What could be a more low-tech job than being a missionary? Don’t missionaries just tell people the Good News about Jesus Christ, usually in primitive places that have no computers? Not exactly. While it is true that the basic task of proclaiming the Good News about Jesus Christ can often be done without the aid of a computer, it is also true that we can benefit greatly from the informed and skilled use of computers. This article may point out some ways that you might use your computer more effectively in missionary work. If you are reading this article on paper, you may want to browse to http://ebt.cx/computer.shtml to view it on line with working hyperlinks.
Computers help missionaries do their work in many ways, especially in the following areas:
Have you ever strained to read someone’s hand-scrawled letter? The way I respond to sloppy handwriting is hardly the way I want people to respond to my letters or reports. Unfortunately, my handwriting isn’t very neat unless I write very slowly. On the other hand, I have learned, with practice, to type very rapidly (especially when using my favorite keyboard, mapped to the Dvorak layout). Modern printers can produce great-looking, high resolution color copy at very reasonable costs. To really take advantage of this capability, if you haven’t done so already, you need to spend some time learning to use a good word processing program well, as well as some fundamental computer concepts such as file management. Just as time spent sharpening an axe saves much more time in chopping down a tree, so learning to use software well pays off.
Which word processing program should you use? If you are on a really low budget, you could use WordPad that comes with Windows, or even cheaper, Sun’s Star Office. Before choosing, see what the people you are working with are using, and what you are likely to be able to get good help in using. My preferences have shifted over time, but right now I prefer Microsoft Word, because (1) it is used by other people with whom I work, (2) it works well when customized to my tastes, and (3) it does what I want it to do (and more), like giving me full control of fonts, allowing me to write in multiple alphabets, letting me import and export files in a wide variety of formats, allowing me to edit equations and similar structures, and allowing me to import and position various kinds of graphics. You may have another word processor that you prefer, and if you are willing and able to deal with the conversion issues, or if you don’t work collaboratively with anyone with a different word processor, then feel free to use another one. In the mean time, I recommend standardizing on Microsoft Word.
Electronic mail has become both a boon and a bane. If you aren’t careful, time spent on email correspondence can become excessive. On the other hand, the speed and effectiveness of email is of extreme value for people who travel often. Unlike physical mail, electronic mail can be made to follow you around anywhere in the world where you have a good Internet or telephone connection with minimal logistical effort. Granted, there are places in the world where email access is rather expensive (i. e. on a ship, aircraft, or in a very remote area where a private satellite link of some sort is required), but it is amazing just how inexpensive email can be even in developing nations.
There are several kinds of email connections you may find:
Standard POP mail accounts are commonly made available by ISPs. They are also available to Evangel Bible Translators members who request them. We have accounts available both on the ebt.cx and evangelbible.org domains. (Send your request to postmaster@EvangelBible.org or relay your request through the Missions Office). With such an account, you may use a large variety of email client programs, including Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Messenger, and my favorite, Eudora. When set up properly, email clients connecting to a POP mail account can make very efficient use of connect time for those who have to pay for Internet access or telephone long distance charges while on line.
Web-based email accounts are really world-wide web sites that allow you to read and compose email on line. There are many of these available, and they are often free (but the free ones display advertising to you every time you check or compose email). One of the best of these is at http://hushmail.com, which has a clean user interface and is better than most at preserving privacy. Some web-based email accounts (like http://hotmail.com) allow you to check a POP mail account and import any new mail from that account into your web-based account. This can be handy if you normally use a POP mail account and stop by an Internet kiosk somewhere like an airport or an Internet cafe and you get the urge to check your email. Web-based email accounts are convenient and easy to access from any solid Internet connection. If your connection to the Internet is expensive, however, this may not be a good approach, since, unlike a POP mail account, you must be on line for the whole time that you read and compose email instead of just when you are transferring it. You can reduce the on-line time some by copying and pasting between the email web site and another application, however.
