Actrix Newsletter May 2005

This newsletter has been produced to help you get the most out of the Internet,
and to keep you, as an Actrix customer, informed of developments and services within the company.
Past newsletters may be viewed at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/
Newsletters are now archived by article at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/byarticle/
Questions and comments about the newsletter can be e-mailed to editor@actrix.co.nz
Other inquiries should be e-mailed to support@actrix.co.nz

Problems Downloading AVG Updates?

AVG from Grisoft is probably the most popular free anti-virus program. Over the years many have switched it from their paid-for anti-virus program with good results. However, lately the Actrix Help Desk has reported that quite a few customers have noticed a problem with downloading the weekly virus definition updates.

The problem would appear to be something to do with the capacity of the servers AVG has devoted to updates for their Free Edition software. Hopefully they will get the problem fixed sometime soon, but at the moment we aren't sure whether they are looking into it. Some of the more cynical have suggested that it might be a deliberate attempt to force users to change to a paid version of the software. Some customers have said that downloading the latest version of the AVG program has fixed the problem for them. If you would like to try this the latest version is available from: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php.

To do this just go to the above address and download the update files listed to a folder on your computer such as the desktop. Once the downloads have completed you will need to follow these steps to install the update(s):

Unfortunately if AVG does not fix the automatic update service you will want to do this at least once a week to ensure AVG is kept up to date.

- Avast, from: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html. This one seems to be a good alternative to AVG but we are still testing Avast to determine how good the free edition is.

- Antivir, from: http://www.free-av.com/. Antivir does not provide as comprehensive protection as AVG and is not as user-friendly, but it is certainly better than having no virus protection at all.

-ClamWin, from http://www.clamwin.net/. ClamWin is used by a few Actrix staff who report that it seems to do a great job. It is very unobtrusive (you don't know it's there) and downloads updates automatically by default.

Feel free to experiment with these programs If you install one and don't like it, they are usually easy to remove (Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs).

Online Safety Tips for Kids and Parents

Readers' Forum

If you'd like to ask a question or request some help on any Actrix or Internet-related matter. Simply send me an e-mail with the word "Forum" in the subject line. I'll try and answer your question by return e-mail, and will also post the answer here for the benefit of others who may have a similar question or problem. By the same token, if you read something here and think you may have something to suggest, please feel more than free. Please also note that questions and answers may turn up under the Helpful Tips section on the Actrix home page (www.actrix.co.nz).

Vanessa asks: How does Internet radio work? Can I record from it? What are the risks? Is there spam involved? Thanks, Vanessa

Hi Vanessa, If you find a video stream on the web (and most radio web sites will have them, you could record the stream just using Media Player or Real Audio, though you may need to purchase the add-ons to these programs to record. If you did a search you would probably find free or trial versions of programs that would do both, though. There would be associated risks with these programs as free stuff tends to include spyware, but not always. If you find a free program that you think you might like to download, it is often good to do a Google on the program itself including words like "spyware" and "danger" in the search at the same time to see if anybody has written about it or reviewed it from a security perspective.

Actrix streams a few radio stations, and the technology is reasonably simple. We just take the sound feed from the radio station and encode it into a compressed digital format that streams across the web. When you tune in, your computer just accepts this digital stream and turns the data back into sound. The data streamed is compressed, but it still adds up to a fair amount of info or traffic, so in some cases dialup access is not sufficient to receive a reliable and continuous stream. It depends on a lot of things like where the data is coming from. Even on a 56K modem, you would probably get most of a domestic stream reasonably well, though sound quality suffers a little due to compression. If the stream is coming from overseas, you could probably expect reasonably frequent sound drop outs.

If you're on JetStream, you'd want to be aware that the radio stream would be steadily eating into your traffic allocation. If you're on dialup, there are no traffic allocations.

Bob from Vogeltown writes: I am constantly frustrated when I print a page from Internet Explorer, only to find that it has chopped off the right hand edge. Is there some setting I can change to make it wordwrap to all fit on an A4 page? I have resorted to printing everything in landscape for the moment.

