Hi Y'all,

and so does Microsoft. I noticed when Windows Update changed to its present iteration, that it no longer said "No information is sent to Microsoft," or something like that, but I didn't think anything had changed in that regard. Just found out I was wrong. Windows Update now collects the Product ID of your operating system and information on all your hardware. They aren't inventorying all your software, but that doesn't mean they won't in the future if it suits their purpose (whatever that might be.)

I don't have a problem with inventorying my hardware. They claim that info is needed to see if they have any driver updates for me. Okay, makes sense, I'll buy that. But why do they "need" the Product ID of my Windows 98 installation? Perhaps it's to catch pirated or illegally installed copies by noticing identical product ID's coupled to dissimilar hardware. Perhaps it's to see when I registered it so they can tell me, "Sorry. We only provide free updates for X years. You have to buy a 'support plan' now."

Oh well. There hasn't been an update to Win 98 Gold itself for a long time. I'll still go to Windows Update once or twice a week to see if there are any security patches or driver updates. It's a lot easier than digging around that monstrous Microsoft site or in the Product Catalog to see if there are any updates I want or need, and then remembering which ones I've installed so I don't make a mistake and reinstall an old something that breaks a later patch I already installed.

If you're a little paranoid, or just plain curious, you can find more details on Windows Update's inner working by reading Brian Livingston's March 14 and 21 InfoWorld columns.

I seem to be tuned in to odd phraseology these days. In addition to the "Germany is one of several European countries in Europe" (last issue) we have:

Okay, your turn. Stick it to me with the strange phraseology I've used in these newsletters that seemed right as I typed it.

Around midnight of March 26, 2003 a small asteroid exploded over the upper mid-west. Bright flashes that "lit up the sky light daylight" were seen in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, and chunks of meteorite fell through roofs and damaged cars in southern Chicago; no people were hit.

According to astronomers, it was probably a "rocky asteroid" of about 1 to 2 cubic meters weighing about 10 metric tons (now how do they know that?). On the TV broadcasts, people holding a meteorite piece of about 3 cubic inches (my guestimate) estimated it weighed 4 to 5 pounds. Punching up my trusty conversions tables, I calculated backward from 2 cubic meters and 10 metric tons (70.63 cubic feet, 11 US tons), and guess what - 3 cubic inches would weight 4.86 pounds.

NBC5 TV News broadcast with video of explosion flashes and meteorite pieces. ABC7 TV News broadcast with video, and a slide show. NBC5 indicated their broadcast recording would only be available for 10 days from March 27. ABC7 didn't state their retention period.

There are a bunch of Federal tax laws benefiting all active military personnel, Merchant Marine and Red Cross personnel in combat zones, and certain new enlistees and Reserve and Nation Guard members called to active duty. You can read about the laws and find links to particulars on the IRS Web site at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=97273,00.html.

How times have changed. When I was in the Navy in the mid-1950s, all we got was "Pay your taxes or get court-martialed." Didn't even get any VA benefits at the time. Congress finally retroactively gave me a couple thousand bucks of educational benefits around 1970... after I'd finished college... which I promptly used for 12 months of computer programming school.

If you need to know about OE 5 or 6 for Windows, and you do if you use it, go to Tom Koch's Inside Outlook Express. It will explain where your Mail and Newsgroup folders, Address Book, and Accounts, Identities, Mail/Newsgroup Rules and other settings, are stored – and where to get a free backup program; very useful if you're getting a new computer and want to move your Accounts, Mail, and Address Book to it, or as a safety measure before installing a new Outlook Express version in case the upgrade goes bonkers and loses everything.

The free backup program is Outlook Express Freebie Backup which runs on Windows 95 to XP. It does the job, according to Tom Koch, but it's not a one or two click operation. Scroll about 1/2 way down the page until you see a stack of boxes on the left edge. Clicking the links in them takes you to pages with a screen shot of the operation and explanatory text. I haven't run this program yet, so don't know whether those pages are are also in the program's Help. Read them before deciding whether you want to use this program. Apparently you also need to jump through hoops to restore Identies to a new machine.

There is an Outlook Express backup program I have tried called Email Saver Xe for Windows 95 to XP, and it will also backs up Outlook, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, IncrediMail, and other e-mail programs. This one is much easier to use than the freebie and appeared to do the job, but I didn't have time to run the final test – determining whether it restored everything properly – before the 15 day trial period ended. It normally costs $30, but you can get it for $25 (on CD) or $20 (download) at CloudEight/EmailSaverXe, but you have to be a member, which only means you have to sign up (click link in red at very top center of page) for their newsletter.

From CBS MarketWatcher 7/9/02 newsletter. Also see this eWeek.com article for more particulars.

The provider of security authorization services used by credit-card giants Visa and MasterCard International has agreed to support the Passport verification system backed by Microsoft. Arcot Systems develops online payment systems for banks that issue the cards. The deal will mean that later this fall [2002], computer users can employ Microsoft's Passport username and password to assure authenticity of their online credit-card usage. Gartner Group, a research firm, estimates the Passport service has about 14 million users registered.

