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Why the Proposed Australian Internet Filter is an Outright Con

March 3, 2010

Is the Internet censorship filter proposed by the Australian government really about protecting children, or is it just a politically motivated waste of money and resources? I keep seeing in various magazines and newspaper articles, letters to the editor and suchlike, people declaring themselves in favor of a government mandated Internet filter implemented at the [...]

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Cyber Criminals Are Robbing Us Blind

March 2, 2010

We all know that data theft, credit card theft, etc. And we know that spyware, viruses, Trojans and other cyber nasties are a threat. But have we been underestimating the real effect? As regular readers will know, I’m not a fan of Norton/Symantec or McAfee anti-malware products. I believe you can do a lot better [...]

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School Spies On Kids — At Home!

February 19, 2010

Yes, you can be spied on through your own webcam! Let this true story be a lesson in how otherwise fun and useful technology can be turned against you if you don’t stay constantly alert. A Philadelphia School district is facing a class-action lawsuit bought by parents of its high school students. In 2009 the [...]

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Microsoft Patches & Updates for February 2010

February 10, 2010

This is Microsoft’s biggest batch of patches & updates in a long time, and you really MUST pay due attention. Yes folks, it’s Patch Tuesday again! On the second Tuesday of each month Microsoft releases software patches & updates for their various products. This month there are something like 13 updates addressing a total of [...]

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Democracy, wherefore art thou?

February 7, 2010

First the UK government announces it is going to record and store everything about everything you do, then Australia reveals its Great (Chinese-like) Firewall plans, and now it’s the Yanks’ turn. Back in November last year I published an article entitled “Right to Privacy? Hah!“  The opening paragraph went like this: “This is a story [...]

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It’s Browser Upgrade Time!

February 4, 2010

If you are running Firefox as your preferred browser you should UPGRADE NOW! The latest version 3.6 continues to improve on an already excellent product. If you’re not running Firefox as your preferred browser, WHY NOT? And if you’re still sticking to that bloated, troublesome dog Internet Explorer — well, words fail me. Know what [...]

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Customer Service is More Than a Contact Form

January 23, 2010

As regular readers will be aware my blog topics tend to be somewhat diverse, but I strive to stick to subjects that will be of interest to at least a good percentage of my readers. So I’m excusing this departure from the technical on the basis that quite a few of my subscribers are in [...]

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Very Important Security Update

January 22, 2010

January 21 saw the release by Microsoft of a very important out-of-band security bulletin to address recently publicized flaws in Internet Explorer. So-called “out-of-band” bulletins are those released at a time other than Microsoft’s traditional Patch Tuesday — the second Tuesday of each month. Out-of-band announcements are bulletins/patches/updates that Microsoft believes are too important to [...]

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Can Thieves Detect Laptops in Cars?

January 20, 2010

I recently received a question from a reader asking how thieves were apparently able to detect laptops out of view in locked cars, say either covered up or in the trunk (or “boot”, depending on where you live). This is a topic that’s seen batted around for some time and has attained the status of [...]

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Don’t Hesitate to Name & Shame!

January 18, 2010

Something that really irks me is the way many communities enact legislation that effectively pays more attention to the rights of offenders than to those of their victims. While I accept that a case could be made for protecting the identity of very young minors, for the most part I do not believe that justice [...]

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