Security tip, kiddies...

[Robb]

If someone sends you a link to a webpage via email, and you click directly on said link (such as you might do with Netscape Communicator), you may identify yourself to the website owner.

I mention this because I'm learning more about people who visit my site than I strictly want to.

If the site logs referring pages, the "path" to your mail folder on your hard drive is given, along the lines of (Mac example):

mailbox:/Name_of_your_hard_drive/System_Folder/Preferences/Netscape_Users/Firstname_Lastname/Mail/Inbox?id=.....

...so if you're the sort who includes your real name in yer email profile, I now know who you are. :shrug:

Just a little heads-up.

[shanti]

1. thanks for the heads up

on a similar note, i just checked my email and found one from comcast (my isp, unfortunately) that told me to download another critical update from microsoft. the last time i did this, it really screwed up the scrollbar on the right side of the page, making it do double scrolling.

have you heard of this new update? if so, is it worth downloading and does it fix the scrollbar problem?

thanks for any help you can give...

[MountainLaurel]

2. Another one

Not related to computers, but important nonetheless:

If you're using a photocopy machine anywhere but in your own home, whether it's a Kinko's or a college library, make sure you take EVERYTHING with you when you go. Not just the good copies, but your originals and any mistake copies that you toss aside.

I work in a community college library and since January, in the process of straightening up before closing, I have found at least 20 documents with SSNs and immigration numbers on them, several bank statements complete with account numbers, tax returns, and tuition receipts with credit card numbers. Luckily, I'm a good person who doesn't have enough time to run an identity theft scam, but that doesn't mean that some of our less savory students would be as accommodating.

[pagerbear]

3. Amusing related aside

I occasionally get spam at work that clearly results from my having clicked like this or given my work email address long, long ago (before I knew it was stupid) on some web form. These emails want to know if I'm interested in refinancing my home at <address>--an address I left in April of 2001 that was a rental.