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

August 8, 2004

Random thought:

Crazy like a Foxmail

No, not "Crazy like a male fox." This is about an e-mail program from the People's Republic of China. At the moment the program is free -- all you have to do is download it -- and despite some rough edges, it has some promise.

The current version of Foxmail is 5.0.600.0, so it's been around for a while. I'm not sure when the first English version became available, but I do know that version 4 was available as an English download. Foxmail's primary difference is its ability to create good HTML mail, so it's a popular program among the spammer community.

There's also the question of whether HTML mail is good or bad. Purists will tell you that e-mail should remain true to its heritage and include nothing but plain text. I agree with these folks for mailing lists and the like, but we part company when it comes to individual personal messages. If you want to send HTML mail with lots of colorful typefaces and images to someone who doesn't mind receiving a message with all that baggage, who am I to complain? And so once again I manage to come down on all sides of an issue.

Foxmail looks a little like Eudora, a little like Outlook, a little like The Bat, and probably a little like some other e-mail program I've never seen. It comes with several HTML templates that range from not too bad to downright ugly, but you can create your own. Maybe.

If you understand how HTML works and you don't mind experimenting, you can create your own template (or "tamplate" as the help file occasionally spells it) -- you won't get any help from the help file, though. I knew that the template files had to be stored somewhere, so I went looking for them. When I found them, I opened a couple of them to see how they work. They're mainly just plain HTML with some special variable names tossed in.

Foxmail's developers clearly speak English as a somewhat distant second language, but they do manage to communicate (more or less):

• Foxmail is high quality domestic email client application software, the new Foxmail is featured by powerful anti-spam function.
• Multiple technologies are used to identify spam mails accurately.
• Junk mails will be sorted out to trash box, hence junk mail disturbance is minimized and lot of time that would be spent on handling spam are saved.
• Foxmail 5.0 supports digital signature and encryption to ensure email privacy and identification.
• By using SSL, all transmitted packets are strictly encrypted in the process of sending and receiving emails so as that hacker tapping is prevented effectively, security of data ensured. Other improvements include reading and sending international mails (supports Unicode), address book synchronization, sending/receiving emails via SSL, receiving mails from Yahoo Mail Service, fastening the sending/receiving of Hotmail/MSN mails, supportive of Vcard, display of attachment pictures in embedded format and enhancement of local mailbox search functions.

Who might want Foxmail?

Well, it's free so the cheap crowd should be lining up. Eudora is free, too, but only if you allow the application to show ads to you. The Bat is free, but only for 30 days. Outlook (Lookout!) Express (Depress)? Sorry. Eudora doesn't do as good a job with HTML mail. The Bat does HTML mail, but not well. Outlook (Lookout!) Express (Depress) does HTML mail, but only at the risk of your computer's security. If you're a fan of "pretty" HTML mail and you don't mind tinkering with the program to figure out how it works, Foxmail might be just what you're looking for.

Technology corner rating for FOXMAIL 5
	SIX CATS: Foxmail is a powerful e-mail application, but it's not something that neophyte users will enjoy. If it bothers you to figure things out on your own, this is not the program you're looking for. Still, the price is right and you can create your own templates for control over what your messages look like.
How the Technology Corner rating system works.

For more information, visit the Foxmail website and choose "English".

Windows XP service pack? No, thanks.

Microsoft will soon release "service pack 2" for Windows XP. I'll download it and install it, but not right away. Many of the features SP2 adds are already in place on my computer and there's about a 100% chance that installing SP2 will break some of the applications I use every day.

The enhancements will fix some problems with XP, but I'm not willing to deal with the inconveniences the service pack will bring. Not yet, anyway.

This is an expensive update for Microsoft -- $1 billion or so -- but much of the work done on the XP upgrade will have implications for later versions of Windows.

There's no charge for the service pack because Microsoft considers it to be mandatory.

When? Microsoft could release SP2 this weekend or next month. There's no confirmation of any date, other than "any day now." Prudence and caution suggest that it would be wise to wait at least several week to install it,

SP2 includes a real firewall (a first for Windows) and several other new features that are specifically designed to enhance security.

Microsoft delayed release of the service pack to work on compatibility issues. The goal is to have SP2 not break any existing applications, but I'd prefer not to be the guinea pig. Those who install SP2 during the first few weeks it's available will find and report the problems. Microsoft will fix the problems, then I'll consider downloading it.

The download will be a big one -- around 80MB.

Mac, Windows, or Linux?

I keep hearing about why the average computer user should become a Linux user and I keep looking at Linux. But at the end of the day* I continue to use a computer that's based on Windows or the Mac operating system. Why?

It's been an easy decision for me so far and it's a decision I can easily summarize in a series of bullet points.

• I need to deal with files from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Access. While applications such as Open Office or Sun's Star Office can open Microsoft files with some degree of success, I need an application that won't choke on some of the more esoteric features. That means I'll need Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Office doesn't run on Linux.
• My preferred e-mail client is The Bat, which runs under Windows.
• I do a lot of work with graphics and, despite claims to the contrary by Linux users, there really isn't a powerful graphics application for Linux. (Don't write to tell me about Gimp. I already know about it.)
• There is no publishing or page layout program for Linux. Not even something as lame as Quark XPress, to say nothing of applications such as Ventura Publisher (Windows only) or Adobe InDesign (Windows and Mac).

I don't consider Linux to be suitable for me, but if your goals involve browsing the Web, composing and editing your own word processor files and spreadsheets, and not much else, Linux may be right for you. Or if you want to run a website hosting machine, Linux will be right for you. This is one area where Linux far exceeds Windows. The Technology Corner website runs on a Linux server and Linux is a fine choice for that.

Just don't expect to see it on my desktop anytime soon.

*"At the end of the day" is currently the most in and trendy political-speak term, so I felt that it was essential to use it at least once. If I can control myself, that's the last time I'll use it.

Nerdly News

Digital Insecurity

A couple of years ago, antivirus companies began thinking about how viruses would affect handheld computers -- Palm devices and Pocket PCs. We're beginning to see the first wave of attack files now.

The threat isn't great yet. Backdoor.Bardor.A (also known as WinCE.Brador.a) is a Trojan application that lets an attacker gain control of the handheld, but that's where it stops -- so far. They can't propagate by themselves and must be sent as an e-mail attachment.

The Trojans use "interesting" file names to fool people into opening them. So far, the problem is limited to devices that use ARM processors and run Microsoft's Pocket PC operating systems.

A Pain in the Bluetooth

Bluetooth is the technology that allows devices to communicate with each other without wires. Some organizers use Bluetooth to communicate with computers. Phones use Bluetooth to connect external devices such as headsets. But there's a security problem that can allow an attacker to download information from a victim's Bluetooth device. This means your address books, calendar, and text messages may not be secure. For a lot of us, that's no big deal. But what if you're the president of a company?

The problem isn't limited to just reading. The attacker can write a fictitious text message to the device or even turn it on so that it acts like a bug and sends everything you say to someone sitting across the room. Or in another room.

Phone companies say the risk is small, but a couple of security professionals demonstrated the problem recently in Las Vegas. Bluetooth is supposed to work with devices up to about 30 feet, but devices can be created to dramatically extend that range.

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