Hi, everybody:
Greetings, and I hope the New Year is going well for you. May your brick
walls be torn down, and may the family tree flourish root and branch!
OK, now some unfortunately necessary stuff. Fortunately, our list has not
been struck by the first calamity, so that is only preventive. The second
point is just an irritant and a waste of archive space and download time.
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There is a virus hoax going around with more lives than the proverbial cat.
It has to do with the SU*LFN*BK.EXE file (asterisks added by me to avoid
filtering). The hoax says the file is a virus, which it is actually a
potentially important Windows file (the dark icon is normal behavior). The
worst part of this is that the hoax depends completely on gullible people
to spread and do its damage. Remember that *no* virus alert is *EVER* to be
sent to the list, but in this case I am tempted to go further; any offender
will be given the cyber equivalent of tarring, feathering, and being run
out of town on a rail.
As far as your private correspondence goes, don't be a virus yourself;
don't pass on any virus warnings that you have not confirmed on one of the
reputable anti-virus web sites. No, cousin Fred is not a reputable web
site. And if he works for one, well, he won't mind you checking him out --
he'll be impressed <grin>.
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A little less seriously (no tar, feathers, or rail) is the habit some are
in of using "reply" to respond to a list Digest. The whole thing ends up
getting quoted in its entirety, and the subject line is something useless
like "LISTNAME-D Digest V02 #6". Please have mercy and consideration, and
quote only enough of the message you are interested in to help the reader
figure out what you mean. And by all means, change the subject line. Just
because your e-mail program stuck gobbledygook there doesn't mean you'll be
electrocuted if you try to fix it <grin>.
The penalty for "Digest-quoting With Original Subject" will be removal from
Digest mode and subscription to List mode, where messages will arrive
separately and with their own more or less useful Subject lines. Not
exactly capital punishment, but effective in most cases in leaving the
feathers of the rest of us unruffled (and away from the tar bucket).
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Sorry about the curmudgeonly attitude. I've been trying to forestall damage
from that virus hoax, off list and at work, way too much the last two days.
Darrell
Admin VTGEN, VTCALEDO, VTLAMOIL, VTORANGE, VTWINDSO, MANORFOL, F.ELCH
F.ORBUSH, G.ARDNER, H.ARTWELL, H.ULBERT, L.AMSON, L.OWER, N.ELSON
M.ARTIN-QC-NEWENG, R.OUSSEAU, R.USSEAU -- darrellm(a)sprynet.com