From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 1 02:24:35 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 1 02:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It's really late at night, but I severely disagree with more than a few of your suggestions........mebbee I'll be more specific in a later reply... "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h4skp8$gpt$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "indigo" wrote in message > news:h4r4ff$9bc$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> "Charles" wrote in message >> news:Xns9C574F19D5BD5TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... >>> It wasn't me! It was "indigo" ! >>> >>>> Is that in any way related to virtual disks? For whatever reason, >>>> Vista has that service active as default, but I have absolutely no >>>> idea what it actually does. At one time, I did have some app that >>>> created a "Virtual Drive" for copying DVD's, but I uninstalled it a >>>> long time ago. Are they at all related? >>> >>> Indigo - stop screwing around with your system. >> >> Never! ;-) That is, until I figure out how to re install Office 2003... > > Suggestion:.... and this is in ALL sincerity! > > A) Take the pledge....swear off all registrry manipulators and tweakers! > B) Backup all your data/programs/etc. > C) Do a CLEAN, LOW-LEVEL format of the hard drive > D) Install Windows fresh > E) Bring base windows completely up to date, features and functionality > F) Update the rest of the add-ons from Windows. > G) Install AV program of choice. > H) Now Install Office and bring it completely up to date. Full Install, > all features! > I) Then install the other programs, carefully deciding if it is REALLY > needed. > J) Stay away from registry cleaners, registry tweakers, etc. etc. > K) Make sure Windows Update is set for automagic update. > L) If office does not update, make a schedule to run it once a month, a > few days after the 2nd Tuesday! > > Now you can ENJOY your PC for research, fun, etc. etc. > You should have an From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 1 13:36:24 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 1 13:40:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h50n32$tjk$1@news.spamcop.net... > It's really late at night, but I severely disagree with more than a few of > your suggestions........mebbee I'll be more specific in a later reply... > I will be waiting! From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 1 14:57:35 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 1 15:00:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] IE8 - Status on compatibility / stablility Message-ID: How many are using IE8 on Vista? It has been out a while, but I am waiting for all the compatibility bugs to be worked out with add-on products? Is anyone using IE8 in a environment that they connect to many different commercial site? From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 1 15:05:06 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 1 15:10:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Office 2007 SP2 - Anyone using the lastest Service Pack? Message-ID: I was wondering if anyone has installed / used SP2 for Office 2007> Initially when it came out, there were some cautions from reputible services that the there were some gotchas / bugs.. From MikeE at ster.invalid Sat Aug 1 15:12:12 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Sat Aug 1 15:15:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE8 - Status on compatibility / stablility References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > How many are using IE8 on Vista? I've only used IE7 on Vista, and I don't use Vista much at all. > It has been out a while, but I am waiting for all the compatibility > bugs to be worked out with add-on products? Why do you want to use IE8? I can think of other browsers that have advantages over IE8. What other browsers have you tried? Opera? FF? Chrome? Safari? > Is anyone using IE8 in a environment that they connect to many different > commercial site? What does 'commercial' mean in this context? -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From aunt.jemima at pancake.box Sat Aug 1 15:44:40 2009 From: aunt.jemima at pancake.box (dwacon) Date: Sat Aug 1 15:45:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] iPhone 3.0.1 Upgrade Message-ID: I heard about the upgrade and, when my iTunes told me an upgrade was available, I clicked the button. The download and install seemed to go smoothly, until it got the point where it said on the computer, "Verifying iPhone software..." and an image of the USB cable with an arrow pointing towards an iTunes graphic appeared on the iPhone 3G. This continued after I went to bed... after hoping after a few hours it would finish verifying... and so far the iPhone just turns off and turns back on and continues in this state. I tried disconnecting and doing the reset... and even rebooting iTunes... but my phone is now an expensive paperweight. Funny, the only available support is phone support -- and the iPhone is my only available phone line! Starting to regret this purchase... and the HOURS spent loading music, photos and apps onto this device... -- The generation that used acid to escape reality is now using antacid to deal with reality http://blog.dwacon.com http://www.twitter.com/dwacon From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 1 16:27:54 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 1 16:30:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] anyone ever heard of Attune by Aveo? Message-ID: I was trolling the net looking for a new photo editing app last week, and installed M$'s Photo Image Editor V3.1. I didn't like it, so I uninstalled it. I rebooted this morning and found a chipper new dialog box on my display saying that Aveo Attune was "protecting" my PC and keeping it up to date (drivers etc.). A quick google shows that it's been frequently attached to A/V editing software and invisibly installs itself along with the target software, but it doesn't appear to be a spybot. I just removed it, but wanted to ping the group for any additional info. From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 1 18:58:54 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 1 19:00:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Office 2007 SP2 - Anyone using the lastest Service Pack? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5ABFCC0A021TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > No way it was me! It was "Joe Gill" ! > >> I was wondering if anyone has installed / used SP2 for Office 2007> >> Initially when it came out, there were some cautions from reputible >> services that the there were some gotchas / bugs.. > > Use it at work and at home. Both with xp pro. What kind of gotcha should > I be looking for? See http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=847 From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 1 19:02:16 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 1 19:05:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE8 - Status on compatibility / stablility In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h52426$mee$1@news.spamcop.net... > Joe Gill wrote: >> How many are using IE8 on Vista? > > I've only used IE7 on Vista, and I don't use Vista much at all. > >> It has been out a while, but I am waiting for all the compatibility >> bugs to be worked out with add-on products? > > Why do you want to use IE8? I can think of other browsers that have > advantages over IE8. What other browsers have you tried? Opera? FF? > Chrome? Safari? Tried some of the alternate browsers. Have had various compatibily problems. Tried mini-Opera on phone and it is quirky Tried Chrome and have various site issues. I want to use IE8, because it is the most widely used browser, so it gets attacked the most and it's bugs are flushed out on a regular basis . Also, most commercial sites are designed for IE. > >> Is anyone using IE8 in a environment that they connect to many > different >> commercial site? > > What does 'commercial' mean in this context? Commercial means the B2B and B2C sites dealing with day-to-day business > > > > -- > Mike Easter > kibitzer, not SC admin > From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 1 19:04:44 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 1 19:05:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: anyone ever heard of Attune by Aveo? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h528ga$ff0$1@news.spamcop.net... >I was trolling the net looking for a new photo editing app last week, and >installed M$'s Photo Image Editor V3.1. I didn't like it, so I uninstalled >it. I rebooted this morning and found a chipper new dialog box on my >display saying that Aveo Attune was "protecting" my PC and keeping it up to >date (drivers etc.). > > A quick google shows that it's been frequently attached to A/V editing > software and invisibly installs itself along with the target software, but > it doesn't appear to be a spybot. I just removed it, but wanted to ping > the group for any additional info. See this press release from McAfee.. should fill in the details http://tinyurl.com/gyy6a From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Aug 1 19:23:28 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Aug 1 19:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > It wasn't me! It was AndrewB ! > >> One hard disk setup that I'm particularly fond of: > > You weren't paying attention. You are screwing around with your computer > and causing headaches for yourself. These are personal computers and not > servers running oracle. I'm not sure why you said the above response - perhaps you didn't read and think about my post and why I'm fond of the setup I mentioned??? My config certainly does not apply to Oracle running on a PC Server either. For that, you'd need a RAID setup and perhaps a Filer to handle I/O depending on the database use. Adding a second drive to a desktop and allocating some drives/partitions is near basic computer maintenance for most. AndrewB From MikeE at ster.invalid Sat Aug 1 20:57:43 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Sat Aug 1 21:00:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE8 - Status on compatibility / stablility References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > "Mike Easter" >> What does 'commercial' mean in this context? > > Commercial means the B2B and B2C sites dealing with day-to-day business Give me an example - one each - of a business to business & a business to consumer site. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 1 22:23:27 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 1 22:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE8 - Status on compatibility / stablility In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h52375$jhq$1@news.spamcop.net... > How many are using IE8 on Vista? > It has been out a while, but I am waiting for all the compatibility bugs > to be worked out with add-on products? > Is anyone using IE8 in a environment that they connect to many different > commercial site? > I've been using (not often) IE 8 for about 3 months now. Nothing out of the ordinary except for things tied to my *other* issues. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 1 22:27:43 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 1 22:30:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: anyone ever heard of Attune by Aveo? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h52hmj$qlk$1@news.spamcop.net... > > See this press release from McAfee.. should fill in the details > http://tinyurl.com/gyy6a > Well, #1, I never asked for it or was warned that it was being installled, and #2, IT's FSCKING MCAFEE SOFTWARE! Almost as bad as being invaded by Norton..... From blacklist-me at davjam.org Sun Aug 2 08:11:51 2009 From: blacklist-me at davjam.org (David Bolt) Date: Sun Aug 2 09:05:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: anyone ever heard of Attune by Aveo? References: Message-ID: On Sat, 1 Aug 2009, indigo wrote:- > >"Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h52hm >j$qlk$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> See this press release from McAfee.. should fill in the details >> http://tinyurl.com/gyy6a >> > >Well, #1, I never asked for it or was warned that it was being >installled, And it usually isn't removed when the software it was installed alongside is removed, or that is what appears to be the case looking at various sites found using Google. One anti-virus product lists it as spyware and mention that, even after removing it, it leaves behind another program: HXDL.EXE. Computer Associates lists HXDL as spyware, and mentions that it downloads and runs another program that is supposed to add an entry to "Add/remove programs" making it possible to uninstall HXDL. > and #2, IT's FSCKING MCAFEE SOFTWARE! Almost as bad as being invaded >by Norton..... It's not actually McAfee's software, although it does get installed by them, and several other software suppliers. Regards, David Bolt -- Team Acorn: http://www.distributed.net/ OGR-NG @ ~100Mnodes RC5-72 @ ~1Mkeys/s openSUSE 10.3 32b | openSUSE 11.0 32b | | openSUSE 10.3 64b | openSUSE 11.0 64b | openSUSE 11.1 64b | RISC OS 3.6 | RISC OS 3.11 | openSUSE 11.1 PPC | TOS 4.02 From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Aug 2 11:40:24 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Heidi) Date: Sun Aug 2 11:45:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Acrobat 5.0, Distiller missing from printers after XPSP3 upgrade Message-ID: After I did the upgrade to SP3, I went to print a file to the Acrobat distiller, and it was missing from my printer folder. Un and re installed Acrobat several times, didn't help. Tried to install it manually but it says it can't find the correct INF file on the Acrobat CD. Tried the fix found online deleting the INFCACHE file and reinstalling, that didn't work either. I need my pdf maker, anyone have suggestions as to what's wrong? I can't seem to find a 'known issue' or a MS fix for it, and I can't understand why when the drivers are installed with the original CD it still can't find the distiller. I can OPEN the distiller, but I don't have it as a printer. GRR. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sun Aug 2 14:58:50 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sun Aug 2 15:00:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: [OT] Twayne post References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h4sr1m$fbu$1@news.spamcop.net > Twayne wrote: >> "Mike Easter > >>> Just for your information, not by way of asking for any more >>> explanation, but your reply makes absolutely no sense to me. >> >> Well, I don't know what else to say, Mike. > >> Which is why I preface it with "In case you weren't aware...". It's >> an aside to warn you about someone who plays imposter with several >> names of active participants. His headers are nearly perfect >> impersonations of other people. > > But you said that you posted it - the specific message I referenced - > not that it was a forgery. ... ... I recall posting such a message. That appeared to be it. I feel like we're beating a dead horse though as I see no reason for this conversation unless it's simple curiousity. Perhaps you're looking for me to definitely and positively confirm it for some reason and I can't, really: I think I've said before that I am a concussion victim, a very serious one that nearly killed me, and it took me years just to overcome the "learning disability" it created in me. Retraining the left side of my body so I could walk, handle money, etc etc took two years. I am still left with memory problems ranging from short term memory to memory retrieval problems, preceptor issues (location in space in some circumstances) plus I have OA, RA, DJD, COPD, Sleep Apnea and a few other things going on I can't recall at the moment. Add to that the very substantial (but not record-setting) amount of opioids and other medications I have to take daily to remain active and lucid, I'm hoping you understand things a little better. So unless I specifically concentrate on remembering something, I may not. Or a few weeks or months later I might suddenly have that memory back in its entirety. Or I may never get it back. So, in my case it feels that you are asking something I cannot provide to you. I am NOT looking for sympathy nor even empathy; in fact, I don't care for them, and prefer to not talkabout such things. But my respect for you and a perceived recognition of the type person you are, on top of my confusion over these questions, causes me to continue to dialog with you. Another thought in my head was that you > sometimes allow someone else to use your computer and your OS and your > OE to read and post to usenet. > > That would explain everything more logically than you saying that you > yourself posted in such a fashion. That's a very remote possibility. My kids have both been home recently, a couple of times for my son in fact, with their families and they're all computer literate. My daughter's husband is an IT manager and my son, with a Masters in Computer Science, writes and debugs sofware for major airlines fail-safe redundant control systems. They all use wireless into my gateway but I doubt very much that they would/could have even figured out how to get into my computer account let alone play with such a thing. My wife, well she has her own computer and is so technology ignorant she might actually look for the "anykey" so I'm certain it wasn't her. I could go on and on with guesses and educated post-mortems, etc., but it's not going to change anything, I'm pretty sure. Also, unless you have a/some very specific, related question/s, I think our dialog has come to an end. Frankly, I found writing parts of this slightly distasteful and am highly unlikely to not have much of a memory of this particular post. Cheers, Twayne` From joegill at removethis Sun Aug 2 15:08:26 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sun Aug 2 15:10:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5B6647EE0B3TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > No way it was me! It was AndrewB ! >> Charles wrote: > > > We're talking about Indigo, in particular. And what Indigo needs to do is > to have the simplest, most straightforward configuration possible and then > leave it alone. The only other thing I would add, if money allows is a good 'imaging' program and an external HDD... If one feels something is wrong, just restore to the last good image.... From MikeE at ster.invalid Mon Aug 3 08:02:41 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Mon Aug 3 08:05:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: google voice References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > One number to rule them all. But, um. > > This is maybe 10 years too late - the land line is a thing of the past > and people are switching to cell service only. And cell phones should > offer everything this does. No? What people do about their telephone connectivity depends on their needs. Personally I have two landlines at home with no 1-LD service and only use my cell occasionally when I'm traveling somewhere by air. I don't use any skype or magicjack but I do use the economical LD service onesuite whenever I'm using any landline anywhere to call LD. I think googlevoice could be of benefit to me, but my two landlines work just fine (for some of googlevoice's benefits) under my current circumstances. I read that cellphone usage is going up and landlines are going down, but it isn't happening at my house. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 4 00:14:01 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 4 00:15:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5B6647EE0B3TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... I really truly and genuinely feel that it's all or nothing and > that it should be nothing for him and anyone else who ends up where he is > now (hosed). Thanks for the luv, Chaz. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 4 00:15:44 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 4 00:20:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Acrobat 5.0, Distiller missing from printers after XPSP3 upgrade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Heidi" wrote in message news:h54c18$k18$1@news.spamcop.net... > After I did the upgrade to SP3, I went to print a file to the Acrobat > distiller, and it was missing from my printer folder. Un and re installed > Acrobat several times, didn't help. Tried to install it manually but it > says it can't find the correct INF file on the Acrobat CD. Gee, sounds so familiar.....don't expect any useful advice from Charles....you certainly did this to yourself, after all.... From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 4 18:17:08 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 4 18:20:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5D42331D5A6TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > No way it was me! It was "indigo" ! >> "Charles" wrote in message >> news:Xns9C5B6647EE0B3TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > >>> that it should be nothing for him and anyone else who ends up where >>> he is now (hosed). >> >> Thanks for the luv, Chaz. > > Dude - it's for your own good. Don't mess with Texas or your computer. > Things will go so much better! You got this thing and it worked for, > what, > a couple of days before you messed it up? A few days? *splorf* You have a pretty short memory there, dude. I googled the SC NG's to make sure I got the following timeline right: I bought this machine in Jan 2007 and didn't run into any major problems until April 2009 when I (admittedly stupidly) deleted a sub-directory in the Docs and Setting Folder, name of the subdirectory was: C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data ==> repeat \Application Data subdirectory until you get past the 256 character filename limit. I thought that was insane and couldn't possibly be "right", so I zapped it. Bad move. I finally gave up and did a full system restore starting on June 10, 2009. At some point since the recent system restore Vista started operating erratically -- this is when I believe one of the super-dooper disk cleaners I sometimes use wiped out vital MSO and MSI files in the Recycler Bin (not the Temp Files directory, aka the Trash Bin, which is a different animal). When I ran into a glitch with the MSN StockQuotes Add-in for Excel and attempted to repair the problem I discovered that I had unwittingly erased some VERY important files, mainly the Office 2003 install files. I remember seeing some gigantic subdirectories in the disk cleaner app's list of files to delete, and it contained a whole bunch of them with long random character names. I didn't take the time to go find the the subdirectories to see what was in them (it's not very easy to find and view these hidden application installation files, on purpose I suppose, so idiots like me don't find them and delete them, causing major problems). Along the way I managed to somehow corrupt the Windows Installer, which works sometimes -- it will install any non-M$ app, but any file with a .msi, msu, or .mso extension will crash the installer within 10-15 seconds into the installation process. I had a few BSOD's while trying to fix Office, one was very serious, that took quite an effort to recover from. I suppose the installer could have gotten corrupted during one of the BSODs. And yes, I've tried updating the installer, tried using Autopatcher to bypass the M$ install process, but nothing is solving the main issue -- those lost MSI and MSO files. So yeah, I managed to screw up the system restore pretty quickly, but before that it was clear sailing for more than 2 years. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 4 18:29:08 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 4 18:30:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5D42331D5A6TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > No way it was me! It was "indigo" ! >> "Charles" wrote in message >> news:Xns9C5B6647EE0B3TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > >>> that it should be nothing for him and anyone else who ends up where >>> he is now (hosed). >> >> Thanks for the luv, Chaz. Forgot to mention this: that link to ActiveScan 2.0 that Joe Gill kindly provided showed some potential problems. I started running the online scanner last night and with 20% of the HD scanned it claimed I had 5 infected files and 16 "suspicious" files. Overnite, my net connection went down (fscking Comcast and/or Vista, this happens frequently at some point during the wee hours of the night, especially in "sleep" mode). I'm currently re-running the scan and will be curious to see what it turns up in the end -- since Win Installer is down, I haven't been able to update the virus signature .dat file since July 17, but I have Spybot and AVG8 running in the background too and they're up to date. I'm not worried about the "suspicious" files, lots of virus/trojan/worm scanners have false positives when they find a file they haven't "seen" before. The "infected" files are a different story......now that I think about it, about 1 1/2 months ago during the span of a week or so Yahoo Messenger frequently disconnected, claiming that "I had signed in on a diferent computer". I changed the password for my main Yahoo account and that weirdness came to an abrupt halt. So it's possible someone had access to my Yahoo account at a minimum, whether they go into my machine or not is questionable. Also could have just been Yahoo Messenger going on the clink, wouldn't be the first time..... From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 4 22:54:08 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 4 22:55:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Acrobat 5.0, Distiller missing from printers after XPSP3 upgrade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5D43CC4DA52TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > > There are free pdf writers out there. And I"ll add watch out where you get that free pdf app from....my ActiveScan run was completed about an hour ago and one of the "free" PDF editors I downloaded a couple months ago turned up to have a generic Trojan (inactive) hidden inside. The app is called FoxEditPDF, I have no idea where I got it from -- I was downloading, installing, and uninstalling multiple free PDF editors for a week or two trying them out to find one I liked. FoxEdit was the only one to make the cut in the end, now I'm going to have to kill it even though ActiveScan said it disinfected the file. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 4 23:27:21 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 4 23:30:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h5acnj$g3o$1@news.spamcop.net... > Forgot to mention this: that link to ActiveScan 2.0 that Joe Gill kindly > provided showed some potential problems. > > I'm currently re-running the scan and will be curious to see what it turns > up in the end -- since Win Installer is down, I haven't been able to > update the virus signature .dat file since July 17, but I have Spybot and > AVG8 running in the background too and they're up to date. I'm not worried > about the "suspicious" files, lots of virus/trojan/worm scanners have > false positives when they find a file they haven't "seen" before. Ok, the results are in -- I had only two "real" issues, and ActiveScan cleaned one of them up: Trj/Downloader.MDW, an inactive trojan located in a backup file set on my external drive: I:\Syncback\BackupFiles\Documents and Settings\AppData\LocalLow\**bizformbar_update.exe** IIRC, Bizformbar was an autoformfiller I downloaded for IE and deleted from C:\ when I decided I didn't like it. The other one was also marked as a moderate risk, but inactive, and I can't see anything in the reg file entry that points to an issue, but I saved then deleted the branch anyway, since ActiveScan couldn't fix the issue on it's own: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{FCADDC14-BD46-408A-9842-CDBE1C6D37EB}\iexplore] "Type"=dword:00000003 "Flags"=dword:00000000 "Count"=dword:00000007 "Time"=hex:d9,07,07,00,04,00,09,00,00,00,25,00,22,00,5c,00 A fresh deep system scan by SpyBot after the ActiveScan run turned up one tracking cookie, and that was it. So I highly doubt any of my current issues are being caused by outsiders. From MikeE at ster.invalid Tue Aug 4 23:46:47 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Tue Aug 4 23:50:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Acrobat 5.0, Distiller missing from printers after XPSP3 upgrade References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: > The app is called FoxEditPDF, ... which is not part of the FoxIt family. FoxIt has free .pdf ware, but not its editor. > I have no idea where I got it from -- I was downloading, installing, > and uninstalling multiple free PDF editors for a week or two trying > them out to find one I liked. That sounds pretty reckless. There is some good advice about freeware and where to get it and what to not use in the group alt.comp.freeware. Some freeware download sites provide excellent oversight as to whether the ware they provide is 'genuine' freeware or if it has spyware or other 'payback' features which are built into the installation instead of being an option, such as the ask.com toolbar. