http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2005/10.php .
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My new 300GB hard drive and external hard drive enclosure arrived this afternoon. I installed the drive into the enclosure,
connected it to my computer, partitioned it into several smaller logical drives, and it worked like a charm.
On June 18, 2004, my wife and I bought our dream home in the Sunshine State. A few days later, I bought a 7 horsepower, 22-inch
cut,
rear-drive lawn mower at our local Sears store. Unfortunately, three times in the past 16 months, the right-rear wheel stripped the
pinion gear that drives it, forcing me to have to wrestle the mower around my lawn as it constantly tried to pull to the right.
Each time
the problem occurred, I took the mower to the authorized Sears repair center about 15 miles away, and waited a week for them to
replace that stripped pinion gear. The last time I got it back from being repaired was only 3 weeks ago today. Imagine my dismay
when the problem returned a 4th time this past Wednesday. Sick and tired of all the time, mileage,
phone calls and effort that I had put into getting that mower repaired, I took it back to the repair center this past
Wednesday afternoon and politely but firmly convinced the repair manager to recall the defective mower as a
lemon.
Today, with
my recall paperwork in hand, I returned the mower to my local Sears store for a full refund. Then, I bought the 6.75 horsepower,
22-inch cut, front-drive mower that my research had revealed to be Sears' "best lawn mower buy." And because the new
mower is on sale through tomorrow, I still had $60 (U.S.D) in my pocket after I paid for it. On a related note, the commercials say
that Sears is "where America shops," but in all the times I've been to Sears, I've I've never seen America there.
Within a week, I'll receive two powerful new additions to my PC arsenal: an internal Seagate Barracuda
300GB hard drive,
and an
Ultra Products U.S.B 2.0 / Firewire
external hard drive enclosure
that will convert the Seagate into a portable external drive. The new drive
will let me quickly and easily store and retrieve
disk images of my Windows 98 SE and Windows XP Home Edition hard drives,
along with the drives of any friend's or relative's computer that I service. Though it wasn't cheap, my new 300GB hard drive
cost a little less than what I paid for a new 4GB hard drive back in 1997.
Following two years of development,
OpenOffice.org 2.0 was released today, and
it sounds terrific. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is a totally free, open-source
office productivity suite,
designed to replace the expensive, proprietary "Microsoft Office" suite. Read what
ZDNet and
eWeek and
ComputerWorld and
Ars Technica and
others
say about OpenOffice.org 2.0, and then try it out and see what you think.
Lately, I've been doing a lot of work that has required me to have access to Windows XP. Regular readers know that I own a WinXP
Home Edition license, but I've always choosen to run Windows 98 SE on my main computer. As a result, I've always had to do my WinXP
work on a friend's computer. This past week, I used
AutoStreamer and
these instructions
to create a Windows XP installation CD that is
slipstreamed
with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Then, I took a 13GB hard drive out of one of the old
parts PCs in my garage, put it in my main computer, and installed WinXP on it. Now my main computer
dual-boots Windows 98 SE and
Windows XP Home Edition. Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Welcome to the twentieth century, ComputerBob." And yes, I also
know that this is the twenty-first century.
Within an hour or so, this site will serve its 130,000th visitor. I can still remember the weekend that I first created
it.
It started out as one page with 12 hyperlinks down its center, going to the syllabi of the 12 college courses that I was teaching at
the time. It was the most beautiful site I had ever seen. And I remember being amazed at its tiny fingers and toes, each with a
perfect little nail, and how I cried the first time it smiled at me. Memories... light the corners of my mind... Misty watercolor
memories... of the way we were.
You may have heard about it, seen it, or even downloaded it, but whatever you do, don't install the purported
"Windows XP Service Pack 3 Preview" that's been floating around the Web.
It's a fake
that can cause serious problems, and if you install it, Microsoft will no longer provide any support for your computer.
He's done it again! Randy Stafford has written a very clear and comprehensive technical reference article, titled,
How To Build Your Own Windows Service Pack. The new article joins Randy's
two other Guest Articles. Keep 'em coming, Randy!
