From: crispen@NETSQUIRREL.COM
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 6 AUGUST 1998 -- EUDORA PROBLEM / TRAVELZOO

This post contains inline ASCII graphics that look best in a monospace
font like Courier. Text-to-speech readers should turn off punctuation
now.
   ___________ ____________ _______ __________ _____________ ___ _
  /           |           /        |          |             /   | \
 |       HEY, | RIDE THE / BUS AND | SURF FOR | FREE!      /    |  \
 |____________|_________/__________|__________|___________/     |   \
/                                                        /______|----\
|  SURFREE.COM (surf-free-dot-com) n. 1. A Nationwide    |//////|    |
| Provider of unlimited Net access for $14.95 / month.   |//////|    |
| 2. An opportunity for AOL users to save $84 annually.  |//////|    |
| 3. A fast, reliable means of riding Tourbus & surfing  |//////|    |
| the Web. See also: EASY, 56K access, 24/7 tech support |//////|    |
|      >>> http://www.tourbus.com/surfree.cgi <<<        |//////|    |
\________________________________________________________|______|____|
/   \ /   \                                                 /   \
\___/ \___/    T h e  I n t e r n e t  T o u r B u s        \___/

     TODAY'S TOURBUS STOPS:   EUDORA MAIL PROBLEM / TRAVELZOO
     TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESSES:
          EUDORA SECURITY ALERT
             http://eudora.qualcomm.com/security.html
          TRAVELZOO
             http://www.travelzoo.com/

I want to thank everyone for their help in showing me where I could
find information on Bahamian companies.  The information everyone
provided helped me to conclude an investigation I have been working on
for the past two months.  Before we get to that, though, I want to
test everyone's research abilities one more time:

     A couple of years ago I saw a TV show where museum officials
     covered the surfaces of great paintings with a rubberized epoxy.
     The epoxy was then peeled off, giving the officials a negative
     of the artist's brush strokes.  This negative could then be used
     to make hyper-realistic copies of that painting.

      Does anyone know more about this process or where you can
      purchase these copies?  I really think this would make a great
      TOURBUS stop.  :)

With that said, let us pay some bills and get today's tour underway.
Make sure to visit today's sponsors and thank them for keeping our
little bus of Internet happiness on the road week after week.  :)

-------------> SAVE MONEY!  SAVE MONEY!  SAVE MONEY! <---------------
         Refill your inkjet printer. Black ink: $21.95/pint.
               Color: $23.95/pint.  Call 1-888-728-2465
                         or visit our Website
           Here!
-------------> http://www.oddparts.com/ink/tour.htm <---------------

--------------> JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY PANEL <--------------
              Answer Questions on Interesting Topics and
             Win $$$ Prizes. Email: Info@AdvisoryPanel.com
        Or  Click!
-------------------> http://www.advisorypanel.com <------------------

And now, on with the show ...

--------------------------------------
NOTE TO EUDORA PRO 4.0 AND 4.0.1 USERS
--------------------------------------

When it rains, it pours.  In my last post we talked about a potential
email vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express,
and Netscape Messenger (Mail).  Well, a new, unrelated problem has
been discovered that affects users of the Windows versions of Eudora
Pro Email 4.0 and 4.0.1, as well as users of Eudora Pro CommCenter 4.0
and 4.0.1.  (By the way, Eudora Light users, users of previous
versions of Eudora Pro, and Macintosh users are *NOT* susceptible to
this new problem.  This new problem *only* affects Windows users of
Eudora Pro 4.0 or Eudora Pro 4.0.1 -- in other words, me).

I'm not going to bore everyone with the details of this new problem
(it really isn't all that exciting), but if you use the Windows
version of Eudora Pro 4.0 or 4.0.1, you need to visit

      here.

This page tells you everything you need to know.  :)

-------------
TRAVELZOO.COM
-------------

Many of you may have seen a message floating around the Net recently
asking you

     Would you like three free shares in a new start up company?
     They are a new Internet travel agent looking to get their name
     out.  You will get three free shares by registering on their web
     site.  They are giving away 700,000 free shares in order to get
     their name out.  When the company goes public ... who knows you
     could make a few bucks.  What is in it for me you ask?  Well,
     they will give you extra shares for referring friends.

