Archive for June 2005

Quickly: if you or anyone you know is familiar with WEP, WAP, IPSEC, please help. Email me if you know of experts and I’ll contact them. Thanks.

I’ve been so busy lately that as soon as I remember to do something, I forget. For the past couple of weeks, I wanted to write the meryl’s notes newsletter for June. It looks like I’m going to miss it as there’s no chance I’ll get it done and distributed today. Since the newsletter is informal, I didn’t want to kill myself to get it done when I have two others to distribute and a third in the making. Heck, I didn’t have time to write my daughter, who is at camp, an email yesterday (first time I’ve missed since she’s been gone).

Been getting to know Coldfusion (cfm). Am having a blast. I use the concepts I learned to create dynamic pages in PHP. It’s tricky since PHP and CFM are different, so when I find a problem in the code, I can’t use PHP as guidance. Databases don’t come to me naturally. It’s weird because I love geeky stuff and software, but my brain isn’t wired for it. But I did get the database working with Coldfusion and have other ideas for other projects. I’ll report on how I do things in cfm soon.

Reading Why I Deleted Email Interviews inspired my newest article, Why I Am Stuck Doing E-mail Interviews. Donna’s article is excellent and that’s why I was motivated to write my perspective. I try to educate people on the idiosyncrasies of leading life as a person who is deaf at Bionic Ear Blog. In fact, doing this blog helped me discover things about me that my hearing loss impacted. I grew up with an “I can do anything except talk on the phone without the relay” attitude. Now, I’m older and wiser and accept that’s not the case.
(more…)

Long before I had kids, I’ve been fascinated with names, their origins and how people come up with names for their kids. When I was cleaning my bookshelves, I couldn’t believe how many books of names I had. These are not baby name books, but books about their histories and meanings.

When I meet people who have unusual or uncommon names, I often ask about it. Some were family names, some were a mix of two people’s names, some were made up… my kids and I were all named after relatives who passed. I was named after my dad’s grandfather, Max. So if I were of the male persuasion, you’d be calling me Max. My older two were named after my maternal grandparents.

My middle child’s middle name came from Paul’s grandmother as he was born on her birthday. When my youngest arrived, thankfully no one had passed on to name him after. So we picked his name because we loved the name and his middle name is my mother’s maiden name. It also honors my maternal grandfather’s sister. She had no kids of her own, but I didn’t know her well. I was going to name him after her, but my mom was an only child… so we decided to use the maiden name to carry on the family name.

I got most of the books before the Internet became what it is today. Before the launching of sites on the topic. I couldn’t recommend one specific site as a favorite. They all have their strengths and weakness. Plus, a name might appear in only a couple of sites while those sites missed names that others have.

So rather than writing about one site, I provided a list and a short description of the various sites.

• NameVoyager is an impressive site as it gives you a “sea” of names. Edward Tufte would be proud. It requires Java to run. When you enter it, you’ll see what looks like an sea level map of different hues of blues and reds. Type in a name or scroll your mouse over the “sea.” This is a “must check out” site and probably the most unique of the name sites. “Meryl” broke the top 1000 names in the ’50s. Except for the mispronunciations and being referred to as a male, having an uncommon name has its good points.
• Social Security Online: Popular Baby Names – Paul and I used this site to search for names for kid #3 as (thankfully) we didn’t have anyone to name him after except my grandfather’s sister, but we honored her by giving our son my mother’s and hers maiden name for a middle name. Look up the popularity of a name by the year all the way back to 1879! It also lists the top five names by state and top 1000 names by decade. We were thinking about the name Brynn for a girl, and I worried it was too uncommon and hard to hear as “rynn” is softly pronounced. No matter, we had a delightful, curly-haired boy who is two now.
• Babyzone Baby Names – includes features and tools such as the top names, baby naming traditions, baby name basket (for saving names you find for later reference), and name inventor, a wizard that generates name suggestions. I clicked on “Girl Names” and got: Quanen, Xaler, Carl (I have yet to meet a girl named Carl), Ctitan, Nentyn, and Mad (!? – I don’t think that’s a good idea – maybe that’s how the mom felt at the time of birth?).
• NameTraq – searches surnames in the news. I picked Kaplan and most of the results were articles written by someone whose last name is Kaplan or a Kaplan mentioned in the article.
• Babies Named a Bad, Bad Thing – not the prettiest site, but one that have you laughing hard. I’ve seen unusual names and impossible to spell names on the Social Security Online, but these beat ‘em all.
• Institute for Naming Children Humanely – Because of people naming their kid like those found in the previous site, someone decided to stand up for those babies!
• Name Statistics – is about numbers as it tells about the popularity of names.
• Think! Baby Names – search the baby names list, check out the popular names, and click on the letter you want the name to start with. The search tool allows you to search boy or girl, name prefix, name suffix, and meaning. A majority of the names sites have these types of features.
• Parenting: Baby Namer is hard to find, but has a different approach to names. Its resource comes from Baby Names Now: From Classic to Cool—The Very Last Word on First Names by Linda Rosenkrantz, Pamela Redmond Satran, both greater writers who have released more books on baby names. This site provides names in the categories of celebrities, cool trends, global favorites, unisex, classics, and so on.
• All the Baby Names: Has over 60,000 names that you can search and filter by name, meaning, origin and popularity.

