Something quite silly, this happens when you get bored you know!
Browse to a website with some images on, eg http://news.bbc.co.uk
Copy and paste the following into your address bar, its perfectly safe, i have tried it
javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+ "px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+" px"}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);
You get different effects in IE and Firefox....
Enjoy
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Laptops and the January Sales
Well following on from my post below, i've been out and bought a 16Gb USB drive, so there you go.
On to the matter at hand then, a new laptop...
I've been hunting round for a new one for a couple of weeks, and managed to stumble across a sony one which i thought was quite decent for the monetary outlay. However, news came my way that sony's are about as stable as a wooden chinese house in an earthquake, and tend to break a bit too often for our liking, so that was put on the shelf and the hunt resumed.
I then found an acer one, exactly the same spec as the sony one, but cheaper. Wonderful i thought, and then did some research and found that the graphics chip in it is woeful. So now the hunt has once again resumed with my budget increased, as i don't want something that is good now, but a year from now can't run anything at a decent speed, when i could have paid an extra £300 and got another 3 years out of it....
On to the matter at hand then, a new laptop...
I've been hunting round for a new one for a couple of weeks, and managed to stumble across a sony one which i thought was quite decent for the monetary outlay. However, news came my way that sony's are about as stable as a wooden chinese house in an earthquake, and tend to break a bit too often for our liking, so that was put on the shelf and the hunt resumed.
I then found an acer one, exactly the same spec as the sony one, but cheaper. Wonderful i thought, and then did some research and found that the graphics chip in it is woeful. So now the hunt has once again resumed with my budget increased, as i don't want something that is good now, but a year from now can't run anything at a decent speed, when i could have paid an extra £300 and got another 3 years out of it....
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Flash Memory
I've just noticed you can buy a 16Gb Play.com USB drive for £16.99. Thats quite mad, quite, quite mad...
KIS 2009 Review Part 3
Conclusion
Basically to sum up this review as i think I've pretty much covered everything and my attention span has started to wander...
KIS is a very good Security Suite if you are unsure of all the technical terms and just want something that works without asking complicated questions and requires no skill or expertise to setup.
Its far from perfect, although the slowdown on the system deserves another mention, as its hardly anything at all, memory wise a bit big, but these days, who cares, 2-4 gig ram is becoming the norm and if you can't squander a little bit of memory for your computer protection, you should be ashamed of yourself!
The regular updates are good, and more and more security firms; Symantec, Mcafee et al are taking notice and increasingly putting these into their new products.
In summation then, worth buying if you don't fancy the more complicated route, but not the hands down winner overall compared to other software out there.
Basically to sum up this review as i think I've pretty much covered everything and my attention span has started to wander...
KIS is a very good Security Suite if you are unsure of all the technical terms and just want something that works without asking complicated questions and requires no skill or expertise to setup.
Its far from perfect, although the slowdown on the system deserves another mention, as its hardly anything at all, memory wise a bit big, but these days, who cares, 2-4 gig ram is becoming the norm and if you can't squander a little bit of memory for your computer protection, you should be ashamed of yourself!
The regular updates are good, and more and more security firms; Symantec, Mcafee et al are taking notice and increasingly putting these into their new products.
In summation then, worth buying if you don't fancy the more complicated route, but not the hands down winner overall compared to other software out there.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
KIS 2009 Review Part 2
Here we go then, hold on to your tonsils, its part two of my review...
Living with it
Arguably the most important part of any background software on your computer: how is it to live with day to day? You don't want something that jumps in your face every time you do something, or it thinks you need to be alerted that your firewall has just noticed a stray packet and is mildly alarmed that your system may be compromised. On the other hand you don't want it to sit there and do nothing and then when queried responds, 'Oh yeah your system is infected with xyz, do you want me to get rid of it for you?'.
With that in mind then time to see how KIS shapes up. Very well is the answer to that, unsurprising given that they have been in the field for some time, and should have a firm grasp of how users prefer things to act, and what they want from security software.
