SMS is currently in the same place email was about five to ten years ago. It’s an open system with no real filtering methods on place to stop spamming. Worse it doesn’t even have a real subject line by which you can determine whether to read or delete it. So it is hardly a surprise that some enterprising blackhat has created a Trojan horse program that uses infected PC’s to send SMS spam to unsuspecting mobile users in Russia.

This is going to be a growth “industry” before long, because e-mail SPAM is slowly reaching the point where it’s hardly worth the spammers effort. New laws and technologies are starting to make a dent in the spammers profit margin so you can bet they are looking at now markets to pester with Viagra and penis enlargement ads.

TheRegister has the story here.

Franki

The first real non beta release of the Firefox web browser is now available if you know where to look for it. Ironically the beta releases have about as many users now as the actual stable Mozilla suite has. Having a official release should boost that even more.

There are now millions of Firefox users around the world now who just got sick of constant IE security flaws and Microsoft’s refusal to update IE’s stagnant feature set (that has not changed much in about 4 years.) Even SP2 has been withheld from 50% of Windows users that are not running Windows XP.

Anyway, the official download link has not been updated to point to the new 1.0 release, but my searching turned up the download file here.

Enjoy.

Franki

Recently webmail.us announced that they have swapped to Linux and Open Source software, and listed some of the relevant software here. Interestingly they are using a very similar system to the new mail system I just set-up. (except that I’m using Debian).

They are apparently as happy with their new system as I am with ours. It is getting harder for old school companies like Microsoft to tell people that it is better for you to give them your money in the long run when the facts keep getting in the way. More importantly the facts are coming from companies that have made the switch themselves and speak from experience.

In related news, Novell has decided to refute Microsoft’s funded “facts” campaign by launching one of their own and explaining in detail why Microsoft’s results are not credible. For one thing Microsoft paid for most of the studies, secondly they only show the bits of them that further their cause, and thirdly, why would anyone listen to either Novell or Microsoft to find out the truth:? If you want the truth, you either ask an independent 3rd party, or look into it yourself. I would not ask a GM dealer if GM cars were better then Ford, so why is this any different? Anybody that is swayed by Microsoft’s “get the fud” campaign really needs to ask themselves if perhaps some time in a mental hospital is called for. Can you imagine Microsoft saying “Well in some cases Linux is actually cheaper…..” ? No, me either.

Franki

The Mozilla foundation has just released version 0.9 of the Thunderbird e-mail client. Firefox tends to get most of the press releases, but Thunderbird is a brilliant product in it’s own right. I’ve been using it since early 0.3 releases and I’ve never had reason to complain. (My e-mail needs are quite extensive so I give it a huge workout.)

For well over a year, I have used IMAP and POP3 to retrieve over 1200 e-mails a day, and Thunderbird has held up very well. It fits very well with Firefox, in that it is small, fast, looks good and has all the cool features. (like SPAM filtering, HTML cleaning, themes and extensions and heaps of other goodies.) It will also import the address books and account settings from several different e-mail clients (including OE). If you are sick of the Microsoft Virus transport system. (Outlook Express and Internet Explorer) you really should be using Firefox and Thunderbird. Take my word for it, you’ll be safer and more efficient. You will not regret it. Plus both are free, so what have you got to lose by trying them?

Franki

A current study is underway to compare nasal flu vaccine to injections. Ironically, there is a big “scare” in the US this year because the flu shot is in very limited quantity because of a manufacturing problem. What people don’t know is that the mist for nasal inhaling is readily available. Of course, until this test is done, who knows if it is as effective … or could it be more effective.

For years I bypassed the flu shots and seldom got sick. Then I took a job that involved interaction with many many people, often with poor health, nutrition and hygene … and I got sick more than before. I started getting flu shots and again got sick very little. This year I cannot get the flu shot, so I may (like most of my family already has) go get the mist.

What happens when graphic artists become geeks? Why they get together and start a Miss virtual world pageant. That isn’t as bad as it could be I guess, but I find myself wondering how long it will be before virtual playboy comes out?

On the downside, this might lead heaps of geeks further away from reality, but depending on your perspective that might be an upside. 🙂 The other upside is that it will benefit the world if they can work together and figure out ways to make virtual girls look as good as real ones, without removing the “human look” but by the same token, I’ve seen a few real world models that seem to be missing the human look as well, so who can tell?

I notice on the top ten column is a picture of Bloodrayne, the only game I have actually bought in the last 8 years, and she looks better then any of them. That would tend to indicate that the path to the virtually perfect woman, is to be a nicely endowed half vampire. See? That was easy wasn’t it?
Wired have more on the story here.

Franki

TheRegister has an interesting article that talks about a new method spammers are using to get new email accounts that they can use to SPAM people. The new method entails tricking the gullible into creating the new accounts for them by suggesting that it will aid Yahoo prevent automated systems from creating SPAM accounts. (The big webmail firms have all created systems that make it extremely difficult to automate the creation of email accounts in an attempt to reduce spamming.)

Social engineering is becoming the biggest trick in a malicious hacker/spammers book. social engineering involves tricking the user into doing something that hands control over to the malicious party. Such tactics have long been used in the spread of Viruses, Trojans, Spyware and other such nasties. The trend appears to be gathering momentum.

Don’t follow the instructions of anyone you meet, or are contacted by online, unless you have some sort of proof that they are the trusted party they want you to believe they are. (after all, you wouldn’t in real life would you?)

Franki