======================================================================= For ease of reading or printing, save this file to your hard disk, and load it into your Word Processor to restore word wrap and line breaks. =================================================================== Jan/Feb Newsletter ARTICLES 1 ALI New Year plans 2 Overseas trends from a travelers perspective 3 Computer basics - A tale of a virus 4 HTML Authors Corner 5 AltOS updates 6 MSFiles 7 The Year 2000 8 Meet Telstra - the purr factory with 8 lives left ... 9 Your Say 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11 ALI New Year's resolutions ;-) Well ... it's a brand new year and it looks like it could be a big one in more ways than one. ALI has implemented plans to increase facilities available to the Mt Beauty region in time for this Ski Season with more bandwidth, more modem in-dial lines and faster connects. Additional equipment has arrived and is being checked and tested ready for installation. Keep tuned for more announcements on this one. We are also looking at installing facilities in Wagga. If you, your friends, family, or business would benefit from this, please let us know to strengthen the business case for this project. Our Walk-In Centre in Griffith Road is about to launch a publicity campaign with the general media and accommodation circles (Hotel/Motel/Camping/Caravan/Backpacker/Hostel) to increase the general awareness of the public access facilities available at the Centre. We have had word that the town Library (free) Internet facilities are booked out weeks in advance, and are in need of alternatives to offer to their customers. If you own or operate accommodation or tourist facilities and would like some leaflets or POS material please contact us. With the Year 2000 looming at the end of this year's New Years party, less than 11 months away, general computer problems are expected to start cropping up any time (for those of you who haven't been reading the Y2K articles, 1999 can also be a problematical date for some programs). We are expecting a busy time in the support and upgrade area toward the last few months of this year and well into next. On the subject of busy times, ALI has an employment opportunity open for the right person (or people). A word of caution - it is expected that a rash of "cheap" machines may flood the market over the next 11 months or so. Be VERY careful. Unless you can afford the throw the money away, resist the temptation to purchase any of these machines unless you are absolutely certain that the seller is still going to be around next year to handle complaints should the machines not survive the arrival of the new millennium. As the full extent of the impact of the changeover is still an unknown quantity, a little "Y2K" sticker on the front of the machine is no iron-clad guarantee. 22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222 22 Around the World in 14 days ... a travelers tale. This Christmas 2 of ALI's staff actually took a proper holiday for the first time since 1991. The holiday was timed to coincide with our Christmas "shutdown" to minimise the impact on remaining support staff. Our destinations and many travel arrangements relied heavily on communications carried out on and over the net, and a network of internet friends around the world. Travel arrangements were carried out initially over the net via web forms and e-mail, then fine-tuned via a combination of e-mail and telephone. (www.flightcentre.com.au) A brief New Years eve stopover in London was made easier with information gleaned from friends made through internet mailing lists - even simple things like the best way to get from Heathrow (the airport) to our hotel in central London. The stopover was made more enjoyable by the opportunity to meet and have a drink with one of our London contacts (thank you Paul and Ceri - www.simmpaul.demon.co.uk). Our longest stopover in Trinidad in the Caribbean was organized via e-mail with a French photographer and business associate who has been working on location in the Caribbean since October 1998 (www.evm.com). Our only means of communicating with him was via e-mail through the French Inmarsat satellite e-mail delivery system. It is expensive, slow and tedious to use, but it works! An all too brief stopover in Honolulu on the way home gave us the opportunity to finally meet the Wrinklemeister himself - a long term e-mail associate and friend (aloha Rabbett). Thanks to the internet, we were able to get to know, and finally meet, many wonderful people from many walks of life all over the world. The Internet is not just a source of information, it is also an unsurpassed source of communications. Next time YOU plan a holiday, consider meeting up with some of your internet contacts. (If you, our subscribers, have a traveler's tale where the net has helped (or hindered) e-mail us and tell us YOUR story.) While globetrotting through 4 countries and 4 continents we noticed a number of interesting trends related to Internet presence, information technology and their usage. Many airlines within the US now have telephones built into the back of the seats throughout the plane. While they normally wont let passengers use their own mobile phones, the seat-back phones can be readily used for normal phone or fax/data services with your notebook (once you swipe your card through of course ;-) Billboards on the sides of London busses are now including businesses web site addresses (URLs) fairly prominently. Major web businesses