I see my free computer advice posts are at least as popular as discussing the weather. So stick around, and later I’ll chat about spyware and what you can do to control it. Meanwhile, never shy to offer ideas on thesis topics for the iPod generation, I’ve discovered a new phenomena just begging investigation. I’ve informally tagged it “alumina anemia”, you know, loss of iron. Alumina anemia is where certain frying pans, over time, become lighter on the business end. When new, the empty pan sat flat on your burner, right? Over time, it became lighter and lighter, see? Now it slowly begins to tip up and rest on the handle. (This always happens when you are turned away slicing the onion.) Have you been a victim? There is no cure, although you could hang a counterweight on the rim. Or you could hire the neighborhood whiz kid to conclude the handle is getting heavier and trim off part of it. Using his iSaw.
Later, have him drop by and fix my wireless microphones. It turns out the two spares I had were impossible to adjust to 206.35 MHz. They were a tricky (like ingenious) design to dismantle. The problem was the tuning pots could not be adjusted unless the microphone was assembled but it had to be disassembled to get at the pots. I even drilled a pilot hole to no avail. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Instead of throwing the parts out, I decided to reverse engineer. I’m looking at the diaphragm of an expertly designed “Teng Fei” microphone. If they can build this to retail for $16, peeps, we have not merely lost a race. That means it was manufactured for 60 cents by unskilled labor. We’ve been wiped off the map and Kingdom come, too. I hear over my shoulder the US government spent $130 million on a study that an earthquake in California during the next few years would kill thousands and cause big damage. I believe that same information has been available for free in grade schools since 1950. This study will presumably do for San Francisco what the flood studies did for New Orleans. We are in a heap o’ trouble, folks.
As promised, here is your computer mini-lecture. You’ve heard of spyware, which is not the same thing as a virus. Keep that in mind. Spyware is legal “advertising” software implanted on your computer. They collect details of your usage and sell the information to marketing companies. Don’t you just love them already? There are currently 568,000 brands of this spyware (including mutations) trying to profile you. You should regularly sweep your computer, and the best product out there is called “Spybot Search & Destroy”. (Don’t fall for bogus programs with names like “Spybot Search and Destroy” and “SpyBot Search & Destroy”.)
Spyware programs are insidious. They load themselves when you visit almost any site, no matter how reputable. Spyware files have names like “Zlob”, “Smitfraud”, “coolWebSearch” and the ubiquitous “Virtumonde”. Most of them work the same. They accumulate a log of your keystrokes until (for reasons not yet understood) they have the equivalent of 84 pages of typed material, whereupon the spyware emails this data back to the “advertiser”. Who presumably has not one person on staff who would recognize your PIN numbers instantly. Be aware, there are plug-in versions the size of an AA battery that your boss can rightfully plug into the back of your work terminal.
The makers of spyware have won court cases saying they have the right to spy on you (after all, the Internet is a public domain where you have no “expectation of privacy”). Besides the unauthorized theft of your usage data, there is an emerging pattern that is even more sinister. A new generation of nasty viruses have learned to piggy-back on spyware, sailing right past your anti-virus protection. Either way, it is wise to regularly remove all spyware from your computer.
The question gets asked, why don’t anti-virus programs also get rid of spyware? I told you viruses and spyware are two different animals. Remember that spyware is legal, viruses are illegal. Take heart, some of the anti-virus companies are slowly clueing in and are beginning to include basic anti-spyware. It friggen took them long enough. As always, be leery of companies like AVG whose trial versions are non-functional.
Last. I will tell you the easiest sure way to get the real Spybot freeware. http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html. If that doesn't work, go to www.download.com (no, not www.downloads.com, which is a music site) and do an internal search on Spybot. You will have to look hard, if you find it right away, you’ve probably been spoofed. Keep scrolling down until you find the only Spybot that has been downloaded more than 100 million times. That is correct, a hundred million plus. Download that one. Then get off the Internet and install it. In that order.
Another $200 please. Computers are one more I’m into for the money.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