Not only we do have sites that act like a dictionary or history book into names, but also sites listing names for a specific culture. Here are a few:

• Hebrew Names
• Mormon
• Irish
• Islamic and Muslim
• Indian
• Greek

I did not overlook African, Italian, Spanish and others. The top results of these were part of large baby name Web sites rather than specific for those cultures. If you know of one, comment away. Still want more??? Knock yourself out.

Updated: 28 October 2009

Bryan Eisenberg brings up the rules we have in our subconscious, but no one speaks them. This happens for everything in life… work, family, school… only his rules are not quite obvious. We’re not all thinking about “Click here” or “Read more” links, but it happens often enough for him to comment.

I’m not a fan of “click here,” but then I read something that gave me a different perspective. It was an article about designing for users over the age of 40 (no, that’s not a typo). Many need what some of us call “too obvious.” For example, “submit.” I betting 99 percent of you know what to do with it. But for others, it doesn’t have meaning especially those who just joined the Internet for the first time. Yes, even after over a decade since the Internet became more visible to the public.

Eisenberg is right. “The Internet is too new for rigid rules.” It may not feel new to many of us especially those of us who have yet to reach 20. I have an 11-year-old who thinks she knows everything. But you and I know she has much to learn and is still developing “who she is.” The same applies to the Internet.

Man, I’m on a serious book kick. I love books and always want to read them, but it’s an obsession these days. I won’t surf on the Internet. As soon as I get work done, I’ll go read. Since my eyes have been aching a lot in the last month or so, it’s been a way for me to get off the computer. I’ve discovered some inspirational and high quality books especially the following:

* The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

* The Holy Man

* The Water Hole – Beautifully illustrated children’s story that has lots of discoveries: ecology, geography, and math.

* The Eleventh Hour – same author as The Water Hole. The whole story is a mystery and every page has a puzzle for solving. The puzzles may or may not contribute to solving the big mystery. It kept me absorbed for hours and I couldn’t let go! It’s funny, reading the story was not interesting at first—so I started doing the puzzles. As I worked through them, I read the story. When I solved the big mystery, I found another puzzle and got busy again.

* The Art of Undressing (my summer fun book — plus I reviewed it for Blogcritics, which made me feel less guilty about reading it — lol)

* All Marketers Are Liars (I try hard to criticize Godin, but it was good)

* Call to Action

* QBQ – read it a while ago, but it still sticks with me.

I love geeky books, but maybe I needed a break from it. I’ve updated my list of books read [pdf file], which has notes on most of the books. Been keeping this list since ‘92, but I added some from before then based on what I could remember.

I love talking about books with others. Not a book club where everyone reads one book and talks it to death. Rather, I like to discuss books in general… what we’ve read, what we liked and didn’t like, what we recommend, and so on. Sadly, there aren’t many people in my life to do that with.

