Cozahost Newsletter Archive

Newsletter Archive

This time we have: A story about the moral of the story, a white list service that can stop spam immediately and permanently and how to use VOIP immediately to eliminate long distance phone call charges.

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Anyway, all work and no play makes Bill a dull boy, so I thought you could do with a few minutes of distraction watching the typical South African man do what he does best: be a boy at heart...with just a little bit of help from the stupid juice.

We also cover an excellent way to get rid of spam almost instantly (and permanently) and then we talk about how you could use VOIP immediately and free of charge to save on those long distance phone call charges.

As always your feedback is very welcome...
 

Picture this: The smell of the sea was heavy in the air.  Not ten paces from where we were sitting next to the fire, small waves were breathing peacefully in the silver light of a huge full moon.  A bit further off in the distance, behind a line of rocks, the bigger waves smashed ghostly white fountains of foam into the air.  The air was cool and perfectly still.

A genuine, honest to goodness Kodak moment.

In fact, I was still savoring The Moment, when one of the tribe smashed an entire pack of wet rooikrans wood on the fire - plastic wrapping and all.  Sparks flew everywhere. A huge bellow of smoke rose into the air. 

The tribe scrambled, jumped, stumbled, rolled and fell away from the fire as if Satan himself farted in it. 

From a safe few paces away, rubbing smoke stung eyes and nervously taking a quick sip or two for the shock, we saw the culprit grinning triumphantly: one foot on the pack of wood (in the fire), glass of brandy and coke in hand.  "You girls braai like sissies", he grinned and pointed to a little black plastic push-bike standing not far from the fire.  The kind of bike made for 3 year olds.  After a quick scan to make sure none of the wives were watching he gave a slow wink.

Behind the little plastic bike was a uneven slope - about 2 meters high, sandy and strewn with rocks.

Interesting.

Of course the girls (the wives) could not see the simple logic: Plastic bike + slope + brandy and coke - braaiable fire = a mountain bike race.  Obvious!  Prove your manhood and all that. All the wives could see is a "death trap" and "idiots breaking their necks", but with a "don`t come crying to me" taken as tacit approval for the race, one of the guys pushed the bike up the hill.

His first attempt went reasonably well.  His steering was a bit impaired due to the liquid refreshment of earlier (he blamed the loose sand), but he made 3 mostly successful runs down the hill.  Of course the bike is quite small and not really designed for a 35-something, but by sitting down on the vehicle and pulling your knees up to next to your ears, the bike was almost stable.

By this time the cameras were flashing and bets were loudly placed on exactly when, where and how hard he is going to fall.

Spurred by the obvious excitement in the tribe, he shouted commentary as he went down the hill: "Easy riderrrr!" and "who ya daddyyyy!".  Grinning like Mugabe after the election, he lined up for his "coup-de-gra": the upright, one legged, one handed, nose in the wind, rapid decent. 

At the top of the hill he loudly announced: "Now let me show you how real men do it."

It almost worked.

At about three quarters down...the front wheel hit a rock under the sand.  The bike stopped dead in it`s tracks. The vehicle`s centre of gravity was approximately at the driver`s forehead.  His eyes opened wide. His mouth formed in a big "O".  He scratched in thin air for a hand hold.  Gravity swooped in to collect it`s victim.  In a slow motion arch the driver obeyed the laws of Newton and continued to accelerate at about 9 meters per second into the gravel where he stopped very abruptly - sans the bike.

When the dust settled the tribe were hanging on to each other - screaming with laughter and cheering enthusiastically.  It was definitely the most entertaining show they saw in a long time! A few of the guys urged the driver to get up and do it again - like a real man.  The driver declined because his wife was holding him by the ear and trying to dig sand and stones out of his elbow while "educating" him on the fact that he is not a child and that he could have broken his stupid neck.

He was smiling ear to ear.

While this is a (mostly) true story, it reminded me a lot about how people use their PCs on the internet: not heeding good advice, not taking appropriate precautions, underestimating the dangers, and so on  - all the way thinking they`ll get away with it.
  

 
That`s right.  It`s white.  It`s a killer.  Spam is toast.

Problem is, I can`t really talk about spam in this newsletter because if I mention that little blue "vitamin" that is supposed to put the smile back on your wife`s face, or if I dare mention anything about increasing the size of certain male anatomical appendages, this newsletter will be eaten alive by spam filters. 

In fact, there are quite a few words (or trade names) that are the equivalent of suicide bombs in an email: sure to elicit immediate and summary deletion by a spam filter - long before it reaches your inbox.

(If you missed it, be sure to check our updated article on spam: "Seems like you volunteered to receive spam?" to find out how to beat the spam threat.  Please read it and pass it on to your friends.)

Considering that this newsletter is a (mostly) sober discussion between peers, and that I`m definitely not offering any of the said services or chemicals, one would think that no spam filter has the right to just zap the email. 

Unfortunately Internet email has deteriorated to a point where almost 80% of all email is spam.  The situation is so bad that spam filters are now set to delete anything that even remotely resembles "medical advice", or getting money to invest in a dwelling, or that lovely lass down the street that wants to meet you, etc.  So just calling a spade a shovel can send your email to the big bit bucket in the sky - never to return.

