|
Ten_OClock_Charley_and_Other_Irritants
| Ten OClock Charley and Other Irritants
I'm tired of Ten O'Clock Charley. (MASH fans will get the
connection.) Charley is the twit that inevitably sends me 4-6
viruses by email a day or two after my newsletter is published.
My anti-virus software picks them off like mosquitoes attacking
a bug zapper. He or she) must have subscribed using an
autoresponder that is programmed to send out the viruses
according to a set schedule.
Maybe I'm just ready for a vacation, but I'm weary of the bad
behavior that is so commonplace on the Net.
I'm tired of deleting 150-200 spam emails daily.
I'm tired of students contacting me to ask how much I would
charge to write their term paper. Here's a tip, kids. If you
want a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your wrist.
I'm tired of people sending me scathing emails because they're
confused by somebody else's pop-under ads that they think
originated at my site. Come to think of it, I'm even more tired
of all those pop-under windows in the first place.
I'm tired of web sites that hold me captive and won't allow me
to use the Back Button on my browser to return to where I
started. Why do designers do this? Do they believe that taking
hostages will improve their chances of making sales?
Those are my minor complaints. These are my major ones.
I'm irritated that I had to spend most of a morning adding
coding on my web pages to protect myself against Microsoft's
Smart Tags. For those who don't know, Smart Tag technology
causes little icons to appear beside certain key words on your
web site. When visitors click on the icons, they will be taken
to another site -- possibly your competitors. Microsoft has
already included the technology in Office XP, but has bowed to
pressure and promised (?) not to add the technology to Internet
Explorer 6. To protect your pages from MS Smart Tags, add this
line to your Meta Tags:
I'm even more irritated by Ezula's TopText, which comes bundled
with KaZaA, a third party plugin for IE. KaZaA is a freely
distributed file- sharing program has been downloaded over 7
million times in a month and a half. The bundled TopText uses
Smart Tag technology to hijack visitors from your site and send
them elsewhere. Advertisers purchase keywords. When the browser
encounters that keyword on your site, it underlines the word in
yellow, then adds a yellow highlight when the mouse hovers over
it. Clicking on the keyword takes your hard won visitors away
and deposits them at the web site of the advertisers who
purchased the keyword.
I don't recommend you install this program yourself to
experiment, because it is inordinately difficult to remove
afterwards. For more information, visit this link:
Ongoing discussions at:
http://gethighforums.com/Forum10/HTML/001386.html
If you've already installed the software, removal instructions
are at this link: http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/removeezula.htm
And lastly, I'm irritated by the six varieties of spyware that I
discovered installed on my computer without my knowledge. These
applications suck up computer resources, take up real estate on
your hard drive and slow you down while you're surfing. Worse,
they gather information (who knows what?) about yourself and
your surfing habits. The information is used for targeted
advertising, or s sold to companies that collect information on
web users. Of the six varieties I discovered on my computer,
only one -- the free version of Aureate Group Mail -- had been
installed by myself. I had not understood that it was spyware.
This spyware had gone so far as enmesh itself with the operation
of my regular email client -- Eudora Pro. To discover what
spyware resides on your system, try the Ad Tracker, freely
available from LavaSoft at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Enough complaining for one day. Besides, it's almost time for
Ten O'Clock Charley.
About the author:
June Campbell How to Write Business Plans, Business Proposals,
JV Contracts,Human Resource Package, More! No-cost ebook
"Beginners Guide to Ecommerce". Business Writing by Nightcats
Multimedia Productions http://www.nightcats.com
|
|
| |
| |
