Huntington West Virginia Blog - Computer Technology

Computer technology jobs in Huntington West Virginia

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:58:59 -0500

I am wondering if computer technology jobs will ever come to Huntington West Virginia, or is this hometown of mine destined to become the call center capitol of the tele-spammer world.

Many of these computer technology jobs can be done from home by well trained workers. Many system administrators and programmers work from home to manage remote networks. In short it is possible to live in Huntington and work in California online.

Huntington and the Cabell County schools need to rise to the occasion, and start teaching computer literacy and lower level computer technology skills in the public schools. This is especially true in high school.

I favor making basic computer literacy skills a mandatory requirement for graduation from high school. By basic computer literacy I mean the use of email and a web browser to learn how to find information and communicate online.

I also favor removing computers from grade schools with the exception of TAG programs and faculty. Grade school students are at least 7 years away from graduation, and the systems that are learned in grade schools will be massively obsolete by the time that the kids are ready to enter the work force. It is better to teach computer skills to high schools students and use the big money that was spent in grade schools on computer technology vocational programs that will result in jobs for graduates. If we spent as much money teaching computer skills to adults as we do to grade school kids, there would be much more technology jobs in this state.

Stephanie Heck

search engine optimization

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 20:19:46 -0400

A little note on my effort in the field off Computer Technology. I have been doing a lot of search engine optimization work recently (SEO). This is where I take a web page with little or no traffic and optimize it for the search engines to be more visible to the intended audience. It is a sub specialty of webmaster work which I am widely known for. If you need this done for your website contact me and we will see what you need to get the traffic you deserve.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/huntington

Internet Addiction Obsession

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Fri, 26 May 2006 10:21:01 -0400

Some people suffer Internet addiction to message boards and chat rooms in much the same way that some co-dependent people wrap themselves up in the life of another person. Message board addiction is a form of group codependency mixed with a touch of Internet obsession in my opinion. Internet addiction and obsession seems to manifest itself differently in males and females.

The Males tend to suffer addiction or become obsessed with porn websites. When men get emotionally addicted it seems to be almost always over sex or vehicles or animate or inanimate object of desire. With men addiction and obsession seems to center around lust of some type in my observations. This is especially true of younger males.

Obsession with online shopping is very common among middle and upper class women. If you guys don't believe that, then turn your wife's shopping addiction loose with your credit card on e-bay or the home shopping club network website and you will get the point when you get the bill. In reality and from a programmers perspective, online shopping websites are merely message boards with pictures of merchandise and buttons that take you to a credit card page.

Working class single Women generally tend to get obsessed to the point of emotional addiction with chat rooms or message boards because the interactive group dynamics are different and less political than groups in the physical realm, and they do offer a way to network with others. This is particularly true of single women who being lonely, create an online family of sorts to self validate as member of a network of support that may not exist in the real world.

Nowhere is Internet addiction worse than among middle class teenage girls who are very emotionally isolated and in need of support from friendly community of sorts, that is sometimes found online. If you are a teacher, you need to be aware of this so that you will recognize the symptoms and refer to guidance counselors. With thee girls they tend to use the computer as an escape from the stresses of teenage life and the biological stress of puberty.

Some people post inflammatory and hateful things in chat rooms and on message boards as self appointed guardians of the online group that has become the thinly veiled focus of their addiction / obsession and this is disturbing to those who do not understand the nature of Internet addiction. If someone Else's website is making a person get so profoundly wound up that they are being hateful to another human being, then perhaps they need to contemplate whether or not it is time to log off for a while until the real world common sense composure overcomes their online persona. Rational people in the full possession of their dignity do not get enraged at persons they have never met. The online persona is sometimes prone to overload their real world common sense in an Internet addict and this is where fantasy and reality part company in Internet addiction. The Internet offers people with Internet Addiction the ability to cloak themselves as the person they would like to be as opposed to the person that they really are, and this is where there is not much connection to truth and reality.

The advent of the computer age has created new challenges and new types of addiction, obsession, and emotional disturbances that we would have never dreamed of 20 years ago. Information technology is giving us new insight into ourselves but why should that surprise us? Every biology and anatomy book tells us that the human brain is a biological computer, and therefore logic tells us that human group dynamics are the result of a network between biological computers between our ears. There are two types of people who have an intense understanding of Internet addiction, and one is a mental health professional with modern training, and the other is an Internet professional who has seen it all online. Expertise can be established by empirical experience or academics because the problem is so new that the academic literature and documentation is to some degree sparse.