Proprietary email accounts tend to work only with their own email client program and only with their own protocol. Examples of these include the popular AOL and Juno services, as well as certain business email application suites, such as Lotus Notes and Windows Exchange. Some of these systems have their advantages, such as having a good global address book in the business mail applications, but they also tend to lock you into using their servers and email clients.
Bulletin-board message systems might be handy for small email networks that don’t have to be connected with the Internet at large. I used to run one, but such systems are pretty much obsolete, now.
Email aliases are not really email accounts, but rather something that redirects email bound for a given address to another email address or set of email addresses. This process is automatic, and usually only adds about a second to the time it takes for email to get to you. At first this may sound like a strange thing to do, but if the alias address is stable, then having an email alias is a great advantage to a missionary. With a good email alias, you can invest a lot in publishing your email address (actually the alias) on business cards, stationery, newsletters, signs, or whatever, without too much concern for how long you will have that address. Since it is relatively easy to change an email alias, it is no big deal to change ISPs (i. e. because of a move, finding a better deal for an ISP, an ISP goes under, and other things that have really happened to me). Without an email alias, changing your email address may imply changing business cards, your stationery, your prayer cards, and informing everyone who corresponds with you of your new email address. With an email alias, changing your physical email address involves just changing the alias, which is as easy as an email to postmaster@evangelbible.org for EBT members. To really take advantage of an email alias, however, you must use it. In other words, the alias is the address you advertise and use. If your email program and account type allow it, then you need to set your From: header, or at least a Reply-To: header to your Email alias. Another reason to have an email alias, even if you have what you believe is a stable email address that you can use world-wide, is to make it easier for certain people to remember your email address or to be included in certain directories. For example, the “standard” email alias for an Evangel Bible Translators member is of the form FirstnameLastname@EvangelBible.org. Even though my email address, mpj@ebible.org is stable (because I control the eBible.org domain), I have an email alias of MichaelJohnson@EvangelBible.org that points to my normal address. That way, anyone who remembers my name and the standard EvangelBible.org email address convention can guess my email address correctly, but I still only have to check one email account to get my most important mail.
If you are an EBT member or staff and don’t yet have an EvangelBible.org email alias, you may get on just by sending an email to postmaster@evangelbible.org with your name, status with EBT, and the email address (or addresses) you wish your email to be forwarded to. (An email alias can forward to multiple addresses at once, so you can have mail go to an overseas and home account simultaneously, if you wish.)
Running your own domain is an option for some people. You can get a custom (vanity) domain name that reflects your interests, your name, your ministry name, etc., and is (hopefully) easier to remember than one you might get as part of a large ISP’s standard account. Moreover, you can move your domain name from ISP to ISP without interrupting your email service or web site. Depending on your desires, budget, web traffic you may get, and your technical knowledge, you may use your own domain name for a web site, for email, and even to supply email or web services to others. I have had the eBible.org domain name for many years, now, and that site has been hosted by 5 different ISPs, but I have retained my mpj@eBible.org email address and http://eBible.org/bible web site address and its essential contents (updated from time to time) for that whole time. Starting with the second ISP and up until the present, the shorter URL, http://eBible.org has worked as well. If your name is less common than mine, you could get a web site that incorporates your name and/or initials, like Robert B. Reed’s http://rbreed.com or Michael Johnson’s http://www.MichaelJohnson.org. Do you see the family resemblance between the Michael Johnson at that web site and my web site at http://eBible.org/mpj/? In case you are confused between us, I’m the guy who is faster at Bible translation software development, and he is the faster runner. If you are an EBT member, you don’t need to get your own domain name or ISP just to have a web site, though. You could just let a page on the corporate web site suffice. If you do want to register a web site, you can register one at http://joker.com for only about 12 dollars per year, as well as at other registraar sites. You would then need a good web hosting service. There are many of them, and you can do a web search to compare them. You should evaluate the current prices, performance, and customer satisfaction of various web hosting providers against your needs before signing up for a web hosting service. Note some companies provide both Internet access and web hosting service, and some just offer one or the other. You obviously need Internet access to maintain a web site, but it need not be the same as your web hosting service. (I get local Internet access through http://CFaith.com while I'm travelling in the USA.)
