Events 9

This page and its sub-pages are some kind of a blog, or in other words, it is an ever-growing personal computing-related set of pages with important current news and events (at least important in my opinion), therefore these pages contain current (at that time and so now past) important events, personal computing related "stories", like for example completely new things that I have discovered from the last website update, information about my current system state, un-installations, re-installations of my operating systems, any errors I am coping with, software updates and configuration instructions and similar. It was started on [ 19.2.2005 ] with the file-caching problem - that lead me to a complete un-install my Windows XP/Pro SP1 - and its basic description and solution. The solution was re-installing Windows, particularly downgrading to the non-SP version (but of course, before that I've tried almost all the possible solutions/work-arounds). And luckily back then the installation with "Unattended" parameters worked; if you're really interested then rather read the first opening entry for details below at the bottom of that page.

Well, today I am making a big exception, i.e. it is that there're two whole months passed by since my last "events-entry" (and of course also since the website update), so the exception that I am making is that I am writing this entry even though I haven't update the whole website, just this "events9.html" page that you are reading right now, and the "index.html" page. The reason for this is mainly that soon the year will be over, and so in the next year I will start with "events10.html" from the start, while also I have more than 80 kB of text in my main "to-do" file. So same as I did the last year, I will move all the "events-entries" written in year 2006 into the sub-directory on my server named "2006". However, note that in future, I will upadate it more frequently, at least these "events" pages if not the whole website. So in this entry I won't list any of the many changes to the website (already made ones, and planned ones), since there is simply no more "room" left in the "events9.html" file (I keep them all between 42 and 48 kB), but I will rather just post some of the recent threads on "Ars Technica" forums and elsewhere.

So let's start with two recent non-Ars threads. The first thing is that I discovered a really cool RSS-feeds reader called GreatNews: http://www.curiostudio.com/index.html; here's also a link to the "download.html" page: http://www.curiostudio.com/download.html. I also mentioned it in the What software are you using to read RSS? thread: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=153837 on Digital Point forums. Basically I've found it because I was looking for a portable reader (and GN surely is portable), while it is able to display full pages of news articles or only a few lines of them (it has multiple view-types), it's optimized for fast reading, i.e. you can skim through many pages in few seconds and pick only the interesting ones, it enables automatic news highlighting makes important news stand out. Further, it's fully customizable with keywords, channel selections, and foreground/background colors etc. Also, it stores all your favorite articles locally, so you won't lose any article when the web site is down or updated. And finally, it lets you to later retrieve articles with assigned labels. Then I am just reporting that the cache-related "bug 189570": https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=189570 in Firefox program that I've described in Firefox: the cached page "destroyed" if ... thread: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=387644 was finally fixed in Firefox 2.0. This bug was related to cached pages being destroyed, meaning that if at the moment you weren't connected to the Internet and you clicked on some already cached page (for instance a bookmarked one), and the "Work Offline" option under "File" menu was not checked, then you destroyed the "cache" of the respective entry that way, i.e. even if you checked the "Work Offline" afterwards, the entry was not accessible off-line anymore, since it apparently it was deleted by the previous attempt.

