ingvald

some tips on how to prevent and handle spam. prevent spam spammers use automatic email address harvesters, which prowl the WWW for addresses. so:

• don't publish your email address as clear text on public web pages, neither in text or in links;
• rather, use javascript or an image to communicate email address visually to the reader,
• or, even better, use a contact form/ script where there's no email address in the html.
• or at least mask it with, like, address (at) domain (dot) tld, even if some of these typical maskings (using "at" and "dot") might be recognized by some email harvesters. anything is better than email addresses in pure text or mailto-links...
• and don't reply to or click any link in a spam message you might receive, as that only brings more spam.

minimize damage if you have qmail or gmail, you can have an addition to your email address which identifies and isolates the source regarding email you receive, including spam. then you can use address+addition@domain to .tag. different sources, having a restrictive .qmail-default and deleting additions (qmail) or filter out additions (gmail) if spam increases to a specific address variation. handle spam if you start to get spam, and don't want to change your email address, you'd better deal with it somehow.

• try email with learning spam filter, e.g., thunderbird or gmail (take a look at some info on why use gmail and how to get rid of spam)
• don't open attachments from unknown people, or with unknown file types
• don't use outlook if you can avoid it (even though i understand it's been getting better lately)

links

• useit.com: "Anything you put into a mailto: tag is fodder for EmailSyphon and other site suckers that download entire websites in order to find email addresses that they can add to spam mailing lists. I prefer hearing about as few get-rich-schemes and porn sites as possible."
• wikipedia on email harvesting: "...the more common use of special software, known as "harvesting bots" or "harvesters", which scan Web pages ... to obtain e-mail addresses."
• wikipedia on anti-spam techniques: "if the spammers can't learn of the address, the address is less likely to be sent spam. .... One way that spammers obtain email addresses to target is to trawl the Web and Usenet for strings which look like addresses, using a spambot. Contact forms and address munging are good ways to prevent [harvesting] .... Posting anonymously, or with a fake name and address, is one way to avoid "address harvesting" ... Users who want to receive legitimate email regarding their posts or Web sites can alter their addresses so humans can figure out but spammers cannot. For instance, joe@example.net might post as joeNOS@PAM.example.net.invalid, or display his email address as an image instead of text."

--------

i have been thinking about this for a while, without being very specific. as it turns out, Nielsen thought about the specifics before i got to it...Life-Long Computer Skills (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Schools should teach deep, strategic computer insights that can't be learned from reading a manual.....There is some value in teaching kids skills they can apply immediately, while they're still in school, but there's more value in teaching them deeper concepts that will benefit them forever, regardless of changes in specific applications.....[This will give] students insights that they're unlikely to pick up on their own.....People will learn how to use features on their own, when they need them -- and thus have the motivation to hunt for them. It's the conceptual things that get endlessly deferred without the impetus of formal education.

Following are some general skills that I think we should teach in elementary school.

here's the short version of Nielsen's list:

• search strategies
• information credibility
• information overload
• writing for online readers
• computerized presentation skills
• workspace ergonomics
• debugging
• user testing and other basic usability guidelines

--------

There is always one more bug.

- Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology

--------

MIC Artikkel: Prots-biografi: Om å flytte grenser

Forfattar Stig Nilsson har i biografien "Prots - trollmann med kor" teikna eit portrett av dirigenten, pedagogen og kulturmiksaren Per Oddvar Hildre. Ballade vidarebringer her eitt av kapitlene frå den nye boka ...

Prots har altså skrive bok. sjå gjerne websida hans også, eller meir om Skruk.

God jul og godt nyttår til deg som les dette! Det er godt å ha nokre rolege dagar, og gjera ting som å skriva denne helsinga. Hausten har vore travel i år, sjølv om det blir tid til å stoppa opp av og til; og Trondheim har ein del fint å by på. Vinter i nabolaget Det har vore mykje å gjera på i året som gjekk. Mykje arbeid, men også ein del opplevingar. Det kunstneriske høgdepunktet var kanskje å få vera med og syngja for Kronprinsen og -prinsessa på gjestebod i haust, med SKRUK :) Månen på veg over Mjøsa i sommar Barndommens beste badestad - i Østfold Ungane er ein stor del av livet, og dei veks til. Yngstejenta byrjar snart på skulen... Dei byrjar å bli ganske data-kunnige også. Fotball for alle penga Gjort til kunst av motivet sjølv... Vel - det var litt om mitt liv i året som gjekk. -Alt godt til deg i året som kjem! God jul og godt nyttår frå Trondheim!

here's a few ways to use feeds:

• Opera - tutorial on opera and feeds
• Gmail (settings, web clips) - random viewing of a story/ feed item above the message list
• FeedReader - becomes an icon in the system tray, and starts spinning when new stuff comes in

how I use it: opera for (a lot of) news, gmail for fun stuff, feedreader for stuff I want to follow closely.

regarding the habit of writing your answer at the top of an email, including the previous text at the bottom :)

Quote A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail? Unknown

i got some pictures out there - check it out if you like (also the "some pics" link to the right). this one is a couple of snow lamps at my parent's cottage at easter. --------

såg at noko slekt var returnert til gamlelandet... i tillegg var det kult å sjå bilde av "vesle" Trygve bli gift :) foreldra mine var der, men det er noko med kor kjapt ein ser bilete på nett... --------

the following tip was really useful in pinpointing the application that crashed during hotsync.the code given worked for me, even with a Norwegian carrier. Palm Addict - Palm OS Treo 650 crashing

check the crash log to see why the Treo is resetting. There is a specific code for each carrier. Check your manual or simply do a search for: Treo "crash log" My code is #*377 (at least I think it is. I haven't had to use it in a while). So, from the phone screen dial #*377 and hit the call button. The Treo will then tell you what app caused the last crash.(Peter Wolchak)

For some the code is a little bit different, e.g., #*#377#. --------