Email Steve Tucker
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Sunday, March 28, 1999
I supposed that you noticed that I haven't posted much in the last couple of days. I have been in Fort Worth, Texas for the Winston Cup race there. Terry Labonte won one for his home state there on Sunday while Mark Martin was victorious in the rain shortened Busch Grand National race on Saturday. Mark is tough in those BGN races.
There will probably be some continued discussion about the Texas track again this year. The races there haven;t been very exciting by NASCAR Winston Cup standards and yesterday's Primestar 500 was no exception. It also appeared there was a tire problem. Most of the sport's top gun were knocked out of the event with what appeared to be blown right front tires, or as they say in the sport "cut tires." I am sure Goodyear will be the topic of a few discussions this week.
Monday, March 29, 1999
I mentioned last week that I tried filing my taxes electronically through Quicken. When I checked for a confirmation this AM I noticed my return had been rejected because I had a typo in my wife's SS # and the big IRS computer kicked it back. I have tried resubmitting, but it will take another couple of days for a confirmation number. I hope I didn't;t make any mistakes this time. I am also beginning to think I should have just mailed the paper forms. May end up doing just that.
If you use the Microsoft suite, including Word, there is a big virus threat out there with word document attachments. The name of the virus is Melissa. If you receive a word document attached to an email message you SHOULD NOT open it, view it, etc. You can learn more about this threat by checking out my friend Bob Thomson's notes pages for this week. You should also look at his notes from last Saturday.
Our kids are out of school this week, so I plan to take a couple of days off. Went to rent a video today and of course Katie (Age 11) couldn't find anything she liked. Andrew (age 6) was a little easier to please. The store appeared to be pretty well picked over the weekend or other Easter breakers as well.
Tuesday, March 30, 1999
The Melissa virus owners must be proud of themselves for now. The news of this virus even made the front page of the Winston Salem Journal, not normally known as a technical journal. However, in the end they may not think it to be so funny as the story reports the FBI is looking into the owner of the virus. It seems the nasty little macro ground some of the antiquated government computers to a halt. I hear there's even a nastier version called Papa out there floating around. Check out the Microsoft site for more info an potential safeguards.
For those who know me might have known that I would be interested in watching how my web site is progressing in the terms of how many different places we've enjoyed visitors from. This list includes such far away places as Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates. Of course I've also had visits from the usual sites from within the United States. Thanks for all for your visits and I welcome any suggestions by email.
If you're interested in taking a look I've now included a stats page off the Computers page. On this page I will be posting daily stats (for the previous day -- yesterday), the cumulative stats since we've been up and live and monthly stats.
I have been adding some how to networking pages to the site. It seems I make cable connection so infrequently I always wonder if I am connecting them correctly, so I have assembled some information on networking wiring, etc. that I am sure I will find useful in the future. These pages also include some telephone wiring tips. When I wanted to clean up my telephone wiring spaghetti I called on my friends Bob Thompson and John Mikol because they know all this stuff like the back of the hands and I don't know tip from ring or why solid colors go here. Well, you get the picture. If you find glaring errors on the pages, please let me know.
I have also prepared a little history piece of how I started networking. I really goes back to the 1200 and 2400 bps days of my bulletin board system, which I called the Wakeolda Private BBS. It never really was private. If you asked, I gave you an account and I never charged. It's sometimes hard to believe how far and fast we've come. Now that I have ISDN I am champing at the bit for a cable modem or a T-1 or ADSL or some kind of always on connection. Will I ever be satisfied.
Thursday April 1, 1999
I have added another new page to the top level of this site. I assembled several links to news organizations that I sometimes frequent, so I thought putting them all in one place would be convenient for me and it might be a good jumping off place for you. Maybe it's because I grew up on DOS, but I don't personally use that many bookmarks. I just type the URL of my favorites in directly from memory, which I will admit isn't as good as it once was.
