January 1998
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The Ides of January 1998 |
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EMAIL TIP
Have you gotten unsolicited email from advertisers? This kind of annoying
junk email is known as "spam". Spammers may use provocative subject lines
such as "An invitation" or "Make money fast" to get you to read their message.
While your first reaction to receiving spam might be anger, and the desire
to fire off a reply asking/telling the spammer to take your address off
their list would be natural, this is *not* the best way to handle spam. As
a matter of fact, many spammers may utilize these "remove me" messages as a way of
collecting email addresses, which they then sell to other spammers.
For tips on how to handle spam, including the use of email filters and how to
appear invisible when subscribing to electronic discussion groups, check out
the set of articles at
"Can Anyone Stop Spam?" and
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE).
Cookies - what, have we gotten to the WLS Recipe o' the Month already? Nope,
this kind of cookie is a small data file that's stored on your computer's
hard disk when you visit certain websites. Each time you return to that site,
the web site will read your hard drive for cookies to find out if you've been
there before.
Cookies are controversial because they can be valuable to you and the web
site's administrator, but privacy advocates warn that cookies can come too
close to George Orwell's "Big Brother is Watching campaign" from the novel
1984.
Users of Netscape 3.x and Internet Explorer 3.0 can set the options so they're
notified when a web site is requesting their Cookies file, and allow them to
accept or refuse the request. In Netscape 3.x this is located in:
Many versions of Lynx do not support cookies, but according to some sources
version 2.7.1 now does. To find out for sure how your browser is set up, check out
The Cookie Test.
For a good explanation and other tips on how to check out your cookie jar, go to
How the Cookies Crumble.
Before any other tip, I'll tell you about the one tip that keeps on giving.
Follow this progression of clicks:
If you'd like to work ahead and explore more helpful tips, go to the Windows95 Annoyances
website's Information for Beginners.
USEFUL URL O' THE MONTH
When you or your patron need the anthem, flag, map, and background info on
a nation of the World, try the
Eradicate Conflict website. Citing the
CIA World Factbook
as the source of much of its material, this website also includes each
nation's anthem (when available). For some countries you can hear the anthem
(if your computer has a soundcard and speakers), and view the lyrics in both
English and the native language.
For more sources of valuable websites check out
LJDigital WebWatch, and the
Scout Report.
FUN URL O' THE MONTH
"She's bold!! She's sassy!! She's helpful!! She's...the
Lipstick Librarian!"
Make sure to check the bibliographies, and take the L.L. quiz!
And no men need feel left out since,
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This website was last updated April 28, 1998
Please direct any questions, comments or recipes to schwarz@winnefox.org
URL: http://www.winnefox.org/ides/jan98.html
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