ziggybopper's Profile

FYI, email encryption works like this: My email address could be: me@bighost.net Using the Spamstopper program, my address could look something like this if you viewed the code on this page: #109;#97;#105;#108;#116;#111;#58;#115;#111;#109;#101;#111;#110;#101 (modified so your browser doesn't display the address) But if you mouse-overed my user ID after a comment, your browser decrypts this hex code and you'd see this in the browser status bar: me@bighost.net One of the reasons this works is that there are so many freely available email addresses on the net, spammers don't bother to harvest the scrambled addresses. I suppose technically, this isn't really encryption but a scrambling of plain text with hex code. Choosing View Source for this page shows that the commenter's ID is replaced with a javascript. Making it difficult for a spammer to harvest my email address. Using a hex code scramble or a javascript, mouse-over gets you an email address in the status bar. That's the extent of my knowledge on this. Don't know if spammers will be able to harvest these addresses if they really tried. While protecting the email addresses of commenters may be a topic covered in the web design world. This is the first time I've seen it in the popular Mac news blogosphere. Since spam is such a big source of nastiness. Shouldn't we, as users, be advised to demand address protection for commenting and only comment on sites that provide protection?

Simple. Apple designs an OS for users. Microsoft designs an OS for systems administrators. (Can you really explain what all those listed features do?) IIRC, Paul Thurott just did an article on how the security pop-ups in Vista are so frequent and wordy that no one will ever read them and just hit the Enter key, repeatedly. OS X lets a user find a wireless network and join it. Vista has a wizard to get you through all the necessary settings. (Don't personally know if this specific example is totally true, but the overall user experience portrayed is a true representation.) Apple offers OS X and OS X for servers. Microsoft offers four versions of Vista (and another four for Europe/export, and I think another, minimal OS for developing countries). So, I'm a home user who wants to set up a wireless network, do I have to get Vista BU to get "Wireless network provisioning?" I want to communicate with a relative in the old country, do I have to get Vista EN to get "Support for multiple UI languages?" I'm a home user who wants to encrypt my files from spying spouse and use a dual CPU to not take a performance hit; can I need Vista BU to get an "Encrypting File System" and "Support for two physical CPUs?" And get Vista UL to get "PC-to-PC Sync?" Where's my music, photo and web design apps? Get a Mac, it just works.

"Get some Anti-Virus software?" Why? If you get hit with the First Great OS X Virus and you kernel panic, or crash, or can't connect to the internet, how do you download the new virus definitions that obviously don't yet exist? And no mention of backing up your data? You want security? Spend "some Anti-Virus software" money on an external hard drive to back up your data. Ideally, clone your system so you can reboot into a known good system, like maybe a weekly/monthly clone. Secondly, do a daily/weekly backup of your changed data to .Mac, or another external hard drive/partition, or to a DVD. Then when the First Great OS X Virus hits, or your hard drive quits, or you get a lighting power hit, or some update screws up your system; you still have all your data. Buying "some Anti-Virus software" isn't going to do that for you. Meanwhile avoid Nigerian princes and never reply to an email asking you to provide a password (go to the site in question using your browser's bookmarks).