Read any good books lately?
Paperback books that is. If you read a lot of paperback books then you really need to check out
www.paperbackswap.com - you just might be able to save a great deal of money. I explored the site pretty thoroughly and it looks very legitimate.
By the way, I've come across a couple of Web sites that cooridinate the swapping of music CD's and DVD's - I'll explore a little further and then let you know what I find.
Virus Alert:
If you receive an e-mail with the subject line "
Tsumani Donation, Please Help!", and it comes with an attachment entitled "
tsunami.exe" - DO NOT open that e-mail. Delete it, obliterate it from your computer! That ".exe" file is an executable program - which means when you click on it, you are telling your computer to launch that program. You don't want to do that - it is a virus.
You can learn more about this latest virus by going to
www.winantivirus.com
Be careful out there.
Stealing it Back?
Click here to visit a Web site entitled "Steal it Back". The name is sort of misleading because the site is actually an online auction of items from police property rooms. Rooms containing lost and stolen goods recovered by departments around the nation. A quick exploration of the site revealed quite a variety of goods to bid on. One very nice thing that I found out was that if you've had anything stolen and it had a serial number on it, and that item shows up at the "Steal it Back" Web site, after notifying them (the auction folks) - they will return that particular item to the police department in which it came from. All you'll have to do is make a trip down to the "PD" and reclaim your property.
Have fun.
A New Search Engine:
Internet search engines are great things! More and more new search engines come online every month and the latest and greatest is called "Singing Fish". The new search engine specializes in locating multi-media files on the Web, files such as music, video, Flash, etc.
Click here to visit "Singing Fish" and give the free service a try. I was able to find old-time radio broadcasts from the 40's and 50's in just a few minutes.
Internet Immunization:
I've come across a very good article about keeping your computer safe on the Internet. What I like about the article is that it is written in very plain language so that the average Internet user can understand it. The piece also covers all of the items that I've been telling people to do for years now. I've copied and pasted the column into this Blog for the sake of simplicity, trying to access the material with a link is quite complicated:
Monday, January 10, 2005
By Rob Pegoraro
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON - To see the e-mail I get every day from readers about security issues is to develop a deep discomfort with the state of computing today. Keeping a Windows PC safe can demand a high degree of vigilance - imagine if cars needed the same constant care and feeding.
And yet all these attacks by viruses, worms, spyware and browser hijackers could have been prevented with some initial effort. It's completely feasible to put a computer on the Internet - even one running Windows, the most attacked, least secure operating system around - and never suffer a single successful attack.
Here's what to do to make that possible, starting - as many people will this week - when you take it out of the box and plug it in. Most of these steps apply only to Windows, but some pertain to Mac OS X as well.
Step one is to barricade your Internet connection with a firewall. Without this, network worms such as Blaster can try to sneak onto your computer the instant it goes online, even if you don't run a single Internet program.
On any Windows XP machine running Microsoft's Service Pack 2 update, a firewall should be on already. (If a new Windows computer doesn't have SP2, as evidenced by a Security Center control panel, take it back to the store - there's no excuse for that not to be preinstalled.) On an older Windows machine, open the Network Connections control panel, right-click the icon for your connection, click the Advanced tab and click the checkbox under Internet Connection Firewall.
On a Mac, the built-in firewall must be switched on: Open the System Preferences window, select the Sharing category and then click the Firewall tab.
Step two is to download and install every security patch available. Don't do anything else online until the process concludes. In Windows, select Windows Update from the Start Menu's All Programs listing; in Mac OS X, select Software Update from the Apple-icon menu. Then set your computer to download future fixes automatically (you should need to do this only in pre-SP2 versions of Windows XP, where you'd open the System control panel and click the Automatic Updates tab).
The next three steps apply only to Windows; Mac users can skip ahead.
Step three is to activate and update the antivirus software on your computer. Most new PCs include only 90 days of updates, after which your protection will evaporate - without a rap sheet on the latest viruses, your antivirus software can't identify them. Find out when your free coverage will end, then make a note in your calendar to renew your subscription before then. (If paying $20 or so for a year of virus protection bugs you, try repairing an infection.)
