March 1, 2010

     Back in November, Bill’s computer started crashing. Over and over in a single day. He talked to the techie who takes care of our computers. The fellow ran two antivirus programs on it and worked it over. It still crashed. I said, “Maybe your computer has been taken over by a criminal hacker and is part of a botnet.” Bill thought this idea was perfectly ridiculous. (And it does of course sound ridiculous.) Then I said, “Have you run your Spyware Doctor antispyware?” He said, “What Spyware Doctor antispyware?” (Spyware Doctor being one of the top rated antispywares. I thought he had it, but he didn’t.) So he got Spyware Doctor and ran it, and the computer crashed again.

     So still another fellow who is a computer repairman had a go at it – cleaned it and worked it over expertly and extensively and charged us $100 rather than his usual $200 as an introductory fee to his services. The day Bill got the computer back ... you guessed it ... the computer crashed. And crashed again. And again. The repairman said, “I guess it’s got some kind of virus.”

     No one had any further suggestions, and we were delighted when our daughter Lisa gave Bill a new used computer for Christmas. One that doesn’t crash. The old one? As it stands, it’s a useless piece of junk.

     All of this leads to item 6, which explains how millions of U.S. computers have landed in botnets, many of which computers remain there. Item 7 tells about the great “antispyware sweeps” conducted each fall by PC WORLD and PC MAG. But, if you want free protection, also read item 8.

     When it was too late to help Bill’s computer, I came across the informaton in item 9, which tells you how to get rid of a stubborn trojan for free! If we’d known in November what we know now, we might have been able to get rid of that slime.

     Janette

----Table Of Contents----

1. At Last! Really Funny Pets
2. Noble Cats
3. Gorgeously Illustrated Stories
4. Create Your Own Children’s Story
5. New Hope For People With Disabilities
6. Millions Of Computers Imprisoned In Botnets
7. A Spyware Sweep Every Fall
8. How To Stay Out Of Botnets For Free
9. Get Rid Of A Trojan That Won’t Go Away
10. Seven Wonders Of The World Panoramas
11. Do Wrinkle Removing Creams Work?
12. What Really Fights The Aging Process?
13. Important Tax Credit You May Miss
14. The Craziest Tax Deductions Ever Claimed
15. New Rules For Credit Card Companies

1. AT LAST! REALLY FUNNY PETS

     You’d be surprised how many “cute animal” websites there are in which the cuties aren’t that cute. But there’s the occasional gem. THE DAILY TAIL is an excellent site that led me to several others.

http://www.thedailytail.com/

     First, here’s CATS FOR GOLD, which explains how you can send off your old gold and jewels (which are not doing anything right now anyway) and get genuine cats delivered to your door. Be sure to fill out the form completely. You’ll never get any cats in the mail if you don’t properly fill out the form.

http://www.catsforgold.com/

     And then there’s the VANISHING CAT MAGIC TRICK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVrg_KfeFY

     And I especially liked this item in THE DAILY TAIL:

http://www.thedailytail.com/fiction/letter-to-cats-and-dogs/

2. NOBLE CATS

     Cats are not noted for their noble character, but they can surprise us. This Seeing-Eye Cat is special:

http://www.sfpnn.com/Misty/Fuzzy2008/ft110408.htm

     And THE DAILY TAIL features “Oscar the Death Cat,” who is not in any way a joke. Oscar lives in a nursing home for people with terminal illnesses. He befriends those who are about to die. Somehow he senses it and gives them a special cuddle. “Since Oscar came, the staff can contact family members 2 to 4 hours before the patient’s death, so they may be able to say their goodbyes before.”

http://www.thedailytail.com/videos/video-oscar-the-death-cat-an-opportunity/

     GREAT CAT CLASSIC. This is possibly the greatest cat classic of all, beautifully set forth for us as a bedtime story:

http://www.the-office.com/bedtime-story/owlpussycat.htm

3. GORGEOUSLY ILLUSTRATED STORIES

     The Owl and the Pussycat, above, had an “additional stories” link that didn’t work. But I found it, through Google, of course. All the children’s stories here have outstanding illustrations. Alice in Wonderland is particularly splendid, with illustrations from many editions. Simply exceptional.

http://the-office.com/bedtime-story/indexmain.htm#stories

4. CREATE YOUR OWN CHILDREN’S STORY

     At STORYBIRD you can create and illustrate a children’s story written by you or your child. They hope to be able to print them too someday. They have some beautiful things already. STORYBIRD says, “Tell your stories without a middleman. Create teaching tools for students. Experiment and goof around.”

http://storybird.com/

5. NEW HOPE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

     They’re coming back from overseas battlegrounds minus arms, legs, sight. And now the doctors can do so much more to help. The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC says, “The blind can see, a one-armed woman can fold her shirts.”

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text

6. MILLIONS OF COMPUTERS IMPRISONED IN BOTNETS

     Is yours one? If your computer’s acting funny, it may not be the computer’s fault. It may have been captured by a botnet and is being used to send spam or porn to myriads of other computers. I know this sounds like science fiction, but it’s not. If your computer is busy doing what its criminal botnet master orders, it’s not going to have enough capacity left to do a good job on what you order it to do, and it’s going to crash. Repeatedly. Read about it here in America’s 10 Most Wanted Botnets:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/072209-botnets.html

     How does a computer get in a botnet? The above article explains some of the ways, and I will point out that, every two or three months, while I am visiting some perfectly innocent site online and I am NOT clicking on e-mails with viruses, my SPYSWEEPER antispyware informs me that someone is trying to fasten a trojan virus onto my computer. And then my SPYSWEEPER sweeps it off. It’s one of the top rated antispywares and I love it!