I am not a shrink, just a dumb programmer who has far more contextual insight than some think I do.

Stephanie Heck

EULA Spyware

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:07:21 -0500

The following is intended as free computer technology advice for our many readers in the Huntington West Virginia area about how to keep your computer free of spyware and protect your online privacy. When you download a program from the internet, you will be confronted with an End User License Agreement commonly known in the internet industry as a EULA. It will ask you if you agree or disagree with the terms of usage of the EULA as a condition of allowing the install to go forward. As a programmer who has been victimized by software piracy in the past, I think Eula's are a pretty good tool to establish who owns what. However all tools can be abused. EULA's are merely tools that were originally intended to establish the conditions of usage and to determine who owns what rights as it relates to the software. Most internet users do not read the EULA because many of them are written in legalese that your average computer user does not understand. In today's digital online environment, tools are frequently abused by unscrupulous programmers and software companies against the consumer by adding spyware to the program to monitor the consumers actions. Most ethical people see this as patently unethical and it is unlawful in some jurisdictions. For the record I wish to state emphatically that I have never included spy ware in anything I have written for others. Whenever you download and install a new program, read the EULA ( End User License Agreement ) carefully. Some programs include a notice that the software reports the user use of the software to the software company or author. If you use a software program with such a notice, it report on your online activities and you have consented to have your machine monitored. Many of the so called "file sharing" programs that are on the market for kids to share music with each other have spyware built into them. Most of them do. When a teenager installs these programs on mom and dads computer it often times reports on the user actions of all users of the machine. Some of these spyware applications ride "piggyback" on the installed programs download from the net. You do not always know when spyware is there. If something is downloaded from a gambling or adult website it is a high probability that spyware is included, as many of these websites are operated by people with the ethics of snakes. There is a type of cookie that is called a tracking cookie intended to monitor your internet habits that can be loaded on your computer by simply visiting the wrong website. In short there is a plentiful supply of spyware on the internet. Many different types of spyware will report to its programmer the default e mail address on the e mail program on the users machine. The harvested data / information that is gathered by spyware is often sold to spammers and this is where much spam comes from. If you download a spyware laden program, there is a good possibility that you will be up to your rump in spam two weeks later if not sooner. There is a free program called Spybot Search and Destroy that removes all kinds of spyware and some well known Trojans, password stealer's, pop up downloads, porn dialer's, and browser hijackers from your machine. It removes some pretty nasty stuff if it finds it on your machine. This program is frequently updated to keep up with the evolution of malefic software. I highly recommend this free program to all of my customers. More info can be found here at the this link.

Spybot A download link is on that page.

Disclaimer: I am NOT the author of the free program and I am not compensated by any entity to promote that free program. I advocate this program for free. The program and its included updates are free. I would be interested to how many of you use this program to clean the malefic garbage out of your machine. It works... and the price is right.

Stephanie Heck / Huntington West Virginia

Huntington WV Computer Professionals

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 07:49:21 -0400

I would like to meet other Computer Professionals who live in the Huntington West virginia area that have an interest in advanced web based technology.

I am a Linux web server network admin with a specialty in search engine optimization and keyword density enhancement for SEO in the linux platform.

I also specialize in MySQL driven PHP business applications, and content management applications, that are hosted server side with a web based html style graphic user interface to display data driven applications via port 80 with Apache 2.0 on a Fedora Box. I also do PHP / CGI tweaking and customization of freeware from sourceforge.

If you actually understood what I just said, I would like to meet you.

Google PageRank PR

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:23:00 -0400

Google.com has stopped their pagerank PR service this long weekend. That is the little green bar visable on the Google Toolbar that tells you how inportant a page is on the web, now all the webs sites accross the web have ZERO rank. Your toobar is not broken and your sites have not lost rank, every site reads zero. I do not know if this is a temporary problem, but I hope it is, and I hope Google will resolve this issue. Google PageRank when legitimately earned gives a website credibility as an internet presence. There is some evidence to believe this is a technical problem at google, but I am hoping PR is not dead on the google toolbar. The sheck domain is well ranked and I would hate to see google do away with PageRank.Note: 31 May 2005. Google PageRank PR is back up and running as it is supposed to do.

