Why do we need anti-spam software

Spam, otherwise known as junk email or unsolicited commercial email; is quickly becoming on of the most prevalent complaints of internet users. Not only is it annoying, but it is quickly becoming a dangerous and potentially expensive problem for businesses as well as individuals.

How is it dangerous?

First and foremost, spam is one of the leading causes for clogged networks and slow connections. American Online, one of the nation’s largest internet service providers; transmits over 8 trillion spam email messages a year. Those messages tie up valuable bandwidth and can slow down entire networks. Although end users will rarely see a significant change in their connections, they can rest assured that a noteworthy portion of their monthly bill is paying for that lost bandwidth.

Most spam includes images or weblinks within it commercial content. Although some of it is begin or at worst annoying, an increasing portion contains sexually explicit content. Spam messages frequently contain pornographic pictures or links to sex-related websites.

These messages are not suited for children yet can easily be accidentally opened by minors. In addition to simple sexual content, some of the most severely sexually explicit spam can contain images of such illegal and offensive acts such as bestiality or child pornography.

Aside from slowing connections or carrying unwanted pornography, spam is the leading cause of transmitted computer viruses. Computer viruses are programs which run malicious code which can damage computer systems, delete files and steal personal information. These viruses are often hidden in an email messages as attachments such as a pictures. Email transmitted viruses can render entire systems inoperable and delete important documents forever.

How can you stop it?

The easiest and most simple way to stop unwanted email is to employ a spam blocker. Spam blockers are manufactured by a variety of companies and be anywhere from free to costing upwards of 50$.

There are three basic types of spam blocking software. The first is a key-word blocker. These programs examine the header and body of an email message looking for a series of predefined criteria. For example, a program could be instructed to flag or block any email message containing the word “sex”.

Although seemingly straightforward, the spam blocker also has to stop any spelling variation of sex such as sexx or s_e_x. Although this type of spam blocker can do very well at stopping spam, it also has a tendency to block personal emails which may or may not contain flagged words.

The second type of spam blocker is an address list blocker which blocks or flags any emails not coming from a predefined list of addresses (such as the user’s address book).

Although this type of spam blocker does a very good job of not blocking personal emails from friends or family, it can inadvertently delete important messages from users not on the original predefined list. This can make it very easy to miss potentially important yet unexpected emails.

The third type of spam blocker is actually a hybrid of the aforementioned varieties. It will filter emails from known friendly accounts directly to the inbox while holding potentially dangerous emails in the filter. The user can then go in and sort through emails from either friendly strangers (non spam emails from unfamiliar addresses) or unfriendly strangers (spam emails from unfamiliar addresses).

Although these programs do require a slight amount of user interaction, they can protect your computer and keep you from inadvertently deleting important emails.

Review of the panasonic ep1272 swede-atsu wave massage lounger

Panasonic Massage Loungers are the first massage chairs to be endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association (A. C.A), which is the largest association in the world representing Chiropractors. Panasonic chairs earned this recognition by designing chairs that provide deep tissue relief, thus relieving tense muscles, and offer complementing benefit to chiropractic and orthopedic care.

The Panasonic EP1272 is an attractive chair with contemporary design, and boasts high quality leather upholstery for an affordable price. It also has one of the most unique massaging features that differentiates it from any other massage chair: the Hawaiian Wave massage, which is a moderate rubbing motion across the back as if stimulating strong hands of a therapist (it’s an ‘Island Thing’ which goes well with the company of a pina colada!). Other techniques featured in the Panasonic 1272 include Swedish, Shiatsu, Percussion, Compression, Kneading, and Tapping.

Another unique feature about this massage chair is its float massage mechanism for smooth fluid movement simulating motions of the wrists from a personal therapist. You can power recline in this chair, making it effortless to make yourself comfortable and relax. The ottoman is also power reclined, a separate feature to allow you to set your own personal angle of comfort. You can select to either pamper your feet by placing them in the air massaging wells, or choose to indulge your calves by angling it downward and placing your legs in the air wells instead.

