What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 5 Number 25Click here to return to the back issues page.Click here to return to the main newsletter page.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com What You Need to Know about All Things PC Publisher: Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee Editor in Chief: Dan Butler Contributing Editor: Al Gordon This issue is for Tuesday, December 5, 2002 - Vol. 5 No. 25 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ** 01. Letter from the Publisher ** 02. Fighting Spam in Outlook (by Al Gordon) ** 03. Lee's Mailbag (by Lee Hudspeth) ** 04. Featured Products - Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, & Norton Internet Security (reviewed by Al Gordon) ** 05. Featured Web Site - OneLook Dictionary Search (reviewed by Lee Hudspeth) ** 06. Featured Drawing ** 07. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff ** 01. Letter from the Publisher According to a recent U.S. Postal Service press release, "While this year's holiday shopping window between Thanksgiving and Christmas is SIX DAYS SHORTER than last year... this year's volume is expected to remain about the same as last year's... This year's busiest mailing day is projected to be Monday, December 16 with 850 million pieces of mail entering the system." (emphasis ours) Here at The Naked PC headquarters we're asking that those of you who want to buy gifts at our TheNakedPCStore.com e-store do so Real Soon Now if you want packages to arrive before Christmas. Purchases made in our e- store help keep this newsletter free. Click here to browse the cool productivity-enhancing products available in our e-store, all of which make great gifts and stocking stuffers: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?publet1 In this issue Al delves into how he fights spam with an Outlook add-in. Lee catches up on reader email, covering topics ranging from online resources for college savings to excellence in software development. While merchants around the world are busy competing for your holiday dollars, there's a small group of merchants giving away free gifts. Real, tangible gifts that will be arriving at people's door, absolutely free. No strings, either. You won't receive ads and you won't be added to a mailing list. Are they crazy? Not at all. It's their way of giving back, their way of saying "Thank you and Happy Holidays" to the Internet community. We were so impressed, we joined them. Go ahead... enter your name to win free gifts: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?publet2 We've been so busy around here processing orders, gingerly but efficiently packing and taping up boxes for shipment, and preparing copy for this issue that we haven't selected last issue's drawing winner (but will have done so by the time you read this). "Congratulations" to one lucky subscriber who will have won a free Photon Micro-Light. It's fun and easy to enter, see this issue's Featured Drawing article. Reader support is what keeps The Naked PC free. You can help us by passing a copy on to co-workers and friends (no spam please). We make it easy for you to refer people to The Naked PC... check out our Refer page: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/refer/ +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ >> "That's the Handiest Thing Anyone Has Given Me..." With one of our handy space pens you'll never be without a reliable writing instrument again. They write just about anywhere and any angle - even upside down or in the rain. And the quality. Built to last and still look great. Rich P. said, "They're everything you wrote about them." Click here to find out more: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?spacepen +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 02. Fighting Spam in Outlook (by Al Gordon) I am not exactly sure what The Last Straw was, but I am thinking that it was the barrage of e-mails that described incest-oriented pornography as "family fun." In any case, the flood of garbage flowing into my inbox became intolerable, and I went out looking for an acceptable solution. My colleagues herein have discussed at some length here various larger anti-spam strategies. My objective was much more modest: I use Microsoft Outlook 2002, and wanted a solution that worked with it as seamlessly as possible. I tried a variety of software products, including the "verification" type programs recommended by some other publications. This approach requires the user to set up a list of e-mail addresses from which he or she will accept messages. Anyone not on that list gets sent a challenging e-mail that must be completed to the user's satisfaction before the new recipients' messages are allowed. While this does stop computer-generated mass mailings (inasmuch as the computers won't fill in the challenge form), in effect it is fighting spam with spam. This potentially can get you in trouble. But much more important, for business users, this has the unintended consequence of sending unfriendly messages to new or potential clients who are not on your "approved" list yet. The better course, as far as I am concerned, is to go with a solution that replaces Outlook's wimpy Rules and anti-spam features with something that actually works. A number of packages got put to the test and the winner is: Spam Inspector from Giant Company, $29.95. There are versions for Outlook, Outlook Express, and AOL. (It used to be called "Postal Inspector" but USPS didn't like that.) http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?al1 The software is very simple: you run the setup program, which installs Spam Inspector as an Outlook add-in, and then takes you through a fairly straightforward process of capturing e-mail addresses from your address book and e-mail folders to create a "friends" list. SI has its own set of spam-detecting rules that scan your incoming e-mail, moving suspect documents to a quarantine folder. The definitions are updated regularly and automatically. With a click of a toolbar button, you can designate junk e-mail that got through as spam, and add offending senders to your "enemies" list. You also can create your own custom rules. The reverse also holds: if mail you want gets flagged as junk, you can click a button to designate it as not spam. The designations you make get transmitted to Giant for consideration in developing future rules. At first, the system makes a lot of mistakes. But after only a week or two of use, the reliability improved dramatically. There are times when you will look at your inbox, may see several junk e-mails, and wonder whether SI is working. Then you go look at the quarantine folder and see several dozen spams pulled out of the way, and you realize just how much junk you've bypassed. Tip: Use Outlook's View Menu to create a view for the quarantine folder, making sure that the Preview Pane is off to give you an