Welcome to the March edition of the HAL-PC monthly member eBulletin. If you wish to stop receiving these bulletins, send an email to e-bulletin-off@hal-pc.org. This month: Protect Your PC, Events, New SIGs, Classes, Board of Directors Election, March Magazine.

PROTECT YOUR PC

VIRUSES HIDE IN .RAR FILES
Malicious individuals are always working to get one step ahead of spam filters and virus blockers. Their latest trick is to wrap the virus or other code in an .rar archive and attach the archive to an email. Spam and virus blockers do not have access to the code and therefore are unable to detect it as a virus. The unsuspecting user clicks on a link, opens the attachment and is infected.

As always, we implore our members to practice safe computing! Do not depend on spam and virus blockers to the exclusion of common sense! NEVER open an unfamiliar or unexpected attachment. Remember - most spam and virus-laden emails do NOT have the actual sender's address. If you get an unexpected attachment from a familiar email address, CHECK with the "sender" BEFORE you open it.

For more information, see this informative article from eWeek

HAL-PC OFFERS BOOMERANG CARDS
HAL-PC is offering a service to help your computer recover from the harmful effects of viruses and worms. You can also try new programs and revert completly to your previous configuration if they don't work out! The Boomerang card takes a 'snapshot' of your data, monitors changes made to your hard drive and eliminates unwanted changes with just a reboot. You can purchase the card from HAL, and our upgrade SIG will clean your computer of viruses, worms and spyware and install the card, all for one low price. See the Boomerang page for detailed information and look for a review of the card in the December HAL-PC Magazine.

SPECIAL EVENTS IN MARCH

Friday, March 4 -- 7:00 - 9:00 pm: Rick Archibald presents Opera for Nearsighted Cowards
Saturday, March 5 -- 1:00 - 3:00 pm: Robert DuVernay presents CD Burning for Everyone

NEW HAL-PC SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

HAL-PC welcomes two new Special Interest Groups in March.

On the 1st and 3rd Saturdays from 12:00 - 5:00 pm, join SIG leader Rick Archibald's Samba Study SIG. Samba is the Free Software program that allows Unix computers to join MS Windows Workgroups & Domains. This SIG meets to work through the exercises in the workbook that accompanies The Official SAMBA-3 How To and Reference Guide.

On the third Saturday at 1:30 pm, Nat Potter leads a new SIG to help users protect their computers from viruses, spyware and adware.

March Classes - HAL-PC Headquarters

March Classes - West Houston

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION

The annual election of HAL-PC's Board of Directors will be held in June. Any member interested in volunteering his or her time and talents to managing the affairs of HAL-PC should declare their intent to run as a Director by sending an e-mail message to election@hal-pc.org expressing said intent not later than 5 PM CDT, April 11, 2005. Online voting will be held from June 1 - June 18. Onsite voting at HAL-PC Headquarters will be on June 18 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Full details of the electoral process are available on the HAL website.

THIS MONTH'S MAGAZINE

Look for your quarterly printed edition of the HAL-PC magazine the first week of March. If you have not received your magazine by March 8, please go to the Online Account Information interface, enter your username and password and check your address information. If it is incorrect, you can correct it online. Then please contact the office so that we can mail you a copy of the March magazine.