Keeping up with the Newest Virus Threats

Most of us have had the experience of a friend forwarding us an email they received that warns of a new virus or worm that would do something horrible to your computer and only later learning that the message we had gotten was a hoax. One way to avoid falling victim to such annoyances is to visit one of the AntiVirus makers' sites with some regularlity to see what is new.

One such link is this one, provided by Symantec, the makers of Norton AntiVirus. Here is their description of what is found on the page: "The list below provides a synopsis of the latest virus-related threats discovered by Symantec Security Response, including information on: Category Rating (risk), Name of Threat (threat), the day on which the threat was identified (discovered), and the day on which a virus definition was added to protect against the threat (protection). " One consequence of visiting this page regularly is that you'll begin to realize how frequently new viruses appear on the scene, and another one may be that you start to feel depressed that virus writers are so prolific and such never-ending mischief-makers.
- posted by Perry @ 6:51 AM 0 comments

 

The Future of the Computer

An article in The Guardian's new magazine, Spark, which describes itself as "a new magazine about the good things that are going on all over the world, and the people working to create a brighter future for us all," describes the computer in 2050. Such predictions are notoriously inaccurate, but they are interesting nonetheless.

Forward thinking: "Peter Cochrane, co-founder of Concept Labs and former head of research at BT Laboratories, once quipped that 'I hope I live long enough for my laptop to feel proud of me,' and that's feasible. By 2050, a cheap computer should not just be smarter than one of us, it should be smarter than all of us put together. Though whether it will be 'intelligent' is a much harder question. "
- posted by Perry @ 9:08 AM 0 comments

 

Shut off "Unneeded Services"

Almost every virus warning from the Anti-Virus companies contains this admonition -- "turn off unneeded services." But ironically, they never link to an article about what those unneeded services are or how to turn them off. This morning I thought I'd search for how to do that, and I ran across the following article.

I've linked to the "Print" version of it so that you'll see all of them on one page. This kind of guide is a useful thing to know about, so I thought I'd share it with you. Windows XP Services Tweak Guide - Printer Friendly version
- posted by Perry @ 6:52 AM 0 comments

 

More about RSS

From CNN.COM comes this article, Welcome to the 'new' Web, same as the 'old' Web - Mar 15, 2004: "Web pages are getting smarter than they used to be. More of your favorite sites are making content summaries and updates available for syndication, just like the syndicated advice columns in your newspaper. Only this kind of syndication is free and 'really simple.' It is called 'RSS' for 'really simple syndication.'

All that means for you is that you can download a free or low-cost news feed reader and 'subscribe' to a number of your favorite Web sites. You might have seen odd little orange 'XML' rectangles on some sites. The URL when you click on the rectangle is the address of the news feed."

By the way, this was picked up by scanning using Newzcrawler, the news reader I am trying out.
- posted by Perry @ 6:39 AM 0 comments

 

Experimenting with RSS

For some time I've been hearing about RSS, "Really Simple Syndication," at various BLOGS that I read regularly. I've decided to evaluate whether that provides a more efficient way to scan the news each day. I have downloaded NewzCrawler, a news reader, to evaluate for this purpose.

I've also provided links to the articles from the Washington Post and Slate that prompted my interest. Check them out and see if this idea doesn't seem to make sense to you as well. I'd be interested in your reaction if you also try out these tools.
- posted by Perry @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

 
NewzCrawler - web news aggregator, RSS reader, browser and blog client: "NewzCrawler is a web news reader & browser which provides access to the news content from different sources."
- posted by Perry @ 8:34 AM 0 comments

 
Refining Paperless News : "Overwhelmed by online news? Instead of wearing out your Web browser's 'refresh' command to check for the latest updates, a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) program can fetch the news for you. "
- posted by Perry @ 8:11 AM 0 comments

