Maria’s Guides

• Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits
  Learn the limits for files and volumes on disks that use the Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) in Mac OS X, including journaled HFS+ volumes. On Apple’s Support site.
  (tags: Apple MacOS Macintosh)

And offers 40% discounts on books purchased online.

Just a quick note to pass along some info I got in e-mail from Peachpit Press, one of my publishers.

Over the last several months, you’ve been talking and now it’s our chance to show you that we’ve been listening. You told us you wanted better and faster searches for our books and content. You said you wanted more videos, better access to our authors, and more ways to get involved. After listening to everything you had to say, we’re proud to introduce the newly redesigned Peachpit.com.

They’ve added features to the site, including online video tutorials, access to blogs, and online reference guides. But the news that might interest you most is that they’re also offering a 40% discount on all books purchased on the site:

To thank you for your feedback and to celebrate our new site we would like to offer you a 40% discount on your purchases. Just order before September 15 and enter coupon code PPT-NEWSITE-EM01 during checkout!

Sounds like a good deal to me. I hope you’ll take advantage of it, perhaps to buy one or more of my books?

Confirmation e-mails from sites you never joined.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail message that went something like this:

From: [omitted]
Subject: Member Confirm
Date: August 20, 2007 9:05:49 PM MST
To: [omitted]

Welcome,

Thank You for Joining Web Cooking.

Confirmation Number: 769799922
Temorary Login: user4129
Password ID: qb371

Your temporary Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please login and change it.

This link will allow you to securely change your login info: http://[IP address omitted]/

Thank You,
Membership Support Department
Web Cooking

Trouble is, I haven’t signed up for any Web site with that name using the e-mail address the message was sent to. And although the clickable URL was very tempting to check out — after all, I could have forgotten that I’d signed up for something — I was hot and tired and ready to call it quits for the day.

This morning, I got a very similar message sent to the same e-mail address from another site. That’s when I became sure that something was up.

You see, just the other day, I was listening to the Future Tense podcast while washing my helicopter. One of the stories was about the “Storm Virus,” which is being spread by e-mail. One of the ways they spread this virus is by sending you an e-mail with a link to a Web site. Idiots click this link and go to a Web page, which then takes advantage of security holes in the visitor’s brower to infect the computer. You’ve probably gotten one of these messages — they often lure you by telling you that someone has sent you an electronic greeting card.

Apparently, they’ve come up with a new way to lure you to a site.

So my word of warning here — do not click any link in an e-mail message you receive unexpectedly from someone you don’t know.

And if anyone else has more information about this virus or new series of e-mail spam cons, please do use the Comments link or form below to let us know. Thanks.