Hello all,

The family and I have moved to a beautiful spot near the Atlantic Ocean, into a terrific old house that we couldn't be more happy with, but would drive Bob Vila to drink with all the work necessary to get it into shape. Fortunately, my wife could give Vila a run for his money, and she and I (well, mostly she) have worked long and hard to get the place up and running. So while that's been going on, the newsletter and the site have been on somewhat of a hiatus. But, I'm back!

One thing that I've done since the move is to finally -- FINALLY! -- drop AOL as my ISP provider. It's something I should have done years ago. America Online is slow, intrusive, and doesn't work and play well with other components of your computer. I've shifted to a DSL provider, and folks, the difference between this DSL and the old AOL dial-up is hard to believe. To give you just one example, the last time I updated my antivirus definitions through AOL, it took hours for the information to trundle its way through the dial-up connection. I gave up waiting for it to finish, and left the task to our teenager while I went to work. Last week I updated the definitions through the DSL connection; I got the downloads going and went to the fridge for a soda, and by the time I got back, the definitions were almost finished downloading and installing themselves. It's truly a quantum leap in speed from what we were used to here. The teenager is very, very happy with the new connection, as he can now compete on an even level with his online gaming buddies. I'm almost afraid to see just how effective the connection is with streaming media connections. In other words, I'm a DSL convert. I won't go back to dial-up ever, ever again. If you're thinking about making the shift, I'd say give it a try. Make sure you go with an established ISP and not Fast Freddie's Fly-By-Night Connections; DSL has its share of quirks and problems, and you're more likely to encounter those if you sign up with some guy who keeps his servers in the basement of his grandma's house. But I predict that once you get a taste of the speed and flexibility of the new connection, you too will be hooked.

Okay. Some of you know about the experiment I've been conducting with Coollist, the free mailing list provider. Like so many experiments, this one went awry; and like so many experiments, the fault lies more with the person conducting it than with the process itself.

In other words, I screwed it up.

What I should have done was send everyone a last hurrah e-mail from my AOL account, letting them know that change was afoot. I should have warned everyone that a signup form for Coollist was coming down the pike, and let them know that a) it wasn't spam and b) even though Coollist wants lots of personal information, I myself do not, and except for the valid e-mail addresses, I don't care if you list yourself as Bullwinkle D. Moose from Frostbite Falls. Then I would have gotten a higher response rate than the 20% or so of you who actually signed up (or more accurately, re-signed up). No doubt most of the rest of you deleted the Coollist invitation thinking it was spam. For the confusion and the ham-handed way I handled the changeover, I do apologize.

Worse, I go into Coollist this afternoon and find that everyone who HAS signed up has been blown out -- my mailing list has 0 names. Hmph. Forget Coollist. Maybe there's another way to skin this cat. I can't send a message out with 350+ BCC's on it, because it chokes my Yahoo! account. I don't like the idea of using a free list service such as Coollist or Topica, because your newsletter gets larded with advertisements. Maybe there's a third option. Perhaps a program I can use to do it for me? A free one, perrrrhaps? So we're trying this again, letting the venerable and freshly installed e-mail client Eudora do its thing. Will it work? We'll know when it successfully mails out this newsletter.

I've already got the next newsletter written for the most part, so it'll show up on your virtual doorstep soon, if this program or its replacement allows it. (One thing you may get from me without my knowledge is a message sent from my Yahoo! account with a random heading -- not a newsletter, those are clearly headed -- containing the dreaded Klez virus. DELETE IT. It ain't from me, and the virus ain't on my computer. I ran the latest check from Norton (available at securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html) this afternoon and the machine is clean. (You should probably visit either the Norton or McAfee (vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99455.htm) sites and download the virus check yourself before the site vendors move it. It detects all known versions of Klez up to now, and removes them as needed. The Norton site warns that the virus can corrupt installed versions of its antivirus system, so Norton owners, you may find yourself reinstalling your utility if the little critter has indeed laid it low. It's apparent that Yahoo! mail isn't immune to Mr. Klez.

Thanks for being patient. I'll send something with a little more meat on its bones soon. (If you got this newsletter twice or more, my apologies. I'm still working the kinks out of this mailing list procedure.)