Welcome to the October 11, 2001 issue of Hewie's Favorites News & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/. Please send this newsletter to your friends and ask them to subscribe at the site.

The articles in this issue:
++ Viruses, Worms, and Trojans
++ Tip - Print a table of Web page links using Internet Explorer
++ Copyrights and pictures of flags
++ Backups and disaster recovery plans are necessary


++ Viruses, Worms, and Trojans
They just keep coming. Symantec, the publishers of Norton Anti-Virus programs, has updated their virus definition files 9 times between September 13th and October 11th. You must download and install these updates to stay somewhat protected. All of the anti-virus programs publish updates to keep up with the newest threats.

I have been particularly conservative in opening messages. Notice I said messages, not attachments. I use Outlook as my primary email program. Many months ago I stopped using the preview function of Outlook. This function had the list of messages on the top and a preview of the highlighted message open in the lower portion of the window. Until recently, just opening a message was not a threat, but one of the latest viruses circulating will launch if the message is opened.

I know it sounds impossible and against everything that you have heard about viruses and worms. When the worm arrives by email, the worm uses a MIME exploit allowing the virus to be executed just by reading or previewing the file. Read about this at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.nimda.a@mm.html . Another good article: http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,2811488,00.html.

Keep checking the main page of Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net for the latest news concerning virus warnings and computer security issues.

++ Tip - Print a table of Web page links using Internet Explorer
This comes from http://www.elementkjournals.com/tips/

Have you ever wanted a listing of all the links on a particular Web page? Having a printed copy of all available links can be especially helpful on content-rich sites, or if you're a frequent online shopper of that particular site.

To print a table of all the links associated with a Web page in Internet Explorer, choose File / Print to open the Print dialog box. At the bottom of the dialog box, check the Print Table Of Links option to print all the links associated with the Web page you're currently viewing. Then click OK. Your printer will generate a printout of the Web page, along with a handy listing of all the links on the page.

++ Copyrights and pictures of flags
Many Internet users consider anything that they see online as public domain, or free to use. This is a mistake, as copyright law protects almost every site and you are not free to use the words, the photos, or the graphics. Pictures of the tragedies in New York and Washington are owned by the photographer, or a company, or the website, and not free to use, unless otherwise denoted.

I have seen some requests for pictures of flags. Be careful that you only use graphics that you have been given the rights to use. There is no guarantee that even the site that you are viewing has the right to use it themselves.

To be safe, here are a few sites that I have come across for pictures of flags. Comstock images is donating images of the US flag for your website or print pieces. These graphics are by Grapthar's Hammer and you can go to the following URL to download them at no charge.
http://www.comstock.com/Go/USFlags/. Also check
http://www.printfree.com/Kids/USFlagPrint.htm and
http://www.freeusagraphics.com/index.php3?page=ind1.html.

For some good information about the Internet and Copyright laws, take a look at a 2 part series at http://www.newmedia.com/nm-ie.asp?articleID=3034 and http://www.newmedia.com/nm-ie.asp?articleID=3036

++ Backups and disaster recovery plans are necessary
The ability of the stock exchange and many of the stock companies to get back to work so quickly after the devastation of the financial district has been partially credited to all of the preparations for the Y2K non-event. Most of the large corporations in that area and financial companies in general had disaster recovery plans and back up systems in place in preparation for the turn of the century and the unknown problems that might have occurred.

An interesting article is at http://us.news2.yimg.com/f/42/31/7m/dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010912/tc/tec h_storage_dc_1.html (This is a long URL and may wrap) "WTC Collapse Spotlights Need for Data Back-Up" By Caroline Humer. All companies need to have good backup of data stored off site and have disaster recovery plans in place for any type of emergency including fire and storms. Even personal data should be backed up and stored away from your home.

Another good article on this subject can be found at http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/09/19/010919hny2k.xml?0919wepm (another long url that may wrap). It is titled "U.S. recovery: Y2K preparation aided in disaster backup plans." by Lucas Mearian, Computerworld

Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/ . Please pass on this newsletter to your friends and ask them to subscribe at the site.

I have cleaned up some changed and out of date links and added some new sites.