The digital world is not without its fair share of nuisances. From the relentless Ten O'Clock Charley, who bombards me with viruses, to the daily deluge of spam emails, the internet can be a challenging landscape to navigate. This article delves into the various irritants that plague our online existence and offers some solutions to mitigate these issues.
For those familiar with MASH, the name Ten O'Clock Charley might ring a bell. In my digital world, Charley is the persistent pest who sends me 4-6 virus-infected emails a day, particularly after I publish my newsletter. Thankfully, my antivirus software works tirelessly, eliminating these threats like a bug zapper dealing with mosquitoes. It seems Charley has subscribed using an autoresponder, programmed to dispatch these viruses on a set schedule.
The internet is rife with bad behavior, and I'm growing weary of it. Deleting 150-200 spam emails daily is a tiresome task. I'm also fed up with students asking me to write their term papers for a fee. Here's some advice: self-help is the best help.
Another source of frustration is the barrage of angry emails I receive from people confused by pop-under ads they mistakenly believe originated from my site. Speaking of pop-under windows, I'm even more tired of those.
Some websites seem to hold you hostage, preventing you from using the Back Button on your browser to return to your previous page. This design choice baffles me. Do these designers genuinely believe that taking hostages will boost their sales?
My minor complaints aside, I have some major grievances as well. I spent a significant portion of a morning adding code to my web pages to protect against Microsoft's Smart Tags. For the uninitiated, Smart Tag technology adds little icons next to certain keywords on your website. When visitors click these icons, they're redirected to another site, potentially a competitor's. Microsoft has included this technology in Office XP but has promised not to add it to Internet Explorer 6. To protect your pages from MS Smart Tags, add this line to your Meta Tags:
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
Ezula's TopText, bundled with KaZaA, a third-party plugin for IE, irritates me even more. KaZaA, a free file-sharing program, has been downloaded over 7 million times in a month and a half. TopText uses Smart Tag technology to redirect visitors from your site to another. Advertisers buy keywords, and when the browser encounters that keyword on your site, it underlines the word in yellow. Clicking on the keyword takes your visitors to the advertiser's website. I advise against installing this program to experiment, as it's challenging to remove. For more information, visit this link. If you've already installed the software, removal instructions are available here.
Lastly, I'm frustrated by the six types of spyware I found installed on my computer without my consent. These applications consume computer resources, occupy hard drive space, and slow down your surfing speed. They collect information about you and your browsing habits, which is used for targeted advertising or sold to data collection companies. Of the six types I found on my computer, only one, the free version of Aureate Group Mail, was installed by me. I was unaware it was spyware. To discover what spyware resides on your system, try the Ad Tracker, freely available from LavaSoft.
As I wrap up my litany of complaints, I see it's almost time for Ten O'Clock Charley's daily nuisance. The digital world, it seems, is never without its trials and tribulations.
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