If you've ever looked for a free tool to help you diagnose and solve problems on your Windows PC, then you know there are
many choices out there. My absolute best recommendation right now is the
Ultimate Boot CD For Windows. When you boot your
Windows 95 / 98 / SE / ME / 2000 / XP computer with the UBCD4Win, it will be running a carefully crafted subset of Windows XP that
includes network support, NTFS file system support, and
over 50 of the world's best free
utilities for Windows. Due to copyright restrictions related to the fact that the UBCD4Win contains Windows XP code, you cannot
download an
ISO image of the UBCD4Win; instead,
you must download the UBCD4Win package and the
BartPE bootable live Windows CD package, and
then use the two of them to create the UBCD4Win. The computer on which you create the UBCD4Win must be running Windows XP (with at
least Service Pack 1), or you must have access to a Windows XP installation CD that contains at least Service Pack 1.
For anyone who's wondering, I choose to run Win98SE on my main computer, but I own a license to run WinXP Home Edition, so it is
not a copyright violation for me to create my own copy of the UBCD4Win on a friend's WinXP Home Edition computer. The
step-by-step instructions for creating the UBCD4Win are very clear, but they may look a little daunting. Don't let that
worry you; just take your time, and visit the
UBCD4Win Support Forums
if you need help. Trust me, the UBCD4Win will be well worth the effort that it takes to create it.
Today, I gave my 4-minute speech on domestic violence at the local women's shelter's annual fundraising luncheon. It turned out
to be one of the most affirming and supportive experiences of my life. The audience included hundreds of caring people, ranging
from regular people like me, to important and influential politicians, judges, social workers, police, and businesspeople. Knowing
that domestic violence is a very emotional subject for me to talk about, I had rehearsed my written speech many times during the
past few days. Still, my worst fears came true, as I choked-up at the podium before I even started to speak, and then a few more
times as I spoke. Fortunately, each time, I paused for a few seconds and then was able to continue. Afterward, I was surprised,
humbled, and embarassed to receive a very gracious standing ovation. At the end of the one-hour luncheon program, many people shook
my hand, hugged me, or thanked me, and a few of them even asked if I would be willing to work with them on future domestic violence
programs. It was a joy and honor to be asked to speak today, and it will be a joy and honor to work with anyone who wants my help
in the future. When I got home, I added my speech to the many
articles in my Abuse Info section.
Today, I wrote my speech for the luncheon this coming Friday. Each time I've read it out loud at a normal speed, it has run
exactly 4 minutes, so it should fit perfectly into my 3-5 minute allotted time. As usual, I've made several minor changes to it in
the past several hours, and I'll probably continue to tweak it for the next few days. After I've presented it at the luncheon, I'll
post it in this site's Abuse Info section.
This past weekend, I configured my two domains to use Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which its Web site describes as, "The anti-forgery solution that's making the world a safer place for email." According to the SPF Web site, "SPF fights return-path address forgery and makes it easier to identify spoofs. Domain owners identify sending mail servers in DNS. SMTP receivers verify the envelope sender address against this information, and can distinguish authentic messages from forgeries before any message data is transmitted." In other words, SPF will make it easy for email recipients to know whether or not email messages that claim to be from ComputerBob.com are actually from ComputerBob.com, instead of from a spammer. Unfortunately, adding SPF records to a domain's DNS records is not a task for the squeamish, since even the tiniest mistake can disable the entire domain -- Web site, email, FTP, etc. Luckily, I found the following sources that helped me do it correctly:
After I added the SPF code to my domains' DNS records, I tested it, using all of the methods listed above. All of the form-based SPF testers told me that my SPF was configured correctly. All of the email-based SPF testers told me that my SPF was configured correctly, but they also said that it wasn't working. By studying the information in the email-based SPF testers' reports, I figured out that my domain was sending out its email messages from an IP address that I had not been aware of. Armed with that information, I went back and added that IP address to the SPF Setup Wizard, then copied and pasted the new SPF code into my DNS records. After that, all of the SPF testing methods agreed that my SPF was configured and working correctly.
As I've mentioned before, this coming Friday, I'll be speaking at the annual fundraising luncheon for a local women's shelter.
I've been giving it a lot of thought, but so far, all I've written is a bunch of notes. Since domestic violence is a very
emotional topic for me, and since my speaking time will be very short, I plan to write out my speech and read it, rather than
"winging it" from notes. After I've written it, I'll decide whether or not to share it publicly on this site.