Computer bugs,worms,viruses & Spyware,Adware,Spam

...not exactly a worldshaking event,just annoying and timeconsuming junk thrown at me and most of us hobby computer users as well as businesses, institutions and so on..

Once more my confuser has been highjacked by some garbage programme...this thing makes useless ads pop up while I do something else, it also shows a number of green underlined common words such as cash,hotel,credit,phone and a number of others converted to link sources. I guess I can live with it but it is not exactly fun. I keep cleaning and desinfecting my machine as much as possible, I do not open e mail unless I know the source, but still this stuff keeps creeping into my gadget.

So...what to do..

To start with, you may want to use the programme provided by your IAP..internet access provider, in my case The  Bell Telephone Company.
Their programme is called Sympatico Scan & Clean...it sort of works but still misses a lot.  

..later the same day:-/
at least one mystery has been solved..this multiple keyboard thing...to restore the slash thing////
  turns out that all I needed to do is to hold down Ctrl and tap on the Shift key.../ amazing/ it works.
But I still have this spy bug in the system...
more later, if and  when I find the answer.

Thank you to our hosts...

It was....just past thanksgiving.. that is American Thanksgiving....I guess this is as good a time as any to thank our hosts...the natives of north-america for their understanding, hospitality and their  willingness to tolerate our continued presense here in this wonderful land we like to call USA and Canada...

We are  confused as to what we should call our hosts...Native is one descripion often found on the front tag of cars.

Indians we called these people for several hundert years since it turns out Cristobal Colon (Columbus) was under the impression that he somehow ended up in India  on his voyage to find a shorter route to China and mistakenly referrred to these folks as Indians.

 Big mistake.

If I can speak, and think of myself as a European...I find it astounding what we have done to these people over the past several hundert years...it is amazing that some are still around after all the horrible  treatment  we have put them thru.

worldconcerns....thanksgiving 2009

This was New York, September 12Th. the day after the 9/11 tragedy with the dust and dirt of this horrendous happening still in the air.

the ritual...

rememberance day...when will we ever learn...

the ugly American 12

After WWII, 1945 statistics indicate that the number of newborn babies surviving the first year had dramatically changed, American policy or applied action systematically starved the Germans to death. I know it's true, I was six years old at the end of the war and part of the starvation period between 1945 to 48.

Tribal pain....

I think I look about as German as your typical German looks like. Blond, blue eyes at 5ft9 probably a bit short..but features mannerism, gate etc German alright.
I have been in North America for over fifty years. But that is not exactly what I wanted to write about. There are moments when I feel this nagging tribal pain. Looking at an old news clip for instance seeing close to a million German soldiers marched off to Siberia, that gives me deep feelings of sadness and pain.
Somewhere about 1925 one of my mothers brothers decided to leave Germany for America. Mother grew up with several siblings in an orphanage and lost contact with brother Karl who presumably was alive and well in America. About a year ago when the names of several Iraq GI casualties were announced , one of the fellows killed was named ... Bixler. Could he have been the grandson of my long lost uncle I wondered. Somehow I felt a sense of loss...someone I never knew gave me a feeling of tribal pain..

Nobel Prize winner Obama

Much has been made the last few days of the fact that US President B.Obama received the Nobel Piece award. I agree with this decision...but the remarks I observe are generally negative...like, he just got started...has not accomplished much so far.
I disagree, strongly.
The mere emergence and presence of the man has had a more positive effect on the world than the various misdeeds during eight long years of GWB the shrub yokel. Well, that's my opinion anyway. Out of over 200 nominations for this award I believe Mr.Obama is the first choice.

Public commentary:
How ironic that Obama should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at a time when he is planning to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He now joins other illustrious 'men of peace' such as Teddy Roosevelt (invaded Cuba), Henry Kissinger (helped plan the bloody coup that overthrew Salvador Allende's democratically elected government in Chile) and Arafat (one of the progenitors of today's Islamic terrorist movements).
Although they didn't win, some of the other nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize included Adolf Hitler (nomination withdrawn), Josef Stalin and Benito Mussolini. It is especially noteworthy that Mahatma Gandhi also failed to win the prize. Clearly, the Nobel Peace Prize, like so many other accolades given to and by the wealthy, influential and powerful of the world, has less to do with peace than with the elite rewarding those within their club...

