kirabug’s idea files

Now here’s a dark little reminder not to pick up something you found on the street because you don’t know where it’s been. Mom was, as usual, right.

Speaking of Mom, it’s her birthday. Happy birthday, Mom!

Macworld: Secrets: Tips for avoiding a Mac disaster is a good guide for protecting your Mac.

Three links Nighthawk thought I’d be interested in, and I am in turn passing on to you:

How to Take a Caffeine Nap

How much sleep is enough sleep?

The 5-Minute Productivity Breakthrough (which works fine for me as long as the Internet’s down, but otherwise I stop every minute or so to read another comic.)

Speaking of comics, Kiagi Swordcat has returned! Whoo!

I deleted over 1400 email messages from my mail software this evening. That added up to around 1 gig of hard drive space regained. (I’m down to under 10 gig and it’s making me nervous. In fact, before I emptied the trash can, I was down to about 4 gig.)

Two important notes for Mac users:

1) The same day that perpetual Mac-basher (and generally clueless individual) John Dvorak writes that he thinks Apple will switch to the Windows operating system HAH!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahaha…. whew! I needed that…. we achive a step in “being taken seriously” by the Windoid masses - that is, someone has developed a piece of malware for us.

Yep, that’s right. If you too are dumb enough to double-click any attachment sent to you, you could catch a Trojan Horse on your Mac.

Of course, for once, the malwarian in question actually used something that would tempt the average Mac user: the promise of leaked pics of Leopard (OS X 10.5). If your Mac is suitably protected with up-t0-date virus software (freaky!) you’re already protected.

Gawd, on days like this, I really miss As the Apple Turns. Jack would’ve had a ball with this one.

2) If your Mac isn’t protected by up-to-date virus software, you might actually want to consider getting some. Yes, yes, I know, the idea of having to install virus protection on a Mac is bizarre, but hey, better safe than sorry, right?

And yes, I know that installing Norton Antivirus feels like you’ve installed a virus. I’ve run it on many a Mac (just not one I’d actually own) and yes, I too want to strangle the damn LiveUpdate window that won’t go away (though I hear they fixed that in NAV10), and smack the software for interfering with everything.

But I learned this week that there are other options. A co-worker of mine pointed me to Intego VirusBarrier after he finally uninstalled Norton (and regaled me with stories of the “speed bump” he gained in the process). I’m installing it now. It’s won awards for performance and usability, it’s designed for the Mac, and from what I’m told, it will not, in and of itself, act like you’ve installed a giant virus. Whoo!

It’s a bit pricey - $69.95 - but you do get a $5 coupon for 10 days if you download the demo first. And Norton Antivirus is advertised at the same $70, so if you’re going to run antivirus, you might as well go all the way with it.

And finally, totally unrelated to the above, something the majority of the men in the audience don’t need to worry about: How to tell if your bra fits and how to tell what doesn’t fit if it doesn’t. Kudos to Plantnerd for providing that one.

Okay, that’s enough babble for a while. Plan for Sketchy Theater on Saturday and hopefully a new full comic on Tuesday.

I’d love to say these are all common sense, but since it’s been years since I regularly exercised common sense, it never hurts to repeat them, right?

Here are some steps to protect yourself from RATs - computer infections that like to steal your keystrokes.

One of the chatboards I wander through on occasion is currently being blocked by a Denial of Service attack. In reading about the attack, I found a link to an article entitled The Attacks on GRC.COM (and no, there’s no relation between Gibson Research Company and me).

Anyway, it’s worth a read.

Either way, now that you’re thinking about it, you should:

• Run Windows Update or Apple Software Update to make sure your computer is running the latest software and security patches
• Make sure your virus software is up-to-date. (Or search for “free virus scan” on your favorite search engine and use one of the online scanners. Note: these usually only work on PCs, not Macs.)
• Make sure you’re running a good firewall — or at least check to make sure your computer’s covered. Visit Symantec’s homepage and click the “Symantec security check” link in the leftmost column for a check. (This does work on Macs.)
• RUN A BACKUP OF YOUR MOST IMPORTANT STUFF.

If you find something wrong, you don’t necessarily have to run out to the store right now and fix it (though if I were in your shoes I probably would), but PLEASE SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER when you’re not using it if it’s not secure. A computer that has no power can neither be attacked nor attack others.