When two people are at computers connected to the internet at the same time, it is possible to type messages back and forth almost instantly, kind of like a series of small, fast email messages, but more conversational. Although this capability has been around for a long time with Internet relay chat (IRC) and chat features of computer bulletin board systems, this sort of thing has been really popularized by AOL Instant Messenger. Microsoft has their own instant messaging system that competes with AOL. AOL Instant Messenger can be downloaded as part of a complete installation of the latest Netscape Navigator from http://www.netscape.com or from AOL’s web site at http://www.aol.com, and Microsoft’s competitor can be downloaded from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. You don’t have to be an AOL member to use AOL instant messenger. Yahoo also has an instant message service. Pick either one, but make sure that both you and the person you want to communicate with in this way have the same program. I used to use Microsoft’s MSN Messenger, but they changed it so that it would not work through our corporate firewall, so I switched to AOL Instant Messenger, which works fine.
I suppose it is maybe a little bit too obvious to say that computers are helpful in writing newsletters and keeping mailing lists. What is not so obvious, perhaps, is the variety of ways in which we can do it. Newsletters can be traditional mailed paper, or they can be in electronic form, or both. When newsletters are delivered in electronic format, they can be in a variety of formats, and with a variety of potential audiences. For example, Lori and I currently send out a paper newsletter approximately every two to three months. We compose this newsletter using Microsoft Publisher, then “distill” it to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) using Adobe Acrobat Distiller. This makes one nice, neat package with all essential fonts embedded that I can send to the EBT missions office for checking, and expect it to look the same as it did for me, even if I used a font they don’t have. (The first time I did this, I sent the Microsoft Publisher file, and some of the fonts were missing on the other end, and it looked really weird.) After it is checked and I make any appropriate changes, I distill the newsletter again and send it to the EBT main office for mailing out to our mailing list. In the mean time, I post the PDF file on our personal web site, then email all of our partners that we have email addresses for, telling them that our latest newsletter is posted at http://eBible.org/mpj/ and perhaps giving a short additional update. More often, approximately monthly or whenever I have any fresh news or prayer requests, I send out a quick email to our email-connected supporters. I like doing the email updates, because usually a few of our partners respond to the email and write back some kind of encouragement or news.
When mailing out the same email to more than three people, it is a
good
practice to put the addressees in the BCC: line, and not the “To:” or
“CC:” lines so that you don’t make ALL of your mailing list available
to ALL of your recipients. You could then put your own address on the
“To:” line. An even better alternative is to do an electronic mail
merge so that each person gets a message customized just for them and
only to
their address. Unfortunately, not many email clients support that, yet,
but the latest version of Microsoft Word does. You may also wish to
take advantage of a Majordomo mailing list for your partner
communications. This way, you just mail to one email address at a
server, then the server re-mails your message to everyone on your list.
(If you are an EBT member, I can set one up for you at EBT.CX for free.)
There are lots of ways to keep track of partner addresses. Some commercial packages are pretty good. Some are a bit limited. I tend to use the Donor Tracking Notebook that I wrote, which is unsupported and not very feature-laden, but it is cheap (free for Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Bible translation missionaries) and can store as many addresses as you will ever need. I wrote it originally for Crisis Pregnancy Center ministries, but it works for just plain mailing list management, too.
You may think of a FAX machine as a separate, stand-alone device. However, most modern computer modems have the ability to send and recieve faxes, when configured with the right software. The document sent may be something scanned, or something generated by, for example, a word processor. I have often sent faxes that were never in paper format on my end of the connection. It is more like printing to a very remote printer, that way.
Computer security is a lot like physical security. It is a broad topic that really consists of a number of areas: protecting against loss of important data, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, ascertaining the source and integrity of data, protecting yourself and others from unwholesome material, and protecting yourself from malicious software.