This reliable chair has proven to be an effective choice for many patients with Fibromyalgia or FMS for pain relief and overall improvement of functions. The multiple sessions and massage heads, along with a less powerful stroke and a wide coverage area can, over a short period of time, diminish the painful symptoms of Fibromyalgia, as well as many other chronic pain disorders.

Four pre-programmed massage sessions will make your life easier. You can decide which one fits your current need and just press a button. Or you can customize the 8 different techniques to suit your preferences. In combination with the air massage for the calves or feet, the benefits seem limitless.

And with 135 square inches of massage coverage, and also the largest massage area of any massage chair in its price class, this is a one of a kind. It’s sure to fit many different users under one household as well, with its ability to conform to 5 different speeds, 3 massage track widths, 5 shoulder height selections, and an impressive 27 inch massage stroke length of the back, there is little left to be wanted from your massage chair.

Don’t forget the stretch session, which is made effective by the air massage in the ottoman, squeezing the legs while lowering and raising in 20 Degree increments, thus assisting to relieve pain and tension in the low back, hips and thighs. Very similar to the HT-125 by Human Touch.

The sessions have an automatic shutoff after 15 minutes. The scheduled time is preset, so it can’t be increased or decreased. If 15 minutes is too long, just stop the session all together and restore to its upright position. The price is right, as well, making this model more affordable than the higher-priced Panasonic 3222.

Gps cell phone

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was funded, developed and controlled by the US Department of Defense. Since the late seventies, GPS has become an important aid to navigation around the world. Initially designed for the US military, GPS became publicly available years later and it is now considered an important feature in lots of consumer products.

How does GPS work? Well, basically there are three elements that make everything work: satellites, earth monitoring stations and receivers (ex: cell phone, telefone celular). GPS provides specially coded satellite signals that can be processed in a GPS receiver, enabling the receiver to compute position, velocity and time.

Today, most cell phones (telefone celular) are not limited to carry on just a conversation. Features like mp3 player, digital camera and video camera have all become standards in the latest cell phone models. It is expected that the GPS feature will soon be added to this list, and it will offer the capability of tracking any cell phone user.

The capability of tracking a cell phone user becomes important in emergency situations, like a car accident, thru the use of 911 emergency phone call, where every minute may be a matter of life or death. In situation like this, the GPS system may pinpoint the exact location of the road accident, enabling emergency services to be quickly dispatched.

It is important to mention that so far most GPS system in cell phone (telefone celular) is restricted to tracking information only. However, one can have navigational capability thru the use of full screen cell phone/PDA combos with map displays and other cellular phone accessories, and third party paid services. If one does not want to sign up for a monthly paid subscription service, he can make use of one-time-paid-only software programs that will enable some of the navigational capabilities.

Although there are many benefits in using GPS cell phones (telefone celular), there are some people who are concerned about the violation of personal privacy. Since the US Congress has not authorized location tracking without actual evidence of wrongdoing, there have been court hearings which have not approved the requests of government agencies in obtaining the cell phone GPS tracking information for suspects or ordinary citizens.

This privacy matter has made some progress towards the cell phone user`s rights, since there are some laws that have been passed which guarantees that GPS cell phone users will have some protection from the release of the tracking information, with the exception of 911 emergency cell phone calls (telefone celular). It is expected that these laws will guarantee that the benefits of GPS in cell phones will be enjoyed by everyone without infringing anybody`s privacy.

Sometimes when there is a technological innovation, there are also some concerns about privacy or some rights infringements. But no matter how much of a concern this is, it seems that a compromise will always have to be reached, so that new technologies will take their places in everyone`s lives. After all, we all live in a globalized consumer world. By the way, have you already got your GPS cell phone?

