Peter Staack Product Testimonials & Reviews

I've been running Windows Vista ReadyBoost on my laptop, with a fairly decent 1GB USB flash drive, for a few weeks. It did speed the startup of my most commonly-used applications (ThumbsPlus, Illustrator, Firefox, Remote Administrator, OpenOffice Writer and WinRAR), though only marginally. I didn't notice much at first, but my timer doesn't lie, stuff was a second or more faster to open.

Last week, there was a great deal on a name-brand 2GB 150x SD card. It's a bigger / faster drive on a faster bus, a smaller form factor, and I get a USB port back for only $30. Yay, TigerDirect!

I configured the whole 1.8GB active volume on the SD card for ReadyBoost... And, you know what? It actually did bump things up a little bit more. Again, it's not a huge leap in performance, but every little bit helps. It even boosted the score of my Windows Experience Index disk rating, presumably because my hard drive isn't working as hard as a SuperFetch scratch disk. Well, I'm guessing. I admit, I don't really know the nitty-gritty of ReadyBoost, though one can read up more on Tom Archer's blog entry, featuring Microsoft Windows Client Performance Program Manager Program Manager Matt Ayers.

Cross-posted on my LiveJournal - Microsoft Windows Vista ReadyBoost

Type III parachute cord, aka 550 cord (after it's 550lbs. minimum breaking strength) or paracord, is great stuff. Lightweight nylon kernmantle rope, which was originally used in the suspension lines of parachutes, can be used in all kinds of situations... Lashing things together, hanging things, binding feet for climbing trees, wrapping around handles for extra grip, restraining someone, pulling apart the kern for sewing or fishing, making traps, as line for a shelter, as an improvised weapon, as an emergency torch (it burns slowly) and probably thousands of other ideas.

I always keep 3' of braided paracord in my back pocket, have 50' in my car, 30' in my bug-out bag, and 10' hanks at work and in my room. If I plan on hitting the trails, I might wrap an extra 10' around my waist, as well as what I have in my pack. Braiding it is a great way to save space, and avoid tangles, but a little time consuming for all but a few feet at a time. Luckily, Tough Gear Inc. sells several really neat braided-paracord accessories at SurvivalStraps.com. They have rifle slings, bracelets, zipper-pulls, key fobs, watch bands, dog collars, and other useful designs that have the added benefit of being several feet of paracord that can be used in an emergency. They also donate a portion of their profits to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Cross-posted on my LiveJournal - SurvivalStraps.com.

Although I'm a pretty low-risk internet user - no P2P, no alt.binaries.*, no warez, and I run a myriad of real-time security and antispyware apps - I'm still very cautious when I receive files from users. I've seen a lot of people do a lot of stupid things, so I don't trust any file that was sent to me. In particular, I've gotten Word DOC files from clients that had malicious scripts embedded in them, that I'm sure the sender was unaware of (they're too green to have knowingly attached 'em). So, when I get a file sent to me, it first has to pass my primary real-time antivirus - Avast Profession Edition. When I save it, it's scanned again as it's written to my HD. As a final precaution, I rely on the free VirusTotal.com file scan.

What sets it apart from other scanners is that Hispasec Sistemas' VirusTotal service incorporates over 30 different computer virus scanning engines in one. Featuring some esteemed engines like F-Secure, Avira AntiVir, Kaspersky, TrendMicro, BitDefender, GData, Sophos, Avast, AVG and more, it improves your odds of determining if a file is safe or not. You can upload the files via their web interface, install their Windows context menu uploader, or email suspect files to scan@virustotal.com (under 10MB, subject "SCAN"). While nothing is foolproof, I figure getting the opinion of over 30 up-to-date antivirus engines oughtta yield better odds than just one engine.

Cross-posted on my personal LiveJournal - VirusTotal Review. Yup.

I'm a big advocate of backing up sensitive data and configurations... Okay, honestly, I'm probably a little OCD about it (at work, they call it eOCD. Regardless, I've never lost any vital data, and any time I have to reinstall a system, it's often a piece of cake.

My install of Firefox 3.0.1 is pretty heavily customized, from search engines, specialty character encoding, proxy-bank switching, bookmarks, and dozens of sweet add-ons. As such, I regularly backup my profiles folder. I copy it, archive it using WinZip, and make parity files. Although my data is safe, and I can recover it. But I'll have to shut down Firefox in order to back it up, which isn't always easy while I'm working, and although I can copy the configuration files I often have to re-install the extensions from scratch. Chuck Baker's Firefox Environment Backup Extension (a.k.a. FEBE) makes it a lot easier to automatically backup, and later reinstall, all facets of Firefox.

