Don's Patch #78 from http://www.don-guitar.com September 15, 2007 First word, from Don: Let's just jump right into things shall we? I really enjoyed Robert Ristroph's tea tale... http://rgr.freeshell.org/spam/ ...and Bill Webb wrote a very interesting piece on internet security on his blog at Lockergnome. http://BillWebbOnSecurity.notlong.com Bill mentioned on application, from Secunia, that I'd never seen before. http://secunia.com/software_inspector I think this is pretty cool but I also noticed that it's a beta product which very probably means it'll become shareware once they decide its been completely debugged so I probably won't try it. Everyone who has any web experience has their own ideas about internet security and most all of them are right. Internet security is a complex problem to which there are several good solutions. Bill Webb likes: NOD-32. http://www.eset.com/ (which is shareware) Comodo (firewall). http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ Comodo BOClean. http://www.comodo.com/boclean/boclean.html AdAware SE Personal. http://www.download.com/3405-8022-5153545.html I'm betting he's never had a serious "invasion" from the web, nor have we but we use: AVG. http://free.grisoft.com/ Mike Lyn's Startup Monitor. http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml Spybot Search & Destroy. http://www.safer-networking.org/ Spyware Blaster. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/ Zone Alarm (firewall). http://zafree.notlong.com Having recently tried it, I'm equally comfortable with the Comodo firewall. http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ ...and I plan to give Comodo's BOClean a try at my earliest opportunity (see link above). Note: Never use more than one firewall at a time. They'll conflict with one another, slow your computer down, and may cause other serious problems as well. Bill also listed another site that probably ought to be required reading for every web veteran (we plan to study it in detail). http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/HomeComputerSecurity/ Moving right along, our super-wet spring and summer have been good for my Habanero pepper plant. This plant produces red Habanero peppers which many aficionados consider to be the hottest peppers in the world. I wear rubber gloves to pick or cut them. Three years ago Lisa name the plant "Carmen" (yes, Carmen Habanero is her name-o *grin*) and this year, for the first time I'll have a surplus in fruit so who wants seeds? Our address is on the website; send me a SASE and I'll send you some seeds. Don Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html Lisa's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar Don's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/ Lisa at myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/81825549 Lisa's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess Section One by Don. Arrr, oive been tryna remember this fer nigh on two y'ars now. Twill be the 19th day of September in but a few days and me hearties that be a day worth celebratin'. http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html Incidentally, after failing to mention Talk-Like-a-Pirate day in our September 15th issue for two consecutive years I used an online reminder service to help me remember it this year. http://www.memotome.com/ A brief guide to evaluating and describing old and rare books. http://www.pde.state.pa.us/libraries/cwp/view.asp?a=13&Q=37747 Answers from a job search and hiring insider. http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/index.htm An Apache tutorial for webdev enthusiasts. http://www.apachetutor.org/ The scientific and medical network. http://www.scimednet.org/ Yet another social networking site. http://www.programmableweb.com/ Hi-def, online, sci fi. http://www.vuze.com/Index.html The Anti-Defamation League. http://www.adl.org/ A nice security tool from Sophos. http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html Anti-Slavery. http://www.antislavery.org/ Online PC security tests. http://www.auditmypc.com/ Parents. The Anti-Drug. http://www.theantidrug.com/ 1600 X 1200 wallpaper. http://netbeans-wallpaper.notlong.com Desktop wallpaper from the Denver Zoo. http://www.denverzoo.org/kids/wallpaper.asp Desktop Earth is a wallpaper generator. http://codefromthe70s.org/desktopearth.asp Here you can listen to the audio of a play entitled "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman http://www.scribblingwomen.org/cgwallpaperfeature.htm or get