And finally one thread on Ars-forums; others from around this time are comming in the next "events-entry", as mentioned on page events10.html". I really suggest you to check out the My "personal problem" with playing computer games:  http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/39309975/m/166002921831 thread (note that it's two pages long) in which I write about my "problem" with playing games that has driven me to a point that I almost don't play them anymore because of it. You see, it's more or less an "obsession" that I've developed over time, i.e. it's all about my obsessive way of playing the game in an "optimal" manner. One of the symptoms of it is for isntance that I find myself continuously saving the game's state, and figthing some particular opponents over and over; all to the point that during the particular "battle", I don't lose any "energy" or "shield" (and stuff), and then to next opponent or battle and so on. It has all started to become so serious when I was playing "Warcraft III - Frozen Throne" game in particular; for example, I knew that to get to the next level, I need as much resources spared, while in the end, I was so fanatical about it, that I was even moving workers around to the areas where there was still enough trees for the lumber, so that they wouldn't just stand there doing nothing. And if in the current game there were too many of them doing nothing for too long, I just started it from the beginning to get through in the most optimal manner. Or similarly in case of the "1st person shooter" type of games; for example in case of one of Star Treks, I knew that to get to the next level (or to beat the last/final "boss"), I needed as much "energy" or "shielding" spared, as much "medic packs" and such stuff gathered (and not yet used), etc. In particular in case of FRPs I have an obsessiion to finish a battle with as few bullets as possible, and if possible with no damage taken. Therefore I frequently go back to make it through more optimally. Then if I encounter new enemies I am used to fight certain areas over and over again looking for the gun that does the most damage to that particular enemy (type of enemy); well heh, it's true though that this usually leads to reaching the end of a game with a large number of unused health kits etc., therefore all the "sparing" obviously wasn't necessary. Hehe yes, I call this "speculating for future levels" (or "future bosses"), i.e. in my case when I realize after playing a long portion of the game, that some particular combination of a weapon/armor protects you effeciently (noticeably), then I am always tempted to do it all again. Further, I also find myself many times trying out things in advance (i.e. things like "battles", "conversations" etc.), so that when playing it "for real", I know exactly what to do, to pass it optimally. In particular in RPGs in various conversations what the person you're taking to will say next depends on your previous questions (and/or your previous answers), so that's why I like to play it repeatedly to see all the possibilities, therefore I can choose the best outcome, i.e. the one that gives me the most experience-points etc. While again regarding "Star Wars - K.O.T.O.R" game from LucasArts (i.e. "Knights of the old Republic"), I am often stucked because I want to get enough "credits" (or whatever they're called) to buy a special armour that offers the best protection compare to other armours. So you see, if I would discover that there are no more credits left laying around, and that I bought some weapon or something that I actually don't need (or at least not as much as that special armour), and that because of that I now cannot buy that special armour, I would be tempted to go back and play the game differently. Well of course, one of the points of playing games is to discover as much area/secrets as possibile, but what the fuck. Anyway, I especially recommend you to read various responses in other Arsians' replies. /UPDATE: And yes, I blogged about this problem of mine on my main blog in an entry titled Glede igric in mojega problema z njimi:  http://tadej.sopca.com/2006/10/18/glede-igric-in-mojega-problema-z-njimi (it's in slovenian language though).

Oh and one more unrelated thing: in October I created a totally new blog in Slovenian language on Sopca website: http://sopca.com which I've titled Tadej: spletne objave: http://tadej.sopca.com, and which now replaces my old/obsolete blog on VOLJAblok: http://blog.volja.net titled Tadej na-liniji: razne objave website: http://tayiper.blog.volja.net. And by the way, my ex-classmate from the primary school has his blog there too (in fact, he is an admin there), while the blog is entitled rufbetten [moje postelje]: http://ruph.sopca.com.

26.09.2006 (part 2)

In the second part of today's "events-entry", it's again a thing not related to any of my website-variants. I am letting you know thatt I started using the awesome OpenDNS service: http://www.opendns.com, http://www.opendns.com/faq (FAQ), http://www.opendns.com/start/windows_xp.php (Get Started - Windows XP), http://www.opendns.com/who (Who We Are), http://www.opendns.com/what (What We Do) together in cooperation with the DNSKong application: http://pyrenean.com/?page_value=-1 that I am using for quite some time now; please see A really cool and free "OpenDNS" service:  http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/131000311831 thread for more information.

Secondly, I am annoucing with a "rage" that the Articlewise "revenue sharing" website mentioned in my last "events-entry" is sadly just a big fat scam; I urge you to read my blog-entry on Senserely blog titled "12. "Articlewise" is apparently a scam (27.08.2006)": http://www.senserely.com/tayiper-12_articlewise_is_apparently_a_scam_27_08_2006.php, which describes all this in details. But in a few sentences: it's that few days after creating the account, when I viewed the source-code of one of my articles (and later of all the others too), I've discovered that contrary to what it says somewhere on Articlewise support-pages (i.e. either on "Submit Article", "About", "FAQ", or "Terms of Service", I forgot where exactly), it is in fact not my Google AdSense ID that's displyed but some other. Namely, instead of: "pub-9618676728757106" viewing the source-code reveals that it has the following one: "pub-2494790634459025" in it. And this ID in particular is the one that's displayed in a screen-shot on the "Adsense Revenue Sharing" support-page: http://www.articlewise.com/adsense.php; of course I immediately e-mailed the webmaster of Articlewise website (and I did it numerous times, and just on case with three different e-mail addresses), but after a week or even more passed and there were still no reply from their part, I realized that "Articlewise" might just be a more or less apparent scam. And the biggest problem is that for instance in case of one of the articles, I've already had more than 2,030 views then in the other one 1,322 views etc., so this is really not cool. Anyway, so be warned!!

