Dimensional Door - Freeople Thread 20

Today | Me

[sweetliberty]

Night Loddy. Sweet dreams.

[Canadian Outrage]

Oh my I sure would like to loddy!!

[Canadian Outrage]

Joey seems to like the shirts and puzzles and I also got him a Sponge Bob doodle art kit!! He seemed happy with that. It's just another fad.

[westmex]

Moclips sunset.....

I'm having a problem here so think I'll bug out...

Goodnight all...

.....Westy.....

[Canadian Outrage]

Call your daughter if it's medical Westy. OR 911. You take care of yourself 'k? I'm outta here for the night too. Hope your okay. CO

[Mo1]

I'm having a problem here so think I'll bug out...

What kind of problem????

[Mo1]

Just kiddin. My brother in law is a master wine maker. His wine is the only red wine my son in law will drink

Thanks for the reminder .. I need to pick up a bottle or two for New Years Eve :0)

[Mo1]

I put it on about the same intellectual level as Smurfs.

Sponge Bob isn't suppose to be intellectual .. it's kind of like in the category of the Three Stooges

[Mo1]

Damn...I stuttered.........

It happens ... just ask Nully *L*

[Mo1]

In the winter time, they make a big fire in the wood stove, make a big pot of burgoo and play cards.

Sounds like a mans dream house ...

[restornu]

Deseret Morning News, Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Scams, viruses hit home

Web mischief-makers arriving for the holidays

By Rachel Konrad
Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Susan Love's problems began with a smile.
Web master Chris Dale advises a customer on how to protect company data at his company's Ashville, N.C., office.

Alan Marler, Associated Press
The New York City fund-raiser clicked on a happy-face attachment in a friend's e-mail last year. The virus crashed her computer within an hour.

Love, 57, salvaged her data. But within a few months her computer's performance slowed to a crawl. In December 2003, she upgraded to a Sony Vaio with an extra-large monitor and Microsoft Windows XP operating system.

Within a few days, "spyware" — programs that sneak onto computers uninvited — began sponging up valuable memory. Then her e-mail stopped arriving.

Instead of crafting holiday e-mails, she spent hours installing the latest antivirus, anti-advertising and anti-spyware software. She also instituted a rule: Her computer never gets turned off, so security programs patch vulnerabilities around the clock.

"You have to become something of a nerd to make sure your computer is safe," said Love, a former English teacher who recently installed anti-adware on her daughter's computer. "If you don't sweep the computer every night, you could hit."

Love won't be the last to get a holiday crash-course in computer security. Hackers, spammers and spies go into overdrive in December and January, when unsuspecting neophytes unwrap new computers, connect to the Internet, and, too often, get hit with viruses, spyware and other nefarious programs.

"People want to get on the Net right away, just like they want to put together and start using any Christmas present," said Tony Redmond, chief technology officer of Palo Alto, Calif., computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co., whose new PCs ship with 60 days of virus and adware protection. "They should be warned that the Net is a very, very dangerous place."

Although few researchers produce holiday-specific security data, experts at IBM Corp., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard, software companies and Internet service providers agree that the holidays are prime time for hackers.

Holiday viruses are so rampant that consumers could be attacked even if their first online destination is to a Web site for updating security patches.

Kris Murphy, help desk coordinator for North Carolina Internet service provider Indylink.org, said his minister got attacked last year, only a few minutes after unpacking and connecting the machine. At the time of infection, the minister was updating security patches to Windows.

"Hackers know that you are most vulnerable as soon as you go online for the first time," said Murphy, whose 10-person company hires temp consultants during the holidays to handle higher call volume. "Inexperienced people tend to fall into traps more readily because they don't recognize that this guy might be trying to get your credit card information."

Technology executives describe the relationship between hackers and security programmers as an arms race — both sides keep ratcheting up firepower. But lack of consumer awareness — if not downright naivete — allows the war to escalate.

