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Hewie's Views and Reviews Welcome to this issue of Hewie's 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/ . In this issue: ++++ Overkill April, 2004 ++++ Overkill E-mail, viruses, and adware have become so prevalent that I have to run separate programs just to control them. Hopefully, you do. However, I think that we spend too much of our on-line and computer time trying to control the bad programs instead of getting our work done. Some of you may not be using any "protection" and live with the threats or attacks. I have an anti-virus program, a pop-up stopper, an ad stopper, a spam washer, an ad program cleaner, as well as many of the security fixes and controls built into Windows and Office. My MailWasher http://www.firetrust.com/ reports that in the last 4 weeks I have received 13,303 messages and filtered 9420 of them or %70. That's checking 24 different e-mail accounts. Apparently the junk mail senders earn enough to continue the onslaught. I certainly do not respond to any unsolicited bulk e-mail. There are several movements to try to control the problem. However, tests from such industry leaders like Fred Langa http://www.langa.com/ have run tests that show a lot of "good" email gets blocked. Recently I tried to send messages to someone on RoadRunner. I was sending them through my main account, using Roadrunner for a connection, but all mail was from Verio, which is one the world's largest hosting companies. They were being blocked by RoadRunner servers. There have been similar problems between RoadRunner and AOL, with AOL blocking a lot of legitimate email. America Online Inc., EarthLink Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., are targeting the worst spammers using "outlaw tactics," by suing them. I hope that they are successful. Microsoft and Symantec have even proposed a per email charge for all of us to control the mass mailers. I wonder how much of my incoming mail gets lost either by me, my protection programs, or my various hosting companies. It has taken a lot of the fun and reliability out of email. ++++ Finally I Have Relented About 4 years ago I had a cell phone for a year and because it wouldn't work in my home and I didn't use it enough, I abandoned it. Last month I decided to once again join most of you and have a mobile phone. After a lot of consideration, I made the decision on a lot of factors. There is a strong possibility that land lines here in Florida will almost double in cost. The ability to have free long distance added to the lure. Have you tried to find a pay phone lately? When traveling on the road or away from home, I now have the ability to be in contact with the rest of the world, especially in an emergency situation. I would not accept any company or phone that would not work in my home. I had several friends with different phone services try their phone in my home. Once I settled on a company, I only agreed to sign for their service if I could return the phone and the service, without penalty, if it didn't work at home. On the third phone, we found a winner and it works fine inside my home. Eventually I may even totally abandon my land line or take only the minimum service and use the cell as my main number. ++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites CSS Creator Flash Kit rejectioncollection RiverWithin Solitaire MahJongg Guide To Buying a Ridiculously Cheap PC notlong Auto-Tracing Beginner's Guide to HTML Free XML tools and software HTML Special Characters Cheat Sheet HTML-Kit XML Guide Onfolio Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner Encyclopedia JSI - Tips & Tricks Windows Process Library |
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