Ontario...waste of good money

Apparently...it has just come to light from a report by the Ontario Auditor General ( financial provincial watchdog reporting annually); that over a Billion Dollars of Health Contributions..by the Taxpayers have been pointlessly wasted with little or nothing to show for it...and yet the Ontario Liberal Premier looks like he and his gang have nothing to do with it...sticking their head in the sand and pleading ignorance is a lousy excuse for this squander of funds. This money was supposed to be used for a E-Health registry system to combat waste in the health care business.

The last true Tory...

...25 years later....Montreal party for the ex Prime minister....Brian Mulroney.

A fitting tribute to our past Federal PC Prime Minister and a remarkable feat his election was indeed.

Two back to back Majority Elections by the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, followed by a long reign for the Liberals.

When he was done...the PCs were finished. The party was in dire straights.But that was then.

The PC party of today is a totally different organization ,born out of the Alberta based( Preston Manning) Reform party, the Ontario remnants of the Provincial PCs. and fragments of the Eastern Region leftovers of the once powerful ruling PCs. the party is struggling to hold on to power with a minority government which could fall almost any time. My hope is that the next election will give us a slightly bigger PC government..hopefully picking up a few seats in Quebec from the ridiculous separatists. Good luck Mr. Steven Harper.

Libya

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi

...after watching this cook dictator on TV for almost two hours doing his United Nations thing...I have these comments......what a joke...this clown covered everything imaginable during his almost two hour rambling mutterings..

At 27 he managed to get rid of the king who was away for treatment in Turkey. After the demise of the once powerful Ottoman Empire of which Libya was a part, it became an Italian Colony for a while and eventually gained independence.

the ugly American 11

I just spent a few days in the states... we finally managed to get a family reunion thing into the works, decided to stay a couple of days just east of Buffalo NY at a nice Hampton Hotel..Walkerville.
On the way back from Buffalo and the American Falls, just about at the Hotel an incident took place which could easily have turned into a disaster. I crossed the light,driving my Impala, then it turned red. I was about to turn into the Hotel Parking lot when I took one more look into the rear view mirror...no good reason..just prudence I guess, at high speed a black pickup truck rapidly approaching...there was no way this idiot would or could stop at the red light...and if I had made my proper legal turn into the hotel parking lot..we surely would have been hit or wiped out.

My point here is that there are an overabundant number of stupid and ugly drivers on the road in the USA and one must wonder why.Is it the easy and relatively inexpensive availability of booze or what brings these maniacs out...or the inadequate policing or what else causes these idiots to act the way they do. Bullies.. This was not the first time I've seen this erratic and criminal behavior on the road...we are no angels here in Canada, particularly in Toronto but this scene and similar situations I've observed in the USA are far worse.

Actually....a few days later....,I've reflected on this..my writing above that is, kicked it around long and hard. My opinion has not changed much.In fact, if we...North Americans want to tell the world how to live, we should straighten out our own act. We have no business in Iraq or for that matter in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world if we are unable to behave decently on our own territory.We Americans....hm...have the highest incarceration rate in the world...and in my view a lot of evildoers are out there never apprehended I know a thing or two about the criminal element...thieves...I've been in the business of selling and installing burglar alarms for many years.

now

...mid august was my last posting..much work here in Cobourg, a new garage roof,the driveway fixed, a new large solid deck was built in the back and a number of other related tasks have been completed..a new little Ford Ranger truck was purchased as well as this goofy little front loader yard tractor....

Canada-Ontario;Courtice,east of Toronto

Just a sign of life folks, yes I am still around. The puter still gives me some challenges but I am all hooked up now in the new town and ready to roll.

I hope to be able to get back and do some art in the near future, just as soon as all my junk is unpacked or disposed off.

computer virus etc

...somewhere down page I've been dealing with this problem, a Russian Rip off scheme which sells antivirus software that does damage instead. These bandits make millions off cheated customers and it does not appear that there is anyone to make a serious effort to curtail their activities.

Ten major viruses, Trojans, and spy ware applications that you may be at risk for.


