Digital Choke Daynotes

What's a Daynote?

"Daynotes" are daily (usually) journal entries of interesting happening and discussions. They are not 'blogs', which are often just a collection of links to other information (although we do include links occasionally). Daynotes are much more interesting (we hope).

These "Digital Choke Daynotes" were inspired by the collection of daily journals of the "Daynotes Gang" (see sites at .com, .org, .net), a collection of daily technical and personal observations from the famous and others. That group started on September 29, 1999, and has grown to an interesting collection of individuals. Readers are invited and encouraged to visit those sites for other interesting daily journals.

If you have comments, send us an email. A bit more about me is here. You might also enjoy our little story about the death of the 'net.

Reports

FireFox "Phishing" Alert 2/8/04
A Phishing Report for Dr. Pournelle (pdf) 12/20/04
Simple Steps for Safe Wireless Home Network 11/29/04
Simple Steps for Safe Computing 10/19/04
Home Computer Security & Configuration Checklist 8/18/04
Phishing for Fun & Profit 8/11/04
A Simple Recipe for Internet Domination? 7/14/04
Is That a Felony on Your Computer? 10/19/03
Email: not absolutely positively delivered
Anti-Spam Server
What I Did On My Summer Vacation (July 2003)
The "Digital Choke" story

"Digital Choke" story

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 mail link the story

I installed the Windows Anti-Spyware software on my laptop yesterday. (And note that today, Bill gates announced that it will be a free product.) The installation went quite smoothly, and the scan showed only one problem with TinyVNC, which is a remote control product I have installed here. (And no, I am not going to tell you the password to get into my system.)

I'm pleased with how it is working (and the cost). There have been many others that have recommended it's use; I just hadn't gotten that 'round-to-it' to get it installed on my system. I haven't noticed any problems with it's use on my system, so can recommend it for yours.

I've been working with Outlook 2003 a bit. I have a "Contacts" list, with people in that list assigned to various categories. Each contact has an email address. The problem I am having is to send an email to a category of people in my Contacts list. I've only done a bit of research with this. It seems that I can do mail merges with the Contacts list, but I haven't found the trick yet to create an email that is addressed to a group of people in a Contact category. More Googling is in order, but hints are appreciated.

And we're enjoying our TiVo. It's great to be able to do a bit of time-shifting on some of the shows we watch. Our day starts with an alarm blaring at 5am, so shows that come on in the late evening are sometimes difficult to watch without nodding off. (Some days, "late evening" can be before 9pm. Must be getting old.)

With the TiVo, we just watch the program the next day. It seems that we don't watch 'live TV' very often. And when we do, I find myself reaching for the fast forward button so that I can skip the commercials. It's somewhat irritating that I can't fast-forward when watching live TV.

...later...

I was just using FireFox to do a MapQuest of an address. And the map 'box' was empty. The same query works OK in IE. So FireFox can't display a MapQuest map? Is it a FireFox problem, or MapQuest?

Anyone else have the same problem (send mail here)?

This is another problem I have using FireFox. Previously, I've also noticed that some pages look differently in FF than IE (including this place). The size of the characters is different in the two browsers. (I'll have to do some screenshots for you later.)

And I also get an error with a simple page that has a 'form' button. Take a look at this page here (it will open in a new window). It's a very simple page, just two forms, each with a button. One button uses the "method=get", and the other is a "method=post". The "post" method is used with just about any form you see on the web. Both buttons work just fine in IE -- you are returned to the same page. But the "post" button causes an error when used in FF. And I haven't been able to figure out why.

Here's the page source code:

<html>
< head>
< title>Untitled Document</title>
< meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
< /head>

<body>
< hr>
< h3>HTM file with "FORM" tag</h3>

a test of a form/get button with a form command<br>
< form action="foxtest.htm" method="get">
using the method = get<br>
< input name="get-button" type="submit" value="get-button">
< /form>
< hr>

a test of a form/post button<br>
< form action="foxtest.htm" method="post">
using the method = post<br>
< input name="post-button" type="submit" value="post-button">
< /form>

<hr>
< /body>
< /html>

I don't see anything unusual, do you? Got any ideas?

Thursday, February 17, 2005 mail link the story

Back again. Wasn't feeling well yesterday, so didn't even surf the net from the couch. I just surfed the TiVo. Although I did make it down to the medical center to get my Holter monitor installed. It's a 24-hour electrocardiogram that stores the data on a memory card. It looked like an SD memory card, and I was tempted to take it out to take a peek at it, but decided that I'd leave that to the experts.

I'm getting mixed results with the GET/POST problem with FireFox 1.0. Some thought that it was because the host server here doesn't support the POST method. So I made a PHP page (here, new window), in which both buttons seem to work OK in FF and IE.

So, I guess it could be a server thing. This place is running

Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 02:01:40 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) PHP/4.3.10 mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a
Vary: *
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.10

But I've got another web site that I made at work (here, new window). On that page, select one of the checkboxes, then hit the button. That page is OK in IE, but FF doesn't like the method=post for the form. Gives the same error. And that site is running

Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

Macromedia Cold Fusion is also running on that system.

So, I still don't know what the problem is. Two different servers, and the method=post doesn't work in FF on an HTM or CFM (Cold Fusion code) page. I suspect that if I put the foxtest.htm page there, I'd have the same problem with the method=post in FF.

Puzzling.

If you live in the US, you might be affected by this problem.

Another theft of consumer data from a company called CheckPoint that can cause possible identity theft:

" Database giant ChoicePoint said late Wednesday that 145,000 consumers nationwide were placed at risk by a recent data theft at the company. Previously, the company had suggested the theft only affected California residents. "

(see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6979897/ or your favorite news source)

The risk seems to be large -- the LA Times reported that 750 people have already been affected. The data theft occurred last October (2004).
ChoicePoint is sending letters out to everyone; previously, they were only sending letters to the 35,000 California residents (as required by CA law).

Note that the letters apparently look like one of those numerous credit card offers, so many people may not open them.

My recommended identity theft prevention practices:

Check your credit card/bank statements carefully; on-line checking every few days is better than when you receive your monthly statement.
Shred any credit card offers, or any other paper (statements, etc) that you throw away.
Be careful about giving out personal information on the Internet, especially in response to an email message.
Get a locking mailbox. Mail theft from unlocked mailboxes is a great way to use those credit card offers (especially those containing those pre-approved checks) for financial theft .
Check for more info and help at your government's consumer protection agency (in US http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm , in California http://www.privacy.ca.gov/ )
Get a copy of your credit report from all three credit reporting agencies, and look at it carefully. In the US, it's free (see http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm for implementation for your state).

Be careful out there.

... more later ...
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