Would you walk down a dark alley at 3:00AM?

The chances of making to the other end without a bodyguard would not be good!

Unfortunately the internet has become exactly that, a dark alley. According to a recent report (http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single3709 ) the survival time is down to 20 minutes once you connect an unprotected pc to the internet.

This means you are subject to:
Viruses, worms, ad-ware, spy-ware,

Rootkits: (http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/rootkitrevealer.html)

Phishing, (typically a fake email indicating that you must update your credit card or banking information by clicking on the link provided)

Pharming:
(http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,120268,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp )

Turning your pc into a Zombie:
(http://antivirus.about.com/od/whatisavirus/a/zombiepc.htm )

And god knows what else.

For more on how to protect your pc see Brian Livingston’s Windows Secrets article:
http://www.windowssecrets.com/050113/

I'm Back

A lot has happened in the last 45 days, in no particular order:
Prince Renier: The fairy tail of a prince and a girl from Philadelphia. Made Monaco what it is today.

Pope John Paul II: I’m not Catholic but he was a great Pope and a great man. You may not all agree with my position but don’t judge less yee be judged.

Terry Shiavo: The courts and all their judges looked like idiots. How much effort and sensibility would it have taken for a judge to order a team of independent experts to evaluate her condition before making a decision?

There have been many others worthy of mention so my apologies.