castledoom.com

[Robbo]

Note from Joe: Yet again I've split up the tech thread. This iteration will be for internet material as opposed to computer software and hardware that is used at your workstation. Obviously, some hardware and software is used for web work and can be posted here. Just try to deliniate the two types of material as best you can and find the best of the two threads.


Here's Robbo's original post:


Can you tell phishers from the legit?

http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html

I got 9/10

[Brf]

I also got 9/10.... I figured the first one was fraudulent with that funny "Transfer Accounts" button in the middle.

[Robbo]

Yeh that one is pretty good :) Some of the others were pretty difficult though.

[JuntaJoe]

I blew the transfer accounts question too.

Got 8 of 10 myself.

But I've got a cure for all this mess, I never use the links on an email to mess with any of my info. I never even respond to them directly. I always go directly to the main portal page and use site links instead. If I need to contact them then I copy the email and go back to the portal page and use the contact links there and copy the email into a new one and send it to them. I firmly stick to that rule of never hitting an email link.

[Brf]

I use links in EMails, but only if I am expecting the EMail in the first place.... and only if I can see a legitimate hover message. Of course there are ways to create an invisible obfuscation too, so even that method isnt foolproof.

[JuntaJoe]

Actually, I go one step further.

I have actually 2 mailboxes on my email addy.

One is the web based storage that I get from earthlink.

And then I have the mailbox on my pc.

I delete all the spam, without opening them, while it is still being held on earthlink servers before importing the desired mail into my pc inbox. If I don't recognize the sender name, I don't let them in.

I have earthlink spaminator tools, adware, spybot, and norton all running as well.

[skeeber]

A little off topic, but I wish I only had a couple of email addy's to monitor. :?

right now there is gmail, hotmail, dlsr (Broadbandreports.com), yahoo, the skeebercat webs (which will be back up in a few days - Hooray!) , stategy planet, and another for being on the board of directors for the 'crunchenstein', which is a workgroup of 25 pc's at 5 locations set up as 'blades' (caseless and very bare bones) for the sole purpuse of crunching seti for Team Starfire.

Way too many and I probably forgot something..... :roll:

[JuntaJoe]

So dump a few. I was given one for this site but routed it directly to my old one.

I gather that there is programs that can do the re-routing for you as well.

[JuntaJoe]

News on spam:

Texas AG Sues Student Over Spamming
January 14, 2005 8:51 PM EST

AUSTIN, Texas - The state attorney general filed a lawsuit against a 22-year-old college student and his business partner, accusing them of illegally sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited, misleading e-mails.

Ryan Pitylak, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, heads the fourth-largest spamming operation in the world, Attorney General Gregg Abbott said.

The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges Pitylak, with Mark Trotter, his 40-year-old business partner in California, have been sending the e-mails since at least Sept. 1, 2003.

"We want to make clear that these defendants we are suing today and any other illegal spammers in the state of Texas can't hide behind a computer screen any longer," Abbott said in filing the state's first e-mail spamming lawsuit.

Lin Hughes, attorney for Pitylak and Trotter, said her clients took great pains to make sure the e-mails were legal.

The lawsuit seeks millions of dollars for violations of the federal Controlling Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, known as the CAN-SPAM Act. The act made illegal sending uninvited e-mails that could mislead recipients.

The lawsuit also alleges violations of Texas laws prohibiting unsolicited e-mail and deceptive trade practices. It asks a judge to stop LeadPlex Inc., LeadPlex LLC and PayPerAction LLC from sending e-mails.

Pitylak and Trotter began PayPerAction in 2002 and have operated the business under at least 250 different names, Abbott said.

According to the lawsuit, the e-mails contained official-looking subject lines such as "Re: your past due bills" and "Urgent: Household Loan Memorandum: Please Read." When recipients clicked on links in the e-mails, they were asked to provide personal information that Pitylak and Trotter sold to other companies for as much as $28 per reference, the lawsuit alleges.

