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Complete Computer Services, Inc.
2412 Oceancrest Blvd
Far Rockaway, N.Y. 11691
(718) 868 - 3000
hardware & software * sales & service since 1983
- the End of a Perfect Record
- Paypal: Accounts Hacked, IPO Delayed
- Beware of Scumware
- A 4.2 megapixel for under $350?
- the AOL IM Battle Continues
- National ID Card on the Way
- Free Digital TV
- LCD Monitor Prices May Skyrocket
- Duelling DVD Standards
- Reducing Credit Card Fraud
- Comments on Batteries (Excerpt from ZDNet Article)
- the Rising Cost of Search Engines
- Just for Laughs
- Useful Sites
The digital camera deals of the month are all from Toshiba. The PDR-M81 is not only the lowest cost 4.2 megapixel camera at $450, but there may be a $200 rebate from Toshiba ($100 in cash and $100 in additional accessories) see the story. The M71 has the $100 value rebate and unbelievably, the M21 also has the $100 value rebate, making it the lowest cost 2.1 megapixel available.
We now have batteries, chargers and adapters for just about any digital camera, camcorder and even cordless phones. We have a universal charger that fits all batteries and a universal battery that fits all cameras. We have 2 different batteries and chargers (one with 110/240 and one with car adaptor) for the Toshiba PDR-M4/M5/M70, Fuji MX-1700/2700/2900/4800/4900/6800/6900, Kodak DC4800 and Ricoh RDC-6000 and RDC-7 cameras and a battery and charger for cameras using the Nikon EnEl1. We have ink cartridges for Epson (including those with the chip like the 777, 780, 785, 820, 875, 1280, C50 and C60, C80 expected soon) and most Canon printers. Need a low-cost gift? Our discsaver unbreakable CD holders are 25 cents each. Our online catalog.
She sent me a paypal payment but deliberately chose to withhold her address. It took three days of emailing before she sent me the address. Then the package arrived and no one was home to receive it, so the Post Office left a notice. I emailed her several times to let her know that it was waiting for her at the PO. I received one reply, a nasty note asking where her package was. Finally, on February 7, the Post Office tracking showed that the package had been delivered. Problem over, I thought. On Sunday the 10th, I received another nasty email accusing me of theft and letting me know that a negative had been left and a complaint made with Paypal for non-delivery. Since I had already left her a positive rating when payment was made (I won't make that mistake again), all I could do was post a response to her neg with a link to a page on my website where I explain the whole story, with copies of her Paypal payment showing the missing address and a snapshot of the Post Office screen showing both the failed delivery and the successful one. Now I will undoubtedly have the pleasure of dealing with paypal customer service. I don't know, and Paypal won't tell me, if this is something she does regularly. I did warn the bidder that if she filed a complaint of non-delivery, I would be contacting the Post Office and charging her with mail fraud. Those interested can see the details at this page.
So my record is no longer perfect. But on the bright side, now I can do business with those folks who find a perfect record suspicious.
Those of you who won our ebay auctions and have not yet posted feedback, please do so. I'd like to get the bad feedback pushed off the first page. Remember that the transaction is not complete until feedback has been left and if you have an incomplete transaction with us, you are disqualified from entry into our contest. Next month we will have another drawing for an Epson color printer.
There have been several complaints on forums about Paypal accounts getting hacked. In each complaint, the poster reports that PP either denied it could happen, blamed the poster for being careless with their password and simply refused to take action. Are all these posters lying? According to a report from a ZDNet reporter and 30-year veteran of the computer industry (and not some likely to carelessly give away his password), it has become apparent that someone has figured out how to steal Paypal passwords. Paypal is aware of this. Yet they continue to deny, blame the posters and refuse to take action.
Some sites that had Paypal instant purchase buttons have reported a severe security problem. The code for these pages can be entirely in HTML. From the browser, a visitor can choose View-Source and the entire source code for the page is now displayed in Notepad. The visitor can then change the prices of the items, save the page and load it into his browser. Now he can place instant orders for merchandise at greatly reduced prices. If a merchant doesn't carefully check every order, every price and the payment received, he could be giving hackers the chance to name their own price.
In addition to the problem abve, I found another problem with the Paypal buy-it button that sellers are using on their auctions. You can click the button even if you are not the winner of the auction. You can click it twice and order two of the item. We have all heard about newbies at auction sites who don't understand the process. How many of them have clicked the Paypal button thinking that this would allow them to purchase immediately? Sellers must take the time to check every order and make sure that 1) the buyer is the legitimate winner (how many folks have a Paypal account different than their regular email account?), 2) the buyer is only buying the correct number of items won and 3) the buyer is paying the correct price. The purpose of this button is to automate the process and save time. It is exactly this automation that some scammers are counting on when they click the button before the auction is over and try to purchase the item for a fraction of its value.