have started advertising in conventional media too - Amazon.com and Yahoo were seen on the London underground trains. Nearly every advertisement on US free-to-air television now includes a web address and/or e-mail contact. All hotels we stayed at, even in the Caribbean, either had data facilities available in the rooms (RJ11 data socket in the phone) or internet facilities for all guests available in a separate room and listed along side the restaurants and gym facilities they also offered. Internet Cafes are few and far between. Waikiki only had two, one of which had closed down the week before so we were told. The Caribbean however even had internet and e-mail facilities available at some of their marinas. We found upon our return that one of the SeaWorld Orlando (Florida) web sites had photographs taken of their daily shows including the session we were fortunate enough to experience (www.shamu.com). There has certainly been an explosive world-wide growth in the visible presence of the Internet in the day to day lives of ordinary people. The net has grown out of the "geeks toy" image it used to be branded with, and is now taken very seriously indeed as an important communications medium and marketing tool. 33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 33 VIRUS By Mark Allen. Names changed to protect the guilty :) This is a true story. I got home from work to find a note on the fridge. It read "Help!! John has a virus." Knowing John, I just knew he didn't have the flu. I gave him a call, and he told me that he couldn't use his CD-ROM drive, and that his virus scanner was telling him that he had the SAMPO virus. John had tried to remove the virus using McAfees' viruscan, but had only managed to clean the floppy disk that the virus was introduced on. He kept getting a message telling him that the virus was memory resident and that he would have to boot from a clean floppy disk. Now this would seem pretty simple, but, you guessed it, he had no boot disk. Memory Resident viruses (or is it virii?) infect the Master Boot Record, MBR, on a hard disk or floppy disk, and they are activated when the computer is started, or re-booted. This means that the only way to remove them is to boot from a clean floppy disk, so the virus isn't activated, then removed using a virus cleaning program. McAfee Viruscan is able to create an emergency boot disk, for just the situation John had found himself in, but the computer has to be virus-free when you create the disk, otherwise it will be infected as well, and useless. John was lucky enough that I was able to create an emergency boot disk with my computer, and upon checking the files on the disk, found that it would work with his machine also, even though he uses Windows 95, and I use Windows For Workgroups 3.11. The emergency disk contained virus scanning and removing files, as well as the files required to boot a computer, including the config.sys and autoexec.bat files. The config.sys and autoexec.bat files placed on the floppy disk were not machine specific, which meant that they would work on any PC, and not just mine alone. John rushed around that night to pick up the disk, and was very pleased to find that it not only started his PC, but also detected and removed the virus from the MBR on his hard drive as well. John learned a few valuable lessons that night. The first one is to make a boot disk, after you have made sure there are no viruses on your computer. This disk MUST be write-protected after you create it. If you can see a hole through the top right hand corner of the floppy disk, it's write protected. This stops the disk from becoming infected. Test the disk to make sure it works. If your virus scanning software has the ability to create an emergency boot disk, use it. This will enable you to boot cleanly, and hopefully remove the virus as well. John's virus came from a disk that had been brought home. The disk had been used without being scanned first. Always scan disks that are not your own, or that you have loaned to someone. If you download files from the internet, scan them. If they are zip files, unzip them, then scan them again. After you have setup the new software, scan them again. The Sampo virus has another feature. It can only enter a computer through booting from an infected disk. This means that John's computer was started, or was re-booted, with the disk in the floppy drive. We have all seen the following message on our screens:- Non System Diskette Replace and press any key when ready... We find that we have left a disk in the floppy drive. If there is a virus in the MBR of the disk, then it's already too late, even if the computer didn't boot from the disk, it has already read the MBR of the floppy disk into memory, and the virus went with it. Always remove diskettes from the floppy drive before you start or re-boot your computer. Ensuring you have the tools to recover from an infection is also essential. Install reliable virus scanning software. There are many different ones around, but the best ones are the ones that can be updated regularly by downloading files from the internet. Always get these files from a known safe site, usually from the manufacturer of the software themselves. Luckily, John's story had a happy ending, but it could have been much worse. He could have been left with no option but to re-format his hard drive and start all over again. The End 44444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444 44 HTML Authors Corner Readers Questions Thanks for the new