Computer Technology and Presumption of Innocence

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:51:06 -0400

Computer Technology and Presumption of Innocence:

I have seen the Internet grow since its infancy, and I am very worried for the sake of our liberty. The credit reporting agencies freuently make mistakes and blame it on the computer, it does not matter if you dont get the loan because the computer has usurped the infallibility that was at one time reserved to the creator alone.

We are expected to passively acknowlege that God and computers work in mysterious ways and they are always correct.

Any victim of identity theft can affirm that once you are accused or found guilty by a computer, you are guilty until proven innocent, and there is just something a little wrong with that in the context of American values.

We live in an era when your credit score is everything.

I don't recall anyone passing a law giving machines the right to evaluate humans, we dumb humans take a test drive in a new car because we think we have a right to evaluate machines. Then we ask the banks computer to determine if we are qualified to buy the car that we have evaluated, and hope the banks computer evaluates us kindly.

Self Contradiction is an understatement on the path to digital tyranny.

I fondly remember the days when people had more rights than machines in the days before the presumption of innocence and good character were eroded by digital monsters of our own making.

Is free web page hosting really free?

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 13:06:00 -0500

The purpose of this posting is to bluntly present the facts as it relates to "FREE" web hosting services. I am in the web hosting business and the point of my blog is to articulate rather than make money. I am out to make a point or two, offer insight, and educate a little, and nothing more. I want you to understand just how the hosting business works in both a good and bad light. In short I am giving you a brutally honest insight as to how the hosting business operates with no holds barred. My use of CAPS for phrases is intended to denote emphasis, and not emotional volume.

Some people talk about wanting high security web sites, with all the security bells and whistles. Then they follow up by posting a web site with "FREE" hosting providers. How can honest businesses possibly hope to compete with the chimera of "free"? Due to the fact that it is not free after a period of time?

Maybe free is a chimera?

As a hosting provider, I am gratified that my many customers are smart enough to think that there is something to be said for the old axiom "you get what you pay for"....it is most kind of them to keep me from starving.

There are TWO business models for hosting web sites.

The DIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL and the INDIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL.

DIRECT TRANSACTION Hosting providers such as myself by definition have contractual obligations to domain owners who host domains with them. When you directly pay for hosting you have the contractual right to services based on a DIRECT TRANSACTION between the content owner and the host. It is a simple subscription type transaction. Under the DIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL you pay for a service directly to the host as a website owner. DIRECT TRANSACTION MODELS allow site owners the option of putting ads on a web site if they choose. The hosts primary obligation is to push the content of the domain owners site and the domain owner retains full control of content and context of use.

Personally speaking...My business is predicated on a DIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL that gives the site owner far more rights.. Honest hosting providers charge a reasonable fee for an honest service. If you pay me ten dollars to host a domain....that will be nice. You will have an ad free web site, with no spy cookies for your visitors. You will get an honest service for a reasonable fee. This is based on a direct transaction business model. My customers are smart enough to understand that unless you pay something (even a token amount) to the hosting provider, you have no contractual control rights over your content whatsoever. Get the picture? NOTHING in the hosting business is free as long as someone is getting paid to host it. The Axiom of "there ain't no free lunch" is applicable in cyberspace.

Under the "FREE" A.K.A. INDIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL, the web site owner is merely viewed by the host as a content provider to "bait" viewers to see the ads that actually pay the bills. The advertisers indirectly pay the cost of hosting the site. This business of "FREE" hosting is an urban myth. These so called "FREE" hosts are in reality internet advertising agencies who own web servers. "FREE" is a urban myth because server bandwidth is NOT free and the bills must get paid. Hosting costs are either paid by site owners, or by advertisers, but the hosting provider gets paid one way or the other ...or they go bankrupt. It is that simple.

INDIRECT TRANSACTION MODELS allow the web sites content to be added to advertising by the host. The advertising is primary in consideration and the site content is merely a means to get the site visitor to see the ads. It is debatable if it is free site hosting for the site owner, or free content for the ad selling host. You are in fact giving your consent and digital content to the host to be embellished with the providers ads in exchange for server access. The advertiser is using your content as a free gift to embellish his advertising. When you host your site on a "FREE" A.K.A. INDIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL server you are in actually donating your content to the advertisers who buy ads from the host. It is in truth... a barter deal with a advertising agency. Barter is much different than "FREE".Hosting web sites costs money, and the only difference between allegedly "FREE" and FEE based hosting providers is determined by the degree of rights held by the site owner, and secondly the method of payment of hosting costs being directly with the domain owner, or indirectly through advertisers.

