current anti-virus and anti-spyware and anti-adware

There must be an easier way to say all that.

Software to protect my computer:
AVG Free Edition
IE-SPYAD2
Spybot Search & Destroy
SpywareBlaster
SpywareGuard
WinPatrol
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall (not using)

Debugging tool:
HijackThis

I think WinPatrol isn't needed if I use the firewall, but since there are some issues connecting to the internet while using ZoneAlarm, I'm keeping WinPatrol and using the XP firewall for now. There are some other firewalls I can try, but I'm a little leery of installing too much software on my machine.
I uninstalled Ad-Aware since I have Spybot.
I uninstalled Symantec Antivirus. For whatever reason it's not working. AVG found 2 trojan horse viruses.
Spyware Doctor actually does not have free real-time support, so I uninstalled it.

firewalls

I skimmed a nice introduction to firewalls today. I should send it to my mom, but I don't think she'd understand it.

antiprocess

Not really a tech posting, but I found this interesting article describing "antiprocess".

I haven't had time to read it yet but below is an excerpt:

The Formal Explanation: Antiprocess is the preemptive recognition and marginalization of undesired information by the synergistic interplay of high-priority acquired mental defense mechanisms.

An Informal Explanation: People can very cleverly defend their beliefs without having to fully understand the arguments against them.

A Very Informal Explanation: They're not being annoying on purpose.

word verification for comments

I was getting spammed by random posters advertising their sites so I turned on comment word verification.

There should be a one dollar fee for each item of spam, be it a comment or email or whatever.

thanks to spywareinfo

Thanks to the good people at SpywareInfo I think I have gotten rid of my vundo infection. All of this proves that for whatever reason, Symantec Antivirus is not working for my computer. Symantec actually has a fix for the vundo trojan, but Symantec Antivirus didn't find the infection on my computer.

Since my computer is vital for work, it's really disturbing to have hostile software on my computer. I am indebted to SWI. It's really cool that there are all these forums and websites for battle adware, spyware, and viruses. I guess it's a symptom of the problem with these types of software.

evil adware

Argh! I've been infected! First by the poorly named WinFixer, and now by MatchService.com. I suppose that as infections go, adware is not as bad as viruses, but they are nontheless annoying.

In an effort to battle them, I have installed all sorts of anti-virus programs.

cwshredder (Cool Web Site Shredder)
CCleaner
HijackThis
RegistryFix
SpyBot
SpyWareDoctor

I was a little disappointed that cleaning up my Registry has not improved my computer's performance. Or perhaps the adware is interfering, as my computer's startup time is markedly slower than before. Bah!

At least I got rid of that superfluous Thunderbird 1.02 uninstall listing.

2005/08/28 note:
I also installed:
Lavasoft's Ad-Aware
SpywareBlaster
Winpatrol
IE-SPYAD2
and plan to install:
grisoft's antivirus software (debating about using the firewall too)
bhblaster

Since I don't need RegistryFix, I uninstalled it. Thinking about getting rid of CCleaner too. That still leaves me with a lot of software to battle bad software.

Technically Ad-Aware and SpyBot are redundant, so I could get rid of one. SpywareDoctor is the only software with free realtime support, but I keep getting an error saying that the database is incompatible with my version of Spyware Doctor, so I wonder if it's actually working properly.

ASP today

My task today, learn as much about ASP (Active Server Pages) as I can. Starting off with what I can find at webmonkey.

Ugh, it's telling me to use VBScript. I think not. I don't really want to write a page with Javascript either. Come on, give me a real scripting language please!

You know acronyms are being overused when there are 2 or more plausible meanings for a single acronym.

securing your files

so now that you've backed up all your files, how do you make sure that all your digital info is safe?

My phone doesn't really contain any sensitive information, so that's ok.

My pda is password protected. I wonder how safe that means it is. I bet it's easy to hack :P

My computer is password protected. How safe does that make my computer? I'd imagine it means nothing in terms of keeping my files protected. Anyone could probably rip out the hard disks and access the files from another computer.

My backup files are for the most part not encrypted either.

Bah. More stuff to do :D

Cisco and ISS vs. freedom of speech

You know, some people are just twisted. From Cryptogram, I read that Cisco and ISS tried to stop the presentation of a security flaw. Oddly enough, they had initially supported the research and presentation.

There is an interview with the researcher who resigned from ISS because they wanted him to censor his presentation.

gmail download

I downloaded my gmail emails to thunderbird today. My mail files are getting huge! Backups are good anyway.

lenya

I was investigating CMS (content management system) packages and took a look at Apache Lenya.

The idea of link management is very appealing. No more broken links, And users without the capability of viewing a link are not shown it.

tech-flavored postings will be here

I decided to finally to separate out the more techie postings from my regular musings. My friends and family are less likely to be interested in these kinds of postings (well, my family is less likely; while my friends are more likely) and I don't want to make them wade through them.

Plus, I can build an aura of compentency and erudification with a tech-focused blog. Yes, indeed.