I’m sure that sometimes this has taken admirable restraint, because on many occasions I have been the perfect Bozo. So thanks readers, and special thanks the following readers.

• To Ozzie
  for recognizing himself in my article about my Internet domain and his role in introducing me to web page development. What a delight to hear from you!

• To Terry
  who took time from tending a feverish son to explain the Sabbath feature on my oven. Terry sent the message via my husband with whom she works. Hi, Terry and thanks for providing some info for this column. Read on…

• To Sally
  who put me onto a spam program called “Mailwasher” (from mailwasher.NET, NOT mailwasher.COM). I have bought and installed a copy and am now in the process of testing it. Results will appear in next month’s column.

• To Mary
  who wanted to know if I could speculate on why some of her legitimate e-mail is landing in her Outlook “Deleted Items” folder. Since I have experienced the same problem, I could suggest two scenarios. Most likely, she received a legitimate newsletter the same time she received a spam mailing. With the two items close to each other, it is easy to click the wrong one and then select “block sender” from the “Message Rules” menu. Another possibility is that a message rule caught the mail. I had to remove a message rule that said to delete the e-mail if the subject line contained the characters “!!” While this rule got rid of a lot of spam, it also got rid of my invitation to my grandson’s birthday party. Hope this helped Mary and glad I could return the favor to my readers.

The beauty of writing this column month by month, besides hearing from you, the readers, is that I can approach any technological development as a pilgrim, not as an authority. With your help, this pilgrim is making progress. This month, the pilgrim will approach two hot topics: Ovens and Internet Advertising.

Follow up on Ovens and Appliances
In my March column I complained that the manuals for my new appliances described appliance features without explaining their use or application. The most mysterious was the Sabbath feature on my oven, which in effect allowed it to cook for more than 12 hours. I couldn’t imagine any food that would survive cooking for 12 hours. I can destroy something in a lot less time than that.

Terry solved that mystery with two words: slow-cooker. In Sabbath mode, the oven works like a large, dry crock pot. It cooks at lower temperatures for hours and hours. Why is this necessary? The word “Sabbath” explains it. Members of some orthodox religions observe the Sabbath by not working, which includes not cooking. However, even religious cooks and their families need to eat. So the food is placed in the oven before the Sabbath begins. The oven is turned on to a low temperature to allow the food to cook very slowly over the interim, up to 24 hours. With things like meat and items containing raw eggs, you can’t put the food in the oven and just set the oven to come on in, say, 12 hours because the food would spoil in an unheated oven. However, if you set the oven to a very low cook temperature for a very long time it will produce some edible (and possibly even spectacular) results. Some of the more expensive ovens get around the Sabbath feature with a refrigeration unit that cools the food until time for the oven to start its job. However, the price of such an oven exceeds what we paid for our first house, so most of us ordinary mortals opt for the less-expensive variety. I’m not a member of an orthodox religion, but I can already see a non-religious application for my oven’s slow cook feature. Have you ever eaten slow cooked brisket?

Over the past month I also learned a few things about my new appliances on my own. First, the special little compartment at the top of my refrigerator door: nothing fits in there but margarine and cream cheese tubs, so I’ll have to assume that’s what it is for. On my oven, I wondered about the difference between “Bake” and “Preheat”. I discovered through trial and error that using the “Bake” feature allows you to see the current oven temperature, but the oven doesn’t beep you when it has reached target temperature. If you want the oven to beep you when it reaches its target temperature you use the “Preheat” button. “Preheat”, however, keeps you in the dark about the oven’s current temperature, so you can’t estimate how long it will be before you can put the muffins in the oven. By the way, my Frigidaire electric oven does a wonderful job of baking regardless of which feature you use.

To make peace with my cooktop, I went to Wal-mart and bought a 16-quart stock pot and an 8-quart steamer/pasta cooker. When I studied the labels and documentation that came with the pots, I discovered that new cookware comes labeled with icons that indicate what type of stove this type of cookware is approved for. If I want to buy more cookware, all I have to do is look for an icon that looks a little like an asterisk, indicating that the cookware is approved for ceramic electric cooktops.

Internet Advertising
In the realm of Internet Advertising: March 2, Wall Street Journal reported that the Yahoo search engine has begun inserting paid links into its search returns. Furthermore Yahoo is ignoring a Federal Trade Commission request that paid links be clearly labeled as advertising. Thus, we will not be able to tell whether the links our Yahoo search has produced are truly useful links or paid links from some charlatan masquerading as something useful in hopes that once you click through to his/her site you will suddenly lose all your marbles and actually buy something from him/her.

Google still clearly labels its paid links, for which I’m extremely grateful. I have actually clicked through to some of those paid links. Just the other day, I ran a Google search on “Tai Chi” and couldn’t resist checking out a paid link with the come-on “Tai Chi Gear.” I clicked through to the site and found a website that sold motorcycle gear. Once I hit the site, not seeing anything even remotely related to Tai Chi I tried a site search for the term “Tai Chi.” The search drew a blank. Now I can duplicate this unmatched experience on Yahoo and not even know why.

Does Yahoo believe that providing users with links to paid websites that bear no relation to thier search argument is actually going to improve Internet commerce? More likely this attempt to improve Yahoo’s bottom line over the short run will damage the engine’s credibility over the long run. In a year or so, how many businesses will pay for links produced by a search engine whose credibility has been compromised? How many users will use the Yahoo search engine once they discover that Yahoo is deliberately providing them with bogus search results? After reading this, how many of you readers plan to use the Yahoo search engine when you need to find something on the web? I have never used the Yahoo search engine and this piece of news guarantees that I never will.

Search engine technology currently rests between “valuable tool” and “hopeless maze.” If search engines start tipping the scales toward the latter in search of short term monetary gain, the paid links will do for Internet searches what spam has done for e-mail. People will ignore legitimate information because it is mired in a quagmire of junk.

And speaking of junk, Michael Main on “Cyberstuff” (via Clear Channel Communications) recently reported that talking e-mail is on its way. This means that while sifting through our bogus search return links you can listen to your talking spam. Ain’t technology great?