How to Find Coffee on the Internet

This post will fulfill my blog's mission of providing important coffee news as well as some tips for successful Internet searching.

Yesterday I read a news story titled What Men Should Eat Every Day. It turns out I'm doing everything it recommends, except for the fish (I'm a vegetarian) and the red wine. And I was overjoyed to read this part, "Coffee actually has been shown to reduce liver cancer and to be effective with—or with symptoms of—Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Twenty-four ounces of coffee a day is a rational amount for one person." This was posted on Oprah's site and today they had another pro-coffee article titled, The Latest Health Drink: Coffee.

Both articles recommend a sensible intake. I drink two mugs a day. All things in moderation - a regimen I practiced on our recent vacation. We drove to Michigan for my mother-in-law's 90th birthday party. On the way out and back we stopped in Stratford, Ontario for the Shakespeare Festival. Along the way I got to visit some of my favorite independent coffee shops. In Stratford, Balzac's on Ontario Street is the best, but a few blocks away is the funkier Sputnik Espresso Bar. Their barista was a nice guy, but he should think about trying a decaffeinated brand. The next day we crossed the Blue Water Bridge at noon, just in time for lunch at a cafe in Port Huron, MI and a cappucino at the excellent Raven Coffee House. While in Paw Paw, MI, I went to That Coffee Place for some lattes for me and my grateful stepdaughter, who was worn out from traveling with a two-year old.

Although it's not a coffee shop, a big thank you to The Breakfast Place in Lawton, MI, where the joe comes in a seriously large mug, not one of those pitiful demitasse jobs that many restaurants use.

Whenever I travel, I always scout out the independent shops before we go. Often, I use the Delocator or find them by Googling "coffee shops" and the city name.

While trying to find a justification for posting about coffee on a library-related blog, I discovered similarities between libraries and independent coffee shops. They both have a wide selection of items, they seem genuinely happy to help you, and they'll go the extra mile to make sure you get what you want.

And while we're on the subject, here are some helpful diagrams of common espresso drinks".

OK, it's time for my famous magic trick where I make a cup of coffee disappear.

Recognizing and Avoiding Spyware

Yesterday a patron asked me why her home computer was suddenly showing lots of pop-up windows. This is a typical sign that her computer is infected with spyware. Other symptoms of an infected computer include:

* you are redirected to web sites other than the one you typed into your browser
* new, unexpected toolbars appear in your web browser
* new, unexpected icons appear in the task tray at the bottom of your screen
* your browser's home page suddenly changed
* the search engine your browser opens when you click "search" has been changed
* random Windows error messages begin to appear
* your computer suddenly seems very slow when opening programs or processing tasks (saving files, etc.)

This list was taken from Recognizing and Avoiding Spyware, which explains more about spyware and how to get rid of it. For a demonstration of programs that remove spyware, register for my computer security program, Your Computer Needs a Flu Shot, Too to be held on September 13 at 10:00 a.m.

Is you is, or is you ain't, spam?

Is you is, or is you ain't, spam?
(with apologies to B.B. King)

Or, how a missing subject line almost destroyed Western civilization.

My ISP, Earthlink, has a very aggressive e-mail filter, so I get very little spam. Hurray! But sometimes the filter grabs a message that isn't spam, such as one from someone who's not in my address book. These are kept in a Suspect Mail folder, which I check daily. I always inspect the suspect messages through Earthlink's web e-mail interface. By doing it this way, I don't need to download the message to my computer and I feel safe looking at it on Earthlink's site. (Also, I use a Mac so I'm not worried about catching a virus or downloading malware.)

If a suspect message is OK, I can transfer it to my Inbox and add the sender to my address book. If it's spam, I delete it. But I need to be very careful. Recently I found a message in the Suspect Mail that was a dead ringer for spam, but wasn't. It was from someone I didn't know, had no subject line, and contained an attachment. Usually this means trouble, but there were several things that made me think the message might not be spam.

First, the sender's address appeared to be legitimate. Bogus e-mail addresses often look like this: Tisha Lassiter or Amalia Pina . The sender's name and the e-mail ID don't match. But the address on this message was: Kim Smith .
Also, spam addresses often end in ".kr," for Korea, or ".de," for Deutschland. This usually means that the message has been rerouted to disguise the original sender.
I felt confident that this message was not spam, so I crossed my fingers and opened it. It was legit! The attachment in the message was a press release for an upcoming concert. I write press releases for the Folkus Project, which sponsors folk music concerts in the Syracuse area, so I often get press kits e-mailed from artists and agents. If the sender had only used a simple subject line, such as "press release for Joe Folksinger" I would have known immediately that it was OK. Because the subject line was empty, the message came very close to being deleted.

When writing a subject line, avoid things like, "Hi," or "How are you?" These are commonly used in spam messages. Choose a few words that describe the content of the message. Not only is this courteous, it may prevent an important message from being tossed in the trash. For more information to help you decide if a message is spam, go to the Spam Home Page of the Federal Trade Commission.

"State of the Net" Survey from Consumer Reports

According the latest "State of the Net" survey by Consumer Reports, many people have failed to take basic precautions to protect their computers. Seventeen percent of respondents didn't have antivirus software installed. Thirty-three percent didn't use software to block or remove spyware, which would help to stop identity theft. 3.7 million U.S. households with broadband still don't have a computer firewall.

These three things are easy to remedy and can be done for free. AVG offers an antivirus program that works as well as any other. Spyware can be prevented by using Ad-Aware and Spybot, and Zone Alarm is a firewall that works better than the one that comes with Windows.

It takes a little effort to download, install and maintain these programs but it's dangerous to use an unprotected computer. Your personal information could be stolen, your computer could be vandalized or turned into a spam-spewing zombie. Protect yourself and others!

Hear! Hear! Downloadable Audio Books

Onondaga County libraries now offer free audio books and music that you can download to your home computer or mp3 player. On Tuesday, August 14, I'll be demonstrating how to search the digital catalog, download books and transfer them to a portable player. The program will be held in the library's Carman Community Room at 10:00 a.m. Note: these audio books are not compatible with iPods.