Recently staff at Winnefox libraries have experienced an epidemic of computer viruses (3 instances in two weeks.) These viruses have all come through on library-related electronic discussion lists/listservs, including an ILL, a PR, and a support staff electronic discussion list.

It's very important that you read Keetra's WALS .vbs Virus Warning and Handling of Viruses pages. You may have seen her virus handout at the last All-WALS meeting, but now it's time to bookmark these pages so they're easy to find!

And on an unrelated note, if you use Pine now or have used in the past, please make sure to clean out your e-mail folders. It's probable you've got some messages there you've forgotten about, back issues of the Ides that can instead be found in the Ides archive, multiple folders of sent mail, or messages with attachments that are on the large side. To clean out your folders, start Pine and press the L key to see the folders that need to be cleaned out.

The server Winnefox mail is stored on is also the server that runs the WALS automated circ system, the Winnefox Web site, and the Winnefox Library System Catalog. The amount of e-mail messages stored on the server has a direct effect on how fast or slow all these services run. Please pitch in by pitching out some mail!

We all know that we can go anywhere on the Web and always be saved by a click or two on the back button to return to familiar territory. But have you ever tried to "back out" of a Web page only to find yourself "trapped" there? Either 1) clicking the back button but didn't take you anywhere new, or 2) the back button was "grayed out"? Here are some tips for getting around this the next time it happens to you!

1. Problem:
   Clicking on the Netscape back button doesn't go anywhere new.
   
   What causes this:
   Some Web pages use a re-direct from an old page to a new one.

Example:
If you go to the old URL of the Winnefox Library System Catalog at http://www.winnefox.org/ides/catalog.html, instead of getting an error message because this page is no more, the page automagically re-directs you to the Catalog's new home at http://webcat.winnefox.org/. Because the re-direct happens in the blink of an eye, you may not even realize you're at a different URL than you thought you'd be. And if you try clicking the browser's back button, it looks like you're stuck.

Workaround:
In any 4.x version of Netscape Communicator you can click and hold down the back button and it will show you a menu of where you've been so far this session.



Just click on any location before the one that got you stuck (in this example choose from 2 on down), and you can continue on your way.

2. Problem:
   The Netscape back button is "grayed out".
Even if you try the "click and hold" workaround above, nothing happens.

What causes this:
Some Web pages have links that, when clicked, open a second session of your browser. You might not be aware this has happened unless you notice two Netscapes on your Windows Taskbar:





The new window that opened with the link you clicked has no "history" to view, since the link is the first place you've visited in that new session.

Example:
Click on any link (other than the Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau) at The Official Oshkosh Community Web Site: To Do and See page and you'll find a fresh session of Netscape has opened up.

Workaround:
Click on the first session of Netscape on your Windows Taskbar. From that Netscape your back button should work fine.

Just a reminder: users of the Winnefox Library System Catalog are advised to use the Previous Page | Next Page links to navigate through search results, since use of the browser back button may return the user to a screen that does not contain the latest information about the user's session.

When you have a lot of programs or applications open on your PC, and need to access the Desktop here's a shortcut for minimizing everything quickly:

1. Click on the Windows Taskbar with your right mouse button, and
2. Click on Minimize All Windows.
3. All your open programs or applications will be minimized on the Taskbar, and your Desktop will now be accessible.

And for some left-mouse-click vs. right-mouse-click humor check out Ask Dr. Tech.

If friends or colleagues haven't already told you about the Google search engine, it's well worth your time to give it a spin today.

One of the first things you'll notice is its clean look. Instead of trying to sell you stuff or tell you your horoscope -- like AltaVista and Excite which have become portals with cluttered screens -- Google just performs searches, and does it well. Secondly, it serves up results quickly. And thirdly, what you're looking for is likely to be at the top of the search results.

Google's secret is unique search technology -- it ranks search results not by how frequently or prominently your search term appears on a given page but by how often other pages on the Web link to the page with reference to that term.

And an extra bonus: if you choose a link that has gone missing/404, just go back to the Google results page and click the word "cached" in the link's entry to retrieve an earlier copy of the page saved on Google's server.

In the first six months of 2000 Google set a new record for search engines by indexing a billion Web pages, became the default search engine for Yahoo (the one you're sent to automatically if Yahoo can't find what you're looking for in its directory) and won a Webby (the online version of the Oscar) for technical excellence.

For more details visit The Search Engine Showdown review of Google, and UC-Berkeley's Constructing and Refining Searches in Google: Detailed Searching Instructions.

But here's a search engine that outdoes Google!

Here's an image to consider as new wallpaper for your PC, a tattoo, or a reason to wear a leather jacket. It's the official logo of Hell's Librarians (gee, do you think there's a Wisconsin chapter?)

"...people generally don't ask for what they really want. Not because they don't know what they want, but because they're usually several steps down the path they've taken to find the information and don't approach the librarian until they're lost -- then they often ask their questions from the point at which they got lost. The art of the reference interview is to back the question up to its origin and lead, or accompany, the patron to the path that will end at the answer." -- Carole Leita (founder of the Librarians' Index to the Internet.)
[Price, Gary. "The Librarian's Librarian: Carole Leita." Searcher vol. 8, no. 10 (November 2000): 69-73.]

is Cranberry Dessert and Sauce.

This issue of The Ides was written on November 15, 2000
Copyright 2000, Winnefox Library System

The Ides is written by Joy Schwarz.
Please direct any questions, comments or recipes to schwarz@winnefox.org

URL: http://www.winnefox.org/ides/idesnov00.html