiting Ebay’s Spoof Email Tutorial and reporting Ebay spoof emails to them at spoof@ebay.com .

Deborah in Orange - Compuserve bumps her off from page to page

First get rid of spyware! Read my Main/RemovingSpyware article.

Paul in Glendale - mystery items in taskbar

They look like minimized Windows - but contain no text. Not sure what’s causing them, but you’re right to worry. It’s likely something that’s running in the background. If you have up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware running you’re probably ok. I suggest using Firefox or Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer to prevent web sites from installing background programs without your consent.

John in North Hollywood - sending graphical email

You can create your own templates in Outlook and Outlook Express, but for beginners the best way to send graphical email is Incredimail. It’s free and works even for folks, like me, that don’t allow HTML email.

2–3p

Joe in San Yacinto - upgraded his friend and IE disappeared

This does sound like an SP-2 side effect. It sounds like the best bet would be to format the drive and start over. I recommend downloading the full SP-2 and burning it to a CD then installing it immediately after installing XP. Read my article on installing Service Pack 2.

Click here to download the full version of SP2 from microsoft.com
-Trent

The caller might also consider slipstreaming SP2 into a Windows XP install disc. That way he won’t need to carry two discs to install SP2 on systems, a simple clean install will include SP2.

Using nLite or AutoStreamer can automate the process of slipstreaming if you don’t feel comfortable doing so manually.
- Dan

If the icon is missing, the FIRST thing to do is arrange the icons on the desktop (right click on blank portion of desktop). I have had cases where I thought I lost an icon (sometimes during screen resolution changes) and what happened was an icon was right on top of another one, and you can’t see it!
-Brad (listening to podcast in Chicago)

Lily in LA - Treo recommendations

She is looking for a new cell phone and loves her old Handspring. She’s wondering if I recommend the 600. I do, but wait a minute, because the Treo 650 will be out any day now. Check the review on Engadget and even if you don’t want the 650 wait, because the price should drop on the 600 when it comes out. You can read the announcement about the Treo 650 at PDALive.

Harold in Santa Barbara - Is Internet Explorer on the Macintosh safe?

Yes indeed. It doesn’t support ActiveX and ActiveScripting - the chief security issues on Windows - so you’re safe. I recommend Safari or Omniweb on the Mac, but that’s for speed, not security. They’re all equally safe. He runs the Best of Santa Barbara web site.

Harry in Claremont - USB 2 hard drive crashes

He has a Dell Computer at home, a Sony at the office. Both running Windows XP. His USB 2.0 external hard drive crashes all the time on the Dell - works reliably on the Sony though. The Dell is using a cheap aftermarket USB card. I’d suggest replacing it. He also wants the name of a program he can use on both systems to synchronize the backup. I use and recommend Second Copy. Dell Technical Support said that some devices are not campatible with thier USB ports or chipset. I had the same problem with a game controller about a year ago, and the problem was solved by getting another controller.

Joe in Carlsbad - Intel vs. AMD

I recommend AMD these days. You’ll get more bang for your buck, and they’re 100% compatible.

Below are some reviews on the Blue Guy v.s. the Green Guy. -Kalic

• Q1 2004 CPU Shootout
• Athlon 64 FX-51 vs. Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
• Athlon XP vs. Pentium 4 : The Ultimate 32-bit CPU Showdown

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