WTVN Radio • Columbus, Ohio • Sunday morning from 8 until 9

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Random thought:

Linkety linkety link

Every now and then, I come up with a list of links that I've found useful, interesting, silly, or in some way worth the time I spent on the website. It's time to do that again.

Rhyme: none.
Reason: none.

The URLs below are sometimes grouped with similar links, sometimes with complementary links, and occasionally with opposite links (The NY Times and The Onion, for example).

http://www.kbalertz.com/ & http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

Microsoft publishes a lot of Knowledgebase reports and sometimes updates them. If you'd like to know when specific KB articles are updated or when new articles are released about a specific subject, you can rely on Microsoft to tell you, right? Wrong. But you can rely on KBAlertz.com to do the job.

What you can rely on Microsoft to do is to keep the latest update information for your version of the operating system in one place.

http://www.oldversion.com/

If you've ever updated to a new version of a product only to wish you'd kept the old one, you'll love this site. Stop by here to pick up the old version of the software that worked perfectly until you replaced it with the new version that stinks.

http://browsercheck.qualys.com/ & http://grc.com/

You know your computer should be secure, but you wonder if it is. These two sites not only tell you what's wrong, but they also explain how to fix it. The GRC.com site (Steve Gibson's company) usually has a utility that fixes security problems automatically.

http://searchenginewatch.com/ ($)

Interested in how search engines work? The best strategies to get your name out? SearchEngineWatch com provides a small amount of information for free and much more information if you buy a paid registration (about $100 per year).

http://www.deathclock.com/

How much time do you have left? If that's not too gruesome a thought, you'll "enjoy" a visit to this site.

http://www.noaa.gov/ & http://www.weatherunderground.com/

What's the weather where you're going? What's the forecast for tomorrow? NOAA is the official government source. WeatherUnderground provides all the official information and links to a variety of other useful and interesting weather information.

http://www.worldpress.org/

Those of us who live in the US should spend a little more time trying to learn what the rest of the world is saying. Word Press Review has made that possible for decades with a magazine. The website is helpful, too.

http://www.kartoo.com/

If Hollywood ever has to invent a search engine for a movie, this will be it. I'll take Google most of the time, but occasionally the 3D view of a search can be helpful.

http://www.monpa.com/dwc/

Dancing with Cats is a book and you're probably not surprised to know that I own a copy. This is the website that goes with the book. Make sure you go back to the home page and follow the link to Why Cats Paint.

http://www.internettrafficreport.com/ & http://www.internetweather.com/

Traffic and weather together whenever you want them. Why is the Internet so slow? These sites give you some insight into what's happening on the Internet in real time.

http://www.theonion.com/ & http://www.nytimes.com/ & http://www.dispatch.com/ ($)

News. Sometimes the satirical Onion is every bit as informative and timely as "real" newspapers. I also like the New York Times website (registration required, but free) and the Columbus Dispatch website ($5 per month if you're not a subscriber to the dead-trees version.)

http://www.firstgov.gov/

The definitive government site. No matter what you're looking for, you can probably find it by starting here if the object of your search is government information.

http://www.ready.gov/ & http://zapatopi.net/

A lot of the information at Homeland Security (ready.gov) covers things you should be doing anyway -- like having a first-aid kit handy. But there are also tips for dealing with radiation and biological hazards. When you're sufficiently frightened, head over to Zapatopi.net

http://www.about.com/ & http://www.nytimes.com/ref/technology/cybertimes-navigator.html?pagewanted=all&position=top & http://www.google.com/

My favorite search engine is Google, but About has some excellent directed links and the NY Times reference desk has made public a page that the newspapers reporters use.

http://www.columbuslibrary.org/ & http://www.ipl.org/ & http://www.loc.gov/

Library links. Central Ohioans will find a lot of useful information on the Columbus Public Library's site, along with the ability to search the full catalog, reserve items, and even renew them. The IPL is a production of the University of Michigan. The Library of Congress has historical information and a useful link to Thomas.gov.

For fun: http://www.googlism.com/.

This is a site that lets you enter the name of a person, place, or thing and then searches Google for references. When it finds them, it puts the information together with the text you entered and produces a list that might or might not make sense, that might or might not be relevant.

I gave it my name.

• bill blinn is the host of columbus oh radio station wtvn's technology corner on sunday morning
• bill blinn is a writer
• bill blinn is a grand fellow (I rather like this one!)
• bill blinn is no longer using much film
• bill blinn is a member

Then I gave it Joe's name.

• joe bradley is an ex
• joe bradley is director of the celebrated investors' hotline service
• joe bradley is a newcomer showing regularly only in boston at allston skirt gallery for the time being
• joe bradley is to repeat as national champs
• joe bradley is a newspaperman who gets a job to write an article about princess who has secretly left the isolation of palace
• joe bradley is currently writing up research collected and analysed since 2002 in relation to an esrc
• joe bradley is played by charles irving who also played the judge in the perry mason episode 135
• joe bradley is now the manager and dan campbell and maryjo stricker
• joe bradley is still with us and going strong
• joe bradley is an economist who has worked in government and academia

Trying to do better, I gave it "Joe Bradley WTVN" and "WTVN Joe Bradley".

