E-Musings Mon Immorata

Who's the Next Patron Saint of Anger? It's been said (that) procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder. But it's been hard to complete that oft-promised, but yet to-be-delivered free CD burner review. This week I found it easier to fulminate against the RIAA and online music format and content. Besides which again there are security issues. Which I suppose take precedence over other things. Windows RPC Update Once again Microsoft has had to patch their previous Windows RPC (Remote Procedure Call) update. MS03-026 has been superseded by MS03-039 issued September 10, 2003. The new patch resolves the existing RPC/Port 135 vulnerability, as well as the RPCSS Service dealing with RPC messages for DCOM activation. The latter can allow arbitrary code execution as well as cause denial of service attacks due to incorrect handling of malformed messages. RPC is a Windows protocol used for inter-process communications that allow program running on one computer to seamlessly access services on another. More information on the ports used by it are available here. Following on the RPC/DCOM theme, Steve Gibson's DCOMbobulator (29 kB, Windows, free) helps identify, and prevent, any possible DCOM/RPC problems. The utility tests if DCOM is enabled. And you can choose to block it or leave it open if your company/cable Internet network so requires. The utility can also check if Port 135 is in an open or closed state. Legion of the Sued Would you believe that I have never downloaded music from the Net. OK less lying required here. Yes, I have downloaded free MP3 files from Amazon as well as from several (non-defunct) band sites that were (once) offering live recordings for free. Many listeners hate live stuff. But my ears have learned to tune out the static. Especially after listening to live Elvis recordings. As well as the (seminal?) Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl where the female fans orgasmic shrieks actually overwhelm John, Paul, George and Ringo! But I disagree with Tim Luoma on why MP3 are better than a CD collection. I haven't managed to break any of my CDs yet. But I do lose valuable albums with increasing regularity -- fallout of a disorganized teen in the house. Or discover said album with multiple scratches that cause tracks to skip. Or worse, the CD to develop a permanent stutter. Either way a dead loss. Yet I don't plan to rip my CDs to MP3. Without a laptop I'd only be able to listen on the PC. Portable MP3 players don't thrill me either. So I guess I'm not joining the legions of the sued sometime soon by the RIAA or by their running dogs in India. Not that I help add to their coffers as the general quality of music today isn't to my liking. Bar maybe Elephunk by Black-Eyed Peas or Drift Away by Uncle Kracker. Or Seal's new album Heavenly. As well as some of the free Amazon music downloads are interesting but you need to be a registered user to download any tracks. Musical Junx! So why should I pay for 11 shitty songs and 1 good one. Metallica's Saint Anger is a case in point that's one long fuzzy noise from start to finish. In the olden days of vinyl, we had the seven-inch single with 1 song track a side. Or the 10-inch aka EP (extended play) which managed to cram in 2-3 tracks a side. There was a brief period of madness with cassette singles and CD singles, but these just never took off. And you can still get 12-inch singles used by DJs and Clubs. I while my days away listening to classic tracks on my CD collection, from my still- vast audio table library. And when in the mood for extreme nostalgia, I plug-in my old record player to listen to vinyl disks. Of course this uncovers a new cauldron of (stinky?) fish about the best media format for computer-based playback. And ergo which is the best player for the job. Unfortunately, with a myriad number of formats including non-backward compatible digital rights management schemes I (reluctantly) conclude that Windows Media Player 9 wins. But unlike its predecessors, WMP 9 isn't a resource hog except when running visualizations. And resource use peaks at about 23 MB with the included skin. Minimizing the player drops resource use to about 4 MB. WMP 9 also includes almost all the audio, and video codecs you'll ever need for digital media formats. Unfortunately precious few free add-ins. However, once you have successfully registered an downloaded Windows media files (WMA) then close runner-up Ultraplayer seems a better playback tool. I have an ancient pair of powered speakers dating back to 1992 with just volume and balance controls. Yet, these deliver richer, full-bodied sound with Ultraplayer than with WMP 9 with both the built-in equalization enabled and disabled! Unfortunately, resource-wise Ultraplayer is a system hog. And consumed nearly 15 MB maximized and about 13.5 MB minimized to the System Tray! This resource use is not a problem with 128 MB or more installed RAM systems, but can cause slowdowns and lockups with lower memory computers. But the lightest MP3 player (and mp3Pro encoder) is the free Thompson MP3PRO player. Even though its equalizer only kicks-in for mp3Pro media. It's extremely minimal interface disguises a very powerful client with a tiny resource footprint of about 2 MB when maximized or minimized. Freeware Alert! MyIE2 has been incrementally upgraded again this week to 0.8.2003. I've been using it and find is a lot faster than before at rendering pages. Or accessing sites. Other new features include extended mouse gestures, an ability to support other applications DDE calls when MyIE2 is running so that you can pipe all requests to open URLs to this browser. It also supports scripted IE plug-ins. I also recommend a clean install instead of over-writing your existing copy. I usually backup my entire folder. Then install a fresh and update my proxy, URL alias, Function Key shortcuts later. The past week has seen a lot of action with Opera 7.20 Betas. The latest build number tested by me is 3114 (Opera 7.20 Beta 11) released Friday, September 12, 2003. The complete list of updates, and a download link are available here. Besides the obligatory bug fixes, Beta 11 displays (unregistered users only) a generic selection of ads or you can choose to view Google text ads (less intrusive) and make Google your default search engine too. Again I suggest uninstalling any existing Beta versions before installing the new Beta build. Popcorn too has been updated to v1.5 Beta 3 that's a bug-fix release. The new build is much faster than previous versions. And sending a mail using the built-in composer too is a lot faster. What still hasn't improved is Popcorn's ability to gracefully recover from a broken connection (common on dial-up access). And the only way to stop the application is to terminate it. Click Here to Email Me