Paypal's IPO is delayed as Certco sues them for patent infringement. I don't know whether to be happy that thousands of investors were saved from another Enron or upset that I missed my chance to make a killing by selling short. I believe I have proved that it is impossible for Paypal to ever turn a profit unless major governments start using Paypal to run the country. Paypal IPO Page
A webmaster who ran a games site reports that he received complaints of banner ads popping up even though he had no such ads on his site. He then discovered this article. I urge you to read it. There are folks who track what you do, grab snapshots of forms that you fill out and report it all to some annonymous company on the web!
You can tell if you're infected by VX2 itself by searching for the "VX2.dll" file on your system. If it's there, you got bit. You can supposedly fully uninstall the software by following the instructions at http://www.vx2.cc/uninstall.html . I assume future versions of tools like Pestpatrol and Ad Aware will detect and remove VX2, but for now, it's a good idea to take a look for yourself.
Another subscribed reported this: Without authorization, eZula & Surf+ insert software into users PCs. This hidden, secret (and often self-reinstalling) software then takes selected words on your web page and turns these words into links that re-direct whoever visits you onto some other site... See this site for code to detect these. Also visit this site which will automatically check your browser for these and provide detailed explanations. Here is a site with free spyware detecting software SpyBlocker.
Here's how these nasty parasites work:
While surfing the Web, you will notice a thick yellow underline under selected words. Drag your mouse over them, and the words will be highlighted with a text message that provides more information. CLICK on the word and you will be directed to a new destination with additional information that is contextually related to your web surfing. That sounds OK--- almost like regular hyperlinks. But these links are not placed there by the web site creator or author; they're inserted by the software, which bases its decisions not on simple contextual relevance, but on who's *paying* to be linked. In other words, the "links" are really ads.
My comments follow:
What this means is that you visit a website that YOU chose to visit, click on a link that you believe is legitimate and are hijacked away to another site that paid Eula to do this. This is done by installing software secretly on your computer without your permission, to create these links in such a way that they look like they are part of the site you are visiting.
Imagine this: You walk into a store and ask someone who appears to be an employee for a specific department. The person directs you to a section where you make your purchases, not realizing that you are in a completely different store. Does this sound ethical to you? If you think it is, ask yourself this: why then are they doing this secretly? Why aren't they telling you, "Our software will look at what you want and direct you to the places that match your interest, even if this is not the site you chose to visit"? This kind of marketing is worse than spam, it's worse than pop ups and I think Fred Langa's description fits best: scumware.
Then Toshiba upped the ante by making a good deal unbeatable. They added a $200 rebate, $100 in cash and $100 in additional items (smartmedia card, case, batteries and lost/stolen protection). The rebate was good until the end of February. Then someone at Toshiba decided to do even better. Rather than make it a mail-in rebate, they would offer an instant rebate. The camera price dropped to $450 and the rebate form disappeared from Toshiba's site.
But what about all those sites that had already downloaded the form? Since it does say good until the end of February, isn't Toshiba required to give it? I called some distributors and they were unsure of how this would be handled. The best reply came from my distributor who said Toshiba would probably give it anyway. They may look at the receipt and see the price paid. If it was close to $600, they would give the rebate and if it was significantly less, they would tell the buyer that they had already received it as an "instant" rebate. In the meantime, there are still sites announcing the rebate unconditionally. I hope we don't hear about class-action lawsuits and many disappointed customers.
I recently tested the PDR-M81 against the 3.2 megapixel Casio QV-3000EX. I thought the Casio was a great camera and didn't expect to see any difference between its pictures and that of the Toshiba. The Casio and Toshiba both store their photos as JPG files of about a megabyte and a half in size at the highest quality. Yet the Toshiba photos were better!
They were not sharper. Both cameras produced extremely sharp photos both on the screen and in print. We could really not see a difference. But the Toshiba is the first digital camera I have seen that handles the problem of the flash. Digital cameras need more light and a few milliseconds longer to adjust than their film counterparts. When you press the button halfway, the camera adjusts focus and exposure based on available light. If using the flash, it guesses at the best exposure. If the flash is small, (earlier Toshibas, like the M5, had this problem) it has a shorter range and people standing 8 feet away come out too dark. If the flash is larger (such as the Casio), sometimes the photo is too bright and slightly overexposed. The M81 compensates by flashing twice. The first flash allows the camera to adjust to the exact lighting conditions and the second flash takes the picture. This two-flash process also reduces the infamous red eye effect. I took photos of the same flowers under the identical conditions with both cameras. Though both cameras did well, with the Casio you see the yellow flowers. With the Toshiba you also see the orange centers. Photos.
