Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 19:50:59 -0700
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 15 MAY 1997 -- JACK UPDATE / VIRUSES
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TODAY'S STOPS: JACK UPDATE / VIRUSES
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/download.html
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/oldversionmac.html
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/oldversion.html
http://cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Virus/
Hi, kids! :)
Since your fearless bus driver is a perpetually poor professional college
student (how's THAT for alliteration!), one of my favorite words in the
entire world is "FREE." In honor of this, the folks at Netcreations and at
The Leebow Letter have some free stuff that they would like to share with
you . . .
*---------------[ FREE Internet Magazine! ]-------------*
Get 2 free issues of The Web Magazine.
Each issue rates over 500 Web sites!
*----------[ http://netcreations.com/mags/t ]-----------*
*---------------------[ The Leebow Letter ]-------------------*
Every Friday receive an info packed newsletter!
Sections include: Sites of the Week, The Net of It,
Hype-O-Rama, and E-mail Rules. To subscribe send e-mail to
*----------------[ TheLeebowLetter@mailback.com ]-------------*
And now, on with the show . . .
IT IS TIME FOR A COMPLETELY UPDATED TICKLISH TESTGUM!
-----------------------------------------------------
Back on March 20th, I wrote:
You Don't Know Jack (the CD-ROM game) was introduced in 1995 by
the folks at Berkeley Systems, and it has been a runaway hit ever
since. You Don't Know Jack is an irreverent (and hysterical)
trivia game show with some of the most unique categories and
trivia questions I have ever seen.
Well, I am happy to announce that the folks at "You Don't Know Jack, The
Netshow" (TOURBUS, 20 March 1997) just released a completely updated (and
completely free) version of the Jack Netshow game engine for Windows 95 and
Mac. From what I can tell, here is what they have changed:
1. The game is quite a bit faster, and the graphics and sound are
much smoother. The graphics and sound are still not as good
as those on the CD-ROM version of You Don't Know Jack
(duh!), but the difference is almost negligible.
2. The total game is now SHORTER. There are now only 8 questions
in each round, instead of 10. In my humble opinion, this is
GREAT . . . the old game used to drag after question 16.
3. There are a couple more commercial breaks. However, since You
Don't Know Jack's commercials are nothing short of AWESOME (my
friends are STILL talking about Jack's "Speed 2" commercial),
the extra commercials are a welcome addition.
4. There is a new host: Cookie (he's the guy who used to ask you
to type in your name in the original version of the game).
This is the only change that I'm not all that exited about --
I really liked the sarcasm of the original host -- but I'll
live. :)
If you have never downloaded the You Don't Know Jack, the Netshow's game
engine, you can find it on the Web -- for FREE -- at
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/download.html
If you have already downloaded the game engine, you can download an updater
program. The Mac updater be found at
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/oldversionmac.html
and the Windows 95 update can be found at
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/oldversion.html
The updater is a tad bit big -- the Mac version comes in at an even 1 MB --
but you should be able to download it in less than 7 minutes at 28.8.
Believe me, folks, this game is WELL worth the download time!
VIRUSES
-------
As promised, I have spent the last couple of weeks searching for the
definitive virus explanation site on the Internet. I was about to give up
and write one myself when I stumbled across Matt Rosoff's "Virus Alert!
How to avoid getting one" article at c|net (TOURBUS, 10 September and 12
September 1996). Once again, c|net has hit another home run!
Rosoff's virus article can be found on the Web at
http://cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Virus/
This entire article is a MUST READ for everyone who ever uses a computer.
Rosoff's article has TEN different sections (WOW!):
A Virus Primer
- What is a virus?
- How viruses developed
- How do viruses spread?
Virus Myths
- Common hoaxes
- 3 ways you can't get a virus
- Errors, malfunctions, and other bugs
Protect yourself
- Prevention: 6 simple steps
- Antivirus software
- How to remove a virus
- Other virus resources
To "read" the article, go to the article's main page and click on the words
"what is a virus?" in the right-hand margin. You can read Rosoff's article
linearly (one section after another), or you can skip from section to
section by clicking on the section titles on the right-hand side of any of
the article's pages.
READ THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE! When you are done, read it again. Hands down,
Rosoff's virus article is the best overall virus information summary I have
ever seen.
Rosoff does leave out one thing from his article, though, that I think is
pretty important: how to virus check files that you download from the
Internet AS YOU DOWNLOAD THEM.
The good news is that this isn't all that difficult to do. There are
bunches of anti-virus programs out there that will do this for you ...
automatically. The bad news is that I have yet to find a *free* anti-virus
program that has this feature. In other words, you're probably going to
have to spend a little money on a commercial anti-virus program to fully
protect yourself from downloading a virus from the Internet.
[What anti-virus program should you buy? That's up to you . . . but a good
place to start looking is Rosoff's article. Rosoff's article has a pretty
good list of commercial anti-virus software vendors that you can contact].
Before you rush out and spend your hard-earned money on an anti-virus
program, though, give me one more week to find some free anti-virus
programs for you that will automatically scan Internet downloads. With
80,000 people reading this post, if such a program exists, I am certain
that someone will tell me about it. :)
Also, you might want to see if your Internet Service Provider, company, or
school has a "site license" that allows them to distribute commercial
anti-virus programs at a discount . . . or, even better, for free. The
cost to repair infected computers is often so high that major organizations
feel it is cheaper for them, in the long run, to give every one of their
users a free copy of a commercial anti-virus program.
Unfortunately, most large organizations do not advertise the fact that they
give out free anti-virus software, so you are going to have to ask around.
Your best bet is to call the helpdesk or technical support at your Internet
Service Provider, company, or school and ask them "do you have a site
license to distribute anti-virus software?" (While you are at it, you
might as well ask them if the have a site license to distribute any other
type of software as well . . . as I said at the beginning of today's
TOURBUS, my favorite word is "FREE!").
If they do have a site license, go get your free anti-virus software NOW!
GO! STOP READING! GO! If they don't, give me a week to find some free
anti-virus software that will virus check files as they are downloaded from
the Net. If such a beast exists, I'll find it and tell you about it next
week. :)
TODAY'S STOPS: JACK UPDATE / VIRUSES
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/download.html
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/oldversionmac.html
http://www.jacknetshow.com/gm11/htmls/oldversion.html
http://cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Virus/
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
THRIT (noun) - an intention to inflict evil.
Usage: "Bubba is a serious thrit to society"
(Special thanks to Bob Klepfer for today's word.) :)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
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.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
/o o \/ .~ The University of Alabama
{o_, \ { crispen@campus.mci.net
/ , , ) \ http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/
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_( ( )_.' Warning: squirrels.
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