Technicalities

Anti Virus Vendors Ready to Enter the 21st Century

Well, well, well it certainly took long enough. It looks like Anti-virus vendors have finally caught on to the fact that almost all virus mailings now days have a spoofed return address.

You see - in the beginning of internet time - virii were not very sophisticated. If it used the mail at all, it simply sent out a replication of itself to people you kept in your address book. So AV vendors came up with the incredibly bright idea... hey, if our software finds a virus in a mailing, we'll send a return email to that person to let them know they have a virus! Oh so simple, oh so easy! What could be better?

The offending person then, hangs head, apologizes profusely, and cleans up their machine... Ah what a perfect little world we lived in. All was sweetness and light.

The Catch-22 of Windows

Okay - so I'm going to get a bit techy for a while, if you don't like techy stuff, feel free to ignore.

Yesterday on Slashdot there was a post about The Windows Security Nightmare. It is the sad story of what happens if you have to do a clean install of a Windows Operating system - especially 2000 or XP.

Now I use a Windows OS - I would dearly love to use Linux (because I find that OS fun to play with - I know I'm a geek, so sue me) but the software that I need to use for my job does not run on Linux, so I stay with Windows. That being said, I've had this machine up and running since January of 2002 and I have yet to do a clean install of the software. Then again - I am freakishly obsessive about not putting any software on here that I don't absolutely need. And - even more important - I don't game. Last of all - I've been tremendously LUCKY in that I haven't had a hard drive crash.

If You've Got Norton - You've Got a Problem

Do you run Norton/Symantec products - Antivirus, Firewall, etc.??? Then you need to get your fixes in NOW! (am I shouting loud enough for you?)

Almost the entire range of Symantec Corp. security software, from Norton Internet Security through to the Symantec Firewall, requires urgent updates, the company has warned, after four critical vulnerabilities were found by security company eEye Digital Security Inc.

One of the holes remains open even with all ports filtered and intrusion rules set thanks to a separate design flaw, eEye has warned. This makes it an almost certain target for worm writers, one of which -- if history is any indication -- may be put out on the Internet within 24 hours.

Okay, so if you are running this stuff, you are very likely to be at least a little bit concerned with your computer security. But people have a habit of thinking everything is "okay" now that they've got this software installed. In this case, as eEye says, you are a statistic waiting to happen. You'll be one of those unlucky souls trying to fix up your machine. So, do NOT delay. Get your patches now. Some can be updated using Live Update, some may need to be downloaded manually! Check carefully please! I'd hate for someone to end up spending all their time doing computer fixes when it could be avoided!!!

As the Worm Turns

Ho-hum another day another internet worm. Slashdot is reporting that the Sasser Worm is wending it's way through the cyberworld. Since it's a Blaster Style Worm - it won't be coming to you via email, it will be trying to see if you have any of several ports open.

So, I hope you've all patched your systems and have your firewalls running!

BTW - I do know that this is an XP and 2000 worm - but everyone should stay up to date on their patches and run a firewall - I don't want to hear any excuses on either one of those points!

Fixing Computers

Well, I spent about 3 hours today helping a friend who has computer problems. Just your average, ordinary, non-demanding user who simply wants to dial in and get her email. This was part 2 of the fixup since I spent 2 hours over there the other day working on part one. And after 5 hours... it's still not fixed.

First of all - she is on dialup, yep the good ole 56K modem. I did install a firewall for her when she got the computer, but firewalls only work for some things. In this case, she had enough spyware on her system to be tracked by all those in the known universe. She had enough virii (don't care if it's a real word or not so don't yell about it) to infect all other computers in existence. She hasn't been able to update her service packs because dialup is simply too slow for that to be an option. Thus she arrived at the point where her printer wouldn't work and she called me.

At the moment I'd like to string up a bunch of people in this order... 1) virus writers - may you all rot in hell 2) spyware inflictors may your every move be cataloged and broadcast over the net for all to watch and laugh at 3) Microsoft operating system programmers who - even after all these years of practice, can't seem to fix the most obvious problems. May you spend eternity in a room fixing the constant stream of problems that regular users encounter. May you have to explain 80 times exactly what you're doing and how the system owner can do this too. May you then return home to find all these virii and spyware have afflicted your own system and you now have to do a total wipe and reinstall.

That's it - I'm done with computers for the night - I'm off to bed!

Time to Patch things up again

Microsoft has just released a whole passel of patches today. You may want to wait a couple of days and make sure that the current set of patches aren't going to turn your computer into a doorstop - then apply them if there aren't screaming headlines.

The patches are part of the company's monthly rollout of security fixes and address a total of 20 flaws. The products affected by the flaws include Windows NT Workstation and Server, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003.

Ho-hum. It's always something.

HotMail Logic

So today in my HotMail inbox was the following message:

As a valued customer, we want to remind you that if you don't sign in to MSN® Hotmail® for 30 days, your account becomes inactive and:

• You will lose all messages and attachments in your Inbox and other folders
• All of your incoming e-mail will be rejected
• You will lose all contacts in your Address Book

This information cannot be recovered*, so make sure you sign in at least once a month.

