A Free Alternative to Acrobat Distiller
I've heard of an interesting alternative to Adobe's Acrobat Distiller. It's called Pdf995, and it installs like a printer driver. Any program that can print to a Windows printer can print to Pdf995, just as if Pdf995 were a real printer. But instead of printing, Pdf995 creates an Acrobat-compatible PDF file that automatically contains everything that you "printed".

It sounds like a convenient way to create PDF files. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say much more about it, except that it has received many accolades from satisfied users, and that you can download it for free. The free version displays advertising pages on your Web browser whenever you use Pdf995 to create a PDF file; but the ads aren't in the final PDF file, so they don't bother your readers. And if you don't like the ads, you can register Pdf995 for a few dollars, thereby turning off the ads. For more details, see Pdf995.com.

Windows Insecurity
I've been reading about security flaws in Windows. It seems that there is a particularly nasty Windows XP flaw that involves a file called UPLOADDRVINFO.HTM.

Apparently, this is part of XP's "Help Center", which has a "feature" with a huge vulnerability that could let malicious Web sites delete files from your hard drive. All you'd have to do would be to browse a Web site and click on a seemingly innocent link; the link would take advantage of the XP flaw to delete files from your hard disk, even entire directories of files.

I don't use XP myself; but if you do, you may want to check out Steve Gibson's information at grc.com. It may save you from having your Windows XP hard disk trashed merely by browsing to some malicious Web site.

I've also read of a Windows 2000 "loophole" that lets executable programs bypass Microsoft's inter-process security system. This one apparently lets a program perform "privileged" operations, even if the program doesn't have a "privileged" mode. For more details, see Chris Paget's information. It's fairly technical material, and it doesn't present any easy solutions to this serious problem. But I believe that it is important that users of supposedly "advanced" versions of Windows realize that Windows security has fundamental loopholes; the material is definitely worth a look.

Fixing Windows Instead of Breaking It
Enough crying doom and gloom about the latest version of Windows! At our December meeting, I actually resurrected a seemingly defunct Windows computer!

For some time, I'd been thinking about doing a hands-on meeting where I would try to fix PC problems; our member Hays Fisher called my bluff and brought in a PC that wouldn't boot.

Thankfully, Hays warned me of his plan, so I came prepared with a digital multimeter, some tools, and some old DOS boot diskettes. As it turned out, the diskettes were the most important thing. Using them, I was able to boot DOS, format the hard drive, check its partition tables, load a DOS CD-ROM driver, and install Windows 95. Hays didn't mind that I had to format the hard drive, since he had all but given up on it anyway.

The amazing part was having a DOS CD-ROM driver that worked with the CD-ROM drive in the PC; that was really blind luck, since many CD-ROM drives require their own brand of DOS CD-ROM drivers. If my driver hadn't been able to drive the PC's CD-ROM drive, Hays would have had to search for an old driver for his CD-ROM drive. There wasn't anything wrong with his PC, hardware-wise. I was glad that I was able to bring it back to life.

My success with that old PC will probably get me into trouble: More members would like to bring in their ailing PCs for me to poke and prod. So tune in next year, folks!

Our next meeting will be held at the normal time and place: on the fourth Wednesday of January 2003, at 7:00 p.m., in the large meeting room at the Davis Public Library. I hope to see you then; in the meantime, I hope that you start your New Year safely and happily!

Whenever and wherever we meet, you're welcome to attend!