Where PC means Personal Care · No. 40
Spam Revisited
Bill Hibler
In our last issue, we described the Spam problem and talked a little about filtering software. This issue I want to discuss what I call proactive measures to prevent “spam.” The first thing to understand is that spam will come to you in one of two ways: either by a computer-generated search program or directly to your address.
The first happens once the “spammer” determines a valid domain (like aol.com, kiro710.com, seanet.com or Quidnunc.net). It is an easy thing for a programmer to write a routine that generates thousands of email addresses. They know the most common names (like Jim, Cathy, Joe or Mary) and they can also run through the alphabet adding letters (Jima, Jimb, Jimc, etc.). Sometimes you will be able to tell this is the case because the mail will not appear to be addressed to you. If your address is mary@yourisp.com, the message may appear to be addressed to marya@yourisp.com or mary@myisp.com. They get domains from a variety of sources including registration records or by reading someone’s email address book. (That is what a lot of viruses are designed to do!)
The second occurs more often than we would like to believe. While many addresses are determined by worm-type viruses, many of us unwittingly provide our addresses voluntarily. There are many web sites for shopping or employment that, even if they do not sell or otherwise distribute their email lists, have such poor security that their lists are stolen. I once created a brand new email address just to register for a weekly electronic newsletter. Before I ever got a newsletter, I began getting spam sent to that address. Whether they passed on my address or someone stole it from them, the results were the same.
If your Internet Service Provider allows you more than one email address, you have one fairly simple way to reduce your chance of receiving spam. I recommend you have one for correspondence and make this something other than your first name or even your first name with your initial. My wife and I have personal email addresses that use our last names and we receive almost no spam. Get a separate email address for on-line purchases, job hunts, electronic newsletters, etc. Get as many as are practical. At Quidnunc, we offer up to 5 email addresses AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE.
If you are already suffering from large volumes of spam, it is likely your actual address is in circulation. (Spammers share their lists.) The best way to stop this is to change your address. My mother began with pat@quidnunc.net. Even though she rarely used email and never bought anything on line, she began getting large volumes of spam within a few months. When I changed her address to her full name, the spam stopped and has never come back.
After my plug for SpamKiller last month, customers recommended two others. MailWasher, and SpamNet. I was impressed with MailWasher (and it is FREE!) although I question its purported ability to “bounce back” messages and theoretically get you removed from a list. Most of the header information on spam is forged, false information and it is unlikely the return will go to the source of the message. If you check as many mailboxes as I do (8 at home and 8 at work), SpamKiller is a little easier to administer than MailWasher. I was unable to get SpamNet to install or work on my home computer.
Featured in this newsletter:
Also:
Crazy About Daisy
Daisy the huge Bernese Mountain Dog is currently at Quidnunc, waiting to be adopted. To start adoption proceedings, come to Quidnunc and enter our drawing. There is no purchase required.
The drawing will be held on Saturday, December 21st, (you don’t have to be here to win) so you will have plenty of time to get your newly adopted friend home. I’m sure everyone knows someone who would love to find this huge, huggable, lovable stuffed animal waiting to greet him/her on Christmas morning.
A Big Thank You
Thank you to all our customers who participated in our 8th Anniversary celebration throughout November. We hope you enjoyed our product demonstrations and entered the drawing for our computer giveaway.
Holiday Food Drive at Quidnunc!
November 29—January 4
How to help us help families in need this Holiday Season through the Junction Food Bank.
Click here for details.
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The Q&A Corner:
Upgrade or Replace?
From our service manager, Gary Williams
Your computer is too slow. You can’t add hardware you want. You can’t run software you’d like to use. If your existing computer meets any of the preceding conditions, you have a dilemma. Do you upgrade it, or do you replace it?
Computers are not like any other appliance you’ve ever purchased (they have more in common with automobiles). Although they will continue to function until something breaks or you pull the plug, computers rarely last that long. One of the true maxims that can be applied to the computer industry is the only thing remaining the same for very long is the rate of change. It increases.
Three basic conditions will prompt a computer owner to ponder the upgrade or replace question. The first two conditions rise from the rapid development of both hardware and software products. Let’s take hardware first. If you have a computer manufactured more than three years ago, it may not have Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, preventing you from taking advantage of the host of USB devices arriving on the market. No accelerated graphics port (AGP) slot? That will prevent you from using this year’s faster video cards. If the system was manufactured more than six years ago, it may not have peripheral component interconnect (PCI) expansion slots, which will prevent you from using up-to-date products such as the new PCI sound cards. If it was manufactured before the common use of dual inline memory modules (DIMMs), you may find that memory for it is becoming scarce or more expensive.