I have worked for many years in the data storage industry, and even more years with computers. You might say that I grew up with computers, starting with old systems where programs were stored on punched paper tape. In all that time, the most important thing I have learned about backing up important data is this: DO IT!
Let’s consider the story of two missionaries. The first, who shall remain nameless so that I don’t add insult to injury, worked for several years on a Bible translation, with all of the data stored in the same place. One day, it was ALL destroyed. There was no off-site backup. Doing translation work twice is not a very satisfying use of time.
Another missionary that I know personally (Chuck Walton) was actually captured by terrorists and imprisoned in a cage in an attempt to destroy the New Testament that he was working on. The New Testament work in progress was backed up in a safe place, and after Chuck was freed, the work was finished and the New Testament published.
Just in case you aren’t yet motivated to back up your data regularly, including off-site backups, here is a list of the threats to your computer data:
A prudent man sees danger, and hides himself;
But the simple pass on, and suffer for it. --
Proverbs 22:3
(WEB)
OK, you now know that backups are valuable, but how do you do it?
There are three basic kinds of backups:
Removable media includes floppy disks, CD-RWs, hard disk cartridges (like Zip and Jazz drives), and tape cartridges (8mm, DAT, Travan, etc.). The biggest advantages of removable media are (1) to increase capacity, you just get more media, (2) you can keep many generations of backup for archival purposes, and (3) you can mail or carry the media to remote locations (i. e. your home office or someone’s house in a safe location) for safe keeping. Because I have much more than 1 floppy disk worth of data, I use writable CDs for this purpose. One 650-megabyte CD can hold source files for two Bible translations, two other books, source code for a lot of computer programs, assorted documents, my financial records, archives of email, and a few other critical files that I back up regularly. Actually, I have enough stuff that I keep backed up to fill 3 CDs, right now, but the second and third CD contents don’t change very often, so I usually only burn about 1 CD-ROM per week.
When you are using rewritable, removable media (such as tape, CD-RW, or hard disk cartridges), it is very important to rotate your backups, and not just backup onto the same media every time. The reason for this is that if your hard drive fails during a backup (and this did happen to me once on a computer at work), and you are reusing the same media, then at that instant you have no hard drive and you don’t have a complete backup. It would be nice to know that you could at least roll back to the previous backup.
Local hard-drive backups can mean just copying critical data from one hard drive to another physical hard drive (not just a partition of the first hard drive) on the same computer, or better yet, to a hard drive on another computer. To transfer files to another computer, you may use a local area network (i. e. Ethernet) or a direct cable connection file transfer, or, if you don’t have a lot of data to update, using a floppy disk. I use this method almost daily to back up the critical data from my notebook computer to a special directory on my desktop computer’s hard drive via an Ethernet connection. I use the 32-bit xcopy command that comes with the operating system and the enhanced delete program that I wrote in a batch file to update the data on my desktop computer. The batch file that I use is kind of long, because of the way I specifically select certain directories to back up from various places on my hard drive, but a simplified example that mirrors data in C:\My Documents to N:\Bak would look like this:
delete /r /f /d14 "/mC:\My Documents\" "N:\Bak\*"
xcopy /c /r /e /i /d "C:\My Documents\*" "N:\Bak\"
The delete command above deletes everything in N:\Bak\ that is not in C:\My Documents\ and that is more than 14 days old. The xcopy command only copies files from C:\My Documents to N:\Bak that are not already there or that are more recent on the source drive, thus saving time. Both commands include subdirectories and ensure that copies take place in spite of file attributes. Please note that this kind of backup is not effective protection against some kinds of backups, and it is only effective against unintentional data deletion if you recover the data before you run your backup batch file the next time.
Remote network backups involve electronic transfer of important data to a remote location for safe keeping. This may mean emailing copies of files to your main office and/or to a friend. There are also network data backup services. If you happen to have remote access to a computer that you can store information on using ftp or some other method, you may want to take advantage of this for some files. If you have cheap Internet access, it may be a really easy to regularly send your work in progress off to a safe site.
