John's Computer Support Web Log

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 has finally arrived. This new version includes a feature called private browsing, where anything you do in that state won't be remembered in the history nor cookies. It also enables the latest in web page features like video and audio tags without relying on a plugin such as Adobe Flash player.

Marvel, a chip manufacturer produced a product for the US market called the PogoPlug. Its a computer in a plug. It has a 1.2GHz processor, 512MB memory and 512MB flash memory together with a USB port and an Ethernet port to make it network ready.

Its designed to work with an external hard drive and turns the hard drive into a media centre. Currently the units are for sale for $99 but they are expected to drop to $50 (around £30).

There are two choices that Internet providers have in providing you email.

POP3 is the oldest method (called Post Office Protocol) and works by connecting and downloading emails from a mailbox. When the mail software connects, it simply asks the server to supply a list of emails, which it uses to pull down the emails with. If your software is set to delete emails when it collects them (which is the default) a delete command follows collecting the emails.

POP3 is limited to one mailbox per account, and is a one way communication since it only downloads emails.

IMAP is vastly different. IMAP handles many folders at a time and the user chooses to subscribe or unsubscribe to them by choice; emails are synchronised between the software and the server which makes the communication two way.

IMAP also handles deletion differently to POP3. When you delete an email with POP3 its deleted; but with IMAP its only marked deleted. In the future, you may want to undelete that email (it works like the recycle bin on Windows)

In Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express / Windows Mail the deleted emails gain a line through them. In order to completely delete these emails, you must purge them by choosing Purge from the Edit menu.

The Dovado USB Mobile Broadband Router provides a wireless router that uses the 3G network to provide its connection to the Internet.

If you don't have a phone line and want to use more than one computer in your home, you can use the router to provide coverage through your home.

All it needs is a bit of details from your provider and you can share your 3G connection between as many users as you want.

3genuity are the UK distributors of this router.

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program monitors your activity and frequently reminds you to take breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.

It also includes a series of exercise routines that work on the areas of the body that are commonly affected by spending time at a computer.

I was looking at some plugins for Audacity, the free sound editor (since it supports plugins) to extend its features.

I discovered something interesting with a CD I downloaded called OpenDisc. The CD contains something called autorun.inf that causes the computer to run whatever is in that file when the CD is inserted into a drive.

When I used to give out CDs I used an autorun.inf that would trigger the user's web browser to open a page on the CD. The autorun.inf file on the CD runs K-meleon which is a web browser that is related to fiirefox but is very small and very fast.

I'm always looking for free programs, especially if they are fast.

WinPenPack is a collection of the free programs that can be run on a USB memory stick and divided into categories:

Graphics, Multimedia, Internet, Office, System, Security, Development and Utilities.

They also have different versions depending on needs, including a special version for education and another for web development.

Seeing that USB memory sticks have become really cheap these days, having one loaded with applications is a blessing since you don't need to install any software on the computer, you just plug and go on any computer.

OpenOffice 3.1 has been released with some enhancements such as better screen appearance, easier dragging of icons which show a shadow when moving, and the introduction of overlining - the opposite of underlining. The word processor boasts better grammar checks and improved highlighting.

Personally, I'm waiting for go-oo.org to update to 3.1 since it has support for Microsoft Works and Office 2007.

Carphone Warehouse have bought Tiscali for £236m and will begin merging their customer base into TalkTalk in the same fashion they did with AOL. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to go through in June.

80% of Tiscali customers will be migrated to TalkTalk by March 2011, which will reduce operating costs and make TalkTalk the largest broadband provider holding more than 25% of the broadband customers in the UK.

There is a world of alternative open source applications that replace commercial applications that are available on the Internet. One of the most common is Open Office, a free replacement for Microsoft Office.

I've just discovered osalt.com which is a website that shows open source alternatives to commercial applications

When the first volume of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming was published in 1969, it was typeset using hot metal type set by a Monotype Corporation typecaster with a hot metal typesetting machine from the 19th century which produced a "good classic style" appreciated by Knuth.

