It’s jungle out there !!!
I’m prompted to write this file because of the experiences I have had with the internet and I’m going to walk you through what it REALLY is and not all flowers and candy most people make it out to be. In order to safeguard yourself on the internet, you have to understand WHAT it is. Unless you take the time and effort to do THAT!; you are going to come a cropper and be an easy target for all the criminal elements that stalk the net 24/7/365. Virus software alone won’t save you, Firewalls also are next to useless unless you understand what you have to do, and WHY you have to do it. You can hide on the net for so long, but sooner or later, some mother is going to get a ‘hit’ from your IP address and then try everything in the book, to sneak in the backdoor of your PC .Once inside, they can totally destroy everything on your PC you have stored for safekeeping. For those of you who think this is an exaggeration, you don’t know squat. And that’s exactly what most of the network world would continue to have you stay because once you know what’s really happening, you can not only take steps to prevent it; you can sometimes point authorities in the direction of the perpetrators and have these SOBs arrested.
What is the Internet ?
I’m not going to write a novel about what the internet is, since nearly everyone has at least a rudimentary knowledge of it’s function but in order to get a real conception of the WWW [ world wide web ] I will bring descriptions down to idiot level and work my way up from there. In a sentence, the WWW or internet is one – huge – electronic brain. Like your own brain, it has processing area’s for specific functions and is comprised of thousands of ‘servers’ or junctions to send and receive data from just about any where and any one from ALL other servers and PC’s. Each server can make independent decisions based on the information it receives FROM pc’s or other servers. You might say that each server is an independent entity acting on a set of rules to pass information around the world. It may get instructions to send a signal to another server or termination [ PC ].
If you want to send a message from ‘A’ to ‘Z’ – it doesn’t matter where the message started from, who sent it, or contents; what matters is HOW it gets there. Each ‘server’ on the backbone is connected to many other servers via pathways since there is so much information being transmitted all over the place; you need alternate routes to pass this information on as quickly as possible without being caught in a traffic jam of other information. So to send a message from ‘A’ to ‘Z’, it may travel via ‘C’ to ‘H’ to ‘Z’ or it may take up to 30 [max] ‘hops’ to get to ‘Z’. Every time your computer sends anything to the net that is destined for some other place on the globe, it may take a different pathway to get there. Not only is there different ways to get TO a place on the net, there are also multiple entry points at the destination. Now we have to think of our world wide super brain as a radio transmitter with different frequencies. Your computer can use one of these ‘frequencies’ or PORTS to send bits of information that can help [ or hinder ] the speed and integrity of what you are sending. Some channels [PORTS] are used exclusively for certain functions – like tell the backbone servers HOW you want the information to get there. Other ports send additional information to tell the other end information about WHO sent it. In actual fact, your PC has over 66 thousand ‘side ports’ to use for all sorts of hidden additional data. That’s a lot of channels. Some side channels or PORTS are used exclusively for internet functions that you don’t need to use normally.
This all sounds fine and dandy, dandy and fine but what does it mean to you ?.
Well, lets look at it this way. Pretend you live in a house with 66 thousand ways to enter it – a mixture of windows and doors. Now obviously, you don’t want people sneaking into your house, so you close all the windows and vet everyone who comes knocking at the door. If someone said ‘ Hey, you don’t need to run around checking all the windows because most people won’t try one to see if it’s unlocked anyway, there’s too many to try’. I’ll bet you’ll boot THEM out the door. When you connect to the internet, most of these windows and doors [ PORTS ] are automatically locked unless YOU open them. But a lot are not, because your computer needs these ports open to process specific requests from the internet. Unfortunately, people on the internet are also using these open ports to sneak into your computer. To make matters worse, they are not just sneaking in to have a peek, they are leaving PC bombs or Viri behind when they go. The situation has got worse in the last decade. So bad in fact, that nearly every organization in the world wants to know what you are doing every second you are on the net AND are leaving advertisements, touting for business, spam, virus and anything else that totally stuffs up your uninterrupted surfing on the net. There are more vandals, criminals on the net than in the streets of your city – 3 figure thousands. These criminals have nothing better to do than act as internet terrorists by dropping data bombs anywhere they can.
