August 2005 Archives

If you found this page, I'm going to assume that you have a problem with a particular piece of software and you'd like to remove it from your system. I'm also going to assume you're familiar with Windows Explorer, RegEdit, and the dangers of deleting something when you don't know what it is. If you don't know these things, or are in the least uncomfortable doing something that could seriously mess up your computer, please don't attempt to do what you read about here.

The right way to remove it is to go to the Start Menu, to Control Panel, to Add or Remove Programs, select "Change or Remove Programs", locate the program in the list, and click the "Remove" button.

Sometimes, though, an application simply refuses to uninstall when you want it to. In those cases, you will need to remove it manually. Some people will tell you that it is enough to simply delete the program's files from "C:\Program Files" and move on. In a very small number of cases (maybe 1 in 50) that might be true, but most programs' installers make any number of changes, such as:

• Create a directory under "C:\Program Files" named to match the application and/or its manufacturer, then fill it with additional files and subdirectories.
• Create a directory somewhere other than "C:\Program Files" (such as one directly under "C:\" and populate that with files and subdirectories.
• Place files and subdirectories under "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users" and "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User" to ensure that all users of a computer can see that the program is available for use, to store temporary data files, etc.
• Place files in "C:\Windows\All Users" to make them available to all users.
• Create or modify one or more INI files on the system.
• Add an entry to the Registry to tell the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel where to find the application's uninstaller.
• Add entries to the Registry to tell the Windows Explorer to associate this application with specific kinds of files (e.g., ".doc" to Microsoft Word, as well as ".rtf").
• Add entries to the Registry that store the application's preferences, such as what font you like to use in an editor, where you last saved a file, where to place the application's window on the screen, etc.
• Add DLLs and other files to the Windows directory.

The installer might do other things, depending on what kind of an installer it is. For example, a screen saver installer might put some ".SCR" files in "C:\Windows\system32". A device driver installer might put items in the System Tray (which it does by creating Registry entries). A resume package might add templates to Microsoft Word directories.

Because of all this variation, there's no single set of instructions I can give you that will get every file an application might have installed 100% of the time. However, if you follow the instructions I provide later in this article, you have a good chance of being able to remove the bulk of the application. If you want to get rid of ALL of it, one thing that might work for you is to follow my instructions, then try reinstalling the application and using its own uninstaller to remove it. That would theoretically get everything you missed. (I have to warn you that some applications' uninstallers don't remove everything they installed, either because they're trying to keep you from losing data you created yourself, because they're buggy and incomplete, or because they are cautious and trying to leave behind files that other applications from the same manufacturer might be using.)

Movie attendance has been declining the last couple of years.  The major Hollywood studios don't seem to understand why.  I'm sure they blame some of it on Internet piracy, though I doubt anyone who is seriously interested in a first-run movie would bother to watch it on their PC in some blurry, low-fidelity version first.  I'm sure they also blame it on other things, like gas prices and economic conditions.

Earlier this year, I moved my site to a new ISP and picked up the Mambo Open Source content management system to handle my blog entries (like this one).  One of the first things I noticed was that when I searched Google to try to find pages that I knew full well were here, I couldn't find them.  That means that anyone out there who might be interested in my article on sump pumps, my cigar reviews, OS X scripts, VBScript code, etc., probably isn't going to find them.  Naturally, I'm concerned about that and I've been on a quest to get my site to show up at all in Google, and then to improve where and how often it shows up.

If you publish content yourself, this article should be of interest to you.  If you use a content management system to publish that content, it should be of even more interest.  This article contains a journal of my experiences to improve this site's accessibility in Google search results.

On our way to the Grand Canyon from Sedona, Arizona, we passed through Oak Creek Canyon.  When we stopped at a rest area, I snapped several pictures to document the trip.  Many of those pictures are provided here.

While visiting the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago, my father, step-son, step-daughter and I hiked to the "mile and a half rest house" and back out. My wife journeyed with us for a part of the hike. It was a very grueling journey, even downhill, and it took my dad and me about 4-5 hours to complete. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, though, and the pictures you'll see below should prove that.

