I decided to open up the mailbag and answer some of the questions that readers
have asked me recently. Then I realized that I'm not Santa Claus, and people
don't send me letters. This isn't completely true, as I did portray Santa in
a third-grade Christmas play, even though I ripped part of the suit just before
the play began.
So I don't have any letters with questions, just comments about various columns.
But this will not stop me from answering some of those questions that people
actually have, but are just afraid to ask.
Q: Whatever happened with that compatibility test? I expected the person
with whom I was compatible to show up on my doorstep for a date.
- Cher, California
A: Cher, you didn't fare so well. Only one person was compatible with you,
and no, I didn't get that person's address. I was fairly impressed with my distribution,
and even without asking for gender, the numbers on both sides came out pretty
equal. Here are the results, from most to least compatible:
| Name |
Pct.
|
| Halle Berry |
21.08
|
| Denzel Washington |
16.14
|
| Britney Spears |
14.80
|
| Ben Affleck |
13.00
|
| Brad Pitt |
12.56
|
| Ricky Martin |
7.62
|
| Julia Roberts |
7.62
|
| Jennifer Lopez |
2.24
|
| Shania Twain |
2.24
|
| Sean Connery |
1.79
|
| Cher |
0.45
|
| Elton John |
0.45
|
If you missed out the first time, click
here to take the test. Some people took the test multiple times, I guess
in hopes of being compatible with as many people as possible. I also want to
apologize to those people who were disappointed that I didn't include Carrot
Top on the list of celebrities. But for the most part, people who took the test
came out with the right person.
Q: So what's so big about this Sobig virus? And what about that other
one? I don't have these viruses, but I'm still getting the virus through email.
- Mac N. Tosh, New York
A: Fortunately, those viruses won't harm people using Macs. Unfortunately,
most of you guys are on the Windows platform. Wednesday was the first day in
quite some time that I had not received a single virus email. The way this works,
from what I understand, is that the virus grabs people's email address books,
then sends the virus using those addresses. At the same time, it already comes
with an email address list gathered by the last infection, so it uses both lists
to set the From address as well as sending to a particular person. That is why
some of those viruses look as if they are being sent from friends.
My advice: Don't open those emails with attachments! If you are going to open
an email with an attachment, just make sure it isn't infected. Also, it's critical
to have anti-virus software on your machine, and to run Windows Update at least
once a month.
Q: Should I throw my Windows machine away? Or will these security updates
actually work one day?
- Mike Rosoft, Texas
A: Definitely don't throw your machine away, unless you can't upgrade past
Windows 95. Actually, Microsoft supports only Windows XP and Windows 2000 now,
so your best bet is to purchase a computer that can at least run these operating
systems.
I am partial to the Mac operating system, but XP is pretty cool. We need both
platforms to efficiently run our business, so I would never advocate getting
rid of Windows altogether.
Q: Can I send you technical questions?
- E. John, England
A: Sure. Just send them to
.
I'll try to answer them in upcoming columns. If you want them answered this
year, I recommend sending them before Dec. 24. I get a little busy that night.
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