Be sure you test your backups from time to time to make sure that you can really restore data from them.
If you backup data for archival purposes, you need to understand the shelf life of the media (some is shorter than you might think), and make a plan to copy the data to new media periodically to (1) avoid media aging problems, and (2) avoid machinery obsolescence problems. How easy do you think it would be for me to find a way to read an old 8-inch CPM floppy disk, today? Or even a 5.25-inch DOS disk? Some of the old tape formats used in the early days of computing are even worse, since 20-year-old tapes tend to turn to dust when you try to read them on the same machines that they were written on. By copying data that is still important from older media and formats to newer media and newer formats every few years, data can be maintained pretty much as long as it is needed. Currently, the common backup media with the longest probable shelf life is a writable CD-ROM. That may change in a few years.
Even if the section on email didn’t make you think about this, the last section should have. You should be aware that email is less private than a post card. Between the source and destination, electronic mail (and other Internet traffic) is temporarily stored and processed on a large number of computers, and it travels over a large number of communication links, many of which are easily tapped. Anyone with “root access” to those intermediate machines can read your email. Not only that, but there are things that can go wrong (and sometimes do) that misdirect network traffic to the wrong destination, either in addition to or instead of the intended recipient(s). Sometimes it is as innocent as mistyping even one character in an email address, and in other cases, it may be a hack attack on the mail routing system. In addition, Internet traffic is routinely screened by law enforcement and intelligence agents in both friendly and unfriendly nations. Your email is not private, unless you make it private.
Privacy of email is not an issue that most people think about. After all, they didn’t see their last email printed on the front page of the local newspaper, posted on a web site, or feel the effects of it being taken out of context and used against them in some way. These things can surface after the fact. I know of one case where a man called his ISP about some email being lost, and the ISP recovered not only that one email, but every email sent to him in the last 10 years. Cool, huh? Think about it...
I’m not trying to scare you away from using email, or even from intentionally making some information about yourself public. I just want you to think about what you want to make public, and what would not be appropriate to make public to the entire world. I prefer to keep certain emails private, just like I choose to lock my car. I know that a car and/or its contents may be stolen if I lock my car, but the odds are much better that my car and stuff will be waiting for me when I get back to it if I do lock my car.
You can make your email private by encrypting it. I recommend getting into the habit of encrypting your email routinely so that you know how and are able to when you are dealing with really sensitive messages or messages involving people in areas where there may be violent factions who don’t believe in a Christian’s right to fulfill the Great Commission.
There are three good ways that I recommend to encrypt your email. The most universally accessible (except for the learning curve) is to encrypt your mail with Gnu Privacy Guard or Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). The second way is to use a free web-based email account at http://www.hushmail.com or the JAARS web-based email and have your correspondents do likewise. The third way is to use an email system like Lotus Notes that encrypts traffic between the server and your mail client, and have your correspondents do likewise. Please note that in all three cases, secure communication requires that the same encryption method be by both the senders and receiver(s) for secure communications to take place. Some systems, like Hushmail or JAARS web mail encrypt only half of the email’s journey if the message is from someone outside of their system. That is certainly better than nothing, but it is no guarantee that the mail is private.
Using PGP takes the greatest amount of learning and understanding to use properly, but once you and your correspondents get the hang of it, it isn’t hard if you use it regularly. This is the single most limiting factor in the usefulness of PGP. I can easily use PGP. I have exactly two missionary friends with whom I exchange PGP-encrypted email (both in different sensitive areas). I don’t even want to think about trying to teach some people with whom I correspond how to use PGP, however, because they are already stretching the limits of their interests and abilities in computing to just send & read email, let alone having to deal with cryptography. Nevertheless, I strongly encourage all missionaries who may go to, talk about, or correspond with someone in a sensitive area to learn to use PGP, and to teach at least one friend or relative to do likewise. PGP comes with a good user manual. Read it. Heed it. You can download PGP from many places, but the best place is http://www.pgpi.com, because that location is stable, well-maintained, and is located in a country that allows that software to be freely exported to anyplace you are likely to be.
