When I installed the latest version of Java on my new laptop, I noticed that I was ‘offered’ Open Office as well. While I have nothing against Open Office, in fact it is a very useful and free office suite, and is installed on another of my computers, if I hadn’t been watching I would have got the download for OO as well and it is a big download.

I like Foxit Reader and I like it much better than the piggy Adobe Reader. But the download wants me to take the Ask toolbar as well and insists I do and not just in one place. To me this is just ‘shady’ practice. I recall another ‘offer‘ that wouldn’t take no for an answer and really made me mad! I am not alone, read Bits From Bill.

Now I read that Symantec is doing the same thing! Here comes the Ask Toolbar again!

Are these reputable companies now forcing unwanted apps on us just to pad their bottom line? You bet, that’s just what they are doing.

I understand when individuals that really need the money use Google Ads and that irritating Intellitxt to help pay the bill for their websites, but for companies like Symantec? Do they need the money that badly?

A word to the wise, unless you want all this ‘value added’ stuff, watch out while installing new apps! Getting to be more dangerous on the ‘net every day.

Martha

According to my latest issue of Consumer Reports, “spam, spyware and virus have declined ‘significantly in the past few years”. They got this information on their new ‘State of the Net survey’.

Consumer Reports has in the past been considered by me to be a reliable source of information about just about everything. But this little tad of information has me totally bewildered. What kind of folks were taking this survey? This statement makes me wonder about all of the other reports they publish.

On the contrary, Consumer Reports! Spam, spyware and virus have NOT declined significantly in the past few yeas, but are more and more prolific all the time! Since 2006 the total amount of spam in email has increased from 56% to 80%! Anyone who has used the same email address for any length of time can vouch for that. (Unless they have a really industrial strength spam filter. Even then spam gets through.)
Source: Spam Report

Spyware has changed it’s face so maybe some folks think it’s down. The ‘change’ has involved more rootkits, key loggers, Trojans and worms, all designed to steal your money and identity. New virus are being intoduced every day. I suspect the folks who took that survey probably are mostly behind corporate firewalls with an IT department working feverishly to prevent all of the bad suff from ever reaching the work stations of clueless users.

They should have sent the survey to those techs working behind the scenes!

All of the above reinforces the old saying ‘Don’t believe everything you hear or read’. (And now with PhotoShop you can’t believe everything you see either)

Martha

That devilish wind was having a blast. Trash and garbage was blowing everywhere. I live on a hillside that runs East and West. The wind was blowing from the West and all the stuff was blowing downhill toward the East. The cacophony of aluminum cans, plastic water bottles and empty boxes bouncing along the street was almost hilarious, but when I realized someone was going to have to pick up all this stuff it wasn’t funny at all. I really tried to pick up as much as I could, but that wind was blowing faster than I could run.

After up-righting the bins for I lost count of times, I gave up and moved them back to the garage. Finally the trucks came by and my younger son managed to get the garbage bin to the curb in time for it to be emptied. Missed the recycle truck, but we were too pooped to care.

Now I try to be a good neighbor and when I saw empty bins rolling along the middle of the street and noticed the bins were missing from my neighbor’s, I went running to see if those bins belonged next door. Now the wind was still blowing so hard it was almost hard to stand up and that wind was getting colder all the time. I was trying to hurry to get out of the wind and clumsy me caught my foot on the step up to the porch and the next thing I know I am laying on that cold hard cement.

I don’t know why I didn’t break any bones as hard as I fell. Perhaps there is some good in being on the chubby side, that ‘cushion’ probably saved me from a broken hip as I landed hard on my right side. To top it all off, those bins weren’t my neighbor’s after all.

Today is trash day again and the wind is blowing. However, it didn’t blow that hard today and the trash has all been safely removed and empty bins are now in the garage. I am still finding sore places from that fall, but I think I will live.

I used to like the wind.

Martha

I decided to stop using FrontPage for my site; from now on it will be strictly Expression Web!

Martha