PCWize Vol 4, Issue 19 - Math gremlins! May 7, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ You could win $10,000 and a Sony DVD player just by recommending PCWize to a friend! ------ Next week my family will be coming to Japan to visit with us and my wife's family. It's going to be mondo cool, because they've never met even though my wife and I have been married nearly nine years. I don't foresee any problems with the next issue, but depending on how busy we get, there may not be a great deal of time for writing. Of course I could get off my procrastinating rear-end and start writing it now. :^) ------ Gremlins strike again! I saw their hairy little footprints all over my laptop keyboard. I am absolutely positive that when I wrote last week's commentary on Bill Gates' fortune, that I had specifically and undeniably said "Bill Gates could give everyone in the world one dollar apiece..." The gremlins must have changed it to "one billion" and added the absurdly stupid comment on inflation afterwards. , , ahem, you don't look convinced... Well, ok, I wrote it, but I was obviously referring to Voltaran dollars! Don't you people know anything? Ahem, err, no...? Well, ok, but it isn't my fault! You see, I was born with a floating point error in my math co-processor (must've been made by Intel! ). You wanna know the reason why PCWize is free, it's because when I was trying to determine how much I should charge for a subscription, I discovered that I couldn't possibly afford to pay each of you $20 per year! Actually, this error turned out to be a good thing, because I went back and checked my math on how much I'd make from Paypal if each of PCWizes' 2,051 subscribers joined under my referrer ID. I was disheartened to see that I would actually not be making the 2.051 trillion dollars as I had previously thought. ;-( To appease the masses, the editor responsible for letting that egregious mathematical error slip through has been sacked! Unfortunately, we had to hire myself back because I realized that there was no one left to write the newsletter. Never fear though, Leif was rehired under the conditions of a severe paycut-- with his mathematical prowess, he'll never notice anyway! Seriously though, I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that comment. Maybe it's time to buy the "Addition for Dummies" book I keep laughing at! Oh well, if you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at? ... I never said anything about you laughing... now be quiet! :-) ------ As promised in issue 4.11 and the ensuing forum debate, here is a list of mail servers that are blocking or filtering mail. If you don't recall what I'm talking about, issue 4.10 contained the word h*a*r*d*c*o*r*e (without the asterisks), which I had used to refer to a computer magazine, and a good many readers didn't receive that issue because their ISP mail server administrators have implemented filters which will trash messages containing (in their opinion) offensive text or damaging code. This happened again when I sent out the PCWize special supplement concerning the new worm (which is talked about in the security section of this issue.) So, if you didn't see the special supplement sent out this past Thursday or Friday (depending on your timezone), then your mail server might be blocking. Below is a list of some that I know for a fact are blocking, because they sent back messages stating so. txu.com nckcn.com woolworths.com.au I tried to take care of each person individually who was affected by attaching the warning as a text file. This seemed to work for all of the above mail servers *except* woolworths.com.au which appears to also filter attachments, because it rejected that one as well. This list may not be complete, because some may have blocked it without letting me know. If you *don't* belong to one of the above domains, and you did *not* get the supplement, then e-mail me and we'll try a one-on-one test. I'd like to compile a good list of which mail servers are blocking so I can work with them to implement better filters. If your mail server is blocking and you didn't know it, then you might want to drop them a note to see if maybe you've been missing other mail. ------ This has been a very busy week for Leify-boy! I took the last two CLEP tests to complete my Bachelors degree, I received my Associates degree from the Community College of the Air Force, and taught my first computer class as a volunteer instructor for the Family Support Center (kind of like a community center). The class I taught was called "Introduction to the Internet and its Applications", and I really had a blast. I learned a lot from this go around-- like not getting off on too many tangents, and to keep my list of netiquette "pet-peeves" to a much shorter list . But, all-in-all, it went very well for being my first time. I'll be teaching an intermediate Internet class next month, as well as the intro again. Depending on how the intermediate class goes, I may teach an advanced "super-geek" class as well. For any of you who are here in Misawa and would like to attend, contact the FSC for more details. ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. HackTech by TheNMI 2. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff 3. New contest! 