Fixes

I don't know how common any of these things are, but I've run into them, and have found answers on various locations on the internet or by trial and error.

For example, using IE6 (or IE5.5), any time I tried to save an image from a web page, it would show up as "untitled.bmp". This pissed me off. I thought it was the website operator trying to prevent you from downloading the images. When I used Netscape, I never had problems saving the images as the correct name in type. This problem infuriated me. I went to Microsoft's website hoping to find an answer. They had some totally bogus solution for a crazy, and extremely rare problem, that was supposedly causing this problem. It seems that this problem was the #1 question being asked on the MS site. Yet, the solution they provided was so obscure, there's no way that so many people could have been having that problem.

The solution to that problem is to delete your temporary internet files. I have a HUGE hard drive, and over 2 GIGS of space allocated for temporary files. I didn't check to see if it was full, but I really doubt it. There was some kind of problem that was causing not only the image saving problem, but it was also preventing me from viewing the html source code of the pages I was visiting! Being a developer, this caused me some real problems in just working on my own website, as well as a major annoyance while I was surfing the web.

I just ran into this problem. I use Adaptec Easy CD Creator v4.02. It has the capabilities to rip right from CD to mp3. I would do this to make mp3 samples of some of my Pantera bootlegs. I would just select the first minute of the song, and save it off to mp3. The other day, when I went to do this, the maximum bit rate it would save as was 56K. I had previously used this exact software to make 128K, 160K, and 192K samples. I thought that somehow it went and updated itself over the internet. I uninstalled, re-installed, looked for patches, nothing worked. Being somewhat knowledgeable, I poked around my sound settings, and looked at my audio codecs. I found the one for MP3s, and it looked fine. It was called "Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (advanced)". This sounded good, played MP3s fine, and was the only MP3 codec I had on my system. I checked their website, and didn't find any good information. I deleted the codec - against Windows suggestion. It forced me to reboot, and when I did, I was unable to even play any MP3s, yet alone record them. Windows Media Player actually went out to the internet, and re-installed the codec on my machine, after I gave it permission. It was the same one that had been on there earlier, and once again, I was able to listen to MP3s, and record them upto 56K bitrate. I tried disabling the codec, and that was similar to uninstalling it. I could not play or record MP3s. This was REALLY REALLY REALLY pissing me the fuck off. I couldn't imagine what the fuck happened to my computer. I was half tempted to boot out of windows 2000 into windows 98 to see if that was fucked up as well. I then began thinking of the programs I had updated since I last recorded at 128K. I hadn't updated by Easy CD Creator software. I did that immediately after I installed it. I had updated IE to the IE6 beta. I tried uninstalling that when I had my above "Save image as", and "View Source" problem. So I was at IE5.5 again, when I had this MP3 problem. I tried upgrading to IE6 again just for the hell of it. No good. Same problem. I then remember that I had updated my Windows Media Player. That definitely had some impact on MP3s, and codecs. It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft decided to fuck up my computer and prevent me from recording high quality MP3s. They probably wanted me to record to WMA format (that was available to me at 128K, but no way in hell will I ever use it!!). Things started falling into place. When I had upgraded my media player, it deleted some MP3 codecs that had been installed on my computer, probably by some MP3 software I had - I have tons of stuff on this PC. It wanted to make sure I couldn't make high quality MP3s!!! Or if I wanted to record high quality compressed stuff, I'd have to use Microsoft's format. Fuck that! Fuck Microsoft!

The next problem was finding a better codec. I searched the internet for a while, unsuccessfully. The one I had on my computer still, was the default one. The info about it had a website, but the website was pretty lame. I tried searching for a few hours to no avail. I just got home, and decided to go directly to Google Going directly there is way better than using Yahoo. You get many more, and better results by going there directly. It's no-nonsense, and I definitely recommend it. The first link on the list led me to the "professional" version of that Frau whatever codec. I had the advanced version. Maybe Microsoft downgraded me? Or deleted my better MP3 codec? I have no idea, but I'm disgusted with the MS Media Player. I installed this updated version, and I then had FULL capabilities!! The updated codec fixed my problem. Somehow, Microsoft Media Player (most likely) fucked up my computer, and reduced my MP3 recording capabilities. Fuck them! You can download the same codec I installed right here. It worked for me, but I'm not going to give you any guarantees. I found it on the RipHelp website. I can't thank them enough for fixing my problem. Even the readme file about this install says that Windows Media Player installs can fuck you by deleting your codecs!!!! I guess alot of people besides me have run into this problem, but this was definitely not a very simple one to solve.

Q : I installed the codec before, now its gone! What happened?
A : Microsoft's "Media Player" update will remove pro codecs. Repeat after
me : Microsoft installers are infinitely stupid. Just re-run the Radium
codec installer.

I've always believed that if the US Government were ever to get really serious about Internet security, the top players in Microsoft's management hierarchy would find themselves handcuffed, blindfolded, led onto a tarmac within some obscure Air Force base, and shot.

Witness if you will Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, the two most efficient virus propagation utilities ever devised by human intellectual failure.

Among the more ostentatious security pitfalls deliberately coded into Outlook is its determination to accommodate the mighty Direct Marketing Association (DMA) spam lobby by refusing to allow users to shut off HTML (which exposes us to myriad forms of malicious code in received messages), as this would have a devastating impact on advert click-throughs for hot, wet teens, scientific studies have shown.

You can decline to send HTML messages, as any decent Netizen does; but you can't decline to receive them. No, that would be downright hostile to the spam establishment, and Microsoft knows better than tangle with one of the few industries which dwarfs it.

However, some of us now have a nifty tool called NoHTML to disable HTML displays in Outlook, thanks to Russ Cooper of NTBugtraq. In Outlook 2000, NoHTML supposedly converts HTML to RTF. In Outlook 2002, it converts HTML to plain text. Pretty neat.

In NT, 2K or XP, just install the file (a DLL) in: Documents and Settings\(user)\Application Data\Microsoft\Addins. Finish the installation as described below, re-boot, and all should be well.

If you're running 9x, you might try installing it in: Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\AddInsWindows\Local and/or in Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

Finish the installation thus: within Outlook, go to Tools, Options, Other, Advanced Options, COM Add-ins, Add. Find NoHTML.dll and select it. Re-boot.

Thus far it's worked for me with Outlook 2000 on 'XP and '98. I can hardly describe the thrill of blocking scripts in Outlook for once in my life. In '98, an HTML message's preview pane is blank, as is the whole message when opened manually; in 'XP it all shows up as text, as it should.

It's important to set Outlook to reply in plain text, however (if you can). While the plugin will defeat HTML on incoming messages, if you've elected to reply in the sender's format you could possibly activate a script when you launch a reply. In older versions of Outlook it was possible to force replies into plain text, but in later versions one is only permitted to select his own default settings for new messages.

The plugin, regrettably, won't work with Outlook Express, whose users tend to be those most in need of this sort of protection.

But once it's adapted to OE and its little glitches are sorted out, I'd say we have a winner here. Too bad Microsoft couldn't manage something like this on its own, simply as a setup option. Heavens, had they done so, they might not now have to whine so piteously about devastating bug disclosures. ®