Been Phished Lately?

And I'm not talking about the band (who I wouldn't know if they bit me)...

The rascally denizens of the web are getting very creative. (See the link).

If you aren't using a Mac, at least consider using another browser: Opera, FireFox, Mozilla or even Netscape!

(BTW: 100th Post!)

A friend from church was telling me that he was putting together a wish list for a new computer so that he could put home video onto DVD. He was waiting until he could pay cash for it. (Smart guy - airplane mechanic.)

We went over for dinner and afterwards men and women drifted in separate directions. We talked. We looked at his computer. LavaSoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal edition found ~153 tracking cookies, spyware, adware whilst Spybot S&D found at least 100 more, including some registry keys that indicated something had turned off warnings for the disabling of Anti-virus and Firewall software - not at all uncommon, really. :^/ I introduced him to FireFox as well.

On the following Wednesday evening, he reports that it's so fast that he probably won't be building a new PC. :^)

So, we're over there again on Monday afternoon. He says that it's running slowly again, he hadn't run Spybot or Ad-Aware again, would I look at it? Sure. The first thing I see is a minimized IE (Internet Explorer) button in the Task Bar.

*sigh*

So, Spybot finds ~190 problems. Ad-Aware finds more, too. Hmmm...

Had he told his wife not to use IE? Nope.

It's an old story: The demon is cast out of the house, but later finds nothing taking his place, invites a host of others over for a party.

PGP/GPG (Encryption)

Bike Bubba asks if there is support for encryption in Lotus Notes (now available for Macintosh, btw).

The answer: yes!

One would need Lotus Notes (but that is understood), GnuPG or PGP (both free -- only the former is open source, though.), gpg4win and a commercial package: PGPNotes.

Note for MS Outlook users: you may also use gpg4win and GnuPG for your encryption needs.

:^)

Comet "McNaught"

In honor of the recent discovery and viewability of the McNaught Comet, StarryNight sent me a notice that you can download the recent version for only $24.95 minus $5 if you use this code "sncomt" at checkout.

If you want to see the comet, here is what they have to say about that:

Subject: Starry Night Viewing Alert - Catch Comet McNaught Now!

Newly discovered Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) is brightening, and this evening may be the best opportunity to catch a glimpse of it.

Some observers are claiming it's one of the brightest comets in recent years.

The keys for a successful observation are clear skies, an unobstructed view of the horizon to the west-southwest, binoculars or telescopes and, of course, knowing exactly when and where to look before Comet McNaught disappears below the horizon.

Use Starry Night to print out star charts with the position of the Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) for your exact latitude and longitude and to determine the best time for catching the comet. In Starry Night, search for "McNaught (C/2006 P1)."

The trouble with "Signing Statements"

Bush says feds can open mail without warrant

Addendum: Residents of planned union
to be 'North Americanists'

Addenda: Social Security for illegal aliens (Courtesy of Mercy Now and GWB)

Fun with Liquids

There are several links to interesting videos!

Something to listen to for the new year...

If you don't like that one, here's another one?

(Those are audio "Bible in a year" links to/from iTunes -- if you don't normally click on links that try to open other programs on your computer, it can seem a little bit odd... ;^)

Soon, I hope to be adding my pastor's sermons to our church webpage and maybe to iTunes.