And as third, I will use the opportunity to post a complete list of "book-page" entries on "Senserely" website that I've created so far. All of them are really useful tool for a webmaster and for an AdSense user; one of them is posted under "Cool Free Tools for AdSense Publishers" category/section (it's the last one, i.e. the Copyscape), and five of them under "Cool Free Tools for AdSense Publishers - SEO Tools" one. They are listed by creation date, with egoSurf being the first one: "AboutUrl": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/abouturl.php, "Copyscape": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/copyscape.php, "Who links to me": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/who_links_to_me.php, "Keyword Density Analyzer": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/keyword_density_analyzer.php, "Dead-Links": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/dead_links.php, "MyPagerank": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/mypagerank.php, "egoSurf": http://www.senserely.com/cool_free_tools_for_adsense_publishers/egosurf.php. Unfortunately, the egoSurf website/engine was in between not availabe anymore. If you will visit the website you'll notice the cPanel's "There is no website configured at this address" note, but then it came online again, so that's why I removed the note saying: "Unfortunately, the egoSurf website/engine is apparently not availabe anymore. If you will visit the website you'll notice the cPanel's "There is no website configured at this address" note.", since the website is apparently online again. All these "book-pages" are listed also in my "blog-entry" titled "4. List of my Senserely "book-pages" (25.08.2006)": http://www.senserely.com/tayiper-4_list_of_my_senserely_book_pages_25_08_2006.php, and also the other related one titled "5. Planned: two future "book-pages" (26.08.2006)": http://www.senserely.com/tayiper-5_planned_two_future_book_pages_26_08_2006.php, while for other SEO/design/coding related ones, see the following two "blog-entries", the first one being titled "6. Seo/webcoding related links: part 1 (26.08.2006)": http://www.senserely.com/tayiper-6_seo_webcoding_related_links_part_1_26_08_2006.php, and the second one "7. Seo/webcoding related links: part 2 (26.08.2006)": http://www.senserely.com/tayiper-7_seo_webcoding_related_links_part_2_26_08_2006.php.

26.09.2006 (part 1)

Urghhhh, and once again it's a whole month passed by since my last "events-entry". Well, and as first, I will list few of things related to this website-update. From the last update, I've changed titles on all the website's pages; for more info on why I've chosen the particular formatting style I did, please head on over to the About the style of titles of separate pages: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=146772 thread that I opened on Digital Point forum about it. Also, in the meantime, I changed all the HTML attributes into CSS ones to better "conform" with XHTML (even though this is not necessary, at least not in XHTML Transitional, i.e. only in XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD or document type definition); maybe you could chek out the Any reason to rather use CSS and not HTML...: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=141562 thread on Digital Point forum. As usually, this are a few of the most important things (i.e. beside many other stuff that I've changed and/or fixed too), but there are just too many things to list them all here, and to be honest, some are not even worth being mentioned.

Then the other thing is something really new this time. It is that I've created a whole new "set" of totally new sites: http://clarinet.50webs.com/index.htm (primary 1), http://clarinet.50webs.org/index.htm http://clarinet.50webs.org/index.htm (primary 2), http://clarinet.150m.com/index.html (secondary); they are non related to computing as all my previous ones, but rather to the clarinet musical instrument. In other words, the website is in general about my own personal experiences with the clarinet musical instrument etc. The technical information on the website is mostly gathered from the Internet, mainly from this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarinet on Wikipedia, although of course I modified the text a bit. The general layout used in it (i.e. navigation, general organisation etc.) was created by me, and originally used as a template for pages under "sub-other" section on my computing related sites; here are the links to its three main variants. Also, I've created one "redirect" link: http://clarinet.co.nr (or rather a full domain-name), which currently points to the secondary variants though, since that one was the first one created, but I then discovered that it's full of annoying banner-ads. /UPDATE: Well, I've already changed/updated it. I mean I will change it to point to one of primary ones ASAP (if possible of course), while the website that offers this is Freedomain website: http://www.freedomain.co.nr if you might be also interested in this "feature", and I am planning to create another one also at United.net.kg: http://free.united.net.kg. By the way, one similar website offering domain-redirecting is Dot.tk: http://www.dot.tk.