Allegedly "FREE" A.K.A. INDIRECT TRANSACTION MODEL hosts can do what they wish with your content, and you have no recourse against them. They are solely obligated to their advertisers. The cost of hosting your web site is based on an INDIRECT TRANSACTION between the hosting provider and the advertiser, bypassing the direct transaction with the site owner.

Some hosting providers sell their services to advertisers and some sell to domain owners...but "FREE" is an urban myth and a joke because the host gets paid one way or another. If you don't pay with money you pay with your reputation, when you have no veto rights in relation to the type of wild and vulgar ads get put on your site by the "Free" host, but you WILL pay one way or the other. In fact the fees get paid one way or another, and this negates and debunks the existence of FREE.

"FREE" providers go "belly up" on a regular basis.. and the pop up ads and marketing data harvested from spy-cookies are what keeps them in business. All you need is a downturn in internet advertising, and you can watch your hard work on your site evaporate as your site goes down when that happens. I think free hosting providers are great....if you want banner ads for online casino's and kinky adult pop-ups all over your spyware-cookie infested web site. Go look at the "FREE" websites on the geo-cities server to get the gist of what I mean. Don't forget to turn your browser security up to maximum before going. Tripod.com is another good example of "FREE". Do I make my point?

Talkcity.com used to give away free web sites several years ago, until there was a depression in the internet advertising business and they deleted 100,000 "FREE" web sites hosted on their servers because they no longer generated income from ads. Do you get the point?

Direct or indirect payment is completely irrelevant to the fact that the host is getting paid for hosting content. I think that I have made my point. I hope this gives a little more insight about "Free" hosting.

You are far better off to buy a dirt cheap hosting package than to use an allegedly free service. Because the token payment gives you specific legal rights that vary from place to place. If you pay nothing you do not have a right to expect full control. And if you pay nothing YOU HAVE NO RIGHT to control. Bottom Line: Hosting providers retain any and all rights not specifically protected by the hosting subscription, and those who do not pay a Hosting subscription fee to the host.... do not have "a legal leg to stand on" in the event of a dispute.

If you pay even a token HOSTING SUBSCRIBER fee to a hosting provider....you are deemed to be a "hosting subscriber" to a "publishing service". A cheap subscription is as good as an expensive one. The size of the fee is irrelevant to anything but the scope of website features. It is treated as a rental of server space contract under the law. It is a digital tenancy on the hosting server in essence. This is true in countries who base the legal tradition on the English Common Law. ( U.S. , Canada , U.K., Australia, NZ, India and Hong Kong China to some extent.) The laws of the subscribers country protect the subscriber to some extent. However the hosting provider is obligated to abide by the laws of the country where the hosting hardware actually exists, while the tenants / subscribers county is only relevant to the rights of the subscriber.

Currently I offer a reasonable service for a reasonable fee at http://sheck.com

Maybe I need to change my business model and start offering free web page hosting to those who deserve it? Remember that "free" wooden horse at the gates of Troy?

There is one NOTABLE exception to the two types of Hosting Models (direct and indirect) that I delineated earlier in my article.

That exception being AOL.

AOL gives its MEMBERS the "privilege and capacity" to publish a web page on the AOL user server but it is NOT part of your INTRANET MEMBER access fee rights.

AOL has a large number of lawyers on the payroll. Terms of service are complex with much legalese and the end users are perplexed.

When you pay your Monthly MEMBERSHIP Fee to America Online, it is specific to ACCESS to INTRANET FEATURES such as MEMBER ONLY chat rooms, and buddy lists. You are paying only for MEMBER ACCESS and ONLY access to MEMBER RESTRICTED INTRANET. AOL Segregates MEMBERS ONLY INTRANET and INTERNET features. Why.....Because AOL operates on a MIXED MODEL of DIRECT and INDIRECT INTERNET Hosting to maximize profits from web page publishers. If you publish a web page on AOL you will discover banner ads on your web pages placed there by AOL even though you are a PAID MEMBER. Subscribers and members are two different things.

AOL is set up on a model of a computer users club that sells MEMBERSHIPS to INTRANET and NOT INTERNET.