No, it's not to force people to join AOL. First, not many people would sign up with this service just to use their messenger. There is always Yahoo and MSN which are free. Second, AOL gives away AIM even to non-AOL users. The real reason is because AIM is advertiser supported. Using another program to access AIM keeps you from seeing these ads. So right now, Trillian users can not access AIM. Trillian will continue to work on fixes to get around this and AOL will continue to work on blocks to prevent Trillian users from getting in. The final result will be a lot of time and effort wasted playing baby games instead of making the software better. The big joke is that AOL claims it is working on standardizing the messenger so it will be compatible with Yahoo, MSN and others. If so, then what's the big deal?
But right now, AIM is AOL's playground. Like eBay, they state "my playground, my rules." Remember the kid who owned the only basketball on the block? You knew you had to call every argument in his favor or he took the ball and went home. Right or wrong, stupid or not, AOL has the right to block access to their services.
Just in case it gets taken down, here is a synopsis
States propose national ID system Reuters, January 10, 2002
State and federal authorities are working to develop new identity cards that could be easily checked nationwide and contain digitized features that would be difficult to forge. A group of state drivers-license agencies plans to unveil on Monday a set of standards that would enable authorities to instantly check identities and possibly criminal backgrounds across state lines. Meanwhile, Congress has directed the Department of Transportation to develop a set of standards on its own.
The plans could create a de facto national ID card by linking the databases behind the nation's 200 million state-issued drivers' licenses.
Encoded "biometric" data such as fingerprints, face scans, or retina scans could provide unforgeable proof of identity and linked state databases could prevent individuals from getting multiple IDs. States commonly only require a Social Security card and a birth certificate as proof of identity, both of which can easily be forged. State IDs may also contain a machine-readable bar code containing biometric and other data and could eventually allow link to the FBI or other federal agencies. Nine states already incorporate some sort of biometric data, a spokesman said, while 26 use the special bar codes.
A 4.2 megapixel for under $350?
The Toshiba PDR-M81 is a 4.2 megapixel zoom camera. A month ago it was selling for $600 and was considered a good deal even then. In a test of six 4+ megapixel cameras, it came in third. Now this may not sound like much of an endorsement, but the article pointed out that it was $200 less than the next expensive camera and $400 less than the cameras that did better. So while you can buy a better camera, you have to be ready to spend close to $1,000 to do so.AOL IM Battle Continues
You have friends who are using AOL along with its Instant Messenger (AIM). You have friends on Yahoo who use Yahoo Instant Messenger. Other friends using MSN. Then there is ICQ and a handfull of others. You don't want to open up 3 or 4 different programs just to be in touch with all of them. Can you imagine if you had to separate email programs to email AOL users, Yahoo users, Hotmail users, etc? So a startup company called Cerulian Studios created Trillian, an instant messenger that talks to AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and IRC. All was fine except that AOL locked them out. A while back, MSN tried to make their messenger compatible with AIM and AOL blocked them out. AOL claims that anyone using their network can be a "hacker." I suspect the real reason has to do with profit.National ID Card on the Way
In the last issue I mentioned that some believe the lower crime rate in Japan may be due in part to the National ID card each citizen must carry. In the wake of the horrific attacks carried out by terrorists with false identification, the United States is finally recognizing the need for an identification system that 1) is difficult to forge and 2) will tie together information from many different state and federal agencies.Free Digital TV
ZDNet article
Just in case it gets taken down, here is a synopsis
Will digital TV give cable TV the boot? By John G. Spooner, ZDNet News, January 14, 2002
A new low-cost digital television chip from Philips Semiconductors is likely to give cable TV a run for its money--without monthly bills. Philips introduced the new chip, dubbed SAA7108A/09A HD-CODEC. The codec acts as a translator, decoding digital TV signals and allowing them to be viewed on a television or computer displays. The chip is the first to combine the two standards for digital television, known as standard definition and high definition, or SDTV and HDTV. The chip comes at a time when broadcasters are beginning to transmit standard digital television. Most stations are making the transition now, having been mandated by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to begin transmissions by May 1.