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From joegill at removethis Wed Aug 5 00:25:16 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Wed Aug 5 00:30:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h5au6o$6pb$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "indigo" wrote in message > news:h5acnj$g3o$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Forgot to mention this: that link to ActiveScan 2.0 that Joe Gill kindly >> provided showed some potential problems. > > > >> >> I'm currently re-running the scan and will be curious to see what it >> turns up in the end -- since Win Installer is down, I haven't been able >> to update the virus signature .dat file since July 17, but I have Spybot >> and AVG8 running in the background too and they're up to date. I'm not >> worried about the "suspicious" files, lots of virus/trojan/worm scanners >> have false positives when they find a file they haven't "seen" before. > > Ok, the results are in -- I had only two "real" issues, and ActiveScan > cleaned one of them up: > > Trj/Downloader.MDW, an inactive trojan located in a backup file set on my > external drive: > I:\Syncback\BackupFiles\Documents and > Settings\AppData\LocalLow\**bizformbar_update.exe** > > IIRC, Bizformbar was an autoformfiller I downloaded for IE and deleted > from C:\ when I decided I didn't like it. > > The other one was also marked as a moderate risk, but inactive, and I > can't see anything in the reg file entry that points to an issue, but I > saved then deleted the branch anyway, since ActiveScan couldn't fix the > issue on it's own: > > Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 > > [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{FCADDC14-BD46-408A-9842-CDBE1C6D37EB}\iexplore] > "Type"=dword:00000003 > "Flags"=dword:00000000 > "Count"=dword:00000007 > "Time"=hex:d9,07,07,00,04,00,09,00,00,00,25,00,22,00,5c,00 > > A fresh deep system scan by SpyBot after the ActiveScan run turned up one > tracking cookie, and that was it. So I highly doubt any of my current > issues are being caused by outsiders. > I would still stand by my original statements to basically do a 'wipe out' and start over, swearing off of registry tweakers/enhancers/etc. You will then be back to having a 'known' entiity to deal with! You will have built it yourself, have taken 'the pledge' and will be on to using a productive up-to-date system The problem is you deleted a key directory related to the install of programs... All the screwing around, tweaking, etc. etc. will NOT address the base issue. From kenbrody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 5 12:45:21 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Wed Aug 5 12:50:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: [...] > I bought this machine in Jan 2007 and didn't run into any major problems > until April 2009 when I (admittedly stupidly) deleted a sub-directory in > the Docs and Setting Folder, name of the subdirectory was: > C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\AppData\Local\Application > Data\Application Data ==> repeat \Application Data subdirectory until > you get past the 256 character filename limit. I thought that was insane > and couldn't possibly be "right", so I zapped it. Bad move. [...] I don't know why the "\application data" kept repeating, so I can't help you there. But, I can tell you that you are mistaken about the "256 character filename limit". Well, technically, you are (close to) correct in that there is a 255 character limit for any given filename, but the path itself it limited to 512. So, "Application Data" is only 16 characters, and is nowhere near the 255 character limit. From Microsoft's file: #define NAME_MAX 255 and #define PATH_MAX 512 -- Kenneth Brody From dfmanno at mail.com Wed Aug 5 13:18:36 2009 From: dfmanno at mail.com (D.F. Manno) Date: Wed Aug 5 13:20:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: google voice References: Message-ID: In article , Charles wrote: > One number to rule them all. But, um. > > This is maybe 10 years too late - the land line is a thing of the past and > people are switching to cell service only. And cell phones should offer > everything this does. No? My apartment has lousy cell reception, so I have to have a landline. GV is thus useful to me. -- D.F. Manno | dfmanno@mail.com "When the fate of so many rests in the hands of so few, can the failure to be accountable ever be forgiven?" - Stephen Hawking From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 5 14:28:22 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Wed Aug 5 14:30:06 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h5b1k4$nms$1@news.spamcop.net... > > The problem is you deleted a key directory related to the install of > programs... All the screwing around, tweaking, etc. etc. will NOT address > the base issue. You're probably right, but I kinda sworn off all the "screwing around, tweaking, etc" already, nearly a month ago, actually. In the sense that I am no longer actively seeking ways to fix Office 2003 and the Win Installer on a daily basis for 8 hours/day -- it was driving me apeshit. I've repaired things well enough to the point where everything I use on a daily basis works, and I installed Open Office, so I can keep track of my IRA and other stuff -- that's basically all I use my PC for at home. In the last month I've gotten so many chores done inside and outside done it's not funny, it's been quite refreshing not to sit in front of the PC all day banging my head against the screen in the agony of failure after failure in repair attempts. Of course, the physical activity has taken a toll on my body and slowed the recovery of my overall health at times -- and I had a bad "crash" last weekend from expending too much energy over too many consecutive days. Plus I managed to twist my spine out of position (again, and I have no idea how it happened), so my back is bugging me again. At least my elbow and wrist tendonitus hasn't flared up, but I've been careful to wear my braces whenever doing any manual labor, and have been careful to use dollies and such to move heavy loads. So I doubt you'll be seeing anymore "what is this, and how do I fix it?" questions from me here, I've reached a "I don't care anymore" point, and I'm much better off for it. Eventually I'll get around to doing another system restore, but probably not until I'm working again and can afford to buy a nice big external drive so I can do a full backup before and after the restore. Another reason I don't want to do a restore until I'm working again is that if I do it now, I know I'll spend weeks on end sitting in my home office getting my PC back to where I want it to be (BTDT, too anal to let it sit there with no apps), and I'm really enjoying the woodworking/restoration/reorganization projects etc. I've been doing lately. And I've lost 7 lbs in the last month and actually gotten a tan, so it's been good for my body too, except for the back pain, of course. ********** One last, hopefully final question: I created a 400 MB partition on C:\ for the next system restore, with the intention of saving and storing the huge number of updates for Vista and my peripherals and apps I'll need in the new partition. That partition, which I named W:\Windows Update Files, will be off-limits for even the simplest of disk cleaners, including Vista's built in cleaning app. My hope is that by doing it that way I will have no risk of accidentally deleting anything crucial -- think it's a good idea (especially for someone like me ;-), and will it work? ********** From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 5 14:38:42 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Wed Aug 5 14:40:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Kenneth Brody" wrote in message news:h5ccvk$jr5$1@news.spamcop.net... > > I don't know why the "\application data" kept repeating, so I can't help > you there. But, I can tell you that you are mistaken about the "256 > character filename limit". Well, technically, you are (close to) correct > in that there is a 255 character limit for any given filename, but the > path itself it limited to 512. So, "Application Data" is only 16 > characters, and is nowhere near the 255 character limit. > Probably an error in the wording of the dialog box I got from an app I ran once looking for invalid filenames. All I remember is that it flagged those "Application Data * 10 repetitions" subdirectories as illegal/invalid/whatever. I know that I didn't actually do anything with the results, was just searching for possible problems, and the app was deleted after I ran it since it bombed out when it encountered that/those directory names. And I swear on my mother's grave that Vista, not me, created those abominations. It was almost like every time I installed a certain kind of new app Vista created another branch to that Application Data tree. From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Aug 5 14:56:44 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Wed Aug 5 15:00:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Acrobat 5.0, Distiller missing from printers after XPSP3 upgrade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h5avb8$ccj$1@news.spamcop.net... > indigo wrote: > >> The app is called FoxEditPDF, > > ... which is not part of the FoxIt family. FoxIt has free .pdf ware, > but not its editor. Now that's a bit peculiar..... > >> I have no idea where I got it from -- I was downloading, installing, >> and uninstalling multiple free PDF editors for a week or two trying >> them out to find one I liked. > > That sounds pretty reckless. There is some good advice about freeware > and where to get it and what to not use in the group alt.comp.freeware. I never download software from Usenet, the one time I visited one "freeware" group damn near every file/app I tried to download was flagged by AVG as infected -- the Usenet is a minefield and not worth the time and effort to find a "clean" app IMHO. Too many hacked and illegally copied apps for my tastes. > > Some freeware download sites provide excellent oversight as to whether > the ware they provide is 'genuine' freeware or if it has spyware or > other 'payback' features which are built into the installation instead > of being an option, such as the ask.com toolbar. Yeah, a lot of free stuff comes bundled with toolbars, Ask.com, Google, Yahoo, you name it, someone bundles it. Most of the stuff I have I've gotten from a few mainstream sites: Cnet.com, http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/ , http://www.download3000.com/ , FileHippo.com, and PC World.com. I'd say 95% of the the apps I have downloaded from those sites have check boxes asking whether you want to install the toolbars or other add-ons, and AVG8 or Resident SpyBot usually snag the rest that try to sneak something past me. However, as shown with my recent Aveo intrusion, obviously those download protection services aren't perfect. From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Aug 5 16:14:19 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Aug 5 16:15:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Acrobat 5.0, Distiller missing from printers after XPSP3 upgrade References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: > "Mike Easter" >> ... which is not part of the FoxIt family. FoxIt has free .pdf ware, >> but not its editor. > > Now that's a bit peculiar..... Not really. Adobe Reader is free; Adobe Acrobat Standard retails for $300. FoxIt's editor is cheap relative to that. >> That sounds pretty reckless. There is some good advice about freeware >> and where to get it and what to not use in the group alt.comp.freeware. > > I never download software from Usenet, We weren't even talking about usenet, but we /were/ talking about potential reckless downloading from websites. >> Some freeware download sites provide excellent oversight as to whether >> the ware they provide is 'genuine' freeware or if it has spyware or >> other 'payback' features which are built into the installation instead >> of being an option, such as the ask.com toolbar. > > Yeah, a lot of free stuff comes bundled with toolbars, Ask.com, Google, > Yahoo, you name it, someone bundles it. Most of the stuff I have I've > gotten from a few mainstream sites: Cnet.com, > http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/ , http://www.download3000.com/ , > FileHippo.com, and PC World.com. I'd say 95% of the the apps I have > downloaded from those sites have check boxes asking whether you want to > install the toolbars or other add-ons, and AVG8 or Resident SpyBot > usually snag the rest that try to sneak something past me. However, as > shown with my recent Aveo intrusion, obviously those download > protection services aren't perfect. That method is required by the sites which provide access to clean freeware; the 'regulations' involve considerations of obligatory payback add-ons, spyware, nagware tactics and all that. The a.c.f group discusses those features of what would otherwise be considered freeware. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From Unknown.User at Invalid.Domain Thu Aug 6 09:23:00 2009 From: Unknown.User at Invalid.Domain (Jan M. Nelken) Date: Thu Aug 6 09:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > I've got some subcontractors writing code for me and they give me things > like this: > if "O".Equals(s.LoopType) then > > Now... For one the test doesn't work (s.LoopType is a character so there > is never equality) but for another it's written backwards, IMO. > > I learned to code like this: > if s.LoopType = "O" then > > Makes WAY more sense to me in the big logical sense - if I'm reading the > code I want to know if the loop type is O, right? > > Anyway, just curious to know if you knew when this backwards logic thing > came into being and why. I mean, yeah, I can see reasons why someone would > say it was a good idea ("you want to know what you're comparing things with > right away") but I find no validity in that. I would much rather see code > written like we speak - that way I can read it like I speak, too. What is results of running this C construct (you can assume a is defined to be int): if a=1 then foo() else bar(); compare results to outcome of this construct: if 1=a then foo() else bar(); Jan M. Nelken From not at home.today Thu Aug 6 10:33:52 2009 From: not at home.today (Ant) Date: Thu Aug 6 10:35:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote: > It wasn't me! It was "Jan M. Nelken" >> What is results of running this C construct (you can assume a is >> defined to be int): >> >> if a=1 then foo() else bar(); >> >> compare results to outcome of this construct: >> >> if 1=a then foo() else bar(); > > Compare results... OK. They're the same. > > And if we are looking at the generated assembly code it should be the same > because we should be using an optimizing compiler. But they're not! In this case (for C) the '=' is an assignment, so the second line (1=a) is illegal. Perhaps that's the point of writing: if [constant] equals [variable]; it guards against accidental assignment (using '=' when you meant '=='). From not at home.today Thu Aug 6 12:40:24 2009 From: not at home.today (Ant) Date: Thu Aug 6 12:45:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote: > It wasn't me! It was "Ant" >> "Charles" wrote: > >>> Compare results... OK. They're the same. > >> But they're not! > > OK, fine, a trick question. That's so not the point that it isn't funny. Of course it's the point - didn't you read the rest of my reply? It's a perfect illustration of why C programmers would be in the habit of writing the comparison backwards, as you say, because it's a bug- avoidance strategy. Writing: if (a=1) {foo()} is valid C and 'foo' will always be called. 'a' gets set to 1 and the result of a logical test using 'if' is always true. The programmer may have meant to write "if (a==1)..." where no assignment takes place. Putting the constant before the variable catches this problem with a compiler error, i.e. '1==a' is valid but '1=a' is not. The language may not be C and the equality-check operator may be different but old habits die hard. From Unknown.User at Invalid.Domain Thu Aug 6 15:38:30 2009 From: Unknown.User at Invalid.Domain (Jan M. Nelken) Date: Thu Aug 6 15:40:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > It wasn't me! It was "Ant" ! > >> The language may not be C and the equality-check operator may be >> different but old habits die hard. > > OK. I hear you. I never got in that habit - I write code that is intended > to be read (not code that is intended to be bug free). Art of producing bug resistant code consist of both readability and bug avoidance. Seems that your coders should get browne points for effort in avoiding bugs. Jan M. Nelken From Unknown.User at Invalid.Domain Thu Aug 6 15:48:12 2009 From: Unknown.User at Invalid.Domain (Jan M. Nelken) Date: Thu Aug 6 15:50:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > It wasn't me! It was "Ant" ! > >> The language may not be C and the equality-check operator may be >> different but old habits die hard. > > OK. I hear you. I never got in that habit - I write code that is intended > to be read (not code that is intended to be bug free). Quote from defensive code practices: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/267763/defensive-coding-practices "... Always place the constant value to the left side of the comparison operator, resulting in a compilation error, should you forget to add the second "=" sign. I tend to call this defensive coding and tend to believe it's a cousin to defensive-programming..." Jan M. Nelken From joegill at removethis Thu Aug 6 16:24:27 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Aug 6 16:25:06 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: arg In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5F52F1633ECTheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... >I _had_ this outlook rule that would move messages from one mailbox to > another. I noticed that it was causing problems so I deactivated it. > Only > it kept working. So I deleted it. And it's still working. The problem > is > that it's moving the messages from a shared mailbox to my personal > mailbox. > Kind of defeats the purpose of a shared mailbox, don't you think? Outlook > 2007. Thoughts? Knee jerk thouht" Are you using an Exchange Server, if so, there is some command to 'SYNC' rules to the server. Also look at "Client Only' setting in rule.. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 6 21:31:46 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Wazoo) Date: Thu Aug 6 21:35:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] SpamCop newsgroups Was--> Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5FCBC95E072TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > No way it was me! It was "indigo" ! >> >> A few days? *splorf* You have a pretty short memory there, dude. >> I >> googled the SC NG's to make sure I got the following timeline >> right: >> I bought this machine in Jan 2007 > > Google? To see when you got it? And to see if you had any > problems with > it? How, exactly, does that work? Finding out when you bought > it, well, > I can see that, maybe. Having no problems I don't see. And the > way I > recall things is that you and Heidi each constantly have computer > problems. > > Looking around... Whoa. Issues. Looks like the archives from > July 2006 > to February 2009 got munched somewheres. Whoa. So, yeah, you > have to > use google. Well, shucks. That's not going to be helpful. > > Oh. Wait. They're in another place. Very weird. "news" drive ran out of space in July 2006. I took it upon myself to install the tools on the Forum server to get the archiving back into place, I believe I got it kick-started at the end of November. Current issue remains in that Google doesn't seem to actively keep up with all the traffic on the zeta server. Part of the solution, in my opinion, still goes back to needing the www.spamcop.net Help page to get updated, specifically to point to the zeta server for the archives (thought being issue based on a "duplicate content" scenario??) Well, that was my thought quite a while back .. now that the newsgroups and Forum have been 'commented out' of that page display, not sure what else might be going on. From dfmanno at mail.com Fri Aug 7 00:38:48 2009 From: dfmanno at mail.com (D.F. Manno) Date: Fri Aug 7 00:40:05 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: google voice References: Message-ID: In article , Charles wrote: > It wasn't me! It was "D.F. Manno" ! > > > My apartment has lousy cell reception, so I have to have a landline. GV > > is thus useful to me. > > But you could have your cell company forward your calls. Prepaid cell no can do. > Or, better, check this... I think that the issue is so simple and > straightforward that I can't imagine that google is going out there and > doing thsi first. Ha. And because they're first they'll patent it. And > yet it isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. IMO. Google bought Grand Central, which offered similar services. -- D.F. Manno | dfmanno@mail.com "When the fate of so many rests in the hands of so few, can the failure to be accountable ever be forgiven?" - Stephen Hawking From kenbrody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 7 13:47:59 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Fri Aug 7 13:50:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > I've got some subcontractors writing code for me and they give me things > like this: > if "O".Equals(s.LoopType) then > > Now... For one the test doesn't work (s.LoopType is a character so there > is never equality) but for another it's written backwards, IMO. > > I learned to code like this: > if s.LoopType = "O" then > > Makes WAY more sense to me in the big logical sense - if I'm reading the > code I want to know if the loop type is O, right? > > Anyway, just curious to know if you knew when this backwards logic thing > came into being and why. I mean, yeah, I can see reasons why someone would > say it was a good idea ("you want to know what you're comparing things with > right away") but I find no validity in that. I would much rather see code > written like we speak - that way I can read it like I speak, too. It may be that they are used to other languages. For example, in C, you might have a comparison like: if ( s.LookType == 'O' ) // Comparison But, a simple typo would change the meaning entirely: if ( s.LookType = 'O' ) // Assignment So, it is not too uncommon to instead use: if ( 'O' == s.LookType ) // Comparison because the same typo is a syntax error: if ( 'O' = s.LookType ) // Syntax error -- Kenneth Brody From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 7 23:34:18 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Fri Aug 7 23:35:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5FA4BE03787TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... I did code > verification for NASA and the ESA - these are people who REALLY pay very > close attention to what they're doing. Except for when they and their contractror substitute miles for kilometers.....and no code auditors notice the discrepancy... From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 8 00:28:06 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 8 00:30:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5FCBC95E072TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > Skip ahead to Jan 2008: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-January/002112.html That was my old home-built PC. Gave up on trying to fix it, bought the HP Touchsmart in Feb 08, not Feb 07, apparently, according to the next link. My bad. > > Feb 2008 and YOU ARE SCREWING AROUND WITH THE SYSTEM: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-February/002171.html Wanting to get rid of an unused "Public" directory and share is a crime now? > > Still Feb - totally screwing around with the computer, nothing working: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-February/002260.html Not clear to me from the formatting of that message that I wrote the "DOH! I could have used my external HD or a thumb drive to move the files. Guess my brain was fried at that point, this was right before I had to wipe C:\ and start from scratch with the factory image." And it seems nearly impossible that I managed to kill the OS in less than a week and had to do a complete system restore. > More > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-February/002291.html Simple issue with a mouse setting called "sticky grab" or something like that. I was just getting used to using the new logitech IR mouse and didn't know how it worked. > > And you've had plenty of problems with this machine: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-September/002942.html > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-September/002923.html > Software for HP's multi-function DVD/CD-ROM and the SoundMax audio drivers have turned out to be a common problem, almost entirely associated with Vista hotfixes and updates. This I have learned over time. In fact my DVD/CD-ROM went dead again just a few weeks ago, downloading updated drivers from HP fixed the issue. I won't go on with explaining my past posts. I take full responsibility for screwing up some system settings by trying to joystick the settings without knowing exactly what I was doing, but a lot of my problems have been caused by Vista and untested fscking hotfixes and updates. I'd say it's a 50-50 or 60-40 split in favor of me causing my own problems, but I should be able to make my PC look and act the way I WANT IT TO, not the way M$ wants it to. I am fully aware that some members of these boards abhor any kind of system tweakers or reg cleaners, and they are free to have their own opinions. However, certain "tweakers" provide EXTREMELY useful functions that save me a ton of time and aggravation by changing Vista's default settings. Case in point: X-Setup Pro allows me to create my own file directory shortcuts that appear in the left column of many apps when you use the open/save function -- instead of the "Public", "My Documents", and "Desktop" directories that are the defaults, I can display the actual working directories where I keep my data files. I can also get rid of those extremely annoying "shortcut arrows", remove the "app-shortcut" text, and create my own custom "send to" settings. These things may seem trivial to you, but they make my life much easier on a daily basis by cutting down on visual clutter and allowing me to open/save files from my real working directories instead of having to root thru multiple mouse clicks to get to where I want to go. P.S. I said in a previous post that I would not be posting anymore about my PC/OS problems, but I've managed to fix the ability to download and install updates (I was able to install PowerPoint viewer yesterday for instance, something I couldn't do a few days ago), and I'm on the verge of restoring my Office 2003 installation -- finding the correct google search terms turned out to be my biggest roadblock in fixing my PC. P.P.S. Yes, I do believe I've learned my lessons on what is safe to tinker with and what is not....although I'm sure your response will be "don't tinker with ANYTHING!". Sorry, but I refuse to run my PC the way someone else believes it should be operated -- meaning forcing me to jump thru hoops to do something as simple as being able to access my own self-created file directories when and where I want to do so. From me at privacy.net Sat Aug 8 13:04:07 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Sat Aug 8 13:05:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] dcom error Message-ID: dcom error says can't start speed disk. I disabled speed disk because it was using too many 'resources'. Something is asking for it to start - what? How do I turn off 'start speeddisk'? What do I edit to make the error go away? From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 8 14:48:37 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 8 14:50:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > P.P.S. Yes, I do believe I've learned my lessons on what is safe to tinker > with and what is not....although I'm sure your response will be "don't > tinker with ANYTHING!". Sorry, but I refuse to run my PC the way someone > else believes it should be operated -- meaning forcing me to jump thru > hoops to do something as simple TInkering CAN be ok... if you have a fail-proof, fool-proof backup plan.... I know you have said that funds are limited..... But the price of a 1T drive is now under $100 Also Acronis TrueImage can be had for $25-$39... If you can't find it at that lety me know.... There are acceptable tools out there to do what you want, too. Also, you say "forcing me to jump through hoops".... VISTA was a levelset/mindset change. A product cannot move forward, clinging to the past! Now as for the driver/etc problem you are having... It may be due to the fact that "TOUCHSMART" is a relatively new technology.... They have to adjust it along the way... I took the 'plunge' in January of this year and went from a P-III 500Mhz Dell desktop with 512M of memory running XP Pro, to a 'state of the art' HP HDX Premium series laptop, running Vista Premium 64-bit mode.... I have had VERY few software related issues. Most of my up dates have been to replace/update all the 'goodies' that came with it from HP. Blue-ray drivers... TV drivers all the other audio/visual programs and drivers were all updated. I know that you want to ".... being able to access my own self-created file directories when and where I want to do so. ".... OK true... But there are two approaches to the issue. A) Understand the 'new' file/tree structure and work with it. I have NOT add any new directories other than in either Desktop. Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures or Video. This also works well with a backup philosopy of Full Volume/Incremental backups of PC and also backups of selected folders (those mentioned above) B) Work with the structures provided in Vista You stated "Wanting to get rid of an unused "Public" directory and share is a crime now?" I don't call it a crime, but I call it screwing around with something that does not need to be screwed with. Access control and security for the Pulbic directory, all are maintained by Vista. The folder explicityl has NO Sharing and NO privledges as shipped from the factory When you say "but a lot of my problems have been caused by Vista and untested fscking hotfixes and updates' A) Why were you screwing with hotfixes? I almost NEVER put a hofix on, unless it is recommended by a trusted hardware or software vendor. Searching for hotfixes and trying them out is not good practice, unless you have a rock solid backup plan B) Hotfixes are usually developed to solve a specific problem. They come with all sorts of disclaimers. However, They do get vendor testing... C) I have yet to have a problem with any of the Automatic fixes that are pushed out. I also pull down some of the Recommeded. I tried a couple times for a couple of the 'optional' fixes but they would not apply so I left them alone. I have all of the Microsoft products, plus as many other products on AUTOMATIC update. I will close by saying as soon as you can get access to a backup drive and software, I would completely restore/rebuild your system from bare metal. with a 'C' drive for software and all your data on another partition. In the initial install do FULL INSTALLs (ie: Office). Install all the other add-ons, features helpers to IE. No tweaking/adjusting/etc. Now move your data in. Take a FULL BACKUP of each partition. This becomes your 'base', Keep your data partition backed up as regular as you want(how much loss can you stand). Backup your C partition everytime you change / updated. Then you always have a place to go back to! I see the PC as a 'tool' to accomplish many things, including but not limited to: Business, personal finance, entertainment etc. It is just like any other tool... sure I add/replace/update tools, but I don't change out grips on tools, or polish screwdriver bits, or clean the handles and polish the metal... No they are tools to get a job done !! From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 8 16:39:16 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 8 16:40:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h5khab$6ct$1@news.spamcop.net... > > TInkering CAN be ok... if you have a fail-proof, fool-proof backup > plan.... > I know you have said that funds are limited..... > But the price of a 1T drive is now under $100 > Also Acronis TrueImage can be had for $25-$39... > If you can't find it at that lety me know.... A few months ago I installed an app called "IDrive", which allows me to store up to 2 GB of data online for free, and it's automatic -- scheduled updates for my critical files. Not enough room to store a completed Mozilla Profile, but at least I can save my Favs and a few other things relative to Firefox. I also have become habituated to creating system restore points and full reg backups before I tinker with anything registry related, I back up the 'old' reg files with IDrive. The few system tweakers I'm still using also always create either full backups or save the branches they make changes to so you can "turn back the clock" if you make an oopsie. Got a link to that 1T drive for under $100? Does it support firewire? > > Now as for the driver/etc problem you are having... It may be due to the > fact that "TOUCHSMART" is a relatively new technology.... > They have to adjust it along the way... Quite possible - the I775 was HP's first dip of the toe into retail touchscreen technology AFAIK. I can't really say it's caused me any issues though, more of a pita than anything else most of the time (getting too close to the screen is a problem) except for when my mouse batteries die ;-) > > I took the 'plunge' in January of this year and went from a P-III 500Mhz > Dell desktop with 512M of memory running XP Pro, to a 'state of the art' > HP HDX Premium series laptop, running Vista Premium 64-bit mode.... > I have had VERY few software related issues. Most of my up dates have been > to replace/update all the 'goodies' that came with it from HP. Blue-ray > drivers... TV drivers all the other audio/visual programs and drivers were > all updated. That old audio "stuttering" issue I fought for months was cured when Hauppage released new audio/video drivers. >Work with the structures provided in Vista Didn't realize how big an issue it was until it was too late....all preceeding MS OS's let me changed default directories without complaint.... > > When you say "but a lot of my problems have been caused > by Vista and untested fscking hotfixes and updates' > A) Why were you screwing with hotfixes? I almost NEVER put a hofix on, > unless it is recommended by a trusted hardware or software vendor. > Searching for hotfixes and trying them out is not good practice, unless > you have a rock solid backup plan At one time I had "auto-update" enabled, which is default Vista behavior (at least my machine shipped that way). That's how thata Office 2007 crap snuck it's way onto my machine. Hotfixes are part of the auto-update process, no? I've since changed update to "alert me that updates are available", which allows me to choose what and when I want to download specific updates. For instance, I didn't install Outlook, so there's no point in wasting time and disk space downloading anything Outlook related. > > B) Hotfixes are usually developed to solve a specific problem. They come > with all sorts of disclaimers. However, They do get vendor testing... > > C) I have yet to have a problem with any of the Automatic fixes that are > pushed out. I also pull down some of the Recommeded. > I tried a couple times for a couple of the 'optional' fixes but they would > not apply so I left them alone. I have all of the Microsoft products, plus > as many other products on AUTOMATIC update. Two years of further development on Vista between when you got your machine and when I got mine. Your's probably already came with SP1, maybe SP2, already built into the OS. I think the way they're integrated into the OS (hard coded as opposed to a patch) makes a big difference. > > I will close by saying as soon as you can get access to a backup drive and > software, I would completely restore/rebuild your system from bare metal. > with a 'C' drive for software and all your data on another partition. In > the initial install do FULL INSTALLs (ie: Office). Install all the other > add-ons, features helpers to IE. No tweaking/adjusting/etc. Now move your > data in. Take a FULL BACKUP of each partition. This becomes your 'base', > Keep your data partition backed up as regular as you want(how much loss > can you stand). Backup > your C partition everytime you change / updated. Then you always have a > place to go back to! If it comes to that, I'll do it the "right way". I've already created a second partition on C:\ in anticipation of this, but it turns out I made it too small. A test run of doing an Office install into the new partition failed. Well, it really wasn't an actual installation, I just tried to copy all of the files from the Office CD to the new partition. At the beginning of the Office install it says "you will need a minimum of 250 MB of disk space", so I made the new partition 400 MB. Turns out I need probably double or triple that to copy the full contents of the Office install files, some of the install files (CABs) are likely temps that don't end up staying on the HD, making that 250 MB number a red herring. > but I don't change out grips on tools, or polish screwdriver bits, or > clean the handles and polish the metal... No they are tools to get a job > done !! > Heh. I am TOTALLY opposite to that point of view. In my work history tools were your the means to your livelihood -- they were the most important assets you own, besides your brain. Taking care of them (keeping them clean, edges sharp, not losing them) was critical to being able to function at your highest level. I still operate the same way with my own tools at home, I treat them like precious possessions. They get cleaned, wiped down, and returned to their proper place after each use, and the work area gets vacuumed before I retire for the evening. You'll find any good mechanic/technician treats his tools the same way, to the point where they will put away all their tools and lock them up just to go to lunch! Treat them well and they'll last forever (I still have and use some of my grandpa's hand tools), treat them badly and you'll either botch the job or end up having to continuously buy new ones. Hmmm....now that I see it in writing, I guess that last analogy pretty closely describes how I treat my PC's......maybe if I take the view that my PC is a "tool" it will help me stop certain behaviors that end up causing me problems.... From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 8 17:00:16 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 8 17:05:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: dcom error In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "anon" wrote in message news:h5kb6b$uup$1@news.spamcop.net... > dcom error says can't start speed disk. > > I disabled speed disk because it was using too many 'resources'. > > Something is asking for it to start - what? > > How do I turn off 'start speeddisk'? > > What do I edit to make the error go away? > Have you tried opening the speedisk properties using Services? The last tab list dependencies, both above and below the specific service. Could be some other service is involved. But be aware that the "Services/Properties/Dependencies" tab does NOT list ALL of the services/DLL's that are associated with that specific service, I learned that the hard way. An app like SysInternals Process monitor, available from Microsoft TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx , shows more than you probably want to see as far as what is running and loaded in realtime. You can right click on a specific process and see all the DLL's etc. that the process is using. An easier to use SysInternals app is called AutoRuns, there is a "services" tab that more easily allows you to see what's attached to each specific service. You'll need to download the entire SysInternals Suite from Tech Net to use Autoruns completely, you need to run Process Explorer in conjuction with Autoruns to dig into specific services and their dependicies. It's a great set of apps to have on hand to explore what's being loaded onto your machine and by what app/process. From user at domain.invalid Sat Aug 8 22:35:19 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Sat Aug 8 22:40:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: > > > Quite possible - the I775 was HP's first dip of the toe into retail > touchscreen technology AFAIK. ... > Not per se, no. Fond memories of the the "DOS-like" 1983 HP150, touch screen, incorporating the HP Interface Bus, loaded with the first Lotus office suite etc. What a great little machine that was, and so capable for the times - nearly everything that followed, for many years after, could be viewed as so many steps backwards. From me at privacy.net Sun Aug 9 16:42:15 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Sun Aug 9 16:45:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: dcom error References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h5kp10$h2h$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "anon" wrote in message > news:h5kb6b$uup$1@news.spamcop.net... >> dcom error says can't start speed disk. >> >> I disabled speed disk because it was using too many 'resources'. >> >> Something is asking for it to start - what? >> >> How do I turn off 'start speeddisk'? >> >> What do I edit to make the error go away? >> > > Have you tried opening the speedisk properties using Services? The last > tab list dependencies, both above and below the specific service. Could be > some other service is involved. But be aware that the > "Services/Properties/Dependencies" tab does NOT list ALL of the > services/DLL's that are associated with that specific service, I learned > that the hard way. That is how I disabled speeddisk. Now I want to know WHAT is asking speeddisk to run? > > An app like SysInternals Process monitor, available from Microsoft TechNet > at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx , shows > more than you probably want to see as far as what is running and loaded in > realtime. You can right click on a specific process and see all the DLL's > etc. that the process is using. > > An easier to use SysInternals app is called AutoRuns, there is a > "services" tab that more easily allows you to see what's attached to each > specific service. You'll need to download the entire SysInternals Suite > from Tech Net to use Autoruns completely, you need to run Process Explorer > in conjuction with Autoruns to dig into specific services and their > dependicies. It's a great set of apps to have on hand to explore what's > being loaded onto your machine and by what app/process. From mny98rv02 at sneakemail.com Mon Aug 10 02:29:52 2009 From: mny98rv02 at sneakemail.com (Mr K Mean) Date: Mon Aug 10 02:30:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Kenneth Brody wrote: > Charles wrote: >> I've got some subcontractors writing code for me and they give me >> things like this: >> if "O".Equals(s.LoopType) then >> >> Anyway, just curious to know if you knew when this backwards logic >> thing came into being and why. I mean, yeah, I can see reasons why >> someone would say it was a good idea ("you want to know what you're >> comparing things with right away") but I find no validity in that. I >> would much rather see code written like we speak - that way I can read >> it like I speak, too. > > It may be that they are used to other languages. For example, in C, you > might have a comparison like: I know I use it sometimes to short circuit getting a null pointer error (in Java). If the value stored in variable is null, it saves a step checking to see if is null first if you can compare it to a string you know isn't null. If it is null, I don't really care because it won't match in that case either. if ("Comparison Value".equals(variable.getValue())) if (variable.getValue().equals("Comparison Value")) might give me a null pointer and I don't have to write: if (variable.getValue() != null && variable.getValue().equals("Comparison Value")) From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Mon Aug 10 13:12:46 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Mon Aug 10 13:15:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5FCBC95E072TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61 > No way it was me! It was "indigo" ! >> "Charles" wrote in message >> news:Xns9C5D42331D5A6TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > >>> You got this thing and it worked for, what, >>> a couple of days before you messed it up? >> >> A few days? *splorf* You have a pretty short memory there, dude. I >> googled the SC NG's to make sure I got the following timeline right: >> I bought this machine in Jan 2007 > > Google? To see when you got it? And to see if you had any problems > with it? How, exactly, does that work? Finding out when you bought > it, well, I can see that, maybe. Having no problems I don't see. > And the way I recall things is that you and Heidi each constantly > have computer problems. > > Looking around... Whoa. Issues. Looks like the archives from July > 2006 to February 2009 got munched somewheres. Whoa. So, yeah, you > have to use google. Well, shucks. That's not going to be helpful. > > Oh. Wait. They're in another place. Very weird. > > And your dates aren't right. In Feb 2007 you're running Win2K and > having problems: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2007-February/000590.html > > Skip ahead to Jan 2008: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-January/002112.html > > Feb 2008 and YOU ARE SCREWING AROUND WITH THE SYSTEM: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-February/002171.html > > Still Feb - totally screwing around with the computer, nothing > working: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-February/002260.html > More > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-February/002291.html > > And you've had plenty of problems with this machine: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-September/002942.html > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-September/002923.html > > Screwing around again: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-September/002987.html > > Problem: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-October/003030.html > > Big time screwing around: > http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/2008-October/003053.html > > > Um. Do I need to go on? You've had problems and issues for as long > as you've had the machine. Not all of your screwing around with > things screwed the machine up but I bet a lot of it did. > > still luv u man but don't go sayin' things have been great 'cause they > ain't > > c Wow, this isn't really meant to be offensive, but I can't help it; someone has way too much time on their hands! And the limit on path length is actually more like 640 characters, but ... spaces count as do any quotes etc.. Have it in a KB around here somewhere should anyone want the devil's details. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Mon Aug 10 13:17:20 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Mon Aug 10 13:20:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5F9A3751DDBTheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61 > It wasn't me! It was "Ant" ! > >> The language may not be C and the equality-check operator may be >> different but old habits die hard. > > OK. I hear you. I never got in that habit - I write code that is > intended to be read (not code that is intended to be bug free). Well, you did say "backwards logic"; I guess that fits! From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Mon Aug 10 13:30:51 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Mon Aug 10 13:35:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: When did backwards logic come into fashion? References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C5FA4BE03787TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61 > It wasn't me! It was "Jan M. Nelken" ! > >> Art of producing bug resistant code consist of both readability and >> bug avoidance. >> >> Seems that your coders should get browne points for effort in >> avoiding bugs. > > Hardly. This is VB and all they're doing is making code hard to > read. And anyone who is coding in C without using a profiler of the > sort that would easily catch the other logic error isn't doing a very > good job. I did code verification for NASA and the ESA - these are > people who REALLY pay very close attention to what they're doing. > And, hey, even people who pay really close attention have big nasty > stuff going on in their code (remember Ariane 5?) > > So, again, what I have to say is write code to be reused and not code > that avoids some issues that may have existed due to crappy compilers > 20 years ago. Writing code for "VB" NASA and ESA, and mentioning Ariane doesn't really say much here, honestly. What you're doing is stepping on the toes of your hires for using perfectly legal and functional code methods to minimize errors and time both. "VB" is so vague it's hardly worth having wasted time typing. Which of the several flavors did you let MS scam you into living with? Or did you just stick with "VB Classic"? That's what I meant by the "vague" comment about "VB". Personally I don't find that hard to read at all and I do code in VB (I'll keep the version a secret as you did) and even a bit of C# here & there for kicks. After all, it's a repeatable pattern that's easily recognized even when it's used to combine a line of code longer than a screen down to screen width, and in several languages. You almost seem to be pushing your opinions of them as prerequisites, so I hope you have a really good relationship with them. Or a solid contract. From the attitude you're displaying, you're sounding downright unreasonable. I hope that's just appearance, honestly. Twayne From me at privacy.net Mon Aug 10 13:59:13 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Tue Aug 11 11:05:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: dcom error References: Message-ID: Top posting my own post I am getting several DCOM errors - failed to "start speed disk" in a row. I disabled speeddisk on purpose. What is requesting speeddisk to start??? So I can disable the request. How to find source of request??? "anon" wrote in message news:h5ncbe$puu$1@news.spamcop.net... > > > "indigo" wrote in message > news:h5kp10$h2h$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> "anon" wrote in message >> news:h5kb6b$uup$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> dcom error says can't start speed disk. >>> >>> I disabled speed disk because it was using too many 'resources'. >>> >>> Something is asking for it to start - what? >>> >>> How do I turn off 'start speeddisk'? >>> >>> What do I edit to make the error go away? >>> >> >> Have you tried opening the speedisk properties using Services? The last >> tab list dependencies, both above and below the specific service. Could >> be some other service is involved. But be aware that the >> "Services/Properties/Dependencies" tab does NOT list ALL of the >> services/DLL's that are associated with that specific service, I learned >> that the hard way. > > That is how I disabled speeddisk. > > Now I want to know WHAT is asking speeddisk to run? > >> >> An app like SysInternals Process monitor, available from Microsoft >> TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx >> , shows more than you probably want to see as far as what is running and >> loaded in realtime. You can right click on a specific process and see all >> the DLL's etc. that the process is using. >> >> An easier to use SysInternals app is called AutoRuns, there is a >> "services" tab that more easily allows you to see what's attached to each >> specific service. You'll need to download the entire SysInternals Suite >> from Tech Net to use Autoruns completely, you need to run Process >> Explorer in conjuction with Autoruns to dig into specific services and >> their dependicies. It's a great set of apps to have on hand to explore >> what's being loaded onto your machine and by what app/process. > From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 11 13:03:21 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Tue Aug 11 13:05:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: dcom error In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: And top posting you're no-new info post. Did you even bother to read what I wrote, or even google "speed disk"? I just punched up google and the first (of many) links were titled "Win XP Defrag or Norton Speed Disk?". If that doesn't point you in the right direction I don't know what advice will. My bet is that you have Norton installed and you disabled speed disk in an, uhm, "abnormal" manner. "anon" wrote in message news:h5s184$c3$1@news.spamcop.net... > Top posting my own post > > I am getting several DCOM errors - failed to "start speed disk" in a row. > > I disabled speeddisk on purpose. > > What is requesting speeddisk to start??? So I can disable the request. How > to find source of request??? > > > "anon" wrote in message > news:h5ncbe$puu$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> >> "indigo" wrote in message >> news:h5kp10$h2h$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> >>> "anon" wrote in message >>> news:h5kb6b$uup$1@news.spamcop.net... >>>> dcom error says can't start speed disk. >>>> >>>> I disabled speed disk because it was using too many 'resources'. >>>> >>>> Something is asking for it to start - what? >>>> >>>> How do I turn off 'start speeddisk'? >>>> >>>> What do I edit to make the error go away? >>>> >>> >>> Have you tried opening the speedisk properties using Services? The last >>> tab list dependencies, both above and below the specific service. Could >>> be some other service is involved. But be aware that the >>> "Services/Properties/Dependencies" tab does NOT list ALL of the >>> services/DLL's that are associated with that specific service, I learned >>> that the hard way. >> >> That is how I disabled speeddisk. >> >> Now I want to know WHAT is asking speeddisk to run? >> >>> >>> An app like SysInternals Process monitor, available from Microsoft >>> TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx >>> , shows more than you probably want to see as far as what is running and >>> loaded in realtime. You can right click on a specific process and see >>> all the DLL's etc. that the process is using. >>> >>> An easier to use SysInternals app is called AutoRuns, there is a >>> "services" tab that more easily allows you to see what's attached to >>> each specific service. You'll need to download the entire SysInternals >>> Suite from Tech Net to use Autoruns completely, you need to run Process >>> Explorer in conjuction with Autoruns to dig into specific services and >>> their dependicies. It's a great set of apps to have on hand to explore >>> what's being loaded onto your machine and by what app/process. >> From joegill at removethis Tue Aug 11 21:53:58 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Tue Aug 11 21:55:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Tweaks/Screwing with the registry/etc. etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message = news:h5knpk$akv$1@news.spamcop.net... > Got a link to that 1T drive for under $100? Does it support firewire? Here is one at MicroCenter.com. No firewire. Simpledrive I USB 2.0 External HD $89.99 Here is one for $119, same place, firewire/USB Verbatim 1TB FireWire/USB Desktop Hard Drive > At one time I had "auto-update" enabled, which is default Vista behavior = > (at least my machine shipped that way). That's how thata Office 2007 crap = > snuck it's way onto my machine. Office 2007 fixes were deployed multiple times. What there were, were the = compatiblity tools for the prior versions of Office, to allow them to handl= e = the new formats. There name said Office 2007, but they applied to your = current version . > Hotfixes are part of the auto-update process, no? NO!! Hotfixes are never 'pushed' out by Microsoft. You must specifically = request them, to get them.... In fact, HOTFIXES have disclaimers in them, = that basically say, they are a specific fix for a specific problem. HOWEVER, HP, packaged a few of them in their support packages which could b= e = pulled from their site also, to fix specific problems. > I've since changed update to "alert me that updates are available", which = > allows me to choose what and when I want to download specific updates. Fo= r = > instance, I didn't install Outlook, so there's no point in wasting time = > and disk space downloading anything Outlook related. Don't try to 'outsmart' the Auto-Update process. It figures our from the = registry which fixes are needed and pulls them. Trying to 'outsmart' it, ca= n = lead to problems when you try to use a product later. I guess I am seeing, you want to 'micro-manage' the