AOL MEMBERS only have a RIGHT to such PRIVILAGES to ACCESS as the CLUB MANAGEMENT grants to them.

AOL's MEMBER AGREEMENT and terms of service is basically is modeled on a "DIGITAL COUNTRY CLUB MEMBERSHIP"

If an AOL MEMBER claims to be a SUBSCRIBER, he will find himself confronted with thirty corporate lawyers who beg to differ. You will be told that MEMBERSHIPS are subject to termination at will by club management AT SUFFERANCE with minimal or no liability. AOL refers to its customers as MEMBERS in its advertising for just exactly this reason. The MEMBERSHIP customer has privileges but not a single right. This is why AOL sells MEMBERSHIPS and NOT SUBSCRIPTIONS because they get your money and the advertising revenue as well when they place ads on the content of any web pages that you put on the AOL servers.

YOUR AVERAGE AOL USER does not know the difference between INTRANET MEMBERSHIP and INTERNET SUBSCRIBER. Your average grandmother with her first computer does not have the digital skills and insight to tell the difference between an agreement that supports her rights, and one that does not. The knowledge of this is restricted to computer and legal professionals for the most part.

However many computer users are much more sophisticated than they used to be and AOL has lost a huge number of MEMBERS as a result, but they have not lost a single INTERNET SUBSCRIBER because they have none. So I advise you AOL users to enjoy those banner ads on your AOL web pages. Your MEMBERSHIPFEE does not make you a INTERNET SUBSCIBER with immunity to those ads on your web page content. Publishing a web page is a PRIVILAGE and not a RIGHT in a users membership club. This is true in ALL users clubs. Club members have privileges but not rights.

"FREE" web page publishers are in reality advertising agencies that merely own web servers. They accept donations of content to embellish advertising, but they don't do anything for free. Free is an urban myth.

I have attempted to cut through the legalese and explain to people the difference between a subscriber agreement, a membership agreement, and a computer users club agreement as well as direct and indirect hosting models This last week or so I have been in a "get to the bottom line sort of mood". Now perhaps you end users will understand why digital professionals detest AOL so much.

I hope this little Expose has been enlightening. I wish to leave you with a thought.

"Surfing the web" is when you go looking for websites, "Spam" is a byproduct of websites that come looking for you. Perhaps Mr. Newton had a point in declaring that all actions have an opposite and equal reaction.

Stephanie Heck

Send email to webmaster at sheck dot com

Blogging Software Recommendation

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 05:58:40 -0500

For those of you who do not have a blogging application on your web site, I highly advise to get one. RSS blog feeds are really big right now, and thus blogs are a search engine magnet. I use a blogging program called Serendipity available for linux servers at www.s9y.org Good stuff for those who wish to use blogging to enhance your web presense. You do need root access to install this if your server is running in safe mode.

Several of my customers have this software and they all love it as I run a small hosting ISP for a living

The Serendipity software has a WYSIWYG HTML editor built into it. It is PHP - MySQL driven and it has one little Java applet built in to it. The editor. The rest is PHP. I do Highly recommend that you try blogging. It is fun in addition to the technical benifits.

Stephanie

Sys Admin/ Sheck.com

Send email to: webmaster at sheck dot com

Linux

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 22:24:25 -0500

Thoughts about Linux: The newest Macintosh / Apple machines have the traditional Apple/Mac desktop interface but the OS is a Linux Kernel ported to the Motorola processor. That's right folks the newest Mac's are an Apple version of Linux that differs little from other flavors of Linux except that it is configured for the Motorola processor as opposed to the Intel X86 chipset architecture. If you add a 32 bit Windows emulator this means the machine can run Windows, Macintosh, and Linux software on the same machine. Read up on this and learn more before deciding the future of information technology.If you remember a few years back, understand that the original windows 3.1 OS ran the Windows GUI ( Graphic User Interface) as a PROGRAM running ON TOP of a DOS operating system. Windows 95 was the first version of windows that Integrated the proprietary GUI with the OS. Windows is the only OS that does this integration. With other Operating systems the GUI is not integrated but merely an application running on top of the OS much like Windows 3.1 was structured years ago..This is why Linux offers a choice of several Desktop interfaces and a multitude of browser choices.. There is one interface that is similar to Windows in its look and feel.Many new Linux users make the mistake of treating a Linux machine like a windows machine or expecting it to behave like a windows machine. The primary theory behind Linux is To hell with Bill Gates, I want choices. DOS was an OS and Windows is basically an interactive television. It has been the intention of Microsoft to make windows machines a node on an interactive television network since the beginning.