In most cases this is a good thing.  On the other hand though, innocent emails can also fall pray to aggressive spam filters.  Even if it is just one email in a thousand that is flagged as spam incorrectly, Mr Murphy predicted that this one will THE ONE email you have been waiting for to give your life meaning again.

So: the problem: You can`t live with spam and you can`t live with the spam filters.  What to do?

Other than using disposable email addresses, you can use a "white list" to beat spam AND receive all your legitimate email.

A white list is a service that treats all emails as spam, unless you know the person the email was sent from.  When the system detects email from an unknown person, it will hold the email and ask the sender to prove that (s)he is a human by logging on to a web site.  (The process takes just a few seconds).

After verification, that email and all subsequent emails from that person will be allowed into your inbox.

Now your inbox will only allow email to come from legitimate contacts, clients, suppliers and friends - read: no spam.  It is like having a robotic secretary screening all your incoming email for you...

You start the process off by uploading your existing Outlook address book to the system so that all your regular contacts are known to the system.  From that point on, the system will challenge all new email arriving from unknown sources.

The result: a 100% spam free inbox in minutes, with zero, I say Z-E-R-O legitimate emails deleted because of incorrect classification as spam.

The best and most trusted provider for white list services is Spam Arrest.  Their service is cheap and reliable.  Check out their website where they explain exactly how their system works (a free 30 day demo is available).

Considering that you will never receive spam again if you use this type of system, the cost of a few cents per day seem almost too cheap. :-)
    

 
In a previous edition of this newsletter we explained what "VOIP" (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is.  We showed how VOIP works and why it will reduce telephone costs dramatically in the nearby future.

Since VOIP is now legal (in South Africa), we can now show you how to make use of the technology straight way.

Let me introduce you to "Skype".  They make software available for free download. Once you installed the software on your PC (and you have the necessary hardware of course, ie headset and sound card) you can place a free VOIP call (over the internet) to any of their several million users.  (More than 95 million people downloaded the software)

A Skype user to Skype user call is free of charge - no matter where the parties are on earth.  This is of course very useful if you have a client or a branch in London and you are in Cape Town...and both parties run ADSL or any other permanent internet link faster than 64Kbps.

If you need to call someone on a POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) you will pay a fee (less than what Telkom charges) and their software will automatically make the necessary connections to call Grandma - be that in Afganistan or Yogoslavia.  Rates are calculated based on where the other party is - not from where you are calling; so calling from London or New York to Grandma in Putsonderwater is charged at the same rate.

On a technical / practical level, the software works as follows: You run the software on your PC and register for a Skype account - your account also serves as a unique id (like a telephone number).  When another Skype user wants to place a call to you, their software contacts the Skype server which then switches the call directly to your PC.  Your PC and the caller`s then initiate a "handshake" and from that moment on the data (conversation) flows between the two of you directly - Skype is no longer involved.

Simple and effective - as they put it: "it just works". :-)

Find out more by visiting the Skype web site...

(PS: The software is available for Windows, MACs, Linux and  Pocket PCs)
   

At Cozahost we help small companies and professionals tame the internet so that they can concentrate on making money.  We take care of the technical stuff so that they can take care of business.  Here are some of our products and services:
 

 
A truck driver hauling a tractor-trailer load of computers down Hwy 82 (El Camino Real NW of San Jose ) stops for a beer. As he approaches the bar he sees a big sign on the door saying "NERDS NOT ALLOWED- ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!" He goes in and sits down.

The bartender comes over to him, sniffs, says he smells kind of nerdy, asks him what he does for a living. The truck driver says he drives a truck, and the smell is just from the computers he is hauling to San Jose. The bartender says OK, truck drivers are not nerds, and serves him a beer.

As he is sipping his beer, a skinny guy walks in with tape around his glasses, a pocket protector with twelve kinds of pens and pencils, and belt at least a foot too long. The bartender, without saying a word, pulls out a shotgun and blows the guy away.

The truck driver asks him why he did that. The bartender said not to worry, the nerds are over-populating the Silicon Valley, and are in season now. You don`t even need a license, he said. So the truck driver finishes his beer, gets back in his truck, And heads back onto the El Camino Real.

Suddenly he veers to avoid an accident, and the load shifts. The back door breaks open and computers spill out all over Hwy 82. He jumps out and sees a crowd already forming, grabbing up the computers. They are all engineers, accountants and programmers wearing the nerdiest clothes he has ever seen.

He can`t let them steal his whole load. So remembering what happened in the bar, he pulls out his gun and starts blasting away, felling several of them instantly.

A highway patrol officer comes zooming up and jumps out of the car screaming at him to stop. The truck driver said, "What`s wrong? I thought nerds were in season."

"Well, sure." said the patrolman, "but it`s illegal to use bait."
 

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Thanks for reading this newsletter and we hope you enjoyed it!  Please contact us if you have comments, suggestions or questions - we would love to hear from you!