According to a recent survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance, of the 185 million Americans with home computers, one in three say they'll never get hit by viruses or other cyber attacks. In a Consumer Reports study, 36 percent of U.S. home computers showed signs of being infected with spyware and only 41 percent of surveyed households said they actively try to prevent it.

American businesses are savvy about firewalls, spam filters, multiple passwords and other network protections, said Stuart McIrvine, director of corporate security strategy at IBM. But problems at the consumer level are so severe that every hardware and software vendor should be worried about a backlash.

Seasonal attacks start around Thanksgiving, when online shopping begins an annual spike and marketers pummel consumers with junk e-mail — from the perfect stocking stuffer for a balding spouse to a limited-offer holiday cruise.

With the rise in e-commerce, identity thieves try even harder to obtain credit card and other financial data from wireless and home networks. They set up dummy Web sites that seem to be hosted by major financial institutions in hopes that gullible consumers will provide their account information.

Virus writers hide viruses and worms in holiday-themed e-mails, seasonal greeting cards and screensavers.

"W32/Zafi-D," a mass mailing and peer-to-peer worm, harvests addresses from Windows address books and other files. Infected e-mails' subject line begins, "Merry Christmas!" and the text reads, "Happy Hollydays."

The most vulnerable computers are the ones that have sat under Christmas trees for days or weeks. If a consumer buys equipment that arrives on Dec. 15, and it sits in the living room until Dec. 25, it could be hit by hundreds of viruses written in the 10-day interim.

Tony Ross, analyst at British security firm Sophos Plc., advised consumers to get a CD-ROM with the newest updates from their electronics vendor, next-door neighbor or the computer at their office before connecting to the Internet. They should prohibit children — who tend to be liberal in distributing their personal data — from using the machine until it's patched.

Consumers should vigilantly buy and update security software, which can add hundreds of dollars over the course of a computer's lifetime. Popular anti-spyware and anti-adware programs include Webroot Software Inc.'s Spy Sweeper ($29.95 for a one-year subscription), LavaSoft's Ad-Aware SE Professional ($39.95), Tenebril Inc.'s SpyCatcher ($29.95), the free Spybot Search & Destroy and Computer Associates Inc.'s eTrust PestPatrol ($39.95).

Some experts wonder whether the computer has become the digital age equivalent of a puppy — an enthralling treasure on Christmas morning, but a sinkhole for time and energy for years after. At the very least, computers are far more demanding than the typical holiday toy, which merely requires batteries.

"At some point, people who receive them for Christmas often ask, 'Is this computer a gift or a curse?' " Ross said.

[Pippin]

Hi, Canadian!

Yep! we do get gyped every year!

Makes a person wonder of they could move thier birthdays to another month! LOL!

But I try to remember WHO we share a birthday with.

[grannie9]

Speaking of Birthdays, you can't fight it, I've tried.

Can't forget your other card, lol

Happy Birthday, Woliff. Hope you have some good plans for the day.;)

[sweetliberty]

Mornin' y'all. Where the heck has everybody been? I'm starting to think that Darks has been up to some kind of mischief or other...and BQ has gone missing as well. Hmmmm... yeah, I know she said something about San Francisco, but it was probably just a diversion. I expect they're conspiring in Nully's basement. She WAS unnaturally curious about it.

[Conservababe]

Now you've gone and scared me, Westy. Please check in.

[null and void]

Busted!

[Pippin]

You calling Woliff old?

[reg45]

I don't recall in all my 59 years ever hearing of an earthquake hitting 9.0. My husband said there was one in Alaska in 1965 but I don't remember hearing about it.

I could say almost exactly the same thing. I'm also 59, I was in college and I don't recall the earthquake/tsunami - I read about it years later. It was far away, only 125 people died (mostly in Hilo, Hawaii). If a thousand people had died on the mainland, it would be remembered.

[Pippin]

I'm here!

(in my highest, squeakiest hobbit voice)

[sweetliberty]

Mornin' Nully. What did you do with Darks and BQ?