Mom is one of the few and I love talking about books with her. She’s my book review editor. The reading she’s done since I started my list makes my reading list look piddly. But of course, I’m the youngest, so she had us kids all out of the house. Maybe it will be a different story when my kids are grown… but I try not to wait around to “till the right time” to make things happen that I enjoy. I just have to do it in moderation while I balance other important things in life.

I’ve been using Visio since 1997 and I never thought about looking for free templates and downloads on the Web until Paul, an IT manager, mentioned he was looking for Visio stencils for hardware. Nick Finck has IA stencils available for Visio Professional 2003. MVPS.org lists Visio download sites.

It’s a great tool for software architecture and relationship modeling, Web design architecture and flows (Here are two articles from Boxes and Arrows on using Visio for wireframes.), hardware design, business process flows and many others. Here’s the official Visio site at Microsoft, downloads, and KB articles.

Here are more you can download — be sure to check the Visio version as some work with specific versions:

* UML 2.0

* Cisco

* Dell

* Citrix MetaFrame

* Wireframes from urlgreyhot

* Business Process Modeling Notation

* Prototyping

* Visio Cafe has many company product stencils as well as for Sarbanes-Oxley stuff.

If you need stencils or templates for a product not listed here, just use Google and enter, “visio stencils [product name].” It may not exist and in this case, use generic stencils. You can also roll your own…

* ZDNetAsia

* TechRepublic

* search for shapes and save as a custom stencil

This inspirational book, with short chapters that tell a story and teach a lesson, pulls in the reader from the start. We meet the holy man who offers advice in a manner like a minister, a Rabbi, a priest, or any spiritual leader you know without focusing on any particular religion. Though some resources categorize the book as religion — Christian, it’s not. In fact, the only thing it does is quote Jesus and Eastern thought on several occasions. The generic quotes apply to everyone, not just to those who believe in a specific religion.

The book absorbs the reader. You can read it quickly or take it slow by indulging in a couple of stories at a time. Each chapter tells a tale and teaches a lesson. However, in the big scheme of things, there’s progression from start to finish as a couple of characters appear throughout. For instance, if you read the last chapter first, it might not make sense or have as much meaning without having read an earlier chapter introducing several of the characters we see at the end. Once you’ve read through the book, you can go back and read a story of your choice.

Joe, the holy man, has flaws like any human being. No matter how wise or spiritual a person becomes, human nature dictates our imperfections. Joe’s mistakes makes him more endearing. The reader discovers the problems faced correspond to those we have encountered in our lives such as envy, egotism, grief, and anger. The stories drive the reader to smile, frown, be surprised, grimace, and laugh.

You don’t have to think hard or read between the line to get the message from each story. Just sit back, read, enjoy, and learn. Occasionally, you might run into prose that has little meaning, but read on and the message will come through. While the story compares to Chaucer’s tales, it contains a trickle of modernization. Trott’s writing style tells the story in a simple and easy to read manner, yet somehow the profound lessons come through effortlessly.

Title: The Holy Man
Author: Susan Trott
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
ISBN: 1573225320
Date: April 1996
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Cover Price: USD: $13.00 Amazon: $10.40

The June issue of eNewsletter Journal is online. The second of the two-parter series on how spam emails hurt our business is online. Yeah, we all agree that spam sucks (Except those who do it… maybe… bet they hate getting it themselves, but that doesn’t stop them.), but it does more than annoy us.

The last question about choosing the right template has answers posted in this issue. Another question regarding newsletter format is posted. Maybe you can help?

The usual stuff in every issue includes a Gotcha and links to six articles you might find useful. I always appreciate your feedback on the newsletter and what we can do to make it beneficial to you.

The book is about becoming successful in investing and Moglia uses sports analogies to explain concepts that are complicated or a puzzlement to people like me. As soon as I learned about the book, I figured it was custom-made for me. I can be obtuse when it comes to financing and investments, partly because it doesn’t interest me although I know the basics. I run as soon as I hear talk of stocks, bonds, CDs (not music) and IRAs.