This is an important announcement for all ParetoLogic customers to make you fully aware of the current major threats to your PC's safety and the security risks associated with them. Our analysis team has designated the top 10 threats affecting PC users worldwide: Privacy Center, Pro AntiSpyware 2009, Antivirus XP, Antivirus 2009, Antivirus 360, Internet Antivirus Pro, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Cleaner, Ultimate Defender, and Renus.
Malware threats such as these can lead to criminals turning your computer into servers for SPAM email and installing spyware applications. These threats can also allow intruders to steal address books, credit card numbers, private information, and browsing histories.
If you do not have proper virus protection,
please scan your PC with Anti-Virus PLUS today to see if you are infected.
Run a Free Virus Scan and See If You Are Infected
Thank you and best regards,
The ParetoLogic Email Teamhttp://www.paretologic.com/
I purchased this software a while ago and am quite impressed with it.
I am promoting this software because it works, there is no reward involved.

CP Train derailment...Oshawa Ontario Canada

Apparently 27 rail cars went of the track this week in Oshawa...CP this time...some of them ending up in residential backyards. People were evacuated until it was considered save to return to their homes. Toxic cargo. ...sooner or later there must be some changes made. What are we waiting for? Do we really need a huge disaster to happen and only then take any needed action,
should we not be proactive and fix this now?





I wrote about this sort of thing a little while back....Ratatat..see details on my blog.
Derailments will happen occasionally, one would think with modern technology this could be avoided or minimized...27 cars in a city that's serious stuff and just to clean the mess up...pay the customers for their lost or spoiled cargo and collect insurance is not good enough.
I believe we lost CN and CP...both sold out to American interests. Can't see them investing in new and relocated facilities any time soon although that should be a mayor consideration...get dangerous cargo..or in fact any cargo away from residential areas...
We live in the second largest country on earth, surely the time has come to invest heavily in the future and improve the railway system. I can not comment much on reasons or causes for these derailments, antiquated rail lines and equipment are only some of the causes....but there is one cause I can and should comment on.

Jim D. two doors up from my house in the city ( Torronno) worked for CN. It was his job to replace bearings on rail cars. Apparently they wear out after a while and need to be replaced.These things were not like the ball bearings we are familiar with. But instead they were cast brass and lead hunks of metal...sort of kidney bean shaped,about 40 pounds or more a piece, and they are placed around the Axel pressure or weight point of the rail car. As they wear out, they need to be replaced. Instead of installing and replacing these bearings Jim would simply take them to a scrap dealer...never mind the old ones...the brand new bearings never got installed. He did that for years. Sometimes several hundred pounds a week, straight from the repair yard brand new stuff to the scrupulous scrap dealer.
I would imagine that sooner or later as these old bearings get worn out....the axle runs hot, ceases up and there you have it...one of many reasons for a derailment....
...see my blog of Feb.17/09 with these comments...:-
Rut-tat-tut-rat-ta-tut.....a train with about 100 rail cars rumbles through town..a small town on lake Ontario, Port Hope or Cobourg..does it really matter?The point is,that these rail-links are old and should have been replaced long ago.Rail is about the cheapest way to move goods unless there is a possibility of traffic by water, a barge system.And yet we see thousands of transport trucks 18 wheelers with often overtired operators slugging it out on our highways.Does it not make sens to review our transportation system? Is it not time to have a good look at where we are and where we should be going with this. During economic so called hard times we should find or create the resources to fix or renew this part of our infrastructure. People are looking for jobs and things to do and are less likely to want to go on strike for unreasonable demands. We should claim our railways back, they once were the backbone of what we were as a country and this would be the time to update the antiquated system .Years ago I suggested to build a rapid rail-link between Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal with an international Airport in or around Kingston..If this system would have been implemented we could have, today one of the most modern commuter, people moving systems in the world.Instead multi millions were wasted acquiring land in Pickering ( east of Toronto) and a totally useless airport was built in Montreal ( Mirabel,now mothballed).

GM

....two weeks after my gm notes...they're bust...bankrupt...and as well as with Chrysler,General Motors will be in a chapter 11 situation.
Once more, Ford will be the only American Automobile manufactures in the USA, Ford once produced 55% of all cars made in the USA. That was in the model T days.
According to the news reports it looks like GM's Pontiac and Saturn operations may be shut down completely and the Chevrolet operations will be the only operating part of the once mighty General Motors.
Chrysler, after Chapter 11 may sell it's remnants to Fiat... and wherever that's going nobody knows.

mighty GM

For the once mighty GM corporation,today is the day the award winning small truck plant in Oshawa is closing down...apparently for good....gloom and doom all around. I live here and the change in the GM structure is taking it's toll on the town and the region.

