Catching up again

February 25, 2007 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

It’s been a crazy week (moreso than usual) but there were a few things I spotted online that I wanted to comment on / just link to:

John C. Dvorak says (in an article in PC Magazine) that we should stop using Auto-Reply but clearly he’s wrong.
What we shouldn’t use are broken auto-reply tools – if yours send an “out of office” note to every message you get from a mailing list, then (a) you’re very quickly going to be booted off the list, and (b) you just look stupid. Get one that works, use it when you’re away for a significant time (a day or more) but remember to include alternative contact info (and let those people know they’re your designate). Of course this is only for work email – doing this from home will just let every spammer know that your address is “live” and by the time you return you’ll be overrun with junk mail.
LifeHacker pointed me at an article called “8 Things You Must Do If Your Identity Is Stolen“; trouble is, as with many things on the Internet, it’s very American-focused – where’s the advice for people in other countries?
In the comments to the LifeHacker post, someone linked to an equivalent article for those in the UK and the advice is a bit more generic, but it would be nice to have a list of contacts for Canada. Fortunately I found one thanks to Google – SafeCanada.ca has a much longer list of things to do, and links to lots more resources!
On the downside, some of the site’s formatting is messed up (atleast when using Opera – it works OK with IE, which is ironic) and someone ought to know not to put an apostrophe in the link to “FAQ’s”
It would be really neat if there was a Toronto/GTA version of the Wheel Of Food – a neat site that randomly picks restaurants in your area. (Update: it’s now renamed Wheel Of Lunch after someone whined about “copyright infringement”, even though they don’t seem worried about any such claim from the makers of the Wheel Of Fortune TV show.) (Update #2: looks like the site is down – hopefully this is only temporary.)
Personal improvement time: How To Give A Good Compliment.
I’ve been told that I don’t compliment people enough so this is something I’ve been trying to improve, but then there’s also a big cultural difference between the UK and Canada on this one – we (Brits) just aren’t capable of being as over the top as North Americans in the regard.
There’s also an article called “Five tips for performing easy good deeds” – it’s easy and it’s free!
Two more work-related articles: “10 R’s to Apply if you Want to Succeed” (someone should explain how to use apostrophes to this auther too!) and “15 Things You Can Do Right Now To Help Your Career“.
That reminds me, I should update my résumé even though I’m not looking to move job – it’s always a problem trying to remember what I did last ~~year~~ month!
Some funny clips of “proposition bets” from a UK show – but while those are fairly harmless and may only cost you a drink or two, here are some more serious scams from the same show.
Potential additions to my techie To Do list: adding Yaplet, which is a free chat tool for websites; a HowTo on Slipstreaming an XP Installation; tidy up the cables with a HowTo on DIY under-desk gadget mounting; LifeHacker also has some links about updating your PC for the new Daylight Saving Time – thanks Dubya for messing with that!
An article about encrypting your web session with SSH reminds me – I started setting it up on my home server but I don’t recall how far I got or why I stopped.
Last but not least, a (short) list of When to Replace Common Household Items – it’s a shame they don’t allow comments as it would be interesting to see this list grow.