Don't Get Fooled!

The new storm worm has an April Fool's Day theme. Victims will receive e-mail messages that contain links that direct users to Web sites that contain malware.
Once the files are downloaded and executed on the computer it sets a firewall exception rule and then attempts to 'phone home' using various outgoing ports , The packer and major sections of executable code have changed significantly, indicating that it could be another variant and AV detection for this threat is close to nonexistent.

Currently, this variant of the Storm Worm Trojan is being observed as having the following file names:
• aromis.exe
• foolsday.exe
• funny.exe
• kickme.exe

Subject lines can change at any time, but the following are currently being seen:
• All Fools' Day
• Doh! All's Fool, Doh! April's Fool
• Gotcha!, Gotcha! All Fool!, Gotcha! April Fool!
• Happy All Fool's Day, Happy All Fools Day!, Happy All Fools!
• Happy April Fool's Day, Happy April Fools Day!, Happy Fools Day!
• I am a Fool for your Love
• Join the Laugh-A-Lot!
• Just You
• One who is sportively imposed upon by others on the first day of April
• Surprise!, Surprise! The joke's on you
• Today You Can Officially Act Foolish
• Today's Joke!

The most effective way users can protect against these new threats is with anti-malware products that use behavioral technology. Traditional Anti-virus products, which use signature detection are simply not equipped with this behavioral technology and the threat is currently evading those users' defenses.

As always exercise caution when opening emails and surfing the internet. Don't just click on random links sent to your account via e-mail. Exercise even more caution when that random link is attempting to download a file to your system.

To protect your home Microsoft windows computer you should always practice the following:
• Enable windows update and apply all patches
• Install anti-virus software and keep virus signature files up-to-date.
• Do not open unsolicited email.
• Do not follow unsolicited links.

If you receive this type of e-mail, you should immediately delete it.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander

Contrarily to popular belief, a gander is not a group of geese, that's a gaggle. A gander is male goose. A female goose is simply called a goose while baby geese are called goslings. Now that that’s cleared up, what is does this saying mean? It is usually used when talking about a relationship between people. It means that what is acceptable for one member of the relationship is acceptable for the others, preventing a double standard. Double standards are when certain applications may be acceptable to one group, but seen as taboo to another. If a goose says for the gander not to do something on Monday, and then on Friday she turns around and does the exact same thing, that technology is not a double standard. That’s a hypocrite. There is a distinction to be made between double standards and hypocrisy, which implies the acceptance of a single standard a person claims to hold himself or herself accountable to, but which in practice may be ignoreded. The difference is in the action, in this example, the goose condemned the gander’s intended activity then on Friday she actually participated in the activity. It’s a slight difference but hypocrisy and double standards are basically the same idea. Both violate the principle of fairness, which is based on the assumption that the same standards should be applied to all people, without discrepancy. Holding different people accountable according to different standards is wrong and unjust. All people should be treated fairly and when in the same predicament, the same rules should apply. What is good for a man is equally good for a woman; or, what a man can have or do, so can a woman have or do. Practice what you preach and always preach the same sermon.

Desparate, Need Financial Bailout to Pay Bonuses

Imagine you’re driving down the highway and you exit off the exit. At the stoplight you see a desolate man and his family standing beside the road begging with a sign that reads “Homeless, Need Food”. You feel empathic towards him and his family so you give the man some money. Later on that day, you are out to dinner with you family at an expensive restaurant and you notice the same man and his family sitting at the table next to you. You confront the man and he explains “Yes, We’re homeless and hungry but I promised my daughter I would take her to this restaurant if she made perfect attendance in school this year, and she did, so I can’t go back on my promise.” Is he right or wrong? That’s basically the current situation with AIG. The company promised all these retention bonuses for people agreeing to work for them for the past year before they accepted the fact the company was headed for failure and was given a financial bailout. I personally think both situations are wrong. Both the homeless man and AIG needed to prioritize and accept that their financial situation had changed and neither could afford to be wasteful with their charitable gifts. The homeless man could have provided many more, cheaper meals for his family instead of fulfilling a promise. Feelings may get hurt and lawsuits may emerge but making irrational decisions based on fear is neither smart nor moral. Like perfect attendance, retention bonuses were promised and given as a result of attendance. They were not based on performance, so to get these bonuses all these executive had to do was “show up for work”. The daughter may have showed up every day for school but if she, like the executives still flunks out what are you rewarding? AIG rewarded the same f-ups that ran the company into the ground creating a need for a final bailout. Apparently, those same f-ups are still running the company further into the ground but now they’re using our tax dollars.