Further, a few other interesting things that I've posted on "Ars Technica" forum; this time I realized that there were so many threads about interesting things, so I chose a few of the most interesting ones. Yeah, as always, for other recent interesting threads on "Ars Technica" forums (and of course, on other forums too), please see the current "forum-posts-2.htm" file (it's linked above on each and every "events" page) that contains all of them nicely sorted by forum and by date. Oh and by the way, I wrote "the current" because there is also one older named "forum-posts-1.html"; just use the "OPEN or GET" drop-down or pull-down menu at the top of each page under "root-main" section to get or view it. As first, check out the related Is there a way to get a part of a file from a CD/DVD with a "bad block" ??:  http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/560000460831 thread if you want to; in it, there are numerous ways explained on how to deal with CD/DVD discs with "bad blocks". Next, I just need to mention an this awesome Firefox trick related to animated GIFs (.gif format of graphics); the thing is that one just needs to hit the Escape key to stop these GIFs animating (btw. I've later found out that it works in Internet Explorer too); I think though that it works only on the current page/tab that one is on, and not on/through the whole window (instance of Firefox), i.e. all tabs + all windows or in other words for the one particular "firefox.exe" process. /UPDATE: Well, I've just thoroughly checked it, and it indeed works through the whole window, at least on the tabs that were already opened at the moment of hitting the Escape key. If you want to, check out the related Firefox. Arrrgh! Why! FFS!:  http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/867003650831 thread, in particular this Happysin's post: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/867003650831?r=590006950831#590006950831; optionally also see the expresses of gratitude below from other users beside me of course) that also didn't know for it to that very moment. And note that I opened threads with this particular trick on CastleCops, PC Pitstop, and Winforums.

And finally, you know that in the meantime, I was in fact "infected" with a "Haxdoor" trojan?? Anyway, for more details see the /Fixed: HELP: My computer was probably infected and now I am afraid to reboot:  http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/464002950831 thread on Ars Technica, and My PC was probably infected and now I am afraid to reboot thread:  http://www.castlecops.com/postitle164628-0-0-.html on CastleCops; as you can see, I later added the "/Fixed:" note to both threads' titles. You see, it's that I got that spam e-mail message with the obvious virus/worm "z3566043.zip" attachment. But the problem with me is that I like to "examine" that sorts of things, and so I un-zipped the "z3566043.exe" executable contained in it, and first look at it in binary viewer, then executed it as a "limited user" etc. etc.; of course, with Filemon and Regmon running all the time so that I could revert any changes made. Then only CastleCops message-board, I've opened a quite popular Do we need an outbound traffic monitoring firewall ?? thread:  http://castlecops.com/p826416-.html (or alternative three links: http://www.castlecops.com/posts165221-0.html, http://www.castlecops.com/postitle165221-0-0-.html, http://www.castlecops.com/t165221-Do_we_need_an_outbound_traffic_monitoring_firewall.html), that deals with the question, do we need the outbound-traffic monitoring firewalls at all, since as said many times by many people on Ars Technica, once the malware is on your computer you are already owned and that the malware could in turn turn-off your firewall (and/or anti-virus program), and additionally disable the "Security Center" built-into Windows altogether. However, although I think that this is true (i.e. that it certainly could turn-off the protection programs), I also think that there is too a possibility that it wouldn't, since there are so many different firewall-programs out there, that it's almost impossible to "target" them all. And as the last thread worth being mentioned here (although there are verious others that are interesting too), please visit the Very strange "problems" with Psexec thread: http://www.sysinternals.com/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6049&PN=1 that I've opened on Sysinternals forum. Although it is not "directly" related, it does describe the way I use Psexec CLI program from Sysinternals. You see, originally I've read that Mark Russinovich's article regarding running applications as a "limited user", but I wanted to go further than launching programs from Process Explorer's "Run as Limited User..." menu, so I was totally amused when I read about the ability of using the Psexec for that. And so I've decided to "convert" all of my program-launching batch-files to use the Psexec program instead of the START command; actually the one thread linked above describe some of the problems with conversion (presumably caused by Notepad and it's handling of the characters; if I recall correctly LFs and CRs to be precise), but in the end I managed to discover the reason for most of the errors/problems.