extra measure of protection. Some viruses can run from the Preview Pane, but the real protection I am thinking about is preventing offensive material from being displayed prominently. Spam Inspector is not perfect, of course. For example, an optional setting lets you create four quarantine folders -- for adult, hazardous, "subscription," and plain old ordinary junk. In practice, this did not work very well; a larger percentage of messages went to the wrong category. Perhaps future revisions will improve upon it. The "subscription" category is one that perhaps should be developed into a specific feature, allowing you to put the mass mailings you actually want into a special folder that you can get to after you look at more pressing personal or business e-mail. I also have been experiencing one little technical glitch: I set Outlook to start up automatically with Windows in a minimized window, and SI's menu and toolbar do not load properly. The workaround is simply to start Outlook in a normal window. Giant is looking at what could cause the problem, but as I write this, have not yet found a fix. But the bottom line here is pretty clear: when I am using a PC that does not have Spam Inspector in place, I REALLY miss it. (c) 2002, Al Gordon You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ "Computer Tips Compendium" We've collected 460+ computer tips and packaged them as an electronic book in PDF format. The text of each and every tip is fully text searchable--find the tip you need, when you need it. We've gathered the BEST TIPS, tricks, and techniques all onto a single CD. You also get free access to the restricted Tips Section of The Naked PC Web site! Tips on finding the information you need on the Internet, settings shortcuts, problem fixes and workarounds, general PC and program-specific tips, all helping people like you use your computer even more productively. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?comptips +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 03. Lee's Mailbag (by Lee Hudspeth) It's time to catch up on my reader email backlog. Here goes... -- Gregory B. has a neat tip for storing online purchase confirmation and other transaction pages, "Another thing I like to do with those [online] order confirmation pages is take a screenshot and paste it to a Word document which I then save with a detailed explanatory title in my 'Confirmations' folder. Then I have a mail-able document to send right away to any customer service agent. I normally don't print anything, but rely on the doc file to be legible enough. Luckily, I've never needed to use these files. I do the same for any payment confirmation on credit cards or phone bills as well." -- Gary F. offers this online resource for college planning. It points to Sandusky District Library's "Scholarships & Student Loans" links page. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?lee1 -- Karen A. has a helpful online resource related to college planning. "This site is sponsored by a group of guaranty agencies who participate in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). Although it also has useful tips for selecting schools and so forth, its primary aim is to help you get the funding you need for school. The information about the Loan Counseling Interviews may be very useful to a parent who's worried about the financial portion of the college experience." http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?lee2 -- Bill H., Lane Public Library, has put together a truly useful and very cleverly-designed Web page "Internet Research - Using the Web to Plan for College." It is divided into these categories: Finding Information, Getting Organized, Choices, Financing, Preparation, Traps, Resources. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this Web page. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?lee3 -- Mike S., a documentation consultant, responded to my article "Guidelines for Excellence in a Software Development Team." Mike was wondering why I didn't discuss user documentation. Good question. Answer: I just ran out of room! The development methodology I use allows the team to produce user documentation direct from the project's development documents (help-production tools like Doc-To-Help or RoboHelp among others are beyond the scope of this article). Mike writes, "I'm also a firm believer in printed manuals. My article on printed documentation was published in TC Forum, a publication for technical communicators." http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?lee4 -- Jeff R. had some thought-provoking experiences and insights to share related to my article on software development. "Kudos for the points you mentioned. I have been involved in Data Processing (mainframes) for 33 years now, most recently as a systems programmer, installing operating systems on big iron and I can tell you that attention to detail is about as important as it gets. I like your point about templates and reusable code. I think that anyone involved in the business for any length of time at all has probably figured this out and I am glad you pointed it out for less seasoned programmers (no use re-inventing the wheel each time). I consider the effectiveness of a test plan one of the items on my checklist that can either make or break a smooth installation. Good lines of communication and a central point of distribution contribute greatly to this. Lastly, the subject of coding practices has always been a pet peeve of mine. A long time ago, one of my mentors gave me two basic rules to live by that have proven incontrovertible over the years: (1) keep it simple (no tricky code) and (2) make it readable. Unless you enjoy winding your way around someone else's spaghetti code, then code unto others as you would have them code unto you. I once looked at some really tricky code that a programmer had injected into a program and had to ask them exactly WHY they would do such a thing! Why, you ask - why because it was possible and no one else was doing it. Efficiency be darned - I wanna show off and confuse everyone. Needless to say, we ripped that piece of code out! Just because it can be done is not good enough." A special note of thanks to everyone who has written in to me. I'm not able to reply to every email individually but I read and appreciate them all. (c) 2002, Lee Hudspeth You can reach Lee Hudspeth at: mailto:LeeHudspeth@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ Give a MICRO-LIGHT gift for CHRISTMAS! Micro-Lights are highly reliable with an incredibly bright light useful for any situation. This AMAZING flashlight is the size and weight of a quarter, easy to clip to your key chain, carry it in your purse or pocket and you won't know it's there. INSTANT LIGHT IN EMERGENCIES right at your fingertips, going up/down stairs, unlocking your car or house at night, unobtrusively check on sleeping kids at night... unlimited uses. The flashlight that's always there when you need it! Family, friends, clients, co- workers everywhere will appreciate this THOUGHTFUL GIFT. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?pocketflashlight +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 04. Featured Products - Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, & Norton Internet Security (reviewed by Al Gordon) Utility powerhouse Symantec has released the 2003 versions of its familiar bundles: Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, and Norton Internet Security. These primarily are evolutionary releases. There are enhancements to the feature sets and interfaces, albeit nothing dramatic. On the other hand, the current pricing IS dramatic. Norton SystemWorks 2003 is currently $10 after incentives on Amazon: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?fprod Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus 2003, meanwhile, come in at $0 (after special offers). Norton Internet Security 2003: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?fprod2 Norton AntiVirus 2003: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?fprod3 Among the new features for 2003, Norton AntiVirus now works with instant messaging programs and automatically removes Trojan horses and worms. (The latter already has caught a couple of infected e-mails on my system.) SystemWorks now has enhanced disk and Internet cleanup features. Internet Security has added protection against pop-up ads--a major gap in previous versions. If you have a new PC, you would benefit from the new versions of these warhorses. For upgraders, anyone with the 2001 or earlier versions should definitely make the move. Norton 2002 users probably can hold off under the every-other-year-upgrade principle. But with the current deals on upgrades, you might as well take the plunge. As always with Symantec, not every Norton program is the best in class. But all are first rate, and the bundled, integrated package is hard to beat. The system protection and maintenance capabilities of the Norton suites continue to be a very valuable addition to your computer system. (c) 2002, Al Gordon You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com ** 05. Featured Web Site - OneLook Dictionary Search (reviewed by Lee Hudspeth) Attention all wordsmiths, word sleuths, and word hounds... OneLook Dictionary Search is a word search front-end to a plethora of online dictionaries. The site claims to have over 4 million words in over 800 online dictionaries in its index. You can do standard word lookup (the default "Find definitions" option) or get a word translated (the "Find translations" option). The search engine accepts standard wild card characters so you can retrieve a list of words matching a pattern. The site offers a Customize feature whereby you can set eight parameters, ranging from the search results detail displayed (verbose or compact) to the background page color. (The Customize feature requires cookies and JavaScript be turned on in your browser.) You can click the "Browse Dictionaries" link to see a linked list of dictionaries, and choose which categories and/or languages to include in the resulting list and how to sort it (name, popularity, word count). Happy note: this site has no pop-up ads. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?fsite Internet Explorer users, you can get a free tool that puts the command "Find Definitions..." on the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click on a word on any Web page. When you select the command it then pops up OneLook's "Find definitions" results list for that word, in a new browser window. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?fsite2 ** 06. Featured Drawing If you haven't entered one of our The Naked PC survey drawings before, here's how it works. You go to a Web page on our site, answer one survey question, and type in your email address. To encourage folks to participate, we conduct a drawing from the email addresses of each survey's participants and we give away something really useful. Now, obviously we already have your email address or you wouldn't be reading this, but this drawing for prizes will only include those folks who answer this issue's question (entering a prior drawing doesn't count for this one). We'll only use the email addresses we collect for the purpose of notifying who won the prize, nothing else. Before our next issue is published, we'll pick one entered name at random. The winner gets a $25 store credit at TheNakedPCStore.com. But you have to enter to win. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?fdrawing ** 07. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff *-* Drop by the 404 Research Lab for everything you ever wanted to know about 404 errors on the Web but couldn't find a page to explain. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?news1 *-* Check out Sophos' list of the top 10 viruses and virus hoaxes out in November 2002. Sophos is a UK-based developer of anti- virus software. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/525/tr.cgi?news2 Have you come across something newsworthy? Drop us a line: mailto:hottips@TheNakedPC.com **PLEASE SUPPORT THE NAKED PC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS** +++----------------------- classifieds -----------------------+++ >> "How Many Ways Will You Use These Amazing Devices?" They're incredibly handy. When we first saw these amazing little devices we thought, "these will look cool hanging on my key ring." Then we started using them. WOW - every day we find more uses. 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Also, if you wish to post this newsletter to a newsgroup or electronic discussion group, you may do so if you preserve the copyright and subscription information. Thanks. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe, surf on over to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/subscribe.html To make comments or suggestions, surf on over to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpfeedback.html or send email directly to: mailto:tnpc@TheNakedPC.com WEB BULLETIN BOARD Check out our 24x7 Web bulletin board. If you've got a technical question about PC issues, or suggestions of your own, this is the place to hang out: http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/annoyanceboard/ ADVERTISING To advertise in The Naked PC go to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpcadvertising.html Mail services provided by Blue Horizon Enterprises, one of the very few "Mom and Pop" operations left on the Web: http://www.bhorizon.com Copyright (c) 2002, PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. and Dan Butler. All Rights Reserved. The Naked PC is a trademark of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. ISSN: 1522-4422 TNPC Hot Tips:
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