Protect your PC

It is critical that you provide basic protection for your personal computing environment to protect your com¬puter and any confidential data you may have on your computer.

As a general rule of thumb, it is strongly recommended you perform the following actions:
• Keep your computer desktop firewall turned on.
• Keep your operating system and other software patches up-to-date.
• Keep your antivirus software and antivirus signatures up-to-date.
• Perform regular (at least monthly) checks for adware, spyware, and other malware using a reputable utility.

Desktop Firewall and Anti-virus software or subscriptions can be purchased online or from computer resellers.
Here are some of the leading desktop firewall and antivirus software vendors. In many cases, vendors offer an Internet Security suite that combines a desktop firewall, antivirus, and sometimes other protections into a single package of tools made to work well together and provide better protection.

McAfee
Store - http://home.mcafee.com/Store
McAfee Threat Center (Virus Information) - http://vil.nai.com/vil
McAfee Avert Stinger Tool - http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger

Symantec
Store - http://shop.symantecstore.com
Norton Viruses & Risks - http://www.symantec.com/norton/security_response
Norton Removal Tools - http://www.symantec.com/norton/security_response/removaltools.jsp

Trend Micro
Store - http://store.trendmicro.com
Trend Micro Threat Encyclopedia - http://threatinfo.trendmicro.com

CA
Store - http://shop.ca.com
CA Global Security Advisor - http://www.ca.com/securityadvisor

Kaspersky
Store - http://usa.kaspersky.com/store
Kaspersky Virus List - http://www.viruslist.com

In addition to these leading commercial products, there are some very good firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-adware pro¬grams available for free on the Internet. Most free versions include updates, but any further support would require the person to upgrade to the commercial version.

Free Internet Security suite (firewall/anti-virus/anti-malware):
COMODO - http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php

Free firewall programs:
Agnitum OUTPOST Firewall Free - http://free.agnitum.com
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall –
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm

Free anti-virus programs:
AVG - http://free.avg.com
Avast Home Edition - http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Free anti-spyware programs:
Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org
SuperAntiSpyware - http://www.superantispyware.com
ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker Toolbar - http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/spyblocker-download.htm

Free anti-adware program:
Ad-Aware - http://www.lavasoft.com

Free anti-malware programs:
Malwarebytes - http://www.malwarebytes.org
AVG LinkScanner - http://linkscanner.avg.com
Revo Uninstaller Freeware - http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html


TIP
Don’t get popped by the pop-ups!
While browsing the internet, you may come across a pop-up window or ad that claims that your computer is infected with viruses, Trojans, etc., and offers to scan your system for free.
In most cases, these are scams trying to get their own malware, Trojan, or virus implanted into your system.
Close the “warning” and scan your own system with the software you installed or one from our list.
Surf Smart!

Ruby 1.9.1-p376 released

Uh oh, it's upgrade time again. Monday, the official Ruby 1.9 maintainer (Yuki Sonoda, a.k.a. Yugui) announced a heap overflow vulnerability in Ruby 1.9.1 and, subsequently, the release of Ruby 1.9.1-p376 (patch level 376). As the current production level release of Ruby, this is a crucial upgrade - unless you're still using Ruby 1.8.x, which isn't affected at all.

As well as fixing the vulnerability, Ruby 1.9.1-p376 also includes over 100 bug fixes on the previous release, none of which are particularly interesting. You can check this release's change log to see if anything affects you.

If you want to download Ruby 1.9.1-p376 now, the following URLs will work direct:

• http://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p376.tar.bz2
• http://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p376.tar.gz
• http://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p376.zip

Ruby Programming Class

I have enrolled in a Ruby Programming Class at rubylearning.org - http://www.rubylearning.org/class/
The class will start next week and I can do the work from the office, because I am actually taking the class to assist me in automating some of the manual processes regarding record keeping, DMCA related notifications, and the resulting follow-ups.

This will be the new programming class I will have taken in a decade and I find myself excited. Time to learn another language.

The class is taught by Satish Talim. Satish is a Ruby hobbyist with over 31+ years of software experience. He spends his days promoting Ruby, teaching, and helping companies set up their subsidiaries (what he calls BOT - Build, Operate and Transfer). He has been working with Java since its beta days (1995).

