Byte of the Week

Today’s Byte is a guest Byte from Tom McGrath
in Minnesota. Tom sent me this great suggestion and I asked if I could use it pretty much asis.I find that I am receiving more and more email that has the look and feel of spam or virus mail. In fact, some real people can compose email that looks more like spam and virus infected mail than virus and spam generators can manage.

My personal rules are:

Always start the email with a reference that will assure the recipient that it was not written by a bot. (Referring to a previous communication or specific issue in the first paragraph will accomplish this.)

Explain clearly what any attachments are in language that could not be anticipated by a virus.

Avoid non-standard abbreviations, especially in the subject. I have seen my spam filter, a Bayesian filter, send legit emails to Junk
Suspects when the subject used multiple non-standard abbreviations. I think it picks these up as the nonsense words that are often used to try to fool these kinds of filters.

I receive my email using Outlook. I use it with the auto-preview (not preview pane) turned on. This lets me see the first three lines of the message without opening it. Based on what is in these first three lines I determine if I will open the message or not. Do I ever make a mistake and junk an email I would prefer to open. Maybe, how will I ever know! Still I think everyone would be well advised to make the subject and first lines of the email they send beg to be opened.

(Ann’s note – I would agree and emphasize good use of subject lines. I try to get as specific as possible both to let folks know my message isn’t spam but also so that it’s easy for them to find later if they archive it.)

Last week I learned how to password protect a web site, or section of a web site. It’s pretty easy but there are two catches: 1) the web site needs to be hosted on a UNIX server (ask your web host if you’re unsure) and 2) this will keep out plenty of folks, but it’s not foolproof.

To password protect a site you will need to write and upload two files onto your web site. The first one is called .htaccess and is placed in the directory you wish to restrict.

Step 1: Create a text file that looks like this (the bold portions are variable):

AuthUserFile /www/home/user/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName Byte Subscribers
AuthType Basic

AuthUserFile is the path to the .htpasswd file and is the folder that will be password protected. You may need to call your web host to get this path.

“AuthName” is just a short description of the secure area.

Step 6: Upload both pages and test.
OK, clearly today’s Byte was more technical than most – but I was so excited about learning this and really once you get into it it’s pretty easy.

It’s been hard to watch the events unfold in the South during and after Hurricane Katrina. It has also been interesting and heartening to see how the Internet community has created opportunities to help – demonstrating once again the global nature of the Internet:

Craig’s List of New Orleans is a community bulletin board where people post wants ads, jobs ads, and more. There are lots of local Craig’s Lists. The list is New Orleans has become a great tool for posting news, needs, and support.

Just as it sounds, Share Your Home is a site where families offer to share homes and families in-need sign up for help.

Katrina Aid Wiki is a community maintained site that posts resources, news, and a help board. Speaking of wikis (web sites where everyone can post edits and additions) PeopleFinderVolunteer is a volunteer effort to consolidate info from the many other sites that track victims and survivors.

On a local basis, Minnesota Public Radio has been tracking the migration of 3000 New Orleans transplants to Camp Ripley in Minnesota. You can learn more and lean how to help on the MPR web site.