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 ** ------ Ulead Systems is where you can find and download cutting-edge photo editing, video and Internet software. Ulead is the developer of award-winning software like Ulead PhotoImpact, Ulead MediaStudio, Ulead Photo Express, Ulead WebRazor, Ulead COOL 3D, Ulead GIF Animator, Ulead SmartSaver and more. You'll most likely have to cut and paste everything between the <> into your browser. ------ http://www.creditcardanalyzer.com - find out how much your credit cards are costing you and see how much money you could save by transferring the balance to a lower interest card ------ Want to see your advertisement here? For more information, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ 1. HackTech by TheNMI ------ Some People Never Learn... It's that time of the year, again. No, I'm not talking about the holidays, the encroaching summer, or any of that stuff. I'm referring to the time of year where I spend several days repairing and recovering lost data on people's systems due to the Chernobyl Virus. This is the virus that sets off on April 26th-- the anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. Seems it got around quite a bit this time, even after all the warnings (PCWize 4.17) and rankings. Unfortunately, it seems that people still didn't listen. Even a few of my friends (who have neglected to subscribe to PCWize, I might add) got hit. Why? Well, here are four simple reasons: 1) Lack of an Anti-virus (AV) program * This just boils down to plain laziness. For the most part, you can pick up these virus scanners for free. There's just no good reason NOT to use one. 2) Not using a sufficient scanner * Despite some companies claims, no one virus scanner by itself will find everything. That means that some AV programs out there may not find a file that has been infected. Rather than name programs that fail in this area, I'd like to name some that don't. My two favorites are McAfee VirusScan , and Norton Antivirus . There are others out there, but I like to use these for my machines. Another one of my favorites is called F-Secure Antivirus . 3) Not updating the AV program * A virus scanner does no good if you get a virus made AFTER the date of your last virus signature file update. Make sure you hit the web site for your AV scanner regularly-- at the very least, once every month. Some sites will even e-mail you to notify you when they have updates available. 4) Disabling the AV program * Yes, it's true-- Some virus scanners may slow your system performance just a little. Some people disable the automatic features most AV scanners come with so they can get more speed from their system, and then they forget to turn the things back on again... Can we say "Whoops!?!" If you have to turn off your AV software, PLEASE remember to turn them back on again before using a floppy or opening a file from an outside source. All it takes is just one little floppy that has been infected. Maybe your friend Joe didn't know he had the CIH (Chernobyl) virus, because it attaches to just about any EXE file with nary a trace. If your virus scanner isn't active when you pop in a floppy, you have just risked getting infected. Now back to the Chernobyl virus-- this thing is pretty nasty. If you read Leif's warning a few issues ago, you'll remember that it can destroy the File Allocation Table (FAT) on your hard drive, and it can potentially kill your Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). Quite plainly, this really sucks! If this was your computer in, let's say, the accounting department, you might have some 'splainin' to do... But don't panic! Your computer might be dead in the water, but your data MAY still be intact. When the FAT is wiped out by accident, or by a virus, it prevents your computer from knowing how to look at the data. HOWEVER, the data is usually still there! I had to rescue more than 7 computers from the wrath of the CIH virus this time around-- some friends, and some people that just heard from others about me. After taking their hard drive out, I put it into a bootable system and used a fantastic program called "Lost & Found" by PowerQuest . This program sets up on a floppy disk, which you use to boot a system where the hard drive has crashed. It lets you select the "dead" drive as your source, and some form of media for your target drive to place the rescued files on. After you're all set up, it uses several methods to search your victimized drive for files and directory structures. Once this is completed, it lets you select which directories and files you wish to recover, and if you're not sure of the file's purpose, it will even let you view several lines of the file to help you decide whether you want to salvage it or not. After you've selected everything you want or need to keep, you begin the restore process. I personally love to use my Zip 250, because it plugs into the parallel port and I can even mount/boot the Zip drive from a 720k floppy disk if needed. That makes it perfect for rescue operations such as this. Though the Zip 250 hardly compares in size to some of our modern hard drives, it is generally sufficient for this operation, because you're not interested in rescuing all the programs on your drive. Usually you just want the unique data: Family photos, e-mail, favorite bookmarks, etc. The applications themselves can be reinstalled from the originals. You do own the originals don't you?!? Another neat feature of this program, among the many, is the ability to restore long file names. It's often the case with most DOS programs, that if you copy a file over to a floppy or