This all sounds very frightening – and it bloody well is. In the old days, people spent time on the net actually sending and receiving needed information. Today, I spend at least half my time online, filtering out all the crap that people send me [ and I don’t want in the first place ] and the other half blocking a third of the world trying to get into my PC on a side port. But all is not lost. There are ways and means of protecting yourself with programs designed to do all the hard work for you. We need firewalls [ plural ], and scanners to block, detect and clean our PC should something slip by.
ESSENTIAL programs.
Every company and his dog is selling ‘u beaut firewall cum scanner cum cleaner’ but believe it or not – SOME of these products are themselves riddled with all sorts of virus and adware and generally useless. This is the malcontents way of combating products designed to stop them – they make up a program which sez ‘ Yea – our product does this ‘ and stick it on the net. Then some idiot downloads them thinking they are protected. ‘Zap’. To counter THIS bit of bullsh*t ware, the good companies have to put out ANOTHER program designed to spot the forgeries and erase them before they do your PC irreparable harm.
God it’s getting to be a mad house on the internet.
Before I got smart on the net, I thought all I needed was a GOOD firewall [ the expensive kind] and a GOOD virus detector [ also the expensive kind ] but not so. In fact, some of the best protection programs around are FREE or at least cost less than some expensive, and unfortunately useless, other touted top end programs. I have favorites that more than do the job and have saved me hours of pain and agro while others I have a distinct grudge against because having used them, I STILL got infected. Without prejudice, let me say, stay right away from NORTON antivirus. This is the worst of the bunch and chews up resources like a demon. So unless you want to be only 50% covered, pay a sh*t load of cash and have you PC run like a wet dog, forget NORTON. That said lets carry on.
There are some ‘cream of the crop’ programs that EVERYONE should be running to keep you 99.9% safe from deliberate attempts to infect your PC either from the net, or programs you run yourself.
It’s a sad fact that some of the touted ‘ top of the line’ protection software is next to useless for several reasons. The software you run must be capable of doing the job WITHOUT hampering anything else on your PC including slowing it down to a crawl when all you want to do is open a word document. Some software appears to be doing a good job without a speed sacrifice when in fact, it cannot do a good job at filtering most things. Every PC guru has their favorite programs but if you are NOT a PC guru, you need a program [s] that is easy to use and does not gobble up all your computer memory and resources. It is essential that these programs do DO! What they are designed to do and prevent as much as possible, any wanker from invading your PC without alarm bells ringing and steps suggested.
Get ready, because here is the list and NOT necessarily the ones that big note themselves with bells and whistles. These programs DO the job they claim and kick ass.
1. Peer blocker .. an absolute mandatory program
This is a free-bee on the internet. Get it, install it, and run the sucker in the background. Essentially, it’s a firewall with all the bad URL’s built in to filter and block. All 773 million of them [ no sh*t ! ]. You have the ability to add, delete any URL within the program should a particular URL or web site be required to be accessed by YOU! And only you. Be careful, these sites are banned within the program for a bloody good reason.
2. Avast version 4.7 OR 4.8 professional [The new FREE version 5.0 is neither free to upgrade nor easy to use dispite the makers hype ]
This program is not free but worth every cent to buy. A top of the line anti-virus back ground program. Everything else including Norton is a piece of crap compared to this program. Use diddly squat memory and resources [ unlike Norton ] so it won’t hog all your memory and processing power; what’s more, it alerts you to more dangers than anything else on the market. Don’t leave home without it.
3. Spybot – search and destroy , Spyware blaster, Malwarebytes – anti-malware , Rogue remover Pro, Ad-aware 6 professional
Free-bee’s. except Rogue remover and Malewarebytes. Used to periodically check the files on your Hard Drive for any slipped thru virus, adware, maleware and generally anything else that makes the computer sick. If you want 2 best, choose Malewarebytes and Avast because MB has the undocumented feature of handshaking with Avast to double scan your PC but don't have them resident together.
At the moment I have running in the background. Avast, Peer blocker AND spyware blaster.. All in the system tray without any speed reduction at all. These save me a load of agro if a virus tries to come in the back door. The daily log file for peer blocker, runs for pages; that’s how many rogue sites try to enter my PC.
