Opinions, Etc. 12.15.04

Archive

I’m writing this on Wednesday afternoon, so it counts. Couldn’t get any prepwork done on Tuesday for it because the pills got to me again. Another twelve-hour nap, and it was up to go look at live cows at five in the f*cking morning. Well, it’s easy overtime, I must admit.

As per subjects today, I still haven’t watched Armageddon (too terrified to do so, but I’ll have to do it prior to doing the Short Form or I’ll be lost), so no comments on that. I’d only bore you with a dissertation on what lactic acid does to knives (nothing good, let me assure you), even though it’s a problem I have to deal with on a daily basis. I guess I’ll have to stick with what’s in the news. However, I don’t care about hostages on a bus in Athens (Who the hell hijacks a goddamn bus? Oh, yeah, Albanians. They’ve never been the sharpest knives in the drawer), so that’s out. And I’ve got to stop using parentheticals in the middle of a sentence. It tends to drive people crazy. Therefore, I’ll just knock out some quickies and go to sleep. More live cows to look at tomorrow morning.

On with the show…

THE PIMP SECTION

Grut is back with A Wrestling Tale. Be happy for this development.

Ditch is here with your puro fix.

Gordi explains how his wrestling fandom soured. Good read.

Nguyen has his Top Ten Sports Moments for the year. Unfortunately, he’s restricted it to North America. I’m a little confused. Do the events have to take place in North America, or can the athletes be North American and accomplish something outside of North America? If the latter, then he’s screwed over Michael Phelps and Lance Armstrong.

Coogs discusses another show I don’t watch.

Kappauff has never offered me a chance to write a script for his strip. Well, screw him.

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 that 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. Since all it does is add Registry entries, it doesn’t eat up anything. Run the Blocklist Manager every couple of days to make sure that you keep up on the latest banned URLs.

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.

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.

Now that 1.0 has been released, I feel good in recommending Firefox as an alternative to IE. Go grab a copy and see what you’re missing.

AND TO SORT OF LINK INTO THAT

The MPAA has officially declared war on BitTorrent and eDonkey, coordinating an international effort on a couple of major busts in Finland and the Netherlands. ShareConnector, one of the main eDonkey sites, was taken down by the Dutch police on Monday. Youceff Torrents in France got taken down on Tuesday. FinReactor was nuked by the Finnish cops. Thousands of users are being threatened with exposure and civil suits in Germany thanks to the German equivalent of the MPAA. PWTorrents, the main BitTorrent site for wrestling material, has suddenly been replaced by a site of a Canadian home builder (this may just be a DNS error, though; however, it’s been this way since at least Saturday). It’s weird time. I told you this would happen the moment that the MPAA named that scumbag Dan Glickman as Jack “Boom Boom” Valenti’s replacement. Glickman was a piece of shit as AgSec, bending over and taking it up the ass from the meat industry in regard to inspection activies, and now he’s an even bigger piece of shit now that he’s czar of the movie industry. Death to Glickman.

That’s why I suggest using Protowall and Blocklist Manager. It’s the best way to keep you safe from the marauding morons by blocking their little probes at the TCP level (and any other major protocol, for that matter). I emphasize, now more than ever, to use that link in the previous section and grab Protowall (or another IP blocker, since Protowall only works with XP) and the Blocklist Manager. It could save your Net access. And speaking of saving your Net access…

BAD NEWS ON THE EASTERN FRONT

From the AP wire:

A judge has ruled that the anti-spam law in Maryland — the first state law to penalize senders of junk e-mail — is unconstitutional because it seeks to regulate commerce outside the state’s borders. Last week’s ruling, which threw out a lawsuit against a New York e-mail marketer, effectively overturns Maryland’s 2002 Commercial Electronic Mail Act.

Anyone care to find the judge’s e-mail address and sign him up for every single little mail scam out there that will sell your address to spammers, then see how he feels about “regulating commerce”? Spammers are scum. I’d like to personally hang Alan Ralsky, Eddy Marin, and Scott Richter up by their testicles until their faces turn blue, and then tighten the rope, but there’s too big a line in front of me of people who want to do the same. Fortunately for anyone who receives e-mail, a couple of state laws have been tested in court and found acceptable, but this is a major setback for those of us who want the e-mail system to be spam-free.