Now the federal government is planning on placing a 90% tax on these types of bonuses, leaving the remaining 10% to be tax by the local state government. The taxes would apply to all companies receiving government bailout money, but they are clearly geared toward AIG. Sounds good to me!

Throwing Money On The Highway

So I’m driving home yesterday and I pass a car going in the opposite direction with the driver’s side door open. First I wondered why the door was open, and then I realized that the rear passenger was throwing his Pringles’ tube and empty drink bottle onto the highway. What a lazy mofo! The NC General Assembly is considering requiring a deposit on drink bottles and cans. The current proposal would require customers to pay an extra 10 cents on each can and bottle purchased. This deposit could cut the amount of litter along state highways. The deposit would create a reason for people to turn the cans and bottles in at designated collection sites to get money back. Eleven states already have so-called "bottle bills" in place and have seen a huge decrease in the amount of bottle along the highways. North Carolina currently spends about $16 million a year cleaning roadsides, and officials said about half of the litter is cans and plastic and glass bottles. Although I have no desire to pay an extra 10 cent for an already over-priced 20oz Dr. Pepper, I feel this program will decrease the amount of trash along the highway as well as the amount of tax money spent to pick up after lazy mofo. The program will fund itself and cut back on the $16 million a year NC is currently spending to clean the roadside. In light of today’s exhausted economy, this is the type of unconventional measures we need to take to reduce spending. The money not redeemed would be used to pay for the program and help fund other highway cleanup efforts.

You Can't Beat A Tiger With A Stick!

This blog is in response to the recent Siberian Tiger attack at a wildlife park near Beijing.

On March 7, 2009, it was reported that a three men were hiking along the Great Wall of China when they decided to take a short cut that landed them in the Badaling Wildlife World Tiger enclosure. Once inside the enclosure, a Siberian tiger pounced on one of the men knocking him down and clamping its jaws around his throat. Luckily the two other men escaped.

So today, a co-worker and I pondered about how we would have reacted in this situation being one of the two men who had the option to escape. My first response, which I believe to be completely honest, is to hall ass back to the fence we climbed in on. For the sake of argument, my co-worker stated that move would be completely wrong. He claims the correct procedure would be to find a stick or “something” and beat the tiger until he let the guy with his face in the tiger’s mouth go. My response to him is “You can’t beat a tiger with a stick”. Let’s be realistic about the situation if you pick up a stick and hit a 500 pound Siberian tiger, no matter how big the stick is, it’s only going to make the tiger mad. The tiger may release the victim but the victim is in no shape to run to safety and you are now the tiger’s main focus. This leads to a new predicament, for you to get away from a tiger that’s hunting you. NEWSFLASH: You can’t out run a tiger either.

I feel sorry for the family for their loss of a loved one to a tiger being a tiger but for the three men to ignore several warning signs that stated Beware of Predatory Animals there is no excuse. You can’t blame the tiger. To paraphrase Katt Williams, if you’re a grown man and you get killed by a tiger in the zoo than I feel God’s Will has been done, that’s exactly what’s suppose to happen.