 
How To Speed-Read the Net : "There's a way to keep track of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Talkingpointsmemo.com, most major newspapers and nearly all blogs in a lightweight, speed-readable format that lets you scan dozens, even hundreds, of fresh headlines a day without the time-wasting tedium of opening one Web site after another. All you need to do is download and install an RSS reader, which is no harder than installing Netscape's browser was in 1994. You can then scroll through cleanly organized headlines and story summaries. The result is an executive summary of what's new on the Net today. When you see a story you want to read, you click on it. "
- posted by Perry @ 8:07 AM 0 comments

 

A Tribute to Paul on his 80th birthday

In the early 1990's, before the advent of the World Wide Web and the popularity of the Internet, some of us had already begun to experiment with communicating by computer with complete strangers by posting messages to our local Echo Bulletin Board Systems. The conversations weren't yet as instantaneous as they have since come to be, but they gave a foretaste of what lay ahead. We'd write a message and upload it (in my case at 1200 baud), and then in a day or two, through the magic of the relaying system those bulletin board systems used, a reply would find its way back to our computer screen when we downloaded a new packet of messages from our chosen forum. What a thrill it was to discover that someone had read and responded to the message we had posted, and a new kind of laborious conversation would have been initiated. After weeks of such exchanges, we began to experience a phenomenon that most people have now come to take for granted; we began to feel that we had established a friendship with someone we had never laid eyes on. Gradually we would flesh out a perception of the personalities of these "voices from the darkness" with whom we had been exchanging messages.

I first experienced this phenomenon in a group called ILink Writers in 1991. I didn't start posting messages in that forum immediately, preferring to "lurk" instead and read the ongoing conversations of others. I was attracted to the Writers group because of the quality of the writing that I read there. These people were exceptionally intelligent and quite witty, and above all they wrote really well. In fact, their skill at writing was at first an inhibiting factor in my getting up the nerve to post a message. I lacked confidence that what I wrote would ever be accepted in such a talented group of writers. But as time passed and the desire to be a part of such a group gradually overcame my reticence to risk contributing, I joined in and posted a timid first message in which I closed with something like "as Paul Moor would say, you could look it up." To my delight, when I got the next packet of messages, there was a message from Paul Moor himself in which he commented on what I had written. I forget what he said exactly in his response, but that exchange began what has become one of the most rewarding friendships of my life.

I had noticed Paul's messages because he wrote with such extraordinary skill and emotion. His contributions were exceptional even in a group where everyone seemed to be exceptionally talented. I was attracted to his facility with words and to his sense of humor. In particular I remember one message in which someone had posed some question about a gnat but the person had misspelled gnat as "knat". Paul's comeback was that "I wouldn't tell you even if I gnew." When I read that message I roared with almost uncontrollable laughter, and even today I still think its funny.

On Christmas eve in 1992, I decided to phone Paul at his San Francisco home just to give myself the Christmas present of being able to actually speak with the person I had come to admire and had enjoyed in that Writers conference so much during the preceding year. We spoke for about 20 minutes that evening, and it was one of the nicest and most lasting gifts I've ever given myself.

In the ensuing dozen years, Paul and I have continued to exchange messages almost daily, and I've gotten to know him much more personally and to admire him even more. We've met on two occasions. Once in the summer of 1995 he invited me to come to San Francisco and attend an opera with him because he had an extra ticket to Madame Butterfly, being performed that week at Berkeley. I had the time and the frequent flyer points that permitted me to make the trip without undue expense, so I took him up on his offer. There I got to meet not only him but his dog, Skeezix. And then more recently at his invitation in October of last year, I visited him and his current dog, Maxe, for two weeks at his home in Berlin, about which I have written earlier in this blog.

So today I am moved to write this tribute to Paul because today is his 80th birthday. I celebrate it in the only way I can, by writing about him. I feel truly blessed to have had the privilege of getting to know him through the years and to count him as my friend.

Paul, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today. I wish you the very best of everything -- happiness, health, continued success and the recognition that you so richly deserve. I am honored to have you as my friend, and I look forward to our continued correspondence and to the growth of our relationship as the years go on. You have become and will remain an integral part of my life.
- posted by Perry @ 6:24 AM 0 comments