A fishing guide and former live fishing reporter for one of our local news stations finds out about this on a trip to Venezuela. He says many of the participants are American. Please help him bring attention to this and hopefully prevent this incredibly cruel practice

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=431_1232680237

Another point of view: http://www.adsavvy.org/save-our-cats-and-kittens-from-fishermen-or-how-to-make-lots-of-money-online-as-a-liar/

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Fishermen feed live kittens to sharks and marlin

Graham Cluley’s blog.

There are plenty of young coders out there who would not have acted so stupidly, are just as worthy of an opportunity inside a software development company, and are actually quite likely to be better coders than Towns who made a series of blunders with his code.

Ikee worm author gets job at iPhone app firm

Meanwhile,

Concerns have been raised that 43-year-old McKinnon, who was arrested almost eight years ago after allegedly hacking into computers belonging to the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA, and has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, might take his own life if jailed in the United States.

Bad news for NASA hacker Gary McKinnon – extradition seems imminent

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Worm Author gets job

I like my Dell equipment, mostly trouble free over the years but… woe betide the user who has a problem and needs to contact Dell support.

It has been over a week since I first contacted Dell via email to return a monitor broken and unusable because of a manufacturing defect.

Trying to communicate with what appears to this user to be Dell “cue card readers” repeating themselves ad nauseum while ignoring the user’s input is frustrating to say the least.

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Dell Support-or lack thereof

FeedDemon’s on-line reader Newsgator has been discontinued.

New In FeedDemon 3.0!

* Google Reader sync – Use FeedDemon at home, at your office, or anywhere you go and keep your feeds, tags and shared items synched between locations.

If you don’t have a license this is the kind of ad you will see in FeedDemon version 3.

Sure they are ugly but you can remove them by opting to pay $9.95, and I did.

I have seen people looking for discount coupons (legal) and license cracks (illegal). Come on… if you have been using previous versions of FeedDemon you probably like the program as much as I do, it is well worth ten dollars.

I would like to have continued making FeedDemon both free of charge and free of ads as we planned, but after 18 months of following that plan, it unfortunately didn’t work out, and I doubt anybody feels worse about that than I do.

We found ourselves at a point where FeedDemon needed to generate revenue, and decided that customers would prefer non-intrusive advertising over having to pay for it again. Quite a few people told us they’d prefer to pay to remove the ads, so it’s now possible to do that (and it’s only $9.95 – far less than the upgrade cost of most software these days).
Saturday, September 05, 2009

Nick Bradbury Blog
Newsgator forum: Paid version of Feeddemon

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Feed Demon Google Reader sync

April 16, 2009.

PressPass spoke with Douglas Leland, general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s Identity and Security Business Group, about the company’s strategy to help provide “Business Ready Security.”

Question & Answer

Network World: Microsoft discloses ambitious security strategy

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Microsoft – A new approach to Enterprise Security

60 Minutes airs a report Sunday, March 29, 2009 on Conficker, entitled “The Internet is Infected” with CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. Preview

“The best that the experts tell us that we can do is just buy security software, anti virus, anti worm software and just make sure it receives the update instructions,” said Stahl.

Presentation is a bit awkward but if it helps to raise peoples awareness…
Edit: Doomsday special. Talking heads…

In this economy most people don’t want to hear they have to spend money, but don’t despair consumers free security software is available. Programs I Use

A computer shouldn’t be on the net anyway without protection and a fully patched machine.

The preview did not mention the most important security step, make sure your computer is up to date via Microsoft Windows Updates.

Microsoft IT Pro customers.
Help Protect Windows from Conficker

What Happens on April 1, 2009?

Systems infected with the latest version of Conficker will begin to use a new algorithm to determine what domains to contact. Microsoft has not identified any other actions scheduled to take place on April 1, 2009. It is possible that systems with the latest version of Conficker may be updated with a newer version of Conficker on April 1 by contacting domains on the new domain list. However, these systems could be updated on any date before or after April 1 as well using the “peer-to-peer” updating channel in the latest version of Conficker.

Microsoft guidance page for consumers.
Protect yourself from the Conficker computer worm

Where can I find more technical information about the Conficker worm and how can I stay up to date on the Conficker worm?

• For additional information, see Centralized Information About the Conficker Worm.
• For more technical information about the Conficker worm, see the Microsoft Malware Protection Center Virus Encyclopedia
• Bookmark the Microsoft Malware Protection Center portal and the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog for updated information.
• For symptoms and detailed information about how to remove the Conficker worm, see Help and Support: Virus alert about the Conficker Worm.

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Conficker -April 1st distraction

Anti-Social Networking

Differences between IE8 Compatibility View and IE7

Completing the Windows Experience with Windows Live

TinyURL usage becoming more common in Phishing and IM Attacks – Harry Waldron – Corporate and Home Security

Conficker.C variant set for April 1st surprise, CA says

Security Updates available for Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9

Foxit version 3.0 fixes serious vulnerabilities in its Reader products. Download

Windows 7 Security Enhancements

Transcript – Windows 7: To the Beta and Beyond
2/12/2009 Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable.

Windows 7 Virtual Roundtable Q&A: Part One

03-09-09
Developments in the FTC versus Innovative Marketing et al lawsuit
03-18-09

http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2009/03/18/1679014.aspx

PDF Documents Encourage Zango Installs Via Illegally Ripped TV Shows

Fixed in Firefox 3.0.7
MFSA 2009-11 URL spoofing with invisible control characters
MFSA 2009-10 Upgrade PNG library to fix memory safety hazards
MFSA 2009-09 XML data theft via RDFXMLDataSource and cross-domain redirect
MFSA 2009-08 Mozilla Firefox XUL Linked Clones Double Free Vulnerability
MFSA 2009-07 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.9.0.7)
Update from within browser or download from Mozilla.

Opera v9.64.
Advisory
Download

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Grab bag

A Dell Inspiron Mini with Windows XP pre-installed, I love it.

I removed the bloated pre-installed 30 day trial McAfee security suite, and installed the free versions of Avira’s AntiVir anti virus and Comodo’s firewall I already had an installer for the standalone firewall, not being fond of suites.

The Mini measures 9.1 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches, weighing in at 2.3 pounds, so it is easy to tote around.
The speakers are surprisingly good for such a small netbook and don’t sound tinny. A few of the keyboard keys could be a bit awkward in their placement for a touch typist, but as I’m not they aren’t hard to get use to.

The touchpad is a nice size and easier to use than the one on my large laptop, two mouse buttons are located below the touchpad. I also chose the USB 2.0 external DVD-RW as an essential accessory.

No matter which brand you might be interested in, will 2009 be the year of the netbook.

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Santa brought me a netbook

According to The Wall Street Journal the Recording Industry Association of America has decided to abandon its current tactic of suing thousands of individuals for allegedly stealing music via the Internet.

This turn of events will not affect current lawsuits already in play and the RIAA will continue to hash out preliminary agreements with major ISPs to stop piracy.

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits

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RIAA to stop mass suits

A day after the update was released via Apple’s download service, users reported problems with most centering on Operating System freezes and ‘Blue Screens of Death’.
Information Week

Ironically Apple poked fun at Windows with a Blue Screen of Death Easter Egg in the final release of Leopard.

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Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard Update, users report issues