Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 2:15 PM Subject: [Encina Update] Encina Update (dsl/be cool/email/forwarding/reunions/65/70/75/80/85/90/95/92/kevin katzakian/found/siblings/firewalls/internet/shutterfly/whats new) ENCINA ALUMNI, We got our PacBell DSL line installed at home this week. I'm getting about 500KBytes/sec download speeds, versus maybe 4-5KBytes/sec with a 56k modem. If you have any questions about DSL I'm pretty knowledgeable about it because of the research I've had to do to get this to work at home. If you have a choice I recommend DSL even though cable is faster (but shared with your neighbors). Basic DSL service is $49/month. This includes $10/month to have PacBell as your ISP. Unfortunately, PacBell is only giving out dynamic IP addresses for basic service, for those of you who care about such things. This makes things more complicated at the user end as you have to login. Enhanced service is $79/month and gets you five static IP addresses. PacBell is having a special promotion which ends February 15. In addition to free installation, you can also get a free DSL modem, a $198 value. And if you open an ETRADE account by March 31, 2000, ETRADE will pay for three months of DSL service ($147 value). The details are here: http://www.newtier.com/pacbell/greatdeals/DSL/index.html You must know the special codes in order to take advantage of these deals when you sign up. I'm taking advantage of both deals. BE COOL PART 3 Kelly Dimmitt 86 wrote: "This has struck a nerve with me, but I think my reasons are different. I was a person who apologized to another for some outrageous behavior in high school that I now realize was inappropriate. I sent that person an email to apologize. What irks me though is that I have sent email to my classmates and you know what, no one responds back. It is very disheartening to know that we are all so busy that no one spends the time to say Hi. Gosh, if I met them on the street would I get the same indifference, would I get a lame "Stepford Wife" response, or would it be genuine. I am sorry I am rambling on, but the newsletter hit me and I had to respond." Hmmm. Kelly's note brings up a sore subject which I have written about in the past. And that would be: EMAIL ETIQUETTE As you can imagine, I send and receive lots of email. LOTS of email. MORE than you can imagine. Sometimes it's hard to get any REAL work done. And I do have a job, believe it or not, and it's not Encina webmaster. Those of you who have written me directly or submitted one of those "care of webmaster" or "contact webmaster" forms know that I try and respond quickly. Unless it's a weekend I usually respond within 24 hours. What really irks me, as it does Kelly, is when I send email to you and do not get a reply back. You expect me to reply to your email but you don't have to reply to mine??? I'm always seeking to expand the number of listings in the class directories. The best way to do this is when you provide information about your Encina siblings or friends you are still in contact with. So I often write asking for more information about siblings and friends. Not to be nosy, but to expand the known Encina universe. Some other alumni may be looking for your sibling or someone you know the whereabouts of. When you come across a "contact webmaster" type listing in a class directory, this means I know how to contact the person through a sibling or friend or class mailing list. If it wasn't for some other alumni who shared their knowledge, there would be no way to contact that alumni. Sharing is GOOD. So, in the future, I would really appreciate it if you would reply to any mail I send you. And please include the original message. I send out gazillions of messages and I get back the answer "yes" and I have no idea what the original question was. However, it's not necessary to include the entire Encina Update when you reply, just the portion of interest. I sometimes have to scroll through the entire thing to look for a one line comment. And please, when you send mail, sign it with your name and class year. When you don't, I have to figure out who you are in order to reply. My rule of thumb in terms of email etiquette is to treat personally addressed email (as opposed to spam) just like you would a paper letter you received. Reply, and include a salutation and signature. Treat people the way you would like to be treated and the world will be a nicer place . I'm not talking about the majority of you here. Most of you are very good about responding and practice good email etiquette. I appreciate the little thank you notes I get from time to time and I wouldn't still be doing this except that the pluses far outweigh the minuses. So much for this week's lecture/diatribe/editorial . FORWARDING Oh, one more thing. I forward mail to those of you who have decided not to list your email address in your class directory. I prefer not to do this as it's becoming more and more time consuming so I would really appreciate it if you would list your email address. I AM NOT A FORWARDING SERVICE and I have other things to do, believe me. Okay, now I'm really done... REUNIONS Even if your reunion is not this year, if you have siblings or friends from a reunion year who are not on the mailing list, please tell them about their reunions. 