Congress is mulling over just how to control spam in the US Problem is that the spammers are a slimy lot that will with a few strokes, merely use an off-shore blind server to route the spam to you. So much for the legislators.
A couple of weeks ago I attended a Microsoft lecture on spam given by the team in Redmond working on the control of spam at which the figure of an increase of 18% a month was used. Further, Microsoft indicates that it may take about two years for complete effective control.
An aside is that I tried to get a copy of the slides but Microsoft cited privacy concerns - even when it was presented at a public-invited forum.
I went because I have spent time attempting to assure that SPAUG members are set up properly as much as possible to avoid spam.
You can change your e-mail address by closing your current account and opening a replacement, but that is giving in to the spammers.
For a while I was reporting all spam to SpamCop which was helping me psychologically, but the avalanche still was arriving. Now I have taken the tack of receiving the spam, but automating the control and the adjudication of the incoming stream. For someone who knows who might be sending e-mail, an option is to set up the e-mail to only accept known pre-determined senders. I can't do this as I need to accept unknowns that are quite legitimate because of people who go to the SPAUG website and subsequently e-mail me.
So far, the most effective means of controlling spam is to let all the system administrators around keep the SpamCop hit list up to date (updated each minute) and use the results as presented by MailWasher. So get MailWasher. The one that is current. Plug: MAILWASHER FREE DOWNLOAD into GOOGLE and take the gambling option. Note: MailWasher 2.0.40 is current and provides an enhanced interface that allows simple keystrokes to set each selection when arbitrating the incoming spam.
Be sure to turn on the OPTION "Check the origin..."
Because the control of spam is so critical, the Clinic for the next few Saturdays will specialize on the control of spam. So come one, come all to control the scourge. There is an answer for the present situation if properly implemented.
Maximum PC magazine again has placed ZoneAlarm as the most effective and easily manipulated firewall. Vindication. This is part of the clinic activities to assure your computer is not compromised.
For those of you on Windows 2000: Microsoft will be releasing SP4 in a month or two.
Tired of sticking labels on CDs or scribbling whatever onto the face of the CD? Get an Epson 900 printer for $200 and print directly onto the CD. My quite recent prior Epson is now available for $100.
Our July 9 meeting will be at the Computer Museum beginning at 7:15. A few Saturdays ago five of us took the tour to get the reaction and it was very favorable. I will try for a meeting room somewhere so we can have Random Access or we will just have it in the hallway.
Dinner will be at the New Ma's Chinese restaurant at 1477 Plymouth Street. As you travel down Shoreline and pass the Computer Museum on your right, go through the next light and turn left and the very next intersection (no light) and go 100 feet and left into the parking lot. Meet at 6:00 p.m.
So we can have enough docents (and dinner seats), sign up by July 2 for the July 9 tour (and dinner) . Include the name of each person in your party. Also, let me know how many will be at our dinner, so I can have a head count for the restaurant.
Many thanks to Ginny Marley for stepping in for Joan Wheelwright and providing crumpets, cookies and something to hold the coffee in at the last meeting.
Susan Mueller is working on a number of speakers for SPAUG and should be commended.
The SPAUG Mid 03 CD is getting closer. John Sleeman, John Buck, Dick Delp have spent several of their Saturdays putting together the new one which will have significant new programs including inputs into Linux and also will drop off programs that have already been presented. Stay tuned for its formal announcement.
Les Laky gave a presentation on how he runs his ISP.
If you are having a problem with search not finding everything, this is something Microsoft did deliberately, to avoid having many "irrelevant" files found. Only files for which a "filter" is defined will be found by the Search function. There are two things you can do about the problem. If you want to specifically include a few file extensions that are currently ignored, you can try assigning the plain text filter to those types. This is handled using REGEDIT. Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.??? (where .??? is the extension you want searched). If it does not have a subkey named PersistentHandler, create such a subkey. Double-click the (Default) value for that subkey and set its data to {5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}. Repeat for any other file extensions you want included.
The other way involves a setting in the Content Indexing service.
NOTE: Both of these techniques require that you first update to the latest XP service pack.
On shared folders - if you turn off "Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)" in My Computer\Tools\Folder Options\View tab (bottom of the list in the Advanced Settings Window), file sharing will revert to the same behavior as Win2K. Note: this will only work on XP Pro. If you have XP Home, you're stuck with Simple File Sharing.
This one drove me nuts for a couple of days. I just upgraded from an old NT4 box to a new XP Pro box. On the XP machine, when downloading a .jpg file, it assigns a .jpeg extension. There is no choice, other than manually renaming the downloaded file to assign the .jpg extension to the file. I use an old version of Paint Shop Pro (ver 4), which doesn't recognize .jpeg, but will recognize .jpg. As a result, I had to rename every file I download to convert the extension from .jpeg to .jpg. After much swearing at Microsoft, knashing of teeth, etc., I found the solution for at least XP Pro, which requires a registry edit. CAUTION - DO NOT EDIT THE REGISTRY UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
Downloads of .jpg files from the internet will now download by default with a .jpg extension instead of a .jpeg extension.
All in all, I like XP (after converting it to "classic" in every respect); however Microsoft always throws in a few curves like the above with new OSs. My advice to them with regard to the XP GUI, which I HATE: You had a great GUI in the "Classic" look. It's was never broken, so don't fix it. I've had a few employees buy new XP Pro machines. They've turned them on, been confronted with the XP GUI, and been totally stumped as to what to do next. This has necessitated several trips to employees homes to "fix" the GUI. I think the marketing department must have told the developers that they had to make it look like a new OS in order to sell it. The default XP GUI is HORRIBLE.
This morning (6/9/03), I received an email that had something I don't recall seeing in any previous email -- at the right-hand side of the address area was small phone index card. When I put my cursor over it, an outline appeared, indicating that it was clickable. Clicking it opened the familiar "Open Attachment Warning" window, even the message didn't show that it had an attachment. I chose to save, and learned that the file had a vcf extension. It turned to be the Address Book info for the message sender. I didn't know this info could be added, and wondered how it was done.
I learned that it's called a "business card" and can be specified (in Outlook Express 6 and probably others) at the bottom of the main-window Tools/Options/Compose pane -- select the Mail: box and a drop-down list of available cards is displayed. Select the one you want. When you send a message, that card will appear at the right-hand side of the "From:" line of each message. If you leave the box checked and don't want the card in some message, you can click the icon in that message and select "Delete." If you don't want to include your "business card" in all your messages, unselect the Mail: box described above; your card selection will be greyed out. Although the card won't be attached to every message, you can choose to add it to an individual message by clicking Insert on the message's toolbar and then selecting "My Business Card".
If you have Windows 2000 and you have knowledge of how the SP4 upgrade is
doing, please both pro and con. For more information on the Service Pack, there is an announcement (not a review) Microsoft Releases Windows 2000 SP4 by Peter Galli at eWeek Online.
So far I have feedback of Pro - 0 Con - 1, which is not a very good
representation.
If you do give me feedback, I'll add you to the Pro and Con list.
There are two philosophies that can be applied here: try it as it is the
latest Microsoft greatest thing
-or-
it is the latest Microsoft foulup.
Windows NT SP6 became, very quickly, SP6a for good reason.
My personal position is to give it at least two weeks and to be watching
the various electronic newsletters that are sensitive to this type of problem.
Further, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
If it is broke, then you ought to create yourself one very good backup
(Ghost floppy works here) and then go ahead - keeping data changes on
another HDD.