Steve Trayhorne from the Actrix Help Desk responds: Hi Bob, Unfortunately the chopped print is usually due to the design of the web page. It happens because some web pages have fixed widths and Internet Explorer does not have any print options to correct this for printing. It is possible that in some cases your printer may be able to compensate for. When you click Print from the File menu, see if there's a button you can click on the Print dialogue box labelled Properties, Options or Settings. Among the settings you may find a box you can tick labelled "Fit to page" or something similar. This may be able to force the printing to stay on the one page, but I don't think we can guarantee that.

Other than that, continuing to print in landscape may be all you have. The only other alternative is to copy the text you wish to print into your word processing program. This will correctly align the text for printing on the normal A4, or will allow you to wrap the text for printing. To do this select the text on the web page, right-click on the highlighted text then select Copy. Open up your word processor, go to the Edit menu and choose Paste. You should find it is now formatted for printable A4 pages. Of course this will ruin the original layout of the page, but if it is mainly the text you are after, it may be okay for you. I hope this is of assistance.

Wendy writes: Up until a few months ago, about every 10 days I would delete cookies, delete files, clear history and this would clear all sites visited on the Internet. But for about two months, nothing has happened and when entering www in the address bar, so many sites come up in the drop down box! What can I do to delete all these? Thanks for your help and a great newsletter. Wendy

Hi Wendy, Ordinarily clicking Tools, then Internet Options and then Clear History should work. However sometimes Internet Explorer gets a bit surly about co-operating. It's a reasonably well documented bug, but there's not much in the way of simple fixes for it.

You can delete your history by going into your Registry, but that's a little bit like going into the control room on the bridge of a battle cruiser. It may be safe to have a quick look, but push the wrong button and you could let loose a problem of nuclear proportions. So be very careful if you're doing this (and you certainly do anything in there at your own risk).

There are two other points to mention. You could try using a different browser such as Firefox (www.getfirefox.com). Mike Cooper (who helped with this answer) was keen to suggest that.

Secondly, some Spyware issues could be involved. Some Spyware will seek to lock your history and prevent it from being deleted (so that it has good stat info on you to send back to its evil creator). That could be another avenue to explore. If you haven't run a good spyware cleaner recently, then that would be a good idea. More info on this is available from past newsletters. See the article Three programs You Probably Need from the October 2004 Newsletter, for example.

With regards to recent articles about getting the computer to make a sound when you press the Caps Lock key, Paul asks: Is there any way of disabling the Caps Lock key other than hitting it with a large hammer? I don't have the speakers on - too many annoying noises and I haven't quite got to the stage of not looking at the keyboard while typing.

Hi Paul, your computer actually has its own little speaker independent of the speakers that come out the back of your machine, so your speakers don't need to be on for this to work. However, there are a number of other options. You can edit your own registry to disable your caps lock key or configure it to act like some other key instead (e.g. your Ctrl key). This is a risky thing to do and could render your system unbootable if you make a mistake, but if you want to proceed at your own risk, the instructions are here: http://pergatory.mit.edu/perg/resources/Windows_2000.htm.

There are some more possibilities under the Accessibility Options of your Control Panel:

That's it. Now, every time you hit the Caps Lock key, your entire screen should flash as well as make the little sound.

You can, of course, simply remove the Caps Lock key from your keyboard. Just slip a small screwdriver under the edge of the keycap and try to pry it off. With just a little pressure, you can easily do this on many keyboards. If you do remove the key, store it in a safe place in case you later need it. I also read about someone who had trouble teaching himself to remember to not use a certain key He taped a thumbtack, point up, on top of the offending key. After only three or four sharp jabs to the little finger, your nervous system quickly learns, and you will stop automatically (or accidentally) hitting the wrong key.

Actrix Friend Get Friend Promotion

Congratulations to the following customers who have been monthly winners in our Actrix Friend get Friend promotion draw!

