PCWize Vol 4, Issue 14 - Mailto: voodoo April 2, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ Last issue I mentioned a tip about enabling or disabling fast shutdown, and that the option to enable or disable it wasn't where it was supposed to be. After scouring around on the Microsoft Knowledgebase, I discovered that Microsoft released an update for Windows 98SE to fix some bugs with shutdown and the option was removed from MSConfig when this patch was installed. ------ >From the people who bring us Maximum PC, a new magazine called Maximum Linux-- which promises to be very enlightening to Linux users --will be publishing its first issue this month. If, like me, you think Maximum PC is the greatest PC magazine out there, then we'll probably like Maximum Linux as well. It's a little pricey for a one year subscription of just six issues, but each issue comes with a CD, and it should be chock full of all sorts of goodies. You can check out their web site at . I'll let you know how their new publication turns out. ------ There are two freebies somewhere in this issue. May the fastest readers win! Only one winner per prize please. ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. HackTech 2. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff 3. Software Review 4. Cool Sites 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's 6. That's the news! 7. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends 8. 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 ** ------ Stay Connected! to AOL, CompuServe, NetO and more! This trusty utility prevents your ISP from disconnecting you. "It's a super product that most, not only AOL, surfers would love to have if they knew it existed" says one user. Free Download at http://www.inklineglobal.net ------ http://www.freecreditanalyzer.com - Get your credit situation analyzed online without affecting your credit report. ------ Want to see your advertisement here? For more information, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ 1. HackTech by TheNMI One way you can spot a true geek is if she or he happens to own more than one type of game machine. Some people (my ex-wife included) consider this to be more insidious than any narcotic addiction - it's LEGAL! In addition to the numerous computers I have, I also own: - Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, and Lynx models. - Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Super Famicom (Japanese version of the Super Nintendo), N64, VirtualBoy, Gameboy, and Gameboy Color. - Sega Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, Saturn, and a Dreamcast (it's thinking...) - Colleco, Intellivision, Odyssy and Odyssey 2, and finally a Playstation (soon to include a Playstation 2!!). Besides the colossal amount of time spent on my backside playing these various systems, it's also been a HUGE investment. It requires something close to the cash resources of a small country to keep feeding these machines - they seem to EAT games at an alarming rate . So now you know my darkest secret (well, one of them anyway) lets get to the point of this whole tirade, which is that it's plain to see I love games, whether on a PC or a console. Now, my problem with PC games is that their controllers usually suck. Right now I'm currently addicted to Quake 3 Tournament and Unreal Tournament - two of the latest FPS (First Person Shooters) 3D games, and I'm always looking to try different controllers out. I've used various mice, trackballs, touchpads, joysticks, pointer sticks, rollerballs, and even the Space Orb. All of these are fine, but I've always thought "Wouldn't it be really cool if I could use controllers from the (many) console systems with my PC games?" Well, I finally found a way to do just that: a program called DirectPadPro . This program-- which happens to be completely FREE --lets you use joysticks from Sony Playstations, Nintendo 64s, Atari Jaguars, and many others, all on your PC! What's the catch, you ask? Well, you have to build the interface, or the connecting device, yourself. Although this task may sound a little daunting, all the diagrams are provided on the web site and the connections are generally just hooking wires from one pin to another with some minimal components thrown in (a few diodes). If you have a friend or two that even THINKS they know how to use a soldering iron, it's quite an easy project to do. About the only one that might give some beginners trouble, is the N64 controller. The N64 interface is decidedly more complex-- so it's best left to the experts --but most all the other interfaces are quite easy. Once up and running, DirectPadPro interfaces almost seamlessly with DirectX 5 or 6, and although there are a few bugs here and there, it greatly increases the Fun-Factor of your gaming experience! Now some of you may be thinking that PC controllers are superior, so why would anyone want to bother going to all this trouble just to use a controller from a Console system? I have just one word for you - Laptop. That's right, what if you use a laptop? I'll bet you 10 to 1 your laptop doesn't have a regular PC joystick connector, as only a few I know of ever came with one. However, the DirectPadPro interface, once built, hooks up through a standard printer port! That's right, you can play Unreal on your P200 Laptop with a Playstation Dual Shock controller! How much cooler can ya get? So the next time you get stuck on one of those long flights, plug in that nifty controller and start counting frags! :) ______________________________________________________________________ 2. 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. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Software Review ------ Name: SiSoft SANDRA 2000 by SiSoftware Genre: System Info Platform: PC Win 9x/00/NT Type/Cost: Freeware (for standard edition) Size: 2.3MB Homepage: Download: SANDRA is an acronym for System ANalyzer Diagnostic Repairing Assistant, and it's a very impressive "Gimme all the dirty details" diagnostic and system information tool. SANDRA comes with 50 modules to test all sorts of stuff in your box as well as some benchmarking modules and report generation modules. If you want the full 70+ modules, you'll have to upgrade to the professional version which costs some dough, but unless you're a info freak like me, then the standard version should do well by you. This tool is one of the very few that I have found to report the true hardware and software in my system. Many other seem to get little details wrong like, oh, for example, saying I have a Celeron processor as opposed the the PIII that's really sitting under the hood! The first thing you'll notice about SANDRA is the totally unconventional interface, but it's a darn cool interface. The second is the level of detailed information it provides, and the ever helpful tips that come up on questionable items. If you just gotta know what makes your box tick, then SiSoft Sandra is gonna make your day. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Cool Sites ------ I decided to take some time this week to introduce you to some web sites and mailing lists run by your fellow readers. A while back I made the offer to include mailing lists and web sites for my readers based on the stipulation that their mailing list had less than 1000 subscribers. I'm now changing that so that anyone who would like to get their stuff listed in PCWize can. The only stipulation now is that you grab the PCWize button from the PCWize web site and put it somewhere on your web site. Send me the URL of the page with the PCWize button that links to the PCWize web site, the info on your stuff, and you'll get seen by over 2000 fellow readers. ------ Tim Larson's Winning Ways: Winning Ways is a free weekly ezine dedicated to methods for enhancing our lives by seemingly simple actions that have a profound effect on our sense of well-being. Subscribe to it free at the web site, or send email to ------ Husain Abbas' GIRing Mail: and his For Teens web site: ______________________________________________________________________ 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ Fun with mailto Usually when you run across a mailto link, it's just the plain-jane basic syntax of . What many people don't know, is that the mailto URL has quite a bit of flexibility and will allow you to create complex hyperlinks. A few of the main uses I have for complex mailto URLs is for subscription and unsubscription from the PCWize newsletter, e-mail handling and filtering, as well as requests for information such as past editions and my public PGP key. Let's start off with the basics and then we'll get into examples. To create a valid mailto URL with all of its functionality, you must use the syntax "mailto:" (without the quotes.) For example: mailto:editor@pcwize.com is considered the correct way to include a mailto URL, but most e-mail applications and WYSIWYG HTML editors will recognize just an e-mail address like editor@pcwize.com. However, to create complex mailto URLS, you will need to use the prefix "mailto:". mailto:editor@pcwize.com?Subject=This_Whole_Thing_Is_Clickable whereas the below is not: editor@pcwize.com?Subject=This_Didn't_Work I didn't test these in all the e-mail applications out there, so some of them may actually recognize the above "bad" example. If it did, great, if it didn't, then your e-mail software follows the standards, and you really have nothing to worry about. The first thing you probably noticed in the above "good" example is the use of the "?", "Subject=", and "_" in the URL. The first two are required, while the latter is a personal preference of mine. A "?" is used to separate "header fields", while the "=" sign follows the header name you wish to define. Here's another example: mailto:editor@pcwize.com?Subject=Message_subject&Body=Message%20Body In this example, I've defined not only a Subject, but the Body as well. Notice the use of the ampersand between the different message header fields (Subject & Body). Any time you want to define an additional header field, you must use the ampersand. So what are those "%20" thingys? That is the ASCII code for a space. See, a URL cannot contain any spaces by standard. There is good reason for this, because if you forgot to encapsulate the URL, then all the text that follows your URL would become part of the URL. Let me show you what I mean. mailto:editor@pcwize.com?Subject=Message subject. Notice that the word "subject" is not included as part of the URL. Even if I encapsulate the URL like this: , it won't work. Personally, I think that encapuslated URLs should work, but oh well. The reason-- as I stated earlier --is so that following text won't be considered part of the URL by mistake. For example: If you'd like to see my picture, then click the following link mailto:editor@pcwize.com?Subject=Get%20my%20pic which you will only need to click the send button once the message window pops up. If URLs allowed spaces, then *everything* after the "%20pic" would become part of the Subject. Definitely a bad thing! There are other numbers you can put after the percent sign to do different things. If you have a handy dandy ASCII code chart laying around, you can use pretty much anything on it. However I won't vouch for what will happen if you try to NULL something. ASCII codes can come in quite handy at times as evidenced by this example: Pretty