When the second edition of the second volume was published, in 1976, the whole book had to be typeset again because the Monotype technology had been largely replaced by photographic techniques, and the original fonts were no longer available.

However, when Knuth received the galley proofs of the new book on 30 March 1977, he found them awful. Around that time, Knuth saw for the first time the output of a high-quality digital typesetting system, and became interested in digital typography.

The disappointing galley proofs gave him the final motivation to solve the problem at hand once and for all by designing his own typesetting system. On May 13, 1977, he wrote a memo to himself describing the basic features of TeX.

Typesetting differs from WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) because usually what you see is nothing like what you get. If someone sends you a document in US letter format and you print it in A4, you may find you have page creep. The same is true when you send a document the other way. Typesetting simply fits the text to the page in the order the author intended, so a US letter will appear in the centre of an A4 sheet without page creep.

Complex symbols can be assembled with TeX, something you would have to draw on later or create in a graphic package. I doubt Albert Einstein would have been able to publish his Theory of Relativity if he used Microsoft Word and had to draw all his formulae later. With TeX a few characters will create a masterpiece in seconds.

Unlike XP, where manufacturers did smart things with wireless; Microsoft decided to take the reins with Vista.

A feature that wasn't supported in all routers was implemented by Microsoft that prevents certain users from being able to setup their wireless networks.

The fix requires a few changes to the registry with regedit.

Firstly we disable IPv6, since it gets in the way and causes more problems.

Go to:
HKeyLocalMachine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters
Right click and create a DWORD key called DisabledComponents.
Double click and set it to FF.

Next we need to disable the Broadcast Flag for each of the networks defined.

Go to:
HKeyLocalMachine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
You will see some ID numbers and go to each.
Right click and create a DWORD key called DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle.
Double click and set it to 0.
Repeat with each ID.

You may find it easier to restart your computer and you may find the wireless connects.

LogMeIn provides a their flagship program (which unlike Hamachi, which is for networks) designed for remote access to your computer over the Internet.

Remote access basically means you see the desktop of your computer on another computer from somewhere else on the Internet. Imagine being on holiday and picking up your emails using your favourite email program and printing it out for when you get home or accessing your secure online banking without having to worry about using a possibly compromised computer to log your details.

The connection between your computer and the one you are using to display your desktop is encrypted to prevent other people from seeing what you are doing.

The free version gives you all that. The pro version (which you need to pay for) enables files to be copied from one machine to another and you can also hear sound. You can also print remotely, so the email you have open can be printed where you are so you have it in your hand without needing to go home to do so.

The IT Reach version is designed more for a support person to connect to your computer remotely, having access to all the features of the Pro version but so they can support a large group of users.

The Rescue version works across the web, so there is no software needed to install on the computer or smart phone.

LogMeIn Hamachi is an odd program. Its main purpose is to setup something called a VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A VPN uses the Internet but makes the machines in the VPN behave like they are connected directly together. The connection between the machines are encrypted so that nobody can spy or see what goes on across the VPN.

Hamachi makes the connection really easy by being a program that allows the user access to up to 256 VPN networks. Also 16 users (50 with a paid license) can be connected to each machine. Hamachi is also a chat program where users who are connected to the VPN can send and receive messages and broadcast them to all users attached to the VPN.

Imagine if you worked at home and you ran Hamachi in your office, you could work from home. You would have access to the printer at work and everything on that network would exist on the VPN connection.

Hamachi

One of my favourite memories was customising a machine that ran Windows to look like a Unix machine when I worked at Demon Internet. It really fooled one of the programmers who screamed when he clicked for a terminal and got a DOS prompt! Ah the wacky hay days before Windows 98.

There is now a program that can turn XP or Vista into Windows 7 so that nobody would notice the difference. It behaves in every way like Windows 7 but its really XP or Vista underneath. Its called seven remix.