such, it hashes the long file name into FILENA~1.TXT. When "Lost & Found" copies stuff onto your Zip cartridge, for instance, it makes a batch file which correctly renames all those goofy labels back into their original formats. All in all, if you DO happen to get hit with something, even as nasty as Chernobyl, you might still have hope with "Lost & Found" ! The NMI Send your hate mail, love letters, and miscellaneous comments to THENMI@PCWIZE.COM ______________________________________________________________________ 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. New Contest! ------ Whoa! What happened to the Software Review? It'll be back next issue. I just didn't find anything this week that really tripped my trigger. However, here's another easy way to win yourself a totally free registered copy of Ulead's Cool3D. The Gregory household is infested with gremlins, and I'd like to build a theme on it for PCWize. Since I've never actually seen one of these pesky critters, you'll have to use your imagination to come up with one. To get an idea of what I'm looking for, take a gander at the monsters at . Obviously, it will have to look decidedly gremlin-like, and have a particularly devious, but cute appearance. In addition, to avoid any copyright whining, please make sure your gremlin is original. The winner will be chosen by me, and the deadline is May 25th. So whip out those Crayolas and get drawing. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Cool Sites ------ BrainBench Thanks to Terry Speer for the heads-up on this one! She's getting a totally free copy of Ulead's award winning Cool3D graphics program. You can win too! All it takes is for you to send me something that I use in the newsletter. Brainbench is the self proclaimed "leading Web-based skills testing and certification service". You can take all sorts of certification tests across a gamut of computer software and operating systems. Do you have what it takes to get a Master Certification? These timed on-line tests are totally free to take, and they'll even mail you a paper certification award for free as well. What good are these? Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Once you have completed an exam, your results are stored on their server and a URL to your profile is created which you can give out to potential employers. You can also grab the certification images and use them on your web site. It may or may not help you to get a job, but every little bit helps. I do have to say one thing though. My overall impression of the tests that I have taken so far, are that they aren't really representative of a mastery. For example, the Windows 98 Power User exam mainly covered things such as the locations of where certain options are configured. While I felt that correctly answering these questions would be indicative of an advanced user, the questions certainly are not representative of a "master". In my opinion, a "master" would be someone who not only knew the locations of configuration options, but what they meant, and how they should be configured under certain circumstances. A "master" should also know a great deal about the registry and how to really optimize Windows by configuring it correctly. I also had a couple of UNIX gurus check out the UNIX exams, and they both agree that the questions on that test are not representative of a "Master" either. For right now, my opinion is that these tests are fun (if you're a geek I suppose) , and that if you are an employer, you should thoroughly check out the exam questions to see if they meet your own criteria of a "master". ______________________________________________________________________ 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ Do you want to know what PCWize's most Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) is? I'll give you a hint... it has something to do with four-oh-four. That's right, the most commonly asked question is what someone should do when the server reports a "404 - Page not found" error. There are a few different reasons as to why this happens. One, the page was moved and a forwarding page was not put in its place. Two, the entire directory that the page was in was moved or deleted. Or three, the URL has a misspelling in it somewhere. I can't help you with the third case, as you'll have to figure out that one on your own, but the other two can be determined easily enough. To make this easy, we're going to use real examples.. :-) Try this URL You'll get a 404 error. If you change the word "soundcard" to "soundcards", then the page will come up correctly. This is an example of how a misspelling can wreck it for you. Try this one Go figure, another 404! . In this example, we're going to pretend that the page igotdeleted.htm used to be a valid page. It is possible that this page was just renamed, or it was moved, or it was deleted. Generally, if it was in the /tech/computer directory, it was because it related to that directory. So, we're going to see what is one level above this. Try In this particular scenario, you're going to get the "Computer" page that is in this directory. This happens, because by default, the web browser is looking for a file called index.html. If it doesn't find this file in whatever directory/URL you enter, it will just show the contents of the directory. i.e. all of the files and subdirectories that reside in that directory. Yes, yes, I see you out there flapping your arms saying "So, why