Why do you think NBC became MS-NBC ? Why did AOL merge with Time Warner. Bill gates is greedy but he is not stupid. DVD's are desktop digital TV, and as bandwidth speed goes up in the future Windows will become even more "multimedia capable" A.K.A. Interactive television. It has ben planned out that way since Windows 95 first hit the market.The purpose of Windows is to restrict your choices to those that Microsoft thinks best for you, Linux has no restrictions and is designed to fit the needs of the user as the user defines them, and therefore the Linux user does not need training wheels in the use of the machine. Linux is way beyond the control of the conglomerates and the agenda that motivates them.Linux is much less prone to crash than a Windows machine, because it is much more stable than Windows. I have a Windows machine that I call the Blue Screen Express because it crashes frequently right before I save my work....I have nicknamed that Machine The KamikazeThe best way to describe the debate between Linux and Windows is to compare the capitalism of the Wall Street Software Vendors who treat data as a legal commodity to be sold, in contrast to the digital intellectual socialism of the open source Linux community who collaborate on digital projects in the style of a Networked programmers kibbutz and treat data like food, each person has a right to as much as they need to consume. Windows is a proprietary system managed by corporate lawyers, and Linux is a collective compilation managed by programmers collaborating along a socialist model in the style of an intellectual Both systems are viable, but it is digital capitalism vs. digital socialism, and it has created a remake of the digital cold war online....COLD WAR II

Wall street software vendors play an active role in Windows Ware but are merely linited to the software market in Linux because they cannot control the operating system. A linux machine is a computer that is happy to be a computer for its owner, Window's in contrast is merely a primative interactive TV.
A high tech rehash of old technology.
Stephanie Heckwebmaster@sheck.com

Good Computer Advice

stephanie@sheck.com (Huntington West Virginia) — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 02:05:13 -0500

Good Computer Advice

By Stephanie Heck

There are too many people opening infected e mail attachments, and getting virus infected machines as a result. Too many young children are using computers without proper supervision.

The rules and guidelines for internet security are fairly simple, and in most cases common sense. I have attempted to tailor these guidelines for members of the non technical community. people should remember that common sense principles, and concepts, are sometimes applicable in dealing with computer security in cyberspace, as well as the real world. These guidelines are tailored toward e mail, and Internet use for children and adults. It is intended for non computer professionals. I will use parable, and analogy, when it is needed to illustrate a point. Effort has been made to try to put things in a common sense context for those who are computer novices. Advice for supervising minors online is included.

1. You should not download e mail attachments from strangers, for exactly the same reason that you should not sleep with strangers.....you do not wish to get infected with some exotic virus in cyberspace, or in the physical world. Virus code in e mail is analogous to a digital version of disease. Downloading data is a form of digital intimacy between machines, where one machine injects data into another machine. A wise man prudently treats his machine as though it were his well protected electronic daughter, with respect to such digital intimacy. Our machines are analogous to our electronic children in the cyberspace world, and we are justified in defending them with good judgment in cyberspace, in a similar matter to the way we protect our real children in the physical realm. Avoiding virus code in cyberspace is a matter of digital hygiene for your computer.

2. Good hygiene and behavior is required of civilized people in cyberspace, as well as in the physical world. The concept, and mature judgment required, are the same in all worlds.

3. When you delete an e mail, you are formally declining to accept the unknown data that the alleged sender has offered to put in your machine. You have an absolute right to decline the data. If you do not know the entity who sent you the e mail attachment. Delete it at once without guilt. Your e mail box will be more tidy, and we do desire to maintain good digital hygiene. Your computer is part of your household property, you have a right and obligation to keep everything in your house clean. This is true of your cyber house, as well as your physical residence. The same concept is applicable.

4. In the event of strange e mail attachments. If the e mail attachment comes from someone that you know, send a reply mail, without attachments, to confirm the attachment is legitimate. If you do not get a positive reply promptly, do not open it. Delete it. Virus code in e mail can sometimes claim to come from a friend, but this is a digital trick. Do not be deceived..

