The Umbrella
April 2004

Significant Bits

Anti-Spam for Email

"SpamNet is the first and largest group of people - more than half a million collaborating in real-time to fight spam. Because of its community based peer-to-peer filtering model, SpamNet keeps over 95 percent of spam out of your inbox automatically, so spam doesn't steal time from your day, or money from your wallet."

On the first run of this software it placed two Umbrella members in my spam box? Two of my mailing lists were also determined as spam. They have a customer forum available and I have read through that. SpamNet 30 day trial.

After a week I am pleased with this program. It does seem to help! Seems to have gotten over its original hiccups. Did not catch the email purportedly from Cox about my email account - virus containing it was! See Cox support page.

New Lexicon

"A knowledge base about some subset of words in the vocabulary of a natural language"

Dictionary Attack - email spamming robots that run through the alphabet for email addresses. Ever get a spam all addressed to names beginning with a certain letter? I get lots starting with a . . .

How about spim or gurge for words? Check out wordspy.com for lots of interesting words and phrases.

Trivia for You

Beer History http://www.beerhistory.com/, with a Beer History Trivia Quiz.

CD-R Colors

CD-R Color Is A Guide To Longevity

The color of the reflective foil and the color of the dye determine the CD-R's final color. The foil usually doesn't play a major role in CD-R lifespan. Although aluminum foil can oxidize enough to affect recording, this is rare and happens only in extreme conditions. Gold foil is almost totally inert, and hardly ever causes trouble.

The dye type matters more, because dyes have different chemical compositions, and thus different life spans. The four major dye types used in CD-Rs can be identified by their intrinsic color:

  • a.. Cyanine is the most widely used and cheapest CD-R dye. It looks bluish (as its name suggests) or blue-green when backed by a silver foil, but can look distinctly green when backed by gold foil.
    a.. Estimates of the dye's useful life range from 10 years to as high as 75 years. But data-storage is an inherently conservative business, so it's wise to assume the worst and plan only on a lifespan of 10 years or so. This makes cyanine-based CD-Rs OK for most routine backups and legal archival purposes. But they may be less acceptable for very long-term historical, business, or family archives, unless you plan to re-record the data onto a new or different medium every decade or so.
  • b.. Phthalocyanine is an-almost transparent, very light aqua color, and usually is backed with gold foil, so a phthalocyanine-based CD-R usually looks golden. For this reason, and because the dye is exceptionally durable, it's sometimes called the "gold standard" of CD-Rs.
    a.. Although phthalocyanine CD-Rs may be expensive overkill for routine storage, they're tops for long-term archiving, with a reputed shelf life of something like 100 years.
    http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=18781

    From http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/disccare.html, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Digital Data Preservation Program.

    CD Troubles

    I have been having some problems writing CD's, and I will be looking at the colors from now on. If you ever "lose" files while writing to a CD, have a look at C:\Documents and Settings, your name dir, local settings, application data, Microsoft, CD Burning. Took me a l-o-n-g while to find these files!

    Monitor Resolution

    Do you run your monitor in a lower resolution in order to be able to read the fonts, and know the icons? You can run in a higher resolution and enlarge the fonts and icons. Right click on an open part of your desktop, select Properties, Settings. Advanced. Use the drop down box under DPI. I have chosen 120%, and it is a good mid-size. Under Appearances, Effects, I have also checked to use clear type by checking the box to smooth fonts. I have an LCD monitor, and it really makes a difference. See Microsoft's Clear Type.

    MS Support Newsgroups

    I recently had a question on another OS, Windows ME, and could not find anything within the computer. Went to support.microsoft.com, clicked through to Windows ME networking and posted a query. Had my answer within minutes! That was really helpful as I had been searching round for over a day! In case anyone else is looking to display a network icon in the system tray in WindowsME, the ability does not exist in that OS. Check out these newsgroups! XP specific at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/

    Good to Know - Virus and System Restore

    from symantec: "System Restore option in Windows Me/XP

    Users of Windows Me and Windows XP should temporarily turn off System Restore. Windows Me/XP uses this feature, which is enabled by default, to restore the files on your computer in case they become damaged. If a virus, worm, or Trojan infects a computer, System Restore may back up the virus, worm, or Trojan on the computer."

    Outlook XP and Attachments - Not!

    By default Outlook XP within Office 2002 will not allow attachments. To learn how to disable this feature, decided by the "powers that be" to be necessary to save us from ourselves, go to http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article08-104 . Found several good tips relating to XP on this page Simple Annoyances.

    Ann Harney


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