Spyware/adware? OUTLAW ALL OF THEM!!!

There is a recurring theme that is present at Cybersouth. Protect yo'self! If you are not running a good spyware/adware smasher start today. New versions of hideous malware show up all the time. If you are not running an anti-virus program I hope you saved the boxes because you need to return your computer to the point of sale and go buy a nice pad and pencil, good calculator, nice address book or daytimer, large book of stamps, video phone that conferences, mp3 player, great 35mm camera, etc. Be very careful about what program you use to stop spyware and virii. McAfee is outright worthless. I think a requirement to work in their tech support is to speak very bad English. A fellow tech told me yesterday he updated a McAfee protected computer, ran a scan and then uninstalled it. After installing Norton's antivirus on the same computer he "only" found 1281 infected files. Do you understand? Can you open those eyes and see? Don't use bad programs!!!

Spybot Search and Destroy site is timing out due to high traffic. This indicates a desire for this program. Posted an alternative download site last week called TUCOWS. I will not put them in the links list because the first thing they do when you go there is drop an advertising tracking cookie on your PC. Of course downloading, installing and running either Spybot S&D or Ad-Aware will remove it. Anyway, these programs are available at several sites for downloading.

Using a new program called Spywareblaster (the javacool one). This is strictly a protection program and does not scan for infections. It resides on your PC and stops the dung from installing. The verdict is still out. They do updates and this is a good sign. Please, please be very careful about what programs you use because some of them, even the non-free stuff, ARE spyware!!! Most of the freeware stuff will accept donations or have upgrades that cost minimal amounts. If you like them, donate! I did.

So far, Mozilla is doing a good job. This might be a way to introduce yourself to opensource software. The download and install are painless and it can reside on a machine beside IE. I do recommend making it the default browser for a few days. Nice to surf the net and see absolutely NO popups. You can always go back the the security flawed Internet Explorer. Don't know that I will. We'll see...

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."
-Mark Twain