As you may be aware, the Project Gutenberg web site offers a number of electronic books at no cost to you.  These are typically older books which no longer have any copyright protection (or other intellectual property protection) on them.  In addition to their electronic texts, however, Project Gutenberg offers a number of machine-read and human-read audio books of the titles in its collection.  These include works by such famous authors as Hans Christian Andersen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Benjamin Franklin, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare.

To see what human-read books are currently available, visit this page:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1

For computer-read audiobooks, visit this page:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/2

For 16,000+ electronic texts (not audio books), see:
http://www.gutenberg.org/

For recorded music available free of charge, see:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/3

Released: March 6, 2001
Label: Dreamworks
ASIN: B00005A7TW

I hadn't heard of Alien Ant Farm until I ran across their cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal".  When I heard that performance, I realized that anyone who could actually make me LIKE a Michael Jackson song must indeed have some talent.  I decided to check them out.  This album sounded like a good start.

While vacationing in Arizona, my family visited the Meteor Crater located between Flagstaff and Winslow.  This was a day trip we took away from the Grand Canyon.  Meteor Crater is the site where, scientists estimate, a 150-foot meteor struck the Earth approximately 50,000 years ago.

During my visit, I took many pictures of the crater, visitor center, and museum.  Some of these are provided below to satisfy some of your curiousity about the site and perhaps motivate you to consider visiting it.  It will only take 2-3 hours to view the crater, enjoy the museum, watch the 10-minute documentary movie, look at the astronaut wall of fame, check out the Apollo capsule, and browse the gift shop, but it will be worthwhile.

Personally, I learned a good bit about meteors from my visit, marveled at the size of the crater (which is immense), and even found some very reasonably priced items in the gift shop to bring home (items I'd seen offered at much higher prices in other shops in the Grand Canyon area).

The Desert View Watchtower is a 70-foot steel and stone tower constructed in 1932 to serve as a tourist attraction for visitors to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon area.  Architect Mary Colter based the design of this tower on Native American watchtowers constructed in the past.  Once constructed, Native American artists were asked to decorate the inside of the tower with traditional Hopi artwork. 

While visiting the Grand Canyon, my family took some time to visit this watchtower.  Below are pictures from that visit, showing not only the tower but nearby views of the Grand Canyon and surrounding geography.

According to an expert I met at the Grand Canyon during my vacation there last week, there were approximately 22 California Condors left on Earth in the early 1980s.  Today, the number is more like 110.  The fellow I met worked for a non-profit foundation dedicated to preserving this species.  He explained that a captive breeding program had been established in the 80's to increase the population and that part of his work was to track the movement of the birds.  Each bird released by the foundation is tagged with a number and a radio transmitter to help them track it down.

The California Condor is a bird that is similar to a vulture.  It eats carrion (dead animal flesh).  The bird lives up to 60 years, and has a wing span up to 9 feet wide.  Condors mate for life, with both the male and female taking part in incubating the eggs and raising the young.

Young condors are almost completely black in color.  Some time around their 6th year, the condors become capable of reproduction and their heads change color to a whitish red.

I was privileged enough during my vacation in Arizona last week to see four of the 110 "wild" California Condors at the Grand Canyon.  Pictures appear below (click the "Read More" link below to see them if they are not already visible).

Last week my family made a trek to Arizona.  On our way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped off in Sedona, Arizona, to sight-see.  If you've never been there, and the pictures below are at all interesting to you, you should make it a point to go.  These barely scratch the surface of the many amazing and beautiful things you'll see while you're there.

Very early Sunday morning, my wife, stepchildren and I returned from a vacation in Arizona.  During our vacation we visited the Grand Canyon.  It was the first time I'd ever been to Arizona and the first time I'd ever seen the canyon.