Fox News: Bias and Subjective

First of all, there is nothing fair nor balance about Fox News, more like bias and subjective. At work we are tormented with this garbage on five 52 inch flat screen televisions in surround sound, on a daily basis. Most days I would love to hurl my lunch directly at my so called “fox and friends”. Fox News’s discredit in their dishonesty in labeling biased reporting as "fair and balanced". The difference between Fox News and any other news source is objective reporting and distinguishing editorial programs from hard news programs. Bias is perfectly acceptable for editorials but on Fox News, it is opinions all day long, delivered as hard news. Fox News doesn’t’t report the entire news story but breaks a part speeches and negatively reports a few lines of distort information. Currently, every story is twisted into a negative attack at the current administration. President Obama is not perfect but he’s done more in two months to try to fix the economy than the last administration did in 8 years. Maybe if Fox News had covered George’s 8 years of f*ck ups like they have cover’s the current administration; we would not be in this mess. Instead they chose to take a see no evil, hear no evil approach to Mr. Bush. In conclusion Fox News is bias and so is this blog. The difference is this blog is an editorial, based on my opinion not researched facts and data. Basically Fox News is bad. Stop believing everything you see on Fox News!

The Great Converter Box Conspiracy

I received my digital converter box today, it's a Dish Network DTV Pal Plus. It's pretty cool, well not really it's just a box that let you see basic channels on your TV, but they're clear and it's free. So if times get any tougher I can call up my satellite provider and say, "Hey I need my 60 bucks, cancel this $#*!" and still be able to catch Knight Rider on Wednesdays. LOL

Anyway, I read/watch these "nut jobs" on the Internet claiming conspiracy behind the converter boxes (google it, do i have to do everything 4 you). Apparently someone is suppose to be using the converter box to watch me sit on my couch, scratch myself and "stare at them" and in return I get to watch Knight Rider in crystal clear digital form for free. (Sounds fair to me). This leads me to a bunch of questions, these conspiracy theorist avoid answering when I reply on their blog or YouTube video;

1) Why in the hell would anybody want to watch me watch TV?
2)Why would they need a converter box to do this? Why not use the satellite box, cable box, DSL modem or the fifty other things hooked up to my TV? Who in the world uses rabbit ears to watch TV in 2009?
3) In order to watch everyone in the world, that would mean half the people in the world would have to be watching the other half of the people, then who is watching them, and why don't I know any professional coach watcher?
4))If these conspiracy theorist are so concerned about being watched, why in the world would you make a video and post it on YouTube?
5) What great accomplishment will they achieve by studying me sitting on my couch?

Anyway, if you would like a $40 TV Converter Box Coupon go to the government website wwwDTV2009.gov, fill out the form, when the cards arrives in the mail, go to one of the stores/websites listed on the government website and purchase a DTV converter box. Bring it home, hook it up to your analog TV (you don't need one for your digital TV) and your rabbit ears and watch some digitally clear basic TV (I recommend Knight Rider).

TIP: If you don't want to be watched, get a sheet of aluminum foil, make a hat with a pointed top, place it on top your head. Turn your converter box towards the wall and position your couch slightly to the left of your TV set, so you're watching out from the corner. Sit down and watch some digitally clear basic TV (I recommed the weather channel for you)

Is your Marraige Fireproof?

Last night I watched the movie Fireproof, It's a good chistain movie that lead to the title of this posting. I'm not going to ruin the plot so you'll have to check it out for yourself. My favorite quote of this movie is "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it". Well the movie is about Marriage, so the quote is basically saying that if your marraige is fireproof that doesn't mean that there will never been hard times but when the hard times come, will you be able to work it out and stay together. I believe my marriage is fireproof because my wife and I have seen the flames but we're still here together. We're able to work through our problems. I'll end this blog with a quote from Chris Rock, "I ain't gonna nowhere".

Look @ Me, Im blogging too

I decided to start blogging today, Yeah, I must have been that bored. I started twittering too but I didn't get it, must be for those old farts in Washington who think twittering was more important than listening to the President. That's a shame, the twittering congress. I also started digging, I get that a little more than twitter. So I'm blogging about twittering and digging. A few years ago that whole sentence would have been totally uncomprehensive. LOL Since I'm online 24/7 anyway, why not do something unproductive. Ok that's it, I logged in, I twittered, I dugg, I blogged, without breaking a sweat.