Roberto Sedycias

IT Consultant for PoloMercantil

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the authorґs name and all the URLґs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

How to convert word documents into pdf format

So, you want to convert your Word documents into PDF, right? Well, it's not as tough as it might have appeared to you. It is fairly simple. In a few steps the work gets done without much wasting time and effort. But before we actually learn about the conversion process, let's begin understanding that what is a PDF and why do people want to opt for PDF though there are many ways to share documents. First we'll talk about what exactly are PDF.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format that is commonly used for sharing Word documents amongst the readers who may not have Word installed on their systems. The format conserves the layout of the document and checks against editing the document when opened using Word. Word by itself does not allow you to save documents in this format. Third-party tools and plug-ins software allow the conversion of Word documents to PDF and convert PDF into a Word document.

Why PDF? Well, the answer is portability on various operating systems without the risk of document being edited and altered. By portability I mean that a document saved in this format can be read on every machine and portable device including Pads. All you need to do is to download Adobe's free reader, and your PDF file can be read on almost any computer. If you want that your file be read on all portable devices, all you need to do is to save your file into a PDF format.

Let us now look at how to create a PDF. There are numerous ways in which you can create your PDF. But the official way is to purchase Adobe Acrobat that is the only authentic tool that will allow you to create, read, edit, and search a PDF with little or no effort. After you install Acrobat, you will notice that it also installs a number of tools, along with a Word macro that makes PDF creation as easy as clinking a button. Alongside, a Windows printer driver is also installed that allows you to create PDF from any printing application. Sounds great, isn't it?

You may also create a PDF online by using the Adobe's on-line solution called Create Adobe PDF Online . You need to subscribe but with a free trial that is on offer you can create your first five PDF for free. Moreover, if you conduct a Goggle search, you may also get a list of a number of programs that offer the same facilities as Adobe and are available either as freeware, shareware or paid. These software vary in the number of features they offer and hence their costs and rating. To select the one that suits your needs the best, it is better to try some.

Another way is the Open Office which is a free suite of office applications, very much like MS-Office, that includes a Word processor like Word . Open Office allows you to read Word documents and also to create PDF. Here the feature set looks quite similar, a bit different from Word and Acrobat, hence there may be issues with compatibility. But it is a well supported open source application with an active and helping user community. Professionally, Adobe is by far the best choice whether you want to convert your Word document into a PDF or convert PDF back to Word format.

Playing outside the sim box - independent video gaming

Once the economic analysts and social pundits got over the shockwaves from the assault of video gaming on our culture, they began to look at the nuances of the industry. For several years, there wasn't much product variation to see outside of shooters, fantasy role playing, and sports games. The Sims brought some variety and expanded the player base to more mature "casual gamers," but for the most part gaming has been for the young.

That's beginning to change. Independent game developers who cater to a more dedicated gaming community have functioned under the radar, for the most part. They are beginning to get the recognition they deserve and that, in turn, is expanding the number and complexity of game genres that are finding their way to the marketplace. The big game companies such as Electronic Arts and Nintendo continue to turn out sequels to their big money-makers such as Madden's NFL Football and Zelda. Their sales remain huge, but as their audiences mature, the market is finding room for games that go beyond sports, war and wizards.

"Indie" games are developing their own distribution channels. Valve, the company that had a huge mainstream hit with Half Life, now distributes its games over its own online service, Steam. It sells directly to the gamer, and provides the servers for their game users to play either singly or in multiplayer format via the Internet. Their games come from an assortment of developers and range from cartoon-noir mysteries to empire building to more standard fare. Steam provides an outlet for some independent games to reach a wider audience.

Manifesto Games is a website dedicated to the support, promotion and distribution of independently produced video games. The site has game reviews, provides a sales mechanism for the various producers, provides a "top ten" list of current indie games and has a Soapbox forum for comments, recommendations, gripes, etc. from active gamers.

Manifesto's game review categories include some standards such as Adventure, Role Playing Games and Sim/Tycoon games. But there are also categories such as Schmup and Turn-based Strategy, categories the major producers don't promote - and in the case of Schmup, probably don't understand. It's a term that seems to refer generally to games that recreate the early space-ship shoot-em-ups but with far cooler graphics and actual plots to them.

