Hello Marlowe & Associates Subscribers! We offer helpful information about many activities in this July issue, so no matter what's keeping you busy these days, you're covered. Are you worrying about Internet security? Don't miss the latest news about fake security alerts that pretend to be from Microsoft but are really from spammers. Are you struggling to keep up with an overflowing Inbox? Learn a fast and easy way to delete multiple e-mail messages simultaneously. Do your summer plans include baking a special cake, hiking and camping in a new place, improving the quality of your sleep, or helping out a worthy cause? If so, you'll find plenty of great ideas in Great Sites. We think you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, just click reply and type "remove" into the subject line. Here's what's inside our July 2009 Newsletter: A. E-MAIL HOAX - BEWARE OF FAKE MICROSOFT UPDATE E-MAIL B. NEWS FROM THE SHOP C. ASK THE HELP DESK - WHAT ARE THE SQUIGGLY CODES I OFTEN SEE WHEN LOGGING INTO A SECURE WEBSITE? D. SITES OF THE MONTH - GREAT SITES TO CHECK OUT IN JULY E. SHORT TUTORIAL - DELETING MULTIPLE E-MAIL MESSAGES USING COLUMN HEADINGS F. FINALLY The Marlowe.net Team ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A. E-MAIL HOAX - BEWARE OF FAKE MICROSOFT UPDATE E-MAIL If you receive an e-mail that appears to come from Microsoft about an Update for Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express (KB910721), do NOT click on the link or open the attachment. These e-mails, while quite convincing in their appearance and lack of the usual spammers' misspellings, are actually fake security alerts. They are designed to get you to download Trojan malware in the form of a file named officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe. Examples of the e-mail subject lines are: * Install Critical Update for Microsoft Outlook * Microsoft Outlook Critical Update * Install Update for Microsoft Outlook Take a look at one such e-mail: http://www.cornerstonenow.com/newsletter/section-a/2009/09-07scam.jpg This is a good opportunity to remind you that Microsoft never sends e-mails about a single security update. All Microsoft security updates are released together on the second Tuesday of each month and are posted at http://update.microsoft.com. You can visit this site monthly to manually upload your choice of available updates. However, Microsoft recommends that you get the updates delivered automatically to your PC. To learn how to turn on automatic updating for your particular operating system, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windowsupdate/automaticupdate.msp x. You can also sign up to receive the Microsoft Security for Home Computer Users Newsletter at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/secnews/default.mspx. In addition, don't forget to keep your antivirus software updated, and remain cautious about opening e-mail attachments (especially executable files ending in .exe). B. NEWS FROM THE SHOP Changes - Most of the changes around here during the past month have been behind the scenes.... There have been several minor updates to our mail servers, we have done a major software update for our remote support system, and we have continued to refine our online ticket system. With any luck, the only thing you may have noticed is that things just work better. We've cleaned up the GulfCoast Networking website during the past month (http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com) and we will be tackling the Marlowe site this month (http://www.marlowe.net). Keep an eye on both sites for additional updates. Special Order Specials - We are on the hunt for special deals that allow us to pass on great savings to our customers. Drop by or give us a call and let us know what you are in the market for and we'll see what we can find. Malware & Data Loss - We are seeing a suprising number of machines come into the shop thoroughly compromised by malware. The IRS is NOT sending you a refund that you can get by clicking on an email link (to a Russian server, no less), you are NOT getting an "ecard" from some unknown friend, and Microsoft does NOT send out critical patches by email... PLEASE do NOT click on any of these when you see them in your email. When a machine is trashed by malware, reformatting it and starting over is sometimes the only option. When this happens, you will lose your data files. We STRONGLY encourage you to save your address book and everything in your "My documents" folder. The address book can be exported to "LDIF" format from Thunderbird and Outlook Express has an export function as well, or you can just search for a file on your hard drive with a ".wab" file extension and copy that somewhere safe. Good backups, to CD, DVD, or external hard drive, are also important in the event your system's hard drive crashes and needs to be replaced. I did a presentation a month ago on disaster preparedness as it pertains to computers. The presentation was covered by both the West Pasco Press and the Suncoast News. I've got copies of the article if you missed it and would like to see it. Internet Explorer 8 - Microsoft is currently pushing Internet Explorer 8 out. It is better than Internet Explorer 7, but that's not saying much. Most of our business customers will probably want to stay with IE 6 for compatibility reasons. We continue to recommend using Firefox instead of any version of Internet Explorer as firefox is faster and safer. C. ASK THE HELP DESK - WHAT ARE THE SQUIGGLY CODES I OFTEN SEE WHEN LOGGING INTO A SECURE WEBSITE? Question: When I'm logging into a secure website, I often see squiggly codes such as a distorted word or phrase that I have to copy. I heard these codes are supposed to stop spammers. How do they work? Answer: You're talking about CAPTCHAs, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. These codes are alphanumeric and made of several distorted characters. Users are asked to copy the characters into an empty field˜a task that's easy for a human but difficult for a computer. This is an example of a CAPTCHA: http://www.cornerstonenow.com/newsletter/section-c/cattails.jpg CAPTCHAs are designed to "trip up" the automated software used by spammers. While this software is good at reading text, it has a hard time with distorted characters and will therefore be denied access to whatever website it was trying