| LED Digest 1885: Users Abandoning their Computers |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ............................................... October 21, 2004 Issue #1885 ............................................... .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Preparing for the Holiday Season ==-- ~ Janet Pickard "I would like to know what other ecommerce sites are doing to get ready for the holidays." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The (In)stability of the 'Net? ==-- ~ Kathryn Martyn "Every computer should come with a booklet about how to avoid Computer STD's..." --== Mac or PC? ==-- ~ Mary Lee "...I can tell you that I would never own anything but a Mac for my own personal use." ~ John Smart "If I switch to a Mac, I will have to spend money purchasing software that I already own." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Typefaces & Text Sizes for Everyday Sites? ==-- ~ Sandy Galvin ======= NEW ===================================== From: Janet Pickard Subject: New Topic: Holiday Season! Hi Adam, The holiday season is almost upon us. I would like to know what other ecommerce sites are doing to get ready for the holidays. What date will most sites start their holiday specials and decorations? What specials will they be running this year? Free shipping? Lowering prices? Free gifts with purchase? Any great ideas to help make this the biggest and best ecommerce season of them all would be appreciated. To all LEDers I wish a joyous and prosperous holiday season! Best, Janet Pickard Home of the Chess Experts www.chesscentral.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Net instability > Another article http://snipurl.com/9wtq [washingtonpost.com] > speaks about users that abandons the net after their computers > have been hi-jacked by spyware. What can we do to fight virus, > spam & spyware on a global scale? - Lennart Svanberg, LED 1884 Now there is a good question. What can we do? I have seen it time and again, someone buys a computer, gets things configured (far too complicated IMO) and goes online and within an hour or less they've got their first problem. How on earth are we to encourage people to use the Internet when they can't even keep from being infected at every turn? If you make an effort to first educate them, they'll say, "This is too complicated," and if you don't, they are having to call for computer support very soon. Computers are still far too complicated, and fraught with peril. Every computer should come with a booklet about how to avoid Computer STD's for a start. The sad thing is that many of the sites offering information and programs to deal with sypware and the like are actually fronts for spyware and the like. I don't have a step-by-step for newbies but I wish I did because this comes up so often. Unless somehow every single computer user is educated this will not stop. I also think there should be serious criminal penalties (castration comes to mind) for those creating these sypware programs (the type who just hijack and give you porn sites are the worst) but that's another rant. Basic steps every new computer user needs: 1. Learn to use the keyboard to close windows and pop-ups (Ctrl - F4 on a PC does the trick). This saves you inadvertantly launching a spyware program by clicking the X to close or the "Yes" and "No" buttons that can actually be programmed to do whatever the programmer wants. Never trust a webpage or popup that suddenly appeared if it is not associated with the page you were just on is my motto. I always close them with Ctrl F4, never the mouse. 2. If you are suddenly hijacked, immediately run Ad Aware and Spybot (one after the other, but use both). If you're lucky, you won't end up with something installed, but the only way to find out is to reboot the computer. 3. If you reboot and have a problem, immediately run HiJack This. If you aren't experienced enough to deal with what HiJack This gives you, then post it at http://www.d-a-l.com/help/forumdisplay.php?f=8 and the kind folks will tell you exactly what to do. 4. Even though the above steps can take an hour or two if you are infected, it can save you paying a computer guy to come out once a month. 5. Option No. 2. Put a computer guy on retainer cause you'll be needing him often. 6. Learn to trust nothing that comes via e-mail, or even better, scan e-mails first online using something like MailWasher http://www.mailwasher.net so you can eliminate 90% or better of the crap before it ever gets to your machine. I use MailWasher Pro and love it. It takes me a few minutes but I receive well over 1000 e-mails a day and 30 or less are legitimate on average. Especially learn that just because your friend sent it, it still can't be trusted, and stop sending e-mail greeting cards, etc. Sheesh. Easy place to get lots of freeware for removal etc. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html Basic tutorial (basic?) http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 Hijack This Tutorial http://hjt.wizardsofwebsites.com/ That's off top of my head. How do we get every single computer user educated? It's not unlike educating your kids about the perils of helping strangers who've lost their kitten, but we need something and we need it soon. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Mary Lee Subject: Mac or PC I just have to reply to the charge that the modern Macs crash as much PC's. This is not at all true. It is true that the older Macs were prone to crashing. When I worked as a graphic designer 5 years ago I spent many hours cursing that Apple bomb and threatening all kinds of mayhem upon the machine:-) I now have my own business and I own 6 computers. I own a 2 year old iMac, a 3 year old iMac and a 3 year old iBook I can tell you that I have no problems at all with crashing of my Macs... Period... Ever! I think this is due to the OSX operating system. My PC's are a constant source of headaches to me. We have a 1 year old Dell, a 2 year old HP & a 2 year old laptop. They ALL crash a LOT. I have upgraded all of their RAM's to the max to try to help prevent the crashing problems, but they all do it. Each one has a different Windows environment so I can't blame it on any specific one. In my opinion Windows is just not stable whereas the Mac OS is extremely stable. In addition to this I have to run spy-ware and ad-ware removal programs on a weekly basis and spend hours removing this insidious stuff from the PC's. As the person who has to keep all these computers running I can tell you that I would never own anything but a Mac for my own personal use. Macs are also so much more user friendly. I am not trashing PC's and their users as I own them myself and they do have their uses. But if you can do everything you want on a Mac then I would suggest giving them a very serious consideration. Mary Lee Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games http://www.dinnerandamurder.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: John Smart Subject: Mac or PC I don't know that I am narrow minded - and I don't know that the price difference is as Dirk van der Werff reported [issue 1884]. Whilst a Mac may be $200 cheaper than a PC, you have to factor in the value of all the software. If I were to upgrade my PC, I can reinstall all the software I have. If I switch to a Mac, I will have to spend a large amount of money purchasing software that I already own. Then there is training. I have a Mac, an older i-Mac, and whilst I do use it, I am much slower on it. I appreciate that many can use the different GUI with no problem at all - but I so want to double-click and right-click! I am not saying that Windows is better - but Windows is what I am used to. Plus, our Mac crashes much more often than our Windows machines do. In fact, my XP system has crashed 3 times in the past (roughly) 6 months - not bad going (but 3 times more than ideal!). As for the virus issue, it is just a matter of time. If someone writes a virus that wipes out Windows, it is big news. Macs are a smaller target. As Macs grow in popularity, they will become a bigger target. Those who don't virus protect will fall. A firewall is a good start. e-Mail virus checkers at the server level help. But there is always a way - a virus will get through. But PC or Mac, most of only learn how bad that can be after we get caught out. John Smart InternetDesign.com - "A Human Touch in a Digital World" ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Alexander Galvin Subject: Window size / resolution - typical text sizes? We can see that most of the visitors to our web site are using 800 by 600 and up, but have no idea what their typical text size is. Anyone care to weigh in on the best typical typeface(s) and text size(s) for the everyday web site? We'd like people to read what we've written. Sandy Galvin Barclay Blocks http://www.barclaywoods.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Prepare your mind to receive the best that life has to offer." - Ernest Holmes |