AND THERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS IN THE FIELD OF PRIVACY

David Blunkett, the UK Home Secretary, resigned on Wednesday after yet another flap regarding a nanny and a visa, something that’s been plaguing the US since 1993. He used his position to expedite a visa for the nanny of his former girlfriend, and did so illegally. Oops, hand, meet cookie jar.

Blunkett is a putz for other reasons, though. He attempted to push an identity card scheme through Tony Blair that hooked into a database that would have made ex-KGB guys go “Damn, that’s intrusive”. John Ashcroft would have given both his nuts and his left arm for that kind of information that would be available to virtually anyone in any position of authority in the UK. Of all the post-September 11th reactions around the world, Blunkett’s ID card scheme may have been the most threatening of all to civil liberties (although it hasn’t been put into place yet, unlike the abominable Patriot Act). His loss may just derail the scheme forever. However, his successor, Charles Clarke, said that there will be “continuity” between his Home policies and Blunkett’s. Let’s just hope that there’s a break in continuity.

TRIAL AND ERROR

The trial of Chemical Ali, the master
mind behind the alleged Iraqi effort in chemical weapons (we haven’t found any, therefore it’s “alleged”), will supposedly start by the end of the month, the first in a series of fun little dissertations on the nature of war crimes when it comes to the losers in said war. And what a coincidence that the trials are starting only after Dubbaya was reelected. Afraid of innocent verdicts, are we?

This one will be important to watch. Any case they build against al-Majid will be the identical case they’re going to build against Saddam. This is a dress rehearsal for the Big Show (no, not Paul Wight), the Trial of the 21st Century So Far. Longtime readers know that I’m against these trials being held in Iraq by an Iraqi jurisprudence system. If these are war crimes, and they supposedly are despite the lack of a declaration of war, then the proper venue is the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Of course, the Junta can’t have that. The Iraqi puppet government is more likely to find the defendants guilty than an unbiased international panel of jurists.

Therefore, these trials are going to be a f*cking joke, focusing the world’s attention on alleged perpetrators of injustice while keeping the image of the real criminals in this action, the Junta, pristine. Can someone please bring the Junta up on crimes against humanity for perpetrating an armed conflict against a soverign nation? No, that won’t happen. They’ll just get Medals of Freedom instead. Nauseating.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE

Remember the “we can go to third base but no penetration” between the Junta and Enron? Well, not enough of you did on November 2nd, but I remember. Well, the opposite is happening in Russia right now. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of Yukos, Russia’s biggest independent oil company, made a lot of enemies as he stepped on people’s nuts during his rise to economic and political power. Unfortunately, most of the members of the current Russian government were among them. The Russian White House has been trying to deal with Yukos for years now, and they finally have them in their hip pockets. Mick’s in jail on tax fraud charges (US$26B worth of them, to be exact), and Gazprom, the government-owned energy consortium, was ready to buy Yukos’ main refinery at bargain-basement prices at auction on this upcoming Sunday.

Whoops, not so fast. Yukos pulled off a novel ploy on Wednesday: they filed for bankrupty in the US, where they have some assets. They have a hearing in court on Thursday to see if the bankruptcy judge will issue a TRO to stop the auction from taking place, an action that, if backed by international finance, will stop the Russian government from pulling off this little ploy. It all depends on whether the judge thinks she has jurisdiction over the case. It’ll be interesting, to say the least, to see what’s going to come out of court.

This is why I like Russia. Over there, the gummint and Big Oil are at each other’s throats. Over here, they put their own little tool in the White House.

That’ll be it for this one. I’ll be back with the Short Form later this week, and we’re fortunately PPV-free this weekend, so no Round Table to have to contribute to. Until Saturday, or whenever I get the f*cking thing up, enjoy yourselves.