This Melissa virus thing is really getting a lot of attention. The folks at ZD Net have a special page devoted to this kook or group of kooks who have ground the email system to a snail's pace crawl. Their special report on Melissa is found here. Now there is a story that maybe the folks who think they identified the owner or Melissa may have jumped too quickly. There's another thing that scares me. The report of the FBI going in and shutting down websites they think are guilty. I hope the ISP just took the people off line and did not delete all of their files. Okay, I think the person who writes a virus and sends it around the world is a sick puppy. However, I would be more than really upset if someone who was real creative with hacking code wanted to screw me over and put this nasty virus on my machine and web site and then the Fed's came in and shut me down and erased all of my data before it was proven that I was innocent. I can easily see this happening to someone.
On a more pleasant note, we're getting ready for the spring ritual here in North Carolina of setting our clocks forward one hour this Saturday evening so we can take advantage of daylight in the evenings. This year it coincides with Easter which should please all of those who plan to attend the sunrise services. They'll get to sleep in a little later. The weather is supposed to be nice for Easter this year. I'll stick to hiding the eggs with the kids.
If you're just reading this, don't think your internet service has gone spooky. I didn't have a chance for an update yesterday, so I am posting both Wednesday's and Thursday's notes today.
Friday, April 2, 1999
I think I survived April Fool's day intact.
We do our banking at First Union National Bank. They have a branch near our home and that's where we use their safe deposit box facility. Needless to say with internet access, direct deposit and the like I very infrequently go inside the branch. Usually it's only to access the contents of the safe deposit box. That's what I did yesterday. I wanted to verify Katie' social security number (her card is in the box) and I noticed the branch has almost gone virtual. The lobby used to filled with bankers behind desks offering loans and services. Now there are only a couple of people there to help customers. The other offices have been replaced with telephone handsets where you can call their customer service center. There's a banker standing behind a kiosk to direct traffic to the proper phone when you enter the branch. There's even an ATM machine inside the branch so you can avoid the couple of tellers left if you like.
The thing that surprised me is that access to the safe deposit boxes has also gone virtual. They now have what is being called self access. You got it. They give you the second key and full reign to the vault. You now longer have to stop and beg one of the tellers to allow you access to the vault. You just take the safe deposit box key you've had forever and the new second key they give you (to keep) and you're in your box with no hassle. I bet they had a hard time convincing their lawyers to let this happen. I found the whole scenario interesting to say the least.
What started my trip to the bank was the need to verify Katie's social security number. I mentioned before that I used Intuit to file my taxes electronically. Well, they keep getting bounced back from the IRS saying that one of my dependent;s social security number didn't match their records. OF course I thought all of my numbers were correct, but then I called the Social Security Administration and found that I had been using the incorrect social security number for Katie on my tax return forever. Can't tell you if all of this cross-checking is a good thing.
The good news is this correction of the Katie's SSN allowed the IRS to accept my return and now I can send the one sheet they require in the mail and hopefully I will be done with Robin Hood for another year. Now is the State of NC will go ahead and accept my electronic return I'll be on the way. I may end up filing a paper return with NC because of the SSN screw.
If I remove my mistake of entering (years ago) the wrong SSN for Katie, then I would rate my use of Turbo Tax and the electronic filing process as a very positive experience. Sure beats doing it the old way, especially for a techno geek like myself.
It's spring around and most everyone is getting their landscaping urge out of the way. We are not different. The kids and I trucked off to Home Depot yesterday, got a car load of plants to put out for the summer heat to burn up later this year. It's a spring ritual. Why? I have no idea.
Another ritual in this part of the country are Easter sunrise services. Looks like the weather is going to be nice Sunday AM with the low in the upper 50's and mostly cloudy, but no forecast for rain.
PC Magazine has a feature story in this month's (April 20) magazine about ISP's. I've included a page on this sire relating my own ISP experiences.
I ran across something all of us who use Internet Explorer 5 can use. There was a security hole patch listed on the ZDTV page that I quickly implemented. It seems that IE5 will let any web site peak at and save the contents of your Windows clipboard without you knowledge or, for that matter, consent. Turn eliminate this IE5 feature/security flaw, follow this link to ZDTV where Leo Laporte will tell you how to implement this simple fix
Saturday, April 3, 1999
Well it looks like AOL does serve a useful purpose after all. You might think I was being a little tongue in cheek when I said this because I guess AOL is where the Melissa and its children originally spawned. What I was really meant was the useful information that it appears AOL provided to the law enforcement community to allow them to capture the alleged writer of the Melissa virus. I am sure you have read about in your own community's newspaper or watch endless reports from TV's talking heads about the capture of Melissa's dad, but in case you haven't, here's the story from our friends at ZD Net.
