I have thought for a long time that Microsoft really ought to include free anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware protection with windows as standard to protect the average PC owning numpty who has no clue about such things, like most peoples parents for example, not only for their protection, but also for everyone else's. Is it the average clueless numpty that invariably gets infected with viruses and trojans and then unwittingly unleashes them on everyone else.

And with the huge bloated size of Vista, I kind of expected this to be the case, but it was not. Sure there is Windows Live OneCare, which is not free, and reviews have shown it to be pretty pants, so I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it.

Well Microsoft today announced plans to kill its Windows Live OneCare PC care and security suite and replace it with a free anti-malware utility.

The new product, code-named "Morro" will be designed for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs, Microsoft said its surprise announcement.

Retail sales of Windows Live OneCare, which offered non-security PC care features such as printer sharing, data backup and automated PC tune-up, ends on June 30, 2009.

The company said "Morro" will be available in the second half of 2009 and will feature standard anti-malware capabilities to detect viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Morro will use the same home-built malware protection engine that powered Windows Live OneCare.

The new solution will deliver the same core protection against malware as that offered through Microsoft’s enterprise solutions, but will not include many of the additional non-security features found in many consumer security suites.

The freebie will be available as a stand-alone download and offer malware protection for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

How much is spam worth? In the case of a couple who sent millions of spams to a small ISP, $236 million. That’s the judgment a federal judge in Iowa levied against the husband-and-wife spamming team of Henry Perez and Suzanne Bartok, IDG reports.
Over four months in 2003, the couple used a program appropriately called Bulk Mailing 4 Dummies (a name that not only nicely describes its user base but simultaneously violates IDG Books’ trademark on the “For Dummies” books) to send millions of emails to little CIS Internet Services of Clinton, Iowa. CIS underwent an expensive server upgrade and devoted three servers to blocking the scumbags’ spam assault.
CIS owner Robert Kramer III said the company was processing about 500 million spam messages every day in 2003.

 “There were millions of e-mails being delivered to us for each spam campaign to users that didn’t exist on our servers,” Kramer said in an interview. “It was do or die: it wasn’t just a nuisance for us.”

Perez and Bartok claimed the emails they sent were legit. That argument was just a lie, the court said.

“The court simply does not believe Mr. Perez or Ms. Bartok,” Judge John Jarvey wrote in a Sept. 30 order.

 

CIS has sued and won judgments against 10 spammer so far, but good luck collecting on those, or from Perez and Bartok. Many spammers simply fold their companies or move the money overseas.

No word on this couple’s assets but one suspects it is less than $236 million. The size of the judgment – based on $10 per spam – may be more of a deterrent than one that compensates CIS for its losses.

On 21st August at around 3AM my dad "David", husband and father of 2,  passed away bravely and quietly in his sleep. I love you dad, and we will all miss you deeply and hope that you are in a better place.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer approximately 2 months ago and given 6 months to live, sadly he didn't last that long. He accepted his fate bravely and with dignity without fear or complaint.

David was a great dad and was a good kind hearted man who would do anything for anyone and would turn the other cheek most of the time to any grief anyone gave him, I don't think there was a nasty bone in his body. He was liked by everyone that knew him, and will be sorely missed.

I would live to give my thanks to St Catherine's Hospice who looked after him in his final weeks when my mum was no longer able to. They really are a nice caring bunch of people and the hospice is a nice place that allows residents lots of freedom and provides plenty of comforts and support for their final days. I would highly recommend St Caterine's to anyone that is unfortunate enough to be dying of cancer and gets to the stage where they cannot look after themselves, and to anyone who has a family member in this state, please check it out, it really is not like sticking them in hospital or in a home. The site above is for the one in Crawley, sussex, but they do have others around the country.

The hospice do not charge for their time or help and is run purely on donations, so I would kindly ask, if you support charities or have a few quid to spare, please make a donation.

If you’re a fan of the Sysinternals tools, check out the beta of Sysinternals Live, a service that makes it easy for you to execute Sysinternals tools directly from the Web without hunting for and manually downloading them. Simply enter a tool’s Sysinternals Live path into Windows Explorer, or at the command prompt as \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\<toolname>, or view the entire Sysinternals Live tools directory in a browser.

The Sysinternals tools are a must have for any system administrators toolbox, I regularly use the sysmon and filemon to diagnose system problems, and for you ColdFusion admins it is especially useful for tracking down ColdFusion permission issues when you are locking down a ColdFusion installation.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, told the Labour conference that so-called 'have-a-go-heroes" should  escape prosecution if they injure an assailant.

The Bill will ensure that people who use reasonable force to protect themselves or others have full protection under the law.

Hooray is all I can say, and about time too, it's about time we were able to protect our homes and families and show those criminals the business end of a baseball bat without fear of getting sued by them.

It will also make it illegal to incite hatred against the disabled and people who have undergone a sex change.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has already said he would amend the legislation to make it illegal to incite homophobic hatred. This protection will now be extended to transgendered and disabled people.

This is certainly another step in the right direction, but they really should extend this to be less specific, it should be illegal to incite hatred against anyone for any reason that is to do with their race, appearance, disability etc. Why should a goth for example have to put up with abuse and hatred any more than a homosexual, they shouldn't so it should be the same rule for everyone.

One comment I will make on this though is that everyone has the basic human right right to dislike anyone or anything for any reason. Some people simply need to learn to keep certain feelings to themselves and then they are not going to bother anyone  and other people need to get a grip and realise that it really doesn't matter if a complete stranger doesn't you, who cares? don't lose any sleep over it.

Remember, a person can no better help the fact that he/she likes/dislikes homosexuals, rednecks, Goth's, blacks or bikers any more than he can help the fact that he/she like/dislikes seafood, peanuts, sci-fi or reality TV shows, that's just the way human beings are built, we have these things called feelings that we cannot control most of the time, and you cannot change someones feelings, but remember that your feelings cannot hurt anyone, at least I don't ever think I have ever heard of a cow being offended or upset by a vegetarian.

The Bill also bans possession of extreme pornography and brings in new powers to throw anti-social neighbours out of their homes.

Now I think this porno ban is laughable and is going to do nothing more than waste police time and tax payers money when they should be chasing real criminals. Everyone knows (whether they want to admit it not) that most of the entire male population of planet earth likes porn, owns porn and one of the first things that every man does when they first get on the INTERNET is download porn. Thus why it is the biggest business in the world and is the sole reason why the INTERNET is as huge as it is today, that's a fact. So what on earth is the point in banning the possession of something that almost everyone owns, the police are going to have to start arresting each other, sheesh they are going to have to arrest the people who made the law in the first place as well. Or is this just the MP's way of pretending they don't do it themselves?

I also have to wonder what the hell they class as extreme, I mean most of things I find extreme and disgusting are supposedly quite normal these days.

Why don't they ban alchohol, that would have a much more positive effect on human life, like all the lives it would save for a start. I tell you why, because the goverment makes a fortune in taxes on the sale of alchohol, but they don't make money out of porn.

The bill will also introduce violent offender orders, which will be similar to sex offender orders but applied in cases of violent crime.

Noisy neighbours will face eviction under plans which extend powers currently used to close "crack dens".

Officials have estimated that 50 premises a year would be closed.

Well I have had enough problem neighbours in my time to appreciate this one, but I wonder if the 'have-a-go-heroes' law would apply in this situation :-)