Cozahost Newsletter Archive

Previous issues

In this issue we discuss how the Beagle worm continues to punish the un-informed, easier ways to find information on the internet, common mistakes in web design and free software to download.

You are welcome to forward this newsletter to anyone you think may benefit.

Enjoy! :)

Just open the attachment, type the password as provided and Voila! your PC is infected with the Beagle worm.

Say hello to the latest menace on the net: the Beagle worm. The worm will email itself to any email address it can find on the victim's computer and spoof (falsify) the sender address to pretend to be from your ISP or sysop. (We covered this type of worm a few issues ago in this newsletter)

And so the soap opera starts:

In act one anti-virus software vendors updated their programs to look for encrypted zip files where a password is included in the accompanying email.

In act two the Beagle programmer(s) updated their code a (week later) to send the password as a gif file - which cannot be understood by the virus scanning programs.

In act three (not yet written - but expected next week) the anti-virus software makers will now look for encrypted zip files which are accompanied by a gif file.

In act four (also not yet written) the Beagle programmer(s) will change the worm to attach a .jpg instead of a .gif file.

And don't forget plenty of other worm writers will imitate the Beagle with slight variations on the plot.

If it wasn't so serious it could have been funny. But it is not. The point is that on the internet ignorance can kill your PC. You need to know about these pests, and you have to apply your knowledge and intelligence to avoid infection. Don't trust emails with attachments. Full stop.

Tip: Check if suspicious emails are properly signed by a real person: i.e it’s not signed by "The postmaster" or "Your postmaster" or some generic term. Your sysop or postmaster has a name and contact information which (s)he will use when sending you an email.

When in doubt: Ask a knowledgeable person before you open the attachment.

Wow. Think about that for a second (I'll wait).

Back so soon? :-)

Most of us visit the same sites day after day. We seldom move off the beaten path, and when we need a new piece of information we are often frustrated by the overload of information (and junk) we are subjected to when we do a search on Google, Yahoo or one of the big engines. In a way, the web becomes smaller for us because we avoid hunting for newer and better sources of information because we know we will be buried under thousands of choices if we dare to venture into the blue nowhere.

Part of the problem is that most of us use the big and generic search engines for all our searches. The answer to unlock huge treasures of free information is to build a solid and dependable list of specialist search sites to help you look for specific subject areas.

For example, if your child has to do a school project on the economy of Andorra (yes, it's a country!) the best place to start is the CIA world fact book. If you are about to be transferred there as the new branch manager, you will find a map of the country (to plot your escape route), but you might find that you prefer to stay when you find out that there are no income taxes in Andorra!

Here are more links that belong on your favorite bookmark list:

Dogpile
This is a meta search engine. Just a fancy term to say that Dogpile will use several other search engines, combine their results and present you with one list of combined hits. Give this engine a try when your favorite search engine drowns you with irrelevant or junk hits.

Webopedia
On the subject of fancy words: When an IT person throws one of those terms at you again, use this search engine to find a definition for the technical term. Search for "modem", "HTML" or "ISDN" and get a quick, clear definition of the term or concept. Then find a nice obscure term, write it down, and next time you talk to that smarty pants IT guy, throw one back at him - like "refactoring of the PPP MTU in the DMZ" - now that is a good one!

HowStuffWorks
Need to find out how to build that small nuclear bomb in your back yard? Want to know how a car engine works? Or you need to find out how cell phones work? This is your site - lots of information on how to things work and it is fully searchable. You won't be able to find out how the black market arms trade works (to get the nuclear material for your bomb), but you will be able to find out how most common things work - even if it is only to satisfy your curiosity...

The Scannery
Search information on more than 12000 global companies per industry or region. If mergers and acquisitions are your thing, then this is your site. It is South African nogal too!

Wikipedia
Free (searchable) online encyclopedia. At a minimum you can delay buying that bulky encyclopedia set, and still find out what the Aardvark and Pangolin eats.

Food network
Don't know what to make for dinner or need to impress the boss (or significant other) with a home cooked meal, but you need some recipe assistance? You can search this database on occasion, region, meal type, etc.

