These aren’t the droids you’re looking for
Folks, I need a vacation. The tech headlines are making me jaundiced.
There are some things happening that show just how snafu this thing we call “the Internet” really is.. a house built on sand. For example..
1) This week, one guy almost broke the Internet. How? Why? He didn’t like the fact that some whitehats (good guys) did something that affected his ability to send spam (obviously, a lowlife *scuzbucket*) so he decided to punish them. See, Misconfigured, Open DNS Servers Used In Record-Breaking DDoS Attack
Biggest-ever distributed denial-of-service attack originally aimed at Spamhaus escalates and hits other corners of the Net
“This was not your typical hacktivist DDoS attack: a massive, 300 gigabits-per-second traffic attack against volunteer spam filtering organization Spamhaus spread yesterday to multiple Internet exchanges and ultimately slowed traffic for users mainly in Europe.”
[ I chose that particular write up due to some stellar quotes cited in it.. ]
And just one more “another item” (there are several recently) …
2) DHS Warns of ‘TDos’ Extortion Attacks on Public Emergency Networks
“As if emergency responders weren’t already overloaded: Increasingly, extortionists are launching debilitating attacks designed to overwhelm the telephone networks of emergency communications centers and personnel, according to a confidential alert jointly issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.”
And the sheep lower their heads and continue to graze. (‘Cuz that Internet, she’s a real money maker! And Facebook is fun!)
I’ll be absent for a few days. I need to recoup.
If you care, Microsoft’s forced “upgrade” to Outlook.com was the straw that has ‘forced’ me to switch from my long-time favorite browser, Firefox, to Opera (with the NotSripts, WOT, AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, Gmelius, KeyScrambler, and AdFree YouTube “extensions”).
Oddly, I’ve been using Opera for a week, and haven’t been prompted (read: “interupted & annoyed”) once to “update to the latest version!” … feels weird. Feels nice!
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• About Tech Paul
I am a (semi)-Retired CompTIA Certified computer & network technician, and the owner of Aplus Computer Aid. I have been building/fixing networks and computers since Windows 95 was the new kid on the block.
I have regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here since 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers.) Sometimes I answer (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer is generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see is my own, typos and all. There is an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
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Do tell how you like Opera. I’ve been using Google Chrome for a few years and have never looked back (even use it on my iPad and iPhone instead of Safari). It has some of the same addons that Firefox does, without the slowness and updating. Fantastic! :)
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Samantha,
I am rather pleased with it so far, and have high hopes it will continue to meet my… “standards”.
Many of my clients use Chrome, but I refuse to help Google learn more about me than they already know, and there’s other parts of it I hate, so, not my cup of tea. To each their own, right?
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Most definitely. :)
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Samantha,
Sheeze, I forgot to mention..! I have read many reviewers (both pro and netizens) commentaries saying Opera Mobile is the best browser on smartphones (including iGadgets) but have not done personal direct comparisons.
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