|
|
|
|
Surfer Beware |
|
Dear Netlink Customer,
We think you'll find the information contained in this
newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If,
however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis,
click HERE. |
Surfer
Beware - Recognizing And Stopping E-mail Hoaxes
If
you have an e-mail address, it is very likely that you've received a hoax
message via e-mail. Promises of free Outback Steakhouse coupons, the assurance
of $1,000 in prize money from Microsoft's Bill Gates, instructions for killing
mosquitoes using Proctor and Gamble's Lemon Fresh Joy, warnings of an immediate
and severe toilet paper shortage due to the destruction of a large toilet paper
manufacturing plant located in California during last summer's forest and brush
fires, ... and the list goes on. Many of the same e-mail hoaxes have been
circulating around the Internet for years.
Some "creators" of e-mail hoax messages start these
"eRumors" to harass people or companies. Others are written by
spammers who gather the carbon copied e-mail addresses from forwarded e-mails
they come across to then send new spam to or sell to fellow spammers. Most
writers of e-mail hoaxes, however, do so simply to watch how quickly their
"creations" spread. Sometimes hoaxes can spread across the globe
literally overnight. It's easy to see how. If one e-mail hoax is forwarded to
just ten friends and those friends forward the message to ten of their friends
and so on, after only six forwarded messages in this fashion, the result is one
million e-mail hoax recipients.
Not only can e-mail hoaxes be a nuisance to the recipients, the cumulative
effect is a general slowing down of e-mail servers around the world. If
specific companies are targeted, hoaxes can be public relations nightmares for
those entities. E-mail hoaxes not only waste people's time, but they can scare
recipients into taking incorrect or even harmful actions.
So what to do? One of the best methods of finding out whether or not an e-mail
message is a hoax (when the message refers to a product or company) is to first
go to the website of the company or institution mentioned within the message.
For example, when an e-mail began circulating in August of 2003 espousing the
benefits of the new "Mayo Clinic Grapefruit Diet,"
There are also some websites that are dedicated to alerting Internet users of
hoaxes circulating around the Web. These sites include search tools to research
archived hoaxes by name or subject. Hoax information sites to bookmark in the
Favorites list of your browser include:
http://truthorfiction.com/
http://vmyths.com/
http://urbanlegends.com/ulz/
In short, the next time you receive an e-mail message that you believe to be a
hoax, do some quick research before forwarding the message on to family and
friends. If you receive an e-mail message that was forwarded to you from a
friend and you've confirmed the message to be a hoax, let your friend down
gently when telling him/her not to be expecting $1,000 from Bill Gates anytime
soon.
Ask
The Help Desk - What Is A Browser Plug-in?
Question: I've heard people refer to
plug-ins on browsers? What is a browser plug-in?
Answer: A Web browser plug-in
is an application that works with your browser to either display certain types of
web media or add some functionality that was not originally built into the
browser. For example, some website creators use Shockwave to allow users to view interactive 3D simulations
or to participate in interactive games. In order to view the 3D simulations or
play the games, the user needs to have the Shockwave plug-in downloaded onto
his/her browser. Other common examples of plug-ins are Quicktime and Windows Media Player both which allow users to listen and/or
view audio and video Web media, Flash
which allows browsers to interact with web applications (mainly animations),
and Acrobat Reader which allows
users to read PDF documents.
So how do you know which plug-ins you're going to need to add to your browser?
No worries. When you come to a website that requires a plug-in, either the
plug-in is already pre-installed on your browser and will run automatically or,
if the plug-in isn't already installed on your browser, instructions will be
automatically displayed regarding how to download it. Most plug-ins have free
versions.
For the most part, newer browsers come with the most common plug-ins. You may
need to update to the latest version from time to time, but you'll be prompted
by the plug-in application when it's time to do so.
