[mca] Mean's September Newsletter
- From: "Mean Drake" <meandrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mca@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 16:32:17 +0530
In This Issue
Editorial
Can your PC Harm you
Virus alert
Important security update
Roboform review
EDITORIAL
A lot of small but interesting topics for the newsletter this month. Our
feature article is on Repetitive Strain Injuries and a small review of Roboform
sent to me. A few news updates and tidbits from around the internet.
The fully illustrated pdf version of the newsletter that you can save to your
disk is available here:
http://mca.freewebpage.org/MCASep03.pdf (Acrobat Reader needed to view).
Till next month...
Mean.
Can your PC Harm you
By Mean Drake
mean@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Spending long hours on the computer has a lot of physical side effects as is
well known. When we say safe computing, what comes to mind is that we should
keep our computers secure and free from viruses and the like. Safe computing
however should mean computing that is safe for us too. As the average number of
hours a computer user spends on his computer has increased over a period of
years, more and more physical side effects of computing have become
highlighted. The common term now is Repetitive Strain Injuries or RSI. We are
all susceptible to these if we do not follow a few simple guidelines and make
our user experience free of moans and groans at some stage.
Sitting:
The chair must be designed for the user who is going to use it. There must be
adequate padding and support for the lower back and it should be such that
makes the user sit straight rather than in a slouched posture. A swivelling
chair and even one with castors is a big help. The height of the chair must be
such that the feet rest properly on the ground. If they tend to remain
suspended in air, try getting a footrest.
Keyboard:
The height of the keyboard should be such that the elbows are bent at right
angles. If the keyboard is too high, there is a constant strain on the
shoulders to keep the arms raised and if it is too low, the shoulders tend to
slouch down straining the muscles and tendons around the shoulder. The hands
should reach the keyboard without anything (the edge of the table for example)
pressing the under surface of the wrists and the wrists should have adequate
support so the muscles are not constantly working to keep it straight.
Monitor:
The monitor height should be adjusted such that the midpoint of the screen is
slightly below the level of the eyes so that the neck remains in a natural
position rather than having to work at looking upwards all the time. Also as
far as possible get a glare protection screen to cover the monitor and reduce
radiation stress on the eyes.
Avoiding muscle cramping:
Make small frequent movements of the various parts of the body that remain in a
still position while we sit at the computer. Rolling of the shoulders, flexing
the arms and the fingers. Standing up and stretching out the back etc. all help
to prevent our muscles from remaining in a locked sort of position and
therefore keep the circulation going. Short frequent breaks are better than
long infrequent ones.
Mouse:
The mouse must be kept easily accessible by the side of the keyboard with
adequate wrist support near it. The grip should feel comfortable and the
movements should be not hampered by nearby stuff on the desktop.
I am sure following these small tips will increase your body resistance to the
harmful effects of computing.
Virus Alert
by Mean Drake
mean@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Even though I have sent this as a separate virus alert, there is a new virus on
the loose. W32.Swen.A@mm previously called Worm.Automat.AHB is doing the rounds
this month. This mass-mailing worm comes into your inbox disguised as a mail
from Microsoft exhorting to apply the cumulative September 2003 patch which is
sent as an attachment with the mail.
Remember, Microsoft does not send out patches to be applied via email. So
delete any such mail you get immediately. Further information on this virus can
be found at the following page at the Symantec site:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.swen.a@xxxxxxx
Its time therefore to update your antivirus definitions once again if you have
been too lazy to do this recently. Along with the spread of these internet
worms, one question I am often asked in the forums I am part of is about
bounced email addresses. A lot of people are getting bounced email which they
never sent in the first place. Many of these bounced messages include the
reason for the bounce being a virus infected attachment being present in the
mail. The first doubt that they develop is, ?Am I infected? Did I send out this
virus infected mail without knowing as is supposed to happen in virus
infections??
In these situations, my suggestion is to update your antivirus definitions and
scan your computer. If there are no viruses are detected, you can be reasonably
sure you are free and can then ignore these bounce messages. For this one has
to know how these bounce messages get generated. What happens is that if
someone?s computer gets infected with one of these mass mailing viruses, the
computer sends out a lot of emails to recipients which the owner of the PC
never even heard of. These email addresses are harvested from either web pages
that the infected PC?s owner might visit or even from files from the local PC.
The peculiar thing is that when these mails are sent, the FROM: address that is
used is not the genuine email address of the infected host but one of the email
addresses that the worm harvests as described above. So the bounce messages
therefore go to someone who is not at all concerned with the entire loop and
who for all practical purposes is not infected but gets bounced messages for
either
invalid recipient or infected mail. So your getting these bounces should not be
taken as evidence that you are infected. This explanation should for the time
being solve the problem faced by all of us in the days of high worm activity on
the internet.
Of course you could use a program like mailwasher to view your inbox on server
and delete messages from there so the virus doesn?t even land on your disk for
the antivirus to catch. Click image below for evaluation version download for
free.
Important security update
by Mean Drake
mean@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Microsoft updates patch once again:
Last month many of us had to face the difficult times caused by the blaster
worm which would find its way into your computer even without having to even
read or even open an email. The very fact that a network connection was present
was enough susceptibility. The RPC patch released by Microsoft had been
released about a month before the appearance of the virus and still there were
so many unprotected PCs. Well the RPC patch it seems did not fix all the
vulnerabilities and there is an updated version of the patch now available. I
would suggest all my readers to update this security patch to prevent any other
virus simulating the Blaster from afflicting your computer. Details about the
patch as well as the download locations for the different operating systems can
be found at this site:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-039.asp
Roboform review
By
Candy Baker (CCUG@xxxxxxxxxxx)
RoboForm 4.3.7 deftly automates one of the more annoying tasks surfers face:
filling out Web-based forms. Just enter your personal information and the
program stores it for future reference. RoboForm keeps the data on your
computer and nowhere else, so you don?t need to worry about the security of
your credit card information.
The program does a fine job of storing and filling in user names and passwords,
too, and lets you keep multiple profiles for sites, handy for those of us with
multiple Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail accounts. Awesome little program. Really makes
short work of logins, etc., for those of us that are heavy password and/or
login/buying people. I have a million passwords and logins at different sites
and this really makes it a piece of cake. No spyware/adware. If you use Gator
now, it will convert Gator information into this program. This is easier and
better than Gator because I can actually see all my stored data in an easy
format. Gator doesn?t let you see what you?ve stored until you go to the
website.
If you share your PC, RoboForm sets up separate, password-protected identities
for each user. Best of all, this program simply works well.
Direct Download: http://www.roboform.com/
Bye for now,
Please do send in your feedback, comments, suggestions and brickbats to me by
clicking Reply and sending your valuable feedback.
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