Is the email world a slightly safer place to be?

As some readers might know, I installed a virus scanning solution for the D’Arque Cathedral email setup. The virus scanning consists of all email being filtered through a combination of Clam AntiVirus and amavisd-new; any infected message gets quarantined before it hits a mailbox and an email warning is sent to me. Anyway, on a whim, I checked my mail folder that contains the virus alerts, and checked to see when the last time an infected email message hit the server.

The last actual worm-infected message to hit my server was received on August 3rd. All alerts since then have been for phishing emails (which ClamAV/amavisd-new also detect).

I must say, I’m rather surprised that I’ve gone an entire month without getting an actual virus/worm email to ANY address on my mail server. Maybe all of the fuss that was made in the news about these viruses have wised people up to the fact that if they’re running Windows, they NEED virus scanners. I can’t imagine the worm writers had just given up. Maybe, just maybe, the public at large will listen to security concerns about their PCs if they’re shouted loud enough.

Here’s hoping that’s the case, anyway.

Something amusing for you Transformers fans…

I know I’m probably late to the game here, so to speak, but I found this rather amusing. Forgive the inherent geekiness of this post…

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been playing the Transformers game for Playstation 2. It’s a surprisingly good game, actually. However, it’s not based on Generation 1 (the mid-80’s TV series and movie). It’s based on Transformers: Armada, which admittedly started out pretty badly but seriously improved as the series went on. Anyway, the opening movie for the game shows Megatron and Optimus Prime battling atop a building on Cybertron, while Megatron’s army of Decepticlones are overwhelming the Autobot defenses. Then, suddenly, Megatron throws out a line that was a nod to G1.

He grabbed Optimus by the throat and said, “I would have waited an eternity for this. It’s over, Prime!”

Those were the same words said by Megatron after mortally wounding Optimus in the movie… heh. Yes, like I said, it’s geeky. It amused me, though… heh.

… another reason why this country is going to hell…

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/NEWS24/608290360/-1/NEWS


COLUMBUS – An Ohio legislative panel yesterday rubber-stamped an unprecedented process that would allow sex offenders to be publicly identified and tracked even if they’ve never been charged with a crime.

No one in attendance voiced opposition to rules submitted by Attorney General Jim Petro’s office to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, consisting of members of the Ohio House and Senate.

The committee’s decision not to interfere with the rules puts Ohio in a position to become the first state to test a “civil registry.”

The concept was offered by Roman Catholic bishops as an alternative to opening a one-time window for the filing of civil lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse that occurred as long as 35 years ago.

A recently enacted law allows county prosecutors, the state attorney general, or, as a last resort, alleged victims to ask judges to civilly declare someone to be a sex offender even when there has been no criminal verdict or successful lawsuit.

The rules spell out how the untried process would work. It would largely treat a person placed on the civil registry the same way a convicted sex offender is treated under Ohio’s so-called Megan’s Law.

… wow, that’s nice. Let’s go ahead and punish someone even though we couldn’t convict him in a criminal trial! (And yes, being on one of these registries is a punishment.) It disgusts me how civil courts/law is being used to trump the “beyond a reasonable doubt” stipulation of the criminal courts. Just like civil forfeiture laws, this punishes the legally innocent.

This is just another reason why I say I love the concept and idea of America, but the reality horrifies me…