E-Musings Mon Immorata

Service Packs Needing Servicing As Windows XP SP-2 bugs continue a new Opera 7.6 Beta with load of new features is a treat, as is Thunderbird's junk mail detection This week lots of action on the software front. I've said it before and will say it again: stay as far as you can from Windows XP Service Pack 2. This' one very buggy release and will do more harm than good in the short-term. It has issues with security software including the popular ZoneAlarm firewall. As well as with the Yahoo Messenger chat client. With disk rollback utilities like Symantec Ghost. And even with reference collections like Encyclopedia Britannica 2000 Deluxe as well as several games. To see what programs have problems read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #884130. So I looked with relief at the recently-released Opera 7.60 Preview 1 Beta. Overall this version is more user-friendly and the first time you launch, the start-up dialog let's you to choose between Internet Suite (IRC chat, M2 mail & news) and browser-only modes. You can also disable the Personal Bar and the Panel selector to increase page viewing area. And the default My Opera (online) home page is now a well-organized index to articles on how to properly use and tweak the software. Of course, as an advanced user, I'd find the Opera WiKi a great resource on customizing and optimizing Opera. The new Beta Preview also introduces speech-enabled browsing for Windows 2000/XP/2003. And also supports XHTML+Voice 1.2 and the CSS3 speech module. But what really interested me was the Google GMail support thats enabled in native user agent (Opera) mode. Although there remain some residual sign-in issues that require Google to modify the GMail code. Although you are supposed to disable Javascript before logging in to Google and then re-enabling it. When I short-circuited this approach I was able to login to my GMail account. Also new are in-line error pages that replace the bland "site not found" error dialogs with tips on troubleshooting the problem. Opera loads errant pages in the background without interrupting the active session. And for those users stuck with 15" and smaller monitors, use Medium-Screen Rendering to reformat a web page to make it fit the screen and prevent horizontal scroll bars from appearing. However Opera 7.6 Beta may experience some issues with TLS (Transport Layer Service); the successor to SSL (Secure Socket Layer) that's used to encrypt browser-host connections. For those who want to know all about what's new and what's been updated, read the complete changelog. If you're interested in testing out the new Trend Micro Internet Security 2005 Beta suite. And getting not only a chance to road-test this suite, but also to protect your computer free for at least the next 6 months. And if you're really lucky you might win a free license. Internet Security 2005 combines file and email antivirus with spam detection, firewall, Trojan and spyware blocking as well as URL and web object filtering. New features in this Beta include enhanced network virus protection, parental controls and multiple security profiles. So why now register now. Based on my experience with the Internet Security 2004 Beta, each Beta round will probably be refreshed every 6 weeks. And the test will probably last for about 5-6 months. And which the software will continue to work to protect your computer even though it won't be regularly updated. You will however be able to download virus signature updates and manually apply them. FlexBeta's FireTweaker XP 1.0 has been released. No real new features but the debug mode has been disabled making the utility run faster. The update also backs up the default Firefox configuration before applying tweaks. And most importantly the rollback feature now works after a complete rewrite. Also new is a revised WinZip 9 SR1 and its companion WinZip E-Mail Attachment Add-On for Outlook Beta 5b Build 6012 that lets you to compress message attachments to recude message size and speed-up tranmission time. However I think WinZip is the Netscape of the file compression segment. And has abdicated its throne to compression suites such as PowerArchiver 2004, the free ZipGenius, and the open-source 7-Zip; all of whom have eclipsed it on compression and features. If you are (still?) searching for an email client with intelligent spam detection don't go sniffing after Outlook 2003. Whose junk mail controls pale in comparison to the Bayesian filters available in Mozilla Thunderbird. After having used both products over a quarter, I find that Thunderbird is the better software. It affords you more options in viewing messages without the need for 3rd-party COM addins. And the junk mail filters actually "learn" what does, and doesn't constitute junk mail. And in you can crash-white list addresses but adding them to your address book. Of course you need to give Thunderbird a few minutes of your time. As it scans message headers to see if the mail should be junked and allowed through. And unlike Outlook that dumps junk and possible false positives into a separate folder. Thunderbird tags each spam-like message with a trash can icon. You can them choose to delete all mail so marked. Thunderbird junk mail control works with both POP3 and IMAP accounts. So don't delay. Or experiment with Eudora. Just get a copy of Thunderbird and start anti-spamming now. Other updates this week are a whole new look for Microsoft.com. The new look discards multiple tables and Javascript for CSS. But the upgrades come at a price as Firefox users will miss many design subtleties and won't be able to view the site as its designers intended. And Google has now extended its AdSense program to its Blogger service. Blog owners however need to register to use AdSense. That's it for this week. Stay Safe! Click Here to Email Me