This could be your last chance to email me: my email address will be expiring. The notice came this morning from admin@po.cwru.edu, so I know it must be valid, especially since I got it five times in a half hour. Repeat sendings and garbage text at the end of the subject (to make sure the vital message isn't inadvertently marked as spam) are how I identify all my legitimate messages. And if there were, somehow, any doubt remaining, all I would have to do is look at the location of the important information: in an attached zip file. I know I always send my text messages in attached zip files. Who doesn't?

Seriously, how hard is it to learn not to open an attachment unless it is very obviously from someone you know (translation: not someone who you've known for years suddenly emailing you in weird, broken English)? And if you can't understand that, then chances are very high that you didn't set up your own computer, in which case the person who did should be beaten about the head for not setting some basic security settings in your email client.

So to my computer-configuring techie bretheren, I say: what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you condemning your less-knowledgable friends and relatives to suffer the agonies of email worms? If nothing else, protect them to save yourself from having to clean up their hosed computers!

Category: Geek

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