When using PGP, you need to be aware that the Subject: line of a message is NOT encrypted, so don’t put anything sensitive there.
One concept that will help you understand how PGP works, and to use it properly, is that of public key cryptography. In public key cryptography, you generate a key pair, consisting of a public key and a private key. You MUST keep your private key private for this system to work. You must give your public key to anyone you want to send private email to you (or to be able to verify digital signatures). To encrypt a message, you use the public key(s) of the recipient(s). To decrypt a message, you use your own private key. The beauty of this system is that the public key really can be made public, and the system is still secure, so you don’t have to have a separate “secure channel” (like a private courier) to establish secure communications. All you really need to know is that the public key of the person you are communicating with is really that person’s public key. That is what the key signing process is all about. (See the PGP manual for more details.)
Setting up a free web-based email account at http://www.hushmail.com
is easy. Just follow the on-line instructions. Basic service there, is
free.
Upgrades to more space, more support, or private branding cost money.
Users of
the free service are always displayed ads promoting the upgrades. I
considered
setting up a private label version for Bible translators, but really,
it is
probably better to “blend in” with the more generic hushmail.com
addresses in sensitive areas. It may be a good idea to have such an
account as a
backup in case your primary email fails for any reason. The biggest
disadvantages of the free hushmail accounts is that they go away if you
don’t access them often enough, and they don’t hold much mail.
Users of the SIL/JARRS mail system can rest assured that it is reasonably secure within the sil.org, wycliffe.org, and jarrs.org domains only. For secure communications to people outside of that domain, such as partners and family members, you can use PGP in addition to the built-in security of another email system.
When I publish the current draft of the World English Bible on the Internet, I sign it digitally. That way, you can be assured that it hasn’t been modified, no matter if you get it directly or indirectly, as long as my digital signature checks out OK. (See seal.txt in http://eBible.org/bible/web/webtxt.zip, for example.)
Yuk. Here are some countermeasures that you can use:
For ministry and historical reasons, keeping my primary email address a secret (which you may feel free to write to if you have any comments on this web page), because I value your input. I do, however, have another unpublished email address for high priority communications that I may use in places where email transfer is slow and/or costly, and which I check regularly. For activities that I know may attract more than usual amounts of spam, I have a free web-based email account that really isn’t much good for anything except research into the kinds of spam people are sending. Keeping an email address relatively unpublished may not work forever, as someone else who does know your email address could possibly take some action that gets your email address on spam lists, and once there, the lists tend to propagate between different perpetrators of spam. In my case, since few people know my unpublished email address, and since I control several domains, it isn’t too hard for me to change my address if necessary. It is also pretty easy to set up a new web-based email account, if you don’t have your own domain.
Some email client software is better at spam filtering than others. My favorite one comes with Eudora, because the filtering is flexible enough that I can tune the filtering so that I am reasonably sure that email that I want to see gets through to me, and most of the email that I don’t want to see gets discarded before I even have to look at it. (Note: if you want me to be sure see an email message, don’t include any words in it that you wouldn’t expect to hear in polite conversations among Christians, and make sure that the subject doesn’t look like something on the list of spam types, above.) I try to set up filters based on common characteristics of spam, since spammers tend to never use the same source address twice, but they do tend to repeat certain phrases in the body of the message, including contact information for gullible people to use in granting them business. You can also find third-party “plug-in” software that works with popular email client programs to help eliminate spam.
Some people (like http://spamcop.net) offer spam filtering services, so that some spam is removed before you have to pay to download it.
Complaining to the spam originator’s ISP doesn’t really do much good, but it may make you feel better. If you want to do that, I recommend that you go through http://spamcop.net.
