http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2005/11.php .
.
.
Have you ever purchased anything online? If so, did you have a good experience, and would you buy from that same online store
again? Unfortunately, the Web is filled with scammers who want to cheat you. If you're thinking of purchasing anything online, be
aware that disreputable online stores can post phony positive "reviews" of themselves at reputable sites like
Yahoo! Shopping, and
Froogle,
to fool you into thinking that they are reputable stores. I've even read examples of dishonest online stores bribing or
blackmailing real customers into posting positive reviews about them on reputable sites. Before you even think of
buying anything online from a company that you don't know, do yourself a favor and read
this horror story.
Stories like that are why, before I buy anything from an online store that I don't already trust, I always do a Google search for
the store's name and look for any negative comments that anyone has ever posted about it. I also mostly trust the store
ratings at
ResellerRatings.com.
When I say that I "mostly" trust those ratings, I mean that I read both the positive and negative store reviews, but I'm
much more likely to be persuaded by detailed, credible-looking negative ones. Also, I'm doubly suspicious of any
company that has changed its name
or that does business under multiple names, because scam companies often do those things to try to hide their bad reputations.
After checking out a company, if I have any doubts or bad feelings about it, I don't do business with it, even if its
prices are really tempting. Just like in many other areas of life, when buying something online, it's better to be safe than
sorry.
It's 2:00 AM as I write this. If all the rumors, speculation, and planning activities are true,
Firefox 1.5 will be released some
time today. I switched to Firefox from Microsoft's Internet Explorer a year ago, the day that Firefox 1.0 was released, and I've
never looked back. Since then, I've happily used Firefox for more than 99% of my browsing needs. It has had 7 minor upgrades in
the past year, but 1.5 is its first major upgrade. The long-awaited new version reportedly contains enhancements to speed, security,
user interface, and stability, as well as more features than the original,
award-winning version. And yes, it's
still free.
According to
Internet News,
only 4 percent of computer users can recognize
phishing email messages 100 percent of
the time. See how well you recognize them by taking
MailFrontier's Phishing IQ Test II.
My score was 80% because I incorrectly labeled 2 legitimate email messages as phishing attempts. That's fine with me -- I'd rather
be too cautious than not cautious enough. The phishing test is fun, and it may even serve an educational purpose by raising people's
awareness of the phishing problem. To be fair, though, I don't consider it to be a valid test of anyone's phishing detection
abilities because it withholds what I consider to be important information from test takers. By using static screenshots of test
messages, it forces test takers to make their decisions based solely on the wording and graphics in each message, without allowing
them to see the URLs of any of the hyperlinks within the messages. See if you agree.
Totally Absurd Inventions
has drawings and descriptions of more than 200 funny, interesting, and mostly useless inventions that have received patents in the
U.S.. The titles of some of them, like the horse diaper, the Dad saddle, the hurricane bed, and the pet petter, bring images of the
inventions to mind. Others, like the jet propulsion golf club, the loopy lou, hospital happiness, and the wig flipper must
be seen to be fully appreciated. If you look at the inventions and repeatedly wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?" then there's
probably something seriously wrong with you.
Today is
Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.; a great
day to remember and thank those who have played important roles in our lives. And to thank God for the countless ways that we are
blessed, and that we are never alone.
It's hard for me to believe, but today is the 9th anniversary of my little brother's
death.
Version 3.1 of The OpenCD has been released. According to its Web site, "TheOpenCD is a collection of high quality Free and Open Source Software. The programs run in Windows and cover the most common tasks such as word processing, presentations, e-mail, web browsing, web design, and image manipulation. We include only the highest quality programs, which have been carefully tested for stability and which we consider appropriate for a wide audience." If you're curious, take a look at the programs that are included.
How many of
Google's services do you use? Do you trust Google
with your personal information? See if you feel the same way after you read
Disturbing Facts About Google.
Today's issue of my local newspaper contains an article from the Associated Press, warning that you could jeopardize your career if you behave inappropriately at your company's holiday party. I quote: "Each year, amid the jovial flow of cocktail franks, gin-and-tonics and choruses of Fill Me Up, Buttercup, someone becomes a footnote in his company's holiday folklore, forever labeled as the guy who thought it would be funny to teach the boss' wife to dance the Macarena." Never mind the fact that the gist of the article is already obvious to anyone who has any common sense or has ever seen the holiday episode of any television sitcom. And never mind that it's probably been years since the employees of any company sang together at their holiday party. What really bugs me is that the AP, an internationally respected news source, didn't bother to fact-check the title of The Foundations' 1969 hit, Build Me Up Buttercup.
The other night, my wife and I got a pizza from a local pizza chain called "Hungry Howie's." Afterward, I noticed
that my receipt said that it was from "Hungary Howie's." After making a few jokes about Hungarian pizza, I called
Hungry Howie's to jokingly tell the manager about his store's receipts. He told me he had never noticed the error before, so he
confirmed it by
printing out a receipt. Then, in a dismissive tone of voice, he said, "Yeah, I see it. But there's nothing I can do about it." At
that point, our conversation was over, and the funny typographical error instantly turned into an example of
The Peter Principle.
In my November 12, 2005, Journal entry, I described how my new DSL connection had been very slow in Windows 98 SE, so I had used tools at Broadband Reports to significantly speed it up. About an hour ago, I received the November 17, 2005, issue of the LangaList, my favorite PC newsletter. In that issue, a reader reports the exact same DSL speed problem that I wrote about here, and Fred Langa recommends that he do exactly the same things that I did to solve my speed problem five days ago. (Cue the Twilight Zone music).