nifty huh! %0A is a Line Feed %0D is a Carriage Return %2C is a , %2E is a . %3C is a < %3D is a = %3E is a > %3F is a ? %40 is a @ Why did I tell you all of those? For obfuscated mailto URLs of course! I mean, if you're gonna geek out with me, you might as well go all the way! Now is that ugly or what? It still works, but is not readily human readable. Speaking of which, the use of ASCII codes in place of your e-mail address is an effective way to keep your e-mail address hidden from all but the most sophisticated of e-mail address harvesting spiderbots that spammers use. I had mentioned at the beginning, that I often use complex mailto URLs to facilitate e-mail filtering. When most of you subscribed to PCWize, you clicked on a link something like this: On my end, I looked for the Recipient to equal "editor@pcwize.com", and the Subject to equal "Subscribe_PCWize". If both of these conditions were met, then you became a new subscriber. So why did I define the Body to contain the text "Just_Click_Send"? Well, not many people use complex URLs (not including forms), so before I put that text in there, I had people writing all sorts of stuff in the message Body to try and subscribe. This didn't affect my mail filtering one iota, but I was trying to save people from typing in stuff that they really didn't need to. You might have noticed by now that I tend to use the underscore character as opposed to the "%20" to separate my text. This is really just a habit as opposed to any real reason. However, I did use some oddball e-mail programs-- back when I was but a young pup --that didn't recognize the "%20", so I used the underscore. I also thought it looked much nicer (readability-wise.) Ok, so now we know pretty much all the cool stuff there is to know about complex mailto URLs. Here's what fields you can define: TO = CC = Subject = Body = Just a note concerning the placement of a mailto URL in the subject or body; I said above, that you should always encapsulate a URL with "<" and ">". However the below won't work: >, so you will have to use the ASCII code for them as below: Well, that's it! I know it was long, but hopefully interesting. Now, you all know that I wouldn't let you go without a real-world usage of complex mailto URLs, so here it is: Would you like to see an equally in-depth article on URLs for other things like HTTP, Gopher, FTP, Usenet etc? If so, click below and make your vote heard: ______________________________________________________________________ 6. That's the news! ------ PIII Celerons at .18 fab and half the cache with SIMD. ------ Go get your free copy of BeOS 5.0! I got to play with the BeOS when it was being developed on an actual BeBox. It was a pretty darn cool OS (and the BeBox was totally wicked. Too bad they stopped development of the hardware.) ______________________________________________________________________ 7. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends ------ Please visit http://www.pcwize.com/tech/computer/secdef.shtml if you would like to know the definitions for hoaxes, viruses, worms and urban legends. ------ Once again, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express users are targeted by yet more worms/viruses that send themselves to address book entries located on an infected machine. The two newbies are essentially the same concept as the Melissa virus just a year ago. The first is called IROK and infects a user's computer when the attached executable IROK.EXE is run. If you receive an e-mail with a subject of "I thought you might like to see this.", a message body stating "I thought you might like this. I got it from paramount pictures. It's a startrek screen saver.", and an attached file called IROK.EXE, then just delete the message and the attached file if your e-mail program does not do it for you. If your machine becomes infected, it will also attempt to send itself to IRC chat rooms that you participate in, and will begin overwriting files on your hard drive. The second is called KAK-- presumably based on the message "Kagou-Anit-Kro$oft say not today!" that it will display on the first day of each month if the machine is started after 5pm. While this particular worm is not destructive with exception to the loss of any data that isn't saved when it shuts down Windows, it's a little more insidious because it is a Javascript hidden inside an HTML document. Worse, is that this Javascript is put in place of the user's signature, and all it takes to become infected is to preview the message in Outlook Express. KAK does not affect Outlook, but only Outlook Express due to the vulnerability of running Javascript. Your best bet on avoiding KAK is to disable Active Scripting in the Preferences. Go here for more information: ______________________________________________________________________ 8. PCWize Contests and Winner Announcement ------ 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 editor@pcwize.com so that we can work a deal. ------ This week's sponsor is inKline Global Inc., and they have developed some great applications to make your daily life much easier. Please visit their web site to get the lowdown on all the great products they have, and to help keep the PCWize newsletter FREE! ------ The winner of this week's random drawing contest is: The first two people to e-mail me saying that they want it! These two winners will each receive a CD and registration key for inKline Global's Stay Connected! software. ______________________________________________________________________ Well, that's it for this issue! Have a good week and I'll see you in seven days. Leif Gregory Copyright © 1997-00 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