didn't that happen in your example? I can plainly see that the actual URL is http://www.pcwize.com/tech/computer/computer.shtml>." Good question, so I'll explain. There is a trick to redirect requests to other pages. In each of the directories on the PCWize web site, there is a file called .htaccess, and in this file is a line that tells the server to shoot back a certain page when another page was requested. Hmm, let me break that down for you. Whenever your browser requests either index.html, or index.htm from the /tech/computer directory, .htaccess says "Oh, I'm supposed to squirt computer.shtml to them when they request these pages.", and that's exactly what happens. Now, I can tell .htaccess which page I want "squirted" to you, so it doesn't have to be called computer.shtml. In fact, each directory on the PCWize web site has a different page defined as a redirect. I defined them based on which page was the most suitable "top-level" page for that directory. The reason for defining a .htaccess page is that it looks bad when a page containing the directory contents pops up in a user's browser window, and this is exactly what happens when there is no index.html or defined redirect via .htaccess. Getting back to our example, let's say that you received another 404 error from the URL. This tells you that the /computer directory doesn't exist anymore, so we truncate the URL even further. Try . Again, in this case, you'll get a page via the .htaccess redirect. Let's pretend again that the /tech directory is also gone. Truncate away! We are now left with the domain name . You should never get a 404 at this level unless they have specified a .htaccess, and the page that was supposed to be squirted to you is also missing. At this point, there isn't anything you really can do. They are either totally remodelling the web site and all files have been removed, or somebody did a bad thing and removed their web site for them. :-( Now, what we just did by truncating the URLs, bit by bit, is called "regressing a URL". 99% of the time, you'll eventually get to a point where a web page shows up. Hopefully, you'll be able to find the original document you were trying to load by following their links. That's it for today's lesson kiddies. Now you know that a 404 doesn't necessarily mean the end of the line anymore! ______________________________________________________________________ 6. That's the news! ------ 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 4+4=16, 16+... huh... arrrgh! Not again!! whoever... mumble math, should be... mumble mumble in the street and shot.. Oh, hi! Didn't see you standing there. I was err, uhmm, practicing, uhmm... well, errr, here, let's get on with this week's news. ------ You all might remember me making a prediction before the New Year where I said that I soon foresee a time where people will try and sue each other for computer virus infections. The below story is more centered on insurance policies paying out, but they make mention of possible lawsuits. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ------ VBS.L*o*v*e*L*e*t*t*e*r (asterisks inserted by editor) Hopefully you all received the special supplement I sent out concerning the latest Visual Basic (VB) worm called I*L*O*V*E*Y*O*U. It doesn't actually contain the asterisks, but unless I put them in there, a good many of you will not get this edition. Please see the beginning of the newsletter for more information. From this point on, I will be referring to the I*L*O*V*E*Y*O*U worm as "ILY". ILY is a Visual Basic script (VBS) contained within an HTML e-mail. Currently, only e-mail programs capable (IMHO a bad thing) of running embedded VBS are vulnerable. Outlook Express is the most open to this form of attack, because it uses Active Scripting, which means that it will run the VBS as soon as you open the message. However, this can quickly be remedied by disabling Active Scripting in the Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Security tab -> Custom Level button -> Way towards the bottom under Scripting -> Active Scripting, which I would either set to Prompt, or to Disable. NOTE: This will affect Internet Explorer as well. The cause for concern on this particular worm, is that it went from being released into the wild (onto the Internet) to critical spread in a very short timeframe. Rather than try to explain the differences between the now 19 different variants, I'll just send you to Symantec for a very detailed (but non-technical) explanation. ______________________________________________________________________ 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 Ulead Systems, where you can find and download cutting-edge photo editing, video and Internet software. Ulead is the developer of award-winning software like Ulead PhotoImpact, Ulead MediaStudio, Ulead Photo Express, Ulead WebRazor, Ulead COOL 3D, Ulead GIF Animator, Ulead SmartSaver and more. Please visit their web site to get the lowdown on all the great products they have, and to help keep the PCWize newsletter FREE! You'll most likely have to cut and paste everything between the <> into your browser. ------ The winner of this weeks contest is: Terry Speer She won herself an ultra-cool, ultra-free copy of Ulead's Cool3D software for sending in the heads-up on this week's Cool Site. Thanks Terry! ______________________________________________________________________ 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