HTML authors corner. It will be good to have a further source of information for those of us learning to put together pages "by hand". A question, if I may, regarding forms.... If you have a background color other than white, Netscape (I,m using Netscape4 and Explorer4- prefer Netscape, but need Explorer to check cross-browser differences) displays the form radio buttons in a white box whereas Explorer displays them correctly. Is this a Netscape bug and is there a work-around to avoid this? I look forward to the newsletter every couple of months.....keep up the good work! Regards, Peter Unfortunately, how a Browser displays form buttons is largely up to the Browser. It not only varies from one manufacturer to another other, but within the same version running on different platforms. Netscape V3 and 4 for example display buttons differently under windows to OS2, and differently again on the Macintosh and Unix. Frequently this may come back to the base icons or widgets available to the operating system - the program (a browser in this case) may simply be pulling symbols out of the operating system's libraries for its own use. These libraries do tend to vary from one OS to another, and background color assignment may or may not be controlled by the Browser. Different versions of the same browser on the same machine can also exhibit annoying changes in the way they treat your forms. With the emerging standards now incorporating java-script and supporting java applets, it should be possible to create a DHTML form that looks identical across all future browsers, versions and platforms, but it doubtful whether this is worth the effort for all but the keenest personal home page designer. The counter tutorial http://www.albury.net.au/locals.only/counter/ 55555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555 55 Linux Updates Excerpts from the MURLUG Mailing List: Murlug meeting The date has been fixed for the next MURLUG session as 20 Mar. Location will be as before - Nowik theatre in Guinea St Albury Time 9:00 till around mid arvo Proposed topics - X & VNC Linux kernel 2.2.0 has been released Linus has just released Linux 2.2.0 Get it from ftp://ftp.au.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.2/ Subject: sunsite is ready The Linux archive at ftp://sunsite.anu.edu.au/pub/linux/ is now ready and is updated daily at 6:15am from mirror.aarnet.edu.au. It contains: distributions/redhat/ : redhat-5.2 and updates distributions/debian/ : whole debian tree except for binaries for m68k, ARM, HURD, Alpha and SPARC kernel/ : v2.2 kernel sources metalab/ : whole of sunsiteunc archive from mirror.aarnet.edu.au kde/ : complete KDE archive gnome/ : complete Gnome archive Linuxberg TUCOWS (www.tucows.com), "one of the best sites on the net for finding Internet related software" has opened a Linux section - aptly named Linuxberg. X11 and console applications are available, as are all the popular Linux distributions. Like the TUCOWS other sites, it's pretty current, comprehensive, and includes handy reviews and rankings for listed software. Linuxberg boasts over 100 Mirror sites. The list of Australian Mirrors are accessible from www.linuxberg.com/australia.html The South Australian primary affiliate (good access from here) can be found at http://ozbytes.linuxberg.com Case story: Multiple boot notebook with Win3.1/DOS, Windows 98 and Red Hat Linux 5.2 Shortly before Christmas, a disgruntled Windows user came to us with his brand new notebook and the following problem: His business is increasingly dissatisfied with the Windows operating systems, but have to support an existing Win3.1 network. They also have to be able to accept files from clients using Windows 98, who generally aren't computer literate enough to save files in a compatible cross platform format. Could we put both Win3.1 AND Win98 on his notebook, preferably so that they could not interfere with each other. This was fairly easily achieved by re-partitioning the disk into two primaries, one for 98 and one for 3.1, using Partition Magic and the IBM Boot Manager to handle a dual boot option. At boot time a simple menu let him choose between one OS or the other and as you can only have one active partition at a time they (98/3.1) couldn't see each other's files and therefore couldn't "accidentally" overwrite or corrupt anything. Within a fortnight he was back - so comfortable with the dual boot operation that could we "possibly pinch some disk space from the 98 partition and install Linux" so he could start to evaluate an alternative to the Windows OS without losing his existing set-up? The hard disk was a reasonable size - 4Gb, so the space was there. It did require however re-sizing and moving around of partitions, shuffling of boot manager, and a few re-installs before everything was working properly. The main problems stemmed from both Windows 98 and Win 3.1 both fighting for the first half of the disk. Win3.1/DOS would install past the 2Gb point, but wouldn't boot! Frustration! Win98 wanted the first part of the disk for it's files. Linux didn't care where it was installed as long as the partitions were sequential (it needed at least 2 partitions - a boot/data and a scratch partition). As we were nearly at the limit of primary partitions we had to install an extended partition and use a combination of logical drives in the extended partition (you can only have 4 primaries - and we had Win3.1 and Win98 on separate primaries already for reasons stated previously, and Boot Manager which takes an albeit