You could be a winner too! If you get a friend to sign-up for a dialup plan with Actrix, we'll give you a credit to the value of your friend's first monthly payment as soon as they pay their first bill.

You can get as many friends as you like to sign up. The only proviso is that your friend has to stay with us for at least three months. And remember, the credit comes through to your account only after your friend has paid their first bill.

We've added a referrer field to the sign up page. All your friend has to do is put your main account user name into that field when they sign up. (Your main account user name is the first part of your e-mail address before the @ sign.)

So why not go ahead and encourage your friends to sign up with Actrix? We don't think they'll ever regret making the move.

As stated above, every month all new customers who have been referred by a friend will go into a draw for six free months on whichever plan they've chosen. Winners will be contacted by e-mail and mentioned on our web page and in the newsletter around the first of each month.

Interesting Sites (Click the picture links to access the sites)

Please note: Actrix supplies links to these sites for your interest and possible use. We cannot endorse or take any responsibility for their contents.

Got a site you think would be neat to share with other readers? Click here to e-mail and let me know and receive a free Norrie the Nerd chocolate bar courtesy of Actrix!

How a Pope is Elected
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/interactives/johnpaul/popeelect.html - For 900 years, electing a pope has been the prerogative of the College of Cardinals meeting in conclave. The cardinals meet in Rome 15 to 20 days after the death of a pope and pick a successor from among themselves in secret balloting. Here the process is detailed step by step and with pictures and diagrams. It's more interesting than you might think.

Amazing Untrue Facts
www.topfive.com/amazingfacts.shtml - Unfortunately, not a single one of these facts is, in fact, true. However, most of them sound like they sort of almost possibly could be a little bit. We're not in time for April Fool's Day, but there's still plenty of time for you to regale people at cocktail parties with all the amazing things you can make it sound like you know.

Hunkin's Experiments
www.hunkinsexperiments.com/ - Mr Hunkin hear lists loads of simple experiments or little magic tricks you can do. If you don't want to do the activities, you can at least learn a fair bit about how others do them. How do you get an apple into a bottle? How do you make steel float? All those wondering how to make a ball out of paper cups - wonder no more!

The Best UFO Pictures Ever Taken
http://ufocasebook.com/bestufopictures.html - This is a section of pages from the UFO Casebook web site containing "many of the best UFO photographs ever taken." They don't claim the list to be complete, but new pictures are added as they are found and verified. The latest picture at the time of writing this was from 9 April 2005. Click the links on the left to select pages, and the thumbnails for larger images. And here's a link to a story about UFOs at the Pope's funeral: www.raidersnewsupdate.com/pope-ufo.htm.

Scrum's Rules of Rugby
www.scrum.com/rugby_guide/default.asp - If you enjoy watching our national game, but every now and then you're a bit confused by exactly what that whistle was blown for (or how come the whistle didn't blow when that guy got his head stomped on), then this may be a site for you. It's a very good "guide to the basics and terminology of the game of Rugby Union... Designed for people new to the sport, as well as those who may need a refresher course, it aims to give a clear insight into all aspects of the game. From the precision discipline of tactical kicking, to the dark arts of the scrum."

Mr Picasso Head
www.mrpicassohead.com/ - Unleash your inner artist! This site allows you to create, save and share your own Picasso-like drawing using an online Flash program. There's not much more I can say about this site. Let the art speak for itself!

Ruptecht's Haunted House
www.ruprecht.com/aHauntedHouse/HauntedIntro.html - This is a fun, flash-based memory type game. Click on the rooms to see which evil creature and which weapon are in each room. Match up the evil presence with the correct anti-supernatural weapon to clear the evil from the room. Get seven right to win.

The Secrets of Fatima
www.fatima.org/ - The stories about the appearances of the Virgin Mary to three chosen children in Fatima early in the Twentieth Century are surely fascinating. Purportedly, the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven revealed a threefold secret that had great implications for our world, then and now. The Late Pope John Paul II was a great believer in Fatima (as is the new pope Benedict XVI), and revealed the third part of the secret kept under wraps by earlier popes. You can read about that here at the Vatican's web site.