As little as $18 when purchased in mass quantities, manufacturers could produce low-price digital TV receivers that by the end of the year will make digital available to the masses for free, analysts said. Though HDTV is better known and offers a better quality picture, SDTV is more readily available, say analysts. This format is roughly up to two times better in quality than standard broadcast TV, that could pose a threat to cable.
Using the SDTV format, broadcasters can fit about five channels in their own slice of bandwidth, analysts said. With additional channels available for free, consumers might find it an attractive alternative to cable. SDTV is free as long as you have the right tuner for it. The new $18 Philips chip will make it possible for televisions and computers to tune in to these new channels. This chip could enable low cost DTV receivers (such as set-top boxes)…by the end of 2002. Whereas the cheapest HDTVs are about $2,000, set-tops using the new Philips chip could cost as little as $200 to start.
Just in case it gets taken down, here is a synopsis
LCDs boom while price hikes loom By Michael Kanellos and Richard Shim, ZDNet News, January 14, 2002
Last year, consumers bought 13.5 million flat-panel monitors, more than double the 6.4 million shipped in 2000. In 2002, 23.5 million are expected find their way to consumers and businesses, fueled in part by the cool factor and by efforts of Dell Computer, Apple Computer and others to promote the space- and energy-saving screens.
Unfortunately for the industry, growth alone doesn't translate directly to profit. Because of excess factory capacity and price wars in 2001, many manufacturers involved in the industry had to sell their products below cost. But that scenario is likely to change this year. Increasing costs of components and rising consumer demand will likely lead to sporadic shortages, fewer discounts and higher prices on select products. Despite this, manufacturers may still see potential profits erode through competition.
Bruce Berkoff, executive vice president at LCD maker LG Philips LCD, said that he's been predicting a shortage for some time and sees it as part of a cycle that consists of two-year periods of oversupply and two-year periods of shortage, causing price fluctuations. Berkoff anticipates an industrywide shortage as early as mid-2002 that will last through 2003.
"Monitor prices fell too low, too fast and then demand grew so fast that supply can't keep up," Berkoff said. Berkoff expects prices for 15-inch LCD monitors to increase from around $200 to $300 now to up to $500 this year. He also expects 17-inch and 18-inch displays to become more mainstream with prices ranging from $700 to $900.
Although supply still outstrips demand, the LCD glut is expected to begin to dry up and prices are likely to rise. Corporations tend to be the biggest buyer of LCD panels and price usually isn't the first priority for them. Driving the demand are notebooks, which are becoming a larger percentage of the overall PC market. Consumer electronics devices that use LCD screens, such as cell phones and handhelds, use small screens and thus haven't affected supply very much. Another consumer electronics product category that may affect supply in the future is televisions with LCDs.
NH Techno Glass, one of the bigger LCD glassmakers in the world, was closed recently because of a boron gas spill and will not be able to supply LCD glass substrate until February or March, according to reports. Meanwhile, Taiwanese LCD monitor makers are in the process of lowering shipment targets by 10 percent to 20 percent. At the same time, an expansion of LCD manufacturing facilities in Korea from Sharp, Samsung and LG Philips means that more supply is on the horizon. And like in 2000, an influx of products could depress prices.
LCD manufacturers are working on other types of display technology, such as organic light-emitting diode displays. But it will be at least 10 years before any of them can replace LCDs.
Just in case it gets taken down, here is a synopsis
Dueling DVD formats face off By Richard Shim, ZDNet News, January 10, 2002
At separate, simultaneous events at the CES show, the Recordable DVD Council and the DVD+RW Alliance brought together partners to discuss their efforts so far. As the DVD rewritable market heats up, a lot is riding on which format, if any, becomes dominant.
The Recordable DVD Council advances products approved by the DVD Forum, which consists of companies that manufacture discs and drives for the DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD-R formats. The forum includes companies such as Hitachi, Pioneer and Panasonic. Its rival, the DVD+RW Alliance, supports the DVD+RW format. Its member companies include Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and Sony.
The Recordable DVD Council group is also counting on DVD Multi to help sales. The new specification allows future drives to read all three DVD Forum formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM. Hitachi is expected to release a drive based on the specification early this year. But John Spofford, chairman of the DVD+RW Alliance and an HP vice president, said there are downsides to Multi DVD mainly that it doesn't preserve the investment that consumers have made in DVD drives that they bought before the spec came out.
