Jewish World Review Sept. 23, 2004 /8 Tishrei, 5765


Vacationing reader doesn't want e-mail pile; PDA containing a software program that would be comparable to an Act! Program; IEXPLORE error is hijacking

By James Coates

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | (KRT) Q. I'm going on vacation to Europe for three weeks. What can I do about my e-mail?

I don't want to publish the information to the world that I'll be away during a particular three-week period. On the other hand, I don't want to be faced with all those e-mails — I get about 150 a day, mostly junk — when I get back.

My concern is the mail that will be bounced back to senders that I want to retain — certain newsletters, friends, etc. I'm running Outlook. Your sage advice would be most welcome and appreciated.

M.C. Actor@verizon.net

A. You're a hard customer to please, M.C., but I can try. Your desire to hide the fact you will be away for those weeks prevents the simple and elegant automatic response tool that is built in to both Outlook and Outlook Express.

It's a cakewalk to click on Tools and then Rules and then follow a well-conceived series of prompts that let one order the software to automatically respond to all e-mails that come in with a boilerplate "I'm away" notice.


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You specifically say you don't want to auto-respond to the world, but you still can solve most if not all of your problems simply by digging deeper into the complex skein of possible rules one can create. For example, you can use a series of guided mouse clicks to write a rule that all e-mails from people on your Outlook contact list will get a response while others will not. It is easy to block selected folks on the contact list.

Next you should go through the newsletters, outside friends and such and write separate rules for each of them. You can even set it up so you answer (or deep-six) all messages from e-mail accounts ending in tribune.com.

This may sound like more work than it is worth, but consider that in addition to handling your vacation needs these rules can be used to handle those 150-plus notes that come in to your inbox each day. While writing rules for auto responses to various categories of folks you can add rules that automatically divert all of their notes to a special folder. Then as time goes on you can nix or admit e-mail contacts on a case-by-case basis.

It's a bit of work now that will pay off long after that vacation is over.

Q. A few months back, I read an article about an inexpensive PDA containing a software program that would be comparable to an Act! program. I am looking for one that would let me capture information for my sales calls, address book, follow up, contacts, etc.

Could you possibly point me in the right direction, as I have been unsuccessful in locating one?

Norman F. Morse@aol.com

A. It's a shame that news of very inexpensive personal digital assistants keeps getting lost in the clamor over fancy color screen PDAs, debates over operating systems such as Palm vs. Pocket PC and the arrival of so-called smart cell phones that come with expensive PDAs built in.

PalmOne, the company behind much of the ultrafancy personal digital assistants now available, also makes a standout inexpensive, no-frills PDA called the Zire 21 that costs $99 and delivers all you want and much more.

These inexpensive PDAs typically are sold in those annoying bubble packs that get posted near computer store cash registers to snag impulse buyers in aisles where nothing ever seems to cost less than $100.

I have continued to review the Zire 21 subset of PDAs precisely because they look and cost like a stocking stuffer but pack serious organizational powers.

The screen is a simple but eminently readable gray-tone text rather than the blazing back-lighted TFT color on high-end models. The Zire 21's built-in software handles thousands of names and addresses, contains a very useful calendar and adds rudimentary features like a small note keeper, a to-do list and even a few games. It even lets users jot short notes that are saved as graphic files.

Included software lets the Zire 21 link with a Windows PC and synchronize data with Microsoft Outlook. The Mac version lacks this feature.

It cuts corners by using a simple wire connection to a PC's USB port rather than a convenient cradle. A power brick is included to charge the batteries, which last for a couple weeks per charge. The Zire 21's main chip is slower than those in fancier models, and its 8 megabytes of memory is much smaller than other Palms. Check out www.palmone.com for details, and try not to get seduced by the splendiferous gadgets that make up the fancier lines called Treo and Tungsten.

Q. As soon as I connect to the Internet, I start getting an error message "Iexplore — This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." If I click on the details button it further states "IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module

unknown ..." This message will pop up every few minutes.

Additionally, if I do a Ctl + Alt + Delete, the program box will show that this program is listed multiple times (up to 10). It slows the machine down terribly, and eventually I reboot. I've been on the phone with Microsoft three times and my Internet provider once. I've reloaded Internet Explorer 6.0 and have run Spy Bots and Ad-aware software. Nothing seems to work. Any thoughts?

Tom Woods, Frankfort

A. You are in the right church using anti-spyware tools like Ad-aware but maybe not in exactly the right pew, Mr. W.

Your PC has been riddled by one of the so-called browser hijack schemes that are being foisted upon home computer users by a growing collection of nasty people. Makers of the various anti-spyware tools try to keep track of them all, but every one of these booby traps is different and many slip through the cracks.

Makers of software like Ad-aware continually add fixes for new schemes, but there are an overwhelming number of attacks being launched.

The problem is that this Trojan-horse software scatters many different bombs around one's hard drive. These bombs get triggered by changes the hacker makes to the system registry and other core files. These multiple bugs on your computer create those multiple instances of the Windows Internet Explorer software.

Perhaps the ultimate tool to attack these cluster bombs is HijackThis, a system that requires some serious study but that lets a user scan the complete hard drive and find the booby traps one by one. I hesitate to recommend this because HijackThis presents a user with long lists of items that could be booby traps.

There is a danger that one will remove something desirable, and a typical HijackThis log can include maybe 100 possible changes.

I hate to end this way, but there are three possible moves when this hits us. First we can wait for the repair programs to publish a fix. Second, we can take a shot at fixing things with HijackThis and similar tools. Third, of course, we can just muddle through it all.

See www.spywareinfo.com, where you can get help and details about the complex HijackThis tool and other possible preventative moves.

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James Coates is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Let us know what you think of this column by clicking here.

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