Posted 10:55 AM

Urban PC Legends

PC World this week has an interesting story about the tall tales (maybe we should call them "old admins tales") associated with computers, called Busting the Biggest PC Myths. But it isn't just about "busting" myths, rather its about assigning a "truth factor" (ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being true and 5 being totally false) on the "bogus-o-meter". We all know those stories that "everybody" says is true (except we can't find any qualified person to say so) such as "Saddam Hussein bought PlayStation 2 consoles to use in Iraq's weapons program." But is it, could it possibly be true? What about these "everybody knows" items:

*Magnets zap your data.
*Cell phones interfere with systems on aircraft.
*Cookies track everything you do on the Internet.
*Opting out of spam gets you even more spam.
*The government reads everyone's e-mail.

You'll need to read the article to find out.