GNOMEREPORT: Bullied By Buggy And Bloated!

I rarely do a rant because debate is not my strongest suit. Public speaking was one school subject in which I excelled, but I always struggled with the debate portion. I got stuck with twins instead of one person in preparing for a debate assignment. The twins and I wanted to take the same stance, but I relented and took the other side and it was probably one of a handful of B grades I received in the three public speaking classes I took over the years.

Anyway, when I ranted about software piracy, it was no surprise a mountain of e-mails appeared in response. Many of the readers made good points. The hard part about sharing an opinion is that not "every scenario" is presented and I didn't cover it all. This rant was in response to the two situations. Of course, there is more to the story. We're being overcharged for buggy and bloated products as well as upgrades that come too often.

The cookie problem. Here are the complete details:

I had ruled out everything and determined it's a problem with Internet Explorer on my computer. IE and MyIE are the ones having the problem. Mozilla proved it. Opera proved it.

The two situations that are baffling me:

Online webmail. When I check webmail online, I have a choice of three applications: Neomail, Horde, and SquirrelMail. Squirrel is the one I use. Whenever I sign into it, it gives me the (error info). Wondering if it was the server, I went into Horde. Same problem. Neomail - NO PROBLEM! Logical? Not at the moment.

I went into Mozilla and other browsers and didn't have the aforementioned problems. Uninstalling Google Bar did nothing. The firewall is not an issue. Re-installing IE6 was fruitless and a big waste of time as it took several hours to get it to install. Searching Microsoft's knowledgebase, checking out the usual haunts like annoyances.org, and Google... can't find the answer.

Another thing - don't know if they're connected or not. When I edit my Amazon wish list, the result is a file not found page - the same thing I get when I try to go into Squirrel or Horde.

SurveyMonkey is the other one with a problem. Even when I clean out the cookies, it produces an error cookie. Sheesh! Of course, it works fine in the other browsers. I just can't let these problems go. The repair person in me wants to find the solution and I KNOW there is one. I contacted Surveymonkey's tech support - no clues yet.

Confoundedly yours,
Meryl K. Evans

DOWNLOAD: AuctionSieve v1.3.3

• 17M
• Win9x/2k/XP
• FREE

{Filter eBay auctions} Browsing eBay is a long, daunting task because there are so gosh darned many auctions at any given time. AuctionSieve is your spaghetti strainer to eBay as it filters the watery mess and leaves the good stuff. The Java-based program allows you to add keywords, trash words (words you do NOT want in the results), search title and description, and search categories. It uses catch word weighting to take your search a little further. If you're looking for Mario Bros. Video games for the Gameboy, add "Mario bros game" to the keywords and add "playstation gamecube and xbox" to the trash words. The reason I didn't include Gameboy is that some people make it two words. Nintendo is also left off since they have many products. Those not in the USA can change it to their country's eBay Web site. FYI - if clicking on the View doesn't bring up a page, you have something in your browser blocking ads. It's not an issue with the program. [Meryl]

DOWNLOAD: LinCity v1.12.0

• 833K
• Win9x/2k/XP
• FREE

{City simulation game} Can you guess what game this copies? Sin City is Las Vegas, not a game. You got it, it's Sim City renamed as LinCity because it works with Linux as well as Windows and other operating systems. It has its share of copies and fans should like this one or those who've never tried it can give it a shot at no cost. If you don't like it, no money lost. Think you can do a better job than your city's mayor in building and maintaining the city? That means feeding, housing, providing jobs and goods, and sustaining the economy. Go forth and conquer. [Meryl]

DOWNLOAD: Icon Restore

• 282K
• Win9x/2K/XP FREE
• FREE

http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html

{Save the desktop icons} I always knew when tech support messed with my computer. The desktop icons would be out of place. Being the neat freak I am, I notice the slightest things. It's a curse because with three kids, the house gets messy and it makes me crazy. Too bad I can't click House Restore like Icon Restore to get everything back in place! Right-click on a system icon (Recycle Bin, My Computer, Network Places, etc.) and select Save Desktop Icon Layout. According to the site, WinXP users may have to click on Recycle Bin to make it work, but I was able to get it to work on all system icons. I moved a few icons around and then right-clicked on Recycle Bin > Restore Desktop Icon Layout, and everyone marched back to their regular spot. Thank you, icons! Now, if only the kids were as cooperative. [Meryl]

GNEWBIE GNOOK: Someone's Sending From My E-mail Address! How Do I Stop Them?

By Leo of Puget Sound Software

You're minding your own business, and one day you get e-mail from someone you've never heard of, and they're asking you to stop sending them e-mail. Or worse, they're angry. Or worse yet, they accuse you of sending them a virus! But you don't know them, you've never heard of them, and you know you've never sent them e-mail.

Welcome to the world of viruses, where you can get the blame for someone else's infection. And there's worse news to come.

Before I get to that, though, there is always a small possibility that your e-mail account has been compromised. The solution there is simple: change your password immediately. That should prevent someone who's using your account for malicious purposes from continuing, assuming you've chosen a good password.

But these days that's not the most common cause for the situation I've described. Viruses are. And what's worse, there's almost nothing you can do.

The MyDoom/Novarg virus currently running rampant is a great example. The virus infects someone's machine, and then looks in the e-mail address book on that machine, and e-mails a copy of itself to everyone it finds. What it also does is forge the "From:" address for the e-mail that it sends. What does it use to forge the address? Why the addresses in the address book, of course. So an infected machine will send e-mail to everyone in the address book, looking as if it was sent by other people in that address book, even though it was not.

Let's use a concrete example: Peter's machine gets infected with the MyDoom virus. In his address book are entries for friends Paul and Mary. Paul and Mary have never met, have never exchanged e-mail, and do not know each other - they each just know Peter. The virus on Peter's machine will send e-mail with the virus to Paul looking like it came from Mary. Paul may wonder who the heck this Mary person is and why she's sending him a virus, but she was never involved.

