ALKHOBAR, 10 June 2003 — After an incredibly long, cool spring, the summer heat has suddenly turned itself on full blast all over the Kingdom. Lots of people have already left on vacation and many more are going in the coming days. Summer and the heat it brings can cause complications for IT equipment. If you haven’t cleaned inside your PC for a year, now is the time to unplug the machine, take off the cover and gently get rid of the dust and lint collected inside around the components. People use lots of different methods to do this — from compressed air and mini feather dusters to vacuum cleaners.
The most important thing is to gently remove the feathery strings of dirt, especially the stuff hanging down from the fan and cables, and make sure that the vents in the cover are free of debris. This will help keep your machine from overheating. If you are leaving on vacation for the summer, unplug your computer, monitor, printer, scanner and other hardware.
Over the summer months, lots of people take care of pets for their friends. In the Kingdom, cats often stay indoors the entire summer due to the heat. While cats find the temperature outdoors oppressive, most of them hate air conditioning, too. In self-defense, cats frequently search for a warm, cozy spot in the house and computer monitors are very attractive. Cats love to drape themselves over a warm monitor, which is usually placed on a tabletop, providing them with a wide view of the area. The problem is that CRT monitors give off large amounts of radiation. Humans are supposed to sit at least two feet away from the monitors, so a cat in direct contact with such equipment is not just getting warm, it’s getting fried at the cellular level. Discourage such potentially dangerous behavior.
Many cats also become bored in the summer months. They may start doing strange things to keep themselves amused. Chewing behavior often arises at this time. Cats find the soft, thick rubber casing on computer cables especially enticing. If the cat chews through a cable and hits a live electric wire, death or serious injury will often result. Cats usually engage in chewing behavior when they are alone in the house. Inspect electric cords searching for tiny puncture marks to ascertain if your pet is trying to demonstrate that cats do have nine lives.
Veterinarians urge people who own computers and pets to enclose power cords and cabling inside protective coverings to prevent catastrophes. Electric cord covers are available at hardware stores; or you can use lengths of PVC pipe or even large-diameter plastic irrigation hose. The other option is to slice smaller-diameter hose or pipes down the side and press the cable through the length.
If you can’t completely cover the electric cords, you can coat them with obnoxious tasting liquids. Any hot sauce containing red pepper is fine. Alternatively, go to your local pharmacy and purchase brush-on solution used to prevent nail biting in children. If any electric cords or cables have already been chewed, replace them before attempting to cover or coat them — or you could get a nasty shock courtesy of your cat
I got a nasty shock in an e-mail from the Press Release Network. At a time when the people of Iraq don’t even have the basics of life, companies are already rushing to protect their intellectual property in that country.
The Iraqi office of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) has become the first to resume the filing of patent and trademark applications. Sixteen such applications were filed by AGIP on May 12, 2003. AGIP is urging those companies and individuals who are interested in protecting their intellectual property rights in Iraq to contact them through their website, agip.com. I must wonder though, if Iraq still doesn’t even have adequate physical security, how can anyone hope to protect intellectual property rights there? I know. Business is business — no lecturing e-mails please. What I would like to get mails about is the following issue. There is an IT company in Saudi Arabia that has just launched a new version of its website. The site is a straightforward information vehicle. It has few graphics, no bells or whistles. The company uses the site mostly to present information on the products and solutions it delivers, plus material on select IT topics.
In general, I have no problem with such a site. What I do take issue with is that the content on the site is presented in English that is less than perfect. On almost every page of the online content, there is some sort of language error. I find that these mistakes grate on my nerves.
When I discussed the problem with the company’s CEO, he told me that they weren’t worried about such errors. I was surprised. He went on to explain that their core business is IT, not English. He said that they had received many compliments from customers about the information provided at the site and none of their clients had complained about the occasional language irregularity.
“Everything in regards to money spent on our website is considered from a business perspective,” said the CEO. “The purpose of our website is to inform our customers, and we are doing that just fine. It’s only someone such as a journalist who would notice the language errors, so we see no need to devote funds to editing the website content.
We take this perspective even in regards to the site’s security. It’s a static site that doesn’t contain any customer data, so we haven’t cared to invest much in securing the content. If someone defaces the site it doesn’t really matter. If people laugh at the defacement, so what? I can’t imagine that customers wouldn’t work with our company just because our site was defaced or our English grammar is deficient.” Lately, many companies have taken the plunge and launched a website. Mediocre English tends to be the norm at the majority of them. What do you think of this?
Am I being too picky in expecting that the English content at websites should be free from spelling and grammar errors? Does poor English online reflect badly on a company’s overall business reputation? Is getting a message across all that matters at a website? Send me an e-mail to the address at the end of this column and let me know your views on this subject
Our last subject this week is one of my least favorites — SPAM. I have come to the conclusion that I am earning a living the wrong way. Every day I get up and work hard in order to collect a salary at the end of each month. It has been brought to my attention that I could probably earn a much better living by becoming a spammer. I received SPAM this week from LunarLandRush.com, a company that claims to be the only authorized agent of the Lunar Embassy. They offered to sell me one acre of land on the moon for $29.99 plus shipping and handling.
It turned out that the shipping and handling charge wouldn’t be the fee for sending the acre of moon land to me. Unfortunately, that would be too costly, several billion dollars at least. Instead, I discovered that Lunar Land Rush would just mail me a certificate stating that I owned the moon property. According to information at this company’s Web site, over two million people from 176 countries own property on the Moon.
The Lunar Embassy states that it has been selling land on the Moon for the past 22 years. They assert that they are the only company on this planet holding a legal basis and copyright for the sale of lunar and other extraterrestrial property within the confines of our solar system. Lunar Land Rush claims that individuals and companies on Earth have bought 300 million acres of the moon. So, multiply 300 million by $29.99, plus shipping and handling, and then try to calculate why you actually get out of bed and go to work at an honest job every morning.
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