On Sun, 6 Apr 1997, David Dawson wrote:
> In article <[log in to unmask]>, Ross Weeks
> <[log in to unmask]> writes
> >I hope this doesn't happen when it's not necessary. Not everyone can
> >convert the file into something legible. In my hard drive, it now occupies
> >34 pages, most of the content being programming language. As best I can
> >tell, it's just a job posting probably no more than a few paragraphs long,
> >and if so, it could have been put online as a letter with just a couple
> >more twiddles of the keyboard by its sender.
The attachment downloaded to my machine without a hitch. It was a long
list of several job postings--quite a bit more than a few paragraphs. To
me, it seemed like a considerate way to send the information--if the
organization had sent it as one long
message there would no doubt be a chorus of people complaining about the
message being too long. But the jobs were certainly relevant to the museum
profession.
> Remember that Word, Excel, WordPro and 123 files (for example) can
> contain macro viruses. Written in the programs macro language, these
> infect your computer when the file is opened. We recently had an
> outbreak, which was irritating but not harmful.
>
> If you don't open the file, you don't get infected. Best of all, if you
> do post files in your email, or download files from other people, try to
> make sure they are ASCII or RTF - these cannot contain macro viruses.
The computer gurus at my college recommend virus protection software to
anyone who downloads anything from the Internet--not just email
attachments but pictures and texts off of web pages, software, etc. And
if you use disks provided by people outside your institution it's also a
good idea. (I learned that from personal experience.) I just
got Symantec SAM anti-virus software for my Mac. It automatically scans for
viruses whenever you download anything from the Internet. The same
company makes Norton Anti-virus for the PC.
--Helen Glazer
Exhibitions Director
Goucher College
Baltimore, MD USA
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