I realize the importance of understanding investments because you want to plan for the future. I opted to read the book to increase my knowledge of investments, know what the heck people are talking about and learn what the options are for my family. A fan of sports, I assume the book will be exactly what I need to close the gap in my knowledge of money as the author correlates his strategy with sports.

The introduction keeps my attention, so I think I’m in for a good ride. After seeing the Game Plan page at the end of each chapter, I start reading the bulleted list first because it reviews the main points of the chapter and lets me know what to expect in the chapter.

The handy glossary provides useful for the novice who may not be familiar with the terms used in the book and in the investment world. As always when reading any book offering financial advice, the reader must remember that the judgments offered are the author’s and others might disagree with some of the concepts.

Coach Yourself to Success is a great primer for new investors or those who have little or no knowledge about investments. It also provides good brush-up text for more experienced investors who may want or need to analyze their portfolios. As the author explains, you should continuously keep up and change your allocations as circumstances dictate. The writing is clear, the concepts simple and the advice down-to-earth and basic. Most individual investors will find the book a practical resource.

Title: Coach Yourself to Success: Winning the Investment Game
Author: Joe Moglia
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 0471719846
Date: April 2005
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 199
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

Five strategies for protecting your assets from spam
Part 2 in a 2-part series

by Meryl K. Evans and Tamara Halbritter

According to The Spamhaus Project, the United States is the top country in the world with “ISPs [internet service providers] currently providing countries with connectivity and hosting to spam gangs directly responsible for the world’s spam problem” (SBL database, 2005).
China ranks second and South Korea third, but all this means is that globally, we have a big problem. Many of us are bombarded by spam daily. In some organizations, over 50 percent of the mail received is spam. In others, by using technical solutions such as email authentication and other spam blockers in combination with smart company decisions and policies, only five or less percent of the messages received are spam.

What can you do to have a smaller percentage of spam and help in the fight against this pervasive irritant? In the first article of the series we tried to alert you to the severity of spam crime and inspire you to develop your own task force to protect your organization against spam. The next step is to put your plan of action into place—to make the smart choices that will keep your brand and revenue safe. One tool you can use is your e-newsletter. In this article, we’ll show you how.

William Plante, ASP director for Symantec Corporation, and Robert Alberti, CISSP, president of Sanction, Inc. provide five strategies, which you can use to protect your assets from spam. Whether your company sells pharmaceuticals, software or other products, or services with supporting products, the following five techniques will help stop brand erosion and revenue loss.

1. Protect your intellectual property

Follow these guidelines for managing the digital rights to your property and for protecting it.

*Verify everything is copyrighted and trademarks are registered. That includes registering with the U.S. Customs Service, because much of this criminal action happens overseas.

*Make formal contracts with your distributors or authorized resellers. Get it in writing that they agree not to send spam about your products.

Unfortunately, in most cases, your audience assumes you or one of your distributors is sending these spam messages about your product. Most of your customers or prospects have no idea someone completely unrelated to your sales organization would take the liberty to send a missive about your intellectual property.

2. Join industry associations

Every member of the Internet community will be more effective working together than as individual organizations. One way to connect with other companies facing the same problem is by participating in lobbying efforts with them. If you work together, you can trade war stories and tap into additional valuable resources. Try to connect with people that share the same values your organization does. Communicate regularly about issues surrounding spam and the progress of your task force.

3. Be prepared to react

Once you catch someone, be prepared to prosecute immediately. Spam prevention can only happen at the expense of current spammers, by taking legal steps to enforce the minimal standard out there, and prosecute those guilty of major crimes.

*Set up investigators to sleuth the problem.

*Set up an abuse email address (abuse@yourcompany.com) so buyers and customers can forward spam to you.

*Report anything that affects your brand to the authorities.

*Track the spammer down. Instead of starting at the sender of the spam, direct your search to the end result of the spam. You can do this by making a purchase. That way you will know immediately if the spam is criminal in nature. You will also know where the spammer collects his or her payment, and if the spammer is a pirate or credit card scam artist.