1965 REUNION George Hullin and Joyce Rogers have mixed emotions about whether to organize a 35 year reunion this year. If you are interested in having a reunion this year please contact George at george.hullin@hrh.com or 916-488-1400 (work). You can also send mail to encina1965@egroups.com as I've added George to the Encina Update and class mailing list. 1970 REUNION No one from the class has stepped up to fill the void left by Tom Henley 70, who passed away last fall. Write encina1970@egroups.com if you are interesting in attending and/or helping to organize the 30 year reunion. 1975 REUNION Where: Sutter Club When: Saturday, July 15, 2000 Contact Jenny Bender Bittner at jedb@pacbell.net 1980 REUNION Where: The Firehouse When: Saturday, October 14, 2000 Contact: encina1980@egroups.com 1985 REUNION No news regarding the elusive Melinda Cope 85. Do we have any other reunion committee members present? Send email to encina1985@egroups.com if you are interesting in attending and/or helping organize the 15 year reunion. 1990 REUNION The current reunion committee is Denyce Bellinger, Hayley Fojut and Jinne Webb. You can contact them at the following addresses. Denyce: tiniegrrl@Aol.com Hayley: mskitty_13@hotmail.com Jinne: jphorger@pacbell.net 1995 REUNION Do we have anyone from the reunion committee on the mailing list? Please write encina1995@egroups.com if you're interesting in attending and/or helping to organize the 5 year reunion. ALUMNI REUNION Date: March 18, 2000 Time: 5:00 pm Place: TBD Contacts: Lucia Churches 73 Lorna Cline Gragg 72/73 We are currently working on a new location at one of Sacramento's "finest" watering holes. Please mark your calendars with the date ... location information will follow. We will ask for an RSVP later in the month. Hope everyone can come! The Homecoming Party was a great opportunity to see old pals and make new ones. We'll be in touch. Lucia Churches Class of '73 loosha@pacbell.net (916) 369-2505 work number (916) 395-6696 home number CLASS OF 92 Rochelle Karrick Laun 92 has volunteered to be class reunion contact. KEVIN KATZAKIAN 77 Kevin Katzakian died on January 23, 2000 in an auto accident. The funeral was on February 1, 2000. FOUND Greg Fox 78 found the Encina website while surfing. SIBLINGS Here are some alumni who are helping to expand the class directory listings! Tim Fountain 91 wrote: Gary Reynolds 61/62? (please write if you know what year Gary was) Gayle Fountain 64-67? (please write if you know what year Gayle was) Gloria Reynolds 67+ (please write if you know what year Gloria was) Tim Fountain 91 Nicole Dinucci 89 wrote: Kimberly Gerhart 77 Nicole Dinucci 89 Lisa Ott 81 is in contact with: Lisa Hookano 81 Lisa Perata 81 John Hyland 77 is in contact with: Pat Powers 77 Matt Templeton 77 Rory Wilkerson 77 Phayloth Chandavong 97 wrote: Savyvanh Chandavong 89 Kongkeo Chandavong 91 Somgnot Chandavong 94 Phayloth Chandavong 97 Cindy Wilkerson 75 wrote: Cindy Wilkerson 75 Chris Wilkerson 78 Bill Hewitt 75 wrote: Diane Hewitt 73 Bill Hewitt 75 Lisa Mensch 80 wrote: Chuck Mensch 77 Paul Mensch 79 Lisa Mensch 80 Amy Mensch 83 Lisa Mensch 80 is in contact with: Marcy Duke Parmley 80 Terry Durham Fuentes 79 Sandy MacDonald Griffith 80 Kyle Purcell Davis 80 Janni Schott Taylor 80 Kathy Slater Gomez 79 Carrie Verzwyvelt Sweet 80 Susanne Harrison 77 wrote: Julie Harrison 66 Steve Harrison 68 Bruce Harrison 72 Jean Harrison 74 Susanne Harrison 77 FIREWALLS Most have you are aware of the attacks on large ecommerce websites like Yahoo, amazon and ebay which occurred this week. Here's an excerpt on one article about the attacks: "The company attributed the failure to an attack in which one or more hackers flooded a network with a steady stream of data, causing the network to become clogged. The assault, which Yahoo called a "distributed denial of service attack," directed a flood of data from dozens, sometimes hundreds, of computers, making it impossible for the company to exchange information with its regular customers. He said Yahoo did not yet know who perpetrated the attack but was "starting to get clues." It is difficult to trace this type of attack because the individuals directing them use dozens of computers they have hijacked, not initiating the attack from their own machines." Having a firewall installed on your PC is a good way to prevent it from being hijacked and used in such an attack. You may not even know your PC was hijacked until your ISP cancels your account for having participated in an attack. FREE FIREWALL SOFTWARE Unfortunately, this free firewall software is only for PCs. But it appears Macs are not as likely to be hijacked. From Fred Langa's Langalist column: 3) FREE Personal Firewall Software! Ooooo, this is so cool: A FREE product that outperforms some commercial apps costing $50 or more! If you've been reading the LangaList for any length of time, you know that online security is a hot button for me. In fact, it should be a hot button for us all, because the more time you spend online, the greater the odds that someone will try to crawl back through your internet connection to get inside your PC. The threat is real--- it happens all the time. And with some "always on" connections such as cable modems and DSL connections, you can be virtually certain that at least two or three or four (or more!) bonehead miscreant hackers will try to break into your PC *every day.