the ebook here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1952 Public domain photos. http://www.pdphoto.org/ Travel wallpaper. http://www.travelblog.org/Wallpaper/ End of Section One. This publication is only mailed to verified double opt-in subscribers, and is brought to you by me, Don Crowder, my wife, Lisa Miller, and http://www.freelists.org Section Two by Lisa This commercial site has hundreds of posters from all over the world. http://www.internationalposter.com/ Our good friend Charlie highly recommends this article as the best he's ever seen on getting the most out of Picasa Web Album. http://www.geeks.com/techtips/2007/techtips-26AUG07.htm An amazingly complete resource for web developers. I can spend a whole evening here and not even make a dent. http://www.alvit.de/handbook/ This commercial site has a great deal of information about musical styles, history and biographies and discographies of musical artists. First class! http://www.unionsquaremusic.co.uk/index.php Help with study skills from the Rochester Institute of Technology. http://ritstudyhelp.notlong.com Don kept humming bits of this song. It was driving him crazy until I dredged up a bit of the lyrics. We googled it and found Minnie Riperton singing "Lovin' You" on YouTube. Fast connection needed. Second link is a bio of Minnie, who died of breast cancer at the age of 31. http://minnie5octave.notlong.com http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Minnie%20Riperton.html The study of color and its effects on us. http://www.colormatters.com/entercolormatters.html Luciano Pavarotti died last week. http://lastovation.notlong.com Are you a compulsive brand-shopper? There's help out there. http://compulsiveshopper.notlong.com There's a section of the Disability Act that covers the distribution and dissemination of information, too. http://section508.notlong.com Are you a 'wikspert'? http://humanized.com/weblog/ The Great Buildings Collection. Wonderful. http://www.greatbuildings.com/ Over 10,000 structures are listed in this database, devoted to structural engineering. http://en.structurae.de/ Fundraising stories you might not want to tell the donor. http://donttellthedonor.blogspot.com/ Nutrition, fitness and self-care. http://www.wellnessletter.com/ Can gambling have philanthropic results? Want to make a Long Bet? http://www.longbets.org/ Pet discussion forum. http://www.petdiscussion.com/ End of Section Two. At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was 394. This issue's collection of news, magazine, and/or informational sites (chosen for maximum diversity regardless of "spin" ). http://www.faux-news.com/ http://amcop.blogspot.com/ http://www.sheilaomalley.com/ http://www.texasescapes.com/default.htm http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/ http://www.coalitionoftheswilling.net/ http://www.homelandstupidity.us/ http://www.boostle.com/blog/ http://novaspivack.typepad.com/ http://www.michaelsampson.net/ http://www.zoetrope.com/ http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/ http://www.turkeynose.com/TurkeynoseGoesGlobal/ Section Three by Don. The DigiBarn computer museum. http://www.digibarn.com/ End of Section Three. I started to list this one in the Media section (above) but after a little reading I decided that this is a different sort of tech news site. https://slynkr.sunwarp.net/ Who remembers Mr. Ed? http://users.aol.com/mwn3/page1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Ed This, on the other hand, is a spoof-with-a-message, produced by none other than Snopes.com. The message? Don't believe everything you read. http://www.snopes.com/lost/mistered.asp Quackery. http://www.asylumeclectica.com/asylum/garretdom/quackery/ Poetry from BBC Wales. http://poetry-bbc-wales.notlong.com Don't quote me on this. http://en.thinkexist.com/ Romantic song lyrics. http://www.romantic-lyrics.com/ Art of Europe. http://www.artofeurope.com/ Music. http://www.drownedinsound.com/ More on music. http://www.gettherhythm.com/ Music related. http://www.bittorrent.com/ Guitarguy's Golden Classics. http://www.theguitarguy.com/ Ew. Skip this if you have a weak stomach. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/wormeye.asp I've become a fan of Brenda S. Parris. http://www.zarcrom.com/users/yeartorem/index.html On topic of Norse mythology. http://www.wizardrealm.com/norse/gods.html http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/norse-mythology.php http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/gods.html http://www.pantheon.org/areas/genealogy/principal_norse.html http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythology/norse_culture.html I think the One Laptop Per Child concept is pretty darn cool. http://laptop.org/ http://olpc.com/ http://www.olpcnews.com/ End of Section Three. If you'd like to help promote this non-commercial publication, please forward this ezine to anyone you know who might appreciate it. To spare them the forwarding carets (>>these things) I suggest you copy/paste the ezine to a new email window, or save the ezine as a text file to be inserted, or copy/pasted to a new email. If you've received this publication as a forward and wish to subscribe you may easily do so from online forms in these two locations: http://www.don-guitar.com/subsmanager.html http://www.freelists.org/list/donspatch Section Four by Lisa. WebDev resource. http://www.sitepoint.com/ A very interesting and seriously geeky newsletter. http://www.physorg.com/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ A collection of Nazi posters from 1933-45. http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters2.htm For those of you who have never heard of Dr. Peter Singer, here is a synopsis of his ideas and 'flexible' belief system. A well-considered and -conceived rebuttal by Dr. Peter Colosi on why we care for those who suffer. http://franciscanway.notlong.com Costless DOS software applications. http://www.waverlystreet.com/freeware.html This is the kind of site I needed when I started out with computers a very short time ago. http://www.newbie.net/ Costless apps from ComponentSoftware Inc. http://www.componentsoftware.com/Products/freetool.htm Hack your life. http://www.lifehack.org/ A professional source code editor for Windows. http://www.crimsoneditor.com/ Text and RTF Editor with embedded HTML & picture viewer functions. http://www.hushpage.com/Delphad/delphad.html Loads of articles and resources for electronics hobbyists. http://www.amasci.com/amateur/elehob.html On March 18, 1937, in New London, Texas, a school exploded, leading to legislation requiring that natural gas have thiols added to produce a distinctive odor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion Webmaster resources. http://www.walshaw.com/index.php Tons of crafts and craft resources for those who love to make things. http://www.geocities.com/kraftproject/ Web developers' virtual library. http://wdvl.com/ An analytical approach to self-improvement. http://www.pickthebrain.com/ Science in real-life. http://www.livescience.com/ End of Section Four. Our feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html We welcome all comments, suggestions, or criticism. The form doesn't access your email client (it's a CGI form), so your privacy is assured. If you know of a website that would be a good candidate for this ezine, please pass it on via our online feedback form (link above). Section Five by Don. Here's a special feature on, and tribute to, motherhood. http://www.justformom.com/ http://www.momsnetwork.com/ http://clubmom.com/ http://www.5minutesformom.com/ http://www.jobsformoms.com/ http://www.betweenmoms.com/ http://parenting.ivillage.com/ http://www.contestformoms.com/ http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~pregnant/pregnant.html http://www.custodyprepformoms.org/ http://www.mothersclick.com/ http://www.momsformoms.com/ http://www.postcardsformom.com/ http://www.momagenda.com/ http://momslife.com/ http://www.momsteam.com/ http://www.emphasisonmoms.com/ http://www.mompack.com/ http://www.menus4moms.com/ http://moms-salary.notlong.com http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/ http://www.mainstreetmom.com/ http://www.indymoms.com/ http://www.momsrewards.com/ http://www.itsamomsworld.com/ http://www.momsforlife.com/ http://www.bizymoms.com/ http://www.cafemom.com/ http://www.coolmompicks.com/ http://www.emomsathome.com/ https://www.rockinmoms.com/index.php http://www.truemomconfessions.com/ http://www.greatarticlesformoms.com/ http://www.onemillionmoms.com/ http://www.momsradionetwork.com/ http://www.justmoms.com/ http://www.goodmommy.com/ http://www.mommyenterprises.com/ http://www.momadvice.com/ http://www.gotkidsnetwork.com/ http://www.christian-mommies.com/ http://www.momsbreak.com/ http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/ http://www.momthoughts.com/ http://www.southernmomsonline.com/ http://www.momstalknetwork.com/ http://www.justmommies.com/ http://www.mommysplace.net/index.html http://www.4momsathome.com/ http://www.momschoiceawards.com/ http://www.momjunction.com/ http://www.mominventors.com/ http://www.mothersandmore.org/ http://www.moxie-moms.com/index.php http://www.mommytips.com/ http://anniecrawford.com/ http://www.milesformoms.org/ http://www.momindex.com/ http://www.mothering.com/ http://realsavvymoms.com/ http://www.momstown.com/ http://www.budgetmom.com/ Here's something for soon-to-be mommies. http://www.childbirth.org/ Old fashioned living. http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/ End of Section Five. Archives for this ezine are available online here: http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/ The current issue is also available on our website. http://www.don-guitar.com/currentissue.html RSS feed is available via this link. http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/feed.rss Section Six by Lisa. Successfully implementing good habits. Simple. http://zenhabits.net/about/ Find your state's job bank. http://www.jobbankinfo.org/ Matchcover collecting is really pretty cool. http://www.matchcover.org/ Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/ Details about how products are made. http://www.madehow.com/ The Crochet Guild of America. http://www.crochet.org/ The Getty Foundation promotes the understanding and preservation of the visual arts. http://www.getty.edu/ Arguably the finest museum on the planet, the Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/ This commercial site is a great source of gardening information. http://homeharvest.com/ The World Wide Quilting page. http://www.quilt.com/ Lots of costless apps, tools and games. http://thefreesite.com/ The weather's changing, I'm thinking...pumpkins. http://www.pumpkin-patch.com/ 500 years of hurricane history. http://historyhurricane.notlong.com The Caribbean and the Bahamas. http://www.geographia.com/indx02.htm Washburn University School of Law research pages. http://www.washlaw.edu/ Thousands of full-text books. http://www.fullbooks.com/ Watch your favorite web pages, be informed when they change. http://www.watchthatpage.com/ A nice little color tool. http://www.kobayashi.com/colorbox.html End of Section Six. The Linux Corner. Peace, love and Linux. http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux/passport.swf http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/04/19/ibm.guerilla.idg/ "Why I love Linux" by Ashton Mills. http://apcmag.com/6598/why_i_love_linux The oldest continually running Linux show on the planet. http://tllts.org/ Clamav did well. http://av-article.notlong.com Windows Is free. http://articles.tlug.jp/Windows_Is_Free LinuxInsider, news and information. http://www.linuxinsider.com/ Linux tutorials and information. http://www.groovyweb.uklinux.net/ Tips for Linux explorers. http://www.brunolinux.com/ A collection of (Linux) scripts, hints, articles, and programs. http://souptonuts.sourceforge.net/ Linux news. http://www.topix.net/tech/linux Linux command line system information query commands. http://ale.freeshell.org/les/howtos/system_info Tux4kids is an education-centric Linux distribution. http://www.geekcomix.com/tux4kids/distro/ Linux may be the little guy, but he's a tough little guy. Bet on it. http://www.linux.com/feature/119211 A Little Humor. A funny story. http://www.funny-stuff-central.com/accident.php http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070914152904577 An interesting way to propose. http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/page.asp?id=11 Who'd have thought a trip to the gynecologist would be funny? http://forums.obgyn.net/endo/ENDO.9810/0554.html Tips for This Issue. Registry fixes, scripts, Troubleshooting Guides and (costless) utilities to resolve problems in Windows XP. http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ I don't mention this site often enough. If you're trying to tweak your old Windows 95 machine or get a few more miles out of your Windows 98/98SE/98ME machine, this site is invaluable. http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ A wealth of info from PCWorld. http://www.pcworld.com/howto/ Useful info for Windows users. http://www.computerfreetips.com/ Contributions From Our Readers. Links from readers are always welcome and you can even write your own link descriptions if you like. Guidelines are available here: http://www.don-guitar.com/descriptivetext.html From our web sibling Patrick Barden. ( http://rrwbushangel.blogspot.com/ ) Gifts for you from Patrick. http://www.don-guitar.com/romanrw.html Finally, a solution to bigotry: