VBOK Edition #22 - We're Back! October 1, 1999 ______________________________________________________________________ VBOK is back on-line! First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who sent e-mail that were concerned with what happened to VBOK and myself. It's a warm fuzzy feeling to know that my readers care. I apologize for the downtime, but there were some personal issues that I needed to take care of. Hopefully they are completely resolved and there won't be any more missed issues. A little further down, I mention that I lost over half of the subscriber list for VBOK, right now I am working on a pieced together list from backup. Unfortunately, this means that if you had unsubscribed after May 18th and before September 20th then you were accidentally resubscribed. If you still wish to unsubscribe, please see the very end of this newsletter for information on how to do that. I apologize sincerely, but at this point, it is impossible for me to determine who did unsubscribe during that timeframe. There have been some changes to VBOK as I had quite a bit of time to rethink the newsletter. VBOK will become a weekly newsletter and each weekly edition will contain one article in each of the following sections: - Greeting - Software Review - Cool Site - Tips, Tricks, Do's, and Don't Do's - That's the News - Security Issues - Miscellaneous The end-of-month edition will of course have the feature article that sets VBOK apart from all the other net newsletters and as VBOK was only published once a month anyway, that really won't be much of a change. One huge setback I encountered, was that I lost over half of the VBOK subscribers (part of this personal issue thing I mentioned). Hopefully, I'll be able to recover the entire subscriber list soon, but for now I'll just have to settle for reaching out and touching half of you. :-( Just a few other changes to mention are that the VBOK newsletter, website, and subscriber list will soon be maintained by a very cool guy named Adam Theo at . He's been a great help and has spent considerable time in helping me get all of this off the ground again. Furthermore, VBOK will be moving from plaintext to a HTML newsletter. I just have to get the rest of the kinks worked out. :-) ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. The Chain Letter 2. Voting Booth and Other VBOK 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. VBOK Contests and rules 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. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. The Chain Letter ------ I'm going to deviate a little from the normal items that fall into this section and tell you about a surprising "Chain Letter" I received from a friend. A few days back, I received an e-mail from a friend (forwarded of course) which happened to meet all the criteria I set forth in VBOK edition #13 "Resources/Virus Perspective" to identify chain letters and other wastes of time. I've always enjoyed putting on the ol' detective cap and sleuthing out hoaxes like these, and this was no exception. To conserve space, I'll just highlight the important parts of the story I got from my friend. The message was from a mother who stated that her child (Aaron Steinmetz) had been kidnapped (apparently) by his father from Marion County Florida. She provided all sorts of details about the clothing Aaron was wearing, the make, model and license plate of her husband's van etc. The message went on to give a phone number for the Marion County Sheriffs department, and of course the infamous words of "Please forward this to everyone you know!". The first thing I did was to find the Marion County Sheriff department's web site. While there, I checked out their missing children database looking for the name Aaron Steinmetz. When I didn't get any hits for Marion County, I extended the search to all of Florida. Still nothing. My next search was just on the child's first name for all of Florida. Nada. I was pretty convinced at this point that the entire thing was a hoax. However, on my way out of the site, I checked the contact information to verify the phone number given in the original message. Hmmm. What do you know, they matched. I thought "Well, if it is a hoax, the person at least did their homework." At this point I sent two e-mails. One to Pat Stefanski at the Marion County Sheriffs deptartment, and the second to my friend explaining what I had done so far and that I felt it was still probably a hoax. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The next day, I received a reply from Mr. Stefanski. Not only was the story true, but the child had already been recovered! (that's why he wasn't listed as missing in the database.) To be honest, I was kind of shocked. After having sleuthed out multitudes off hoaxes in the past (it's kind of a hobby of mine), I couldn't believe that I had run across the real McCoy. Nevertheless, I was pleased that not only was it true, but that it had a happy ending. I still stand by my guns when I say that most chain letters are bogus and only serve to aggravate and annoy, but now I guess I'll have to add that sometimes, just sometimes, the truth is out there. ______________________________________________________________________ ** A word from our sponsors ** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PERSONALIZE THE NET! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you can locate, select and distribute the information that is important to you! * WebSeeker - Utilize the power of over 100 search engines to perform advanced searches, and get valuable results. * WebWhacker - Take the Net on the road! Download parts of or entire web sites for off-line viewing. * ClickBook - Print any document or web page in a double-sided booklet or brochure. BLUE SQUIRREL: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/index.html?ASCID=192 ------ Want to see your advertisement here? Send mail to with the text 'Advertiser' in the SUBJECT line for more information. ______________________________________________________________________ 2. Voting Booth and Other VBOK Stuff ------ The last question was "What type of Internet connection do you have?". There were 253 voters and they voted a little something like this: Votes Percent 28.8 35 14 33.6 37 15 56K 119 47 ISDN 17 7 WebTV 2 1 Cable Modem 37 15 ADSL 6 2 This month's question is "Do you prefer VBOK as a weekly or monthly publication?" Go here to vote: ------ Speaking of voting, click here to vote for VBOK 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 VBOK 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: Personal Stock Monitor 3.5 Gold Genre: Investment Monitor Platform: Win95/98/NT Type/Cost: Shareware/$30.00 Size: 1.21 MB Homepage: Download: Last year I purchased my first mutual fund, and I asked my broker which software he suggested to keep track of it. I wish he would have recommended this one instead of the one he did. After days of bashing my head against the keyboard and feeling like I must be one of the most financial illiterate people born, a friend introduced me to PSM. Like a duck to water, I was tracking all sorts of things to do with my fund. Granted, I still needed to know some of the basics in terminology, but I didn't have to be a financial rocket scientist to get what I wanted out of this program. I think that both novice and advanced investors will benefit from using this software. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Cool Sites ------ Classic Gaming Do you remember which game was your first love? I do! It was called Warlords and it was like breakout except that you could play with four players. What made it interesting is that each player defended a corner of the screen and the object was to knock out the other player's walls and hit their warlord. I spent many an hour bashing away at my friends, eating junk food, and not doing homework. I thought those days were long gone until I ran across Classic Gaming and found that they not only had Warlords, but a huge repository of other nostalgic games. The site is set up so that once you download an emulator for a gaming system like Atari (2600, 5200, 7800), Apple II, Sega etc. then you download the ROM for your favorite games. Many of the emulators do the job so well, that it looks and sounds just like the real thing! You should see the look on my wife's face when she comes in and sees me playing Pitfall or Keystone Capers in all its 8-bit glory on a decked out Pentium II. I guess she'll just never understand. :^) ______________________________________________________________________ 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ If you ask what is the most clouded and misunderstood area of the Windows operating system, almost anyone would have to say the registry. In its most basic terms the registry is a large database that holds all the values for not only Windows, but most of the installed applications. These values indicate all the settings, look and feel, and personalization. However, just jumping into the registry and taking a look around is likely to leave you more confused than when you began. One program that helps take a little of the mystery out is called RegMon. What this program does is to log all of the registry activity when you perform an operation. This could be something as easy as right clicking on the desktop, or as complicated as starting an application. Furthermore, you can save these logs to a file for later purusing or reference. For example, I saved a log file that contained only the activity after right clicking on the desktop. Another log I saved was when I double clicked on a folder, and another log for double clicking a .JPG file. The information contained in these logs is invaluable if you plan on doing any major registry spelunking. You can download the 53KB RegMon here. ______________________________________________________________________ 6. That's the news! ------ Microsoft has made a mess this time. Currently they are offering two "corrections" to the Windows 98 operating system, one is SP-1 and the other is Second Edition (SE). So which one do you want? You'll have to decide that for yourself, but here are the major points between the two. Change SP-1 SE Y2K update for the operating system X X Y2K update for Internet Explorer 4.01 X X Y2K update for Outlook Express 4.01 X X Udates and security fixes for IE 4.01 X X IE 5.0 X Media Player 6.1 X Internet connection sharing X Netmeeting 3.0 X SP-1 also has numerous bug fixes for things like USB, networking, accessibility options and get this... a fix for Windows 98 hanging after 49.7 days of continuous (not being restarted) use! I'd like to meet the guy who found that one. The longest I've had my machine run without needing a restart was two weeks, and that was because I forgot to turn it off when I went on vacation. ______________________________________________________________________ 7. 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: W97M/Thus.a Category: Macro Virus What it does: By first modifying the normal.dot file, it infects Word97 documents. On December 13th, it will attempt to delete all the files on C drive when an infected document is opened. What to look for: Unfortunately, files display no outward indication of being infected. The best chance to discover it is by ensuring your virus scan software has the latest signature files. How to fix it: Virus scan software will detect and clean it. More info: ______________________________________________________________________ 8. VBOK Contests and Rules ------ In a deal with Blue Squirrel Software, VBOK will be hosting two contests over the next two months. One winner will be announced at the end of each month and that winner will have their choice of one of three registered software packages; Web Whacker, Web Seeker, or ClickBook. Depending on your e-mail client, the above URL may have wrapped. You need to make sure that you get everything between the <> to go to the special offer page. This might entail you having to cut and paste. Sorry, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. Just go to the above URL, click on one of the three software packages to read more about it. If you like it, download it (evaluation version at bottom), and if you are the winner, you'll receive the registration number via e-mail. ** NOTE - There isn't a MAC version of WebSeeker, so your choices will be limited to either Web Whacker or ClickBook. WebSeeker - Pinpoint exactly what you're looking for on the Internet. WebSeeker 98 v3.4 runs your query through more than 100+ Internet search engines and narrows the search to the EXACT information you want. In Version 3.4 you can add your own search engines. WebWhacker - The ultimate off-line browser! This powerful tool allows you to save Web pages directly to your hard drive, so you can view them off-line at highly accelerated speeds. ClickBook - An easy-to-use printing utility that transforms single-sided documents and web pages into professional booklets, brochures, greeting cards, and more. ------ The two contests and rules of engagement. 1. Are you graphically inclined? Come up with a graphical VBOK logo. - Dimensions of 145x130 - Filesize must be less than 15KB - I would like it to be cartoony (No stick figures please!) :^) - I would like the text "Virtual Book Of Knowledge" to be somewhere in the image. - You grant VBOK the exclusive license to it for use in the VBOK site, letterhead etc. (You'll get complete credit for it in the FAQ as well as the ALT tag.) If necessary, we can work something out with this, just e-mail me at . - Deadline and winner announcement 1 Nov 1999. 2. Random drawing for those of you who are not graphically inclined. - Winner announcement follows below. ------ The winner of contest #2 Random Drawing is: Lee Quinn Winner decided by a psuedo-random number generator I wrote a long time ago when first learning C/C++ : void main() { srand(time(NULL)); printf("%d", 1 + rand() % 682); } ______________________________________________________________________ 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 VBOK 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 VBOK 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 VBOK 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. VBOK 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. Virtual Book Of Knowledge (VBOK) VBOK Editor VBOK Homepage Unsubscribe Back-Edition Titles