• Sorry, Google doesn't know enough about joe bradley wtvn yet.

So I tried just WTVN.

• wtvn is now head of a development agency aimed at bringing new industry to marion
• wtvn is the number
• wtvn is 3rd with adults 25
• wtvn is also #1 in pm drive with john corby
• wtvn is dominant among morning shows
• wtvn is second 8

The entire process is kind of a cross between reading tea leaves and understanding a horoscope. But you might get a laugh or two out of the process.

Follow-ups

Here are a couple of follow-up reports from earlier stories.

Oops: EarthLink

Last week, I described a plan that EarthLink has launched. I said that it combined your computer and phone service -- local and long distance -- all for one price. Close. But not quite.

As it turns out, the EarthLink Unlimited Voice calling plan (see information at http://www.unlimitedvoice.com/ doesn't include EarthLink high speed Internet service, but the Internet service is required to obtain the unlimited calling plan for $40 per month. So this isn't as good a deal financially as it appeared to be -- but if you spend a lot of time on long-distance calls (or would like to) it could still be a bargain.

You'll still have to pay $50 per month for high-speed Internet service.

I apologize for getting that somewhat scrambled in the telling.

Follow-up: Jfax.com

Remember this graphic?

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about an idiotic graphic that appears on top of my incoming fax messages from Jfax. And I described how my first message to what passes for support received a semi-boilerplate reply that told me what to do if I'd received a "junk fax" -- this even though I had included a screen shot that clearly illustrated the problem.

The second response from "support" wasn't much better, so I sent a message to "sales". The first response from sales was from someone who was about as clueless as the person in support, so I tried a second time with "sales". The second response essentially said that the ads are there and I can't remove them.

My final message was to the public relations firm that represents Jfax. I quickly received a reply that said there was a problem with the ads and that they were working to fix it. That was a reasonable answer and it's the answer that "support" should have provided.

I don't know how long it takes Jfax to solve a problem with their advertising server. If the problem happened to be on a server I administered, I know what I'd do: I would find the offending graphic (or, if there is more than one, "graphics") and delete them. Work it out with the advertisers later. If the specification for the ad is a graphic that's 200 pixels by 150 pixels and the advertiser provides a graphic that's 200 pixels by 600 pixels -- and that graphic makes the primary product virtually useless -- any thinking person would make that decision.

The problem was finally resolved on Thursday, March 20, THIRTEEN DAYS after I first reported it and was told that it didn't exist.

Seems like the entire operation is several bottles short of a six-pack when it comes to common sense.

Nerdly News

Another ugly security bug from Redmond

If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer and have active scripting enabled, you need a security update and you need it now. Visiting a hostile website or receiving a hostile HTML-coded message could give a cracker access to your computer.

Microsoft says "Exploiting the vulnerability would allow the attacker only the same privileges as the user. Users whose accounts are configured to have few privileges on the system would be at less risk than ones who operate with administrative privileges." (The vast majority of Windows XP users probably run as "administrator" because Microsoft's other options are useless.)

In addition to Windows XP, these operating systems are also at risk from the exploit: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4 (including the Terminal Server Edition), and Windows 2000.

An unpatched version of the Windows Script Engine for JScript could allow a cracker to create a website or an HTML-coded e-mail that would execute the attacker's code on the computer with the user's privileges.

A patch is available to fix this vulnerability. Microsoft has information available at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-008.asp.

Most of the time, vulnerabilities such as those described here are more theoretical than real, but US Army Web servers have been affected by this one. Microsoft isn't the only company with security problems, though. On Wednesday, CERT issued a warning about problems with Unix and BSD that could allow hackers to take over target systems.

Apple Gored

Former vice president Al Gore has joined the board of Apple Computer. Gore has a better understanding of technology than most politicians and was been a long-time supporter of making the Internet available to the public.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says Gore is an avid Mac user and uses Final Cut Pro to edit video. (Note: If you examine photos taken during the presidential campaign in 2000, you may notice that Gore has a notebook computer. It's a Thinkpad. Made by IBM. Maybe that's why he lost the election -- no Mac.)

Gore announced earlier this year that he would not run for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2004 election.

Let us know what you think about this program! Write to:
Bill Blinn --
(wtvn@blinn.com still works)
Joe Bradley --

Joe
(Photo by Sally)

Bill
(Photo by Scampi)

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Annoying legal disclaimer
My attorney says I really need to say this: The Technology Corner website is for informational purposes only. Neither Joe nor I assume any responsibility for its accuracy, although we do our best. The information is subject to change without notice. Any actions you take based on information from the radio program or from this website are entirely at your own risk. Products and services are mentioned for informational purposes only and their various trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Technology Corner cannot provide technical support for products or services mentioned on the air or on the website.