Welcome to the May 24, 2002 issue of Hewie's Favorites Views & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/. Hewie's Quick Thoughts appear almost daily at http://www.hewie.net/weblog/.

Make it a daily routine to see what is added. It is a log of items as I find them. There are archive pages, so you can catch up on older items. Feel free to let your friends know about this page and the entire site.

+++ Scams and Hoaxes
+++ Ten Worst Cars ever Made
+++ Mini-Putt Game Simulates Golf Course Using Flash
+++ Felt Tip Pen defeats copy-protection
+++ Tiny URL
+++ KB Alertz
+++ Hewie's Favorites has been updated


May 24, 2002

+++ Scams and Hoaxes

A new e-mail scam from a purported American ``Special Forces Commando'' in Afghanistan who needs help getting terrorist drug money out of the country is making the rounds on the Internet. It is just another form of the Nigerian scam. Please don't fall for it or email to me or your other friends. Just delete it if you receive the request.

I read about it by clicking on headline in the Computer Security News section on the home page of Hewie's Favorites. In the Virus Warning section, I clicked on the headline about a virus hoax which points out a file that needs to be deleted, if it is present. The odds are that it will be present and immediate panic will set in. You will delete it as suggested.

Once you read about the hoax, you will find that the deleted file could cause Windows Java to be crippled.

+++ Ten Worst Cars ever Made

Have you owned several autos in your lifetime? My first car was a Karman Gia convertible. Over the years I have owned many. I came across this site that has the 10 worst cars ever made. I never owned any of them. This is a good laugh (unless you owned them).
http://cartalk.cars.com/About/Worst-Cars/results1.html

+++ Mini-Putt Game Simulates Golf Course Using Flash

Tired of playing solitaire when you want to rest your mind? Try mini-putt-putt golf. It's done in Flash and is entertaining. You play it free and on line.
~http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~pyang/flash/miniputt.swf

+++ Felt Tip Pen defeats copy-protection

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker. |http://www1.excite.com/home/technology/tech_article/0,2109,237089|technology |05-20-2002::13:19|reuters,00.html

+++ Tiny URL

In the previous paragraph, I bet you got an error if you clicked on the link. It is a very long link and wraps the line in your e-mail program. It also has some unique characters and spaces that will cause a problem. I used a site called Tiny URL and created a short link. If you click (or copy and paste to your browser) http://tinyurl.com/798 , you will get to the same address as
|http://www1.excite.com/home/technology/tech_article/0,2109,237089|technology |05-20-2002::13:19|reuters,00.html .

So, if you are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together, try this site. By entering in a URL in a text field, they will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings. Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/

+++ KB Alertz

Do you ever have a problem with a Microsoft Product? Silly question! If you are looking for a solution, you should check Microsoft's Knowledge Base on line at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;rid;kbinfo .

This is the database of all of their tech support articles. It gets updated daily. If you want to keep up with the solutions as MS solves them, you can receive e-mail alerts (in text or HTML) with direct links every time Microsoft publishes one of documents. You can also specify which technologies you want. Go to http://www.kbAlertz.com/ and sign up.

+++ Hewie's Favorites has been updated