SU vs Wyoming at the library

The game is on! This week's football game between Syracuse and Wyoming will be shown on the BIG screen in the library's Carman Community Room. The game is available via ESPN 360, which can be accessed only through Internet service providers who have signed up and paid ESPN for the programming. Since we now have a FIOS connection, the nice folks at Verizon are hooking us up. The room only seats 94. Kickoff is at 1:30 pm.

Home Computer Users Under Attack

According to this article, home computer users are targeted by hackers more than any other group, accounting for 86 per cent of all targeted attacks, followed by financial services companies. "During the first six months of 2006, 157,477 unique phishing messages were detected, representing an increase of 81 per cent. Spam made up 54 per cent of all monitored email traffic."

If you want to know how to protect yourself, I'll be presenting a program on computer security, "Your Computer Needs a Flu Shot, Too!" at the library on Thursday, 9/28 at 1:00 pm.

Yahoo's Sign-in Seal

Yahoo has a new security feature; the sign-in seal. I pulled the following info from the Yahoo site: "A sign-in seal is a secret message or image that you select to help protect your account from phishing -- a scam that tries to steal your password or personal information by spoofing a legitimate web site.

When you create a sign-in seal for your computer, you can be sure you're on a legitimate Yahoo! site each time you use this computer to sign in to Yahoo!. Just look for the custom text or image you set up on this computer. If it's not there, you might have landed on a "spoofed" site.

Your sign-in seal is saved on the computer you created it on. If you use more than one computer or browser, you may want to create a sign-in seal for each one."

Here's the seal I created for myself.

Spam or Not? Followup

After I answered "Richard" he sent me a very pleasant thank you message. So after all my agonizing and second-guessing, he was a real person with a question. Although I spent some time trying to check out his original message, playing it safe was better than getting a virus or spyware, losing all my data or having my personal info compromised. By the way, here's my answer to his question, "Does the word Lao mean anything to you?"

Hello Richard,

I did a Google search for Lao and this is what I found. I hope this helps you.

A member of a Buddhist people inhabiting the area of the Mekong River in Laos and Thailand and speaking the Lao language; related to the Thais.
The Tai language of a Buddhist people living in the area of the Mekong River in Thailand and Laos.
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

The Lao are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The vast majority of Lao people live in either Laos (approximately 4 million) or Thailand (approximately 15 million). The Lao of Thailand are concentrated in the Isan region, although there are many migrant workers from Isan working in other parts of the country, such as Bangkok. The Lao speak various dialects of Lao and Isan, which are in turn often considered to be a single language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao

Spam or Not?

I received this message at my work e-mail account from someone named Richard. I've deleted his user ID.

From: "Richard" ?????@ehumble.com
Subject: odd question
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:21:07 -0400
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 17 Sep 2006 13:21:14.0594 (UTC) FILETIME=[26976420:01C6DA5C]

"Like your taste in music.
Does the word Lao (possibly pronounced lay-o) mean anything to you?"

This may have come from someone who looked at my Blogger profile and then sent me a legitimate question. But spammers harvest e-mail addresses from web pages, then send messages trying to get an answer. If he is a spammer and I reply, he'll know that my e-mail address is active and I'll get more spam. Also, I used to get lots of splog, or blog spam, that started off with "Like your blog. Great job." (For more info on splog, check this entry in the Wikipedia.) Finally, it makes me uneasy that the person didn't sign his name and that the header only shows his first name.

On the other hand, this message is not asking for money, promising untold riches or advising me of a sure-fire stock investment. I checked the Urban Legends Reference Pages, Hoaxbusters, did several Google searches on the e-mail address and message text. All came up empty. I also checked ehumble.com, which is affiliated with a company called Ameripal, an ISP that offers inexpensive Internet access. But I'm still uneasy about answering.

So Richard, if you're really out there, I'm going to e-mail you an answer from my Yahoo e-mail account. I apologize for being so suspicious but you can't be too careful these days.

LibraryThing and My Blog Play Well Together

I'm trying an experiment with LibraryThing. This social networking site lets you create a catalog of your books and then connects you with others who have the same books. You can see what's in their catalogs and get recommendations for similar books.

I've placed a widget on the right side of the page that pulls random books from my catalog. You can also search my LibraryThing catalog.

This might be a way to add new books to my library's web site. Thanks to Steve Cohen's Library Stuff blog for mentioning that the Shenandoah Library is trying this. They made a LibraryThing account and are using a LibraryThing widget to pull new book titles and post them as an RSS feed.

Firefox Search Plugins

Attention Firefox freaks! You can easily add more search sites to the browser's search toolbar. Click the downward pointing arrow in the search toolbar. A menu will appear like the one below.


Click Add Engines... and you'll be taken to a page full of search plugins. Just click the ones you want and they'll be added to the menu. Now you can use the search engine on the site without having to go to there first.

Librarian's Coffee

Intelligentsia Coffee is offering a Decaf Librarian's Blend. According to their web site, it's "named for that person who always told you to keep quiet when you were studying. This blend is representative of the soul of the librarian: steady, reassuring, and always there with that slight edge of eccentricity. It has a bold base with a bit of sparkle. Here's to good reading." Although I usually prefer high test, I may give this a try. Ironically, a patron shushed me the other day! I was talking with a patron in stacks and another patron complained that we were too loud and disturbing her reading. We both apologized. Well, hush my mouth!

Free Computer Help

It's hard to know where to turn when you're having a computer problem. Before you call the repairman, try these free web sites. They contain extensive message boards of computer-related questions and fixes. You can browse the messages, but a free account may be needed to use some features or post messages.

PC Mechanic
Tutorials, articles, discussion forums and e-mail newsletters.

Tech Support Guy
Message postings are grouped by category.

Suggest a Fix PC Support Forums
Please note that popup blockers may interfere with some features.

Downloadable Audiobooks Demo

On Thursday, September 7, Daveman will demonstrating the new Overdrive downloadable audiobooks system. The libraries in the county now offer free audiobooks and music that you can download to your home computer or mp3 player. This demonstration will show you how to search the digital catalog, download the books, then transfer them to a portable player. We'll meet at 1:00 in the Carman Room. No registration necessary.