Call for Comments, Part 2
We had a few technical difficulties last week and didn't receive many of your email suggestions. Please feel free to re-send any email you sent last week, and use this email any time in the future when you have comments. Thanks again. -Suzanne suzanne@surfsecret.com

Senator Vows to Stop Google Gmail Service
Though Google's Gmail is only in its beta stage, California state Senator Liz Figueroa says she's drafting legislation to prevent it. Google's Gmail service provides 100 times the storage space of MSN Hotmail and Yahoo, but includes automatic advertising based on the text of your messages. Senator Figueroa was also the author of California's Do-Not-Call law that allows consumers to block telemarketers.

American Airlines Gave Passenger Info to Government
American Airlines gave passenger information to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and by doing so, gave the information to four vendor companies who were bidding on government work. American is the third airline, along with JetBlue and Northwest, to admit giving passenger information to the government. At some point the TSA may get passenger information automatically; it is working on a computerized screening system but Congress has barred implementation until the TSA meets security and privacy standards.

Mac Trojan Horse Threat Was Exaggerated
Last week, several Internet news sites ran a story about finding a Trojan horse on Apple's Mac OS X. Within a few hours the threat seemed to be less severe, and within a few days, people were criticizing the company that released the announcement. That company, Intego, sells security and privacy software for Macintosh computers and some critics say they made the announcement to get publicity. The Trojan they described in their release is possible, critics say, but not actively affecting any computers.

RealPlayer Vulnerability Found
RealNetworks has confirmed a vulnerability in many versions of their RealPlayer software. If you're running RealPlayer 10 Gold, you don't have to worry. Otherwise you may want to visit Real Networks web site to install an update.

Microsoft Releases Security Fixes for More Than 20 Security Flaws
On Tuesday, Microsoft released fixes to protect your computer from viruses like the MSBlast worm. The fixes affect versions of Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003. Running a personal firewall can help safeguard your computer from many of the vulnerabilities these patches are intended to fix.

CEOs Told to Help Protect the Internet
The Corporate Governance Task Force, a cross-sector group of more than 40 people, released a report on Monday, calling for CEOs to play a stronger role in the security of their operations, and therefore in the security of the Internet as a whole. The report says that the best way to secure U.S. information is for boards of directors and CEOs to take an active role in information security at their companies, rather than leaving the task to CIOs or government officials.

Stop Windows Messenger from Automatically Launching
If you're running Windows XP, Microsoft has recently released an article that tells how to prevent Windows Messenger from launching each time you boot Windows. You don't need to remove the program from your machine, but you can stop it from launching automatically. See this article for more information.

Use the Windows Key as a Shortcut
Did you know that the start key (also known as the windows key) on your keyboard has uses other than just launching the start menu? Hold the windows key plus E to open My Computer. Use the windows key plus L to lock your computer. Use the windows key plus D to minimize all windows and go to the desktop. To find out about other shortcuts, search the help system for "Windows keyboard shortcuts overview."

Using the Command-Line to Complete Simple Tasks (Part 2)
Last week we talked about completing a variety of tasks by using command-line tools. This week we'll talk about using those commands in bulk. As an example, let's say you want to rename all of the files in a directory. You might use this if you've downloaded pictures and you want to give them more descriptive names but don't feel like spending too much time on it. To begin, navigate to the directory of interest. Run a dir command and save the output to a file by typing dir > c:\directory.txt. Then open the directory.txt file and paste it into Excel. You want the second column to have the file names and the rest of the sheet to be blank. In the third column of the spreadsheet, type the new file names, like aruba1.jpg, then aruba2.jpg, and so on. Then, in the first column, enter ren in every cell. Select all three columns and paste them into a new text file, then save it as changes.bat (or any name with a .bat extension). You can now run this batch file from a command line by simply typing changes.bat from the command prompt. You will see the output on your screen and can now run a dir on the directory to confirm that all the files have been renamed. You can use any of the command-line tools in a batch file, allowing you to complete many tasks at once. Some programs include command-line support, like Visual Source Safe, which lets you check files in and out in bulk, among other things. Check your program's help for more information.

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If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding this newsletter, email suzanne@surfsecret.com.