small partition of it's own). Partition Magic (V3) was invaluable! One of the best tools available for hard disk manipulation under any operating system. Quite capable of recognizing the Linux file system (although it was far safer to let the Linux install format the Linux partitions with the appropriate file systems (type 82 scratch and type 83 Linux native). So after nearly a day of reformatting and re-partitioning the hard disk, shuffling OS's and partitions back and forth, installing and re-installing OS's, we finally settled on the following working arrangement: 1st Primary: Win98 700MB up the front; 2nd Primary: Win3.1/DOS 2Gb approx starting straight after 98 BEFORE the 2Gb point on the disk; 3rd Primary: Boot Manager <1Mb) (much easier to use than remembering the Lilo incantations for the die-hards ;-) 4th Primary: Extended 1.3Gb approx. divided into two logical drives of 100Mb (type 82 scratch) and 1.2Gb approx.(Type 83 linux native) for the OS and apps. We installed the Window Maker X-window manager, and evaluation copies of Corel Word Perfect and Star Office (Having used Star Office myself for a while, I feel it may well be a likely contender as an Office productivity suite. I will be interested to hear how it performs in a real office situation against the Windows alternatives -Ed). To all outward appearances our clients notebook remains a standard Toshiba 320CDT. But when it boots, it presents a menu of three choices of OS. To a small extent, we feel we have put the power to choose, for the moment, back in the hands of this consumer. 66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666 66 MS Files Does the truth matter? Anti-Trust Case coverage Well, now it's Microsoft's turn to put it's case the Judge in the AntiTrust case. So far however their witnesses have been putty in the hands of the Government lawyer David Boies. After virtually discrediting the first two witnesses, Microsoft handed the Government an enormous faux pas to hit them back with. MS fluffed it badly when they attempted to show videotape supporting their claim that Explorer cannot be removed from Windows 98 without degrading the system. The Governments' David Boies pounced on discrepancies in the video tape that indicated the tape had been "edited", and when Microsoft won court permission to re-do the tape, they admitted they were unable to reproduce their claims. Amidst this farce, the Government's David Boies asked Microsoft Senior Vice President James E Allchin if he realized it mattered that he told the <"A HREF="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990203/tc/microsoft_76.html">truth in court? Allchin vouched numerous times for the accuracy and validity of the videotape, only to have to admit that it appeared to be the "wrong system" that had been taped, then later contradicting himself again claiming it was the right machine. Sufficient irregularities in the tape were pointed out by Boies that the judge granted MS their request to re-do the tape, which they were later forced to admit they were unable to do. Keep tuned in to Yahoo's AntiTrust Court Case coverage - it makes for very interesting reading! Windows refund day Feb 15th 1999 over 2800 disgruntled PC users will be returning their unused Windows Operating Systems to Microsoft for their refund - at least that's what the Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA) promises - but will it deliver? The Refund Centre http://www.LinuxMall.com/refund/ The Redmond Tea Party http://www.vcnet.com/bms/features/teaparty.shtml It may be too late for Australians now though - word is that Microsoft have quietly removed the refund offer EULA on copies of 98 available in Australia. Consumer protection legislation in the US require the option be available for US customers. Australian's however may have no such protection. Industry News, 22nd Jan 1999, John Fairfax Holdings Ltd. http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/990119/industry/industry11.html 77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777 77 Y2K Update Y2K glitch in Windows 98 Microsoft said its Windows 98 operating system has minor Year 2000 problems and is making an update that fixes the glitch available on the Internet and CD-ROMs. http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C29598%2C00.html?dd.ne.tx.ts1.1207 A question for our legal eagle subscribers out there - if a consumer is forced to use a certain software package or operating system against their will by a third party (for example a bank for electronic banking, accounting package by their accountant, etc.), who is legally responsible if that OS or package fails in the Year 2000 changeover? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Trust the computer industry to shorten Year 2000 to Y2K. It was this thinking that caused the problem in the first place. Beware of cheap computers claiming Y2K readiness. Many ex-government and outdated computers are being sold off at firesale prices. Close inspection of any Y2K compliance statement including your legal recourse in case of Y2K failure is essential (a sticker on the front of the machine is not a legally binding document, simply a potentially misleading marketing ploy, especially if the sticker says 2YK, which isn't even relevant to the Y2K problem). Be especially careful with fly-by-night operations that could disappear overnight with no forwarding address. Also be aware that should things go sour, you may spend more in legal fees trying to recover your money than the machine is worth! Finally, for