Design philosophy: all information in this web site should be accessible to the intended audience regardless of platform, browser, or size of screen. Graphics are kept to a minimum to reduce download times. If you see a frame or an animated GIF, feel free to flame me mercilessly.

This site uses fully compliant cascading style sheets (CSS). Older browsers should display text in their default fonts, while more recent browsers will all display fully formatted text. (However, the styles sheets will look best viewed in Internet Explorer 4.0 or above.) The site also complies with major accessibility standards.

Colophon

The base font for this page is Trebuchet MS, a free font from Microsoft designed for on-screen readability at small point sizes. The headlines are 32 pt Times bold italic, combining elegance, classical proportions, and compactness.

The logo is variation on the original logo from Aldus PageMaker and depicts Aldus Manutius, a student of Johannes Gutenberg and inventor of italics. This is to echo the roots of desktop publishing, both in the 1450s and the 1980s. The logo uses Courier from ITC to evoke the feel of metal type and Poetica from Adobe Systems to evoke the era of hand lettering.

Made on a Macintosh using Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia DreamWeaver.

Safe Computing

Following are a few tips on keeping your work safe from viruses and other malicious software, not to mention hardware failures and "ID 10T" errors (user has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down).

1. Assume the worst. Assume every file you receive is infected and enery disk is about to fail. Assume the power is about to go out. Assume your OS is as secure as a cardboard jail. (It probably is.)

2. Save regularly. This seems obvious, but it's amazing how many people forget to hit the "save" key. Computers are not 100% reliable. Even a machine that never crashes can be hit hy a power outage. Buy a UPS (uninterruptible power supply)

3. Keep an archive trail. There isn't a specific archiving feature in PageMaker, but there are utilities you can use to overcome this shortcoming. On the Mac I use a little gem called "SuperSave" which not only sends the frontmost application a Command-S at user specified intervals, but can capture your keystrokes as you type in case a power failure strikes before you can save. You could make a backup automatically with Connectix CopyAgent, which has a nice "Smart Replace" feature that can be automated and made to back up any folder to any mounted volume at any time you specify. It can even mount file servers by itself. With scripting (in Windows or Mac OS X, or with a Mac add-on like OneClick or QuicKeys) you could probably automate the serialized version number technique others have mentioned to have file.001.p65, file.002.p65, etc.

4. Keep up to date. Check your favorite anti-virus news site regularly and keep your antivirus software up to date. Dozens of new viruses are created every day. Don't fall victim to the latest and greatest just because your software is a month out of date.

5. Don't update software just to keep up. If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it. Let other people do your software testing for you. Update when you know it's been thoroughly tested or when the update adds a feature you can't do without or fixes a major problem in your work.

6. Keep a “quarrantine machine.” Use an older machine that isn't being used for something else to test new software, download files, and scan floppy disks. Added bonus tip: if you're a Windows shop, a Mac makes a great quarrantine station, since there are fewer viruses for Macs than PCs. You can also put an infected PC disk into a Mac and safely copy the files off it. I've safely rescued PC disks that a PC refused to erase by copying the files onto a Mac, reformatting the disk as a Mac disk, then again as a PC disk, and then copying the files back onto it.

7. Don't double-click attachments. Treat all e-mail attachments as potential virus threats. Never open an attachment by double clicking it. Always save it to your hard drive and open it from within the corresponding application, such as Microsoft Word for ".doc" files. This is because attachments can disguise themselves as, say, a graphic when they are really something else (e.g. programs or .exe files). If you're not expecting an attachment, call or reply to the sender before opening it to make sure they intended to send it to you and know what it is. Delete any attachment you cannot verify with the sender. Newer viruses can mail themselves to you using the infected computer's e-mail address book. If you have any doubts at all, delete the mail message and ask the sender to give you the attachment on disk or via the web.

8. Avoid “crash buildup.” Each time your computer crashes, disk corruption can result. Always run Disk First Aid (Mac) or ScanDisk (Windows) if your machine crashes. More recent versions of each OS will even do this for you automatically. Do not turn thisfeature off or cancel it to save a few seconds. If your computer crashes regularly, find out why and correct the problem.

Even the rules above cannot keep you completely safe. When a new virus appears it can take a day or more for antivirus manufacturers to respond to the threat and make a fix available. So........

9. Back up regularly! This is probably the most important thing you can do. Even if your machine is stable and reliable, it can be stolen, or destroyed in a fire! For added safety, keep a good set of backups at two different locations.

If you have questions, comments, or have an additional safe computing tip you would like to share, contact Peter C.S. Adams.