SPAUG Newsletter May 2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes from the Prez
by Jim Dinkey
At the last General Meeting, several people wanted me to send to them or make available the URLs for a number of subjects. Please
with a message describing what you needed. Also, check the meeting notes to see if some of the desired information is reported.
Earthlink is going after spammers! They seem to have the best means currently of controlling spam in that at the beginning of next month a mechanism will be put into place by Earthlink that will ask a sender to respond to an authorization request - something an automated mail generator will be ill-equipped to do. Earthlink estimates that about 80% of their users will avail themselves of the new, free service. I will be part of that 80%. If your ISP isn't implementing some sort of effective anti-spam procedure, it is time to dump it in favor of Earthlink. Earthlink has had a long-standing policy of no spam and has enforced it since inception. They have had over 100 lawsuits against spammers with a good percentage of the results being favorable. Precisely what the grounds are would be interesting if someone would research the subject.
The above discussion is in no way denigrates the current efforts of the various superpowers in this country - Microsoft and Congress to declare that spam is illegal. It appears that, finally, some legal basis for stopping spammers will be enacted. Too bad that off shore spammers were not consulted about the changes in the rules. At least spamming will not be legal anymore. I expect that the ADV letters required in the title will help somewhat, but I really expect that we all will have to refuse to deal with any e-mail that comes from abroad as junk because all the spammers will do is move off shore or go through a server that is off shore.
Apparently AOL changed their spam control policy quite some time ago in that they evidently changed the MARKETING PREFERENCES that you may have told AOL to not send you any advertising from their supporters.
Evidently, AOL changed their Terms and Conditions such that AOL now expires the permission once a year. - you have to go to (keyword) MARKETING PREFERENCES and reset them to your desires.
Our speaker for June is Les Laky, former principal in ISP Channel internet provider and current principal and founder of DomainKeep and Co-founder, Fiber Internet Center. See:
www.domainkeep.com
for a bit of insight into our speaker's activities. I'm sure he will be discussing the registration and domain name activity.
It appears after a three year run that there is no longer a need for the Clinic. So rather than scheduling the Clinic as top priority, I am going to consider other activities primary and if someone needs to call, we will try to work them in. As usual, there is no fee for the morning for SPAUG members (one of the perks of being a SPAUG member) and if the problems are time consuming, we will negotiate what we do with the afternoon.
One of the thoughts about what to do with Saturday is to pick subjects to entertain for the day. One of the key ones is to set up machines for intrusion protection and spam control utilizing Norton Anti Virus, MailWasher and Zone Alarm along with SpyBot. Let me know what you think.
Three persons have suggested utilities for the upcoming SPAUG CD MID03. While we will already have begun the current CD, you are invited to join us on a Saturday session to see how we are doing.
Rather than just going to the same restaurant before each meeting, if we can handle the coordination problems, I propose that we move around a lot - all within a few minutes of the Elks Lodge where we will again be meeting starting June 11.
Your inputs are requested concerning suggestions for future speakers. I am running dry at the moment and your favorite corporation or person would be most welcome. Some of the best speakers have come from member's suggestions of corporations or activities that were unknown to me.
[ TOP ]
General Meeting Notes 14 May
by Stan Hutchings
Administrivia
- The members present voted to return to the Elks Lodge, as of the next General Meeting 11 June. There will be a charge (to SPAUG) of $50 for the room, which includes coffee (but not snack items). The Lodge would like to invite SPAUG members to join, if they so desire. Jim Dinkey can give you more information. When asked why members preferred the Lodge to Unity Church, reasons were price (half as much), more room, convenient location, better restaurants nearby, a bar.
- It is time to put together a new CD. Several people have submitted programs, and more are hereby solicited. If you have a useful utility, especially if it is Public Domain or Shareware, let Jim Dinkey know.
- A volunteer to organize cookies and snacks is needed for the June meeting. Contact Jim Dinkey. If no volunteer steps forward, there will be no goodies next month to go with the coffee.
- LinuxSIG will be the last Wednesday of the month. The June meeting will be at Jim Dinkey's at 7:15. We will investigate presentation programs (equivalents to Microsoft PowerPoint).
CrossTalk/Random Access
- Q: A problem with Norton Ghost 2003 to create a backup; error message that target drive is too small, even though amount of data to back up is less than the target drive's size.
A: There are at least two ways around this. By default, Ghost checks to be sure the target is as large or larger, and if not, warns you. One option is to repartition the source disk, making partitions smaller than the target drive. Then just back up the partition. Alternatively, if you are really sure the target will hold all the backup data, there is an "ignore size differential" option somewhere. Ghost Help will probably have this information.
- Q: Outlook Express has started freezing up.
A: First try scanpst.exe to check the Read the Microsoft OLEXP: How to Back Up and Recover Outlook Express Data article. If that doesn't stop the problems, don't remove it, just reload it. Reloading does not delete or overwrite existing messages and addresses (although it would be a good idea to back up all DBX, PST and WAB files first).