This web site is hosted by Pair.com and as I have mentioned before the administration on the site is pretty much from the old days -- text based Unix, which I have had to learn to administer the site on the server. However, Pair is try to come around to graphical world. They are in hopes of having their GUI system up and running by September. I pinch myself to remember this is computer industry I'm talking about here and target dates seem to be just that...targets. They are rarely met. If you would like to see more about Pair's plans for 2000, check out their web site named (you guessed it again) .
This sport of Winston Cup racing really is becoming the national past time. I'm sure the baseball guys are shaking in their boots. It wasn't when NASCAR put on a gala in Hollywood to pat itself on the back for its 50th Anniversary. Nope. How about just this past week when NASCAR Winston Cup Racing made it onto the editorial page of the Baltimore Sun? Op-Ed columnist Dan Fesperman did more than mention us in his piece on March 28 may have been poking a little fun, but at least he realizes the sport we all love (us Southerners anyway) is heading North and mainstream. Here's Dan's editorial. The Epiphany? Come on Dan. Laying in on a little thick aren't ya'll.
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This may not mean much if you're not a Southerner. A favorite of us Southerner's is that tasty country ham. I remember when one of my sisters brought home her beau and future husband and when he was introduced to the delicacy of salt cured country ham. He proclaimed it the best thing he'd ever eaten and kept going back, which of course made my mother proud. It wasn't long that the salt set in and he couldn't drink enough water that evening. Us Southerner's know moderation when it comes to country ham.
Stop in any greasy spoon Southern restaurant and one of the specialties on the breakfast menu is of course country ham and eggs, complete with biscuits and red-eye gravy. You can keep the red-eye grease a.k.a. gravy.
Well, some of the Gestapo from, I think it's the North Carolina's Department of Agriculture, took on the case of the country ham this spring. You see a lot of these mom and pop little country stores will slice you a few slices of a country ham for your own breakfast. The Gestapo was going to have nothing to do with this and went around the last few weeks closing these guys down from the way they've done business for almost a century. The food police were lumping these guys with the big boys who prepare your dinner, saying that whacking a few slices of country ham is really prepared foods. Hogwash.
But all is not lost on our politicians who take their breakfast of country ham seriously. Senator Ham (no I am not kidding) Horton took on the case of the country ham, rushed a law through the legislature, that allowed these old boys to once again start slicing hams, just in time for Easter. Country Ham is also served on very special occasions like Christmas and Easter.
It's refreshing to see politicians can do some good after all. Now, a note to Ham and the boys...work just half this fast at reducing and Raleigh pork barrel. And our taxes.
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I am sure you have heard of the banking industry's plan to begin developing a profile on its customers and our spending habits. They have called it "Know your Customer", but it's much more big brother than that. Many of us have been writing our Senators and Congressmen to express our outrage at such an idea.
I got the following reply from Senator Jesse Helms today. I had gotten a canned (like Jesse's isn't) response from Congressman Richard Burr (5th district-NC), but his came from an autoresponder. At least Jesse's didn't scream form letter. Anyway, write your lawmaker if you haven't already. Here's Jesse's letter:
[Jesse_Helms@helms.senate.gov]
Dear Friend:
I share in your dismay with the proposed "Know Your Customer" regulation proffered by the FDIC. Even well-intentioned government regulations go awry when bureaucrats fail to acknowledge the privacy rights of law-abiding citizens.
I strongly support efforts to bring drug dealers and money launderers to justice, but requiring banks to keep tabs on each and every one of its customers is absolutely unreasonable. Customers should not have to fear harassment from their bank or the federal government whenever they perform a financial transaction that is "inconsistent with the normal and expected transactions" of their accounts.
I am pleased that the FDIC is rapidly backpedaling from its support for "Know Your Customer" regulations. With your help, perhaps
Congress will also get the message that it should bend over backwards to make sure that privacy rights are protected in the computer age.
Kindest regards.
Sincerely,
Jesse Helms
U.S. Senator