MayoClinic
Need to call in sick on a Monday morning, but you don't know how to fake an ailment, use this site to search for detailed information on just about any health matter. The site covers mostly serious information on illnesses and diseases - unfortunately I don't think babelaas qualifies. ;-)

We will cover more of these specialized search engines in the next issue...in the mean time, check out Andorra, the Pangolin and how a cell phone works...I know you are dying of curiosity... :-)

Martin wrote an excellent article for this newsletter on common mistakes made in web design. He covers slow pages, ignorance, ego, graphics, flash and "sea anchors". Unfortunately the article is to long to reprint here, but you can read the full article on our web site.

He starts by saying: "Let’s face it, people don’t like looking at web pages. Its not the pages of course, just the experience. Give them a book with all the information they seek in it and they will be happy, flipping to and fro for hours."

and explains further: "It is this ‘if a little is good, then more must be better’ syndrome that ruins many pages – not only with graphics but also with other aspects of site design.

Many clients regard a ‘busy’ web page – one that has lots of complex graphics and animations – as a good page. It must be good – look at all the gorgeous graphics, the animations, the link farm, the jazzy, fading buttons and the wall–to-wall text. If it has a migraine-inducing Flash animation, so much the better.

Many designers will collude with clients and their requests just to get the job. Telling the client to ditch just about everything on the front page – including the grandkids photo is not going to bring a smile to their face.

Once their site is complete, they of course will manage to wait the two minutes for the masterpiece to appear. Their clients won’t.

Web designers know clients are usually impressed with ‘razzle dazzle’ of course and if asked, will be happy to provide it. The client is delighted and shows his new site off. He says smugly to his friends “Of course we have Flash and tremendous graphics with lots of curves, gradient fills and drop shadows not like our competition with its plain old site. Cost us a fortune but its worth it.”

He is not so delighted if he sees his server log and under ‘average time spent in site’ it says 37.4 seconds. Even if he doesn’t see his log, after a few months, there are few enquiries. He is now convinced that the Internet is a waste of money. In the meantime, his lowly competitor’s visitors have seen his site download chop chop and been through his twenty or so pages to see what he has to offer and off out again, all within a couple of minutes. Mr. Bigmouth’s visitors are still waiting for the Flash to finish."

And he sums up bloated pages like this:

"In the opposite of print media, Internet visitors look at text first and pictures after. And, to paraphrase the aphorism ‘ a picture is worth a thousand words’ – in the world of the Internet, it is worth several thousand words in download time – and that’s a small image. Secondly, it may not be worth any words if it doesn’t add value to the page."

Whether you build your web site yourself or use a web designer to help you, you really need to read this article. It is clear, to the point, non-technical and absolutely good advice. Get the full article here...

Freebyte Zip
Most people use Winzip to create and read .zip files. (f you don't know what a .zip file is, use Webopedia to find a definition) What most users don't know (or choose to ignore) is that Winzip is a commercial product - that's right, you have to pay US$ 29.00 to use it. Winzip is most certainly worth the expense, but if you prefer (or choose) not to pay for it, then rather use Freebyte Zip - a freeware application (free for personal or commercial use) and stay perfectly legal, and moral, and...you know what I mean. Freebyte Zip is small (300Kb) and requires no installation - just download and use it.

Turbo Cash
You can download and use a full featured accounting system free of charge. The software includes VAT, stock, debtors, General ledger, year end statements, point of sale, invoicing, cash book, multi-user, multi company and all the modules you would expect from an accounting package costing a thousand Rand and more. (See a feature comparison chart here) English, Afrikaans, French and German languages are supported. This is a real honest-to-goodness small business accounting system. If your accounting package is not legal or you are in the market for a new system, this one is for you. You can't beat the price.

Sedna - the new planet discovered in our solar system
NASA discovered a 10th planet in our solar system! The planet is about 1100Km across and it is orbiting the sun about 7 billion kilometers from earth. Ask a friend how many planets there are in our solar system - if he says 9, tell him to put his money where his mouth is... ;-)

Guinness book of records for smallest hard drive
Toshiba now holds the record for the world's smallest hard drive - just 2.1 cm, and it can store 4Gb of data. Imagine that - a hard disk the size of a postage stamp that can store 5 343 million letters of text!

New internet protocol 150 000 times faster than a modem
"Performances demonstrated by the new protocol could become commonly available in the next few years, setting a new standard for full utilization of the Internet"

Here are some quick links to CozaHost services and products:

"Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say:

"There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer," or "That's Michael, he's a doctor."

A small voice at the back of the room rang out:

"And there's the teacher. She's dead."

Thanks for reading this newsletter and we hope you enjoyed it! Wishing you happy, safe and productive computing - till next time.