TECHNICALLY SPEAKING VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF INTERESTING SITES
The first two are printing helps from a recent Worldstart Tech Newsletter. Printing tips, especially those that asssist in printing Web Pages are always helpful. (Mike) When I print web pages it also prints out the background—that wastes a lot of ink. Is there a way to stop them from printing? Well, you can set things up so that those ink sucking web backgrounds aren't printed. Here's how: With Internet Explorer: 1. Click the Tools menu, Options, and select the Advanced tab. 2. Scroll down to the "printing" category. Make sure the box for printing backgrounds is NOT checked. Then click OK.
Web Page Printing: Date, Time, URL, etc. Do you like to print out web pages? If so, do you become annoyed at all the header and footer information that gets printed on each and every page? You know, the web address, title, date, mother's maiden name, etc? Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape 7.2 all let you do this. Well, with Internet Explorer, you can get that adjusted right out of there, or customize it. Here's how: 1. Click the File menu, Page Setup. 2. Find the "Headers & Footers" area and remove all the gibberish in the respective fields. Hit OK and there you have it. Before:
Netscape 8.0 (beta) Reviewed by Lindsey Turrentine Reviewed December 1,2004 - updated March 3,2005 Netscape released to beta testers an early version of a much-anticipated browser that takes advantage of the recent and wildly successful Mozilla Firefox 1.0 release. It's no surprise that the Netscape 8.0 (beta) runs the Gecko engine that also powers the Firefox browser. (Netscape owner AOL Time Warner spun off the Mozilla team as a nonprofit last year.) But there's a surprise in this early version: the future Netscape also renders pages in Internet Explorer. This early version doesn't install IE; instead, it relies on the version already installed on your PC. Also new is built-in antispyware. Sites listed on Netscape's spyware and phishing blacklist (supplied by third-party antispam and antiphishing vendors) will be denied ActiveX and cookie access on your desktop. Upside: Although Mozilla has done stunningly well--some attribute IE's recent popularity decline to Firefox--it can't do everything. Anyone using Firefox every day will notice that certain Web sites don't render quite right in it, and some secure sites, such as banks, still require IE for login. The Netscape prototype allows you to browse most of the time with Gecko, which is arguably more secure software, then switch to IE rendering if you need it. The switch is easy in the nascent Netscape interface, which offers Firefox-style tabbed browsing (ah, how we love you, tabbed browsing). Just type in a URL, then click an icon on the tab that reloads the page in IE. You won't see any change in the browser shell or interface--just the Web site rerendered on the same tab. The early Netscape version also packs in many more gewgaws than spartan Firefox. Beyond your basics, such as an address bar and navigation buttons, Netscape throws in two newsfeed tickers and the ability to add RSS feeds in one click, as well as prominent icons for a pop-up blocker and an automated form-filler. In our very informal use of this prototype, pages load refreshingly quickly.
The Netscape prototype has a busy header and is very, very green.
Mike's suggestions for downloading Netscape 8 Beta:
Free Tools, As Good As Any Here is an excellent article from a recent Langalist. It will be particularly interesting to the avid music/video enthusiast. Interestingly it all started with the need to capture screen shots. (Mike) Hi Fred- I recently had an idea to film full-motion screen captures as tutorials for my students. I wanted to go through the updating & running of the various spyware, antivirus, & firewall programs that I recommend. I would then burn these tutorials to CD to hand out at a free security class I want to host at the local library. After researching various programs, I found Camtasia seemed to fill the bill best- but...at $300 it's a bit too rich for my pockets. In the midst of more searching I stumbled across an article talking about Windows Media Encoder-- OMG! It does all that Camtasia does & much more- & I had to laugh that I actually had it in my program list but never noticed it? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx Please pass this around as I'm sure I'm not the only one who was "in the dark" about this marvelous tool. Sincerely, Tracy Fortune Indeed, it's pretty good stuff, Tracy. There also are additional free add-ins and utilities here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/utilities.aspx XP's built-in "Movie Maker" is another nice tool that uses much of the same core technology. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx It's as slick as many commercial movie-making tools, but offers much higher compression rates. In fact, all the Windows Media audio and video compression rates can be much, *much* higher than their MPx counterparts. this lets you either pack more AudioVisual content into a given space, or end up with smaller standalone files that are easier to store and share. Related example: I recently bought my wife a little iPod-type player. I say "iPod-type" because it's not an iPod: I instead choose a player that also supports WMA (Windows Media Audio) because a WMA audio track is only about half the size of the same track in MP3 format. That means my wife can load literally twice as many songs into her player as she could if the songs were in MP3 format. (Yes, she also can load MP3s, if she wants too; the player handles both formats.) There's no special software needed, either: The free Windows Media Player will "rip" a CD into WMA format in just seconds per track. It's utterly simple. The audio quality of WMA is functionally the same as MP3; I can hear no difference when the music's played through the earbud headphones that come with those portable players. So, there's no real downside to WMA: No audible difference, easy to use, and twice the number of songs in a given storage space. True, WMA is a proprietary format--- but I seriously doubt it's going away anytime soon, as it's compatible with the majority of the world's PCs. Apple gets all the press for audio and video, and their mechanical designs and marketing are very slick, but the Windows media software has some real advantages. Plus, it's either built into XP, or can be added for free.
VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF:
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WORM_KELVIR.B:
WORM_FATSO.A
IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR IF YOU HAVE NOT SUCCESSFULLY SCANNED YOUR DRIVES FOR VIRUSES LATELY... THESE NEXT SITES ARE FOR YOU. Free Virus scans. Computer Associates, a reputable and reliable anti virus developer introduced a new free program which allows anyone to do a virus scan without downloading any software or registering for an anti virus program. You must use Internet Explorer for access to Computer Associates and to perform the scan. This is a good one and very simple to operate The address is http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Trend Micro, more commonly referred to as Housecall, offers free virus scans and in most cases can fix damage down by a virus or worm that your computer may have contacted. The program works well. The first time one uses the free program it is necessary to download a small program. Trend Micro walks you through the process. Then the virus scans are quite simple for each return. Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ then choose the link "Scan without registering". Follow the directions.
You should disable any anti virus program that you have running. If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use one of the programs offered above first and then download and install one of the free programs listed below or install any anti virus program you have purchased.
Free Anti Virus programs for download. Quite a few KCnet members use these programs and like them. Be careful if you download a virus program and you already have one installed on your computer. You need to at least disable the program already installed.
AVG Free AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
Avast Avast has been "anti virusing" for quite awhile. The following info comes from their download page: Avast! Home is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more info here. http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html Note: This product is free for home non-commercial use after registration! HINTS: Click on the English Version Link and download the installation file. Then click on the installation file and follow the directions. You will need to return to the download page and click on the link to get the registration key. It will be sent to you in an email after you provide some registration information. This will give you 14 months of coverage including any updates which can be set to auto download. You can reregister for additional free coverage at the end of the 14 months. You will want to browse around and choose from the many options available for operation. This process will take some time and digging.
Another good free program is: http://www.free-av.com/ This one installs a bit easier than Avast.
Top 5 Viruses for February 18 to February 25 from Trend Micro.
1. WORM_NETSKY.P 2. HTML_NETSKY.P 3. JAVA_BYTEVER.A 4. COOKIE_1020 5. COOKIE_45
Here are a few sites of many that can help you determine if an email is a hoax or real.
http://www.quatloos.com/ http://www.snopes.com/ http://vil.nai.com/VIL/hoaxes.asp http://kumite.com/myths/ http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html http://www.scambusters.org/VirusHoaxes.html http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/ http://www.truthorfiction.com/
The largest Flying site I've seen. This one is a winner and will entertain aircraft enthusiasts. I'll bet any airplane manufactured, except the one you built in your garage and couldn't get through the 8 foot door, is pictured and identified. (Mike) Aircraft buffs will salivate all day while accessing this site. Some 700,000 photographs of airplanes, jets and other airborne devices are viewable. If you yearn to reminisce, the forum provides a way to find others with similar interests. The site also features aviation news, data and history. It even offers a travel section. There are over 500 Pipers pictured - you can view small, medium, and full screen. Airline, war craft, pleasure and business craft have their prescence. http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?static=yes&specialsearch=COOL
United States Laws Here you can find dumb laws in the the land of the free and the home of the brave, the United Stastes of America. Just click any state to be taken to that states laws. There is a list of dumb federal laws too! http://www.dumblaws.com/laws.php?site=laws&cid=184
Godchecker This one from Amanda This site is a "godsend". You can discover the gods worshipped in many cultures from the ancient Aztecs to the Norse Gods to the ever famous Egyptian and Greek gods—you'll find them all here with great descriptions. You may choose to start browsing from the side bar menu of Pantheons. Here you choose a pantheon and then you get taken to that pantheon's page. You'll get an introduction to the pantheon and the top ten list for that pantheon, which is the ten gods most hit in searches for that pantheon. Choose a god and you get the mythology behind that god as well as statistics from the region the god's mythos is from. Not to mention their mystical number. Now that you've chosen a pantheon you can also check out the A to Z list of that pantheon's gods on the side menu, and if you know what you're looking for you can just type in the first three letters of the god's name. Recently they added the Oceanic pantheon which covers "Oceania, including Fiji, Hawaii, Melanesia, Micronesia, New Guinea, Polynesia, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga—plus a zillion islands such as Banks Island, Caroline Island, Cook Island, Easter Island, Gilbert Islands, Society Islands and Solomon Islands." This section interested me because you don't hear anything on their legends and mythos much at all. It was very interesting. I recommend checking out the A to Z list for this section. Now along the menu bar at the top of the page you will find the following sections: Home, News, Top Gods, The Pantheons, Find a God, Offerings, Links, and of course, Help. The Pantheons button is obviously just another way for you to get the information on the Pantheons. Home takes you to the main page so let's not talk anymore about those. News — Here is where you will find out what they updated recently, as well as interesting stories and tidbits. Top Gods — The top ten gods searched for on the site for the current day. You can submit a god to the top ten list as well with the form on the bottom of page. You can also check out today's featured god. Find a God — This is the search engine of the site. Which makes short work of finding a specific god if you have one in mind, I searched Eris, and was pleased with the search results. If you don't know the correct spelling you can search just the first three letters and choose from the list of gods that come up. Very easy to use, and you can even specify which pantheon to help narrow down the search. Offerings — This is a quirky little section on finding the gods in the modern world. For example, a tree that looks like a person—is it a tree god in disguise? Here you can also find on the side menu Mythmatics which is the numbers of the gods, and how it ties into mythology. You can also find articles on various topics like the Lego Gods which were hilarious! Well I'm going to leave you to explore while I continue my research on lesser known gods of old. http://www.godchecker.com/
What's Special About This Number? If I asked you about a particular numeral would you know anything about it? There is something unique about every number from 1 to 9999 identified at this site. This site is very colorful and mathmatically, it adds up.
9/11 HOKUM DEBUNKED Popular Mechanics studied and published nonrefutable conclusions that it wasn't a missle pod, there were no explosives, the jet fuel didn't liquefy steel, there was no passport found; on and on the conspiracies are vaporized by sanity. This is good reading if you have been caught up in the hype and unfounded claims concerning the who, why and what enveloping the 9/11 incidents. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html
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