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Friday 8 August 2003

Newsletter Issue 66, August 2003


Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 66, August 2003
Hi guys,
Well, the internet. Like it or love it, it has become a tremendously pervasive part of our culture in a very short time. For some ideas on the range of things that you can find in the wired world, check out Something for Everyone below.
With all the viruses out in the wild, you need to run some checks. See Latest Virus Checks. 
Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Something for Everyone

The internet. Amazing, isn't it. 
No matter what you want to get, you can find it - and if you don't know the address of that specialist site, you just poodle over to Google and punch your key words. 
Well, just for a change of pace, I thought I would have a cruise to try and find the most obscure things I could. This is my list of the weird & wired world that we currently inhabit;

Latest Virus Checks

Sobig.f
Are you infected with "Sobig"? There's an easy way to tell if you're infected;
  • Click Start | Search (or Start | Search | For Files and Folders) and look for a file called WINPPR32.EXE. If you find that file, you're infected. So then
  • Click this Norton link, follow the instructions and download the fixer file to get Sobig off your machine
Blaster
Are you infected with "Blaster"? You probably needn't panic so much if you are running Windows 98 or earlier, but from 2000 onwards you are very vulnerable. To check;
  • If you get Shutdown error messages initiated by eg "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM", your computer is probably infected. Typical symptoms may include Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems rebooting every few minutes without user input, or Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 systems becoming unresponsive. Some people will have no idea the worm is present at all, while others who are not infected may have problems because the worm is attacking their computer. 
  • If you can connect to the internet, enable a firewall - follow the instructions at this link, following the Step 1 box only. Then
  • Go to Microsoft, or get someone else who can connect to the net to go for you, scroll down the page to "Patch Availability" and download the correct patch for your operating system 
  • Click the Norton link to remove the blaster worm.

Word to the Wise
Some things that will help prevent you getting viruses;
  • If you don't know who the file is from, DON'T open attachments 
  • Email people who send you unsolicited messages to you with attachments and (a) verify they are a legitimate sender and (b) find out what the attachments are BEFORE you open them
  • Turn off the Preview Pane in Outlook
  • Keep your antivirus up to date.
And just remember - lots of warnings that come through via emails are not actually viruses. A number of them are hoaxes. So ALWAYS verify that the hoax warning you have received is legitimate, before you;
(a) Take any action - such as deleting files
(b) Forward messages on.
 If you don't you are becoming part of the problem - either sowing needless panic amongst users or disabling your PC by deleting files which were part of your operating system.
To check out whether a warning is legitimate or not, either go to;
Multiple Text Selections in Word

There are a number of methods for selecting a block of text in Word. While many people use the click-and-drag method to select large blocks of text, this is not the only way to select text. It is probably more efficient to click the beginning of the text you wish to select, hold down the Shift key and then click the end of the text. 
That's fine if all the text is together (contiguous). 
But what if it's not? What if the text you want to select is randomly placed (noncontiguous) throughout the document? What if you want to change the formatting of every second paragraph to italics?
Before Word 2002, you would have to select and format each paragraph individually. So if you have Word 2002 to select your random blocks of text
  1. Select the first paragraph using the mouse (click & drag)
  2. Hold the Ctrl key down and select the next paragraph using the mouse (click & drag). Keep holding the Ctrl key down and repeat to select the other required paragraphs
  3. Release the Ctrl key
  4. Format your selected paragraphs (NB: be careful not to click onto the document anywhere or you will lose your selection)
Have fun!

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you;
  • QAM, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. A method of combining two AM signals into a single channel, doubling the bandwidth. Used with PAM (pulse amplitude modulation) in digital systems, such as wireless applications
  • Y2K, Year 2000. Remember all the hype about the world coming to an end? Funny how info that is basically stored in binary (once you mine down the layers) wasn't affected, wasn't it?!

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Short+Hot Keys... and now tips
So how do you change line spacing in Word? Really easily using the Ctrl key;
  • To change from single to double spacing, select the text you wish to change and key Ctrl & 2
  • To revert to single spacing, key Ctrl & 1
  • Key Ctrl & 5 to change selected text to 1.5 line spacing.
Hot Linx
If you are wanting to get information on UK companies, you can access financial reports on this site. It's free, but you have to register, at http://www.carol.co.uk/register.php 
Do you know where to eat out in Kiwiland? No? Then this is the site for you. Check it out at http://www.dineout.co.nz/
Want to know where you can look up pretty much any word all on one site? Then Hyper-Dictionary is for you at http://www.hyperdictionary.com/ 
Want to know where the European Space Agency Mars project is at? Then check out http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/ 
                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

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