those of you for whom the date is unimportant, and mainly use your machines for games, basic word processing and other applications that are NOT date sensitive, simply set your clock back (system date) a few years and play (or work) on ... Setting the year date to 1972 (or some other multiple of 28 years) will give you the correct date for day of the week and month and is in sync with leap years, only the year will be incorrect. Not all systems will allow a date to be set earlier than 1970 or so though. IF you can set your date as far back as 1200, you'll get the shortened two digit "year" back in sync too. 1200 was a leap year according to computer calendars, and syncs with the day of the week too. One of a number of solutions offered in What is the Y2K Solution? http://www.mitre.org/research/cots/Y2K_SOLUTIONS.html#Reversing Excellent list of authoritative links to Year2000 related web sites: http://www.cait.wustl.edu/infosys/infosys.html#y2k An interesting collection of problem dates: http://www.mitre.org/research/y2k/docs/DATES.html 88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 88 Meet Telstra, our unofficial mascot. Early in October by our reckoning 6 or so kittens were born in the roof cavity above ALI's Walk-In Centre. Late night training courses were interrupted periodically by kittens mewling which grew louder as the weeks went by. When the kittens were about 3-4 weeks old one died - right above the editors office! Within a week the stench was so strong and unmistakable (and the landlord so conveniently difficult to get hold of) that the editor located and removed the corpse in sheer self defense. There was no visible sign of other kittens or the mother, although the kittens calls were loud and persistent. One late afternoon piteous mewling was heard to come from the front end of the Walk-In Centre. Inspection of the roof cavity proved fruitless, but a sizable cavity between the double brick walls seemed to hold the source of the complaints. There is a large unused Telstra junction box at floor level behind the chairs in the same corner. Hoping that there may be access to the cavity behind the junction box (and remembering the awful stench caused by a small possum in a similar situation that died unnoticed inside a bricked up fireplace) chairs were cleared out of the corner to allow access to the junction box. To this editors amazement, the cover of the junction box was moving, and when lifted off the frame, revealed a small, dirty 5 week old kitten clinging to the wiring blocks. There was indeed a fist-sized hole in the wall, through which the kitten must have crawled after falling down the cavity! Although her first reaction to human contact was typically feral, Telstra, as she was shortly dubbed, responded quickly to warm milk, a warm towel and frequent handling. She didn't even seem to mind a warm flea bath! She only required hand feeding for the first night and quickly adapted to drinking commercial Cat Milk preparations from a plate. She instinctively took to using a litter tray and within a few days ravenously attacked solid meals of fresh meat and canned kitten food. Small as she was, Telstra was adopted by the editors German Shepherd, who mothered her and protected her from the jealous attentions of the editors older cat. Veterinary attention was sought for a slight tummy upset, and a follow up vet check gave Telstra a clean bill of health - small for her age probably due to being trapped in the cavity without food for who knows how long, but strong for her size! Telstra has been fully immunized, and now has a permanent home with the editor. We were pleased to find out that the remaining kittens were removed from the roof over the ANZ Bank next door the morning after we found Telstra, and have all found homes thanks to the efforts of Hume and Melrose Animal Hospitals (link). Telstra is now about 4 months old, and is going from strength to strength. She is 200% kitten and twice as mischievous. While the older cat barely tolerates her and her kittenish habits, the dog adores her and they will frequently play together, seeking out each others company. Unfortunately for the editor, Telstra's favorite chair just happens to be the editors ... ah well. 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99 Your Say: To Whom it May Concern: I am a native Australian living in the United States, currently seeking information on the availability of websites local to Albury. I lived in Albury 10 years so I know many people in the area. Would like to correspond via e-mail with someone in that area. E-mail address is 3cs@wwd.net. Dallas Hillier Ironton, Ohio, USA Hi, My names is James Lawson. I'm am involved with a group of people who met originally via a BBS and we have ll become quite good friends doing many social things and participating in networked computer games. We are looking for a team from albury to play, just fellow gamers like ourself but are having trouble finding anyone. If you would be able to post a message to a newsgroup or something if you could and try and put us in contact with some opponents we would be very much appreciative. Thank You Mezza 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 Training Courses As of the 24th of February, ALI's Basic Internet Training Courses will cease in their current format. During an as yet undetermined recess, the courses will be reviewed, updated and completely re-worked. Announcements regarding the format and future availability of the courses will be made in due course.