Complete Internet Protection? Not Yet!

Dennis O'Reilly says to the short list of life's certainties--death and taxes--we can now add "Web threats."

Early indications are that there will be no quick fix for clickjacking, which enables a PC to be infected with malicious software simply by clicking a disguised link on a Web page.

All browsers are equally vulnerable, and there appears to be no sure solution, at least in the short term. Even disabling JavaScript and other advanced Web features won't prevent an infection.

Does this mean you should cancel your broadband account and dig out the ham radio? I don't recommend it. In fact, reports such as these show the folly of believing that our Web browsing is ever completely safe.

No hardware or software will ever be 100 percent secure. Yes, keep your antivirus definitions up-to-date. Yes, use a firewall.

Download and install Giorgio Maone's NoScript extension for Firefox (donation requested) to gain site-by-site control over the scripts that run in the browser.

But even these precautions are no substitute for common sense. Be careful about the sites you visit and the links you click. View your e-mail as plain text; Microsoft's support site provides instructions for doing so in Outlook 2003 and 2007. In Mozilla Thunderbird, simply click View, Message Body As, Plain Text.

Last, but definitely not least, every PC user must acknowledge that the day will dawn when their system crashes for good--whether due to a malware attack or (more likely) a hardware or software failure. Keep your data backed up!

In addition to creating an image backup of your hard drive once or twice a year, using a program such as Acronis' True Image Home (15-day free trial), try an online backup service to keep your important data files fresh.

Nifty New Kitchen Gadget!

Making decisions can be difficult. Even when the choices presented offer a win/win result. I happen to like cheese. So, if I am faced with a simple choice, say cheddar or Swiss, it can be hard to decide between the two--or the myriad of other possibilities that exist. As you can imagine, grocery shopping for me can sometimes be quite an ordeal.

Luckily, I am comfortable and aware of my indecision while in the supermarket. My solution? Purchase one of each. But what of those times that making a choice leads to a commitment? No, I'm not talking of anything too serious, just choices that are somewhat important--such as which bottle of wine to open, the red or the white?

Sometimes a product comes along that actually does make life easier. The Skybar Wine Preservation & Optimization System from Frontgate is just such a device. Three independently chilled chambers store your wine and keeps them ready at their optimum temperature.

Each chamber is equipped with a pouring spout that smoothly decants your wine of choice directly into your glass. Vacuum technology preserves open bottles of wine for up to 10 days.
With three chambers, the choice between red and white is obsolete. Simply open one of each.

Now if I could only figure out what to put in the third chamber.

Do Sports Drinks Provide "Energy?"

We've had sports drinks around for years. These beverages generate sales of over $3 billion in the USA alone! The implication has always been that these energy drinks will give a person energy.

But, it's important to realize that "energy" is derived from calories. The truth is that ANY drink (or food) that has calories gives a person energy. So, technically speaking, orange juice, iced tea, non-diet soda and white wine are also energy drinks.

Of course, what's being marketed to consumers as energy drinks is a different story altogether. The standard ingredients included are sugar, some vitamins, amino acids and herbs. But the real "buzz" comes from a hefty dose of caffeine.

The exact amount of caffeine is rarely listed on the label. One beverage though claims 170 miligrams of caffeine in a 1-ounce "shot" and another beverage notes 350 miligrams in 2.5 ounces.

Concerns about the consumption of too much of caffeine shouldn't be taken lightly. In a three-year period, 265 cases of "caffeine abuse" were reported to the Illinois Poison Control Center in Chicago. 37 were from dietary supplements and 41 were from "caffeine enhanced beverages".

In nearly 12 percent of the 265 cases, the patients were hospitalized for serious medical complications from caffeine! Pass me that bottle of water.

The Lack of Women in Engineering

According to a recent report published by Evaluation Engineering magazine, very few women (only 5% of the respondents to their annual survey), display the title of engineer on their business cards.

One reason for this might be a perception by many that girls don't do as well in math and science as boys. Recent research by UW-Madison however, found that this perception is not at all accurate.

They gathered data on students in 10 states, including math scores from state exams, gender, grade level, etc. After crunching the numbers, they found that the average scores were the SAME for girls and boys.

The scores showed that just as many girls as boys landed in the top scoring percentiles. Also, data showed that girls could handle complex problem solving equally as well as males.

First Lady Laura Bush is an Honorary Chair for the Extraordinary Women Engineers Project. It is an awareness and outreach effort designed to encourage young women to select engineering as a career and to develop a new generation of role models for those already in the field.

So, if you happen to be an engineer yourself, go home tonight and tell your daughters all about the challenging engineering work and why you enjoy it. YOU can make a difference!

Look to the Sky for Great Wi-Fi!

Well, business travelers among us can no longer hide on those long cross-country flights. Earlier this week, American Airlines became the first commercial airline to offer it's passsengers full in-flight wireless access. Their new service, GoGo, an air-to-ground broadband system, is available on Boeing 767-200 non-stop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles and New York and Miami.

You'll still have to keep your laptop "off" until the aircraft reaches 10,000 feet but after that, passengers will be able to connect to check their emails, pay bills and socially network. It would be great to see people on an airplane actually talk to each other, but you know how that goes.

Anyway, this service will cost @12.95 per session for flights in excess of three hours. The service can also be accessed by smartphones and PDA's. So much for that good long nap on that coast-to-coast flight!

An Apple a Day?

According to The American Cancer Society, apples are proof that good health DOES grow on trees! Disease-fighting substances have been found both in the fruit's flesh and peel. Research suggests that antioxidants in apples may protect against breast, colon and liver cancers. Pectin, another apple substance, may help lower bad cholesterol. Like other fruits and vegetables, apples provide dietary fiber, which has been linked to reduced risk for cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity!

Making a Home Fire Escape Plan!

Every second counts during a fire. Families should practice their home fire escape drill so that it becomes second nature. Here are some tips that Underwriters Laboratories recommends for families as they develop their own fire escape plans:

• Draw a simple floor plan of your home, making sure you have two exits from every room, including windows.


• Write "Call 911" on the escape plan.


• Post the plan in a central location, such as a refrigerator door, and encourage family members to memorize it.


• Make sure everyone recognizes the sound a smoke detector makes and knows to get out of the home immediately.


• Rehearse the escape plan until everyone understands it.


• NEVER re-enter a burning building for any reason!

The above was brought to you by our friends at UL!