Then we come to the most curious phenomenon of all. As best I can tell this is simply the way human beings work. When you get a new computer—and it doesn’t matter whether it’s your first one or a replacement for an old one—it will appear to be blindingly fast. Information will whip across the screen faster than your eye can follow and the temptation will be to try to keep up with the system. Among other things, it leads to the new computer user’s most common mistake: issuing instructions before reading all the information on the screen. However, the fortieth time you do the same thing—particularly if the task is several steps ahead of you—you will find that you know, almost at a gut level, what the computer is supposed to do next. You’ll know it so well that you’ll be drumming your fingers on the edge of the keyboard, urging the system to work faster (probably muttering, “C’mon, darnit! Work!”). Quite simply, your ability to anticipate what the computer is supposed to do next will always outstrip its ability to deliver. And you can only take so much of this frustration before doing something about it.
When some or all of these conditions apply to your system, you can of course replace it. Depending on the mix of components, a decent new system with a monitor will set you back anywhere from $1,000 at the entry level to $4,500 at the leading edge. And you also get the fun of doing your homework and going through the shopping process all over again.
The other alternative is to upgrade your existing system - assuming that it’s new enough to make the process worthwhile. I use the following rule of thumb to decide if a system is worth upgrading:
If you have to replace so many parts to bring everything up to date that you have enough parts left over to rebuild your old system, it will cost less to replace it.
For all intents and purposes, that leaves anything older than a Pentium-based system off the eligibility list. The good news is, PC’s are faster today than ever and curiously less expensive.
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Why You Should Recycle Your Inkjet
& Toner Cartridges Here!
WAIT! Before you toss that inkjet or laser toner cartridge into the trash, consider these sobering facts:
- Thrown away cartridges impose a huge burden on our landfills. By 1999, over 180,000,000 inkjet cartridges and 55 million laser toner cartridges were thrown away. If placed end to end they would reach from Los Angeles to China! In 10 years enough will be thrown away to fill the Grand Canyon. These cartridges are made of non-biodegradable plastics.
- More than 3 quarts of oil are used to produce each new laser cartridge.
- The plastic used in each cartridge takes more than 10 centuries (that’s 1,000 years!) to decompose.
- 1.5 million cartridges go to landfills each month.
- Toner cartridge remanufacturing saves over 38,000 tons of plastic and metal from landfills each year.
- Stacking 105 laser toner cartridges end-to-end equals the height of the Statue of Liberty.
- In 7 months cartridge remanufacturing will save more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
At Quidnunc, we believe strongly in recycling everything possible.
In addition to using the City’s recycling program, we print on the back side of paper, salvage used computer parts when practical and turn the rest over to Total Reclaim, a company in South Park that recovers almost everything.
We are beginning to carry a line of remanufactured cartridges, both inkjet and laser. They are less expensive and they are guaranteed safe and reliable. In addition, they prevent landfill waste.
So bring your old cartridges to us! We will make sure they do not end up in the landfills.
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Holiday Food Drive at Quidnunc!
November 29, 2002 — January 4, 2003
With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas fast approaching, the Holiday Season is in full swing. There are many families that need help this time of year and the Junction Food Bank is there to help them. Donations of cans and boxes of non-perishable items are greatly appreciated.
Would you like to double your help to the Junction Food Bank and get a discount on your purchase? You can. Bring your cans and boxes of food to Quidnunc and purchase a computer for $1000 or more. Quidnunc will give you $5 per can—up to a limit of $50—off the price of your computer and give a cash donation equal to your discount to the Junction Food Bank.
If you’re buying software, a new printer or any of Quidnunc’s hundreds of products, Quidnunc has another offer to help the Junction Food Bank. On any purchase over $50 Quidnunc will deduct $1 for every can or box of non-perishable food you donate to the Junction Food Bank. So, ten cans of food gets you a $10 discount and the Junction Food Bank gets 10 cans of food and a matching $10 dollar donation from Quidnunc.
This is an excellent way to help yourself and those of your West Seattle neighbors who could use a helping hand during this holiday season.
| Custom-Built Computers ! Games ! Productivity ! Utilities ! Modems ! CD-ROM |
HOLIDAY GIFT IDEA
Computer cases do not have to be dull!
Check out our cases in yellow, black or brushed aluminum. With or without windows in the side and colorful lighted interiors. Or get a lighted case fan in blue, green, red or tricolor. Let your computer be your Christmas color!
Click here for more gift ideas!
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