GNOMEREPORT: Between The Holidays

Now that the majority of holidays have wrapped up, we're still looking towards the new year as we reflect on the old. We hope everyone got the goodies and gadgets they were hoping for last week.

We won't be publishing December 31st - January 2nd as we know many readers are out and we want to encourage everyone to spend time with family and friends. As a Mom of three and wife of over a decade, I believe in and understand the importance of family.

I'll keep this short and sweet, but I do have a question that I was hoping my fellow Gnomies might be able to answer. I have a backup system that I haven't plugged in yet because I have to upgrade from USB 1.1 to USB 2.0 to use it. I've been too busy to shop around for an upgrade kit. Anyone got a kit they like and recommend?

Best,
Meryl K. Evans

SPECIALS: Hot Dogs, Words, Plus Art

The main ingredients in "Sausage's Lockergnome Holiday Special" are software and tools for creating and managing Web sites. Hot Dog-named titles are Web page authoring tools with different features depending on the version. FlashPoint and Boomer help create multimedia presentations. The Lockergnome News Feeder is for reading those XML and RSS whatmacallit news stuff with Lockergnome-stamped style. There are unique programs in each of the packages, and you can get detailed descriptions from the Web site. You have a choice of two packages:

Hot Dog Family CD Special (good for the kids, too). There are too many things listed in the package, so take a look on the site. In a nutshell, it's a $434.75 package marked down to $129.95. Go ahead and do the math - we'll help.

$99.95 for Hot Dog Professional (Web authoring software), $39.95 for Hot Dog Junior (Web authoring software for kids), $14.95 for Lockergnome News Feeder (RSS reader), $24.95 for HotFTP (uploading and downloading your Web pages), and PageWiz (Web authoring for the novice) is $69.95. Those are not all of the products and already we're talking close to $250.

Oh yeah, the other package is for Hot Dog Professional Web Master CD, which is $129.95 down from $479.85. The catch? You got me, there is a catch. Each package is only available for the first 1500 people who order. [Meryl]

ActiveWords turns words into actions from any program. Type "close" followed by the ActiveWords key (F8 is the default) and the active program closes. You can add more commands to tell your computer what to do without navigating the interface. The ActiveWords gift to Gnomies is good until January 10, 2004, which ain't far off. The deal is you can get ActiveWords SE for free, and sign up to get a license e-mailed to you by going to this link. This is a $19.95 product and there's no trial garbage involved. If you like it, you're welcome to try ActiveWords Plus. If you like it and wish to purchase it, you can get a 20% discount, which would be $39.95 - $10 off the original price. [Meryl]

And Neven from ArtPlus writes us:

Here is a little gift to your readers!

As you know, many people around the globe either don't own a credit card or simply can't afford to pay $30-$40 for a piece of software. Right?

Okay... we decided to give one free license of any of our programs to anybody who sincerely says he can't afford to buy our program at this moment for whatever reason.

All they have to do is to send us a note through our contacts form telling us which software they like, and say that they can't afford to buy it at this time... That's all.

This is our little Christmas gift to people regardless of their religion, race or nationality and is valid from now until Dec. 31.

So, feel free to share this information with your friends and readers.

By the way, we will not decline anybody, but please do ask them not to abuse our trust... we're still selling the software to people who can afford to buy it. Namely, I also have three kids to feed and buy gifts for! :-)

That's it!

Oh, since we'll be fulfilling the orders manually, please ask people to be patient...

Have a very happy holiday season!

To take advantage of this wonderful gift, please visit ArtPlus at: www.artplus.hr

GNEWBIE GNOOK: Stinky Links

Ken Colburn of Data Doctors answers Lawrence, who wonders:

Q: What exactly is this new Internet address problem and what do I need to do?

A: Newly discovered vulnerabilities that are 'critical' in nature are nothing new for the world's most prolific software maker, Microsoft. Virtually every program made by the giant in Redmond, Washington is the target of Microsoft haters, hackers, crackers, security firms looking for exposure, or script kiddies (hacker wannabes).

The most recent of at least 20 this year, however, is especially troubling for a couple of reasons.

The first is that, because it involves the Internet Explorer browser, it affects about 90% of the Internet public. The second is that it plays on the years of advice given to Internet users for determining whether they are on a trusted Web site, opening the way for massive identity theft and credit card fraud.

The vulnerability allows malicious coders to create Web sites that look exactly like legitimate sites, credit card companies, or online merchants, and 'spoof' the web addresses. When a user is at one of these sites and looks in the address section of IE, it will appear as if they are at that company's site.