With a few simple mouse-clicks, you can back everything up without even shutting down Firefox. You can configure what is and isn't backed up, and where it's backed up (allowing you to later archive the data). Best of all, you can schedule automatic backups. Then, when you need to reinstall, or if you want to migrate your configuration to another system, you can install FEBE and run a restore, easy-peasy. So far, it's worked great in my tests, and duplicating my Firefox configuration between work and home PCs.

I'll still do manual backups, but I can do so a little less frequently, knowing FEBE is taking up all of the slack. And, best of all, it a free add-on to Firefox, available here. If you use FEBE, and find it as useful as I have, be sure to give a small donation to Chuck Baker for his great Firefox Environment Backup Extension (link at the bottom of his page).

Cross posted on my personal LiveJournal - FEBE Review. Wow.

Somehow, three of my computers running Win2000 SP4 and one running WinXP SP3 all lost the capability to print emails from MS Outlook and Outlook Express. When one tried to print, before the usual print interface comes up, I would get a Line 1344 Script Error.

I Googled around, and found that some registry lines must have been deleted during an update, or while running maintenance (perhaps a CCleaner registry scrub). Several of the posts had ideas, but nothing solid. I finally found a post by hedgemon56, that detailed what registry entries had to be added in, in order to fix the problem. Instead of using RegEdit (redgedt32.exe) to manually add in the appropriate keys and values, I copied all the entries and pasted them into Notepad. I saved them as a REG file, right-clicked on the file, and then merged the keys into the existing registry - quick and easy!

Anyone who experiences this same line 1344 script error, printing in Outlook or Outlook Express, can try the same steps... Download this ZIP compressed file. Extract the REG file somewhere on your system. Right-click on the REG file, and select "Merge" to merge it with the existing registry. It worked instantaneously for me, without having to reset the system or even restart Outlook Express.

In most places, fire extinguishers are prevalent, yet often go unseen by most people. The concept of a fire extinguisher is simple, and yet I've experienced many people who don't know how to use one safely and/or effectively. The first Tuesday of every month, I inspect all the fire extinguishers I own, as well as at my main clients' office. While I made my rounds, my boss mentioned he had a close call a few weeks ago, where a short circuit in a faulty GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter - i.e., those electrical sockets with the red and black buttons) started smoldering at one of his construction projects, and he couldn't get the fire extinguisher to work. It started a small fire before the power was cut, but they were able to quickly smother it. He asked about it, and I figured he made the same mistake that a lot of people make - trying to pull the pin, while holding the handle.

IMO, it's a design fault that when holding many fire extinguishers by the handle, it pinches the pin and makes it difficult or impossible to pull. This is magnified when panic sets in, and people death-grip the handles, holding the pin in place like a vice. Maybe there's a sound reason for this design, but really I can't figure it out. There are documented cases of victims killed in fires being found clutching fully-charged extinguishers with the pin still in, presumably due to this design issue.

The way I've always been trained, and the way I trained others (my boss isn't at the office much, and must have missed my drills) is to place the extinguisher on the ground first, brace the cylinder with your left hand, and finally pull the pin with the right hand. Once the pin is extracted, you then lift the extinguisher with your right hand, extend the hose with your left (or brace the cylinder if there is no hose), and aim at the base of the fire. Finally, squeeze the trigger and then sweep back and forth until the fire is out. When a fire extinguisher has been discharged, protocol is to lay it on its side so others know it has been used (particularly helpful for rescuers).

Lately, I've been seeing good deals on Kidde "Full Home" 3-A:40-B:C fire extinguishers, which are suitable for homes, small offices, kitchens, small garages, and small work areas. I picked up several of them (shown above-right), and the really sleek sliver Kidde "Electronics" 1-A:10-B:C (shown left) fire extinguishers for pretty cheap. It's cool I can afford a bigger 1-A:10-B:C extinguisher for my car, for the price of most bare-minimum 1-A:5-B:C extinguishers at other stores. Chances are, they'll all go a whole decade unused before I replace them, but it's good to have them around if/when sλit happens.

If you're curious, bored, or genuinely want to know (dying in a fire probably isn't much fun) you can learn truckloads more at FireExtinguisher.com. They feature animations about how to inspect fire extinguishers, how to identify the different types of fires, how to effectively use extinguishers, what the rating codes mean and more. Finally, an all-Flash webpage that I actually like!

Cross posted on my personal LiveJournal - Fire Extinguishers. Yeah.