If your credit card is affected by this, whether or not you make online purchases, I suggest it would behoove you to make sure your Passport password is strong (eight or more mixed numbers and upper and lower case letters) and that you change it often, especially if your Passport ID is a Hotmail account name — my Hotmail account name became public knowledge the instant I clicked the sign up Submit button.

How do I know? My Hotmail Inbox was full of pornographic spam when I accessed the account for the first time within a few seconds of signing up and it kept arriving in a steady stream for the next 5 or so minutes, then tapered off to 10 or 15 a day for the next week, after which I stop looking. When I looked at Mail Options (or whaterever the link is called) I saw the Default was to make the account name Public! Shame on you Microsoft. I immediately changed it to Private, but the damage had already been done. Needless to say, I abandoned Hotmail as a viable secondary e-mail option and let that account die. Perhaps Microsoft has tightened up their security since I signed up a couple years ago (yeah, right), but I, for one, won't go near Hotmail again — nor will I let Passport con me into letting it store my credit card information.

Sometimes typos take me to the most unexpected places (other than porn sites,) and occasionally it's a pleasant surprise. A recent occurrence took me to Common Errors in English, by Paul Brians, an English Professor at Washington State University. At first this site reflected the Professor's desire to help young people become more employable by breaking free from "street language" and learning "American English"; e.g., If you "ax" for a job you probably won't get it, but if you "ask" for a job, you just might get it. The site has grown over time and is now a worthwhile visit for anyone who'd like to brush up on their American English.

Did you have it hammered into your head to use "an" before words beginning with "H" no matter how awkward "an history" is, or have book reports and papers marked down because you wrote "a history?" According to Prof. Brians, that's not the Rule. The Rule is:

You should use "an" before a word beginning with an "H" only if the "H" is not pronounced: "an honest effort", "a historic event."

But in practice, in both speech and writing, "an historic event" is quite acceptable because it rolls off the tongue more easily than "a historic event."

Are you accurate in your usage of Assure, Ensure and Insure? How about Further and Farther? Compared To and Compared With? Do you have Affect/Effect anguish? If you are Indifferent, are you Ambivalent? Read his List of Errors to find out.

Ayman Elbanhawy is a   gentleman    man   despicable person of the male persuasion who sells stolen free software as his own. The name of his company is Bullet Proof Soft (a take-off on the name of a reputable company, Bulletproof Software). If you've downloaded or purchased a program called "Spy Cleaner™" or "BPS Spyware/Adware Remover™", from bulletproofsoft.com or elsewhere, you have been deceived! Those programs are composed of pieces of code stolen from the free-ware programs Ad-Aware (Lavasoft) and Spybot - Search & Destroy (PepiMK Software).

See this posting by a person associated with Lavasoft for additional information. In it, he states in part, "As we are not the only software maker affected, you may wish to investigate these domains for examples of other pirated/plagiarized software: BulletProofSoft.com,  TopDownloads.com, and Rizal.com."  I believe I've warned my readers before to stay away from TopDownloads.com, but those other two sites I had not heard of before.

Pictures (click them to see larger image) taken from and within the International Space Station. A brand new Science@NASA site, fashoned after the popular Astronomy Picture of the Day site. First picture went up March 28, 2003. This site is experimental and will contine until early May. Click the link at the bottom of the page to express your "Keep 'em coming" or "Forget it" opinion. If there is a high enough demand, NASA says they may be able to keep it going.

NASA Columbia site.
Official Columbia Accident Investigation Board site.

Free Yahoo! POP3 Mail access is still available... in Canada. No way to know how long it will remain free, but if you'd like your Yahoo! Mail POP3 access back, sign up for a Canadian Yahoo! Mail account at mail.yahoo.ca.

Poison Control Center:  The American Association of Poison Control Centers has launched a national, toll-free hotline. By calling 1-800-222-1222, anyone in the United States is automatically connected to their local poison treatment and prevention experts, 24/7.

Icebergs, really big ones. In a few years the Antarctica's Amery Ice Shelf will be calving a 25×25 km (15.5×15.5 mi) iceburg. Sound kind of big? In 1960 it shed a 140×70 km (89×45.5 mi) hunk of ice.

In New Hampshire, if some great music is playing, one cannot tap feet, nod a head, or in any way keep time to the music in a tavern, restaurant, or cafe.

Have a hankering to visit the Texas Hill Country? Enter an online drawing for three days at a Dude Ranch near Bandera, which is NW of San Antonio (map). Air transport and accommodations for four plus car rental.

Pretty 6.5 minute video from Ducks Unlimited. Windows Media Player required.
     Dial-up: mms://64.146.79.18/3_low.asf
     DSL/Cable/T1: mms://64.146.79.18/3.asf

Nike® Won't Let Me Buy Their Shoes

'Til next time,
Pete