update process. I would = not advise that. Microsoft has elaborate testing in place. I have only been = 'burned' once by Microsoft auto-updates, since 1999, over the history of = Win98, Win98SE, XP Pro, and now Vista Ultimate x64. . > > Two years of further development on Vista between when you got your = > machine and when I got mine. Your's probably already came with SP1, maybe = > SP2, already built into the OS. I think the way they're integrated into = > the OS (hard coded as opposed to a patch) makes a big difference. No really. I was SP1 and upgraded to SP2. An SP2 system shipped as SP2 or a = SP1 system upgraded to SP2, or a based system upgraded to SP2 should all = look the same. The regisry maintains all the relationships and information. = That again is why I do not screw with the registry, unless directed by a = vendor for a particular issues. > > If it comes to that, I'll do it the "right way". I've already created a = > second partition on C:\ in anticipation of this, but it turns out I made = > it too small. A test run of doing an Office install into the new partitio= n = > failed. Well, it really wasn't an actual installation, I just tried to = > copy all of the files from the Office CD to the new partition. At the = > beginning of the Office install it says "you will need a minimum of 250 M= B = > of disk space", so I made the new partition 400 MB. Turns out I need = > probably double or triple that to copy the full contents of the Office = > install files, some of the install files (CABs) are likely temps that = > don't end up staying on the HD, making that 250 MB number a red herring. No it is NTO a 'red herring'.. they are telling you what the minimum space = it will occupy when done.! I would never, again, try to 'outsmart' the install process. In fact, what = I = do is always do a 'complete' install, not a 'typical' install, so I don't = need the disk again. Disk drive space is cheap now. I just saw a 1G hard = drive for $84. Your time is valuable. I know you are on a limited budget, = but heck if you freed up time, you could do things like buy/sell on eBay or = a flea markets to make money for the upgrades. > >> but I don't change out grips on tools, or polish screwdriver bits, or = >> clean the handles and polish the metal... No they are tools to get a job = >> done !! >> > > Heh. I am TOTALLY opposite to that point of view. In my work history tool= s = > were your the means to your livelihood -- they were the most important = > assets you own, besides your brain. Taking care of them (keeping them = > clean, edges sharp, not losing them) was critical to being able to = > function at your highest level. I still operate the same way with my own = > tools at home, I treat them like precious possessions. They get cleaned, = > wiped down, and returned to their proper place after each use, and the = > work area gets vacuumed before I retire for the evening. You'll find any = > good mechanic/technician treats his tools the same way, to the point = > where they will put away all their tools and lock them up just to go to = > lunch! Treat them well and they'll last forever (I still have and use som= e = > of my grandpa's hand tools), treat them badly and you'll either botch the = > job or end up having to continuously buy new ones. AGREED... but you are not changing out grips, or replacing axe handles just = to make them look better! Also, to use your analogy, did you get rid of sockets that you don't think = you would have a need for? Again with your philosophy, are you grinding screwdriver bits for a specifi= c = task or because Craftsman or Stanley or whomever did not make them the way = you thoght they should be... of course not! > > Hmmm....now that I see it in writing, I guess that last analogy pretty = > closely describes how I treat my PC's......maybe if I take the view that = > my PC is a "tool" it will help me stop certain behaviors that end up = > causing me problems.... In the 80's and into the 90's PC's were needed more care/feeding. Now PC's = with VISTA and even some LINUX ones, are basically, open and use. The days = of tinkering with PC's has faded away. Hence the demise of Circuit City and = other large suppliers of pieces and components. I REALLY think you would benefit from rebuilding your PC on 'BARE METAL' an= d = building from the ground up. Making sure to install all the features = functions, add-ons, tools etc. from the beginning. Then have a GOOD securit= y = package and a good backup package, plus an maintenance philosophy which = relies on automatic updates and maintenance. Since you are running VISTA, you may want this folder philosophy A) Photos in Photos B) Videos in Videos C) Music in Music D) All the other data you have is then under a structure you create in = Documents. . = -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1610 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/attachments/20090811/38c37c= 9c/attachment.gif From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Wed Aug 12 18:09:18 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Wed Aug 12 18:10:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon Message-ID: FYI, I switched my e-mails pop accounts over to port 587 some months ago and all has been fine. Then all of a sudden today, I could receive but not send any e-mails! I ran around Hogan's Barn a few times and finally just for grins set the port back to the default 25. And the mail started working (Sending) again. Except that I have to monitor 15 e-mail accounts, it's no biggie I guess, but it was annoying. So much for jumping the gun. Just goes to show, I guess; I never did receive an e-mail telling me I had to switch to port 587 but I figured I just got missed in the onslaught. But apparently they don't want people using it unless they've actually told you to do so. So, thought I'd post it here just in case it affected anyone besides me. HTH, Twayne` From loyal at spamcop.user Thu Aug 13 01:06:44 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Thu Aug 13 01:10:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > FYI, I switched my e-mails pop accounts over to port 587 some months ago > and all has been fine. Then all of a sudden today, I could receive but > not send any e-mails! I ran around Hogan's Barn a few times and finally > just for grins set the port back to the default 25. And the mail > started working (Sending) again. Except that I have to monitor 15 > e-mail accounts, it's no biggie I guess, but it was annoying. So > much for jumping the gun. > > Just goes to show, I guess; I never did receive an e-mail telling me I > had to switch to port 587 but I figured I just got missed in the > onslaught. But apparently they don't want people using it unless > they've actually told you to do so. > > So, thought I'd post it here just in case it affected anyone besides me. Hey Twayne (and others) The POP and SMTP protocols are totally in the clear unless you specifically enable encryption. I'm guessing port 587 was encrypted, while port 25 for you is in the clear. Say that you are on a wifi network at a coffee shop. When you get your email with Outlook, someone on the network can pick off your username, password, and email as it comes over with some packet sniffing software. My brother thinks his gmail password was swiped this way by using the gmail system tray notification program on a wifi network in a hotel. Just an FYI to consider for your system and your recent change. If I were you, complain to Verizon and tell them port 587 isn't working. Chances are this was an intermittent issue (certificate expired, server config issue, or some such). AndrewB From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Aug 13 03:40:56 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Aug 13 03:45:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: AndrewB wrote: >> FYI, I switched my e-mails pop accounts over to port 587 some months >> ago and all has been fine. Port 587 is Verizon's 'recommended' outgoing smtp port. EL also recommends 587 for their smtpauth outgoing smtp port, but port 25 works at EL as well. Verizon sez 25 only works as specified in the snip below. >> Just goes to show, I guess; I never did receive an e-mail telling me I >> had to switch to port 587 but I figured I just got missed in the >> onslaught. I don't have verizon, but I've seen their webpage http://snipr.com/psetw Your Attention Needed: Re-configure Your Email Settings to Send Email > The POP and SMTP protocols are totally in the clear unless you > specifically enable encryption. I'm guessing port 587 was encrypted, > while port 25 for you is in the clear. No. That is not correct. Whether using port 25 or 587, verizon does not use SSL secure connection. Here's more about the configuration and its change with screenshots Most common email viruses are sent using port 25 to infect computers. Often times the user never knows their computer has been infected. In order to protect our customers, Verizon has turned off the ability to send email using port 25 for all users other than those using a @verizon.net email address. -- If you want immediate step-by-step instructions, visit change my port settings to 587 now. http://snipr.com/psewj Configure Outlook Express to use port 587 for sending email > My brother thinks his gmail password was swiped this way by using the > gmail system tray notification program on a wifi network in a hotel. Gmail does use secure connections for its email. Those are port 465 outgoing and port 995 incoming pop or 993 incoming imap -- all SSL. That's not to say that your brother can't manage to get his pw swiped, but I'm just saying that gmail is more securely configured with SSL secure connection than verizon or EL. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Thu Aug 13 11:51:09 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Thu Aug 13 11:55:06 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: In message AndrewB was claimed to have wrote: >I'm guessing port 587 was encrypted, >while port 25 for you is in the clear. Both ports start the session unencrypted, and client and server permitting, start encryption later in the session via the STARTTLS command. From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 13 13:47:09 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 13 13:50:06 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:h60714$ril$1@news.spamcop.net >> FYI, I switched my e-mails pop accounts over to port 587 some months >> ago and all has been fine. Then all of a sudden today, I could >> receive but not send any e-mails! I ran around Hogan's Barn a few >> times and finally just for grins set the port back to the default >> 25. And the mail started working (Sending) again. Except that I >> have to monitor 15 e-mail accounts, it's no biggie I guess, but it >> was annoying. So much for jumping the gun. >> >> Just goes to show, I guess; I never did receive an e-mail telling me >> I had to switch to port 587 but I figured I just got missed in the >> onslaught. But apparently they don't want people using it unless >> they've actually told you to do so. >> >> So, thought I'd post it here just in case it affected anyone besides >> me. > > Hey Twayne (and others) > > The POP and SMTP protocols are totally in the clear unless you > specifically enable encryption. I'm guessing port 587 was encrypted, > while port 25 for you is in the clear. Maybe ... it had been set to 587 for about 4 months so I really suspect software changes are going on somewhere. HTH, Twayne` > > Say that you are on a wifi network at a coffee shop. When you get > your email with Outlook, someone on the network can pick off your > username, password, and email as it comes over with some packet > sniffing software. > My brother thinks his gmail password was swiped this way by using the > gmail system tray notification program on a wifi network in a hotel. > > Just an FYI to consider for your system and your recent change. If I > were you, complain to Verizon and tell them port 587 isn't working. > Chances are this was an intermittent issue (certificate expired, > server config issue, or some such). > > > AndrewB From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 13 13:49:43 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 13 13:50:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h60g26$osd$1@news.spamcop.net > AndrewB wrote: > >>> FYI, I switched my e-mails pop accounts over to port 587 some months >>> ago and all has been fine. > > Port 587 is Verizon's 'recommended' outgoing smtp port. EL also > recommends 587 for their smtpauth outgoing smtp port, but port 25 > works at EL as well. Verizon sez 25 only works as specified in the > snip below. > >>> Just goes to show, I guess; I never did receive an e-mail telling >>> me I had to switch to port 587 but I figured I just got missed in >>> the onslaught. > > I don't have verizon, but I've seen their webpage > http://snipr.com/psetw Your Attention Needed: Re-configure Your Email > Settings to Send Email > >> The POP and SMTP protocols are totally in the clear unless you >> specifically enable encryption. I'm guessing port 587 was encrypted, >> while port 25 for you is in the clear. > > No. That is not correct. Whether using port 25 or 587, verizon does > not use SSL secure connection. > > Here's more about the configuration and its change with screenshots > > Most common email viruses are sent using port 25 to infect > computers. Often times the user never knows their computer has been > infected. In order to protect our customers, Verizon has turned off > the ability to send email using port 25 for all users other than > those using a @verizon.net email address. -- If you want immediate > step-by-step instructions, visit change my port settings to 587 now. > http://snipr.com/psewj Configure Outlook Express to use port 587 for > sending email Yup; that's the notice I never received. I plan to give it awhile and see if 587 comes back. HTH, Twayne` > >> My brother thinks his gmail password was swiped this way by using the >> gmail system tray notification program on a wifi network in a hotel. > > Gmail does use secure connections for its email. Those are port 465 > outgoing and port 995 incoming pop or 993 incoming imap -- all SSL. > > That's not to say that your brother can't manage to get his pw swiped, > but I'm just saying that gmail is more securely configured with SSL > secure connection than verizon or EL. From loyal at spamcop.user Thu Aug 13 23:42:55 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Thu Aug 13 23:45:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > AndrewB wrote: >> My brother thinks his gmail password was swiped this way by using the >> gmail system tray notification program on a wifi network in a hotel. > > Gmail does use secure connections for its email. Those are port 465 > outgoing and port 995 incoming pop or 993 incoming imap -- all SSL. > > That's not to say that your brother can't manage to get his pw swiped, > but I'm just saying that gmail is more securely configured with SSL > secure connection than verizon or EL. As I mentioned, he was using the notification tool which by default does not use SSL to let you know there are new messages in your inbox. Last I checked, one had to tweak something from google to get the notification tool to use SSL, which my bro has successfully enabled. He did use SSL to gmail in the browser, though. But in my remote walkthrough of his system, we discovered that the notification tool was probably the culprit in a hotel room where the wifi was probably being scanned. And I agree - I always use SSL for outbound SMTP servers. I'm paying extra for that feature. :) If I were traveling like I used to for my last job, I'd be looking for a private VPN service that could at least encrypt everything between me and the service. I never felt safe plugging the Ethernet cable into the hotel wall socket in Beijing. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 14 19:47:26 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Fri Aug 14 19:50:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:h62mfu$u6t$1@news.spamcop.net... .... > If I were traveling like I used to for my last job, I'd be looking for a > private VPN service that could at least encrypt everything between me and > the service. I never felt safe plugging the Ethernet cable into the hotel > wall socket in Beijing. You weren't From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sat Aug 15 11:15:32 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Aug 15 11:20:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: Followup: I was just going to post a results-post of this issue, but the "story" is too juicily queer to keep to myself . Issue: After using SMTP port 587 for sending for a few months suddenly it stopped working and threw an error, refusing to send the mail (error available if anyone wants it). Switching to port 25 made it all work fine. My ISP is Verizon but for mail, it's really yahoo.verizon.net. That often creates a real mess when you try to ask a question about e-mail of either company. First, I checed every FAQ and support article I could find. Most didn't mention the actual SMTP port number, and those that did all referenced port 587. No good. I started with e-mail to support. 1 e-mail: no reponse. 2 email: Consisted of a bunch of FAQs. 3 email: Must be a Yahoo or you web server's problem at Netfirms. Nope: I'ts never leaving my machine and never gets to Yahoo or Netfirms; ONLY Verizon! Interestingly enough, even though the error message plainly states the mail was refused for sending, it's still dropped into the Sent folder, and SOME of the test messages DID arrive eventually (about an hour or so), but only about half of them. Mulled those over for awhile, had some friendly chats with Netfirms and of course confirming they couldn't be part of that pictue, and Yahoo put the blame back on Verizon; a familiar cycle to me. Back to Verizon: This time I noticed the Chat link. Tried it. Turned out to be in India; anyone surprised? Long story short: It took that tech THREE hours to delete all of my 15 email accounts, trash Ghost as I later found out, and a couple other things as well. It would have been more than three hours, but when he did a Restart, I didn't get a chance to tell WinPatrol his RunOnce entry was OK to process. So it rebooted, but of course didn't connect back up to him. By the time I figured out how to reconnect, all I got was a message I was timed out for inactivity. This morning: Re-imaged the drive (18 minutes boot to finish) and all was back. Tried Chat again, but determined to make them obey MY wishes or go away and try for another tech later. Turned out though, this guy gave me the apparently right answer within the first 5 minutes, after all the verification of my great-great grandfather's nieces daughter's uncle's name. How do I know he's right: lol, I don't! But he had what seemd to be good information and was able to clarify it by taking me to a Verizon paper on the subject but which had no date. And here's the answer: -- ONLY people notified by e-mail should have changed to SMTP port 587. I never received an email; assumed from what I read on the site that all should do so. I'd swear it said that, but it doesn't now; must be my mistake. -- SMTP Port 587 has officially been turned OFF in all but 4 states: ----------- Me: OK! THANK YOU! nEXT QUESTION: Is this a geographic issue? Checking on the newsgroups, everyone else on VZ is still using port 587. Will they eventually be seeing the same thing I do? Shankar: Port 587 for few states right now. Shankar: It is VA, IL, MI and NC Me: OK. You have been ... ----------- When I told him my sister, right next door to me (1/4 mile away) was still using port 587, he wasn't surprised. SHE got an e-mail notice, BTW. He said that a lot of servers were still running both 25/587 and don't plan to kill 587 until something about some sort of security service was settled. I didn't dig into that; sounded plausible, was enough for the time being. I have NO idea why she would always get a server that accepts 587 and I never do now, but ... things do happen. He also assured me that the previous spam issues etc. of either port were now no different than each other so there wasn't anything any worse with port 25 than there was 587. Sounded like he'd gone back to his script-reading at that point. So anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! For now. And FWIW. Cheers, Twayne` Original Post for historical purposes: "Twayne" wrote in message news:h5vei8$jn5$1@news.spamcop.net > FYI, I switched my e-mails pop accounts over to port 587 some months > ago and all has been fine. Then all of a sudden today, I could > receive but not send any e-mails! I ran around Hogan's Barn a few > times and finally just for grins set the port back to the default 25. > And the mail started working (Sending) again. Except that I have to > monitor 15 e-mail accounts, it's no biggie I guess, but it was > annoying. So much for jumping the gun. > > Just goes to show, I guess; I never did receive an e-mail telling me I > had to switch to port 587 but I figured I just got missed in the > onslaught. But apparently they don't want people using it unless > they've actually told you to do so. > > So, thought I'd post it here just in case it affected anyone besides > me. > HTH, > > Twayne` From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Sat Aug 15 11:24:31 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Aug 15 11:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h60g26$osd$1@news.spamcop.net > AndrewB wrote: ... > > Here's more about the configuration and its change with screenshots > > Most common email viruses are sent using port 25 to infect > computers. Often times the user never knows their computer has been > infected. In order to protect our customers, Verizon has turned off > the ability to send email using port 25 for all users other than > those using a @verizon.net email address. -- If you want immediate > step-by-step instructions, visit change my port settings to 587 now. > http://snipr.com/psewj Configure Outlook Express to use port 587 for > sending email > ... Thanks! I've been looking for that page. After my little session with the techs this am (see my response to my original post), I'm not letting Verizon off so easy. I plan to complain both about the two chat sessions I had, plus the 25/587 page and versus the tech's comments about things. VZ either has to cough up some information or "fix" my problem. I'm happy with port 25, but ... the ability to use port 25 being turned off there is clearly NOT so; I'm proof right here. It's the principle of the thing; they're making changes without notification and there is the conflicting page I couldn't find for the tech. BTW, the 25/587 holds whether you use a vz.net or your own server's account. It still traverses VZ and/or Yahoo/VZ. Cheers, Twayne` From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Sun Aug 16 23:00:53 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Sun Aug 16 23:05:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: From: "Twayne" | Followup: | I was just going to post a results-post of this issue, but the | "story" is too juicily queer to keep to myself . | Issue: After using SMTP port 587 for sending for a few months | suddenly it stopped working and threw an error, refusing to send the | mail (error available if anyone wants it). Switching to port 25 made it | all work fine. | My ISP is Verizon but for mail, it's really yahoo.verizon.net. That | often creates a real mess when you try to ask a question about e-mail of | either company. | First, I checed every FAQ and support article I could find. Most | didn't mention the actual SMTP port number, and those that did all | referenced port 587. No good. | I started with e-mail to support. 1 e-mail: no reponse. 2 email: | Consisted of a bunch of FAQs. 3 email: Must be a Yahoo or you web | server's problem at Netfirms. Nope: I'ts never leaving my machine and | never gets to Yahoo or Netfirms; ONLY Verizon! | Interestingly enough, even though the error message plainly states | the mail was refused for sending, it's still dropped into the Sent | folder, and SOME of the test messages DID arrive eventually (about an | hour or so), but only about half of them. | Mulled those over for awhile, had some friendly chats with Netfirms | and of course confirming they couldn't be part of that pictue, and Yahoo | put the blame back on Verizon; a familiar cycle to me. | Back to Verizon: This time I noticed the Chat link. Tried it. | Turned out to be in India; anyone surprised? Long story short: | It took that tech THREE hours to delete all of my 15 email accounts, | trash Ghost as I later found out, and a couple other things as well. It | would have been more than three hours, but when he did a Restart, I | didn't get a chance to tell WinPatrol his RunOnce entry was OK to | process. So it rebooted, but of course didn't connect back up to him. | By the time I figured out how to reconnect, all I got was a message I | was timed out for inactivity. | This morning: Re-imaged the drive (18 minutes boot to finish) and all | was back. Tried Chat again, but determined to make them obey MY wishes | or go away and try for another tech later. | Turned out though, this guy gave me the apparently right answer within | the first 5 minutes, after all the verification of my great-great | grandfather's nieces daughter's uncle's name. | How do I know he's right: lol, I don't! But he had what seemd to be | good information and was able to clarify it by taking me to a Verizon | paper on the subject but which had no date. And here's the answer: | -- ONLY people notified by e-mail should have changed to SMTP port 587. | I never received an email; assumed from what I read on the site that all | should do so. I'd swear it said that, but it doesn't now; must be my | mistake. | -- SMTP Port 587 has officially been turned OFF in all but 4 states: | ----------- Me:: OK! THANK YOU! nEXT QUESTION: Is this a geographic issue? Checking | on the newsgroups, everyone else on VZ is still using port 587. Will | they eventually be seeing the same thing I do? | Shankar: Port 587 for few states right now. | Shankar: It is VA, IL, MI and NC Me:: OK. You have been ... | ----------- | When I told him my sister, right next door to me (1/4 mile away) was | still using port 587, he wasn't surprised. SHE got an e-mail notice, | BTW. He said that a lot of servers were still running both 25/587 and | don't plan to kill 587 until something about some sort of security | service was settled. I didn't dig into that; sounded plausible, was | enough for the time being. I have NO idea why she would always get a | server that accepts 587 and I never do now, but ... things do happen. | He also assured me that the previous spam issues etc. of either port | were now no different than each other so there wasn't anything any worse | with port 25 than there was 587. Sounded like he'd gone back to his | script-reading at that point. | So anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! For now. And | FWIW. | Cheers, | Twayne` NEVER received an email. Long time Verizon subscriber. Switched to TCP port 587 baseed upon 0.verizon private hierarchy post months ago. NO problems then or now or at anytime (FYI: I use Pegasus Mail). -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Mon Aug 17 09:48:23 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Mon Aug 17 09:50:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: Thanks for the post David; I'm working on opening a channel somewhere, anywhere at Verizon and I'll use your information w/r to the "not in new york" arguement they gave me. So far I've only used their whois contacts but I'll do a Thomas or similar on them and get some further names to begin working my way up the management ladder. Port 587 is still not available to me. It's funny no one else is seeing this, IMO. I'm 99% certain it's them, not me. It's the lack of information and unannounced changes that really are bugging me. This morning i see the page of instructions to use 587 because 25 has been blocked now is unreachable now, at least from here. Yesterday the page loaded but only had a notice to "try back later". Today it doesn't even load but gives a script error message, to which responding either no OR yes sits there and repeats itself at each click; had to use TM to close the browser. They've got something weird going on here on the northern east coast. It's the principle of the thing and their lying by omission that's bugging me; and of course having to use port 25 again. "David H. Lipman" wrote in message news:h6ah58$tip$1@news.spamcop.net > From: "Twayne" > >> Followup: >> I was just going to post a results-post of this issue, but the >> "story" is too juicily queer to keep to myself . >> Issue: After using SMTP port 587 for sending for a few months >> suddenly it stopped working and threw an error, refusing to send the >> mail (error available if anyone wants it). Switching to port 25 >> made it all work fine. > >> My ISP is Verizon but for mail, it's really yahoo.verizon.net. That >> often creates a real mess when you try to ask a question about >> e-mail of either company. > >> First, I checed every FAQ and support article I could find. Most >> didn't mention the actual SMTP port number, and those that did all >> referenced port 587. No good. > >> I started with e-mail to support. 