RubyInside honored Satish as Ruby's Top Teacher in 2008.

RubyLearning was the winner for the Shorty Award in Education.

More details about the Instructor - http://satishtalim.com/

Easy to forget

I am finding it easy to forget where I am, too easy.
Recently, I have started working at my Alma Mater - the University of Alabama. Campus sits in the middle of most everything, so much it blends into the backdrop. Being on campus is not strange, though I graduated in 1992, because my wife has been attending classes until last August.

Now, I have an office in a newer annex of one of the older buildings on campus, one where I attended classes when I was in school. My window views a nearby building over an alley, so no students enter my awareness during a normal day, and though I take the stairs, instead of taking the elevator, and sometime see a few students in the hall, they easily slip from my mind as soon as I reenter the "office space" and leave the "institutional yellow block walled hall."

I am finding it way too easy to forget that I am sitting on campus, surrounded by students, classes, instructors and professors. I need to take my wife's advice and get out for a walk during lunch. The exercise and fresh air would be good and it would remind me where I am and for whom I am doing this job.

Note to self: Bring sneakers to the office.

Loading my Bookshelf

I started at the University of Alabama, as Information Security Analyst, last Thursday. I was thinking about it that night and came to the realization that, though I have had cabinets that locked and offices without doors, this was the first time I have had both an office with a door that locks and locking desk drawers - AND I have shelf space for books.

For several years, my wife, as she progressed through her Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees, amassed more and more books into her reference library, utilizing every bookshelf in the house and acquiring new ones. Meanwhile, I have had only a couple of shelves of space on which I could keep books. The result was that I massed gigs of ebooks and PDFs into a digital library too vast for me to easily read. Now, I have the space and opportunity to bring my library out of the corners and into the light.

Here are the book titles I have selected to begin the loading of my office bookshelf:

• Just Enough Project Management
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Network Security Hacks
• Wikinomics
• UML for the IT Business Analyst
• Computer Evidence
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed
• The CISSP Prep Guide
• SANS GSEC Security Essentials Toolkit
• Ubuntu Hacks
• LPI Linux Certification in a nutshell
• sendmail
• sed & awk
• Hacking Linux Exposed
• Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition
• Introduction to SUSE Linux

Internet Security on the cheap

There are some very good firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-adware programs available for free on the Internet. Most free versions include updates, but any further support would require the person to upgrade to the commercial version.

Free Internet Security suite (firewall/anti-virus/anti-malware):
COMODO Internet Security

Free firewall programs:
Agnitum OUTPOST Firewall Free
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall

Free anti-virus programs:
AVG
Avast Home Edition

Free anti-spyware programs:
Spybot Search and Destroy
SuperAntiSpyware
ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker Toolbar

Free anti-adware program:
Ad-Aware

Free anti-malware programs:
Malwarebytes
AVG LinkScanner
Revo Uninstaller Freeware

Surf Smart Tip

Don’t get popped by the pop-ups!
While browsing the internet, you may come across a pop-up window or ad that claims that your computer is infected with viruses, Trojans, etc., and offers to scan your system for free.

In most cases, these are scams trying to get their own malware, Trojan, or virus implanted into your system.

Close the “warning” and scan your own system with the software you installed or one from our list.

Surf Smart!

This is the way we brush the dog, brush the dog, brush the dog.

It's late September, and i really should be back at school.

If you've done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with ....

... will you meet me in the middle? Will you meet me ...

I have taken the summer off (unwillingly) but I start the new job on Thursday. I am ready!

got my starbucks... time for the jotting of thoughts

back to work....

Off to bed. Good night twitterverse!

Milliways will have to wait. Wife's car is giving *WARNING* messages on the screen. Off to the dealership. Gotta love technology.

Milliways will have to wait. Cookies just out of the oven and I have to fetch the boys from school. Where's my flying car?

Doctor's at 0600, Kids to school. Three classes subbed, meeting about a new business, clothes done, dishes done. Milliways here I come!

it leads to a LOT of Deja vu

hate it when I get distracted and have two twitter clients running