Great
Sites To Check Out This Month
American Idol's Official Website
http://idolonfox.com - The countdown
for selecting the next American Idol continues on the official website of the
popular American Idol television
show. The site includes backstage photos, videos, interviews, and bios. You can
also play the Idol Knowledge Trivia Game, send Idol e-Cards to friends and
family, or head to the American Idol Virtual Salon to style and colorize your
favorite contestant's hair to then send to friends. Who said the Internet isn't
making life more fun?!
Helpful Information For The Partially Sighted
Or Blind
http://VisionConnection.org -
If you have a friend or family member who is partially sighted or blind, refer
them to this website. Founded by Lighthouse International, the site provides the
latest news and information on vision impairment, its prevention, and vision
rehabilitation. The site also has customizable preferences that save your text
size settings upon return visits.
Shania Twain's Up! World Tour 2004
http://www.shaniatwain.com/index.asp -
Shania Twain's Up! World Tour 2004
is in full swing. She completed her European concerts last month and is now on
tour in
Swap Seeds And Plants Online With Fellow
Green Thumbs
http://www.gardenweb.com/ -
This site is a great place to swap seeds, plants, gardening tools, and
supplies. Specialized categories for plant/seed exchanges include the Hot
Pepper Exchange, the Asian Vegetable Exchange, and the Tropical Plant Exchange.
Links to various local and regional exchanges, a calendar of garden events,
definitions for over 4,400 botanical terms, gardening tips, and bulletin board
forums are also available. This site will make your green thumb even greener.
NFL Draft 2004
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfldraft/draft04/index -
This is the definitive site for this year's NFL Draft. The site includes daily
updates on potential draftees, which team is looking at which player, the Big
Board of Top 10 Prospects by NFL Draft expert, Mel Kiper, Jr., the breakdown of
the 2004 Draft Order by team, insider draft coverage, updated combine reports,
who looks good and who doesn't, predictions, team-by-team picks since 1990, and
much more. I told you it was definitive!
Short
Tutorial - Earmarking Important E-mail Messages Within Your
Inbox
Most
Internet users keep a portion of their incoming e-mail messages after they've
read them in case the messages are needed for documentation or follow-up down the
road. Some of these saved messages are especially important and need to be
specifically earmarked for follow-up.
A couple of simple tricks for earmarking these messages in your inbox when
using Outlook Express are to: 1) turn the important, previously read messages
back into messages that appear to be unread (back to a "bold" print),
and 2) "flag" these messages to indicate that you have already read
them but that you are saving the messages for future use. These two tips aren't
exactly rocket science, but they are simple and work quite well.
To make a previously read message bold (again) within your inbox using Outlook Express 6, move your cursor arrow
to the "Edit" menu and select "Mark as Unread" from the
resulting drop-down menu. Reverse the procedure by either clicking on the
message again, or by going back to the "Edit" menu and selecting
"Mark as Read."
To place a small red flag next to an e-mail message found in your inbox to
indicate its importance when using Outlook Express, select the message you want
to flag by clicking on it and then click your cursor arrow in the
"Flag" column next to the envelope icon for the selected message.
Click on the flag itself to un-flag it.
To mark a read message as unread when using Netscape
7.x on a Mac or a PC, just go to "Mail" and select the
message you want to mark and hit the "M" key. Pressing the
"M" key again will mark the message as read again. If you like, you
can also go to the "Message" menu and drop down to "Mark"
and select "as Read." This will mark the message as read and place a
check mark in front of the menu item. Reverse the process to remove the check
from the "as Read" menu item and mark the message as
"unread."
The easiest way to flag a message is to select the message you want to flag and
click in the flag column. Click on the flag again to remove it. You can also
use the Message menu and drop down to "Mark." Select "Flag"
from the submenu to flag the message. Repeat the process to remove the flag.
In OS X for the Macintosh, the
most popular e-mail client software is Apple's own Mail.app. When using Mail.app, you can also flag and
remark messages as read or unread. Look for the commands under the
"Message" menu.
We
hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you
posted on the happenings at our shop. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive
these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE.
Thanks for your business!
Best regards,
Mike Huggenberger
Director
(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information
published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all
liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such
errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)
©2004 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.
Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this eNewsletter are
trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.