DVD+RW discs cost about $16 each, but a price drop is expected by the end of the month. As for consumer preference, DVD-RW is seen as mainly for people looking to record video and then play it on consumer DVD players. That's because to store new files, the disc must first be erased entirely. The DVD+RW and DVD-RAM formats are seen as having the upper hand for data storage because they allow people to store and erase files in the same way they can on a hard drive. The software for DVD+RW drives does not yet enable people to randomly store data, but a software patch will be available soon. DVD+RW supporters also consider their format good for recording and playing back video because it is compatible with many consumer DVD players on the market.
Alkalines are the batteries of choice for devices you don't use very often. While NiMHs and NiCads are always "self-discharging" and thus have a limited shelf life, alkalines can sit for a long time (check the label) and still be fresh when you need them.
Comment: What this means is that alkaline batteries lose less power sitting around than NiCad and Nimh. Until I got used to it, I would fully charge my Nimh batteries and then stick them in my camera bag. Weeks later when I put them in the camera, they were dead. So if your batteries die on you, don't run to the store and buy Nimh. Chances are they won't work until charged. However, when fully charged, they should last about three times longer than Alkaline and can be recharged to full power hundreds of times.
NiCads--and I think NiMHs have this in common--tend to work just fine and then run out of power pretty much all at once. This means everything is fine until the MP3 player you're using (or whatever) just stops. If you are accustomed to the discharge rate of alkalines, which just sort of trail off as the voltage drops, this sudden cut-off can be a surprise. (Yes, I have seen this happen with Nimh batteries. That is why I recommend you always keep a spare set in the charger.)
I need to dispel an urban legend that surrounds NiCads--the so-called "memory effect." In this legend, NiCads that are routinely discharged to a certain level and then recharged will develop a "memory," and then die suddenly if you try to discharge them any deeper than they are used to. Research has shown that this so-called memory effect doesn't exist, and we need not worry about it.
(I can't state for a certainty that it does or doesn't exist, but I have had camcorder batteries that only lasted a few minutes despite being charged for hours. After putting them in a charger that does a deep discharge, they recovered and lasted longer. If there is no memory effect, there must be some other explanation for why the deep discharge works.)
Another note: For Nimh batteries there are slow rechargers (8-16 hours) and fast rechargers (1-2) hours. Manufacturers claim that Nimh batteries can be recharged a thousand times. My own feeling is that this claim is probably similar to the "miles per gallon" claims of car manufacturers and in reality after about 400 or so charges, they will probably stop working. Still, at $2 a battery, even if you recharge them 5 times you have still saved money over alkalines. One thing I have been advised is that faster chargers shorten the battery life by a whopping 90%. The same manufacturers who claim they can be recharged 1000 times also warn that if you use a fast charger, you will only be able to recharge them about 100 times before they stop working. Again, at $2 a battery you might want to sacrifice battery life for quick charging. Take into account the higher cost of fast chargers (about $35) vs that of slow chargers (about $7).
My answer is both yes and no. The easy and free access to the Internet led to many "busines" people putting up "web sites" that are little more than a joke. We have all see the auctions on ebay from sellers who do not have the ability to write a coherent sentence or deal with the public. I'm sure many of us have also seen websites put together by similar folk. An unregulated Internet, where everyone is free to post whatever they want and submit it to the same search engines, would result in chaos. Do you really want to do a search on say, laser printers, and get back 5,000 results, a few hundred of which will be some high school kids whining about how their printers suck? In the absences of a better way to rate web sites so that the better ones end up at the top of the listings (and a better way to provide an incentive for the search engines to stay in business and improve their products), charging for listings appears to be the answer. And while a business should be willing to spend $500 to get their name up there, whining high school kids won't pay that kind of money for the priviledge of announcing that some product sucks.
Does paying for search engine positioning really work? My answer is a resounding maybe. It all depends on who you pay. As previous articles (and my own experience) has shown, there are many programs that are simply ineffective. Search Engine Smarts, run by our guest reporter Irving Weiss, was the first (and so far only) program that actually gave me a significant return on my investment. Do a search for digital cameras in Google, Yahoo, MSN and several others. I'm sure you will find that www.ygoodman.com shows up near the top of every list. This is not a happy accident of random submission. This is because the Search Engine Smarts program is constantly reviewing the statistics, carefully fine-tuning the keywords and resubmitting the site as necessary.