If you're in Mary's place, you can see that it would be frustrating to be accused of something that you had nothing to do with and have no control over.

For the record, your e-mail address may end up in the address books of people you don't know as well. Various e-mail programs will automatically hold on to additional e-mail addresses that were included on e-mail you received, or possibly from e-mail that was forwarded. Viruses have also been known to use other sources of e-mail addresses, or even forward them around as the virus spreads. What that means is that the simple "friend of a friend" example I used with Peter, Paul, and Mary, while simple and certainly possible, is not the only way your e-mail could show up in a forged "from" line.

What's important here is simply this: one way or another, e-mail viruses lie about who sent them.

If someone accuses you of sending a virus-laden e-mail, and you are positive you did not, then you have very little recourse other than trying to educate them about how viruses work. Point them at this article if you like. But be clear: you're not necessarily infected, nor is the person who received the mail claiming to be from you. It's some third party who is. (And identifying that third party is difficult - this is why virus writers use this technique.)

And of course be sure that you're not going to get infected yourself: don't open attachments from people you don't know, and make sure you have an up-to-date virus checker and virus definitions file. I have recommendations for virus scanning software here.

REVIEW: HP Photosmart 945

Courtesy of Hans M. Wind at DC Views

A manufacturer of computer printers who is also very active in releasing digital cameras at regular intervals is Hewlett Packard. Their latest release, the Photosmart 945, is a 5-megapixel model with an 8x Fujinon zoom lens (300 mm equivalent) and several innovative features that make this camera very interesting for snapshooters who want an uncomplicated camera that delivers the goods.

HP have incorporated a unique feature called Adaptive Lighting Technology. This feature enables photographers to produce photos that look more like what they see with their own eyes. Brightness in images is balanced by compressing harsh contrasts while preserving smaller contrasts. The result is that some areas in photos are lightened while other areas are left alone. The effect is based on the same "dodging and burning" technique as used by conventional photographers in their darkrooms. By giving more exposure to lighter areas in an image and less exposure to darker parts, contrasts are leveled out to deliver a well-balanced print. This advanced feature, which is exclusive to HP's Photosmart 945 camera, is called "digital flash." It has three user selectable settings - "low," "high," and "off" - based on the level of contrast in a scene. We have tried the feature several times and we have to admit that it really works.

Conclusion

HP have succeeded in producing an easy-to-use camera with user-friendly controls that yields very good pictures with vibrant colours. The zoom range is much greater than most other digicams on the market and the Digital Flash feature really makes a significant difference to your images. The Instant Share system makes it easy to send images to friends and relatives. Image quality is excellent for such a relatively inexpensive digital camera, making it ideal for point and shoot users who will appreciate the fact that the camera can be used on automatic all the time and still deliver quality images. For more experienced users there are several features that offer manual control but without the complexity often associated with more upmarket prosumer models.

On the other hand, the HP Photosmart 945 is not the fastest camera around with all the menus and controls taking their time to follow up commands. Advanced photographers will probably not find it their camera of choice since several advanced features such as external flash control or fully manual exposure are missing, though this is probably not the audience this camera is aimed at anyway. However, for the budding photographer who wants to take his hobby more seriously, the HP 945 would make a very good choice, indeed.

For the down-and-dirty, inside-out story on this camera, see the full review in its original glory at DC Views. It's quite extensive with many stunning examples, so make sure you pack your lunch!

FAVORITE: Craftster.org

http://craftster.org

{Hip crafts} No old-fashioned tea cozies, toilet paper covers, or cross-stitched bunnies here! Instead, get hip, do-it-yourself craft projects. This site shares the tips through a forum that is carefully organized to make it easier to find projects and photos of the results. The projects are categorized by topic such as housewares, clothing, cooking, other links, and city guides to stores and happenings. Crafts are not my strong suit, but I enjoyed those paint-type places. When I was in Girl Scouts (stop laughing - I sold lotsa cookies!), the troop leader had her own paint-a-thing business, so we did that as a project. Since everyone picked the good stuff before I did, I got turtles. The following week was painting time, and instead of turtles, I got a cat! Turns out the turtles were not G-rated. [Meryl]

NEWS: As Reported By ActiveWin.com

Microsoft Downplays Sales Expectations
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New Patents Could Propel Microsoft's Digital Media
Ex-Microsoft Worker Gets Prison Term, Must Repay $4 Million
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Xbox For $99? Xbox 2 In 2005?
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ActiveXbox.com: Xbox Released Hardware List - Updated
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Solution Accelerator For MSA Enterprise Messaging

DOWNLOAD: QuickTime Alternative v1.30 RC6

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http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4100.html

{Multimedia} QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime (.mov .qt) files. This way, there is no need to install the offical QuickTime Player. As a bonus, Internet Explorer will play all QuickTime movies that are embedded in a Web page. You do need a player that is capable of handling QuickTime movies. The included Media Player Classic works very well with QuickTime. [Major Geeks]

DOWNLOAD: System Mechanic v4.0f

• 5.4M
• Win9x/2K/XP
• Shareware
• Screenshot

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download98.html

{All in one} System Mechanic is a collection of system maintenance tools designed to help keep your computer running smooth, fast, and error free. The program includes tools that find and fix broken shortcuts; clean the Windows Registry; manage Windows StartUp applications; track system changes made during program installations; find and remove duplicate files, junk and obsolete files, cache files, history logs, cookies, and invalid uninstaller information; tweak your system for faster Internet and network speed; allow you to safely and securely dispose of sensitive information, files and folders; and schedule maintenance. [Major Geeks]