… anyway …

No, I didn’t remember whether you had Vista or not. But in XP, file type associations are under the View menu in Windows Explorer. See …

http://antivirus.about.com/od/windowsbasics/l/blfileassoc.htm

Ephedrine isn’t uniformly harmful like, for example, arsenic is. But it can be very harmful to certain people. People with heart disease, for example. It is widely believed to have been a key cause of the death of Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer and Steve Bechler, a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles. (These people were adults who never stopped playing children’s ball games in the park so they can be assumed to be lacking in fundamental intelligence.)

But thanks for your question! I learned something. I have always thought that Brigham Tea was the same as Chinese ephedrine containing plants (such as ma huang) except that the amount in Brigham tea was much less. I have now learned that researchers have conclued that Brigham Tea really doesn’t have ephedrine in it after all.

I would be remiss if I didn’t remind people that the regulation of ephedrine is one (of the many, many) examples of gross hypocrisy committed by Utah’s own, Orrin Hatch.

According to Wikipedia:

“Senators Orrin Hatch and Tom Harkin, authors of the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act, questioned the scientific basis for the FDA’s proposed labeling changes, arguing that the reported problems were insufficient to warrant regulatory action. At the time, Hatch’s son was working for a firm hired to lobby Congress and the FDA on behalf of ephedra manufacturers.”

Later, the FDA was ultimately successful in getting epherdrine containing supplements banned and, again according to Wikipedia:

“Senator Orrin Hatch, who in 1999 had helped block the FDA’s attempts to regulate ephedra, said in March 2003 that “it has been obvious to even the most casual observer that problems exist,” and called FDA regulation of ephedra ‘long overdue.’ Given Hatch’s prior defense of ephedra, Time described his statement as ‘a dazzling display of hypocrisy.’”

Ehhhhh … Time isn’t exposed to Hatch’s hypocrisy like those of us who see it all the time.

As you know, I don’t have Vista. Do you still have Roxy’s computer so you can tell me how “To check that. . .”?

What are “rules that you would aply to any files” (first paragraph).

As you know, I know a few things about computers, but not much! But I want to do the best I can to keep my computer safe!

You can use some of it. But email attachments are just files and the rules that you would apply to any files work there.

In general, never open an “executable” file. Back in DOS days, that was easy. Never open a .com, .bat, or .exe file that you weren’t sure about. Today, a lot more is “executable” so you can’t use a simple rule like that. But as a rule of thumb, graphics, avi files, mpg, .wmv and other media formats are OK. Other file types, such as .xls (Excel files) depend on what version of Excel you’re running and how your copy is configured.

It depends a lot on how your copy of Windows is set up to handle various types of files. It’s possible (not likely, but possible) to have a file type set up to immediately make your copy of Windows crash and burn. To check that, you can view (in Vista) the file type associations in Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program. This tells you what program (on your computer) will start when you open a file with a specific file type. You can then decide whether that program is OK to run.

The place I get frightened is when I receive emails from friends with things to open in the email. Can I use your tips to make certain I’m not going to be sorry if I open things sent to me by friends?