Irving Weiss - Search Engine Smarts 917-957-6907 sales@searchenginesmarts.com
Someone else listed halogen spotlights for a truck. Every few minutes he returned to the auction to add another notice. "Don't bother to email me to say you can get it cheaper from some guy named Jose in Tijuana, Mexico." "Don't email me to say you can find it cheaper at Walmart's. This is a genuine..." Finally he added, "I have had it with you nasty emailers. Just bid or shut up. If it doesn't sell, I'm setting it on fire. Okay?"
I don't know if these auctions will still be up but here are the links:
Windows XP Error list (from the free Langa newsletter at langa.com)
push the freakin button Ever have a button or dialog pop up that you just want to close? This little program can be set to do it for you.
clipcacheplus Keeps a list of all the items you copied to the clipboard so you can bring any of them back.
Trend Micro Anti Virus Site - a virus scanner that works off the web
Want to comment? Email ccs@ygoodman.com
Reducing Credit Card Fraud
article on the siteComments on Batteries
This is an excerpt from a longer article by David Coursey of ZDnet, along with my comments. The complete article may still be available at ZD Net.Search Engine Smarts
Editor's comment: Once upon a time, there were many services that allowed you to list your site for free with many search engines. But as advertising revenue on the web declined and many of the free services went bust, the ones that remained became THE place to list. Naturally, to stay afloat, they had to start charging. Have those fees blocked the smaller companies from competing effectively?the Rising Cost of Search Engines by Irving Weiss
Here are some of the startup costs for being listed in Search Engines. Yahoo is now at $299 per year and so is LookSmart.
Inktomi paid inclusion is $39 per year for the first URL and $25 per year for each additional URL. AltaVista's paid inclusion is $78 per year for the first URL and $58 for URLs two through ten. Assuming you only pay for your main page to be listed in all of those places, we're talking about $715.00 for your first year. Now add Pay Per Click engines like Overture and you are now at $1000 or more. Editor's note: this is for random submission. You submit your site and hope you wind up at the top of the search. Search Engine Optimization by specialists like myself start at $500. Editor: To me, this is the most important part. What good is paying Yahoo $299 to be number 951 in the search? It's the search engine specialist's job to put you and keep you at the top of the list and that is what the extra fee is for.Just for Laughs
Ebay has provided a few good laughs this week. Someone listed a piece of cardboard for sale with very detailed information. "This piece of cardboard is in good condition with a bent corner. It is 6 inches long by 5 inches wide. This translates to so many millimeters." He went on to discuss the thickness, tensile strength, possible uses, etc for a page. The auction started at a penny and several bidders went at it furiously, bringing it up one cent at a time, to over $7.00. There was a retraction when one bidder said, "I didn't realize it had a bent corner."
000 - Unexpected Intelligent User Detected; Please Reload Everything
001 - Intimidation Failed; Attempting to Crash Repeatedly
002 - Erroneous Error; No Error Occurred (Yet)
003 - RAM Depleted; Annex Japan (Y/N)?
004 - Deluxe Error. Please Send $75 to Upgrade Your Error
005 - Long File Name Error; Tape Erased to Make Room for Filename
006 - Insufficient RAM to Crash Properly; Attempting Fake Crash
008 - This License Has Expired; Please Purchase Another Copy
009 - Error Buffer Overflow; Too Many Errors
00A - Non-Microsoft Application Encountered
00B - Push Error; Removing Files to Make Room for Advertisement
00C - Windows Loaded Correctly This Time
00F - Reserved for Future Coding Errors
010 - Virus Error - Other Applications Will Be Closed Instead
012 - Cash Underflow - Credit Card Number Will Be Assimilated
013 - Keyboard Error; User Must Learn to Slow Down
014 - User Error; Reading License Agreement Mandatory to Continue
015 - Error Message Deleted
016 - Expected Error Did Not Occur; Attempting to Restart Error Sequence
017 - Multitasking Attempted; System Confused
018 - Network Error - Your Crash Will Be Replicated to All Stations
019 - Freedom-of-Choice Error; Select a Microsoft Browser To Continue
01A - Insult Detected -- Your Bill Gates Joke Will Be Deleted
01B - Error Removing Temp File; a Permanent File Will Be Substituted
01C - Wrong Disk Formatted. Sorry About That.
01D - Mandatory Error Inserted to Meet Error Quota
01E - Please Insert Your Favorite Error Here
01F - Error In Progress; Please Wait....
020 - Unknown Error Occurred But Was Lost. Windows Will Try To Remember
021 - Error Parsing Error List; Please Wait For Next Error
022 - Upgrade Error; Please Format Your Drive And Reload Everything
Useful Sites
Drivers This site has the URLs for hundreds of drivers and DLLs by manufacturer and category.