After watching his computer’s performance go from a run to a limp, a former roommate of mine did a quick scan of his system to see if maybe Spyware was the culprit.
That "quick" scan lasted more than an hour, as his system located and deleted the hundreds of insidious little Spyware programs that had crept uninvited into his system, clogging up his memory and CPU. As a techie, he knew all about Spyware and how these small programs get downloaded onto your computer. Still, even he was astonished by the number of programs he had picked up.
Webopedia (www.webopedia.com) defines Spyware as "Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user’s Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes.
"Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet… Once installed, the Spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
"Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, Spyware steals from the user by using the computer’s memory resources and also be eating bandwith as it sends information back to the Spyware’s home base via the user’s Internet connection… (and) can lead to system crashes or general system instability."
Spyware can monitor your keystrokes, scan your hard drive, snoop around your applications, read your cookies, change your default home page, and prompt annoyances like pop-up windows. They really and truly suck, in every sense of the word.
There are numerous programs out there to sniff out Spyware executable programs before they burrow into your system like ticks, and a lot of them are available for free – or cheap – from sites like C/net (www.cnet.com or www.downloads.com). If you’re lucky the Spyware program you choose won’t come saddled with some Spyware of its own.
You should also scan your files now and again to pick up the Spyware that slipped in through the cracks – sometimes by visiting insidious Web sites but usually invited by downloading songs, videos and other free content through peer-to-peer networks. Hey, you get what you pay for.
Yahoo! made headlines last week when they unveiled a new Spyware hunting service for people who use their Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Called Anti-Spy, you can use this new service to scan your PC for undercover agents. It will also scan downloads, cookies and other files that you pick up as you surf the Web.
It’s not available just yet, but you should be able to get the toolbar, and a beta version of Anti-Spy, at www.yahoo.ca in the coming weeks.
Microsoft answers Google challenge
If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em.
That appears to be the philosophy behind Microsoft Corp.’s latest salvo in their battle with Google Inc., which turned hostile recently when Google announced plans to offer a free online e-mail service, like MSN Hotmail, that would offer users a full gigabyte of storage space. In addition, you would be able to search through your collection of e-mails using Google’s legendary search engine.
Microsoft has announced plans to go one better, creating a search engine that scours the Web, your e-mail and the your PC or Mac for any kind of data – movies, music, photographs, files, documents, etc.
You can probably give the edge to Microsoft here, as more than 90 per cent of personal computers are currently using a Windows operating system. Macs are about five per cent of the market, and a large chunk of the remainder are using versions of Linux. As Linux and Mac continue to improve, their market share could easily increase.
Microsoft’s new search service was created to help users navigate through growing inventories of digital content, as well as the Internet. They’re betting that more than 150 million Hotmail subscribers,120 million Messenger users, and all the Windows users out there will find it more convenient to search from their Microsoft applications than through Google.
Microsoft hopes to introduce a beta version of the technology soon and a full version is expected in the next 12 months, well in advance of their next edition of Windows XP.
Love at first byte
An online dating service called EHarmony.com patented a new software application last week that will, according to the descriptor, provide a "method and system for identifying people who are likely to have a successful relationship."
Forget romance or those great little meeting stories that all the great couples have, EHarmony is betting that true love is as formulaic as a romance novel.
The questionnaire for EHarmony is over 430 questions long, enabling the company to match up individuals who are most psychologically suited to one another.
To come up with the parameters for a successful, loving relationship EHarmony surveyed 1,347 happy couples that had used the dating service in the past to determine what makes them compatible. The idea that opposites attract may be sound, but it doesn’t make for successful relationships. People have to have similar personalities, attitudes, senses of humour and emotional responses to form lasting bonds.
In other words, people really want to date themselves, only with the opposite plumbing fixtures.
It’s not an online service like LavaLife, so you’ll have to wait until a franchise opens up near you to take the test.