*If the party is guilty of pirating your product, work with that third party payment collection company such as Visa, PayPal or BillPay and inform them of the problem. They will then get a court injunction to cease and desist, meaning they can shut the guilty spammer down. If the party is guilty of credit card fraud, inform the third party payment company, and also inform the ISP. In the U.S., the ISP will immediately shut down the spammer. Other countries have different laws, however, which is one of the reasons you want to register your product with the U.S. Customs Service.

Know that if you prosecute legally, once you get a court injunction and win your case, you are eligible for disgorgement. This legal term means you are entitled to all of the revenue that the spammer collects. While you may not get rich, at least you’ll help stop the problem at its source.

4. Establish great business relationships with distributors and customers

This strategy relies heavily on public relations including e-newsletters. Part of image building, your branding falls under ensuring good business relations. Plante recommends the following ways to build these relationships:

*Let your customers know that spam exists.

*Send out customer surveys about your products and their attitude about spam, piracy and credit card fraud.

*Create publicity around your steps as a Spam Fighter. Position yourself as a leader in the fight. Perhaps, add an occasional article in your newsletter about your fight against spam or put a note by the “unsubscribe to newsletter” information that spam is not tolerated.

The reason Plante agreed to be interviewed for this story is because he wants his brand associated with the facts. He wants to say, “Be careful, when my brand is coming across as spam, it’s not our company. We’re not doing that.” He advises people to be proactive and get involved and let your current customers and prospects know that this stuff might happen.

5. Don’t continue to spread spam to other users

While legislation is one way to prevent spam from spreading, Robert Alberti, president of Sanction, Inc., recommends using technology such as firewalls, spam filters and virus protection to help prevent and detect fraud. He also recommends using the task force to help end users become more knowledgeable about spam.

Alberti says, “E-mail was originally designed like an actual post office. Nothing prevents people from walking into a post office and sending out however many letters they like, but postage is expensive and strict rules regulate postal fraud. On the Internet, the postage cost is effectively zero; and there’s not much regulation, so almost anyone can mail anything she likes. Until stronger rules are put in place, e-mail ‘post offices’ must be secured by each business or they will be used by spammers. There are things everyone can do to further prevent the spread of spam.” Alberti gives the following tips for using technology to help in the fight against spam.

Join a Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) service. One way to stop spammers is to rely on one or more RBL services that keeps a list of spam offenders to keep an eye out for spam. Free services and commercial services are available. Both services automatically refuse to receive messages from known spammers for their clients. But use them with caution! If your company’s e-mail post office is used to send spam, you will end up on an RBL list. Once your company gets on a list, your customers and partners who subscribe to RBLs won’t receive any mail from you; and once you’ve been listed, it’s almost impossible to be removed from a Realtime Blackhole List.

Do not open spam messages. Probably the most important way to prevent the spread of spam is by not opening the messages on your computer. Many spam messages have lots of complex graphics. When you open this type of message, these images are fetched from the server, telling the spammer you opened the message. Given your response, the spammer sees you as a “hot lead” and adds you to other spam lists. That’s how spam spreads like a virus.

In addition, many people don’t realize that their e-mail program may be set at a default that automatically opens messages. All you have to do is turn off the “preview pane” (uncheck it) in your View menu in a program such as Microsoft Outlook, and these types of messages will not automatically open, making less of a spam trail, and also protecting you from some e-mail viruses.

Another way to quickly delete these messages is to create folders for your email coming from trusted sources. When you get messages, you can file them in these folders, then immediately select all the remaining messages and delete them. Microsoft Outlook and other programs come with “Junk Mail Rules” to expunge spam.

One of the latest spam tricks is the “triple extension hoax.” Some spammers send messages with a familiar non-toxic extension like a .jpg file. But they’ll add an extension at the end that executes another program on your computer. For example, you may receive a flowers.jpg, thinking it’s safe. If it comes in as flowers.jpg.exe, however, delete this file immediately. Most servers are savvy enough to watch for double extensions and delete them; however, now spammers are sending triple extensions like flowers.jpg.txt.exe, which get by current surveillance systems.