- Q: My Win ME system is running slower and slower.
A: you may be a victim of malware, little programs that infect your computer and run in the background, sending information about you and what you're back to their creators. Get rid of them with Spybot or the equivalent (Link to SPAUG Security Page - Antispyware).
- Jim Dinkey has the suspicion that Win98 may not be supported by Microsoft for much longer; they want you to upgrade to XP. Win2000 may also be not much longer supported. There will probably continue to be security upgrades because of product liability concern (lawsuits). But don't expect improvements to the components.
- Q: How and where can I get my own domain?
A: Jim Dinkey suggests Les Laky, a local person at 2635 Park Boulevard, Palo Alto, phone 330-1525 Fax: 650-330-1744 (here is a short bio), would be a good place to start - he provided us with the pa-spaug.org domain for $75 for 5 years. His [disguised] email is keeperATdomainkeepDOTcom.
- Q: How do I control spam?
A: Use Mailwasher. It uses a database of known spammers. Report spam to Spamcop, they add to the database used by Mailwasher. Engage Spaminator if you use EarthLink as your ISP. Mailwasher and other antispam links and info on the SPAUG Security page.
- Q: I recently got a virus in my email.
A: Update your virus checker daily, before getting your mail.
- Q: How can I repair a damaged CD?
A: Jim Dinkey has a CD Rescue Machine that he has successfully used to repair a disk caught in the CD drawer as it closed. They are available at Fry's/Microcenter for about $25, or you can use his - bring the CD to a Saturday clinic.
Presentation - Jan Altman
Jan Altman gave an excellent demonstration of the technique to filter data in Excel. Here is the handout Filtering Data. Then she demonstrated numerous Excel Tips & Tricks.
P.S. - For those of you who have not yet discovered www.allexperts.com, you've got a gold mine awaiting you! The site -- the oldest of its kind on the net -- is comprised of experts from every field imaginable who volunteer their time to answer questions. You can ask questions about computers, gardening, travel, raising kids, health, religion .... geez, you name it.
To ask a question, you navigate through the menus until you come to the right category. You're then presented with a list of experts who have volunteered in that category. Read through their little blurbs and choose one to ask a question. You're supposed to get an answer within three days, but I find that I always get an answer either the same day, or at most the next.
I think this would be a great resource for those of you who need some help from time to time. It's really a wonderful service. And if you have an Excel question, I'm one of about 36 experts in the Excel category!
[ TOP ]
Planning Meeting Notes
by Stan Hutchings
- The meeting was held at Bev Altman's house; attendees: Jim Dinkey, Dick Delp, John Sleeman, Bev Altman, Susan Mueller, John Buck, Stan Hutchings, Nat Landes.
- The members present voted at the General Meeting to return to the Elks Lodge, as of the next General Meeting 11 June. There will be a charge of $50 for the room, which includes coffee (but not snack items). The Lodge will be available for the next five years or so, at least, so we should not have to worry about being evicted. Jim is the Treasurer, so he can put in a good word for SPAUG. We need to decide where to have the pre-meeting dinner: Su Hong or Dinah's (or some other location to be determined). The usual dinner attendees will be polled for their favorite.
- Nat reported we have about $8300 in the bank.
- The new projector is still being researched. The problems Jan had getting a clear image on screen highlight the problem we have continuing to use the current one.
- Future meeting presenters - Microsoft reneged on the June meeting. Currently we have no speakers lined up. We need speakers, suggestions are urgently requested.
Brainstorming gave the following suggestions: Les Laky, local ISP who runs DomainKeep; Roxio CD recording; Zone Alarm; Inxight, an airport security startup; Gilman Louie of the CIA; Quicken, financial and tax programs; Voice recognition software, Dragon Software and/or IBM ViaVoice; mapping programs that use GPS (Nat Landes' Sony ETAK system); Show & Tell sessions on video editing, sound editing, digital photography, etc.; WebSIG demo of the club website; using Excel and Word to create mailing labels (S. Mueller); genealogy presentation (S. Mueller contact).
- Jim Dinkey is setting new ground rules for the Saturday morning clinic. It's by appointment only, free for SPAUG members from opening until 11:30 AM, $35 for non-SPAUG people. Afternoon work is $20/hour for all (if your problem is really serious, expect to continue into the afternoon). He will dedicate some Saturday sessions to other club functions, includingCD creation; 31 May at 9:30 is the first CD session.
- The LinuxSIG meets the last Wednesday of the month. The June meeting will be at Jim Dinkey's at 7:15. We will investigate presentation programs (equivalents to Microsoft PowerPoint).
- Susan Mueller will send Publicist information to Maury Green, copy to Jim Dinkey. Maury is officially our publicist, but he is very busy, and needs backup and support.
- WebSIG - Meeting Tuesday 27 May at Stan's house. There is a new Security club page. Hopefully we can get members' input, and link to useful advice, utilities and programs.
[ TOP ]
