The SurfSafety.com news letter is *never* sent unsolicited. You or someone using your e-mail address has joined our mailing list. If you feel you have received this news letter in error or wish to unsubscribe reliable means are provided at the bottom. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you appreciate the contents of this news letter why not forward it to everyone you know? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this issue: 1. General announcements. 2. "Changes on the Home Front" 3. Another email virus. 4. Guest article (Submitted by Brooke Jones) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have any news you would like to share with others on this list, or would like to submit a guest article, you may send them for review possible inclusion at mailto:news@surfsafety.com. "A tale from the trenches" and "Golden nugget" will be regular features of this news letter to which you can also submit articles for consideration. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ General announcements ===================== Well, tax season is over for most of us. I hope everyone still has their sanity in tact. We've got quite a bit to talk about in this issue so I'll be as brief as I can. Did anyone catch my television interview on New York Westchester News 12 Daytime edition? If you didn't, not to worry. Check back in a few days and you will be able to stream it to your browser right off the surfsafety.com website in Real video! My sincerest thanks to everyone there who made it such a pleasure. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Changes on the Home Front ========================= First, I would like everyone to know is that the surfsafety.com web site has been completely redesigned! Finding your way around should be much simpler and it allows me to grow the site without a negative impact on navigation. All previous issues of this newsletter have been placed online there and are fully searchable by keyword! As the archive grows, finding what you want there will continue to be very simple. We have also applied this search tool to the message board section. Hopefully, with these two additions, this will enable us to grow without any growing pains. Also new to the web site are sample chapters from my book, "Child Safety-Net". Each month we will post a new sample chapter, 18 in all. Chapter 2 is up for May. When it's done it will start over again. Hopefully, by that time I'll have the next revised edition on bookshelves and the information will always continue to be fresh and useful. The primary domain I used to use for this site was located at http://surfsafely.com/ until a bitter dispute arose with my former hosting provider and they shut down the domain completely. During that time I reestablished the site at http://surfsafety.com/ and since then have used the first as a doorway domain. What I am contemplating for this domain is to create a family friendly, Yahoo! like search index with a twist. As you know, I am a staunch advocate of PICS labeling which allows parents to select content by its rating in these invisible labels. What has been missing to date is web authors taking the time to rate their material enabling us to use this tool. What will differentiate this index from others now online is that all material submitted for inclusion without PICS labeling at the time of submission will be automatically rejected. Links in the index will be checked periodically for conformance to this requirement. Users of this index will find that all links supplied will point only to rated sites. Parents will be able to leave their PICS filters on full, disallowing unrated content without their kids hitting walls and asking you if they can see something every five minutes. If it's in this index, it WILL be rated and they WILL be able to see it. So, here's the question I will be polling on. Should I go to the trouble? If I expend the time and money to create this index, will you use it? Here's your chance to vote early. To vote yes, send an e-mail to mailto:yes_index@surfsafety.com To vote no, send an e-mail to mailto:no_index@surfsafety.com In the coming weeks I will also be taking an online survey at the web site asking the same but it's your opinions, my subscribers, that I value most. Lastly, I've had some difficulty with my mail list manager lately and have had to rebuild my lists from archived copies. It is possible that some of you received duplicates and others who previously unsubscribed now have magically resubscribed. I would like to apologize for the mix-up. If any of you have received this in error please let me know right away and I'll try to rectify it ASAP. The list of subscribers has grown quite large and managing it locally is becoming prohibitive. For this reason I will be changing over to a Majordomo mail list manager, infinitely more capable of handling large lists like this one and automating most of the labor intensive tasks I am faced with now. Existing subscribers should migrate to the new system without incident. To authenticate new subscribers, they will receive one automated response from Majordomo to which they must reply to activate their subscription. This should prevent anyone from subscribing anyone else without their knowledge or permission. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another email virus =================== Oh boy! As all of you saw from my special alert last evening, this one is no joke. If "ILOVEYOU" winds up in your e-mail box, Delete it! There's no love there. Those at risk are, once again, users of Microsofts' latest and greatest, Internet Explorer 5 and Outlook. Users of Netscape and/or Eudora for e-mail are not at risk. I'll spare you my criticism of Microsoft in this issue. The news headlines speak for themselves. Interestingly, the McAfee web site I directed you to last evening, http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/asp_set/anti_virus/alerts/intro.asp has links to their antiviral product offerings, most of which I highly recommend. But the one which scares me, the one I am most skeptical of, is the online virus scanner. The one that requires you to be logged onto their web site to use. The very same one that requires you to be using Internet Explorer 5 in order to be able to use it. The very same browser that puts users at the highest risk of viral attack. Very much a "Catch-22". My advice? If you do get antiviral software from McAfee, opt for the offline version. The one which you can run as a stand-alone application on your computer without a live internet connection. It requires that you keep your DAT files current but McAfee makes that a one click breeze. And, as one last comment on this issue, if you are in the majority who use Explorer 5 simply because it's "comfortable" to stick with Microsoft products across the board, I would be doing you a disservice if I did not give you a direct link to where Netscape can be downloaded for free. Don't you think it's time to turn the tables back again? Please, try it. If you hate it, I'll gladly take the heat. But I know you won't. :-) http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/ Nuff said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guest article (Submitted by Brooke Jones) ========================================= Ribbon Of Promise NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END SCHOOL VIOLENCE brooke jones, media director phone: 541/344-9291 fax: 541/342-4002 e-mail: bjones@ribbonofpromise.org press conference today Wednesday April 26, 2000 "ribbon of promise" launches the "ByKids4Kids" national campaign to end school violence f o r i m m e d i a t e r e l e a s e Springfield, Oregon -- "ByKids4Kids" (BK4K), the newest offshoot of the Ribbon Of Promise NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END SCHOOL VIOLENCE, heads to Louisville to debut their ground-breaking strategy to end school violence. "BK4K" was begun by high school students in the Thurston/Springfield Oregon area in response to the shootings at schools such as Columbine and Thurston. Their goal is to create a nation-wide network of KIDS who will work within their schools to put an end to the long-accepted "code of silence" that has made it possible for unspoken threats to escalate into unspeakable tragedy. "BK4K" has written and produced a startling twelve-minute video entitled "Not My Friends, Not My School", featuring the images and voices of many kids whose lives were forever changed by the Thurston shooting on May 21, 1998. The video, and the formal "BK4K" campaign will debut at this year's national DECA Conference. DECA (the corporately-funded national marketing organization for students) holds its annual Conference in Louisville on May 1 - 2. The "BK4K" students will be there, as will students from at least 400 schools nationwide, and executives from corporations such as JCPenny, Sears and Safeway. In debuting "Not My Friends, Not My School" at the Conference, the "BK4K" students hope to generate sufficient enthusiasm to facilitate national distribution of the video, begin to set up the many "BK4K" chapter offices that have already been requested by students all over the country, and get down to the nitty gritty of preventing school violence. A Press Conference will be held TODAY (Wed. 4/26) at 12:30pm at Springfield High School (875 N. 7th Street, Springfield, OR). The video will be shown, the "BK4K" students, their teacher/advisor and the Executive Director of the Ribbon Of Promise will be present to answer questions. All Media must check in at the school's Administration Office. For additional information contact Brooke Jones at 541/344-9291 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The BK4K web site can be found at http://www.bk4k.org/. Rather than send them in this newsletter, several other articles written by Brooke can also be found and searched through in the "Free Newsletter" section at http://surfsafety.com/. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Until next time... Be informed, Be involved, Be well. Sincerely, Mark Brasche