PCWize Edition #28 - When modems soar! November 14, 1999 ______________________________________________________________________ Some of you may be wondering why this edition is so early. Some family problems arose last weekend where three separate relatives have become gravely ill. I need a week off to sort out some things. I do *not* expect edition #29 (due to come out on the 21st) to be late however. ------ Your hardworking editor almost went into cardiac arrest a couple of days ago when my daughter (I've told you about her before right? That cute, cuddly, terror of a two year old!) almost ended my on-line capability for a while. I was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of "Fruity 'Os'" with my daughter in my lap as I checked my e-mail. This is a common occurrence in my house, as my daughter will sit on just about anyone within lap sitting distance. Anyway, she decided to jump out of my lap to do whatever it is that two-year olds do when they suddenly jump out of someone's lap, and landed squarely on the telephone cord running from the wall to the laptop PCMCIA modem. I watched in horror as the modem shot from my machine-- and like an overzealous dog on a short leash --snap back when it had reached the end of its line (slightly shorter than normal due to my daughter's foot being on it.) I watched in slow motion as the $149 modem bounced off the floor, a chair leg, and then a wall. It lay there, unmoving, unbreathing. My daughter, of course, is looking at me with the most pitiful expression that she can muster. Even the cat is warily looking at me. I pick up the modem, check its structural integrity (or something like that) and with crossed fingers, slap it back into the laptop. I hear the reassuring beep of Plug-and-Play, and go ahead and click the connect icon. Modem handshaking squeals and whistles never sounded so beautiful as I once again connect at an unbelievably zippy 28.8Kbps rate! I would like to thank USRobotics for making a child resistant modem, and Toshiba for allowing the modem to eject as opposed to letting the X-Jack connector be ripped out. ** Please note that no children, animals, or bowls of "Fruity 'Os'" were injured in the making of this epic adventure. ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff 2. Software Review 3. Cool Sites 4. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's 5. That's the news! 6. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends 7. PCWize Contests and winner announcement If the columns in the below articles appear misaligned, it's because you are using a non-fixed width font. If you would like to see them nice and straight, change your e-mail font to Courier New. ______________________________________________________________________ ** A word from our sponsors ** ------ * LiveWire! Broadcast - Easily locate and play Live Radio and TV stations on the Internet * MediaGrab! - Find and download MP3s and 18 other types of multimedia files. * WebGrab! - Great web tool for viewing and downloading webpage elements. * UsenetGrab! - Integrated Usenet News browser and more. EastBay Technologies - http://www.eastbaytech.com ------ Want to see your advertisement here? Send mail to with the text 'Advertiser' in the SUBJECT line for more information. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff ------ Click here to vote for PCWize as one of the best newsletters in the "E-zines Top Ten Poll"! It's just a click, no need to fill anything out. ------ Come visit the PCWize forum and live chat. You may discuss anything computer related and it's a good place to get help with any computer questions you may have. ______________________________________________________________________ 2. Software Review ------ Name: GIF Animator 4 by Ulead Systems Inc. Genre: Graphics Platform: Win95/98/NT Type/Cost: Shareware/$49.95 USD (Boxed); $39.95 USD (downloadable) Size: 7MB Homepage: Download: I wanted to try my hand at animated GIFs for a couple of things on the PCWize web site. Talk about picking a winner in the first round. GIF Animator 4 has it all. Besides doing all the normal stuff that GIF animators do, it has a pretty decent image editor built right in. It even supports Adobe Photoshop compliant plugins! Here's a deal for you. Don't want to buy the latest and greatest version of GIF Animator? Go here for a FreeBate! What's a FreeBate you ask? It means that you purchase the software, and after sending in the rebate forms, they refund your money. Kind of a convoluted way to give away something for free, but hey. Get GIF Animator 3.0 for FREE (after rebate). ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Cool Sites ------ I've always been fascinated with what can be discovered using science. Forensic science is no exception. While this site could use a little help in the color coordination area, the information is great for the layperson. Discover some of the tips and tricks forensic scientists use to solve crime. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ One thing about my wife's laptop that has come to greatly annoy me (other than the shift key being the same size and next to the up arrow.), is that when I go from a using an external monitor back to the LCD (which means I have to drop resolution), some of my applications open off the screen. Of course, once the title bar of an application is off the screen, you can't do much with it. Here's a tip to get that app' back in its place. 1. First click in the window of the application you need to move. 2. Press 'Alt-Spacebar' to bring up the menu. 3. Press 'M' (for move), or 'S' (to resize). 4. Use your arrow keys to move/resize the window. 5. Press 'Enter' to accept the change, or 'Esc' to cancel. ______________________________________________________________________ 5. That's the news! ------ See what's blowing in the wind concerning consumer rights and SPAM. This is a touchy situation. How much should the government get involved? What constitutes free speech? Does it apply to SPAM? ______________________________________________________________________ 6. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends ------ Before we begin, let me define these for you: Security Issues: These are issues affecting your privacy and security while on the Internet. Most security risks that will be mentioned here are ones concerning holes in software which leak information or will allow people to gain access to private information. Viruses/Trojans/Worms: These will be *real* warnings about new viruses. If I'm warning you of a virus, then you can take it to the bank that I've fully checked its validity first. Hoaxes: The most memorable in all of your minds is most likely the Good Times Virus hoax. These are warnings about some new fangled virus that will wreck your life. The difference between this and other virus warnings is that they aren't for real. Their entire purpose is to scare people and bog down mail servers with all the forwarding going on. The reason I'll be telling you about them is so that you'll be in the know and won't forward them to everyone in your address book. Urban Legends: These are stories that will be computer related, but aren't necessarily virus related. A warning/story moves out of the hoaxes category when it keeps making a comeback. An example of an urban legend would be the one about the FCC allowing phone companies to charge for local access to the ISP in which the cost would be passed onto us as users. ------ Name: VBS/Bubbleboy/.b Category: Worm Well, I've been saying it for a long time now... It finally happened. You can now be "infected" by an e-mail without even opening the attachment. What to look for: Subject: BubbleBoy is back! Message Body: The BubbleBoy incident, pictures and sounds http://www.towns.com/dorms/tom/bblboy.htm What to do: If you see a message matching that subject line, first deactivate the preview pane (Outlook Express only), highlight the message, delete it. Do *not* open it! In the so called name of progress and highly integrated software, Microsoft has pretty much turned everything into a single program. This integration has made it so very easy for one piece of the OS puzzle to allow infection to spread to the other pieces. Now don't get me wrong. I like the fact that I can cut text from Microsoft Word, and paste it right into a spreadsheet. However, I think that much stricter security protocols must exist for interactions between software. For example, my e-mail software of choice is called TheBat!. Because RIT Labs doesn't feel the need to make TheBat! integrate right into the OS, it isn't susceptible to all of these "Melissa" variant type worms/viruses that have been cropping up. Personally, I'm a hard core separatist about my software. I do not use integrated applications, because of my fundamental belief that integrated packages are "Jacks of all trades; master of none." Unfortunately, many people do not share my opinion, and enjoy the much lower learning curve inherent in integrated applications. Ummm. Just noticed that I stepped off on a *huge* tangent. Sorry. Allow me to step off my soapbox and continue with this week's security alert. Going back to where I left off in paragraph one, you should definitely go to the second of the two URLs I've provided below to see how susceptible you are. This bodes badly for the future as we are sure to see many more variants of this worm appear which will carry a much more destructive payload than just e-mailing everyone in your address book. For more information: ______________________________________________________________________ 7. PCWize Contests and Winner Announcement ------ This weeks contest sponsor is Eastbay Technologies and they have generously offered four of their products to be used as prizes in our random drawing contests. Eastbay Technologies offers a wide variety of software to meet many different user's needs. Take a look at some of what they have to offer: * LiveWire! Broadcast - Easily locate and play Live Radio and TV stations on the Internet * MediaGrab! - Find and download MP3s and 18 other types of multimedia files. * WebGrab! - Great web tool for viewing and downloading webpage elements. * UsenetGrab! - Integrated Usenet News browser and more. EastBay Technologies - http://www.eastbaytech.com ------ Each week PCWize holds a random drawing contest and gives away free stuff (usually software) to its subscribers. We will continue to do this as long as there are advertisers who are willing to provide the prizes. If you are such an individual/company, then please contact me at vbok@biogate.com so that we can work a deal. ------ The winner of this week's random drawing contest is: Dave something. ______________________________________________________________________ Well, that's it for this issue! Have a good week and I'll see you in seven days. Leif Gregory Copyright © 1997-99 by Leif Gregory. All rights reserved. You may share this copy of the PCWize newsletter with others as long as it is reprinted in it's entirety to include the copyright notice and subscription directions. If you've received this edition of the PCWize newsletter from a friend or colleague and wish to start receiving your own copy, then click the below link and send the generated e-mail message. I have made every attempt to ensure that all information contained in this newsletter is accurate to the best of my ability. Due to the myriad of possible configurations in the PC platform, information and software discussed here may not always work with your particular configuration. That being said, Leif Gregory and the PCWize newsletter can not be held liable for any damages you may incur either directly or indirectly from the use of anything contained in this newsletter. PCWize does not endorse any of the products or services provided by advertisers in this newsletter. As with anything in life, please check the credibility of the advertiser as well as to use common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. PCWize Editor PCWize Homepage Unsubscribe Back-Edition Titles