Friday, February 27, 2009

JustLocal virus alert: You have got a new E-Card from your friend!

I just noticed dozens of E-card emails this morning and advise all clients to delete any E-card they receive. The subject for the emails I received contained the following:

You have got a new E-Card from your friend!

You have received A Hallmark E-Card!

These were supposedly from e-cards@americangreetings.com and e-cards@americangreetings.com but were obviously faked.

The attachment in one of the emails was e-card.zip and this was not stopped by the anti-virus program in my computer, or the anti-virus programs on the mail server. It has been submitted to the anti-virus company and they should update their signature files within the next 48 hours.

Do take care and please do not open any e-card. It is safest to delete them.

For those thinking about sending e-cards, you should be aware that whilst they are a good and novel idea, they are regularly used to trick people into infecting their computer. I personally no longer send anyone e-cards and prefer to simply send an email greeting instead.

- Kelvin

PS. For more information on virus issues check the virus section of MyAnswers. In particular solution 1890 shows the online service I use to submit files for checking which results in my clients software being updated.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Word Check British English now available.

For our friends in Britain, Word Check is now also available for British English. This brings to three the number of versions of Word Check which includes Australian English and American English.

I decided to extend the versions of Word Check to also cover British English, since quite a few visitors to the site are from the UK. Many dictionaries only show the way to spell a word, but often not the variations (inflections or plurals) of the word. Word Check British English for example confirms the following as correct spellings.

cancel, cancelled, canceller, canceller's, cancellers, cancelling, cancellation, cancellation's, cancellations, cancels.

You can bookmark Word Check, add Word Check as a search engine to to Internet Explorer or Firefox using the search engine links at the bottom of the Word Check page, or add Word Check manually to other browsers.  Checking the correct spelling of a word can now be part of your browser.

The following are some tips which will assist in using Word Check.

1. Word Check only checks words. It does not check sentences and phrases. 

2. Use the correct capitalisation. For example names and places start with a capital.

3. If you find a word that is in the dictionary that you feel should not be there then after checking, then word press Challenge! All words challenged will be reviewed.

4. If you find a word is not in the dictionary and feel it should be, then after checking for the word press Suggest! All words suggested will be reviewed.

5. Feel free to make a donation. The dictionary behind Word Check is open source and donations will be used to enhance the dictionary with the assistance of professional editors skilled in the British English language. Updated versions of the British dictionary will be made available periodically.

6. Add Word Check British English to your browser as a search engine. For Internet Explorer and Firefox the links at the bottom of Word Check enable you to quickly add Word Check as a search engine. Then any time you want to check a word, type or copy the word into the search field at the top right of the browser and select Word Check as the search engine using the drop down box. For other browsers you can manually add Word Check as search engine which is also quite easy to do.

7. For Australians who are not quite certain if they are about to use the British spelling of a word or the preferred Australian spelling, checking both Word Check British English and Word Check Australian English should help answer the question.

Additional tips will be added to this post as we find things which may assist you.

Please enjoy.

- Kelvin Eldridge 

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Word Check American English now available.

For our friends in America, Word Check is now also available for American English.

Many dictionaries only show the way to spell a word, but often not the variations (inflections or plurals) of the word. Word Check American English for example confirms the following as correct spellings.

cancel, canceled, canceler, canceler's, cancelers, canceling, cancellation, cancellation's, cancellations, cancels.

You can bookmark the Word Check page, or easily add Word Check as a search engine to Internet Explorer or Firefox. Checking the correct spelling of a word can now be part of your browser.

The following are some tips which will assist in using Word Check.

1. Word Check only checks words. It does not check sentences and phrases. 

2. Use the correct capitalization. For example names and places start with a capital.

3. If you find a word that is in the dictionary that you feel should not be there then after checking the word press Challenge! All words challenged will be reviewed.

4. If you find a word is not in the dictionary and feel it should be, then after checking for the word press Suggest! All words suggested will be reviewed.

5. Feel free to make a donation. The dictionary behind Word Check is open source and donations will be used to enhance the dictionary with the assistance of professional editors skilled in the American language. Updated versions of the American dictionary will be made available periodically.

6. Add Word Check American English to your browser as a search engine. For Internet Explorer and Firefox the links at the bottom of Word Check enable you to quickly add Word Check as a search engine. Then any time you want to check a word, type or copy the word into the search field at the top right of the browser and select Word Check as the search engine using the drop down box. For other browsers you can manually add Word Check as search engine which is also quite easy to do.

7. For Australians who are not quite certain if they are about to use the American spelling of a word, checking in both Word Check American English and Word Check Australian English will answer the question.

Additional tips will be added to this post as we find things which may assist you.

Please enjoy.

- Kelvin Eldridge 

Friday, February 13, 2009

Justlocal Dictionary: Is your name in the Australian spellcheck dictionary?

Did you know, that since 1930 in Victoria there have been around 4 million births registered using 100,000 first names?

What is really interestingly is the top 100 boys names and the top 100 girls names cover 2.4 million of the 4 million births.

This means by including just 200 names out of 100,000 in the dictionary, more than 60% of first names would be covered by the dictionary. 

It is not possible to enter all names into the Australian English dictionary as the volume would overwhelm the dictionary. However it is possible and desirable to include the more common names.

The following sites provide lists of the most popular names.

ACT - http://www.ors.act.gov.au/bdm/WebPages/bdm4.html
SA - http://www.ocba.sa.gov.au/bdm/babynames.html
NSW - http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/births/popularBabyNames.htm
QLD - http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/4704.htm
VIC - https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/bdm/popular-names
WA - http://www.justice.wa.gov.au/B/babyname.aspx?uid=1698-5030-2186-7313

For a limited time, if your first name is in one of the top 100 lists of names from any of the sites, and is not already in Word Check, let me know by adding a comment with your first name, the state listing your name and the year.

If you or a friend are having a baby, you may wish to keep in mind the list of popular names can make for very interesting reading.

Please enjoy,

- Kelvin