Make money now! Send this email to 10 people in the next 5 days…! Boycott X! Did you know you can die from soap scum? Be terrified. Be warned! Be afraid! Be happy! Spread the good word! Share with your friends! Tell everyone you know! Excuse me, before we get too carried away here, STOP!
If you get email from anyone, including friends or relatives, that promotes get rich, forward this email, or offers some terror or warning, STOP. Take a moment and breath. This is not the end of the world. In fact, the email itself might be more horrible than the warning or information included. These are all part of the unrecognized SPAM (unwanted email) spreading across the Internet like a plague. They are part of the rumor mills, chain letters, and hoaxes that litter the Internet and email inboxes around the world. Before you click the forward button, check out the information to see if it is real first. And stop the spread of online litter.
Here are a few examples of the most popular and recent hoaxes going around. Remember, these are lies, made up stories, totally fake, and not real.:
- On September 11, 2000, Daisy the dog saved over 1000 people from the World Trade Center.
- A legal looking email tells you that if your surname matches the name of some dead wealthy person living overseas, you may have just inherited millions of dollars. “If you respond and confirm this email, we will send you more information…”
- Hotmail, the free email acount service by Microsoft, is shutting down because too many people are applying for accounts.
- Emails claiming to be from Visa, MasterCard and other popular credit cards and financial institutions want you to visit “their Website” to stop from losing your credit privileges or to inform you that there has been fraudulent use of your credit card. If you respond, it asks you to confirm your personal information including your credit card data.
- Many changing rooms and public restrooms are using two-way mirrors to peek and spy on you. Using your fingernail, you can test the mirror to tell if it is a real mirror or a two-way mirror to prevent “visual rape”.
- Signing up with the “National Do Not Email Registry” will stop spam and unwanted email. [Currently, there is no such registry and never has been]
- A man is suing CBS, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake for an on-air incident involving the exposure of one of Ms. Jackson’s breasts. Steve Bosell of Corona, California has filed a lawsuit claiming that the incident left him physically ill, induced vomiting, psychologically scarred his children and has ruined sexual relations with his wife.
All of these are completely fake, hoaxes, rumors and lies! Honestly, before you hit the foward button, check it out. You can start more aggressively with one or more of the Websites listed below that specifically deal with the rumor mills and hoaxes going around the Internet. And trust me, they repeat on a regular basis. We keep seeing the same hoax going around warning you to search your computer for a specific file and delete it because it is a virus, when the file is actually part of your operating system and you just screw up your computer all by yourself without the help of an email virus.
Be warned and don’t trust even the most helpful of friends and family – check first!
- Truth or Fiction
- Snopes – Hoaxes
- About.com’s Urban Legends
- Urban Legends – Hoaxes and Scams
- Hoaxbusters
- Scambusters
- FDA – US Food and Drug Administration – food and drug warnings and hoaxes
- CDC – US Center for Disease Control – medical and health hoaxes and warnings
- Skeptic Magazine – Excellent article on email hoaxes – A MUST READ
- Why Am I Getting All This Spam? Unsolicited Commercial E-mail Research Six Month Report from the Center for Democracy and Technology
- Computer Security Resource Center – Virus Warnings
- F-Secure Virus Information
- Vmyths – Valdating Virus Myths
- Network Association’s Virus Information Library
- How Stuff Works: How do viruses work on my computer
- About.com’s Antivirus Information
- CA’s Virus Information
- PC Hell – answers to nagging computer problems, viruses and hoaxes
powerful downloading options. In many ways, these work better than the original software. The last version produced contained the ability of doing unlimited searches, maintaining a high participation level, and tools like 
server, collecting the names of the files available for download from the other computers connected to it, and listing which computer has the information. It’s like a database and when you choose a file it connects you to that computer. Some supernodes are “faster” and more available than others. Some have certain kinds of files that are different from others. For instance, if you are on a supernode in Indian, you have a better chance of finding tons of Indian music, television shows and movies. On a supernode in California and you will find more technical journals, books, and health information in addition to a lot of movies.
Using the photograph to the right of a closeup leaf pattern, we’ll use a similar technique to the one done to create our popular 
Can’t see the effect we’re going for here? Here is a screen shot of what the final results should look like. We’ve taken four exact images and used the CSS filter for flipping horizontally and vertically to position these images, using only CSS styles, to recreate the PhotoQuilt effect. We have more 
involved in that, do you? But it’s true. We all like to have a good time and the joy of computers is their ability to have fun and play games as well as their ability to do the task at hand.
up there), and steering. Your mouse skills will improve greatly by just playing this game for twenty minutes. The problem will come in stopping after twenty minutes!
Oh, boy! Want to leave the planet and have the time of your life? The games produced by 
forward in time to stop someone from messing with the time line. You visit incredibly realistic and interactive locales such as Leonardo da Vinci’s studio and home, the ancient Mayan Temples in their prime, the castle of Richard the Lion-hearted during a siege, a space station floating out in the far reaches of space, and more. Award-winning, these games are not for the weak minded. They will test your analytical skills and problem-solving techniques. These games involve a lot of learning, about history, archeology, anthropology, art, and more. You learn to build things using da Vinci’s plans and drawings and pour through his brilliant designs and blue prints. You learn about the secrets of the priests inside the Mayan Temple and learn to read a little Mayan. Brilliant time wasters that teach as you go, without feeling like you are learning but experiencing!
The first of the most incredible interactive realistic RGP computer games ever made, Myst brought to the world the real potential of what a computer could do to the world. In Myst, you help research the ages created through books, which transport you to the same island but a different time and 
and place. You become an archeologist and detective, searching for the clues as to what happened here and who done it – who is ruining or interfering with the ages? In the sequels, Riven and Exile, the technology improved greatly so you can actually get sea sick watching the water move around the island. These are not violent games and there are few chances to die, but there are tons of challenging puzzles that will get your brain working to figure it all out. A new sequel, 
You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door. 
by all. One of the great granddaddy of the first computer games was Zork. Imagine reading a book and being able to control each page, twisting and turning down different paths, a treasure hunter – finding things and figuring out how to make things work to get you further along the way, exploring as you go, occassionally meeting the bad guy in the form of a troll or gru (ah, they hate the light) and risking your life to defend yourself. Most of the best interactive games today came from the successful techniques created in Zork and its sequels. Over time the Zork games became more sophisticated, culminating in the Myst style interactive and highly graphical interface of 
This is the ideal, rarely boring, and completely addictive Maj Jong or Tai Pai game. Based on the traditional tile Japanese games, this goes way beyond with incredible colors and responses. It is not only fascinating, it stimulates the brain’s recognition of patterns and combinations. I’ve introduced this to many friends who hate me later for getting them totally hooked. Don’t take my word for it, download the 
When people stop by, they are always amazed at how my computer talks to me. You know, it gets lonely being stuck all alone with just a computer to amuse you, so why not have it really amuse you by talking to you?
When you need some help in Microsoft Word or Excel, you know the little paper clip dude or the puppy dog that pops up to help you? This is one of your Window’s operating system helpers, a character. With a little help, these characters can do more than just help you when you need help.
To use MSAgent characters, you have to download a few free add-ons to Windows. Begin by visiting 
available online and my particular favorite comes from 
A shadow is created to make the inside container look like it is covered by the outside container and photograph with a silver border on the inside container with a top and right border of 3px and the other two borders at 2px. 