They( the Motors)... are now frantically building the new Camaro here, about the only thing left out here to assemble...the new model Camaro, but to introduce a new muscle car at a time when gasoline is 96 cents a liter may not be the thing needed at this time to pull GM out of the dumps.

They say Saturn and Pontiac brands will disappear. At the same time it was announced today in the States that about 900 Chrysler dealers are about to shut down and the company will indeed declare chapter 11... Fiat takeover or not.

I have no idea where all this is going...obviously gross mismanagement of resources is one reason. It is easy enough to blame the Unions for their excessive and costly demands but I think most of that is just nonsense. Management is as much or more to blame for the ridiculous state GM and the industry as such is in today.

There will be cars built in North America, it's ironic that the two former enemies of the USA, Japan and Germany may end up supplying most of the future cars running in this region of the world built in USA or Canada.

One of the greatest creations of man, the "Automotive Car" or popularly known as the "Car" is a result of man's consistent efforts and perseverance. Over the years, the automobile industry has evolved as one of the main revenue generators, provider of employment and has progressed a lot.
Though the credit for the modern day automobile goes to Karl Friedrich Benz (from Germany), the first theoretical plans for a motor vehicle were conceptualized by both Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci.

...the picture features a Tata Indica car made in India by the most rapidly growing car builder in the world....watch them grow and produce the cheapest quality car in the world...

Tamil

Much in the news here lately ( Canada Toronto Ontario ) people of Sri Lanka who more recently came to Canada as immigrants.... still much involved in supporting efforts in their former homeland to create a separate country on the formerly called island of Ceylon, south of India...

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, is a political and military group that is fighting for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka.
It emerged in response to tensions between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils in the island nation south of India.


(Source: Public Safety Canada)
The group's roots can be traced back to 1974, when several Tamil militants created the Tamil New Tigers (TNT). LTTE was officially founded two years later, in May 1976, by Velupillai Prabhakaran and members of the TNT,considered a terrorist organization by Canada, is known for its suicide attacks and is said to have pioneered the use of suicide vests.
The Tigers are fighting for an independent state in the north and eastern parts of Sri Lanka, an area they refer to as Tamil Eelam.
In 1983, 13 Sinhalese soldiers in northern Jaffna were killed in an ambush by Tigers, sparking anti-Tamil riots that led to the deaths of an estimated several hundred Tamils. It also forced thousands of Tamils to flee the country.
That marked the beginning of what the Tigers call the First Eelam War between the Tamil separatists and Sinhalese-dominated government.
It is a civil war that would continue to claim 70,000 lives over the years and is still not over.
Attempts at peace
In the 1980s, the Indian military service became involved in the conflict by helping train and arm the Tigers.The Tamil Tigers want an independent state in north and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. (CBC)
In 1987, India and Sri Lanka signed an accord in which Colombo agreed to create new councils for Tamil areas in the north and east. It also reached an agreement with India to deploy an Indian peacekeeping force to curb the violence in northern Sri Lanka.
But the peacekeeping force soon found itself embroiled in the bloody conflict and eventually withdrew.
On May 21, 1991, a suspected female member of the LTTE assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in an apparent act of revenge against India for sending a peacekeeping force who ended up fighting the rebels.
The Tigers have been known to use women and children in their suicide attacks. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said they recorded more than 6,000 cases of children recruited by the LTTE between 2003 and 2008.
The Tigers and the Sri Lankan government agreed to a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in 2002 that a war-weary public hoped would bring lasting peace. But talks broke off in 2003 and violence flared up yet again.
When the Boxing Day tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, the civil strife was set aside as the country struggled to deal with the worst disaster in its history.
About two-thirds of the damage was in the northeastern areas of the island, parts of which were Tiger territory. However, in the aftermath the Tamil Tigers were reportedly preying on tsunami orphans to use as child soldiers, according to UNICEF.
When billions of dollars in foreign aid flowed into the country for tsunami relief, the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission brokered a deal between the Tamil Tigers and the government. The controversial agreement had the groups share responsibility for the money allocated for the disaster's survivors. But the Sri Lankan Supreme Court struck it down.
Fundraising abroad
In February 2006, the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government met for the first time since 2003 and agreed to extend the ceasefire. They also planned to meet again for more negotiations.
But it didn't stop the violence. Among the deaths blamed on the fighting was a deadly sea battle on May 11, 2006, that claimed the lives of 17 soldiers and about 45 rebels.
A Human Rights Watch report released in March 2006 said the Tamil Tigers were using threats and intimidation tactics to extort money from Sri Lankans living in Canada.

