Yes, there’s actually a column this week. That’s because there were a couple of stories coming out on Tuesday morning that needed my comment, so I was able to start it early instead of trying to get everything done after work on Tuesday evening. Just in case you’re wondering about my schedule, I have two more weeks on night shift, then go back to an every-four-weeks rotation between days and nights. This should help my column schedule immensely, as I have no motivation to knock something out after I get back from work just to maintain a deadline after night shift.
So, after that poor excuse for a lead, let’s get on with it…
THE PIMP SECTION
Gloomchen relates song lyrics to states of life.
Goforth violates one of my prime responses to wrestling’s creative aspects. That response is “Why shouldn’t it strive to be like Shakespeare?”
Stevens has to do the DC News all alone (other than Erhardt, of course), while the entire Comics Nexus staff handles Marvel.
Coogs is always a welcome addition to the TV section, and he’s got some great comments this week.
Misha shows himself to have very good taste indeed.
THE ANTI-SPYWARE SECTION
Remember, this all started because the slugs at Enigma Software dared to advertise their piece of shit SpyHunter at 411 (one of the reasons why I decided to leave, honestly). So I’m responding every single column with proper anti-spyware information. And guess what? People are actually taking this to heart. They’re asking me for help if they’re infested, or they’re writing me telling me that their browsing experience is less annoying thanks to the stuff I’ve been putting up here three times a week for a few months now.
(And as I understand it, there are some unscrupulous browser toolbar people trying to advertise here at the Pulse. Well, don’t click on that ad, whatever you do. We’ll still get the money from the impressions, and your system will stay safe.)
Big, big Kudos to the guys at the Spyware Warrior Forum for pointing out to everyone the extent of criminal activity participated in by Enigma Software, makers of the bane of advertising on this site, SpyHunter. Slimeballs extraordinare, aren’t they? And in case you need more info about what flaming bags of shit they are, try here. Suzi’s Blog has a great list of other flaming bags of shit that promote anti-spyware programs that are spyware themselves. Consult it if you have questions.
(On a side note, those SpyHunter ads started over at Reality News Online, and BFM, a contributor there, spotted them. He told the webmaster, gave him those links that I cited above, the webmaster read them, the blood drained out of his face, and he contacted his ad provider. No more ads for Enigma products on RNO, thank you. So guess what? If you provide the info, there are sites who will listen.)
One of the leading vectors for spyware is so-called free programs that contain this shit in order to “pay the bills”. No one deserves that kind of treatment. If you’ve got a question about whether or not a certain program contains spyware, head over here. It’s a nice alphabetized list of programs that do contain spyware and should be avoided at all costs.
Here’s a list of the programs you really need to help you get rid of menaces, and, more importantly, prevent them from occurring in the first place:
Spybot and AdAware. The ONLY two spyware removal tools to trust. Do NOT buy any spyware removal tools, because none of them work better than these two, and all of them except these two are suspect.
SpywareBlaster. Will nuke thousands of different potentially malicious ActiveX controls, and now has the ability to prevent a number of non-ActiveX methods of installing spyware for people who use Mozilla/Firefox.
SpywareGuard. From Javacool, like SpywareBlaster. It’s a real-time scanner for spyware. A decent first line of defense.
IE-SpyAd. Throws numerous ad-related URLs into IE’s Restricted Zone, where they won’t display or affect your system. Bookmark this one, since it’s the only one that doesn’t have an in-program update.
A few people have recommended also installing the Sun Java Virtual Machine, since it’s Windows’ buggy, half-assed implementation of the JVM that allows a lot of spyware to install (less so within the past month and a half than before). I STRONGLY recommend that you visit here and update your version of Java.
So many people have asked about a free anti-virus program that I’m also going to recommend AVG. Totally free, and works really, really well, as well as commercial anti-virus programs. Frequent database updates, good heuristic detection, everything you want in an anti-virus package.
