Pitfalls, Pratfalls, and Dumb Luck, Part II February 3rd, 1999 This week I am again discussing things I learned the hard way - both good and bad. Have you come across e-mail messages warning you about e-mail virus's on your computer? There are most certainly virus's out there. We got hit by one at work last week that caused a lot of headaches. But they are easier to deal with when you can tell the facts from the hysteria. I got an e-mail concerning a virus yesterday. According to the message this virus can do everything but jump through your monitor and bite your head off. The funny thing is that I saw an earlier version of the same message several months ago and it was not nearly so fanatical. These things seem to take on a life of their own. Here is a bit of fact about e-mail virus' that can help you determine if you are the victim of a hoax, courtesy of antivirus.miningco.com. "You can never get a virus from just downloading and reading your mail. It is possible to get a virus from an e-mail attachment - but you have to save and open/run the attachment to risk infection. Hoaxes are often official sounding, unsolicited, and reference important, sound official, like places." Have you, like me, heard computer related terms that you didn't quite understand? Welcome to the club. How about "Bug" and "Debug"? I am not making this up. This explanation also came from antivirus.miningco.com. In the late 1930's an early form of an electromechanical computer, the Mark I, failed to operate correctly. The computer engineer found that a moth had fried on one of the wires (short-circuiting the wire), creating the "bug" that made the computer nonfunctional. Today it means errors, therefore to debug is to fix problems. How about DOS? I have heard it for years, but never knew what it means. DOS is the abbreviation for Disk Operating System. I guess that makes sense. Have you ever tried to download something or open something that took forever? Have you started to open something and realized you hit the wrong icon? Have you ever been in the middle of getting something when it became urgent that you go somewhere else on your computer? Did you know you can stop the process in midstream by hitting Command-Option-Escape? Now this may also cause your entire application to quit, so be careful when you use it. In some cases you can also hit command-period (as in the symbol) to make a specific task that a program is doing stop. Not all programmers will add this ability to their software though. How about when your computer freezes up? I used to unplug it when that happened because I didn't know what else to do. Unplugging is not a good option, it can harm your computer. It works much better if you hit Command-Control-Power Key. That lets you soft-reboot. You can eject floppy disks or CDs from your desktop by highlighting the icon and dragging it to the trash can. It will pop out. Be sure though that you have closed up everything stored on the floppy or CD. Otherwise you will be asked to put them back in when you actually shut down your computer. You can also use Command-E to eject if you are using Mac OS 8.0 or above. Have you discovered Greenfield Online? Do you like to participate in surveys when there is no attempt to sell you anything attached to them? Do you like the idea of perhaps being paid something to give your opinion? If so, you should check out Greenfield Online. I have been participating in their surveys for about a year so I feel comfortable in giving them an endorsement. When I was in graduate school I was required to take three semesters of statistical analysis. Three semesters was quite enough to convince me that I did not want to do statistically analyze anything. However, it also gave me a good understanding of things like validity criteria and professional level survey standards. Now when I read an article in the paper that states that "x" number of people surveyed feel a certain way, I want to know who they surveyed, how many they surveyed, and how they asked the questions. Greenfield Online was founded in 1994 and currently has almost one million people who participate in the online research projects that are created using professional research standards. Greenfield Online contracts with companies that include Microsoft Corporation, Fidelity Investments, the U.S. Postal Service, American Express, Ford Motor Company and Quaker Oats. According to CEO Rudy Nadilo, Greenfield Online represents every demographic segment in the U.S. and a growing base in 162 other countries. So I figure if I want to be heard this is probably the place to be, and you betcha I want to be heard. When you access their home page at www.greenfieldonline.com there are several options at the top of the screen. (If you are there for the first time then you must register before you can participate.) The process of participating is at least two fold. There is a screening survey that will determine basic things like age, sex, level of education, experience on a computer or on the net, household income, number of children in home, etc. To get to the screening surveys simply click on the Survey Center option and you will be taken to the page that lists all the screening surveys. The screening survey will also ask questions pertaining to the kind of survey being conducted. There may be questions to determine whether you are liberal or conservative, married or single, or have any connections that might prejudice your responses (example: the end survey will be about internet search engine, so they want to eliminate people who work for companies that provide search engines.) I frequently find that I am not sure what the target audience will be from the screening survey which means to me that it has been well designed. The screening survey will usually take about 5 minutes, but can take longer. After you submit your responses you are automatically entered in a drawing for an initial cash reward of at least $5. If you meet the validity criteria as a result of the screening survey, you will be contacted by e-mail and asked to complete the more in-depth survey. You are directed to a particular net address which you access at a time convenient to you. Those surveys can take 15 to 30 minutes to complete depending on the speed of your modem. After you have submitted your responses to it you are eligible for further incentives ranging from about $10 up to $1,000 or a gift such as a digital camera. These incentives are awarded randomly. Occasionally, you will be asked to participate in a third level survey in which you are asked to log on to a specific address, at a specific time, for one hour, to participate in a "chat room" type environment with other participants to discuss a specific topic or product. Participants in these sessions automatically receive a cash incentive. Other than these formal surveys there are also daily informal surveys in which anyone, whether a member of Greenfield Online or not, can give their opinion. These questions range from the irrelevant (which member of the Clinton household do you like best) to the heavy duty (do you believe in euthanasia). As soon as you submit your response you see the percentage of responses from everyone else. This serves no purpose except to tell you how the people who answered the survey feel about a certain issue, but it is always interesting. By the way, according to the poll Chelsea is the best liked Clinton. One final note, representatives of the company assured me that they want more input from older citizens and encourage everyone to give them a try. Always remember, if you don't speak up the baby boomers will make all your decisions for you. If you have any tips, hints, or thoughts on these topics, make sure you write me so that I can share your thoughts with other readers.