5. Domestic long distance telephonics are cheap, if a mail with an odd looking attachment arrives from a friend claiming to be legitimate, pick up the phone, and call your friend to confirm. If the friend has no idea of what you are talking about, delete it. At worst you will be closer to your friend from the telephonic consultation. Intelligent people do believe in consultation in dealing with issues concerning the security of the digital property. Polite telephonic, or e mail consultation, with the friend who is the possible, but uncertain sender, will never get you in trouble, and may well spare you some profound grief. Principles of polite consultation are usable in
cyberspace as well as the real world. Rather than open a strange attachment that looks like a friend has sent you something that is suspected to be fishy, call your friend and ask them.

6. Trust your instincts, and USE the common sense that God gave you. If the mail looks too good to be true, or looks suspicious, delete it.

7. If the well known sender of e mail does not customarily send attachments, you then have no probable cause to believe they have changed, and no right to assume so. Deviation from established patterns of behaviors is a red flag that something is not right. Look for things that are out of character for the known sender. Delete if not satisfied. A true friend will be glad you are protecting yourself.

8. Remember that sending and receiving e mail, is predicated on a covenant of trust between the sender and the recipient, you are well advised not to trust spammers or open the spam for that matter. Virus mail breaks the covenant of trust in a malefic and destructive manner. The prudent use of the delete button can prevent us from experiencing evil results.

9. From time to time you will get a bounced message telling you that your mail has been rejected for viral content, even though you sent nothing to that address. This happens because someone with an infected computer has your e mail address in the infected machine. It is not a cause for alarm. It is not your fault, and nobody is out to get you. Feel free to ignore it, because this is happening all over the global internet.

10. Virus code sometimes steals confidential data from the recipients machine. If other members of your family use the computer, you have an obligation to refrain from careless behavior from a digital perspective. Therefore you have an obligation to protect your families digital privacy, with a prudent use of the delete button. Good digital security, and internet safety, begins at home, and with the good common sense that the creator gave us all to greater and lesser degrees.

11. If you are in doubt about what to do in computer science matters, ask a computer professional for advice in computer science issues.

12. It is morally justified to be intolerant of spammers who beg you to buy things that you do not want, because they are too lazy to get a real job. In actuality they are mooching your time without compensation.

13. Never send out a virus warning to other people online unless you are a computer professional with credentials in the field. There are many hoaxes that can make your Internet Service Provider very unhappy with you if you give unqualified advice to their users.

14. Never forward a e mail that demands that you "pass it on" to many friends. Your Internet Service Provider will see it as an unsolicited mail, and then shut down your account for sending chain letters that are illegal in some places. Such mails are the result of too much idle time on ones hands.

15. Internet petitions cannot be validated for purposes of legal signatures in hard copy, and are therefore worthless as a means to petition a government entity. These internet petitions are a great way for spammers to gather e mail addresses. Refrain from participation in such schemes and you will not get as much spam.

16. Never allow a child to have an unsupervised e mail account if they are under the age of fourteen. It is just too dangerous out there for kids online. ALL kids under the age of 14 need to be supervised in the use of the computer. Your children are the only thing you leave behind in this world. Be very careful as to what you expose them to. Without the guidance of a parental mentor, children will go astray due to immature judgment. Teenage boys are prone to look at pictures that they should not. Girls are prone to talk to those "boys" who claim to be fifteen but are in reality 35 year old creeps.

17. Never let a child use a computer that you are not prepared to replace, simply because the children do not have mature judgment yet. Use an older machine for the kids, and keep a better machine for adult use if you can. If a child has a top level machine, he will become a couch potato with video games. An exercise regimen is an excellent cure for too much time spent online.

18. If your child spends too much time online, it is the parents fault for failing to enforce moderation. Children need a firm hand to let them know that it is the law of God and Man, that children SHALL obey parents, and the law of God and man is not optional. Parents have not only a right, but a mandate, to set limits for children. Reasonable restrictions are not abuse. It is unfortunate that some parents allow the computer to replace the television as a babysitter, when a child needs the example of adult human interaction to grow in character.

19. Remember your computer is a scientific tool, and not a plaything, it can be used for good or evil. Children should be taught to see the computer as a scientific tool, in an era where science is growing exponentially, and that teaching may one day yield fruit for the knowlege of the world.

Stephanie Heck

stephanie@sheck.com

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Stephanie Heck