Another program that I’d like to add here is a little tough to work with for noobs if it goes buggy (you need to know a little something about your Networking settings in order to debug if something should go wrong). Protowall is a supplement to your firewall or NAT system. It hooks directly into XP’s networking system to block any and all traffic that comes from URLs on a list maintained by the program (all protocols, not just TCP/UDP). It’s mainly designed for anti-P2P purposes (which will appeal to a great many of my readers), but it contains lists to block spyware and ads. Its blocklist can easily be updated using its supplementary program, Blocklist Manager. I have Protowall running and a Blocklist Manager icon on my desktop, and I use Blocklist Manager to update the blocklist every couple of days. You will have problems getting to some sites unless you shut down Protowall temporarily, like ESPN or Sports Illustrated, but it does have a tray icon you can right-click and shut down in a few seconds. It’s the third layer of anti-ad material for me, with IE-SpyAd and AdSubtract running alongside it. Warning, though: it only works with XP. I’d recommend its predecessor, Peer Guardian, for other MS OSes, but it isn’t being developed anymore, and there were still bugs in it when development stopped. You can get Protowall and the Blocklist Manager (which will also work with Peer Guardian) at Bluetack’s site.
Of course, only download them from the links provided above. And only download those programs; don’t fall for the ads that are shown at various websites.
With AdAware and Spybot, check for updates using their internal update function at least once a week. Run them at least once a week or whenever you think you might have problems. Remember, the new version of Spybot has browser protection capabilities, so have that run at startup and leave it running. Check for updates to SpywareBlaster once a week. It only needs to be run once initially in order to establish protection. Then, after it downloads updates, just click on the line that says “Enable Protection For All Unprotected Items” and kill it. It doesn’t need to be active. For IE-SpyAd, bookmark the site and check for updates twice a week, since it has no kind of internal updater. Run the Blocklist Manager every couple of days to make sure that you keep up on the latest banned URLs. Since all it does is add Registry entries, it doesn’t eat up anything.
If you’re having trouble with spyware or a browser hijacker, or think that you do, head over to the SpywareInfo Forums, where the pros there can help you diagnose and get rid of stuff. I was promoted to Full Helper status there and ended up joining ASAP, the Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals. Look for their symbol, which I’m not going to try to link to anymore because someone at the other end keeps munging it.
The Ravin’ Cajun asks me to recommend a good client-side spam filter for MS mail programs running under Windows. Now, this is something I don’t have experience with because my ISPs have always had good spam filtering, plus, I use Thunderbird, which handles the remainder quite nicely, thank you. Some readers wrote in and recommended SpamBayes, which is totally free and supposedly works very well, so I’ll add it on to the anti-annoyance list that we’re building up here.
A QUICK CAUSE AND EFFECT
First of all, read Fingers‘s posting of a WWE press release. You’ll notice the subject is absentee balloting. This whole little liaison came about due to a gaffe by The Big Show during the RNC. He was asked by a reporter about how the target audience for Smackdown Your Vote can get absentee ballots. TBS came right out and said, on live TV, “I don’t know”. That exposed a weakness in the campaign that WWE didn’t want exposed (especially since it made a guy who’s seven foot, five hundred pounds look like a complete moron because he couldn’t handle something off-script). So they rushed to get something going with some absentee ballot group, and now they have it. Just wanted to tell you the reason why this happened.
Secondly, there’s an old football tradition that states that the Washington Redskins are an indicator of who’s getting elected. If the Redskins win on the weekend before Election Day, it’s a Republican. If they lose, it’s a Democrat. Well, this year, they just happen to be playing the FudgePackers on that weekend. A number of people, including Big Daddy and The Proud Graduate Of Dartmouth His Own Self, have asked me the obvious: Will I be rooting for the FudgePackers that weekend in order to ensure that Kerry gets elected? The answer to that is, I have to say, no. Not even with an election on the line can I root for the FudgePackers. It’s one step above f*cking sheep in public on my scale. However, I will compromise and not actively root for the Foreskins as I would any FudgePackers opponent. That’s the art of compromise, folks.
Now on to the good stuff…
MORE DUBBAYA BULLSHIT FROM THE UN
From the AP Wire:
President Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq in a speech on Tuesday to the United Nations, urging the world community to turn its attention to the fighting the war on terrorism and humanitarian concerns.
Oh, this should be good. Too bad CNN doesn’t have a link to the whole transcript.
He told a subdued U.N. General Assembly session that the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein delivered the Iraqi people from “an outlawed dictator.”
Outlawed by whom? Not the UN. Remember, they didn’t approve of the invasion. And they’re the body that decides this sort of thing. Well, them and the World Court.
Two years after he told the world body that Iraq was a “grave and gathering danger” and challenged delegates to live up to their responsibility, Bush did not dwell on his decision to invade without the consent of the U.N. Security Council. Instead, he urged the world community to “fight radicalism and terror with justice and dignity.”
Apparently “justice and dignity” includes using a vague threat of terror to justify the invasion of a soverign nation on specious grounds and involving a country in a slogging guerilla war. Bra-f*cking-vo.