Most email that comes unwanted has “removal instructions” to get off of a mailing list and/or a disclaimer that this is a one-time mailing. If the email originates from a reputable business or from a mailing list that you really did sign up for (like my mailing lists that you can sign up for at http://eBible.org/subscribe.htm), then the removal instructions usually work. If the email originates from a spammer, then the removal instructions are usually ineffective (or may actually increase your spam load since you actually confirm that you got email at that address), and claims that the mailing is “one-time” are probably less than totally honest. Replies of any sort to spam will probably not be read except by a robot program that confirms your email address as having received the spam (thus targeting you for even more spam), but usually they bounce, as spammers tend to use invalid addresses. Therefore, please don’t waste your time responding. If you do actually sign up for a mailing list, then it is very important that you read, heed, and keep instructions pertaining to getting back off of the mailing list, as a password or special email address may be required to do that.
Setting up domain-level email filters only works when you have your own email domain, and then only when the service you are using grants you that ability and you have the knowledge to use it.
Besides unwanted email, there is the issue of trash on web sites. It is way too easy to find if you look for it, and it is also easier than I would like to stumble into it. I remember how shook up one lady was who misspelled the URL for one popular and useful web site and ended up at a site promoting and portraying conduct clearly in violation of God’s best for us. It was easy to do that. Even I have done that. I could give you a list of some site names that are deceptively similar to decent site names that go to trash sites, but I would rather not publicize those sites more. There are four main ways to deal with this situation:
Option #1 really doesn’t work very well because (1) not everyone wants to embed the voluntary tags, and (2) it is a costly hassle to insert and maintain those tags, even if you wanted to. (I gave up doing so on my sites).
Option #2 sounds good, except that the only service I tried that works that way (Integrity Online) had dismally slow performance which was worse than the performance of “free” ISPs like bluelight.com and freei.net, which, incidentally don’t get filtered if you use them instead of the paid connection to get better performance. (Most paid services do perform much better than the “free” services, though.)
Option #3 works pretty well, if you get a service that provides automatic updates and which censors based on values similar to yours. (I use the Faith Guardian software resold by CFaith.com, and it seems to work well, except that I have to disable it when I do a large file transfer.)
Option #4 is really what is left when you realize that no filter is
perfect. It may help to have a spouse or other trusted friend help you
to avoid the trash and/or hold the password to your filtering software.
Malicious software is any software designed to harm you or your data. Categories of malicious software include:
Computer viruses are programs that attach themselves to other programs, and need those other programs to propagate and reproduce. Computer worms are programs that propagate without modifying a host program. Trojan horses are programs that pretend to be something good, but have some hidden malicious feature. Any of those kinds of programs can carry “payloads” than can cause destruction or modification of data, compromise of security, and other bad things. These three forms of malicious software can be detected and often neutralized by good antivirus software. Both McAfee and Symantec make good antivirus software. I recommend using one or the other (but not both) and updating the virus definition files regularly. The first line of defense against malicious software is common sense, even if you also have good antivirus software. Just don’t run computer programs you get from any source (email, the world-wide web, ftp sites, bulletin boards, floppies, or wherever) unless you know what they are and trust their source. Also, be doubly suspicious of any program sent to you by email, even from trusted sources, since some email viruses forge mail from people you know and send copies of themselves to you without the sender’s knowledge or consent. It is also essential that you keep good backups, since there are some kinds of malicious software that can do damage in spite of your following reasonable precautions and having antivirus software installed. In those cases, it is good to be able to undo the damage to your data after you eradicate the malicious software.