Everyone probably says this, but it's true:  You can't envision the size of the Grand Canyon until you've actually stood next to it.  Even then, you will stand there looking at it, disbelieving it could be as deep or as wide as it is.  Looking down from the south rim, a person near the canyon floor is impossible to see, even with my 20/15 vision.   The opposite rim you're looking at is something like 60 miles away.  The depth from bottom to top is measured in miles.  Simply amazing.

We're probably all aware now of what "peer-to-peer" (P2P) networks are - those file-sharing services like the original Napster, BitTorrent, WinMX, eDonkey, and the like which allow people to place files on the Internet where others can download them free of charge.  You may also be aware that courts have (improperly, in my opinion) ruled that the creators of P2P networks are responsible for any illegal actions that occur on their systems.  (This is like saying that AT&T is at fault if you hire a hit man over the phone, or McDonald's being at fault if you eat 50 of their apple pies a day and get fat.)

You're probably also aware of the many lawsuits being filed by the Recording Industry Artists' Association (RIAA) against those who are sharing copyrighted music content online, and similar lawsuits by the Motion Picture Artists' Association (MPAA) for those sharing copyrighted video content.   What makes such lawsuits possible is the fact that it's possible to reverse-engineer how the software works and determine the Internet address (IP Address) of the computers sharing those files.  By contacting the Internet Service Provider (ISP) who provides access to the Internet through that address (e.g., SBC, AOL, Time-Warner), the legal eagles can determine whose account was using that address at that time.  With that information, the organization can file a lawsuit against the individual Internet user.

While I don't condone the illegal copying of copyrighted materials via the Internet or otherwise, it concerns me that the courts (in their urgent desire to shut down illegal copying) are stifling technologies which are essentially methods of free speech and idea-sharing.  Moves by Apple and Microsoft to introduce "trusted platform" computing will only further serve to reduce the free flow of (LEGAL) ideas and information by limiting the software users can run on their computers and access to the files containing that data.  This is NOT a good thing, just as it would not be a good thing for the government to take over publishing of our newspapers and production of our TV, music, and movies.  Thus, the efforts of the Freenet Project are especially important.

Release Date: July 22, 2003
Label: Compass Records
ASIN: B00009Y3OF
Approximate Price as of 8/3/2005: $14 new, $13 used

All right, I admit it.  I am a child of the 80's and 20 years later I still have a soft spot for the music of the group "Men at Work".  It should come as no surprise, then, that I seized the opportunity to listen to Men at Work's former front-man Colin Hay performing his album "Man at Work".  I wasn't sure I was going to like it, though.  All too often I've found that when a member of a popular band goes off on his or her own to record an album, you realize that what you liked about that band wasn't the lead singer, but the combination of the singer and the rest of the band.

Released: June 1, 1999
ASIN: B00004TLWM

Having just reviewed Colin Hay's "Man at Work" album from 2002, I decided to give another of his albums, "Transcendental Highway" a listen.  Unlike "Man at Work", this album contains nothing from his "Men at Work" days of the 80's.  It is entirely new music of his own.  After a few spins, here's what I think of the album...

Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" is a rather interesting place.  Firmly located in the realm of fantasy, the universe of Discworld combines traditional fantasy elements like vampires, golems, witches, trolls, and wizards with concepts from the "real world" like equal rights for men and women, technology, and - in this case - mail delivery.  The Discworld books have a little of that same kind of British humor we see in Monty Python or Douglas Adams' books, combined with some humor that is uniquely Pratchett's.

From the title "Going Postal" one might think this is a book about a person losing their grip on sanity and killing lots of people, but that's not the story at all here.

"Going Postal" opens with the main character Moist Von Lipwig being sentenced to death and about to hang.  Shortly after he hangs, he becomes unconscious.  When he awakens, the local official tells him he was hanged expertly, within an inch of his life.  He now has two options.  He may take a civil service job that is being offered to him at the post office, or he may walk through a door leading out of the room.  After learning that on the other side of the door is a pit leading to his death, Moist decides that becoming the new Postmaster is the better option.