IPA declared a virus by Microsoft Outlook Express

[R. Rankin]

I recently bought a new Dell desktop running
Windows XP Professional and typically use Outlook
Express as my email program.  I have recently
received messages with attachments, one containing
Osage vocabulary and another with IPA symbols from
our department phonologist.  Both messages were
declared to contain a "dangerous" material and
were unceremoniously stripped of their
attachments.  At first I thought the university
anti-virus program had done this, but after
investigating I discovered that Outlook Express
provides this "service".  And new computers come
with the "feature" turned ON.  Thus, the Osage
language (and all other upper-ANSI characters) and
the IPA are "viruses" and they trigger this
genocidal software.

So, if this happens to you in Outlook Express,
just click on TOOLS > OPTIONS > SECURITY.  Then
UNcheck the box that says "Do not allow
attachments to be saved or opened that could
potentially be a virus."  Otherwise, apparently OE
only allows the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet,
numerals and punctuation in your attachments.

Bob Rankin