to exploit. Spammers' programs can sometimes crack a CAPTCHA, but it's a complicated process with a low success rate so most spammers are still blocked. D. SITES OF THE MONTH - GREAT SITES TO CHECK OUT IN JULY Ace Of Cakes http://foodnetwork.com/ace-of-cakes - Art and cuisine meet on the fun new Food Network show, Ace of Cakes. The show presents the creations of Chef Duff and his staff as they decorate up to 20 cakes per week, including whimsical designs and detailed replicas. The Ace of Cakes website features videos highlighting the show's sweet creations and cool cakes baked by viewers. Sleep On It http://sleepfoundation.org - The National Sleep Foundation website is packed with helpful information about sleep including articles, videos, and quizzes. You can learn about the correlation between exercise and sleep, food and sleep, how medical problems can affect sleep, and more. The site also lists international sleep care centers, and a variety of online communities to share your experiences with sleep and sleep disorders. YouTube U http://youtube.com/edu - What do Dolly Parton and President Obama have in common? They both have recently delivered university commencement addresses. You can view them, as well as other addresses and interesting lectures at the YouTube EDU site. You'll find videos on medical, scientific, political, musical, business, and other topics from YouTube's college and university partners. The Great Outdoors http://gorp.away.com - If you love to enjoy the great outdoors, you'll love this site. Find the best places to go worldwide and discover what to do once you get there. Featured activities include hiking, camping, biking, fishing, paddling, and climbing. Get advice on gear, clothing, and electronics, and tips on things like what to pack for a backpacking trip, how to find a good trail, international travel, and family trips. Reader To Reader http://readertoreader.org - Reader to Reader is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "bringing books, free of charge, to needy school libraries and public libraries across the United States." You're invited to donate books or money via their website to help make it happen. When you visit the site, you can also read about the organization's programs and success, and check out their blog to learn about recent activities. E. SHORT TUTORIAL - DELETING MULTIPLE E-MAIL MESSAGES USING COLUMN HEADINGS It can be a daunting task to keep up with managing your e-mail, so here's a way to save some time when you're ready to clean out your message folders. By using column headings, you can quickly delete all messages from a specified sender simultaneously˜much easier than hunting down that person's messages scattered throughout your Inbox. Simply follow the steps below to delete multiple messages from a particular sender: Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ... - E-mail Program: Outlook Express 6 - Operating System: Windows XP 1. With Outlook Express open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click on the "From" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names. 2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted. 3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar. Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ... - E-mail Program: Windows Mail - Operating System: Windows Vista 1. With Windows Mail open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click on the "From" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names. 2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted. 3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar. Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ... - E-mail Program: Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 - Operating System: Windows XP or Vista, or Mac OS X 10.5 1. With Thunderbird open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click on the "Sender" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names. 2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted. 3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar. Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ... - E-mail Program: Mail.app 3.1 - Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 1. With Mail.app open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click the "From" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names. 2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted. 3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar. F. FINALLY We have all seen the "gloom and doom" that the media has reported on for months. Reality is quite different. We saw the downturn hit back in 2007 before most news organizations started reporting it. Technology and consumer electronics sales appear to have been a "leading indicator" of the overall economy. We are now seeing signs of life in the economy and a number of other business owners we've talked to are seeing the same thing. Businesses were that prepared for a rainy day are still standing and watching their sales start to move back up. The improvements we are hearing about are across a number of industries, including real estate. We saw the bottom in December of last year and things have been steadily improving since then. Other business owners started seeing things improve a few months later. We have spent the first six months of this year helping our business customers get ready to take advantage of the opportunities that will be out there as the economy starts growing again. Confirming what I'm seeing locally on a national basis, this past Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that consumer confidence improved in May for the fifth straight month. The negativity on TV and on talk radio has been contagious and helped make the mess we've found ourselves in worse that it would have been otherwise. I firmly believe that, if we could get the media to "put a sock in it", you would see an immediate improvement in the economy. When the talking heads on TV start talking about the recovery this Christmas, just remember, you heard it here first. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop. Thanks for your business! Best regards, Rob Marlowe Marlowe & Associates and GulfCoast Networking, Inc 6335 Grand Blvd New Port Richey, FL 34652 727-232-1558 (We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.) Portions ©2009 Cornerstone Publishing Group, Inc.