Media Watch

When you want to allow any kind of attachment to get through, you may have to chenge a setting manually. Click TOOLS, OPTIONS, then the SECURITY tab. Uncheck the box that says "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus". Now all attachments will be available. Use this etting only if you understand the risks of opening certain kinds of attachments in your email.

Zone Alarm from Zone Labs is one of the most popular personal firewalls we've seen -- and you can get it for free. If you're already using Symantec's Norton Antivirus and it's bundled with Internet security, we think that's as much as you can do to protect yourself. Be sure to read all the literature so you have a good basic understanding of how to set it up for your situation.

Most people buy a used car at some point in their lives, but how many do a little investigation before buying?  You should know what you're buying before laying down the cash -- or worse yet, financing.  Many dealers will now show you a CarFax data sheet.  They punch in the Vehicle Identification Number (or VIN) and the computer spits out all it knows about that particular car.  A VIN is unique to each car and can tell a lot about the car, including make, model, body style, manufacturing plant, etc.  Try this out.  Go to your car and carefully write down your VIN, then enter it in one of the boxes below.  You may be surprised at what you can learn. AnalogX Vin Decoder VIN: CarFax Vin Decoder VIN: AutoCheck Vin Decoder VIN: Model years 1981 and later have 17-digit vehicle identification numbers (VIN).  Anyone can decode them with a few basics. Dig...

According to the Reuters news agency, police in Dortmund, Germany say a Crow attacked a woman and young girl over the weekend, but the bird managed to evade their efforts -- that is until they laced some cat food with high-alcohol fruit schnapps. The bird could not resist. A police department spokesman said the crow was completely smashed when they caught up with it, and is now sleeping off its hangover in a local animal home.

I really like gadgets that have function.  I like music and I refuse to pay a buck a song (I-Tunes, etal), so a $10/month subscription to Napster seems to be the best way to go...right now.  You can pay 99¢ for a song (and $9.99 for an LP) if you don't want to subscribe, but I would want a fair amount of time to build up my library before pulling the plug.  I figure about a month.  More... I strongly suggest you use your personal email like Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail when corresponding with your friends, families and extra-marital partners.  Oh, forget the last group; they deserve to get caught!  Seriously, for all practical purposes, privacy protections do not exist at work!  This is a must-read for corporate employees using company email for personal use.  More... Have you seen the 1-gigabyte USB drive in slick a color and a cute little package?  They let you keep your stuff with you even if you're hiking in...

Wayne Madsen: Exposing Karl Rove

If four murderous blades aren't enough for ya, try this new Gillette Veinte, with twenty whisker-eating whackers! First came the single blade disposable shaving razor, then we sued the competition for trying to keep up! ...from the "just silly" department.