Everything from the https:// to the little yellow padlock at the bottom of the 'secure' page can appear complete with the spoofed company's web address or URL (Universal Resource Locator) in the proper places.

This means that you can no longer trust what you see in the address bar, especially if you are clicking on a link from an e-mail message or from another web site. The possibilities are endless and very dangerous for the less technical Internet going public.

You can test your browser for this vulnerability by going to www.secunia.com.

The problem was discovered by someone who goes by the alias 'Zap the Dingbat' that posted the alert on a security mailing list, which did not give Microsoft an opportunity to create a fix for the problem before it was made public.

As a courtesy, most security companies will give software vendors some lead-time with a newly discovered vulnerability so that the company can come up with a fix before the problem is made public.

As of this writing, Microsoft has yet to fix the problem, however, an open source project that is located at Openwares.org has posted a patch.

Because of this latest method of tricking users into divulging personal and financial information, it is important that you do not click on any links in e-mail that supposedly come from your bank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon.com or any online merchant or financial institution.

If you receive what you think is a legitimate e-mail message from one of your financial or merchant Web sites, do not click on any link in the e- mail, especially if it is asking you to update your information.

Always go to the company's Web site manually by opening your browser yourself and typing in the actual address for the company. If the information sent in the e-mail is legitimate, then you should be able to access it through the companies Web site when you sign-in or login to your account.

If you want a more technical approach to detecting spoofed addresses and links, I have posted Microsoft's recommendations at www.datadoctors.com/redir.cfm/spoof.

REBUTTAL: On Or Off?

Jon Peltier writes:

The argument given in the FEEDBACK: On or Off? section of the 12/23 LockerGnome Windows Fanatics is backwards. Metal fatigue is the damage to a metal part over repeated cycles of stress or temperature. An electrical connector receives one stress/temperature cycle when the component is powered up, then turned off. Holding while on (hot) for a hundred days counts as a single cycle, while turning the same component on and off every day results in a hundred cycles in the same period.

There may be other technical arguments in favor of shutting off the computer when it is not in use, but metal fatigue considerations indicate that you should leave it powered on.

How do I know this? I have a doctorate in metallurgy and have been doing R&D in metals and materials for over 15 years. My specialty is mechanical behavior of metallic materials, and I have extensively studied metal fatigue.

DOWNLOAD: Softdiv Alarm Clock v3.5

• [4M]
• Win9x/2k/XP
• FREE

www.softdivshareware.com/alarmclock.html

{Hey! It's time! Ba da bum!} Where was this program when I couldn't hear the oven beeping prior to my implant? Occasionally, I would overbake cookies because I plumb forgot they were cooking. Sometimes, I used my PDA's desktop alarm, but it is not made for this kind of thing. Softdiv Alarm Clock can play a sound file, launch a program, launch a Web site, or shut down based on whatever you set it to do. It has three skins for a little variety and has analog and stopwatch windows. When opening the program, an ad does pop up, but it goes away when you close the window. Nice to be notified with a song instead of an annoying buzz or beep. [Meryl]

SEARCH: LookSmart's Find Articles

www.findarticles.com

{Search for articles} This search engine searches for your keywords in over 700 publications. The drawback is that most of the articles are more than six months old, which is old when it comes to technology-related articles. There isn't an option for controlling the dates in the results. You can look up the publications they include in their search by going into Publications by Name and selecting the letter of the alphabet to see the list. When you find a publication and click on it, you can get its information including its Web site and issues. It's a great reference for anyone doing research or needing more information on a topic. [Meryl]

FAVORITE: Freespeling with one l

http://www.freespeling.com/

{Chanjing the way we spel} English is definitely a confusing language. Where else can changing the letter "p" make the pronunciation change in the word "polish?" Here, the "pol" rhymes with "ball." Make it "Polish" and you have something that rhymes with "pole." Ten times four is forty not fourty. Dontcha love it? The site is aiming to get 500 easier freespeling words elected by 2005. Currently, there are 45 official freespel words ready for you to use one of which is today, Wensday. Why not make it simple and call Wednesday "hump day?" It's spelled the way it sounds, isn't it? Get a good laugh from the Joke Wall where there are instructions from real products. For instance, "On a New Zealand insekt spray: This product not tested on animals." Paul is on board with this initiative, but of course, he's a bad speler. [Mehral]