Fundraisers, often working in pairs, knocked on the doors of Tamil families to solicit donations.
The fundraisers were quoted as saying they were "collecting for the final war against the Sri Lankan government." The donation drive targeted Tamil families in Toronto, home to one of the largest Tamil populations outside Sri Lanka.
"Tamils unable to pay say they have been told by LTTE fundraisers to borrow the money, make a contribution on their credit card or even re-mortgage their home," Human Rights Watch said in a news release.
In April of 2006, the Canadian government added the LTTE to its official list of terrorist organizations for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers in the conflict. The designation makes it a crime to fundraise for the group.
Ceasefire ends
The Sri Lankan government officially ended the ceasefire agreement on Jan. 16, 2008.
By early 2009, the Sri Lankan army said they had ousted Tamil Tigers from many of its strongholds in the north and said it was poised to defeat the rebel group in its heartland after the 26-year civil war. The government acknowledged wiping out sleeper cells across the country could take another two years.
Though many senior Tigers figures have been killed in the fighting, the group's leader and founder, Prabhakaran, is still at large.
In April 2009, Sri Lanka rejected a call from the UN for a ceasefire, saying that would allow the rebels to regroup.
But as the fighting continues, aid groups are worried about thousands of civilians who fled to an area declared by the Sri Lankan military as a no-fire zone earlier in the year and are now trapped near the fighting.
The United Nations estimates 150,000 to 190,000 civilians are trapped there, with dozens dying each day. The government says 30,000 to 40,000 still remain, and more than 23,000 civilians escaped last month.
Expatriate Tamils have condemned the government's offensive, accusing the government of targeting civilians.
The Sri Lankan government has also accused Tigers of using Tamil civilians trapped in the north as human shields against the military campaign.
International aid organizations accuse both government forces and the rebels of breaking international humanitarian laws, and warn of a high rate of civilian casualties.

one more star ***** for Colin Powell

CNN coverage by Larry King of the former VP, sour faced ( what's his name...Cheney the munition master) proclaiming that he was under the impression that C.Powell had already abandoned his party
( remember the Republicans ?) and joined the Democrats by supporting or rather endorsing Obama.
I think this bunch of misguided warmonger screwballs ( that's the former administration of shrub hangers on) should keep a low profile for a while and allow the new administration to clean up some of the horrendous mess they left.
Comparing Limbaugh with Powell is like comparing an elephant with a chicken...why is this loudmouth radio entertainer even being discussed..?
Iraq-Afghanistan-border problems-9/11 unresolved-incredible financial meltdown-AEG-inability to make progress on health care.....big industry going bankrupt, trade imbalance with former enemy China, the list goes on....

size....educating Sarah....

...and here is something else you really should know...
what are the largest ten countries in the world...?
1-Russia...or as it is now called the Russian Federation. About 12 % of the earths surface is under Russian control with a population of about 144 Million, even after the break up of the Soviet Union, Russia is still by far the largest country in the world today.
2-Canada...with just under 10,000 sq km as compared to Russia's 17,000 Canada is the second largest country, with a population of under 40 million. and 6.7% of the land area.
3-China, 9.6k sq km or 6.6% at about the same size as the USA
4-USA, about the same size as China 9.600 sq km or 6.5%
5-Brazil, 8,5k sq km 5.7%
6-Australia..country and continent at 7.700 sq km and 7.7% earths surface
7-India, 3,200 sq km
8-Argentina, 2,700 sq km
9-Kazakhstan, former component of USSR 2,700 sq km
10-The Sudan...1,700 sq.km

Places like Britain, Germany,France,Spain, Italy and Sweden are well down the list as an example GB is .16% of world land area, Germany .23%