1 e-mail: no reponse. 2 email: >> Consisted of a bunch of FAQs. 3 email: Must be a Yahoo or you web >> server's problem at Netfirms. Nope: I'ts never leaving my machine >> and never gets to Yahoo or Netfirms; ONLY Verizon! >> Interestingly enough, even though the error message plainly >> states the mail was refused for sending, it's still dropped into the >> Sent folder, and SOME of the test messages DID arrive eventually >> (about an hour or so), but only about half of them. > >> Mulled those over for awhile, had some friendly chats with >> Netfirms and of course confirming they couldn't be part of that >> pictue, and Yahoo put the blame back on Verizon; a familiar cycle to >> me. > >> Back to Verizon: This time I noticed the Chat link. Tried it. >> Turned out to be in India; anyone surprised? Long story short: > >> It took that tech THREE hours to delete all of my 15 email >> accounts, trash Ghost as I later found out, and a couple other >> things as well. It would have been more than three hours, but when >> he did a Restart, I didn't get a chance to tell WinPatrol his >> RunOnce entry was OK to process. So it rebooted, but of course >> didn't connect back up to him. By the time I figured out how to >> reconnect, all I got was a message I was timed out for inactivity. > >> This morning: Re-imaged the drive (18 minutes boot to finish) and >> all was back. Tried Chat again, but determined to make them obey MY >> wishes or go away and try for another tech later. > >> Turned out though, this guy gave me the apparently right answer >> within the first 5 minutes, after all the verification of my >> great-great grandfather's nieces daughter's uncle's name. > >> How do I know he's right: lol, I don't! But he had what seemd >> to be good information and was able to clarify it by taking me to a >> Verizon paper on the subject but which had no date. And here's the >> answer: > >> -- ONLY people notified by e-mail should have changed to SMTP port >> 587. I never received an email; assumed from what I read on the site >> that all should do so. I'd swear it said that, but it doesn't now; >> must be my mistake. > >> -- SMTP Port 587 has officially been turned OFF in all but 4 states: >> ----------- > Me:: OK! THANK YOU! nEXT QUESTION: Is this a geographic issue? > Checking >> on the newsgroups, everyone else on VZ is still using port 587. Will >> they eventually be seeing the same thing I do? >> Shankar: Port 587 for few states right now. >> Shankar: It is VA, IL, MI and NC > Me:: OK. You have been ... >> ----------- >> When I told him my sister, right next door to me (1/4 mile away) was >> still using port 587, he wasn't surprised. SHE got an e-mail notice, >> BTW. He said that a lot of servers were still running both 25/587 >> and don't plan to kill 587 until something about some sort of >> security service was settled. I didn't dig into that; sounded >> plausible, was enough for the time being. I have NO idea why she >> would always get a server that accepts 587 and I never do now, but >> ... things do happen. > >> He also assured me that the previous spam issues etc. of either port >> were now no different than each other so there wasn't anything any >> worse with port 25 than there was 587. Sounded like he'd gone back >> to his script-reading at that point. > >> So anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! For now. And >> FWIW. > >> Cheers, > >> Twayne` > > > > > NEVER received an email. > > Long time Verizon subscriber. > > Switched to TCP port 587 baseed upon 0.verizon private hierarchy post > months ago. > > NO problems then or now or at anytime (FYI: I use Pegasus Mail). From MikeE at ster.invalid Mon Aug 17 19:09:02 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Mon Aug 17 19:10:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: Twayne wrote: > It's the principle of the thing and > their lying by omission that's bugging me; and of course having to use > port 25 again. Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? When EL's server's name changed to smtpauth.earthlink.net long ago, they also 'advised' that the port would change to 587 -- that is, they advised to use 587 instead of 25. EL has some potential strategies for blocking port 25 selectively. For years I continued to use 25 and never 'switched' to 587 and EL continued to accept mail via either port. Personally I don't care whether I use 25 or 587 - so my question is/remains why do /you/ care? -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From me at privacy.net Mon Aug 17 20:00:44 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Mon Aug 17 20:05:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: dcom error References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h5s88t$adq$1@news.spamcop.net... > And top posting you're no-new info post. Did you even bother to read what > I wrote, or even google "speed disk"? I just punched up google and the > first (of many) links were titled "Win XP Defrag or Norton Speed Disk?". > If that doesn't point you in the right direction I don't know what advice > will. My bet is that you have Norton installed and you disabled speed disk > in an, uhm, "abnormal" manner. > I "disabled" speed dies via "MS services" -> speed disk -> startup type -> manual This does not sound like 'abnormal' manner. BTW the Google links were to download speed disk not to troubleshoot it. BTW2 Top post was because I immediately after posting wanted to add something to the original post. > "anon" wrote in message > news:h5s184$c3$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Top posting my own post >> >> I am getting several DCOM errors - failed to "start speed disk" in a row. >> >> I disabled speeddisk on purpose. >> >> What is requesting speeddisk to start??? So I can disable the request. >> How to find source of request??? >> >> >> "anon" wrote in message >> news:h5ncbe$puu$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> >>> >>> "indigo" wrote in message >>> news:h5kp10$h2h$1@news.spamcop.net... >>>> >>>> "anon" wrote in message >>>> news:h5kb6b$uup$1@news.spamcop.net... >>>>> dcom error says can't start speed disk. >>>>> >>>>> I disabled speed disk because it was using too many 'resources'. >>>>> >>>>> Something is asking for it to start - what? >>>>> >>>>> How do I turn off 'start speeddisk'? >>>>> >>>>> What do I edit to make the error go away? >>>>> >>>> >>>> Have you tried opening the speedisk properties using Services? The last >>>> tab list dependencies, both above and below the specific service. Could >>>> be some other service is involved. But be aware that the >>>> "Services/Properties/Dependencies" tab does NOT list ALL of the >>>> services/DLL's that are associated with that specific service, I >>>> learned that the hard way. >>> >>> That is how I disabled speeddisk. >>> >>> Now I want to know WHAT is asking speeddisk to run? >>> >>>> >>>> An app like SysInternals Process monitor, available from Microsoft >>>> TechNet at >>>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx , shows >>>> more than you probably want to see as far as what is running and loaded >>>> in realtime. You can right click on a specific process and see all the >>>> DLL's etc. that the process is using. >>>> >>>> An easier to use SysInternals app is called AutoRuns, there is a >>>> "services" tab that more easily allows you to see what's attached to >>>> each specific service. You'll need to download the entire SysInternals >>>> Suite from Tech Net to use Autoruns completely, you need to run Process >>>> Explorer in conjuction with Autoruns to dig into specific services and >>>> their dependicies. It's a great set of apps to have on hand to explore >>>> what's being loaded onto your machine and by what app/process. >>> > From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Mon Aug 17 22:07:45 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Mon Aug 17 22:10:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: From: "Twayne" | Thanks for the post David; I'm working on opening a channel somewhere, | anywhere at Verizon and I'll use your information w/r to the "not in new | york" arguement they gave me. So far I've only used their whois | contacts but I'll do a Thomas or similar on them and get some further | names to begin working my way up the management ladder. Port 587 is | still not available to me. | It's funny no one else is seeing this, IMO. I'm 99% certain it's | them, not me. | It's the lack of information and unannounced changes that really are | bugging me. This morning i see the page of instructions to use 587 | because 25 has been blocked now is unreachable now, at least from here. | Yesterday the page loaded but only had a notice to "try back later". | Today it doesn't even load but gives a script error message, to which | responding either no OR yes sits there and repeats itself at each click; | had to use TM to close the browser. They've got something weird going | on here on the northern east coast. It's the principle of the thing and | their lying by omission that's bugging me; and of course having to use | port 25 again. NY -- Me? Hell no. NJ :-) -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 18 00:16:21 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Richard W) Date: Tue Aug 18 00:20:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Release of Spamcop Version 4.6.0-028 Message-ID: The long awaited new version of SpamCop (v4.6) will being going into production release Tuesday, August 18, 2009. This means the SpamCop reporting service and website will be offline and unavailable for approximately eight hours beginning at 9:00 a.m. PDT. Emailed spam submissions will be accepted but will be queued for later handling. When the reporting service is brought back up please expect several hours of delay as the backlog is processed. This outage does not affect the SpamCop/CESMail email service. SpamCop/Cisco-Ironport apologizes in advance for inconvenience to our users. We would also like to thank the several users who have participated in the beta testing for the last several weeks. Richard From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Aug 18 00:42:18 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Richard W) Date: Tue Aug 18 00:45:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Release of Spamcop Version 4.6.0-028 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: This deployment has now been moved to Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Same time, same duration, same effects. Richard Richard W wrote: > The long awaited new version of SpamCop (v4.6) will being going into > production release Tuesday, August 18, 2009. This means the SpamCop > reporting service and website will be offline and unavailable for > approximately eight hours beginning at 9:00 a.m. PDT. > > Emailed spam submissions will be accepted but will be queued for later > handling. When the reporting service is brought back up please expect > several hours of delay as the backlog is processed. > > This outage does not affect the SpamCop/CESMail email service. > > SpamCop/Cisco-Ironport apologizes in advance for inconvenience to our > users. We would also like to thank the several users who have > participated in the beta testing for the last several weeks. > > Richard From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Tue Aug 18 12:10:37 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Tue Aug 18 12:15:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h6cnu4$uop$1@news.spamcop.net > Twayne wrote: > >> It's the principle of the thing and >> their lying by omission that's bugging me; and of course having to >> use port 25 again. > > Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? What did I say in my last post? You snipped part of it, but first a tech said to go to x.html which advises the closeing of port 25 and urges changes to 587, it works that way for multi-months, and then without notice suddenly doesn't. If you want to read it, see the Google cached item. Then there are the "rumors" that their 587 can be more secure than 25; same as all the sites changing/blocking port25. The web site needs to accurately reflect the situation, IMO and it doesn't. Didn't, I guess is more accurate: Several related pages are now "try again later" and have been for a few days now. > > When EL's server's name changed to smtpauth.earthlink.net long ago, > they also 'advised' that the port would change to 587 -- that is, they > advised to use 587 instead of 25. > > EL has some potential strategies for blocking port 25 selectively. I've noticed some other ISP are doing that. Verizon might be too, but they have so many different farm-outs (Yahoo, MSN and 2 others I forget right now) handling e-mail for them it's hard to say. The referenced page said port 25 was going to be "blocked" and users would have to use 587. There are at least two pages at VZ that say that but they don't work right now. > > For years I continued to use 25 and never 'switched' to 587 and EL > continued to accept mail via either port. And? That's how, in reality, it WAS here. I don't see the revancy of that statement. > > Personally I don't care whether I use 25 or 587 - so my question > is/remains why do /you/ care? Because I want to know and when multiple people side-step a question I get real curious about what it is they don't want me to know. I now have a tech super e-mail parroting the same thing the chat tech did - 25 in all but 4 states. Of course, they side-stepped my question about how come my neighbors can use it and I can't. Before I go to the next rung I'll go back there with it very specifically stated. There is something to be learned here, but I'm not sure what it is. I have both verizon.net AND my web site's email addresses - they operate identically w/r to the port numbers. VZ is my ISP and another company has my web site servers but it all traverses VOL spaces regardless because they're my ISP. I did think at one point that I might have been looking at the port 25 issues from the wrong side of the connection but no, I am not. Cheers, Twayne` -- Use OO.o and you won't care what happens to the Microsoft suit. From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Tue Aug 18 17:53:57 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Tue Aug 18 17:55:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: From: "Twayne" | "Mike Easter" wrote in message | news:h6cnu4$uop$1@news.spamcop.net >> Twayne wrote: >>> It's the principle of the thing and >>> their lying by omission that's bugging me; and of course having to >>> use port 25 again. >> Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? | What did I say in my last post? You snipped part of it, but first a | tech said to go to x.html which advises the closeing of port 25 and | urges changes to 587, it works that way for multi-months, and then | without notice suddenly doesn't. If you want to read it, see the Google | cached item. | Then there are the "rumors" that their 587 can be more secure than | 25; same as all the sites changing/blocking port25. The web site needs | to accurately reflect the situation, IMO and it doesn't. Didn't, I | guess is more accurate: Several related pages are now "try again later" | and have been for a few days now. >> When EL's server's name changed to smtpauth.earthlink.net long ago, >> they also 'advised' that the port would change to 587 -- that is, they >> advised to use 587 instead of 25. >> EL has some potential strategies for blocking port 25 selectively. | I've noticed some other ISP are doing that. Verizon might be too, but | they have so many different farm-outs (Yahoo, MSN and 2 others I forget | right now) handling e-mail for them it's hard to say. The referenced | page said port 25 was going to be "blocked" and users would have to use | 587. There are at least two pages at VZ that say that but they don't | work right now. >> For years I continued to use 25 and never 'switched' to 587 and EL >> continued to accept mail via either port. | And? That's how, in reality, it WAS here. I don't see the revancy of | that statement. >> Personally I don't care whether I use 25 or 587 - so my question >> is/remains why do /you/ care? | Because I want to know and when multiple people side-step a question I | get real curious about what it is they don't want me to know. | I now have a tech super e-mail parroting the same thing the chat | tech did - 25 in all but 4 states. Of course, they side-stepped my | question about how come my neighbors can use it and I can't. Before I | go to the next rung I'll go back there with it very specifically stated. | There is something to be learned here, but I'm not sure what it is. I | have both verizon.net AND my web site's email addresses - they operate | identically w/r to the port numbers. VZ is my ISP and another company | has my web site servers but it all traverses VOL spaces regardless | because they're my ISP. | I did think at one point that I might have been looking at the port | 25 issues from the wrong side of the connection but no, I am not. | Cheers, | Twayne` | -- | Use OO.o and you won't care what | happens to the Microsoft suit. Received Today... Dear Verizon Online Customer, Verizon Online will soon be making changes to our network to further strengthen the security of our customers’ email messages and our network and to help prevent spam. We have blocked incoming email from Port 25, which is the default port used by email programs to connect to email servers and to send email, for some time now. We are now taking the additional step of blocking outgoing e-mail messages from Port 25 to help ensure that our network is not used by spammers. Depending on whether you use a web-based email service or an email program such as Microsoft Outlook®, you may need to make changes to your computer settings to ensure that your ability to send email is not interrupted. If you use a web-based Email service (either Verizon.net or a third party email service, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.): · If you use a web-based email service to send your email, you do not need to do anything as our implementation of Port 25 blocking for outgoing email messages will not affect your ability to send or receive web-based email. If you use a third party Email service such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL and an Email program such as Microsoft Outlook: · If you use an email service other than Verizon.net (such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) to send email through a program like Microsoft Outlook, you will need to make the following modification to your computer settings so that your ability to send email will not be affected: · Change the port number in the “Advanced” section of your email program from Port 25 to Port 587. Detailed instructions on how to change the port settings on your computer can be found at www.verizon.net/port25. · If you’re using an email provider other than Verizon.net (such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) to send email through your email program and you are unable to send email after making the change to Port 587, please contact your email provider for additional information on their recommended port settings. The above changes are necessary in order to allow you to continue to send email through your email program after September 22, 2009. Thank you for being a valued Verizon customer. Sincerely, Verizon Online -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From MikeE at ster.invalid Tue Aug 18 18:23:00 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Tue Aug 18 18:25:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: Twayne wrote: > "Mike Easter" >> Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? > > What did I say in my last post? This is where you could have explained why you care about which of those two ports you use, rather than collateral issues. >> Personally I don't care whether I use 25 or 587 - so my question >> is/remains why do /you/ care? > > Because I want to know What we have here is a failure to communicate between these two people. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Wed Aug 19 13:56:39 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Wed Aug 19 14:00:11 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:h6f9jp$v8k$1@news.spamcop.net > Twayne wrote: >> "Mike Easter" > >>> Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? >> >> What did I say in my last post? > > This is where you could have explained why you care about which of > those two ports you use, rather than collateral issues. lol, what more can I say? One worked, then quit working. The other one works. Why was I told to go to one and then they killed it? They say port 25 is about to be blocked: THEN what do I do? Will they turn 587 back on? Why did they tell me to go there in the first place? > >>> Personally I don't care whether I use 25 or 587 - so my question >>> is/remains why do /you/ care? >> >> Because I want to know > > > What we have here is a failure to communicate between these two > people. lol, not the first time, unlikely to be the last, Mike. I think you probably want some technically sound reasoning but this situation isn't about that. I'm also not trying to convince YOU that you have to do anything about the ports; I'm simply stating facts that might be useful should anyone else suddenly have 587 stop working for them as happened to me: go try port 25 again. One could do a hell of a lot of troubleshooting before they, if they ever did, came upon the port changing (again) as a solution. There is still nada, nothing, zip on the site to explain the situation but I do notice the defunct pages are now back online and have been modified slightly. And let's not forget the tech that said I had to use 25 and the other that butchered my machine because 587 "had to work". Cheers, Twayne` From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Wed Aug 19 14:01:23 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Wed Aug 19 14:05:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: "David H. Lipman" wrote in message news:h6f7tq$n04$1@news.spamcop.net > From: "Twayne" > ... > > Received Today... > > Dear Verizon Online Customer, > > > > Verizon Online will soon be making changes to our network to further > strengthen the security of our customers’ email messages and our > network and to help prevent spam. > > > > We have blocked incoming email from Port 25, which is the default > port used by email programs to connect to email servers and to send > email, for some time now. We are now taking the additional step of > blocking outgoing e-mail messages from Port 25 to help ensure that > our network is not used by spammers. Depending on whether you use a > web-based email service or an email program such as Microsoft > Outlook®, you may need to make changes to your computer settings to > ensure that your ability to send email is not interrupted. > > > > If you use a web-based Email service (either Verizon.net or a third > party email service, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.): > > > > · If you use a web-based email service to send your email, you > do not need to do anything as our implementation of Port 25 blocking > for outgoing email messages will not affect your ability to send or > receive web-based email. > > > > If you use a third party Email service such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, > AOL and an Email program such as Microsoft Outlook: > > > > · If you use an email service other than Verizon.net (such as > Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) to send email through a program > like Microsoft Outlook, you will need to make the following > modification to your computer settings so that your ability to send > email will not be affected: > > > > · Change the port number in the “Advanced” section of your > email program from Port 25 to Port 587. Detailed instructions on how > to change the port settings on your computer can be found at > www.verizon.net/port25. > > > > · If you’re using an email provider other than Verizon.net > (such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) to send email through your > email program and you are unable to send email after making the > change to Port 587, please contact your email provider for additional > information on their recommended port settings. > > > > The above changes are necessary in order to allow you to continue to > send email through your email program after September 22, 2009. > > > > Thank you for being a valued Verizon customer. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > > > Verizon Online Thanks, David, I'm happy to at least get a look at the e-mail. I think that's probably the crux of the whole issue I have: I never received such an e-mail; I was told by an online chat a couple/three months ago that I should be using port 587. It's probably as simple as that; the tech gave me bad advice, but it worked, and all seemed well until a few days ago when it didn't work anymore. Cheers, Twayne` From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Aug 19 14:53:12 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Aug 19 14:55:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon References: Message-ID: Twayne wrote: > "Mike Easter" >>>> Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? > I'm simply stating facts that > might be useful should anyone else suddenly have 587 stop working for > them as happened to me: go try port 25 again. Yabbut; there was *W A A A Y* more interacting with tech support than I would even consider. In my world, where I come from is using some great big ISP, in my case EL, in which you/I do not even want to *THINK* about talking to tech support about anything -- even if it is something broken with EL. Such providers outsource their tech support, typically to some big outsource support company in Malaysia or India or whatever. Certainly not Canada anymore. Those big companies hire people who are not competent in English language nor technically competent, but instead someone who is willing to work at one of those tech stations for little money. They give them a cookbook and they don't set up a structure by which the amateur tech is supported by a more capable tech hierarchy or supervisor. Those techs do not know diddly about what is going on or what is wrong. Their cookbook typically is designed to 'destruct'/deconstruct a user's system which isn't working properly and to put it back together hopefully so that it will work again. That is not a good idea for a user to do who doesn't have anything wrong with their system - but instead the system which is errant is the tech's big ISP system, but the tech of course doesn't know that. Therefore, the wise smart troubleshooting user does not involve tech 'helping' them in any way or advising them or reconfiguring their system. The wise user troubleshoots their own system and solves their own problems, such as using port 25 or port 587 instead of the other. EL has 3 different methods to communicate with tech support (besides the using the support webpages for which status is usually totally useless). You can call them, you can email them, or you can open a chat session with them. If you email them, your email is handled by some kind of artificial unintelligence bot which is very amusing to read if you were into artificial unintelligence AunI, but not if you tho't you were going to communicate with an actual tech person by email. If you call them, which I've never personally done, but I've heard of such things; you get into a menu based system which will consume about an hour of your time, but you never actually contact a tech. The preferred system to actually get to the lowest level of tech support the fastest is the chat session. That's where you get the tech with the cookbook to deconstruct your system to 'help' you. So, the way I do it is to do my own troubleshooting so that I know what is wrong with EL's system that I think they should fix. Then I type up the kind of 'document' or communique that I think would be worth something to the tech supervisor. No use in sending that to the artificial unintelligence email system. And I am definitely not interested in the chat tech deconstructing my system for me in his cookbook ignorance. Then I open a chat session and before the tech can start doing anything with me I tell him I don't want any help with my system and that I want to report a problem and I want him to give my communication to his supervisor. Then I upload my prepared communique, which in this case would tell them there is a conflict between the website information about port 587 and my own experience with port 25 and that I'm therefore using port 25 now and what my IP is and then I would sign off - Bye - with chat tech support. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From loyal at spamcop.user Thu Aug 20 03:08:11 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Thu Aug 20 03:10:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Followup: Re: FYI if you suddenly cannot send emails & have Verizon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Twayne wrote: > "Mike Easter" wrote in message > news:h6f9jp$v8k$1@news.spamcop.net >> Twayne wrote: >>> "Mike Easter" >>>> Why do you care whether you use port 25 or 587? >>> What did I say in my last post? >> This is where you could have explained why you care about which of >> those two ports you use, rather than collateral issues. > > lol, what more can I say? One worked, then quit working. The other one > works. Why was I told to go to one and then they killed it? They say > port 25 is about to be blocked: THEN what do I do? Will they turn 587 > back on? Why did they tell me to go there in the first place? Verizon may be load balancing or cycling servers on you. In other words, the IP address that resolves the name of the SMTP server may change throughout the day for load reasons or update/upgrade/maintenance reasons. Try doing an nslookup on www.google.com a couple times over several minutes. Note how the numbers change/rotate. And each of those IPs may actually be a cabinet or floor of hardware. Such things might be the reason why it worked then didn't work, and why your neighbor in the other state never had any problems, etc etc. Just a theory, though, on the odd things you've seen on the server side. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 22 13:24:41 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sat Aug 22 13:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] arghhhh, how do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them blocked? Message-ID: Any takers? How do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them blocked? Every week when I check logs from Norton, or after running adaware, there are atdmt cookies on my machine. They're in my cookie blocked list, and I don't use icq for years now, nor do I have any IM "foolbars" still they turn up. In addition my hostfile nullroutes most of those sites anyway (Spybot S&D "immunization"). From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 22 15:32:38 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 22 15:35:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies Message-ID: I saw a recent post and other posts over time, and on other sites, where people block ALL cookies? WHY? I use a couple services to clean cookies with personally identifiable data, or potential problem cookies. Tools used: - SUPERANTISPYWARE - McAfee Antispyware. I also have IE privacy settings, set to "Medium" which meands "Block third party cookies that do not have a compacy privacy policy" "Block third party cookines that save information that can be used to contact you without your explicit consent" "Restrict first-party cookies that save information that can be used to contact you without your implicit consent" I see the other cookies as GOOD, in that the sites recognize me, my site customization and preferences are saved etc. To me, running with cookies off, turns any Browser experience into a Alzheimer's Browser. Each visit is like you've never been there before, and everyone/everything is strange to you! From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Aug 22 16:04:55 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Aug 22 16:05:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: arghhhh, how do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them blocked? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: bar0 wrote: > Any takers? > > How do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them blocked? > > Every week when I check logs from Norton, or after running adaware, there > are atdmt cookies on my machine. They're in my cookie blocked list, and I > don't use icq for years now, nor do I have any IM "foolbars" still they turn > up. In addition my hostfile nullroutes most of those sites anyway (Spybot > S&D "immunization"). Which browser are you using for your web surfing? And how did you block atdmt and pointroll with the specific directive? Do any applications you have display ads or embed IE browser components (like Quicken, IM clients, etc)? I have Firefox set to block "atdmt.com" and "ads.pointroll.com", among other sites - I see no cookies from those sites on my computer. You may also want to set your browser to remove cookies when the browser is closed if you are paranoid. AndrewB From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Aug 22 16:15:41 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Aug 22 16:20:16 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > I saw a recent post and other posts over time, and on other sites, where > people block ALL cookies? > WHY? I think there are at least two classes of cookies: - cookies used as personalization and contain session details for authenticated sessions - third party advertising/tracking related I don't mind the first; the second is sort of annoying. But I'd *much* rather see ads for finance, tech/gadgets and bicycling, than teeth whitening and weight loss schemes. :) I think the tracking freaks a lot of people out. But it's similar to wearing a logo'd shirt, cap and shoes as I get into my brand name compact car to a brand name drug store to buy my favorite anti-dandruff shampoo, of which I use my co-branded major credit card and store membership card to get $.50 off. My goods are put into a plastic bag with the store logo, which I then carry home, passing a dozen people on the street as I enter my house. I've always wondered what upromise.com does with credit card purchase data. Probably some form of abstract marketing and trend analysis. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 22 20:41:10 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sat Aug 22 20:45:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:h6pjlb$nqa$1@news.spamcop.net... > Joe Gill wrote: >> I saw a recent post and other posts over time, and on other sites, where >> people block ALL cookies? >> WHY? > > I think there are at least two classes of cookies: > > - cookies used as personalization and contain session details for > authenticated sessions > - third party advertising/tracking related > > > I don't mind the first; the second is sort of annoying. But I'd *much* > rather see ads for finance, tech/gadgets and bicycling, than teeth > whitening and weight loss schemes. :) > > I think the tracking freaks a lot of people out. But it's similar to > wearing a logo'd shirt, cap and shoes as I get into my brand name compact > car to a brand name drug store to buy my favorite anti-dandruff shampoo, > of which I use my co-branded major credit card and store membership card > to get $.50 off. My goods are put into a plastic bag with the store logo, > which I then carry home, passing a dozen people on the street as I enter > my house. > > I've always wondered what upromise.com does with credit card purchase > data. Probably some form of abstract marketing and trend analysis. I feel any one wearing logo clothing, who is unpaid by the advertiser is a sucker. I never advertize for others unless I feel strongly they need support from me. Coca Cola and tommy unhelpful don't need, or deserve my help. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 22 20:43:46 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sat Aug 22 20:45:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: arghhhh, how do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them blocked? References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:h6pj14$nbs$1@news.spamcop.net... > bar0 wrote: >> Any takers? >> >> How do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them >> blocked? >> >> Every week when I check logs from Norton, or after running adaware, there >> are atdmt cookies on my machine. They're in my cookie blocked list, and I >> don't use icq for years now, nor do I have any IM "foolbars" still they >> turn up. In addition my hostfile nullroutes most of those sites anyway >> (Spybot S&D "immunization"). > > Which browser are you using for your web surfing? And how did you block > atdmt and pointroll with the specific directive? Do any applications you > have display ads or embed IE browser components (like Quicken, IM clients, > etc)? > > I have Firefox set to block "atdmt.com" and "ads.pointroll.com", among > other sites - I see no cookies from those sites on my computer. > > You may also want to set your browser to remove cookies when the browser > is closed if you are paranoid. IE8 No Embeds, and privacy controls are set to no 3d party and ask otherwise. Also one can build a list to block or allow always by '.tld'. From guy.chapman at spamcop.net Sun Aug 23 04:08:41 2009 From: guy.chapman at spamcop.net (Just zis Guy, you know?) Date: Sun Aug 23 04:10:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:56:06 +0000 (UTC), Charles wrote: >Amazon, as with google, >remembers everything. They use that information in directing their >marketing and suggestions to me. You might think this a good thing. I >don't. I do not believe them to be altruistic in their marketing. Why would you even expect marketing to be altruistic? I quite like real shops that know their customers, so I don't really see why Amazon doing the same would be evil. That said, I habitually do not accept cookies from places unless I am intending to be a regular user of the site. Guy -- http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/ "Nullius in Verba" - take no man's word for it. - attr. Horace, chosen by John Evelyn for the Royal Society From guy.chapman at spamcop.net Sun Aug 23 10:01:00 2009 From: guy.chapman at spamcop.net (Just zis Guy, you know?) Date: Sun Aug 23 10:05:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:25:39 +0000 (UTC), Charles wrote: >> I quite like real shops that know their customers, so I don't really >> see why Amazon doing the same would be evil. >But your real shop is the perfect example of what isn't right with >Amazon! In a real shop I develop a real relationship with a real person >that I come to trust knows what I like. Over time they know me enough >to know that even if I had been looking for a tie a few weeks ago that >was for a birthday and I'm not looking for another. They know that even >if I bought 5 Glen Miller records those were for my wife's aunt and they >will not suggest GM records or any other sort of big band when I come in >looking for music for myself. IME the Amazon system is pretty good at refining its understanding of what I buy, so one-offs do not seem to skew it too badly. All big firms do CRM to some extent, I would rather roll with it and give feedback when it is wrong than try to stop them doing it - but then, I only do that with firms where I intend to do repeat business. There are plenty of vendors out there who have found out what I say to people who try to forge a relationship against my will. Call screening and email filters form part of this. Guy -- http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/ "Nullius in Verba" - take no man's word for it. - attr. Horace, chosen by John Evelyn for the Royal Society From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Aug 23 11:00:31 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sun Aug 23 11:05:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: "Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message news:umi295pi6qmtgk2ufo6k5cphu9glmvmqsk@4ax.com... > On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:25:39 +0000 (UTC), Charles > wrote: > >>> I quite like real shops that know their customers, so I don't really >>> see why Amazon doing the same would be evil. > >>But your real shop is the perfect example of what isn't right with >>Amazon! In a real shop I develop a real relationship with a real person >>that I come to trust knows what I like. Over time they know me enough >>to know that even if I had been looking for a tie a few weeks ago that >>was for a birthday and I'm not looking for another. They know that even >>if I bought 5 Glen Miller records those were for my wife's aunt and they >>will not suggest GM records or any other sort of big band when I come in >>looking for music for myself. > > IME the Amazon system is pretty good at refining its understanding of > what I buy, so one-offs do not seem to skew it too badly. > > All big firms do CRM to some extent, I would rather roll with it and > give feedback when it is wrong than try to stop them doing it - but > then, I only do that with firms where I intend to do repeat business. > There are plenty of vendors out there who have found out what I say to > people who try to forge a relationship against my will. Call > screening and email filters form part of this. Amazon doesn't know its customers, just their cookies. Their automatic processes are clueless, Just look at the offers to sell you books an any search term you plug into google. This even for stuff for which no book could concievably have been written yet, like this mornings news. Then there is the small matter of privacy and ownership (Kindle books) A company that unsells me a book, invades my library and removes it from the shelf is hardly a company I'd trust with information about myself. Amazon is my bookseller of absolute last resort. Only after scouring local bookshop, used books stores, publishers and craigs list do I even consider looking there. From guy.chapman at spamcop.net Sun Aug 23 11:55:39 2009 From: guy.chapman at spamcop.net (Just zis Guy, you know?) Date: Sun Aug 23 12:00:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: <9cp295p5sbo9jsbond686ifot9et8e0q5l@4ax.com> On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:00:31 -0500, "bar0" wrote: >Amazon doesn't know its customers, just their cookies. Their automatic >processes are clueless, Just look at the offers to sell you books an any >search term you plug into google. This even for stuff for which no book >could concievably have been written yet, like this mornings news. That has little to do with the suggestions made to buyers. I have found them accurate on many occasions. >Amazon is my bookseller of absolute last resort. Only after scouring local >bookshop, used books stores, publishers and craigs list do I even consider >looking there. Sure, you don't like Amazon. And you're not alone. But not liking Amazon is not a good reason for people who do like Amazon not to use cookies; cookies are fine for sites where you *want* to establish patterns and such, less so for those where you are just visiting. What winds me up is not cookies but the sites where my paranoid web browser settings cause constant alerts that it's loading content from ad.doubleclick.net, Google analytics and the like. I block all that, some sites have up to five levels of failover for their web analytics. The worst site for this is probably Microsoft (no surprise there). Guy -- http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/ "Nullius in Verba" - take no man's word for it. - attr. Horace, chosen by John Evelyn for the Royal Society From mny98rv02 at sneakemail.com Mon Aug 24 02:14:32 2009 From: mny98rv02 at sneakemail.com (Mr K Mean) Date: Mon Aug 24 02:15:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > No way it was me! It was "Just zis Guy, you know?" > ! > > Anyway, interesting cycling link. I just used some arguments found > there on one of the local cycling boards. Gack, Australia has been conditioned into cycle helmet wearing, just like sheep. Once it is in, it will never go away. Time to get drivers wearing them too then, driving is dangerous. And being a pedestrian, way more dangerous, a helmet isn't even enough for that. Now they are starting to bring in public bike schemes (like Paris did) and the major issue is, hmm, helmet, how will that work. A shame, schemes like that are fragile enough (and just getting people to cycle in the first place) without all of that. From r.c.bates at btinternet.com Tue Aug 25 21:37:26 2009 From: r.c.bates at btinternet.com (Robert Bates) Date: Tue Aug 25 21:40:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] The TruthNBP Unregistered. Message-ID: CHILD ABUSE OF A FOUR YEAR OLD To begin with I am tired of holding this secret so those that are guilty will benefit from my silence. This is not an attempt at harrassment or slander of any person. The Australian police have already attempted to silence me, GO TO HELL !!! This is a factual account experienced by me of allegations made by my son James Bates against Mr Ronald Armstrong, father of Tanya Armstrong ( now Bates). Paul Armstrong, Simon Armstrong. He was to my knowledge married to Louise Armstrong. They were residents of the state of Victoria, Australia. More specifically the Mornington Penninsula, Rosebud. While a minor my son James Bates accused Ronald Armstrong of sexually assaulting him at the age of four. He was penetrated anally. As his legal guardian and the parent who had contact with the police to give consent for the investigation to go ahead, I have first hand knowledge of these allegations. James is now eighteen years old and can still remember what happened to him vividly. My ex wife Tanya Bates told me that she had been sexually abused by her father from the age of nine to nineteen. In full knowledge of what her father did to her she allowed my children James Bates, Samantha Bates, Nickolas Bates to spend time around this man. I have first hand knowledge of this as I am an eye witness to these events. As conveyed to me by the police child protection team in Lowestoft, after the investigation Mr Ronald Armstrong was sent to prison for the abuse of my ex wife but he denied the abuse of my son. I as the father of Samantha and Nickolas Bates have repeatedly been denied access to my children in Australia because my ex wife knows very well I will tell the children the truth. Late last year , 2009, I attempted to contact my children in Australia only to be told in the first phone call by my ex wife that my daughter Samantha had been abused by her ex partner Darren who was an alcoholic. I attempted to get the information out of my daughter via MSN messenger but she would not say as she had discussed things with her mother and for brodies sake, the son of the alcoholic, that they should keep things quiet. After finding this out I wrote some abusive emails to her and have been telling her friends about the abuse of my eldest son. Through interpol the Australian Police have attempted to have me charged with harrassment. I signed an unofficial warning in the Suffolk policemans notebook. The police in the UK know very well what is going on and I was treated very leniently. Hearing that your second eldest child has been abused as well would make any parent go insane. To be honest I hope that abuse victims throughout the world read this. Yes, my ex wife was abused by her father but it does not give her the moral right to abuse my children. Her father was abused as well and he is in prison. Why wasn't my ex wife charged with child neglect for knowingly allowing my children to be around a known peadophile ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/attachments/20090826/6ff7f466/attachment.htm From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Wed Aug 26 16:55:33 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Wed Aug 26 17:00:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: The TruthNBP Unregistered. References: Message-ID: From: "Charles" | You're in the wrong forum. The bin is down the hall. Spam propogated by Indy "X-Library: Indy 8.0.25". Indy is the preferred software by Usenet spammers. -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From guy.chapman at spamcop.net Wed Aug 26 17:48:54 2009 From: guy.chapman at spamcop.net (Just zis Guy, you know?) Date: Wed Aug 26 17:50:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: The TruthNBP Unregistered. References: Message-ID: On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:55:33 -0400, "David H. Lipman" wrote: >Spam propogated by Indy "X-Library: Indy 8.0.25". >Indy is the preferred software by Usenet spammers. But spamming the SpamCop groups is kind of ironic. I wonder if SpamCop could provide a way of reporting usenet spam? Guy -- http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/ "Nullius in Verba" - take no man's word for it. - attr. Horace, chosen by John Evelyn for the Royal Society From me at privacy.net Thu Aug 27 10:27:46 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Aug 27 10:30:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Who owns UNIX? Message-ID: http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/computing/it/riskfactor/who-owns-unix In an unexpected ruling, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the 2007 summary judgment decision by Judge Dale Kimball of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah that found that Novell owned the Unix and Unixware copyrights, according to a news report in ComputerWorld. An understandable to a non-lawyer explanation of the 2007 summary judgment can be found here. The 10th District ruling has the background details of how this all came about over the past six years, for those who are interested. The ComputerWorld article gives a nice but shorter summary. The result of the 10th District Court ruling is that there will now be a trial to determine whether the SCO Group or Novell owns Unix. In an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, SCO Group CEO Darl McBride was likely to renew its lawsuit for $1 billion against IBM and Novell, as well as seek licensing fees from companies that run Linux. For its part, Novell said: " Novell is carefully studying the decision of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. We are eased that the decision affirmed the district court’s monetary award of approximately $3M from SCO to Novell. On other issues such as ownership of the UNIX copyrights, on which SCO’s claims against Novell, IBM, and Linux users depend, the Court remanded the case for trial. Precisely what will happen next in the lawsuit remains to be seen, especially in light of the pending SCO bankruptcy and the recent court decision to appoint a Chapter 11 Trustee to take over the business affairs of the company." "Novell intends to vigorously defend the case and the interests of its Linux customers and the greater open source community. We remain confident in the ultimate outcome of the dispute." From asterix at no_where.net Thu Aug 27 13:33:36 2009 From: asterix at no_where.net (Asterix) Date: Thu Aug 27 13:35:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: The TruthNBP Unregistered. References: Message-ID: <1j54gys.1moasw01n3fmv3N%asterix@no_where.net> Just zis Guy, you know? wrote: > On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:55:33 -0400, "David H. Lipman" > wrote: > > >Spam propogated by Indy "X-Library: Indy 8.0.25". > >Indy is the preferred software by Usenet spammers. > > But spamming the SpamCop groups is kind of ironic. I wonder if > SpamCop could provide a way of reporting usenet spam? They used to, but removed it some time last year. -- I recommend Macs to my friends, and Windows machines to those whom I don't mind billing by the hour From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 27 14:19:15 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 27 14:20:06 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:h6q37a$44q$1@news.spamcop.net > "AndrewB" wrote in message > news:h6pjlb$nqa$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Joe Gill wrote: >>> I saw a recent post and other posts over time, and on other sites, >>> where people block ALL cookies? >>> WHY? >> >> I think there are at least two classes of cookies: >> >> - cookies used as personalization and contain session details for >> authenticated sessions >> - third party advertising/tracking related >> >> >> I don't mind the first; the second is sort of annoying. But I'd >> *much* rather see ads for finance, tech/gadgets and bicycling, than >> teeth whitening and weight loss schemes. :) >> >> I think the tracking freaks a lot of people out. But it's similar to >> wearing a logo'd shirt, cap and shoes as I get into my brand name >> compact car to a brand name drug store to buy my favorite >> anti-dandruff shampoo, of which I use my co-branded major credit >> card and store membership card to get $.50 off. My goods are put >> into a plastic bag with the store logo, which I then carry home, >> passing a dozen people on the street as I enter my house. >> >> I've always wondered what upromise.com does with credit card purchase >> data. Probably some form of abstract marketing and trend analysis. > > I feel any one wearing logo clothing, who is unpaid by the advertiser > is a sucker. I never advertize for others unless I feel strongly they > need support from me. Coca Cola and tommy unhelpful don't need, or > deserve my help. Then you don't drive a car? Wear shoes? Carry items home from the store in their bags? Be seen going in/out of a store? Pick up items in a store and look at them in plain site of others? Drink softdrink from bottles or cans? Have anything in your fridge in their original packaging? Use an "Intel Inside" or whatever computer or peripheral? Let anyone see your newspaper? Wath TV with anyone else around? And so on? From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 27 14:20:57 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 27 14:25:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h6ph5c$lel$1@news.spamcop.net > I saw a recent post and other posts over time, and on other sites, > where people block ALL cookies? > WHY? It's called paranoia. Pure and simple. > From nobody at devnull.spamcop.net Thu Aug 27 14:23:43 2009 From: nobody at devnull.spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Aug 27 14:25:04 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: arghhhh, how do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them blocked? References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:h6pj14$nbs$1@news.spamcop.net > bar0 wrote: >> Any takers? >> >> How do atdmt and pointroll slip cookies in when my browser has them >> blocked? Every week when I check logs from Norton, or after running >> adaware, >> there are atdmt cookies on my machine. They're in my cookie blocked >> list, and I don't use icq for years now, nor do I have any IM >> "foolbars" still they turn up. In addition my hostfile nullroutes >> most of those sites anyway (Spybot S&D "immunization"). > > Which browser are you using for your web surfing? And how did you > block atdmt and pointroll with the specific directive? Do any > applications you have display ads or embed IE browser components > (like Quicken, IM clients, etc)? > > I have Firefox set to block "atdmt.com" and "ads.pointroll.com", among > other sites - I see no cookies from those sites on my computer. > > You may also want to set your browser to remove cookies when the > browser is closed if you are paranoid. > > > AndrewB I don't get the cookies, but ... I do see them now and then in between locations in the Back Bar of my IE7. I have this particular one in my HOSTS file, IE's denial file, yet they keep monitoring me. I've gotten rid of its pals, but not them. Guess you can't beat 'em all. From nobody at nowhere.not Thu Aug 27 22:53:00 2009 From: nobody at nowhere.not (Robert Blair) Date: Thu Aug 27 22:55:03 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: On Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:19:15 UTC, "Twayne" wrote: > Then you don't drive a car? That I do. But there are no dealer advertisements on it. > Wear shoes? No visible names or symbols on my shoes. > Carry items home from the store in their bags? I carry my own reusable bags. > Be seen going in/out of a store? No way around that. > Pick up items in a > store and look at them in plain site of others? I don't browse much. When I go into in a store I know what I want. > Drink softdrink from bottles or cans? I do not drink softdrinks, a beer (draft so no bottles or cans) now and then but not the national brands. > Have anything in your fridge in their original packaging? Outsiders do not usually go through my fridge. > Use an "Intel Inside" or whatever computer or peripheral? All removable labels removed. > Let anyone see your newspaper? No newspaper I know of is worth reading. > Wath TV with anyone else around? I don't invite the public in to watch TV. > And so on? And so on. -- Robert Blair From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 28 08:04:37 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Fri Aug 28 08:05:02 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: What is the paranoia over ALL Cookies References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9C754C57FE146TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > It wasn't me! It was "Robert Blair" ! > >> And so on. > > And right there with you on most things. Me too, Basically there's a difference between wearing a T-Shirt that likely costs more and is of no better quality then most others with Tommy Hilfiger in 3 inch letters, and, driving a car that says Ford or whatever on it somewhere. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 28 21:40:49 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Fri Aug 28 21:45:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] It's NOT alive no more.... Message-ID: And now it's not.....at least WinMail isn't. I don't know how it happened, but 3 days ago 8 new Winbloze updates snuck onto my machine AGAIN, wrecked a bunch of stuff, I had to restore to a point 2 days earlier in the end to get most apps to function. That's when I discovered that I had used my new freeware backup software (Replicator) incorrectly. A checkbox for include/exlude certain file type was set incorrectly, so most of what it backed up to my HP Pocket Drive wasn't anything useful, most importantly my email folder(s) were missing, on the backup drive AND my C drive. I've since downloaded and installed a highly recommended backup software app called "GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition", and best of all it's free. It has the easiest GUI I've ever seen in any backup program, I like it so much that I unistalled two other pieces of backup shareware/freeware that I'd been trying out. The weird thing with WinMail is that I an see the subject headings, date received, and sender, for each email I've gotten, and the customized folder directory tree is also intact (except for the SC NG's). But when I click on any "old" email I get a "contents not found" error message. I'm currently looking around for how to fix this problem, might be able to recover the data from a file called "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore", but it's only 20 MB in size, while a old partial email backup I found on my external HD I: partition was over 312 MB inn size. I'm betting that that "messagestore" file only contains the headers, the ones I'm seeing. So where did my message store on C: disappear to? And oh crap......trying to "play it safe" and not use any freeware disk tweakers/cleaners like other have advised here, I was cleaning up some duplicate files between I: and J:, then I used Vista's Disk Cleaner a few hours ago to remove any remaining junk files from my J: drive partition on my external HD (the 120 GB one, two partitions) so I could have two largish backup destinations -- the pocket drive and the IoGear drive J: partition. I store backups of different items from my C drive amongst I: and J:. To my horror, after running DiskCleanup (and I had checked off the boxes for "delete Error Reports and "queued Error Reports") I discovered that the entire contents of the I: partition were GONE, LIKE THEY WERE NEVER THERE! Even the Recycle Bin was empty, no trace of any of the files I had deleted earlier in the day. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit....what was backed up on that drive......Quicken Backup files....oh no, all of the software downloads I've saved for years were on that drive! And no copies of the installation files were kept on C: Drive after the apps were installed --might be big trouble for some Winbloze .MSI and .MSU files if I want to uninstall them.....I immediately downloaded and installed two shareware/trial versions of deleted file recovery apps, but I have no idea how the files were "deleted", meaning by what method. They're both running right now, one called "Recover My Files Now" has come up dry after the first hour, and the second one, PC Tools File Recover, looks pretty promising, but I'll have to pay $$ to get those files back, and there's no guarantee what shape they'll be in after recovering them. GODDAMN BILL GATES! I PUT A POX ON ANY AND ALL VISTA PROGRAMMERS! While googling the terrible "DiskCleaner" app, I discovered numerous horrow stories even worse than mine -- tons of people have had the misfortune to run it on their primary boot drive, which pretty much destroyed the OS. I've run it multiple times on C: in the past from Control Panel/Disk Management without a problem -- been lucky, I guess -- I found four reg entries that have to be set properly to prevent this problem from occuring: 1: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting Archive Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive 2: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting Queue Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue 3: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting System Archive Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue 4: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting System Queue Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue Items #3 and #4 were set correctly, Items #1 and #2 were not, meaning the "Folder" entry was missing. As far as recovering my lost email, my gap is relatively small, but important. My last manual backup was on 8/10-09, so I'll have a gap from 8/11/09 to 8/27/09. Unfortunately a lot of old work related email was flying back and forth in that period while we were trying to fix an instrument I helped repair on HST back in 2002 -- I only opened and saved 2-3 of the multiple .PPT files that came out with amazing frequency during the last few weeks showing various important data for diagnosing the problem. It will take some work to repair my message store -- in fact I had completely finished the job from the backup file on J: before I ran Disk Cleanup, which of course wiped it out. Luckily I have the same data stored on I: from a different backup app, just have to grind thru the repair effort again. Man, Vista autoupdates oughta be banned outright! And if Mike E. or Charles reads this, I swear to ghod that I did NOTHING but what is described above -- no disk/reg cleaners were run in this time period. For a peek at the various woes Vista Dick Cleanup has caused, see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaapps/thread/9841f359-db81-4b5b-8ffc-080d416fb365 for just the tip of the iceberg. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 28 21:44:26 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Fri Aug 28 21:45:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] It's NOT alive no more..... Message-ID: And now it's not.....at least WinMail isn't. I don't know how it happened, but 3 days ago 8 new Winbloze updates snuck onto my machine AGAIN, wrecked a bunch of stuff, I had to restore to a point 2 days earlier in the end to get most apps to function. That's when I discovered that I had used my new freeware backup software (Replicator) incorrectly. A checkbox for include/exlude certain file type was set incorrectly, so most of what it backed up to my HP Pocket Drive wasn't anything useful, most importantly my email folder(s) were missing, on the backup drive AND my C drive. I've since downloaded and installed a highly recommended backup software app called "GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition", and best of all it's free. It has the easiest GUI I've ever seen in any backup program, I like it so much that I unistalled two other pieces of backup shareware/freeware that I'd been trying out. The weird thing with WinMail is that I an see the subject headings, date received, and sender, for each email I've gotten, and the customized folder directory tree is also intact (except for the SC NG's). But when I click on any "old" email I get a "contents not found" error message. I'm currently looking around for how to fix this problem, might be able to recover the data from a file called "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore", but it's only 20 MB in size, while a old partial email backup I found on my external HD I: partition was over 312 MB inn size. I'm betting that that "messagestore" file only contains the headers, the ones I'm seeing. So where did my message store on C: disappear to? And oh crap......trying to "play it safe" and not use any freeware disk tweakers/cleaners like other have advised here, I was cleaning up some duplicate files between I: and J:, then I used Vista's Disk Cleaner a few hours ago to remove any remaining junk files from my J: drive partition on my external HD (the 120 GB one, two partitions) so I could have two largish backup destinations -- the pocket drive and the IoGear drive J: partition. I store backups of different items from my C drive amongst I: and J:. To my horror, after running DiskCleanup (and I had checked off the boxes for "delete Error Reports and "queued Error Reports") I discovered that the entire contents of the I: partition were GONE, LIKE THEY WERE NEVER THERE! Even the Recycle Bin was empty, no trace of any of the files I had deleted earlier in the day. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit....what was backed up on that drive......Quicken Backup files....oh no, all of the software downloads I've saved for years were on that drive! And no copies of the installation files were kept on C: Drive after the apps were installed --might be big trouble for some Winbloze .MSI and .MSU files if I want to uninstall them.....I immediately downloaded and installed two shareware/trial versions of deleted file recovery apps, but I have no idea how the files were "deleted", meaning by what method. They're both running right now, one called "Recover My Files Now" has come up dry after the first hour, and the second one, PC Tools File Recover, looks pretty promising, but I'll have to pay $$ to get those files back, and there's no guarantee what shape they'll be in after recovering them. GODDAMN BILL GATES! I PUT A POX ON ANY AND ALL VISTA PROGRAMMERS! While googling the terrible "DiskCleaner" app, I discovered numerous horrow stories even worse than mine -- tons of people have had the misfortune to run it on their primary boot drive, which pretty much destroyed the OS. I've run it multiple times on C: in the past from Control Panel/Disk Management without a problem -- been lucky, I guess -- I found four reg entries that have to be set properly to prevent this problem from occuring: 1: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting Archive Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive 2: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting Queue Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue 3: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting System Archive Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue 4: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting System Queue Files\ Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue Items #3 and #4 were set correctly, Items #1 and #2 were not, meaning the "Folder" entry was missing. As far as recovering my lost email, my gap is relatively small, but important. My last manual backup was on 8/10-09, so I'll have a gap from 8/11/09 to 8/27/09. Unfortunately a lot of old work related email was flying back and forth in that period while we were trying to fix an instrument I helped repair on HST back in 2002 -- I only opened and saved 2-3 of the multiple .PPT files that came out with amazing frequency during the last few weeks showing various important data for diagnosing the problem. It will take some work to repair my message store -- in fact I had completely finished the job from the backup file on J: before I ran Disk Cleanup, which of course wiped it out. Luckily I have the same data stored on I: from a different backup app, just have to grind thru the repair effort again. Man, Vista autoupdates oughta be banned outright! And if Mike E. or Charles reads this, I swear to ghod that I did NOTHING but what is described above -- no disk/reg cleaners were run in this time period. For a peek at the various woes Vista Dick Cleanup has caused, see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaapps/thread/9841f359-db81-4b5b-8ffc-080d416fb365 for just the tip of the iceberg. From user at domain.invalid Fri Aug 28 22:47:20 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Fri Aug 28 22:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: > GODDAMN BILL GATES! I PUT A POX ON ANY AND ALL VISTA PROGRAMMERS! Oh yeah, know the feeling (sort of). Whenever I use Office 2007. My favorite curse: "May galloping knobrot consume their members, preserving posterity from their progeny". It's more a muttering one than a shouting one but vehemence and venom outweigh volume. You like it, it's yours. Your need is greater. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Aug 28 23:10:12 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Fri Aug 28 23:15:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Farelf" wrote in message news:h7a4rj$a4m$1@news.spamcop.net... > indigo wrote: > >> GODDAMN BILL GATES! I PUT A POX ON ANY AND ALL VISTA PROGRAMMERS! > > Oh yeah, know the feeling (sort of). Whenever I use Office 2007. My > favorite curse: "May galloping knobrot consume their members, preserving > posterity from their progeny". It's more a muttering one than a shouting > one but vehemence and venom outweigh volume. You like it, it's yours. > Your need is greater. Had a family get together last weekend, everyone that had been forced to upgrade to Office 2007 at work was cursing it right and left as a seriously downgraded version of 2003......more evidence of MickeyShit taking away the "power user's" ability to configure his PC and apps the way they want them to look and work. From user at domain.invalid Fri Aug 28 23:48:15 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Fri Aug 28 23:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: > > Had a family get together last weekend, everyone that had been forced to > upgrade to Office 2007 at work was cursing it right and left as a > seriously downgraded version of 2003......more evidence of MickeyShit > taking away the "power user's" ability to configure his PC and apps the > way they want them to look and work. Yes, the "Development" options have to be enabled and some other mysterious rites enacted to access the VB functionality, which I haven't quite come to grips with yet but no impediment will prevent me getting there in my own time (the 'final step(s)' is/are well hidden, disassociated from related menus/controls and totally 'non-intuitive' as are all useful functions in Office now) - that's bad enough/horrendous, but the handling of 'legacy' documents is an utter nightmare. No doubt there are solutions and workarounds but they also sell this as a 'student and home office' version with a straight face and without the dire warnings that should be mandated. Bad enough commercial use (huge training overhead) but the innocent householder or student? Maybe OK for simple documents but when you have sections, pagination, cross references ... macros, did I mention macros? Oh yes, there's 'passion' out there. Hatred, loathing and disgust and it ramps up from there. Yes, I have better curses than the previous but Mrs Farelf runs from the house when I use them and takes some coaxing back (which is inconvenient and I think she contracted pneumonia last time - it's winter here). From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Aug 29 00:19:01 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Aug 29 00:20:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: indigo wrote: > > And now it's not.....at least WinMail isn't. I don't know how it > happened, but 3 days ago 8 new Winbloze updates snuck onto my machine > AGAIN, wrecked a bunch of stuff, I had to restore to a point 2 days > earlier in the end to get most apps to function. That's when I > discovered that I had used my new freeware backup software (Replicator) > incorrectly. A checkbox for include/exlude certain file type was set > incorrectly, so most of what it backed up to my HP Pocket Drive wasn't > anything useful, most importantly my email folder(s) were missing, on > the backup drive AND my C drive. I've since downloaded and installed a > highly recommended backup software app called "GFI Backup 2009 Home > Edition", and best of all it's free. It has the easiest GUI I've ever > seen in any backup program, I like it so much that I unistalled two > other pieces of backup shareware/freeware that I'd been trying out. I haven't made the leap to Vista yet on my pc's. I'll skip it for the Windows 7 release. XP and Win 2000 have options for auto-updates. I recommend that people un-configure the automatic install, and either get the notification (which when accepted, begins the download), or the download option, such that they can be installed when you want to. The value here is that you are in control of your computer, and you know when updates get installed. I usually wait a few days to see if any updates had any nasty side effects with others on the internet. If Vista has options for how automatic updates are downloaded, I'd suggest checking out the options and choosing the best for you. As for your GFI Backup, I've never heard of it. It may be great software, but the company is in Malta, and their office in Cary, NC looks really small from the map engines and satellite photos. I couldn't find any info on the company or their products on CNet, Computerworld, or PCMag. I hope you don't have something bundled with it that you regret. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 29 00:28:03 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 29 00:30:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:h7aa7j$ec7$1@news.spamcop.net... If > Vista has options for how automatic updates are downloaded, I'd suggest > checking out the options and choosing the best for you. I *did* have autoupdates set to "alert but let me pick what to download", I guess it got changed in the system restore process. > > As for your GFI Backup, I've never heard of it. It may be great software, > but the company is in Malta, and their office in Cary, NC looks really > small from the map engines and satellite photos. I couldn't find any info > on the company or their products on CNet, Computerworld, or PCMag. I hope > you don't have something bundled with it that you regret. > I can try to track down where I heard about GFI Backup, but I swear it was from PCWorld or something mainstream like that. From speedy.post at live.co.uk Sat Aug 29 06:33:46 2009 From: speedy.post at live.co.uk (Robert Bates) Date: Sat Aug 29 06:35:10 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] TANYA LOUISE BATES IS A CHILD ABUSERNBP Unregistered. Message-ID: CHILD ABUSE OF A FOUR YEAR OLD To begin with I am tired of holding this secret so those that are guilty will benefit from my silence. This is not an attempt at harrassment or slander of any person. The Australian police have already attempted to silence me, GO TO HELL !!! This is a factual account experienced by me of allegations made by my son James Bates against Mr Ronald Armstrong, father of Tanya Armstrong ( now Bates). Paul Armstrong, Simon Armstrong. He was to my knowledge married to Louise Armstrong. They were residents of the state of Victoria, Australia. More specifically the Mornington Penninsula, Rosebud. While a minor my son James Bates accused Ronald Armstrong of sexually assaulting him at the age of four. He was penetrated anally. As his legal guardian and the parent who had contact with the police to give consent for the investigation to go ahead, I have first hand knowledge of these allegations. James is now eighteen years old and can still remember what happened to him vividly. My ex wife Tanya Bates told me that she had been sexually abused by her father from the age of nine to nineteen. In full knowledge of what her father did to her she allowed my children James Bates, Samantha Bates, Nickolas Bates to spend time around this man. I have first hand knowledge of this as I am an eye witness to these events. As conveyed to me by the police child protection team in Lowestoft, after the investigation Mr Ronald Armstrong was sent to prison for the abuse of my ex wife but he denied the abuse of my son. I as the father of Samantha and Nickolas Bates have repeatedly been denied access to my children in Australia because my ex wife knows very well I will tell the children the truth. Late last year , 2009, I attempted to contact my children in Australia only to be told in the first phone call by my ex wife that my daughter Samantha had been abused by her ex partner Darren who was an alcoholic. I attempted to get the information out of my daughter via MSN messenger but she would not say as she had discussed things with her mother and for brodies sake, the son of the alcoholic, that they should keep things quiet. After finding this out I wrote some abusive emails to her and have been telling her friends about the abuse of my eldest son. Through interpol the Australian Police have attempted to have me charged with harrassment. I signed an unofficial warning in the Suffolk policemans notebook. The police in the UK know very well what is going on and I was treated very leniently. Hearing that your second eldest child has been abused as well would make any parent go insane. To be honest I hope that abuse victims throughout the world read this. Yes, my ex wife was abused by her father but it does not give her the moral right to abuse my children. Her father was abused as well and he is in prison. Why wasn't my ex wife charged with child neglect for knowingly allowing my children to be around a known peadophile ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/attachments/20090829/6eb44332/attachment.htm From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 29 09:23:08 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sat Aug 29 09:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: TANYA LOUISE BATES IS A CHILD ABUSERNBP Unregistered. References: Message-ID: We don't care. "Master Bates" wrote in message news:TYKdncUA1v-= bmQTXnZ2dnUVZ8u6dnZ2d@bt.com... rant -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://zeta.cesmail.net/pipermail/scgeeks/attachments/20090829/7b63717= c/attachment.htm From blacklist-me at davjam.org Sat Aug 29 11:15:51 2009 From: blacklist-me at davjam.org (David Bolt) Date: Sat Aug 29 11:30:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: TANYA LOUISE BATES IS A CHILD ABUSERNBP Unregistered. References: Message-ID: <1390284.nPR58v67Zj@dev.null.davjam.org> On Saturday 29 Aug 2009 14:23, bar0 played with alphabet spaghetti and left this residue on the plate: > We don't care. And neither does he. He's spouted a variation of this before to several different groups with various interests and languages[0], and also various unrelated web forums like sewgirls.com, bikerstation.com and wirelessforums.com. A post in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet[1] gives a sample of 22 message-IDs, so it seems this abuser has either not been reported to bt.com or giganews.com, or he has and they've ignored the complaints. [0] my own quick search of Google returns posts to some aus.* groups, as well as some pl.* and it.* groups [1] a followup suggests that the poster is using a piece of spamware to spew his crap. Regards, David Bolt -- Team Acorn: www.distributed.net OGR-NG @ ~100Mnodes RC5-72 @ ~1Mkeys/s openSUSE 10.3 32b | openSUSE 11.0 32b | | openSUSE 10.3 64b | openSUSE 11.0 64b | openSUSE 11.1 64b | openSUSE 11.2m6 RISC OS 3.6 | RISC OS 3.11 | openSUSE 11.1 PPC | TOS 4.02 From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 29 13:19:48 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 29 13:25:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h7a66k$b64$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Farelf" wrote in message > news:h7a4rj$a4m$1@news.spamcop.net... >> indigo wrote: >> >>> GODDAMN BILL GATES! I PUT A POX ON ANY AND ALL VISTA PROGRAMMERS! >> >> Oh yeah, know the feeling (sort of). Whenever I use Office 2007. My >> favorite curse: "May galloping knobrot consume their members, preserving >> posterity from their progeny". It's more a muttering one than a shouting >> one but vehemence and venom outweigh volume. You like it, it's yours. >> Your need is greater. > > Had a family get together last weekend, everyone that had been forced to > upgrade to Office 2007 at work was cursing it right and left as a > seriously downgraded version of 2003......more evidence of MickeyShit > taking away the "power user's" ability to configure his PC and apps the > way they want them to look and work. Office 2007 has a learning curve! I cursed that stupid ribbon, until I learned to use it! Now I see it is more powerful and intuitive than the prior pull down menus. It is a royal PIA when you convert, but it has more bells/whistles/functions etc!! My suggestion when you install it is to skip the 'typical' install and do a FULL install. Then bring the product up to date. I was hesitant at putting the latest service pack on. But I did, and am experiencing no difficulties ...well one. I have an 'add-on' for Outlook 2007 for another product, which appears to randomly crash Outlook... Add-on gone.. .problem gone. From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 29 13:30:33 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 29 13:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h7a15p$753$1@news.spamcop.net... > > And now it's not.....at least WinMail isn't. I don't know how it happened, > but 3 days ago 8 new Winbloze updates snuck onto my machine AGAIN, wrecked > a bunch of stuff, I had to restore to a point 2 days earlier in the end to > get most apps to function. I do not believe the problem is the updates themselves, but I beleive it is the state of your PC. Please try a NEW (bare/clean metal) install of the O/S and all products and then bring the products up to date. That's when I discovered that I had used my new > freeware backup software (Replicator) incorrectly. A checkbox for > include/exlude certain file type was set incorrectly, so most of what it > backed up to my HP Pocket Drive wasn't anything useful, most importantly > my email folder(s) were missing, on the backup drive AND my C drive. I've > since downloaded and installed a highly recommended backup software app > called "GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition", and best of all it's free. It has > the easiest GUI I've ever seen in any backup program, I like it so much > that I unistalled two other pieces of backup shareware/freeware that I'd > been trying out. This is another thing I would like to point out... I would not mix backup solutions, just like I would not mix AntiVirus solutions.. > > The weird thing with WinMail is that I an see the subject headings, date > received, and sender, for each email I've gotten, and the customized > folder directory tree is also intact (except for the SC NG's). But when I > click on any "old" email I get a "contents not found" error message. I'm > currently looking around for how to fix this problem, might be able to > recover the data from a file called "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore", You might want to try this utility to repair the mail database. I would suggest running CHKDSK before running this http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx but it's only 20 MB in > size, while a old partial email backup I found on my external HD I: > partition was over 312 MB inn size. I'm betting that that "messagestore" > file only contains the headers, the ones I'm seeing. So where did my > message store on C: disappear to? > > And oh crap......trying to "play it safe" and not use any freeware disk > tweakers/cleaners like other have advised here, I was cleaning up some > duplicate files between I: and J:, then I used Vista's Disk Cleaner a few > hours ago to remove any remaining junk files from my J: drive partition on > my external HD (the 120 GB one, two partitions) so I could have two > largish backup destinations -- the pocket drive and the IoGear drive J: > partition. I store backups of different items from my C drive amongst I: > and J:. To my horror, after running DiskCleanup (and I had checked off the > boxes for "delete Error Reports and "queued Error Reports") I discovered > that the entire contents of the I: partition were GONE, LIKE THEY WERE > NEVER THERE! Even the Recycle Bin was empty, no trace of any of the files > I had deleted earlier in the day. > > Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit....what was backed up on that drive......Quicken > Backup files....oh no, all of the software downloads I've saved for years > were on that drive! And no copies of the installation files were kept on > C: Drive after the apps were installed --might be big trouble for some > Winbloze .MSI and .MSU files if I want to uninstall them.....I immediately > downloaded and installed two shareware/trial versions of deleted file > recovery apps, but I have no idea how the files were "deleted", meaning by > what method. They're both running right now, one called "Recover My Files > Now" has come up dry after the first hour, and the second one, PC Tools > File Recover, looks pretty promising, but I'll have to pay $$ to get those > files back, and there's no guarantee what shape they'll be in after > recovering them. > > GODDAMN BILL GATES! I PUT A POX ON ANY AND ALL VISTA PROGRAMMERS! While > googling the terrible "DiskCleaner" app, I discovered numerous horrow > stories even worse than mine -- tons of people have had the misfortune to > run it on their primary boot drive, which pretty much destroyed the OS. > I've run it multiple times on C: in the past from Control Panel/Disk > Management without a problem -- been lucky, I guess -- I found four reg > entries that have to be set properly to prevent this problem from > occuring: > > 1: > HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows > Error Reporting Archive Files\ > Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = > %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive > > 2: > HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows > Error Reporting Queue Files\ > Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = > %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue > > 3: > HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows > Error Reporting System Archive Files\ > Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = > %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue > > 4: > HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows > Error Reporting System Queue Files\ > Expandable-String Value = Folder, Data = > %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue > > Items #3 and #4 were set correctly, Items #1 and #2 were not, meaning the > "Folder" entry was missing. > > As far as recovering my lost email, my gap is relatively small, but > important. My last manual backup was on 8/10-09, so I'll have a gap from > 8/11/09 to 8/27/09. Unfortunately a lot of old work related email was > flying back and forth in that period while we were trying to fix an > instrument I helped repair on HST back in 2002 -- I only opened and saved > 2-3 of the multiple .PPT files that came out with amazing frequency during > the last few weeks showing various important data for diagnosing the > problem. It will take some work to repair my message store -- in fact I > had completely finished the job from the backup file on J: before I ran > Disk Cleanup, which of course wiped it out. Luckily I have the same data > stored on I: from a different backup app, just have to grind thru the > repair effort again. > > Man, Vista autoupdates oughta be banned outright! And if Mike E. or > Charles reads this, I swear to ghod that I did NOTHING but what is > described above -- no disk/reg cleaners were run in this time period. > > For a peek at the various woes Vista Dick Cleanup has caused, see > http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaapps/thread/9841f359-db81-4b5b-8ffc-080d416fb365 > for just the tip of the iceberg. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 29 14:43:56 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 29 14:45:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h7bo0j$i41$1@news.spamcop.net... > My suggestion when you install it is to skip the 'typical' install and do > a FULL install. > Then bring the product up to date. Well, until I return to work I don't have to worry about it ;-) And I know my old company is still using 2003, probably won't go to 2007 until/when the fed government does. > > I was hesitant at putting the latest service pack on. But I did, and am > experiencing no difficulties > ...well one. I have an 'add-on' for Outlook 2007 for another product, > which appears to randomly crash Outlook... Add-on gone.. .problem gone. After all the crap I've been thru with this machine in the last 4 months, I _still_ haven't installed Vista SP1 -- during all my searches for fixes for my problems I constantly ran across MB post saying how SP1 had screwed up their PC. I guess since I've done a complete wipe and restore well past when SP1 was released (and Win update isn't asking me to install it) that I've individually downloaded the contents of SP1, or the updated patches that replaced the problematic ones in SP1. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 29 15:40:39 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 29 15:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h7boko$ifn$1@news.spamcop.net... > > I do not believe the problem is the updates themselves, but I beleive it > is the state of your PC. > Please try a NEW (bare/clean metal) install of the O/S and all products > and then bring the products up to date. > I'm not sure that it's NOT the updates -- the two times they've "snuck" onto my PC were both at 3:00 am. Almost every update I've ever seen says "please close all open apps before installing", especially essential for Win apps like WinCal and WinMail, IE, Office, and maybe Firefox. Since these updates were intalled without my knowledge/approval, I obviously wasn't around to make sure my PC was ready to receive them. Plus certain open runtime apps like AVG8, Spybot Resident and TeaTimer, IDrive, and whatever else is loaded during startup but is unseen without a process explorer can cause problems with updates, TeaTimer and AVG have been known to disrupt the update process. In any case, I've run sfc /scannow, chkdsk, and a couple other system scanners and everything comes up roses now (well, until the accidental file deletion debacle yesterday). > > This is another thing I would like to point out... I would not mix backup > solutions, just like I would not mix AntiVirus solutions.. > Now there we have an honest disagreement. Some backup apps can't copy some really, really crucial files, like your user profile (you get a "file is in use, cannot copy" error, and some can. I'm considering making an ISO image of my entire C drive, but I'm not familiar enough with ISO files to know how I would use it to recover a couple missing/corrupted files instead of restoring the entire image, if that's even possible with an ISO file (I get the feeling it's not). > > You might want to try this utility to repair the mail database. > I would suggest running CHKDSK before running this > http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx > Thnks. I'll take a look. Good thing I read this when I did, I'm just about ready to "reload" all of the recovered email files I found in two different backup files. I'll read that beforehand so I do it right. BTW, last night I ran I trial version of a file recovery app and was able to restore the entire contents of my I: drive backup partition that had been wiped out by Vista's fscking Disk Cleaner app. Whoop! From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 29 18:35:18 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 29 18:40:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h7bstc$l4b$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:h7bo0j$i41$1@news.spamcop.net... >> My suggestion when you install it is to skip the 'typical' install and do >> a FULL install. >> Then bring the product up to date. > > Well, until I return to work I don't have to worry about it ;-) And I know > my old company is still using 2003, probably won't go to 2007 until/when > the fed government does. > >> >> I was hesitant at putting the latest service pack on. But I did, and am >> experiencing no difficulties >> ...well one. I have an 'add-on' for Outlook 2007 for another product, >> which appears to randomly crash Outlook... Add-on gone.. .problem gone. > > After all the crap I've been thru with this machine in the last 4 months, > I _still_ haven't installed Vista SP1 -- during all my searches for fixes > for my problems I constantly ran across MB post saying how SP1 had screwed > up their PC. I guess since I've done a complete wipe and restore well past > when SP1 was released (and Win update isn't asking me to install it) that > I've individually downloaded the contents of SP1, or the updated patches > that replaced the problematic ones in SP1. I have 3 PC's that I manage: 1 running Vista Home 1 running Vista Home SP1 1 running Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 I have noticed no differences in problems between the 3 versions! Windows will now NOT ask you to install SP1, until IE8 has been installed! Then after IE8 is installed, it will bug you about SP1, then SP2! From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Aug 29 18:41:02 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Sat Aug 29 18:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h7cak7$v40$1@news.spamcop.net... > Windows will now NOT ask you to install SP1, until IE8 has been installed! > Then after IE8 is installed, it will bug you about SP1, then SP2! Really? I installed OE8 months ago, no nagging about SP1 or SP2 here...... From joegill at removethis Sat Aug 29 18:41:30 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Aug 29 18:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h7c07n$n9s$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:h7boko$ifn$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> I do not believe the problem is the updates themselves, but I beleive it >> is the state of your PC. >> Please try a NEW (bare/clean metal) install of the O/S and all products >> and then bring the products up to date. >> > > I'm not sure that it's NOT the updates -- the two times they've "snuck" > onto my PC were both at 3:00 am. Almost every update I've ever seen says > "please close all open apps before installing", especially essential for > Win apps like WinCal and WinMail, IE, Office, and maybe Firefox. Since > these updates were intalled without my knowledge/approval, I obviously > wasn't around to make sure my PC was ready to receive them. Plus certain > open runtime apps like AVG8, Spybot Resident and TeaTimer, IDrive, and > whatever else is loaded during startup but is unseen without a process > explorer can cause problems with updates, TeaTimer and AVG have been known > to disrupt the update process. > What Windows does in the case, it cannot get the conflicting apps down, it schedules a reboot about 20 minutes after it is done. > In any case, I've run sfc /scannow, chkdsk, and a couple other system > scanners and everything comes up roses now (well, until the accidental > file deletion debacle yesterday). > >> >> This is another thing I would like to point out... I would not mix backup >> solutions, just like I would not mix AntiVirus solutions.. >> > > Now there we have an honest disagreement. Some backup apps can't copy some > really, really crucial files, like your user profile (you get a "file is > in use, cannot copy" error, and some can. I'm considering making an ISO > image of my entire C drive, but I'm not familiar enough with ISO files to > know how I would use it to recover a couple missing/corrupted files > instead of restoring the entire image, if that's even possible with an ISO > file (I get the feeling it's not). > The product I use, ACRONIS Tue Image, snaps an entire image. You can restore image or individual files! > >> >> You might want to try this utility to repair the mail database. >> I would suggest running CHKDSK before running this >> http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx >> > > Thnks. I'll take a look. Good thing I read this when I did, I'm just about > ready to "reload" all of the recovered email files I found in two > different backup files. I'll read that beforehand so I do it right. > > BTW, last night I ran I trial version of a file recovery app and was able > to restore the entire contents of my I: drive backup partition that had > been wiped out by Vista's fscking Disk Cleaner app. Whoop! I don't see how Vista's app screwed up.. .I really think all the past 'tweaking'/moving/deleting/ etc. screwed up the registry, so it was a case of garbage in / garbage out.! That said.. .what do you allow cleanup to do? Do you just take the defaults? and only run it on your system partition (usually C:)? From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Sun Aug 30 08:17:31 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Sun Aug 30 08:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: TANYA LOUISE BATES IS A CHILD ABUSERNBP Unregistered. References: <1390284.nPR58v67Zj@dev.null.davjam.org> Message-ID: From: "David Bolt" | On Saturday 29 Aug 2009 14:23, bar0 played with alphabet spaghetti and left | this residue on the plate: >> We don't care. | And neither does he. He's spouted a variation of this before to several | different groups with various interests and languages[0], and also various | unrelated web forums like sewgirls.com, bikerstation.com and | wirelessforums.com. A post in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet[1] gives a sample | of 22 message-IDs, so it seems this abuser has either not been reported to | bt.com or giganews.com, or he has and they've ignored the complaints. | [0] my own quick search of Google returns posts to some aus.* groups, as | well as some pl.* and it.* groups | [1] a followup suggests that the poster is using a piece of spamware to spew | his crap. | Regards, | David Bolt As I previously posted... "Spam propogated by Indy "X-Library: Indy 8.0.25". Indy is the preferred software by Usenet spammers." btinternet.com ==> bt-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com Mesages sent! -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From guy.chapman at spamcop.net Sun Aug 30 16:15:45 2009 From: guy.chapman at spamcop.net (Just zis Guy, you know?) Date: Sun Aug 30 16:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: TANYA LOUISE BATES IS A CHILD ABUSERNBP Unregistered. References: <1390284.nPR58v67Zj@dev.null.davjam.org> Message-ID: <8enl95d7n36794b9uaihr4rudohl0acnm6@4ax.com> On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:17:31 -0400, "David H. Lipman" wrote: >btinternet.com ==> bt-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com >Mesages sent! Don't hold your breath, though. They seem very reluctant to act against those who pay them money. Guy -- http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/ "Nullius in Verba" - take no man's word for it. - attr. Horace, chosen by John Evelyn for the Royal Society From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 31 16:47:01 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Mon Aug 31 16:50:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h7carr$vbp$1@news.spamcop.net... >> > > What Windows does in the case, it cannot get the conflicting apps down, it > schedules a reboot about 20 minutes after it is done. > I have noticed a few times in the past that it was apparent that my PC had rebooted overnite -- I used to put my HP to "sleep" at night, and Vista has a known problem with some drivers/systems and the "sleep" option, so I figured that was what was happening.....mebbe not? >> > > The product I use, ACRONIS Tue Image, snaps an entire image. > You can restore image or individual files! > > I downloaded and installed GFI Backup 2009 - Home Edition over the weekend (or on Friday?), it's free and it works great. Not an ISO image, but a compressed file that is very easy to "look into" to reach in and grab a file or two to restore. It's very nice (and FREE! ;-) > > That said.. .what do you allow cleanup to do? Do you just take the > defaults? and only run it on your system partition (usually C:)? > I rarely run Vista's built in Disk Cleaner (Disk Cleanup), I usually use RegCure or ParentoLogic's Disk Cleaner, on a rare occasion Cookie Cleaner or SpyBot's cleaner -- because all of those other apps will clean up more debris than just wiping the Temp file and Recycle Bin directories. What happened a week ago was for the first time ever ran I ran Disk Cleanup I didn't go with the "default" boxes that were checked for my I: drive -- I saw apparently huge wasted space being taken by two file groups, whose names escape me at the moment....I know they were called something that made one think that they were ok to delete.....and I had run DirSize on that partition minutes beforehand, and it showed 50+ GB of "wasted" space that was very close to the file sizes shown in the Disk Cleanup dialog box, so I checked them off and hit go....that's when everything got wiped clean from the drive. To answer your other question, I very, very rarely clean my external drives, they just hold backups, so the content is pretty static (no tmp files, no cookies, no .bak files, etc) cluttering them up. From joegill at removethis Mon Aug 31 17:09:38 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Mon Aug 31 17:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:h7carr$vbp$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> >> >> What Windows does in the case, it cannot get the conflicting apps down, >> it schedules a reboot about 20 minutes after it is done. >> > > I have noticed a few times in the past that it was apparent that my PC had > rebooted overnite -- I used to put my HP to "sleep" at night, and Vista > has a known problem with some drivers/systems and the "sleep" option, so I > figured that was what was happening.....mebbe not? > Ah. HP and hiberation/sleep issues. HP has a set of patches for this issue and it appears to be related to USB drivers. After applying the recommended HP maintenance, the problem has disappeared! I would regularly blue screen every morning before the patches. Use HP Health Check to find the required maintenance! It is a collection, IIRC, of HP patches and Microsoft 'hot fixes' delivered as one patch unit. But alas, you will need to update HP HealthCheck, before it works well. As for "putting my 'HP' to sleep at night". don't try to 'micro-manage' the system. The correct setting in Power Management, should take care of everything. The 'power plan' that I select is 'HP Recommended' and no overrides! >>> >> >> The product I use, ACRONIS Tue Image, snaps an entire image. >> You can restore image or individual files! >> >> > > I downloaded and installed GFI Backup 2009 - Home Edition over the weekend > (or on Friday?), it's free and it works great. Not an ISO image, but a > compressed file that is very easy to "look into" to reach in and grab a > file or two to restore. It's very nice (and FREE! ;-) > Good... But can it do a 'bare metal' restore, in case of a total drive failure or an accurate retore over an existing system? That really separates the excellent programs from the good ones! Also, most programs can do a GREAT job of backup, and report that all is well. The 'proof' is the restore! >> >> That said.. .what do you allow cleanup to do? Do you just take the >> defaults? and only run it on your system partition (usually C:)? >> > > I rarely run Vista's built in Disk Cleaner (Disk Cleanup), I usually use > RegCure or ParentoLogic's Disk Cleaner, on a rare occasion Cookie Cleaner > or SpyBot's cleaner -- because all of those other apps will clean up more > debris than just wiping the Temp file and Recycle Bin directories. What > happened a week ago was for the first time ever ran I ran Disk Cleanup I > didn't go with the "default" boxes that were checked for my I: drive -- I > saw apparently huge wasted space being taken by two file groups, whose > names escape me at the moment....I know they were called something that > made one think that they were ok to delete.....and I had run DirSize on > that partition minutes beforehand, and it showed 50+ GB of "wasted" space > that was very close to the file sizes shown in the Disk Cleanup dialog > box, so I checked them off and hit go....that's when everything got wiped > clean from the drive. Again I run a fairly clean system. Windows schedules a disk cleanup / defrag on an 'every so often' basis. The other product that I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend in place of SpyBot and CookieCleaner is SUPERANTISPYWARE (from Superantispyware.com). It is free. However it has saved me all sorts of grief and cleaned up messes Norton and McAfee were ignorant of ! As for DiskCleaner... Default is best unless your are "Ivory Sure" of what additional items are. I would stick with Microsoft utilities and SUPERANTISPYWARE.. > > To answer your other question, I very, very rarely clean my external > drives, they just hold backups, so the content is pretty static (no tmp > files, no cookies, no .bak files, etc) cluttering them up. Now if you are using the other drives for 'backup' I would 'backup' and store the drives in a diffferent part of the house and preferably in a basement and away from the power 'feed'. Reasoning? Many/Most PC failures are from current surges and/or nearby lightning strikes! (Ideally, keeping you backup(s) off-site is a good idea!) From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 31 18:10:21 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Mon Aug 31 18:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] The craziness of Vista WinMail Message-ID: This is the kind of crazy email message store(s) that Vista has created on my PC......I've referred to it before, the "application data directory x 10" issue, prior to attempting to restore my recovered email files I searched my entire HD for the filename "WindowsMail.MSMessageStore" and this is what the search spit out.....I'd love for someone else with Vista to do the same search and see if they find similar results! (and an older WIN OS check would be valuable to see also, hint hint) (Note: widen your email viewing screen to avoid the annoying wordwrapping, although that may not work after I post this) Filename: WindowsMail.MSMessageStore Size: 20.02 GB Date Created: 5/9/2009 (date I did a complete re-format and clean install of Vista) Date Modified: 8/31/2009 (which is today, although I did the search around 5:30 pm and the date modified time stamp is 10:36 am, which is when when I booted up the computer this morning) C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Documents and Settings\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows 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Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\Users\my username\Local Settings\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new Also found these two "estranged" directories..... Filename: WindowsMail.MSMessageStore Size: 2.02 GB Date Created: 7/13/2009 Date Modified: 7/14/2009 C:\WINDOWS\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail C:\WINDOWS\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Backup\new From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Aug 31 18:37:25 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (indigo) Date: Mon Aug 31 18:40:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:h7he6u$gfd$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Ah. HP and hiberation/sleep issues. HP has a set of patches for this issue > and it appears to be related to USB drivers. > After applying the recommended HP maintenance, the problem has > disappeared! I would regularly blue screen every morning before the > patches. Use HP Health Check to find the required maintenance! > It is a collection, IIRC, of HP patches and Microsoft 'hot fixes' > delivered as one patch unit. > But alas, you will need to update HP HealthCheck, before it works well. I've always had HPHC set to run every Wed. morning, just checked it, it's all updated and everything. Maybe it's safe to put it to sleep now? My biggest problem with the sleep mode was losing my internet connection overnight, used to wake up to error messages all the time from Yahoo Messenger, Firefox, anything that stays connected to the net fulltime. > > As for "putting my 'HP' to sleep at night". don't try to 'micro-manage' > the system. The correct setting in Power Management, should take care of > everything. The 'power plan' that I select is 'HP Recommended' and no > overrides! > I customized it, of course ;-) > > Good... But can it do a 'bare metal' restore, in case of a total drive > failure or an accurate retore over an existing system? That really > separates the excellent programs from the good ones! Also, most programs > can do a GREAT job of backup, and report that all is well. The 'proof' is > the restore! > Hopefully I'll never have to find out! The GFI app can save the any data file or folder, programs, the registry and "user settings", but it's not a true disk image (meaning every piece of date, including lots of junk you wouldn't want to copy like caches and temp files). I'm pretty sure it's a complete "restore" package, elsewise it would simply be a backup app, not a restore app. > > > Now if you are using the other drives for 'backup' I would 'backup' and > store the drives in a diffferent part of the house and preferably in a > basement and away from the power 'feed'. Reasoning? Many/Most PC failures > are from current surges and/or nearby lightning strikes! > (Ideally, keeping you backup(s) off-site is a good idea!) Yeah, well, I've got no on-line server to back up my data to.....but I do have a pretty new and very expensive (meaning good) power strip -- the modem co-ax cable and phone line for my FAX machine also run thru it.....and thanks for reminding me, it's time to burn another backup DVD of my data files. I keep the disk in a fireproof safe in my closet (guaranteed to be fireproof for one hour, at least). I used to keep it at work, but....you know where that situation stands.... From joegill at removethis Mon Aug 31 22:10:50 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Tue Sep 1 11:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: It's NOT alive no more..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "indigo" wrote in message news:h7hjb5$k2f$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:h7he6u$gfd$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> Ah. HP and hiberation/sleep issues. HP has a set of patches for this >> issue and it appears to be related to USB drivers. >> After applying the recommended HP maintenance, the problem has >> disappeared! I would regularly blue screen every morning before the >> patches. Use HP Health Check to find the required maintenance! >> It is a collection, IIRC, of HP patches and Microsoft 'hot fixes' >> delivered as one patch unit. >> But alas, you will need to update HP HealthCheck, before it works well. > > I've always had HPHC set to run every Wed. morning, just checked it, it's > all updated and everything. Maybe it's safe to put it to sleep now? My > biggest problem with the sleep mode was losing my internet connection > overnight, used to wake up to error messages all the time from Yahoo > Messenger, Firefox, anything that stays connected to the net fulltime. > Don't "put it to sleep", but rather let the system itself do power management! As for the internet connection, I run wireless, and it has always come back... Also, I have taken defaults on the card and not altered/tweaked anything! >> >> As for "putting my 'HP' to sleep at night". don't try to 'micro-manage' >> the system. The correct setting in Power Management, should take care of >> everything. The 'power plan' that I select is 'HP Recommended' and no >> overrides! >> > > I customized it, of course ;-) I would go back to "HP Recomended" and then leave it alone!! > >> >> Good... But can it do a 'bare metal' restore, in case of a total drive >> failure or an accurate retore over an existing system? That really >> separates the excellent programs from the good ones! Also, most programs >> can do a GREAT job of backup, and report that all is well. The 'proof' is >> the restore! >> > > Hopefully I'll never have to find out! The GFI app can save the any data > file or folder, programs, the registry and "user settings", but it's not a > true disk image (meaning every piece of date, including lots of junk you > wouldn't want to copy like caches and temp files). I'm pretty sure it's a > complete "restore" package, elsewise it would simply be a backup app, not > a restore app. > Disk imaging is safe and complete.. No thinking involved.. No tweaking etc Everything comes back E X A C T L Y the way it was.... >> >> >> Now if you are using the other drives for 'backup' I would 'backup' and >> store the drives in a diffferent part of the house and preferably in a >> basement and away from the power 'feed'. Reasoning? Many/Most PC failures >> are from current surges and/or nearby lightning strikes! >> (Ideally, keeping you backup(s) off-site is a good idea!) > > Yeah, well, I've got no on-line server to back up my data to.....but I do > have a pretty new and very expensive (meaning good) power strip -- the > modem co-ax cable and phone line for my FAX machine also run thru > it.....and thanks for reminding me, it's time to burn another backup DVD > of my data files. I keep the disk in a fireproof safe in my closet > (guaranteed to be fireproof for one hour, at least). I used to keep it at > work, but....you know where that situation stands.... I would keep the USB drive om the safe!