Use virus protection software. Alberti recommends counting on an original copy of a trusted virus software provider like Norton or McAffee to help stop viruses and the spread of spam. Many of these programs have spam filters, which alert you to spam messages. Installing a program like this can save many headaches as long as you regularly update your version. Otherwise, all of the new viruses and spam can still have free reign on your system. Many ISPs also provide a spam filtering service.

“Reliable anti-spam and virus protection is probably the best value software purchase you can make,” says Alberti, “The amount saved by preventing productivity loss is immense compared to the cost of the software.”

Losing an acquired taste

Whether you create a task force or just take steps toward stopping the spread of spam in your organization, whatever method you choose, make sure you position yourself in the eyes of customers and prospects as one of the “good guys.” Regularly inform customers about the steps you’re taking and alert them about possible fraud.

As long as you continue to communicate with your customers, they’ll realize the people at your company and throughout the Internet community don’t like the taste of e-mail spam.

William Plante is ASP director, Worldwide Security and Brand Protection for Symantec Corporation, the world leader in Internet security technology with a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions. In 2002, Plante formed and chaired Symantec’s Brand Protection Taskforce. In this role, he was responsible for developing Symantec’s strategy for identifying, assessing, and countering counterfeit and piracy threats to the company.

Robert Alberti, CISSP is the president of Sanction Inc., a team of highly-skilled business and technical experts who provide strategic, tactical, and operational guidance for all levels of an organization. Alberti’s team keeps operations safer, more secure and working efficiently. Currently, he is writing a book about protecting the bottom line with business-driven security practices.

Meryl K. Evans is an editor, wordsmith and writer for InternetVIZ and numerous resources. The content maven is available for editing, writing, and pepping articles and copy. Tamara Halbritter is a writer for InternetVIZ and other clients, an article and book editor for publishers, and is available to help you say what you mean. InternetVIZ is a custom publisher for companies wishing to find, acquire, and retain customers through Internet newsletters.

The story set in New York City begins as conservative twenty-something Ginger Levine moves back in with her uninhibited former exotic dancer mother, Coco. Though Coco is 43, Ginger finds men including her own boyfriend ogling over her mother. While Coco wears anything and everything that appears daring, sexy, and outrageous, Ginger goes to the opposite extreme, dressing plain and not sexy, and she doesn’t like to reveal herself even to her boyfriend.

Ginger begins a new venture as she starts cooking school partly paid for by her uninvolved and unemotional father. Of course, she meets Tom in class and can’t stop thinking about him, but the class ingénue has already claimed him. To make things more difficult for Ginger, the instructor verbally abuses her making her feel like a lousy student.

Coco no longer dances as she’s old by dancer standards. Despite her footloose and fancy-free attitude, she actually prefers the old style of exotic dancing before lap-dancing came along. She holds classes covering how to strip, dance, seduce, and generally feel good about being a woman. Ginger helps sell related wares at the end of class.

Her father’s wife passes away and he asks Ginger to help with her things. She sees it as an opportunity to get to know her father and her 13-year-old step-sister in spite of her mother’s warning not to do it. She learns a few things about her father and his other family during the process.

I relate to Ginger. I don’t want to be a chef, but I understand how hard it is to try to dress and feel sexy when it’s not your style. Women like Ginger hide their bodies and constantly doubt their looks, talents, or both. The characters in the story are diverse enough that a reader will connect to at least one of them.

Meanwhile, since Tom is dating another woman, Ginger gets to know a talented chef. This scenario ensures you don’t figure out who she ends up with, if anyone. So it’s not your typical, predictable chick lit. The only thing missing from the wonderful book is closure on the dead step-mother’s journal. Lehmann includes humor, conflict, and warm-hearted moments in her easy-to-read and pleasurable story. This is my first “summer” fiction and gets me off to a great start with my summer reading.

Title: The Art of Undressing
Author: Stephanie Lehmann
Publisher: NAL Trade
ISBN: 0451214110
Date: March 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Cover Price: USD: $12.95 Amazon: $5.18