Bush said that terrorists believe that “suicide and murder are justified …And they act on their beliefs.” And he cited recent terror acts, including the death of children in their Russian school house.
“This month in Beslan, we saw once again how the terrorists measure their success in the deaths of the innocent and in the pain of grieving families,” the president said. “The Russian children did nothing to deserve such awful suffering.”
Hey, I agree with this, but this is an internal matter for Vladimir Putin to deal with. Fleabag and I don’t agree on much politically at this point, but we do on this: Putin’s a hard-ass, but he’s the type of hard-ass that Russia really needs right now to get through this. The act of terror in the Beslan case was internal to Russia. They didn’t have to invade another country to “take action”. Using that as an example of “international terror” that requires something like Iraq is disingenuous.
Ahead of Bush’s speech, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan opened the meeting of the 191-nation gathering with a warning that “the rule of law” is at risk around the world.
“No one is above the law,” Annan said. “Again and again, we see fundamental laws shamelessly disregarded — those that ordain respect for innocent life, for civilians, for the vulnerable — especially children,” he said.
He condemned the taking and killing of hostages in Iraq, but also said Iraqi prisoners had been disgracefully abused, an implicit criticism of the U.S. treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
Last week, Annan said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq “was illegal” because Washington and its coalition partners never got Security Coun
cil backing for the invasion.
This is why I love Kofi Annan. He’s got the position to take moral stances (albeit not the power to implement them), and people listen. He’s like the Pope of Politics, and he’s not afraid to say anything. And people listen to the guy. Let’s hope that the voters in the US listen to him a month and a half from now…I can’t believe the election’s that close. I’m getting more excited about it every day.
Just remember, Dubbaya lies about everything. That should make your choice clear come November.
THE MADNESS CONTINUES
From Reuters:
Six thousand people are to be told they may have been exposed to the human form of mad cow disease through blood products, the government says.
Sir Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer, told a news conference on Tuesday that the risk of people developing the deadly degenerative brain disease was very small but the government was taking a “highly precautionary” approach.
He said a risk assessment identified people who may be at a small increased risk of developing vCJD than the rest of the population who ate beef during the 1980s and 1990s.
“This information will enable these people and their doctors to take the necessary steps to minimise the risk of onward transmission of vCJD,” Donaldson said.
Blood products, such as clotting agents to treat bleeding disorders, are made from donated blood.
Variant CJD is the human equivalent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, which is linked to eating meat infected with BSE. The illnesses are caused by brain proteins that transform themselves into infectious agents.
Two cases of suspected transmission of the infective agent through a blood transfusion have been reported. Both patients received blood from donors who were later identified as being infected.
Britain banned people who have had transfusions in the past two decades from donating blood after the first case was reported.
“The risk to any individual is very small indeed,” Professor Lindsey Davies, an expert on the disease at the department of health, told Sky television.
“We just want to take a public health precaution to insure people who might have received a lot of these products don’t, for example, give organs for transplant and do alert their doctors when they are being treated so we can be sure there is no further increased risk of transmission.”
Britain took several measures to insure the safety of its blood supplies in the late 1990s.
Just in case you’re wondering, those measures include decreasing the amount of white blood cells (which was thought to be a repository for the prions in question) and banning the use of British blood in the manufacture of things like clotting agents and plasma. They did a good job in this regard.
I just wanted to keep you up on the latest regarding Mad Cow, since it impacts my job directly in ways you couldn’t imagine. We have to keep up with various and sundry things that go on on the floor in order to identify the cows most likely to carry the disease (any of them over thirty months old, in case you’re wondering; they’re identified early on in the process of slaughter). It’s proving to be a nightmare, since this place wants to do exports to Japan, and the Japanese don’t want any meat from cows over twenty months old out of fear of BSE and (v)CJD. The Mexicans don’t want any over thirty months old (which is why the cows are being identified in the way they are now). We’re getting into debates about brain leakage that are reminding me of “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin”. And spinal cord removal is always a worry.
And I thought that Listeria intervention programs were a pain in the ass. This stuff makes it look like a walk in the park, especially given the fact that there have been only two positive presumptives which turned out to be non-BSE after further testing that have shown up in the US. Well, food safety was never promised to be a walk in the park.
And nobody promised that these columns would be a walk in the park either. I’ll end this one off and join you later this week for the Short Form. Until then, have a good time and don’t take shit from anyone.
