Byte by Bite

Rumor Checking, early shopping

by Marv Dealy

Yet, just this morning I received an email purporting to be a “good read” from a reader (hi, Mom) that proclaimed “no matter what your political and/or spiritual system you believe in, the ring of truth permeates the following essay.”

The email was all done up in a fancy font and centered on the page, which together with the grammatically-fractured introduction led me to believe it might just be an urban legend so off I went to check into the source of this email tale.

I didn’t have to look far—at Snopes.com I entered the phrase “Australian dentist” which was the supposed author of this essay and up popped the following: “The ‘What is an American?’ article was not penned by an Australian (or a dentist), but by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in Northern Virginia. Mr. Ferrara's commentary was originally published in the National Review on 25 September 2001.” Read all about it at http://www.snopes.com/rumors/america2.htm

Sorry, Mom. Similar stories have been circulated about a Canadian broadcaster and a Romanian journalist, and, says Snopes together they “demonstrate [that] Americans take great delight in encomiums to America and Americans authored by citizens of other nations.”

Next time you get an email that urges you to forward it to everyone you know, take a moment, go to Snopes.com, search for a phrase that describes the email (in this instance, Australian dentist) and read about what you’ve received before you just send it to everyone on your address list.

Shopping Time—I see where the merchants have Christmas trees in their display aisles, which means Halloween can’t be far away and it’s clearly time that you get out your pencils and decide what to buy me for the upcoming holidays.

I thought we’d start with a list of what I don’t want, and to the rescue ride the good folks at CNET.com, in this case Tim Moynihan who writes a quarterly review of the worst technology news or items in the previous few months. His current review starts with the numerous recalled Sony laptop batteries, what he calls the worst way to recreate the pyrotechnical magic of a Kiss live show on your laptop. Moynihan continues on to dish a pair of headphones from Sennheiser—who normally makes some of the best headphones around—as well as the recent upgrade to iTunes7. You can read this review at http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11524-6649789.html?tag=nl.e729, where there are also links to his reports on the first two quarters of this year’s technological foibles.

As the time comes near, I’ll provide even more shopping tips to help you nail down just the perfect gift to send my way.

Page after page—There have been more instances of embarrassing instant messages and emails than just those that have been covered in the scandal surrounding the ex-congressman from Florida, Mark Foley.

CNET News comes to the rescue with a roundup of others similarly embarrassed, including Patricia Dunn, the former Hewlett-Packard chairman, Bill Gates, caught asking “do we have a clear plan on what we want Apple to do to undermine Sun,” and Harry Stonecipher, former Boeing president and chief executive, who wrote explicit emails to a coworker he was having an extramarital affair with.

Read about that and all other folks who really shouldn’t have written that in an email or an instant message at http://news.com.com/2300-1028_3-6123244-6.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

You might want to think twice about what you’re about to put in an email or an instant message yourself. Once you hit the send button, there’s no bringing it back.

More Driving Directions—following up on the recent columns regarding differing results from different driving directions websites, reader Mika Ayala writes “I read with interest your latest article on traveling and the different Internet mapping sites and couldn't believe you didn't evaluate Maps On Us. Check it out at http://www.mapsonus.com/”

Well, Mike, I’d never heard of it and thanks for the tip. Mike continues “I use it quite regularly for all the traveling/driving I do. In all honesty, I use a couple of sites and sometimes even three to get the one that’s most accurate (route) and/or the one that gives me the most information. AAA has a free site also. I believe it is at www.csaa.com

Go to the Travel Link and then drop down to ‘Maps and Directions.’”

A couple of comments here. First, you have to log into the AAA website if you want to use some of their advanced trip planning features, however the simple point A to point B works as easily as others I have used. And I point out that unlike Google, AAA’s maps know how to get to Crater Lake, Oregon.

Second, Mike makes a telling comment when he says that he uses a couple of websites or more to get an accurate route and related information. The moral here is don’t believe what the first map website tells you, check with a couple of others. And by the way, Mike’s suggestion of MapsonUS.com is a good one—thanks, Mike—even if they couldn’t find Crater Lake, either.

Friday Freebie—And this week, it’s a game to boot. Reader Dan Buckman writes “if Mike Ayala already sent it to you, he got it from me. My best is 42 strokes, which is probably lousy.” The “it” in Dan’s email refers to a great online miniature golf game, available at http://www.ibogleif.dk/spil/flashspil/minigolf/minigolf.swf

Dan, your 42 (6 under par, folks) beat my first time effort of 46, so I can see I’ll be wasting some time with this one. Send me your best scores and we’ll see what we get here. An aside: on showing this to Jason Niedens—a definite Generation Y—he said “not enough blood and guts” and walked away.

Don’t forget this column is available online at UnionDemocrat.com, and if all goes well the links there are clickable so you don’t have to type them into your browser.