Hoaxes and chain letters are in the same category as malicious software, except that they rely on the actions of humans to propagate themselves. In general, there seems to be no shortage of gullible humans, as these things are nearly impossible to totally eradicate. They tend not to be quite as harmful as the other kinds of malicious software, but they do waste time, cause embarrassment, and discredit whole groups of people. For example, there are persistent rumors about a certain well-known (but dead) atheist crusader petitioning the FCC to stop Christian broadcasting. Anyone who acts on the letter as if it were true makes all Christians look stupid in the eyes of the FCC. In general, it is best to never send on a chain letter of any sort. If you really feel compelled to, then please take the time to check it out before you send it to anyone. For a list of current urban legends and hoaxes, there are several web sites, like http://truthorfiction.com, that catalog these things. For virus information, including virus hoaxes, see http://www.mcafee.com or http://www.symantec.com. Please do all of your correspondents a favor and never send on anything “just in case it is true.” Some of the more insidious chain letters state that you and the people you send the chain letter to may be rewarded with money, travel, or a car just for forwarding the chain letter on quickly. Naturally, these things are totally false, but you would be amazed at some of the otherwise seemingly intelligent people who have sent these hoax letters to me, “just in case.” You should be aware that it is not possible with current technology to track the progress of email chain letters, as many of these hoaxes claim.
What about warnings of REAL viruses? I still don’t recommend either heeding or forwarding chain letters that warn of them. Chain letters are too uncontrollable and unreliable to be used for such a serious purpose. Instead, it is better to go to http://www.mcaffee.com and sign up for their virus email newsletter, and encourage others to do the same.
A “firewall” on a computer network is a barrier to network traffic to stop some kinds of information from traversing a given link. Their main purpose is to prevent unauthorized access to your computer via network ports that you aren’t using. You are probably aware that you can connect to other computers and access data there while you are connected to the Internet, but have you thought about the possibility of other people connecting to your computer and accessing or changing your data while you browse? It is possible. Check out http://grc.com for some more details about this. You may want to consider getting a firewall like the ones you can download and/or try out at http://www.zonelabs.com/, http://www.mcafee-at-home.com/products/firewall/default.asp, http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/content/productlink.cfm#2, and some other sites. You may also believe that your security is good enough without something like that. If you are running Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Linux, it may be, if you have properly configured things. With Windows 95/98/Me, you may need to do more than just configure things to make your system secure against network probing.
Computers have increased the accuracy and speed at which Bibles can be typeset, as well as increasing the number of alphabets that can be used in Bibles. Even better ways are on the horizon that involve less manual labor.
There are lots of reasons missionaries may want World-Wide Web sites:
You can create a web site on your own domain (see above), on a free web hosting service (if you don’t mind annoying advertising), or in some cases, on your sending organization’s web site.
There is much that can be done, here. Most of it is covered well in other places. It is nice, however, to be able to establish a secure, encrypted connection to a financial institution’s web site and conduct some business. You can bank, trade stocks and other securities, and more, all from an Internet connection anywhere in the world (provided that you have the right accounts and passwords).
The word “eCommerce” has become part of the English language, now. You can now place catalog orders on the Internet without having a paper catalog or a telephone line. Some businesses will even ship things overseas for you.
There are many choices in Bible study software available, including such items as the free Sword Project, the nearly free Online Bible, and commercial programs like BibleWorks, Logos, BibleSoft, QuickVerse, Bible Research Systems, Word Search, Bible Explorer, Nelson Reference Library, and more. The best bargains for Bible Translators are probably the Online Bible and Translator’s Workplace, but you may find one of the other programs easier to work with. Be sure to compare prices, once you decide which program(s) you like. Often you will find a better deal at Christian Book Distributors or Amazon.com. Unfortunately, your choice of software and your choice of books are not fully independent, as only two of the Bible study software packages listed above (QuickVerse and Word Search) adhere to an open standard for Bible text format (STEP). Many of the sites listed above offer free trial downloads and/or low-cost trial CDs, and I encourage you to try several of them out before you decide what you want to use. I haven’t reviewed them all, but I have used Sword (great for computer hackers on Linux boxes), the Online Bible (the UI isn’t as smooth as I’d like, but I really like the price and lots of Bibles are available for it), Logos (too expensive, but full of features and lots of titles are available), Word Search (nice interface, but very buggy). I think that the one use the most now is BibleWorks, even though I don't like its disregard for poetry & prose formatting. Your mileage may vary. Any one of these programs is a great help at finding things in the Bible and doing topical and word studies.
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