According to Travis County tax records, Pitylak owns a $450,000 home in an upscale Austin neighborhood. A woman who answered the door said Pitylak was out of town on business and would not be answering phone calls. Pitylak did return an e-mail, referring all questions to his attorney.

Pitylak and Trotter sold their interests in the LeadPlex and PayPerAction to Hong Kong-based Eastmark Technology Limited, which is also named in the lawsuit, in March, their attorney said. Hughes said Pitylak and Trotter still act as consultants to Eastmark.

Hughes said her clients did not violate the CAN-SPAM Act. She said each e-mail contains a disclaimer indicating the purpose is to gather information and a link allowing recipients to unsubscribe to the e-mails, as required by the act.

While lawsuits against spammers won't stem the tide of e-mails flooding in-boxes nationwide, Jim Prendergrast, president of Americans for Technology Leadership, a consumer advocacy group, said it's a start.

"It's not going to all of the sudden reduce your spam by 30 messages," Prendergrast said. "But as we see more lawsuits, coupled with better technology and better consumer habits, I think we'll see that amount go down."

Copyright 2004 Associated Press.

[Robbo]

http://www.bugmenot.com/

[JuntaJoe]

That's a great program, Robbo.

Stops the phishers cold.

[JuntaJoe]

Anyone still on dialup other than me?

Hate to download?

Takes forever?

Lose your connection halfway?

You need a download manager!

It's faster because it splits the download into several tracks and allows you to jump back to where you were cut off if you get disconnected.

And this is both cost and spam free!

http://www.download.com/WinGet/3000-2071_4-10351626.html?tag=lst-0-15

This one is also free and looks a bit better, but doesn't say anything about being spyware free.

http://www.download.com/Fresh-Download/3000-2071_4-10353663.html?tag=lst-0-14

[Eddy]

Come on Joe. Come out of the tarpit and join the elite like me.

Think of your posting rate.

[Robbo]

Yes to all :P

Quote: You need a download manager!
How do they compare to Get Right?

[Eddy]

I just got upgraded to some insanely high amount of speed.

All I know is that I downloaded something and hit 200k/bps.

I remember back in the early 90s when I was happy to have 1200 bps. I tweaked the modem to give me 1500, but it wasn't always stable.

How things have changed.

[JuntaJoe]

NYC Library Putting Images Online

March 02, 2005 7:14 PM EST

NEW YORK - The New York Public Library is putting hundreds of thousands of its images online, allowing free personal downloads of material including maps, Civil War photos and illuminated medieval manuscripts.

The NYPL Digital Gallery will have 275,000 images available beginning Thursday, and the collection will grow to 500,000 images over the next several months, library officials announced Wednesday.

Many of the images are unique to the library, library President Paul LeClerc said.

The images should get wide use, whether by "a historian studying the Revolutionary War, a scenic designer researching old New York neighborhoods or a fashion designer looking for inspiration in vintage clothing," said David Ferriero, the library's Andrew W. Mellon director and chief executive of the research libraries.

The materials can be downloaded free for personal use. Use of the images for publication or in film, television or the Internet can be arranged through the library's Permissions Department.

---

On the Net:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[JuntaJoe]

Here's a website in the tradition of Spybot.

It's a free scan tool to see what's infecting your system with adware crap.

It is highly rated by Kim Komando too.

http://www.merijn.org/index.html

[Brf]

Hijackthis? It was the only tool that found the last crapware program that infected my computer at home. I have also used it to remove LSP-Hijackers.

[JuntaJoe]

I'm telling you, Kim Komando has a sweet site.

Cyberrats may find her site simplistic, but for the rest of us plodders she really lays it out easy.

She's always hunting for cool stuff.

And while she also promotes products for sale, it seems she promotes what she thinks works as opposed to just what garners sponsor support.

Free or not free, it's the performance that counts with her.

She also seems pretty responsive to mail and calls.

Yeah, it's all about grabbing market share, but she seems to be doing it the right and honest way.

She's damn cute too.


www.komando.com

[Brf]

What was that? Hijackthis? It shouldnt have any problems..... unless you have some real nasties on your computer....