Dennis Faas

Ed B. from Long Island, New York writes: " I enjoy your newsletters very much! They're very informative and easy to read. I've seen a lot of other similar newsletters, and yours definitely rank among the very best of them. My question: I use Windows ... XP Pro and save a lot of graphics on my hard drive (the usual .GIF, .JPG. and some .BMPs). When I view the folders in Windows Explorer (thumbnail or filmstrip mode), some of the files don't show the thumbnail preview image, and Windows tells me No Preview Available. I don't change the file extensions when I save the graphics, so why does ... (view more)

How can poetry stop spam? Answer: Habeas . Habeas is a new company on the Internet which has developed a technology that permits legitimate bulk mailers -- such as infopackets.com -- the ability to deliver authentic emails and eliminate spam at the ... same time. Legitimate bulk email service providers are able to inject Habeas copyrighted Haiku poetry into outgoing email headers to ensure authenticity and delivery. Internet Service Providers and Spam Fighting programs are able to pick up the headers which can then be used to determine if the message is spam or legitimate. Wait a sec, what's a ... (view more)

Last week, Robert B. asked: " Do you know of a program (freeware or shareware) that will let you install a program temporarily to see if it works ok on your machine and then according to the results, you can remove it or keep it? " My Response: I ... suggested the obvious, but then also critiqued how the "Add / Remove Programs" in the Control Panel can also leave your computer gummed up. So, I asked Infopackets Readers to send in some suggestions for freebie software titles floating around the 'net: Kevin S. suggested jv16 Reg Cleaner (highly recommended): " JV16 Reg ... (view more)

I'm swamped! I spent the majority of this weekend writing and re-writing the email list-management program which will automate requests for users who subscribe, remove, and change their email address to this newsletter online the infopackets web ... site. After much thought, I completed the program on Saturday using a very rudimentary algorithm. The program worked very well with small lists used for test data, but took exponentially long to complete when I tested it against all the user names that make up our mailing list [40,000]. Measuring how long it takes for a program or operation to ... (view more)

Robert B. emailed me today and asked: " Do you know of a program (freeware or shareware) that will let you install a program temporarily to see if it works ok on your machine and then according to the results, you can remove it or keep it? I thought ... I did once from Lockergnome but I can't find it. I seem to think it said it was never actually installed unless you chose to keep it. Maybe it was in a dream? " My Response:The only programs I've ever used to perform a similar function are: the Add / Remove Program function in the Control Panel, and Clean Sweep by Norton. Critique: Add ... (view more)

A few days ago I received a question which pertains to Internet Explorer Script Debugging messages. I get asked this question a lot, so I thought it would be worth mentioning in the newsletter. Infopackets Reader 'Grumble' asks: " I'm running ... Windows XP with a high-speed Cable Internet connection. When I sign on to AIM [AOL Instant Messenger], I keep getting an error message from Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer Script Error Line 77 Char: 1 Error: Library not registered Code: 0. Do you want to continue running scripts on this page? I have been running aim for several months and this ... (view more)

Lately I've been getting a lot of emails from folks who are in the same predicament as I am: Windows XP crashes when an Nvidia video driver is installed. MSI (MicroStar, Incorporated) is the company that manufactured my particular video card; Nvidia ... makes the graphic chip (GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit) present on the card which allows me to play 3D games. I'm using the video card in combination with a Tyan Tiger MP2460 multiprocessor motherboard (AMD 760MP chipset). In the past, I've tried to get my Ge-Force MX-400 video card to work with Windows XP using many suggested methods, including ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week, Rich V. asked, " Is there any way to stop Windows Explorer from spinning up my CD ROM drive intermittently? " In my response, I suggested a few ideas: use a CD buffering program, don't put anything in the CD drive so it doesn't ... spin up, and disable Auto Insert Notification for Windows 9x machines ( details in previous newsletter ). Infopackets Reader Doug L. recommend DisCD v0.99 : it disables CD-ROM drives so that they won't spin up when Explorer or similar programs are loaded (for Windows NT/2000 only); and, Dave G. says that you can hold the shift key on your ... (view more)

I'm finally making some leeway on the web site transformation. I spent a good part of this weekend working on a web script that is going to completely automate newsletter subscriptions and removals, plus allow me to manage changes in subscriptions ... so that I can *finally* implement a text-version of this newsletter. This solution will give readers the choice of receiving the Gazette twice or three times a week! It took me about 8 hours to figure out how to dereference a multidimensional array which points to another array structure in PERL (a web script programming language). This is pretty ... (view more)

Last week, Rich V. asked: " Is there any way to stop Windows Explorer from spinning up my CD ROM drive intermittently? " My Response: I suggested a buffering program, and also suggested not putting any thing in the drive: but hey -- there's got to ... be a better way! So, I asked Infopackets Readers if they had any better ideas. I only received 2 suggestions. Doug L. was nice enough to recommend DisCD v0.99: " DisCD disables CD-ROM drives, so that they won't spin up on opening of Explorer or similar programs. For Windows NT/2000 only. " http://www.amok.gulli.com/v3.htm Dave G ... (view more)