By running peer blocker, I can SEE what sites have a virus embedded in the front or opening page before my browser attempts to download it and display it on screen. It actually PREVENTS me from opening the site page [ unless I’m stupid enough to turn it off ]. If you surf for adult material, you can expect to see at least 40% of the little known sites with virus, anti this anti that, and Malware imbedded in their opening page. You don’t even have to download anything – the god damn opening page is a bloody virus. Virus writers are getting smarter, but fortunately, so are the good guys.
All attempts to prosecute these mothers or at least alert them to what’s happening [ hijacked sites ] fail because a site controller has better things to worry about – like how much money he makes as everyone surfs in to his site. They don’t give a toss about anything affecting surfers, just as long as THEIR site is not directly affected.
Some site controllers do their best if their site charges membership money. What’s really needed, in my humble opinion, is a collection of servers on the net who are dedicated to vigilante tactics and data bomb these sites off the net should they fail to take steps to eliminate problems emanating from their site. Drastic measures to be sure, but this seems to me to be the only way the general surfing public can get back control of the net from these data criminals.
I’ve had my bitch so here is ANOTHER must have free-bee.It’s called ‘THUNDERFLOOD’ and it does exactly what it sez. Once the annoying and offending URL [ or site address like 100.100.100.100 ] is identified; you can effectively bomb the mothers off the net. Get NEOTRACE PRO to track others that have site names – to get their absolute URL address. Legal?, probably not but effective ?, absolutely. Your ISP like Big Pond or Optus couldn’t give a rats arse; they think it’s your sole responsibility to filter these mothers with a bucket load of firewall filters and other fancy gear. Remember that Peerblocker has a banned site list of over 77 MILLION !!!!! site address.
Coming up is what Big Pond thinks of new customers – worth a read because that’s ONE company to stay right away from. Ever wonder why ONLY Big Pond and Optus have cable plans ????. I thought service monopoly was illegal in this country. Both cable services are a blatant rip off compared to ADSL and Big Pond charges for UPLOAD; something NO OTHER WORLD SERVICE would get away with. Try ringing their customer or user service [ unless your inquiring about joining ] see if you can get through – read the whirlpool blogs or just Google ‘Big Pond Service Complaints’ and you’ll get the picture. Since TPG got the message after my car signage [ and returned monies they owed me ] I think it might take a bit longer for Big Pond to get the message; never the less, signs have been made and on my car they go until their bullsh*t with customers like me ceases. I can’t wait till the contract ends and go BACK to ADSL. The ACCC would do well to mount a clandestine investigation into pricing policy, collusion, price fixing, contract crap statements and a lot of other things going on in their organization.
EDITED LATER: Seems bigpond got the message and now prices are reasonable.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
TAXED TO DEATH - LITTERALLY
HIGHEST TAXED COUNTRY ON EARTH.
No doubt about it; the government will get it’s pound of flesh even in the advent of sorrow. My son had the foresight to take out insurance life cover, as well as putting generous amounts into superannuation to secure his future. Remember, these moneys have had taxed paid BEFORE they were secured into super and life cover. The companies of course paid tax on their earnings. When my son died a year ago, income tax took 23% of his life cover and super [paid to us as a legacy for his loss]. In other words, the tax man got 46% of every dollar he earned and we inherited as a result of his death. This to my mind is freeking obscene. I don’t mind paying tax on earnings from that legacy but to take nearly half of it before it does so [to secure our future for his loss] is unconscionable. What’s the bloody point of super benefits ?, why take out life cover ? He would have better secured both his future and our legacy in the event of his death, by putting all that money into an ITB account in our name. Not only would it earn up to 10% interest over a short term, the tax paid / year on the interest would only be ½ and ONLY on the interest. The monies thus bequeathed to us would attract NO tax just because he died.
This whole thing is distressing, upsetting and makes me very angry; as if we were not all taxed to death as it is. People should rise up in this country and march in the streets about this, which is just one social injustice that we all tolerate to the last degree. What does it take to take back our rights from a government that we elected to do OUR will not the other way around.
