Dennis Faas

I sure am keeping busy! With the weather as bad as it's been, there really is no reason for me to leave my comfortable computer chair ... other than to sleep, eat, and use the bathroom. Today I spent 12 hours marathon-programming multiple web ... scripts to help automate things, in lieu of the many changes happening to the web site. The newsletter subscriber base has now been reconfigured to accept 2 new fields of data: newsletter frequency (2 or 3 times a week), and the choice of a text or HTML newsletter. Now that this portion is complete, I'll be updating the web site to accept both requests ... (view more)

Wouldn't it be great if you could visually trace back the path of a hacker? A little while back I received an email from Infopackets Reader, J. Noway with a freebee software title that does just that. VisualZone and VisualIce analyze log files from ... Zone Alarm and Black Ice (two popular anti-hacker firewall programs) and give users the option of finding out more about any PC intruder. J. Noway writes: " The software interprets firewall log files by date and gives the user an idea of whom and what time someone is pinging them or attempting access. It is designed specifically to work with ... (view more)

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)