laughter. http://asheville.indymedia.org/article/107Clowns For Scrabble junkies. http://www.scrabulous.com/ Patrick thought these guys were pretty cool but I think they're a little too Windows-centric. http://www.catzware.com/index.html From our web sibling Jo-Ann (Jo) Burton: ( Jo's site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ ) A flying luxury hotel. http://popsci-flyinghotel.notlong.com Hurricane digital memories. http://hurricanearchive.org/ The great family cookbook project. http://www.familycookbookproject.com/ World public opinion. http://worldpublicopinion.org/ That's ironic. http://www.thatsironic.com/ Play with your mind. http://www.playwithyourmind.com/ Earthy (gastronomic) delights. http://www.earthy.com/ From our web sibling John Lepse. ( John's blog: http://hucknjim.blogspot.com/ ) Here's a great video John sent us (scroll down a bit). http://music.download.com/benharper/3600-8573-100005681.html Memories of a moonshot. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20612272 Choosing a nursing home. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/embedded_sb.html A "getting things done" resource. http://www.lifehacker.com/ From our newly-adopted web sibling Vicki Hartsfield. A great photography resource. http://www.picture.com/ A great poetry resource. http://www.poetry.com/ Vicki's son is "one of those Lego nuts". *grin* http://www.brickmodder.net/ From our neighbor and friend John Hibbs. X-RayPC is a systems-management tool with a built-in expert system. No external runtimes, DLLs, or libraries are required, and no installation is needed. The program makes complete analyses in seconds. It lists active processes, autostart programs, and BHOs; downloads program files; has plug-ins for IE extensions; shows the file size and MD5 of all files instantly; shows which items are "good," "bad," or "unknown"; and has an integrated file uploader. It includes integrated deactivation and removal of an item or file, and it can kill running processes, delete in-use files (after reboot), detect hundreds of "bad" programs, and export the log file in text, Excel, and HJT-compatible formats. http://www.download.com/X-RayPC/3000-8022_4-10337702.html Thank you Patrick, Jo, John Lepse, Vicki and John Hibbs. Last word, from Lisa: I'm still in the exciting stage of web design, the stage where you don't know much of anything and every task is a new challenge. I still don't even know the nomenclature well enough to ask an intelligent question, but I know what I want to achieve. That makes for a lot of late nights and embracing the concept that "Google is your friend". Once again we've gotten out the ezine just in time and have that "Whew!" feeling. Life is fast and furious and I love it. That's what I wish for everyone, to be just a little too busy. It seems to be just about right. 'Til next time, Lisa Lisa's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html Lisa at myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/81825549 Lisa's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar Don's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/ Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html Don Crowder and Lisa Miller Friday, September 14, 2007 8:15 PM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA Served by the U.S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes-with-cow), Texas Privacy: We will never share, sell, or otherwise compromise your email address. Privacy Policy on our website. http://www.don-guitar.com/privacy.html Freelists.org Privacy Policy. http://www.freelists.org/privacy.html The most important people on the Internet, for you and I as computer users, are software developers. The world's coolest computer, without software, is like a car without fuel. It might look great, but what can it do? It doesn't matter who produces the software you love and use regularly, the developers of that software need your support. A bit of advice from Internet veteran Bayard J. Fox: New computer users are often in awe of the things you can get without cost on the Internet. There can be hidden costs for the unwary. Use a "throw away" email address to register, and be constantly on guard against giving away personal information. Use a firewall, and provide only the barest minimum of information on questionnaires. ___________________________________________________________ Subscription management for this publication is available online here: http://www.don-guitar.com/subsmanager.html or here: http://www.freelists.org/list/donspatch