No doubt about it; the government will get it’s pound of flesh even in the advent of sorrow. My son had the foresight to take out insurance life cover, as well as putting generous amounts into superannuation to secure his future. Remember, these moneys have had taxed paid BEFORE they were secured into super and life cover. The companies of course paid tax on their earnings. When my son died a year ago, income tax took 23% of his life cover and super [paid to us as a legacy for his loss]. In other words, the tax man got 46% of every dollar he earned and we inherited as a result of his death. This to my mind is freeking obscene. I don’t mind paying tax on earnings from that legacy but to take nearly half of it before it does so [to secure our future for his loss] is unconscionable. What’s the bloody point of super benefits ?, why take out life cover ? He would have better secured both his future and our legacy in the event of his death, by putting all that money into an ITB account in our name. Not only would it earn up to 10% interest over a short term, the tax paid / year on the interest would only be ½ and ONLY on the interest. The monies thus bequeathed to us would attract NO tax just because he died.
This whole thing is distressing, upsetting and makes me very angry; as if we were not all taxed to death as it is. People should rise up in this country and march in the streets about this, which is just one social injustice that we all tolerate to the last degree. What does it take to take back our rights from a government that we elected to do OUR will not the other way around.
Aarons outdoor creations - kit office assy
Aaron;s Outdoor creations
This company supplies and erects all types of wooden kit form constructions from dog houses to home studio's. The kits are reasonably priced and include construction from their official installers [ average - one day ]. Council approval is not required as the kits are under one square. A concrete base is usual but any reasonably flat surface will do though I gather that any surface can be accommodated as the footings would be set in concrete. As kits go, they look fabulous. The main trouble would come at the construction stage and as I have had one built, lets all pull these constructions to pieces, so to speak, and see where the MAJOR stuff-ups are.
The first hint of trouble was [ you guessed it ] with the wankers putting the thing together. Dispite a concrete base to work with, it seems that it is not mandatory to support the structure [ and bolt it to the concrete ] on steel pins; like to prevent termite invasion. Oh no sirree bob, just stick the whole thing on hardwood blocks and no need to bolt it to the concrete as the weight alone will keep it there. I'll accept that premise for the moment. The next thing our intrepid assemblers did was secure the roof [ ripple color-bond] with screws fastening the said roof in the troughs and not the high points [ hello leaking roof ]. Because no kit units are manufactured perfectly [ made in Melbourne ] any gaps in the pieces were not filled, as a result, one could see daylight through the walls where they were joined to form one solid side wall. Another blatant point of contention is, not one surface is diametrically level in position. That is, nothing is perfectly square with respect to horizontal or vertical level as well as joining surfaces - shit sloppy construction by building standards [ all this pointed out by another qualified builder and the plasterer ]. Get a life guys, and care a little more about your job and customer satisfaction.
Now lets look at it from a builders point of view. Firstly, the main beam holding the roof up [ vee shaped ] is far too small for the weight of the roof let alone any plastering etc that has to be done. As a result, the roof sags in the middle ever so slightly and had to be strengthened before plastering was done.[Re-enforced struts and cross members]
Even the walls are out of plump [ mentioned above ] enough to give the plasters headaches [ more expense ]. On a plan view, this kit would be slightly rhombus from the top perspective AND the side perspective. In short; the kit was manufactured with too many tolerances and as little strengthening material as they could safely get away with. Every distance between uprights, is different; no uniformity at all. This makes it hell to fit noggins and stop a hurricane wind from twisting or flexing the whole structure. The plasterer has to use flexi-joints and warns that nobody can stand on the roof [ especially the middle where one would tend to stand ] else the structure would sag too much and crack all the roof plaster. Well done Aaron !! you've taken a good concept and cut corners so much in production to render the weather proof studio useless to finish off unless we spend a sh*t load of money shoring the thing up. I do NOT recommend this studio construction [ in spite of it's cheap price ] as the extra money you would have to spend on it to make it granny-flat compatible, would be near enough to getting a better kit from another maker. I estimate, we have to spend half as much again for a chippy and plasterer to make the unit worthy of their color brochures. A little more care in manufacture and assemblers who don't cut corners for a few bucks would see a reasonable fix up.