The World Fact Book
www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ - The CIA's World Factbook 2004 web pages provide a "snapshot" of the world as of 1 January, 2004 but it is also updated periodically throughout the year. It contains all the information you would want to know about any country, including a little its background and all its vital statistics. A great place for the geographically curious and a wonderful starting point for school projects!

Vote for the Worst Song in the World
www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/music/ - "We all have songs that we loathe-songs that make us nearly break a finger as we rush to change the radio station. What song do you particularly hate? And what is it about this song that makes you nominate it for Worst Song in the World? This survey is part of a research project into musical dislikes. It was inspired by the 'Bad Songs Survey' conducted by humorist Dave Barry. The project is based at the University of Waikato, Computer Science Department..." Take the survey to register your worst song, and then have a browse of what others have written.

Encyclopedia Mythica
www.pantheon.org/ - "Please enter the award-winning internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. Here you will find everything from A-gskw to Zveda Vechanyaya, with plenty in between. The encyclopedia will serve the serious researcher, the student, and the casual reader with equal success. Come in and enjoy!"

Learn the Secrets of Web Design
www.secretsites.com/ - This is a pretty good resource for people just getting into web design. The web site is made up of a collection of web design tips and tricks delivered in easy to understand portions. It acts as both a teaching tool and a reference. So you're invited to just snoop around take what you need. "You will probably find something that you can put to use in your own work right away."

Cyberspace News Snippets

New Zealand

Dot-com ideas reborn: Lower Hutt's Michael Clarke, 25, is one of a new generation of dot-com entrepreneurs founding Internet start-ups that bare an uncanny resemblance to businesses that crashed spectacularly in the dot-com bust. Click here for more.

DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office: New Zealand's District Health Boards plan a trial of open source desktop software in an effort to reduce the licensing fees they pay to Microsoft — more than $20 million over three years, according to one estimate. Click here for more.

Christchurch man auctions 'comfort hug': A 29-year-old "supportive and caring male" from Christchurch is auctioning a non-sexual, human-to-human, 60-second or less Comfort Hug on internet trading site TradeMe. Click here for more.

Providers look to move content overseas: Wellington telco CityLink is working with New Zealand's large content providers to set up content servers in California, a move intended to dodge attempts by Telecom and TelstraClear to charge them for delivering their website content to internet subscribers. Click here for more.

Email porn flooding into work computers: ...thousands of New Zealand businesses receive and store child pornography and other objectionable electronic material every day without realising it. Click here for more.

General

Sex.com ruling upheld by Court of Appeals: Kremen, of San Francisco, originally registered the name in 1994. But Cohen, an ex-convict, took the name from Kremen the following year by sending a forged letter of transfer to Network Solutions (which subsequently became part of VeriSign). Click here for more.

Court lets man criticize hair clinic in Web site: A man can disparage a hair-restoration company on a Web site using the company's name without violating copyright law, an appeals court ruled Monday. Click here for more.

'Geek speak' confuses net users: The average home computer user is bamboozled by technology jargon which is used to warn people about the most serious security threats online. Click here for more.

Saving souls in cyberspace: T-shirts and prayers on offer as the Vatican embraces the web. Click here for more.

Students 'using adult websites': More than one in 10 teenagers frequently use the internet to look at "adult-only" websites, a government- backed study says. Click here for more.

Never too old: Man aged 100 studies computing: At the age of 100 most people would think about winding down rather than downloading - but not Sidney Platt. Click here for more.

George Bush fears email privacy breach: US prez George Bush has admitted he does not send personal emails to daughters Jenna and Barbara for fear that his "personal stuff" might end up in the public domain. Click here for more.

Project to open internet to blind: A three-year project to improve blind access to the internet has started at Queen's University in Belfast. Click here for more.

Congress confuses file sharing with manslaughter: Since involuntary manslaughter brings, on average, anywhere from 0 to 36 months' incarceration, one might well question the morality of going harder on those who trade files than on those who negligently cut short the lives of fellow citizens. Click here for more.

