Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

“Phishing” is, of course, tricking you, the unwary net surfer and e-mail user, into clicking on a link that LOOKS like it is coming from a site, only to have it direct you somewhere that will steal your username and password for those sites. Bad news! Then you find that your PayPal account has been “cleaned out!” Bummer!

Study: eBay, PayPal Remain Top Phishing Targets

“More than three quarters of all phishing e-mails are targeted to the users of eBay and its PayPal subsidiary, according to the report. The fraudulent e-mails most often attempt to gather personal information including credit card numbers and passwords in the name of ripping off users, said researchers at security software maker Sophos, which has its U.S. headquarters in Lynnfield, Mass. Of those e-mails, 54.3 percent attempted to steal information from users of PayPal, and 20.9 percent were sent to users of the eBay auction site, the study found.”

What if I were to tell you that about 4% of all e-mail moving across the Internet is real? That’s right… ONLY about 4% is actually REAL e-mail! The rest is spam! That is ridiculous!

More than 95% of e-mail is ‘junk’

“Analysis of the contents of millions of e-mails has revealed that less than 4% is legitimate traffic. Further work has shown that most of this junk mail is originating on hijacked home computers. E-mail security firm Return Path said 99% of the computers it monitors that send mail have been taken over by spammers or virus writers. Return Path reached its estimate by calculating a ‘reputation score’ for the 20 million net addresses of those machines.”

Keep your Security Patches up-to-date, use a good Spyware-killer, and DON’T CLICK ATTACHMENTS!

I was thinking lately, there is a short list of “PC Programs I Recommend for Everyone!” Now, remember, this isn’t all the “freeware” that I have found, or, the list of free software that I use for various special purposes. As an example, not everyone needs to write web pages in HTML. If they did, I would recommend Nvu (free at www.nvu.com) so programs like that are not listed here. This list is the standard “what I put on everyone’s Windows PC that I get on my workbench” list.

And, now, here is the list:

Grisoft AVG FREE Anti-Virus (Never use Norton or McAfee… and you would have to pay for it… duh!)
https://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

And, at the same location:
ewido Anti-Spyware System (Get rid of adware)
https://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Spywareblaster Spyware Blocker (Block adware)
https://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

CCleaner System Registry Cleaner and “Questionable” File Cleaner (be sure NOT to select the option to install the Yahoo! Toolbar)
https://www.ccleaner.com/download/

Mozilla Firefox Web Browser (Remember, do NOT use Internet Explorer… ever!)
https://www.mozilla.com/

Mozilla Thunderbird E-mail client (If they need local e-mail, some use web-based email, again, DON’T use Outlook!)
https://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Notepad++ Notepad Replacement/Editor (Searchable, Macros, Advanced Replace, etc.) (See below for an update… I now recommend PSpad instead!)
https://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Juice Podcast Receiver (because I shamelessly promote my podcast, of course!)
https://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/

OpenOffice.org Office Suite (if they don’t have an office suite yet, or they have an illegal copy of one-that-shall-remain-nameless!)
https://www.openoffice.org/

Archiver/Unarchiver for ALL formats (So you won’t have an illegal copy of WinZip)
https://www.izarc.org/download2.html

You may have others, or more… but this is my current list!

(I have replaced Notepad++ with PSpad… see my reasons, at this post.)

PSpad Text and Programmer’s Editor

In “net terms” a “mirror” is a site that provides the same content as another site, for redundancy. However, some weird geek comedians thought this would be a funny commentary:

Google Mirror

OK. Weird. Here’s an explanation from our old friend, Wikipedia!

elgooG Explanation

So here we go… I sent an e-mail to my representatives on the “Net Neutrality” issue. And, amazingly, I got back a response!

Here it is:

Dear Mr. Bailey:

Thank you for contacting me about “net neutrality.” I appreciate hearing from you.

Recent changes in federal regulation and court decisions have altered the legal protections against discrimination in access to the internet. As a result, some internet service providers now see the potential to profit by providing favored treatment to some internet content providers, the same way retailers charge manufacturers for prominent product displays in their stores. Such discrimination among internet content providers would forever change the open, vibrant competition based now on the appeal of internet content and would deny consumers the right to choose internet content freely.

The House considered the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enforcement (“COPE”) Act on June 8, 2006. Two amendments specifically presented the issue of net neutrality. One clarified that antitrust laws applied to internet service providers, which would provide modest protection against discrimination among internet content providers. I voted for that amendment, which passed by a vote of 353 to 68. Congressman Ed Markey offered a more ambitious amendment that would have specifically required net neutrality by internet service providers, reinstating the previous regulatory protection to content providers and consumers. I voted for that amendment also, but the amendment failed by a vote of 152 to 269. Finally, I voted against the COPE Act for a variety of reasons, but prominent among those reasons was the failure to include provisions to protect net neutrality. The bill passed the House by a vote of 321 to 101.

It appears very unlikely that the Senate will accept the legislation passed by the House, so the issue will likely come before the House again, in which case I will certainly keep your views in mind.

Please contact me about other issues important to you. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Brad Miller
Member of Congress

AMD… ATI… alphabet soup! Well, Advanced Micro Devices is acquiring graphics processor maker ATI Technologies… maybe that makes it clearer!

AMD to Acquire ATI

“Customers were essentially asking for AMD to strengthen the ties between its processors and their supporting chip sets and graphics processors and take a more active role in the way the resulting systems are designed and tested, all things it can do with ATI on board, Ruiz explained. ‘Therefore, ATI is a perfect match to the needs for which customers have been asking us for some time,’ he said. Indeed, the deal, valued at $5.4 billion, will allow AMD to combine its processors and ATI’s graphics chips and chip sets, supporting chips that handle PCs’ input/output functions, to create entire PC platforms to offer to its PC maker customers. The combined company would have achieved approximately $7.3 billion in total sales during the last four quarters.”

Well, then, wait until you get a new Nokia “Smell-O-Phone.” I call this “Techies-Gone-Wild!” Yeesh!

Non-scents from Nokia

“For six months, 25 Industrial Design MA students from London’s CSM College of Art and Design have been working to create concepts for a premium but mass market mobile device capable of providing 4G or 5G multimedia services. The students worked for a cash prize and, more importantly, for the chance to work side-by-side with Nokia’s design team during a summer placement at the Nokia design studios.The winning design, was also made into a dummy handset for an exhibition in London’s Air Gallery this week. One of the designs, the Nokia Scentsory, is superb, partly because it reminds us of the paper clackers that we used to make many, many years ago in the innocent days of our childhood. In Closed mode you use it like a slim candy bar phone, in open mode you can use the screens and keyboard. But the real piece of resistance is the Scentsory mode that uses scent detectors that ‘allow you to see, hear, feel and smell your caller’s environment.'”

YES! No doubt! David Gerrold, the author of the Star Trek “Trouble with Tribbles” episode, weighs in on the issue in eWeek:

The Science Fiction Files

It is a neat article, and combines my interests of SciFi, Trek, and Technology! What could be better?!