Neat Net Tricks

IBM’s most recent report shows that phishing attempts have made a huge decline thus far this year. “Phishing”, as you may know, is an attempt, with legitimate-appearing email, to divert the unsuspecting to an illegitimate Web site, where passwords, financial data, etc. can be collected. The report suggests that the decline can be attributed to:

1. Computer users are getting smarter about identifying phony Web sites.

2. Security software is getting better at filtering out phony Web sites.

3. “Phishers” have moved to more lucrative con jobs.

I have a fourth possible reason: We no longer have bank accounts to tap.

Get this: Rosemary Port posted an anonymous blog with remarks about Vogue cover model Liskula Cohen’s hygiene and sexual habits. Cohen sued and a judge ordered Google to reveal Port’s identity. Now, Port is badmouthing Google, feels her privacy has been violated, and she has a right to her opinions.

Where does Freedom of Speech end? I know the classic example is that you don’t have the right to shout “fire” in a crowded theater because it endangers public safety. But do you have the right to slander someone, under the protection of Freedom of Speech, and with complete anonymity? I think not, and at least one judge agrees.

Let me tell you the story of Alexander Ponosov. He’s a principal in a Russian village school. He teaches history and earns $360 a month. Microsoft brought legal action against him for using bootleg software. He was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of about $195. Russian officials allege that’s just one more example of the U.S. meddling in Russia’s internal affairs and a big U.S. corporation bringing all its power against one man.

There may be a moral to this little tale but I’ll let you develop your own.

A few posts ago I talked about my grandson and the trouble he’s gotten into by spending too much time on the computer. If you want to see how I handled this, take a look .

Did you hear the one about the cat who earned a high school diploma? If not, you can read it here.

A study has revealed that 40.55% of all posts on Twitter are pointless babble. Read more here .

That pretty much confirms what our guest columnist rants about in the latest issue of Neat Net Tricks Premium, due out tomorrow.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that Microsoft has infringed on a patent for XML, a programming language that allows Word to read several different word processing programs. Accordingly, in 60 days from the injunction, Microsoft can no longer test, demonstrate, market, or support Word. Read more about this latest development here.

Of course, I’m not naive enough to think that this is the final word. The lawyers at Redmond are no doubt climbing into their battle armor as we speak, and the Word is “appeal”.

Just as many other 10-year-olds, my grandson becomes a bit overly-zealous on the Web between the time he gets home from school and the time his Mother gets in from work. The other day, he proudly announced that he had won a $1,000 Best Buy gift certificate, a new Apple computer, and a few other “rewards” just by giving his name, address, and telephone number. How do you explain scams to a 10-year old when adults fall for the same con job? I tried, and even threatened bodily harm (along with a few other unmentionables) to the telemarketer who insisted on speaking with my grandson about his “prize”. But who’s going to protect us from ourselves? We are a greedy society and are always looking for that get-rich scheme. In our greed, we forget that timeless adage that there’s really no such thing as a free lunch.

So how’s your Internet Explorer 6 doing? I read that some 15-25% are still using this version of browser, but unfortunately it doesn’t keep up with a lot of the Web applications. There is a movement underway that would inform Web visitors that they are using antiquated browsers. The embedded code would produce the following when such is the case:

You can read more about this effort here .

Or, like some of us who don’t care for ANY flavor of IE, we can just stick our head in the sand.