* Without protection, they may get in. Depending on how your PC is set up, these hack attacks may be anything from an annoyance (slowing down or crashing your computer) to a major headache (potentially reading files, stealing passwords, and worse.) I've talked about various trustworthy sites that can sniff back along your internet connection---much like a hacker would--- and tell you if your PC has security problems that potentially open it to the outside world. (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/oct-14-99.htm#gibson and http://www.langa.com/newsletters/oct-18-99.htm#check and http://www.langa.com/newsletters/nov-18-99.htm#secure .) And I'll soon have a comprehensive column on online security and the steps you can take to help lock down your PC and keep intruders at bay. But this is too good to wait: ZoneLabs is making their personal firewall, ZoneAlarm, available for free. It not only blocks unwanted access from outside, but also alerts you if a website or Trojan app tries to send data from your PC back to the outside world. There are many commercial products that don't do that! It's a new app and is a little rough-edged, but when it errs, it appears to err on the side of caution, and that's good. I like it a lot. Steve Gibson (who runs the Shields Up testing site that can help identify your PC's online security problems) also likes ZoneAlarm. In fact, in his usual over-the-top style, Steve says: "It is my FIRM belief that ZoneAlarm 2.0 has the potential to become the PERFECT FIREWALL for the typical security conscious Internet user." For more details from Steve on Firewalls in general, see http://grc.com/su-firewalls.htm . In any case, you gotta check out ZoneAlarm--- it's FREE so you have nothing to lose: http://www.zonelabs.com/ Once you have it running (only takes a minute), use Steve's site at http://grc.com/default.htm or any of the other sites mentioned above to check your PC and see how secure it really is. INTERNET A cool new internet technology... This Frame Fetches Photos From the Net By WALTER S. MOSSBERG (Wall Street Journal) A BIG SNOWSTORM hit our area last week. My mother, who lives hundreds of miles away, was concerned and called to ask if we were OK. I said yes but decided to illustrate the situation for her. So I stepped outside with a digital camera, snapped a picture of our driveway buried under a foot of snow, and sent it to her over the Internet. That story isn't so remarkable, except for this: My mom doesn't own a PC, or a WebTV, or any gizmo that can handle photos sent via e-mail or posted to Web pages. Instead, the photo of our snowstorm materialized in her living room on an ordinary-looking wooden picture frame atop an end table. This is no standard picture frame, though. It's a newly introduced electronic picture frame that connects to the Internet via any standard telephone jack. The frame automatically fetches up to 10 photos at a time from a special Web site, and displays them like a slide show. No Web knowledge or user intervention is required. It just works. The magic picture frame is called the Ceiva, and it's made by Ceiva Logic, a Los Angeles start-up headed by former Disney executives. It went on sale last week for $249 on the company's Web site, www.ceiva.com, and at 1-877-myframe. In addition to the $249, users pay $36 a year for the online picture service that feeds the frame with images. No other Internet access account is needed. THE CEIVA PICTURE FRAME isn't for everyone, and its $249 price makes it a luxury item. But after two weeks of trying a pair of them out, one at my own home and one at my mother's, I'm very impressed with this product. It works as advertised and brings pleasure to its users. I can easily imagine it as a great gift for friends and relatives who would love to have the latest pictures of the new baby zapped to them automatically. Or it could sit in your office, always updated with new family photos. This is a pioneering product, launching a whole new category of digital, Internet-enabled picture frames. Next week a company called Weave Innovations will unveil plans at the Demo 2000 technology conference for a costlier frame that can store up to 36 pictures and can send those pictures from one frame to another without a PC. Weave's frame will be sold this coming summer, in conjunction with Kodak. The frames are the first of a new type