The message instructs you to go to "www.travelzoo.com" and click on
the "Want to become a co-owner?" link in the upper right hand corner
of the screen.

To be completely honest, when I first received the travelzoo message a
few months ago I automatically assumed it was a hoax.  A few weeks
later, after several hundred TOURBUS riders forwarded me copies of the
travelzoo letter asking me to look into the message's claims, I became
convinced it was a hoax.

It appears I was wrong.  After almost two months of investigation,
everything I have found so far leads me to believe that the travelzoo
message is one hundred percent legitimate.

A WHOIS search (http://internic.net/cgi-bin/whois) of the domain name
"travelzoo.com" shows that it is registered to "Ralph Bartel Internet
Ventures, Inc.," in Palo Alto, California.  According to Lexis/Nexis
database information provided by the California Secretary of State's
office, Ralph Bartel Internet Ventures is an officially registered
California corporation, and the president is named Holger Bartel.  Mr.
Bartel informs me, however, that travelzoo.com and Ralph Bartel
Internet Ventures are two separate entities.

A further search of the Lexis/Nexis database could find no news
stories about "Ralph Bartel," "Holger Bartel," or "travelzoo.com," nor
could it find any past or pending lawsuits associated with any of
these names.  [So far, so good.]

The Better Business Bureau in Palo Alto confirms that the Bureau has
no file on either Ralph Bartel Internet Ventures or travelzoo.com.
[Even better.  Not having a file with the Better Business Bureau means
that no complaints have been filed against the company.]

On travelzoo's FAQ page (at http://www.travelzoo.com/faq.htm),
travelzoo's response to the question "Will I receive share
certificates?" is

     No.  The names of shareholders are being kept in an electronic
     register at travelzoo.com headquarters (in accordance with
     corporate law of the Bahamas).

In a personal email message to me, Mr. Ralph Bartel reiterated that
"travelzoo.com is incorporated in The Bahamas."  The Office of the
Registrar General in Nassau, the Bahamas, confirms that travelzoo
became an officially registered Bahamian company on May 21.

The only odd thing I found during my entire investigation was that,
according to documents obtained from the California Secretary of
State's office (via Lexis/Nexis), Ralph Bartel Internet Ventures has a
"registered office" in Santa Monica.  Sources in Santa Monica tell me
that this address is actually the address of an apartment in Santa
Monica's Sea Colony apartment complex.  I am not concerned about this,
though, because Mr. Bartel claims, and independent evidence supports
the claim, that travelzoo and Ralph Bartel Internet Ventures are
separate entities.  [Besides, anyone who investigated me would
discover I write all of my TOURBUS posts in *my* apartment in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama.]

In summary, after almost two months of investigation, everything I
have found so far leads me to believe that the travelzoo message is
one hundred percent legitimate.

------------------------
SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
------------------------

PALLET (noun).  Aircraft operator.
Usage: "Cousin Hank wonts ta be a pallet in the morene corp."

(Special thanks to Joe DeMaio for today's wurd)

You can find *ALL* of the old Southern Words of the day  here.


=====================[ TOURBUS Rider Information ]===================
   The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
      Copyright 1995-98, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
            Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com

 Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
 Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

    Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to hop on the Bus!
=====================================================================

           .~~~.  ))
 (\__/)  .'     )  ))       Patrick Douglas Crispen
 /o o  \/     .~
{o_,    \    {              crispen@netsquirrel.com
  / ,  , )    \           http://www.netsquirrel.com/
  `~  '-' \    } ))
 _(    (   )_.'               Warning: squirrels.
'---..{____}

TOURBUS
HOME PAGE
LINUX
TUTORIAL
TOURBUS
ARCHIVES
, viruses, hoaxes, urban legends, search engines, cookies, cool sites
TOURBUS Site Search