Dear Beau,

In "GEDCOM In and Out," your last paragraph read:

"My last thought on GEDCOM imports and exports is a privacy issue. Exporting info on living people is a no-no. This is especially true if the information is going to be published on the World Wide Web. Don't expose the people you care about most to people you don't care about at all."

You do mean that exporting information on living people and then giving it out to strangers is a no-no, correct? If I export info on my immediate family and first cousins from my PAF 4.0 program and then give this file to my sisters or cousins—or post it on our private MyFamily.com site so they can view it or import it into FTM or whatever they use—this seems like a safe thing to do, provided they understand the same safety concepts.

RC

Yes, RC, you have clarified my position very nicely. When I said, "people you don't care about at all," I was referring to strangers, not relatives. However, you will want to be sure to remind your family members that you wish the information to be kept private, and ask them to discuss it with you before they share it with any other relatives. Many a family has come to blows over this issue.

E-mail Organization: E-mail Backup and Restorage

Dear Mr. Sharbrough,

I use Outlook Express, and the backup of OE is not a pretty story. Recently, I had to reformat my hard drive. I researched how to back up all of my files and followed some pretty complicated instructions to the letter. Besides looking for specific OE files to back up (which was supposed to maintain your directory integrity), I had to copy certain registry keys. The final result of my efforts was partial information being intact, but in the wrong folders. Other information that was stored in OE was lost.

Name withheld

Thank you for this note. I'm very sorry to hear that you lost some e-mail. I can't stress enough how critical a tested backup and restore procedure is. If you don't know how to back up and restore your e-mail, please learn how. A few resources you might consider using are:

• Friends and relatives who know a lot about computers;
  
• The software developer technical support department;
  
• The information systems department where you work;
  
• The World Wide Web.

I say it so often that I fear that I'm bothering the cats, but "backup is important, restoring is critical." Develop and test a backup AND RESTORE procedure for your information now, rather than waiting for an emergency like everyone else. I'm certain that a person can back up and restore OE, and all of the other mail clients. Users are putting all of their correspondence at risk until they are sure they've got this procedure mastered.

Organizing Your E-mail: Filtering Works in Netscape

Dear Beau,

Just a note to let you know that Netscape does have message filtering capability, and it works very well. It can be found under the menu option Edit > Message Filters.

DMC

I used Netscape Mail for five years, and it filtered just fine. I based my article, in part, on a recent article, which stated that Netscape did not filter. I am glad to hear that they have not removed that useful feature.

Instant Messaging: ICQ Privacy and Profiles

Dear Beau,

It might be wise to give another cautionary note on ICQ. While I use its services and think it is great for chatting with family, if the security part of the program isn't filled out carefully, there are a lot of ugly pornography messaging that will automatically show up. This can be rather unsettling and startling. Also, if you are only using ICQ to chat with family, there is no need to fill out a profile, and you would want to make your information only available with authorization.

Roselyn

Thanks for sharing your ICQ experience and expertise with us. Having a computer and an Internet connection in your home is such a wonderful educational opportunity. Some lessons, however, I'd like to see my daughters hold off on until after I'm dead and gone.

Instant Messaging: ICQ and Switching Computers

Dear Beau,

ICQ has a new feature that allows you to download your contact list and then reload it on either a new computer or onto a second computer. For example, I have the same contact list on my home PC and work PC. I simply downloaded ICQ at work, loaded it, and then loaded my contact list from my home computer from a floppy disk. That way you don't have to get authorization from people on your contact list a second time. And since you can store your contact list on a floppy, it means you don't have to worry about your computer crashing and losing your contact list.

Personally, it's one of my favorite features of ICQ.

Carolee

Thanks, Carolee! I'm going to try it right away!

Beau Sharbrough is the president of GENTECH, the founder of the GENTECH and FGS Web sites, and a founder of the Lexicon Working Group. He would like to hear from you at beau@sharbrough.net, but due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every message. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer problems. Visit Beau's Web site for information about speaking engagements. Beau is the father of two college-age girls and is another insufferable graduate of Texas A&M University.