Today, I wrote a new article, Victim vs. Survivor,
for this site's Abuse Info section. It's a work in progress, just like me.
This afternoon, I'll go with my Aunt Tere and cousins Rita and Smitty, to a memorial service for all of the people who died
in their local hospice during the first half of this year. Regular readers of this Journal know that my Uncle Dom, the best father
figure I ever had, passed away at that hospice this past May, and I was honored to present a
eulogy at his memorial mass a few days later. I can't
think of a better way to honor him today than to publish a piece that I wrote several years ago, titled
Every Child. Nella memoria di Pa.
It's after 2:00 in the morning, and this is the very first Journal entry that I'm posting through my new DSL connection. About 7
hours ago, Verizon sent me an email message, notifying me that my DSL line was ready to use. It took me about 15
minutes to setup my DSL hardware, software, and user account in Windows 98 SE, and then I was able to use DSL in both Windows 98
SE and Windows XP, which I dual-boot on my main PC. At first, I got download speeds of about 730 Kbps while running in XP,
but only about 230 Kbps while running in Win98SE. So I ran some online speed tests at
Speakeasy and some troubleshooing
and tweaking tests at
Broadband Reports.
Then I downloaded
and ran the TCP/IP-tweaking software that Broadband Reports recommended, to change my Win98SE TCP/IP settings to be as efficient as
possible for DSL instead of dial-up. By tweaking, rebooting, and retesting 4 or 5 times, I raised my Win98SE speed to be equal
to my WinXP speed. After that, I downloaded several large pieces of software,
including OpenOffice.org v2.0, which downloaded at
an average speed of 95 KB per second. That makes my new DSL connection 19 times faster than my old dial-up connection, for only
$5 (U.S.D) more per month, while leaving my phone line free. In case you couldn't tell, I
highly recommend
Verizon's new $14.95 per month DSL service
over dial-up.
In the past 3 days, my landline telephone has gone completely dead 3 separate times. Each time, I've had no dial tone for about 5 minutes. Yesterday morning, I used my cell phone to report the problem to Verizon, but by the end of my call, my landline was working again. The repair guy who arrived at my door a few hours later said that it probably had something to do with the fact that Verizon is setting up my new DSL service this week. A few hours later, I had no dial-tone again, so I used my cell phone to call my next-door neighbor, Mike. His phone was still working, so I think that supports the DSL-setup theory. In the meantime, my dial-up ISP's phone lines have also been very unreliable lately; randomly hanging up on me and being totally unreachable several times, for up to 2 hours at a time. During those times, instead of connecting to my ISP, I hear a phone company recording that says, "Your call cannot be completed at this time. Please try your call again later." Hmmm, now I wonder if maybe my ISP problems have actually been caused by my own flaky phone line. Anyway, if all goes according to plan, my DSL service will be working this coming Friday, and then I'll cancel my dial-up ISP.
The other day, I received a letter from the local women's shelter, thanking me for speaking at their annual fundraising luncheon
last month. Though I wasn't the main speaker, I'm very happy that my 5-minute speech
played a small role in helping that event raise over $12,000 (U.S.D) for the shelter's important programs.
In the years since I first created this site in 1998, I've uploaded hundreds of articles and documents, and thousands of photographs and other images, to the servers that host this site. And each time I redesigned the look and feel of this site, or changed Web hosts, I re-uploaded every single part of this Web site all over again. I've also downloaded hundreds of pieces of freeware and shareware. In total, I've probably uploaded and downloaded tens of gigabytes of data, and spent thousands of hours browsing the Web. That fact is not noteworthy on its own, but I think it becomes amazing when you consider the fact that I had to do all of that over a slow dial-up Internet account. Yes, over the years, I've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours waiting for things to upload and download. My students used to ask me why a guy named "ComputerBob," who always kept informed of all the latest technologies, was still using an old-fashioned dial-up Internet connection. It was because I paid only $9.95 (U.S.D) per month for dial-up, and I couldn't afford to pay 4 times that price to have a faster connection.
All of that is about to change. Today, I ordered
Verizon DSL service.
I'm getting their newer 768 / 128 Kbps service that costs just $14.95 per month, with one month free, with a one-year commitment.
It will be 1/4 the speed
of Verizon's fastest DSL service, but that's fine with me. After all, it will be 16 times faster than my current dial-up
connection, while costing me only $5 more per month. Plus, unlike dial-up, DSL won't tie up my phone line when I'm on the
Internet. I'm really happy to finally be moving from the right lane to the middle lane of the information superhighway.
Rootkits
are the newest type of threat to your PC's security, and they are extremely dangerous. Unlike normal viruses, trojans, spyware
and malware, rootkits actually become part of your computer's operating system, so they are invisible to normal anti-virus,
anti-spyware,
and anti-malware software. In fact, you and I may have one or more rootkits running on our PCs right now, and not even know it. I
found
an understandable explanation of rootkits,
which is provided in several different visual and audio formats. In that discussion, they highly recommend SysInternals' free
RootkitRevealer
software -- one of the few tools that is able to detect the presence of rootkits. NOTE: Rootkit detection
and removal is a difficult and complicated task that should not be undertaken by beginners. I hope that, in the near future,
someone will develop a "user-friendly" method to detect and remove rootkits.