of digital appliance that uses the Internet to perform tasks that are quite different from the things people typically do online today with personal computers. It's technically possible to replicate the Ceiva's constantly updated Internet-based slide show on a PC. But it would be a big hassle, and anyway, who wants a big computer in the living room or on a nightstand? At first glance, you can't tell the Ceiva frame from a traditional picture frame. It's trimmed in black wood, and it has a large mat and a display space in the middle that's roughly 5 inches by 7 inches, aligned horizontally. The Ceiva isn't any thicker than a normal frame, and its back side is the typical dark cardboard, with a flap you push out so it balances on a table top. But the back also reveals the frame's digital nature. There are two plugs, one for electrical power and one for a phone line that connects the slender modem hidden inside to the Internet. The Ceiva automatically connects to the Internet once a day in the middle of the night and sucks down your photos from a personalized, password-protected Web site to which it is linked. How do the pictures get there? Somebody with a PC (it needn't be the person who owns the Ceiva) goes to this site and uploads digital pictures that he or she would like to have displayed on that particular Ceiva. These pictures can come from a digital camera, or they can be scanned images of paper photos, or they can come from a disk supplied by your photo finisher. IF NEW PICTURES are waiting for the Ceiva when it dials into the site, the system randomly removes one or more of the photos it has been displaying and substitutes the new ones. You can lock photos to keep them from being replaced. You can also force the frame to call in and get new pictures anytime you like by just holding down one of the two buttons on the back that are the frame's only controls. These buttons can also be used to adjust the frame's brightness, to flip through the 10 pictures quickly, or to stop the slide show and view one image continually. Up to 250 pictures can be placed on the Ceiva site, and you can organize them into online albums. You can also add borders or captions to the photos. And you can send photos to multiple Ceivas, if their owners have granted you access. In my case, I managed my own test Ceiva and my mother's, putting some pictures on both and other pictures only on one. The site is clear and easy to use. I had only two quibbles with the Ceiva. Currently, there's no way to recycle pictures that have been removed from the frame to make way for new ones. And there's no way to send a particular picture to the head of the queue, on an urgent basis, and to force it onto the Ceiva immediately. But the company says both of these functions will be implemented in the next few weeks. Digital picture frames like Ceiva's could, of course, be used for evil. Hackers could somehow break into them and blast porno pictures or political slogans onto the frames. Companies might try to use them as advertising billboards. But used as intended, I think the Ceiva is a cool product. SHUTTERFLY.COM Shutterfly.com is one of the new photo companies taking advantage of the digital photo revolution. You can upload your digital pictures and they will print and mail them to you or your friends. They have a special promotion. If you sign up by 2/29/2000, you get 200 free prints and free shipping! Check it out: www.shutterfly.com WHAT'S NEW Another good week! 2/9/00 Greg Fox 78, Lisa Mensch 80/bio, Charles Mensch 77, Amy Mensch 86, Marcy Duke 80, Terry Durham 79, Sandy MacDonald 80, Kyle Purcell 80, Janni Schott 80, Kathy Slater 79, Carrie Verzwyvelt 80, Samuel Brewer 92 bio, Chuck Long 65 update, Vernon Kelley 73, Savyvanh Chandavong 89, Kongkeo Chandavong 91, Somgnot Chandavong 94, Manda Moore 90 update 2/8/00: Bill Hewitt 75/bio, Diane Hewitt 73, Matt Templeton 77, Rory Wilkerson 77, Pat Power 77, Chris Wilkerson 78 2/6/00: Connie Hall 73 update, Lisa Hookano 81, Tim Fountain 91 bio, Linda Copley 67 bio, Phayloth Chandavong 97 update, William Earle 72, Kathleen O'Neill 79 update, Cindy Wilkerson 75 2/4/00: Ryan Gutierrez 90, Dawn Hart 91, Lisa Ott 81/bio, Lisa Hookano 81, Lisa Perata 81, Judy Dyson 64, Nicole Dinucci 89, Kimberly Gerhart 77, Bettina Willeford 80, Jane Bassett 80, George Champayne 80, Valerie Poetker 80, Julie Schell 80, Allan Schurr 80, Judy Shotwell 80, Michele Horton 88 update, Patrice Vanella 72, Janice Vanella 69, Denyce Bellinger 90 update Class of 1978: added group picture from 20th reunion 2/2/00: Nicole Smith 91 update, Geoffrey Shumway 89/bio, Pam Brand 90, Jon Dahlberg 71, Chantel Beck 90/bio, Larry Averitt 95, Kim Larson 87, Kathy Godfrey 87, Dana Milner 89 bio, Lisa Sewell 80, Nathan Taylor 89, Frankie Bueno 89, John Joseph 65, Michael Ward 85, Robyn Gentle 89 update, Kristy Bassett 89/bio, John Toth 90 bio, Terri Howell 79, Scott Joyce 78, Jenny Peterson 78, Nina Allen 85 Take care! Harlan Lau '73 Encina webmaster www.encinahighschool.com harlan@rambus.com