Is it just me, or does this little warning seem just a tad lame? They send it to you - and you aren't checking your email - so how can they call it a warning? People who ARE checking their mail will get the warning - but wait - they are checking their mail, so this doesn't apply to them! Why would HotMail do this?

To avoid this hassle, you can subscribe to MSN Hotmail Extra Storage, which exempts you from this inactivity policy and lets you enjoy more freedom. It's the smartest way to help prevent the loss of all the important information in your MSN Hotmail account.

Ah Hah! They want you to pay for your email service! The light dawns. Accounts start at $19.99 - that's not even $20 a month! See how easy and cheap it is... you'll never lose your account.

I really hate it when people try to scare you into spending money! If my hotmail account bites the dust, I'll just open a yahoo. Maybe even a Gmail account so they can read it for me! But wait - I check my account! Bwahahahahaha.

So what's with Google and Gmail?

The other day I noted a headline on Drudge (with no accompanying story at the time) about Google's new email service "reading" emails. So what's the real deal with Gmail? Are they going to be reading your mail and sending you spam? Should you be concerned about your email and privacy?

First off - everyone please remember - email is NOT private. It never has been and never will be! If you can all keep that in the forefront of your minds when creating and sending emails, you will have a much happier life. Unlike snail mail in the US - which is protected by laws of privacy, email has never enjoyed the same laws. Many people have found out - much to their discomfort - that email can and will be used against them (both legally and by the press).

So, I went to Google to find out what the deal was, what do they really plan on doing? A few words follow from the Gmail about page:

Google is committed to keeping unwanted messages out of your inbox. Gmail includes a sophisticated spam filter that we're continuing to improve. The Report Spam link in Gmail is a way for users to help with this effort. It removes spam from the inbox and sends valuable data to the Gmail team working on spam blocking.

Okay - so far so good - they have a spam filter. Most of these work pretty well at keeping the junk out. This also would mean they don't plan to sent their own junk mail as this would defeat the purpose of putting in a spam filter. (At this point I should say I haven't read their privacy legalese and since I have no plans to create a Google mailbox at the moment, I'm not going to go look for it)

So what's with the "reading" of the email? Well, it appears to apply to this:

There are no pop-ups or banner ads in Gmail. Gmail does include relevant text ads that are similar to the ads appearing on the right side of Google search results pages. The matching of ads to content is a completely automated process performed by computers using the same technology that powers the Google AdSense program. This technology already places targeted ads on thousands of sites across the web by quickly analyzing the content of pages and determining which ads are most relevant to them. No humans read your email to target the ads, and no email content or other personally identifiable information is ever provided to advertisers.

So Yahoo and Hotmail have banner ads - you have no choice in seeing those on the screen. There used to be software that could block these, I don't know if it's still around, but I would only find it worth the time and effort to install if it really did something great for me. At the moment I see no advantage. These services very likely have popup adds too - but I have a blocker and so never see things popping up.

It looks like all Google is doing is scanning the subject lines or the text of email and sticking text ads on the side bar of the window when you go to read your mail. Well, text ads (like you see in the Google search engine when you go to search) would certainly be far less annoying than those blinking, moving banner ads that I loathe so much. And lest anyone start screaming because they're scanning subject lines - any of the services can certainly do this with little time or effort invested. Go back to the top again and reread what I said about email not being private. It's not. And if you use a web based email service for which you pay nothing, you have to expect they will need to fund it in some way. Well, this is how it's funded - nothing in life being free, this is not a problem for me.

So, there you have it. Google is not going to be sending spam to your inbox or the inboxes of people who send you email. They are funding the service with text ads on the side. Pretty innocuous. However, if ads offend you, then you need to look into a different type of email service - one that you pay for. Just thought I'd clear that up.

Waylaid by Technology

Here I was looking forward to a nice slow day. Getting caught up with all those little things at work that get left until later because I normally don't have time to do them... What in the world was I thinking! Phone rings - boss says, hey you have to go down to the office. One of our little boxes with lots of wires sticking out of it, is not working. It won't speak to us. It appears to be sulking even though we've been extra nice to it.

So, I jump in ugly mini-van, drive down to office, attempt to converse with little box up close and personal. Little box continues to sulk. Other means of communicating with little box are not at hand and must be found. Unfortunately this means I will have to return and attempt to converse with the little box again tomorrow morning.

*sigh* I don't like little boxes. They sneer at you : "you just don't understand how to talk to me", or even worse "I am completely burned out, I need a break". It will be a long day...

UPDATE - Oh happiness! We may be able to solve the problem without too much trouble. Which means I get a reprieve and don't have to make another trip in to the office to converse with the little box.

If you made it here - Congratulations!

Looks like typepad is encountering another slow-down at least right now. I can post, but I can't get to my page. Ho-Hum.