Well now for some wonderful news for all those who either have, or want to give Microsoft’s web browser (Internet Explorer) and email client (Outlook Express) the boot. The wonderful people who are giving of their time to develop Mozilla have just released new versions of their web browser (Firefox) and email client (Thunderbird).

Firefox 1.0 has been released.
Thunderbird 0.9 has been released.

If you haven’t made the change yet, you can expect the following if you change over:
1. Easy installation.
2. Excellent features (Microsoft seems to have let their offerings stagnate, while Mozilla keeps on adding).
3. Less vulnerability to spyware/spam/malware than the Microsoft alternatives.
4. A high level of compatibility with internet sites

Here is an interesting spyware/adware review.

spywarewarrior.com

There has been lots of talk about the election but only sparse discussion of state ballot referendums. Basically, gay marriage and pot were the big losers and stem cell funding was a winner.

11/11 states voted to amend their constitution to ban gay marriage. I am opposed to this however I am open to being convinced that it is the right way to go. I just need someone to give me a justification that is not based in some religious belief. I want to know how 2, or even 3, gay straight or otherwise, people being married is going to destroy my marriage?

Alaska voted against legalizing pot. Well I don’t smoke it but I think it should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure. I am not sure why it was thought that a prohibition on drugs would turn out any different than the prohibition on alcohol.
Oregon voted against expanding their medical marijuana laws. Not sure what this was really about.

California said screw waiting on federal funding for newer stem cell lines we shall do it ourselves. They will create a 3 billion (this is more than the feds currently provide) fund to advance stem cell research. This will be a huge boom to the UC and other school systems in California.

There are other issues that were decided but I am not as interested in them. Check out the full report here

Scott has been working on a logo for the site…

I love it so far, What do ya’ll think? Does the mission statement make me sound a little too wishy-washy?

Ok, so by all appearances I can go ahead and celebrate a victory in the election. Not a victory for Bush or Kerry but for everyone who understands what the Electoral College is, why it is there, sees that it’s not evil just because it didn’t go your way once, and wants Michael Moore to shut the heck up about it.

It looks like the popular vote is firmly behind Bush. Since Mr. Moore doesn’t believe in the Electoral College I’m sure he fully supports Kerry’s immediate concession on the basis that he has lost the popular vote. No need to wait for the decision in Ohio, it’s not material to the popular vote… ;-)

(Of course the popular vote could change over the next couple of days with provisional ballots etc, but I just love getting the opportunity to make the statement above).

Well today should make for an interesting and long day. Here is a quiz to help you past the time. 20 statements you just pick who said it: Osama, Michael Moore or John Kerry. Quiz

Here is a wonderful link that is full of useful touring information for motorcyclists. In keeping with my policy of posting everything I find interesting, here it is…
www.horizonsunlimited.com

I’ve been waiting for a truly cheap internet appliance that does nothing but surfing, media, and email (WebTV was too crippled to count). I remember Ellison of Oracle was pushing the idea for years. Well unlike Oracle’s debacle, it looks like AMD has delivered a usable machine. The Emma, which will sell for less than $200 is truly an internet appliance with enough capability to be an internet machine.

If they would have built a Linux distro instead of Windows they could have sold it for even less, but there you go…

It appears that the average computer user doesn’t have a clue as to how to secure their machines.

Surprise!!!!! Most people who know about computers occasionally have difficulty keeping their machines free of Spyware/Adware/Malware and Viri. I cannot imagine most of the computer laypeople I know being able to do it. All I’ve been able to do is recommend products to handle Viri for them, but maintaining a clean computer still takes effort, and most computer users are clueless how to even start. Unfortunately they are the ones who are out there on the net serving as Viral launching points. I know people who know they have all the symptoms of a Virus, but just haven’t gotten around to fixing the problem. In computer terms this is as irresponsible as going to work when you have the flu (everyone else gets it too). The average user doesn’t know that they have to check periodically and make sure that the Spyware and Anti Virus products they are using (if they are using any at all) are updating correctly, and that changes you make in your system (email settings etc) can disable functionality of the scanner.

Another thing people do not realize is that most Anti Virus scanners do not generally scan for Spyware (this is starting to change). The companies that make spyware had claimed that their software was legal, was installed with consent, and it would be doing harm to their company if an Anti Virus scanner identified it on users machines as Spyware. So the Anti Virus companies (to prevent legal exposure) chose to make their scanners ignore much of the software that is Adware/Spyware and even software that is widely recognized to be Trojan Horse remote control software. So, if you were wondering, that is why you need to install Anti Virus and Anti Spyware software. (The latest PC-Cillin does both, but still doesn’t seem to be nearly as effective at catching Spyware as AdAware Pro, so I still run both).

It’s scary that companies are allowing people to use home computers to VPN into their corporate networks. After the infestations I’ve seen recently, I’m actually thinking of making it policy that I will not plug anyone’s computer into my LAN without a virus scan first.

My personal preference for anti-virus products is for PC-Cillin Internet Security or Panda Internet Security. The PC-Cillin seems to come free with every computer motherboard you buy, so if you built your own, you might already own AV software. I’ve not tried Symantec (Norton) and McAfee Anti-virus products in a couple of years, but over time I’ve found them to be slow, and to cause numerous system problems. I have a running theory that the PC Magazines that review always pick either Symantec or McAfee depending on which spent the most advertising dollars that year.

All that said and done… here are some links to help everyone out… :)
Spyware/Adware/Malware removal:
AdAware – One of my personal favorites
Spybot Search and Destroy – Another excellent scanning product

Free Online Spyware/Adware/Malware scanner:
www.pestscan.com (untested, requires internet explorer)

Free Online Virus Scan (both reputable companies that make good products):
housecall.trendmicro.com
www.pandasoftware.com

Here is a recent PC World review of AV scanners:

Hmmmm. Must’ve been a black helicopter crash.

www.freedomunderground.org/memoryhole/pentagon.php#Main

If you remember what a BBS was (I wrote BBS software, and used to run an 8 line BBS back in the 80’s). checkout this site. They just emailed saying they were releasing a 3 hour documentary on BBS’s.

Ahhh the old days…

The Baghdad Blogger goes to Washington.

Definitely an interesting read. It’s multi-part and you can find the pieces at the bottom of the article.

A few funny ones for today.

Not for the kids though…

www.fthevote.com/
www.votergasm.org/

Ok although political I offer this work distraction: The Hip-Hop Debate. What is really interesting is that if you look at the voting, Bush has a 10% lead.

This would work.

Well that explains everything…

Glad to see all that government grant money being used for good…

Ok everybody needs patches, links and tests for vulnerability are on The Register.

Wow you mean it’s a bad idea to pay people per registration for new voters? At least it wasn’t this bad.

As with all news links you can try www.bugmenot.com for an account if you don’t want to sign up.

Here is another political affiliation quiz. Once again it is limited to cut and dried issues.

On this one I scored a 17.

Well I am really tired of politics right now, so I haven’t been posting. More accurately I have been waiting for something interesting to post about that doesn’t deal with politics or legal mattters. Well I don’t have anything but if you need some entertainment feel free to check out this web site for all your conspiracy theory needs. Alex Jones is arguably as far out as it gets.

Enjoy