7. A SPYWARE SWEEP EVERY FALL

     Every fall PC MAGAZINE and PC WORLD infect some innocent computers with all the latest trojan viruses. Then they “sweep” them with antispyware to see how well the different kinds deal with real, live, wicked viruses. The two organizations get slightly different results, I suppose because they use different viruses, but by and large the results are similar. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 SPYSWEEPER and SPYWARE DOCTOR took turns being top rated by the two organizations. Both are excellent and both cost $30. Then in 2009 PC WORLD selected WINDOWS DEFENDER, which is free! (PC MAGAZINE picked SPYWARE DOCTOR.) PC WORLD’s take is below:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/120531/spyware_doctor
_fails_to_beat_favorites_in_latest_tests.html

     And here’s PC MAG’s:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354297,00.asp

     BEST SECURITY SUITES. If you are willing to pay $70 to $90 for full protection, find here PC MAG’s tests:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333444,00.asp

     And PC WORLD’s:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/158157/
top_internet_security_suites_paying_for_protection.html

8. HOW TO STAY OUT OF BOTNETS FOR FREE

     Click on IDENTITY THEFT, ONLINE SAFETY at left and look through the articles. Every computer needs these four basic kinds of protection nowadays. If you can pay $70 to $90 for a security suite, fine. If not, take a look at what’s out there for free.

http://tourthesites.com/

     When these articles were posted, the best antispyware cost $30, and I advocated that. Now PC WORLD rates the free WINDOWS DEFENDER as tops, so you can get complete protection – all four kinds – for free!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/120531/spyware_doctor_
fails_to_beat_favorites_in_latest_tests.html

     Yes, getting all four kinds of free protection is a bit of trouble, and, if you’re not good with computers, you may want to ask a friend who is good with them to help. But please don’t save time and lose your computer. You can be minding your own business and NOT clicking on e-mails and still get landed with a trojan. I’ve had it happen.

9. GET RID OF A TROJAN THAT WON’T GO AWAY

     So something’s gone wrong and your computer’s crashing. You’ve run your antivirus and your antispyware and you’ve had someone clean your computer and it’s still going down. This MAKEUSEOF article tells you how to get rid of a stubborn trojan. It’s a real treasure – even most techies don’t know how to do this. The ones who tried to fix Bill’s computer didn’t have the foggiest. The article assumes you are pretty good with computers. If it seems too technical for you, do show it to someone knowledgeable. Ask them to follow the directions and see if they can rid you of the trojan.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-get-
rid-of-a-trojan-horse-virus-that-wont-go-away/

10. SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD PANORAMAS

     Enough of Internet problems. Following are the New Seven Wonders of the World (selected by popular online poll), coming to you for free courtesy of the Internet. As you click on and move the little bulls-eye and arrow on the PANORAMAS screen, you see new aspects of the view, just as if you were standing there, except that your feet don’t hurt.

http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/

     The only odd thing was that the Taj Mahal didn’t actually show the Taj Mahal. You were instead referred to another grand and glorious site which invited you to explore, not only the Taj Mahal but St. Paul’s Cathedral and Kew Gardens in London and other sites. Someone has put in a tremendous amount of work on these.

http://www.taj-mahal.net/blackLarge.htm

11. DO WRINKLE REMOVING CREAMS WORK?

     Go into a big department store and see thousands of makeup items, all promising to make a woman more beautiful. You can tell by the number of contenders that the markup on the makeup must be tremendous. And of course the makers of items such as wrinkle removing creams are under no obligation to PROVE they remove wrinkles.

     CONSUMER REPORTS decided to find out what wrinkle removing creams really do. And here are their findings:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2009/11/06/AR2009110603515.html

12. WHAT REALLY FIGHTS THE AGING PROCESS?

     It seems that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil really do slow the aging process, as well as helping prevent Alzheimer’s. (And let me add that, if you can’t afford a regular diet of fatty fish such as salmon, or if you’re not that fond of fish, fish oil capsules are inexpensive and an excellent addition to your daily diet.)

http://www.cardiosmart.org/News/Default.aspx?id=3220

13. IMPORTANT TAX CREDIT YOU MAY MISS

     MICHELLE SINGLETARY tells us about an important tax credit that we need to know about:

http://www.pe.com/columns/michellesingletary/
stories/PE_Biz_W_single21.3dcd36d.html

     For more excellent help with tax preparation try the sites in the lefthand column. Click on “FINANCES, TAXES, BUSINESS,” then on “Tax Help and Financial Planning.”

http://tourthesites.com/

14. THE CRAZIEST TAX DEDUCTIONS EVER CLAIMED

     Want to write off the cost of your marijuana crop as a business expense? Might be a bad idea. How about deducting the cost of an arsonist to burn down your business? It seems the IRS lacks a sense of humor in that area too. For more crazy deductions:

http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/
tax-tips/general/8-of-the-craziest-
illegal-tax-definitions-ever-claimed.html

15. NEW RULES FOR CREDIT CARD COMPANIES

     The Credit CARD Act of 2009 finally went into effect on Monday, February 22. MICHELLE SINGLETARY tells us that it should “reduce unfair fees and rein in huge interest rate increases.” All the same, we need to “trust but verify” for the following reasons:

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/feb/21/
michelle-singletary-with-plastic-trust-but/

     BUT THE LADY’S GOT A HARD NOSE. In this later column, SINGLETARY informs us that “if you won’t take the time to know what’s in the law, I want you to pull out your credit cards right now. Get a pair of scissors. Now cut up every single one.”

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20100226/A_BIZ0202
/2260331/-1/a_entertain301