Viruses

Hackers Write Spyware For Cash, Not Fame: More than 70 percent of virus writers are now writing spyware under contract, one more piece of evidence that hacking has evolved from mischievous hobby to money-making criminal venture... Click here for more.

Virus writers have girlfriends - official: The stereotype of virus writers as spotty nerds who can't pull is well wide of the mark, according to an expert on the psychology of virus writers. Click here for more.

Helpful users face virus danger: Users are being warned to watch out for a Windows virus posing as a complaint about misdirected e-mail. Click here for more.

Security and Safety

Web postcards hide Trojan horse programs: The new attacks use sophisticated social engineering techniques to trick users into installing Trojan remote access programs that can fool antivirus and firewall software... Click here for more.

Identity thieves' new ploy: 'pharming': First online crooks went "phishing," and now they're getting into "pharming'" to reap their harvest of potential identity-theft victims. Click here for more.

Russian hackers 'the best in the world': Russians who once hacked for fun are now teaming up to get rich through cybercrime, according to police. Click here for more.

Warning over fake Windows update: Circulating as an e-mail the fake message points people at a bogus website that claims to host critical security updates. Click here for more.

Training a new breed of hacker: The scheme is not the "devil's workshop" it might sound but, say its organisers, aims to tackle a modern-day taboo. Click here for more.

Should you fear new cookies?: In my opinion, browser cookies are fairly benign, but they cause a lot of angst. Click here for more.

Online safety tips for kids and parents: Never give out personal information like your name, address, age, sex, phone number or school name, unless you have your parents' permission. Click here for more.

Spam, Eggs, Baked Beans, Spam, Spam and Spam

Anti-spam laws bite spammer hard: The net's self-declared spam king is seeking bankruptcy protection. Click here for more.

US still leads global spam list: Computers in the US were responsible for more than 35% of global spam, while South Korea was responsible for almost a quarter of all spam e-mails. Click here for more.

Judge: Prison time for spammer: A man convicted in the first U.S. felony prosecution for sending bulk e-mail -- known as spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday... Click here for more.

Attention shifts to spam containment: Filters for blocking junk e-mail from inboxes have improved to the point that doing much more will needlessly kill legitimate e-mail, said Carl Hutzler... Click here for more.

Mainly Microsoft

Microsoft ex-employee sentenced for software theft: A former employee of Microsoft was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay more than US$5 million in restitution for selling the world’s largest software maker’s products for personal gain, federal prosecutors said. Click here for more.

Five vendors join against Microsoft in EU case: Five large technology companies have banded together to support the European Commission in its attempt to stop Microsoft using its PC operating systems monopoly to dominate the markets for workgroup server and media player software. Click here for more.

Mac News

Apple’s corporate share grows: As you fire up your PC for another day’s grind, do you wonder why you can’t use a Mac? Studies consistently show Apple’s platform is more intuitive, easier to use and allows people to be more productive. Click here for more.

Unix, Linux and Open Source

Auckland firm stands by Open Source: A small Auckland company is proof that it is unnecessary to stick to Microsoft-based software to run a viable IT services business. Click here for more.

Do Firefox browser bugs matter?: No program is perfect, but bugs in open source software are less of a problem, says technology analyst Bill Thompson. Click here for more.

The Weird, Weird Web

Fla. Man Secured BenedictXVI.com Weeks Ago: By the time Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany assumed his new papal moniker on Tuesday, it was already too late for the Vatican to buy the corresponding dot-com Web address. Click here for more.

Man auctioning middle name on eBay: "If someone changes his name to 'Poophead,' he may decide it's a little more important than he thought." Click here for more.

A Little Levity

Bringing It All Back Home

Thanks again for reading the Actrix newsletter. Feedback can be sent to me via the e-mail address listed below. Please limit this to comments/suggestions regarding the newsletter. Requests for support should go to the Actrix Help Desk (support@actrix.co.nz) or to the Accounts Department (accounts@actrix.co.nz).