Step four is to update three core Internet programs, since older versions can suffer from security flaws. Get the latest versions of Microsoft's Windows Media Player (www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/), RealNetworks' RealPlayer (www.real.com) and Sun Microsystems' Java software (www.java.com).
Step five is a big one: Download the free Mozilla Firefox Web browser (www.mozilla.org) and use that instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer whenever possible. Firefox is not only simpler and more convenient than Internet Explorer, it's also much more secure - since it's not hooked so tightly into Windows, it can't act as a transmission belt for viruses. And by not running Microsoft's ActiveX software, Firefox blocks a common route for spyware.
One thing you don't need to worry about on the Web - contrary to what some security programs suggest - is browser cookies. These small, inert text files are placed on your computer by most Web sites to customize your use of them; for example, The Post's site uses cookies to store registration info. These site-specific cookies are harmless.
Other, "third-party" cookies are set by ad networks to track ad viewership across multiple sites. They also pose no security threat. They do raise some privacy issues, but they can be easily blocked by any new browser without impeding your Web use. In either case, fretting over the nonexistent threat of cookies is a pointless distraction.
The sixth and last step is to use the most effective security mechanism ever invented, the human brain. In two words, be skeptical. Don't open unexpected e-mail attachments - even if they come from a friend's e-mail address, since viruses scour infected PCs for e-mail addresses to impersonate. If you get an e-mail allegedly from your bank, ignore any links in it; log in by typing the bank's address into your browser yourself.
Most important, think twice about adding new, unknown software. What makes a program trustworthy? If a computer-savvy friend or a trusted publication says it's safe, that helps. If the program is available as "open source," meaning its programming code is free for anyone to inspect, that's another selling point.
If, after all these precautions, a malicious program does find its way onto your computer, Windows users can try using the System Restore utility to reset the computer to an older configuration (go to the Start Menu, select All Programs, then scroll up to the Accessories folder, then select its System Tools sub-folder). You can also limit the ability of other people to install software by giving them separate user accounts with limited access rights (select the Users system-preferences pane on a Mac, the User Accounts control panel on Windows).
But there is no replacement, on any computer, for common-sense caution, the same thing that keeps people safe in the face of far worse dangers in the real world.
The ultimate in connectivity:
Police Officer: Sir, have you been drinking? You were driving all over the road.
Driver: Oh, no officer - I don't even drink at all.
Police Officer: Well sir, can you explain then your irratic driving?
Driver: Well, I reckon' it was because I was trying to check my e-mail on my laptop.
Police Officer: At 70 MPH sir?
Driver: Oh yeah, I've got that new satellite Internet service for my car - it works like a champ!
Now, that is a scary scenario isn't it?
What if I told you that the technology behind creating such a scenario has just been showcased in Las Vegas?
Click here to read a breaking news story about it and then get ready to be on the look-out for highly distracted drivers!
Speaking of shopping:
If you love Niceville and Valparaiso, Florida (Boggyville) as much as I do, you'll need to stock up on some Boggyville clothing and merchandise. Check-out the "
Boggyville General Store" and you'll see that there is something for everyone there.
Shop till you drop:
And you thought you were all done with shopping right? The popularity of gift cards has radically changed the degree at which folks cut down on shopping after the holidays. I mean, I normally need a good month or so break after the holidays before I start venturing back into a local retail department store - too many bad memories, too many "war" injuries. While you are recovering from your holiday shopping, take a moment to review the gift cards that you have received. Do you really want any items from the merchant who issued any of those cards? If you'd like to unload a card or two, have I got a Web site for you! "
Swap-a-Card" is a brand new service that allows folks to swap gift cards or to just outright sell them online. There is a flat rate fee of $3.99 for all gift cards that are posted at the site - which is reasonable considering that the posting is accessible to millions of folks.
Happy New Year!