Many of the games found on Manifesto follow mainstream game profiles such as war games and role playing wizardry, but they interject some element of reality or human complexity that isn't readily found in standard game fare. There's a sim game available on the site called Democracy. Not a concept that matches the testosterone-based video game standard.

By virtue of distribution channels such as Manifesto and Steam, indie developers have a shot at commercial exposure and hopefully, some commercial success. This foot in the door of an enormous commercial monolith has generated some outrageous creativity in expanding game genres into more original and complex formats.

It's like good new bands that blow past the record companies, introduce themselves through YouTube and MySpace and sell their CDs online. The indie game producers have created a market that allows for creativity and product honesty.

How to turn your computer into a virtual casino

It's astonishing to me at how quickly the world has changed.

When I was growing up -- and it wasn't that long ago -- if I wanted to have any sort of gambling excitement, I'd have to go and take a trip to either Las Vegas or Atlantic City. (Okay, there was also a weekly poker game in my Uncle Frank's basement but I didn't like to go there because he always cheated.)

Now, part of what I loved about going to an actual casino was that they had the one game there that I actually did fairly well at -- roulette.

Unfortunately, there just weren't many places where I could actually play roulette. It's one thing to invite some friends over for a friendly game of poker but it's something else to pick up the phone and go, "Hey, guys, how about coming over and playing roulette at my place?"

You'd be surprised at how many people don't really want to take you up on an offer like that.

Now, don't get me wrong -- I love poker and blackjack and even playing the slot machines. But for me, roulette was always something that I managed to do a decent job at winning. Granted, I didn't win big -- but I sure did better than when I sat down to play poker. (I'm not going to mention the time that I lost my Fiat Spyder to a full house.)

One day, I was mentioning this situation to a buddy of mine and he said,

"Why don’t you try playing online roulette?"

Now, I'm not exactly the most computer literate guy in the world -- and the thought of actually playing an online roulette game seemed a little weird to me. For one thing, I was afraid that I'd wind up with a crooked casino or something and the next thing I'd know, there'd be a couple of guys at the front door who wanted to repossess my house.

"It's not like that," he said. "There are places that are totally legit -- and where you can actually make some pretty good money."

And that's when he told me about a site that explained all about online roulette and which also provided an eBook at no charge to the people who visited the webpage. Naturally, that set off alarms in my head. I'm one of those guys who has learned that there's no such thing as a free lunch -- and some of the things out there that are "free" have cost me more than I'd like to recall.

But there's something that I learned a long time ago from my father. Whenever an opportunity would come along, he'd always check it out. He might not have bought into it but he always went to see what it was about. I asked him why he would do that and he said, "I'd hate to think that I'd let the chance of a lifetime slip by just because I was too lazy to look into it."

So I went to the website and to my surprise, it was on the level. I checked it out and there was information that was useful to the beginning player (as well as the advanced player) and I didn't even get the slightest whiff of something being amiss.

But does anyone really play those online roulette games?

The answer is a resounding YES! In doing my research, I found out that some of the online sites have a steady stream of customers -- and some of them are constantly paying out to players in the know.

In fact, the website that I went to had an offer for an eBook -- and they didn't want anyone to pay until they had tried the book out. Right there, I tried to figure out what the catch was -- and I found out there wasn't a catch. It was one of those places that was just convinced that they had a useful product and that people would pay money once they saw that it worked.

The site I'm talking about is RouletteMadeEasy. com.

So, after checking out some of the websites and after looking through the book, I decided that I'd go ahead and give it a whirl -- and to my amazement, I actually started to make money. At first, it was only a little bit but before I knew it, I was actually making some real money.

The amazing thing is that when I showed my friends the system and they tried it, they discovered that I wasn't exaggerating about the amount of money that they could make. In fact, one of my buddies from the auto repair shop has earned enough money from online roulette to actually pay off his house.

Is everyone going to make that kind of money? Probably not -- but one thing that I've learned is that by playing sensibly and by using some of the systems that are available online, just about anyone can walk away from the table a winner.

I don't know about you but I sure like those odds.