Submitted to 'building today', 'My builder', 'Kit revues', ;Business monthly'. Also posted on my 4 internet sites and here in the blog.
UPDATE:
Sunday 11th Feb 2009
Well it seems, I can pick-em alrighty. In the Sunday Mail today is a story concerning
a bogus building firm that has been struck off and investigated in Vic and NSW. Now operating in Queensland. A warning has been given by authorities about dealing with this firm. No prizes here. Aarons
I guess I was lucky, I had the nouse to have it fixed up at the finishing stage by another builder and it cost me a few bob. The refinished kit IS acceptable but only because I knew where the stuff ups were; most people would not be so lucky.
This company supplies and erects all types of wooden kit form constructions from dog houses to home studio's. The kits are reasonably priced and include construction from their official installers [ average - one day ]. Council approval is not required as the kits are under one square. A concrete base is usual but any reasonably flat surface will do though I gather that any surface can be accommodated as the footings would be set in concrete. As kits go, they look fabulous. The main trouble would come at the construction stage and as I have had one built, lets all pull these constructions to pieces, so to speak, and see where the MAJOR stuff-ups are.
The first hint of trouble was [ you guessed it ] with the wankers putting the thing together. Dispite a concrete base to work with, it seems that it is not mandatory to support the structure [ and bolt it to the concrete ] on steel pins; like to prevent termite invasion. Oh no sirree bob, just stick the whole thing on hardwood blocks and no need to bolt it to the concrete as the weight alone will keep it there. I'll accept that premise for the moment. The next thing our intrepid assemblers did was secure the roof [ ripple color-bond] with screws fastening the said roof in the troughs and not the high points [ hello leaking roof ]. Because no kit units are manufactured perfectly [ made in Melbourne ] any gaps in the pieces were not filled, as a result, one could see daylight through the walls where they were joined to form one solid side wall. Another blatant point of contention is, not one surface is diametrically level in position. That is, nothing is perfectly square with respect to horizontal or vertical level as well as joining surfaces - shit sloppy construction by building standards [ all this pointed out by another qualified builder and the plasterer ]. Get a life guys, and care a little more about your job and customer satisfaction.
Now lets look at it from a builders point of view. Firstly, the main beam holding the roof up [ vee shaped ] is far too small for the weight of the roof let alone any plastering etc that has to be done. As a result, the roof sags in the middle ever so slightly and had to be strengthened before plastering was done.[Re-enforced struts and cross members]
Even the walls are out of plump [ mentioned above ] enough to give the plasters headaches [ more expense ]. On a plan view, this kit would be slightly rhombus from the top perspective AND the side perspective. In short; the kit was manufactured with too many tolerances and as little strengthening material as they could safely get away with. Every distance between uprights, is different; no uniformity at all. This makes it hell to fit noggins and stop a hurricane wind from twisting or flexing the whole structure. The plasterer has to use flexi-joints and warns that nobody can stand on the roof [ especially the middle where one would tend to stand ] else the structure would sag too much and crack all the roof plaster. Well done Aaron !! you've taken a good concept and cut corners so much in production to render the weather proof studio useless to finish off unless we spend a sh*t load of money shoring the thing up. I do NOT recommend this studio construction [ in spite of it's cheap price ] as the extra money you would have to spend on it to make it granny-flat compatible, would be near enough to getting a better kit from another maker. I estimate, we have to spend half as much again for a chippy and plasterer to make the unit worthy of their color brochures. A little more care in manufacture and assemblers who don't cut corners for a few bucks would see a reasonable fix up.
Submitted to 'building today', 'My builder', 'Kit revues', ;Business monthly'. Also posted on my 4 internet sites and here in the blog.
UPDATE:
Sunday 11th Feb 2009
Well it seems, I can pick-em alrighty. In the Sunday Mail today is a story concerning
a bogus building firm that has been struck off and investigated in Vic and NSW. Now operating in Queensland. A warning has been given by authorities about dealing with this firm. No prizes here. Aarons
I guess I was lucky, I had the nouse to have it fixed up at the finishing stage by another builder and it cost me a few bob. The refinished kit IS acceptable but only because I knew where the stuff ups were; most people would not be so lucky.
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