The software sits quietly in the background, alerting you whenever it finds something infectious or requiring some input from you. It could do everything automatically, but likes to check with you first, in case that suspicious file is something you perhaps know about but are sure is clean. If it does find a virus though, it deals with it and removes all trace from your system with the minimum of fuss or interaction.
The one caveat to that is the firewall that loves to automatically classify everything into one of four categories, Untrusted, High Restricted, Low Restricted, and Trusted. It scans the application when its first ran and the firewall determines from that where to place it. Helpful yes, not always entirely accurate though. Also is slightly less secure than manually asking you to allow traffic and certain types of traffic to and from an application, aka Zonealarm for example. You can manually move the applications freely around the four categories, but its still not giving you total control over how that application accesses the internet.
For the layman though overall the whole system is very good, very little interaction means they are less likely to be confused by security warnings and accidently click the allow instead of the deny button and render their system a little less secure than before.
Updates are regular and are done without any loss in system security or speed. You can ask the software to alert you when its updated if you wish, but as its done every hour, they can get a little annoying and the default is probably best, of not telling you, just doing it. You can manually update them if you wish, however its not the end of the world if you just leave it alone.
The Antispam element deserves special praise from me though, as its the only one that i have used that actually has a plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird. All the usual emails clients are covered, Outlook, The Bat etc, but Thunderbird usually gets missed off.
Training the system is as easy as training the inbuilt Thunderbird filter, class mail as spam or not spam, and the system learns what constitutes a spam message. KIS also has some inbuilt databases to give it a head start, and these are very good for avoiding the dreaded false positives that plague most antispam software.
Overall then the software (minus the firewall) has been very good and can be reccommended for both casual users, those that browse the web and get email, and proper ardent users of a computer, those who know what a kernel, spyware and keyloggers actually are. In the final part of the review i shall focus on system performance, and once again review the good and bad points of the suite.
Till next time, don't do anything daft, unless you have a permit.
Living with it
Arguably the most important part of any background software on your computer: how is it to live with day to day? You don't want something that jumps in your face every time you do something, or it thinks you need to be alerted that your firewall has just noticed a stray packet and is mildly alarmed that your system may be compromised. On the other hand you don't want it to sit there and do nothing and then when queried responds, 'Oh yeah your system is infected with xyz, do you want me to get rid of it for you?'.
With that in mind then time to see how KIS shapes up. Very well is the answer to that, unsurprising given that they have been in the field for some time, and should have a firm grasp of how users prefer things to act, and what they want from security software.
The software sits quietly in the background, alerting you whenever it finds something infectious or requiring some input from you. It could do everything automatically, but likes to check with you first, in case that suspicious file is something you perhaps know about but are sure is clean. If it does find a virus though, it deals with it and removes all trace from your system with the minimum of fuss or interaction.
The one caveat to that is the firewall that loves to automatically classify everything into one of four categories, Untrusted, High Restricted, Low Restricted, and Trusted. It scans the application when its first ran and the firewall determines from that where to place it. Helpful yes, not always entirely accurate though. Also is slightly less secure than manually asking you to allow traffic and certain types of traffic to and from an application, aka Zonealarm for example. You can manually move the applications freely around the four categories, but its still not giving you total control over how that application accesses the internet.
For the layman though overall the whole system is very good, very little interaction means they are less likely to be confused by security warnings and accidently click the allow instead of the deny button and render their system a little less secure than before.
Updates are regular and are done without any loss in system security or speed. You can ask the software to alert you when its updated if you wish, but as its done every hour, they can get a little annoying and the default is probably best, of not telling you, just doing it. You can manually update them if you wish, however its not the end of the world if you just leave it alone.
The Antispam element deserves special praise from me though, as its the only one that i have used that actually has a plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird. All the usual emails clients are covered, Outlook, The Bat etc, but Thunderbird usually gets missed off.
Training the system is as easy as training the inbuilt Thunderbird filter, class mail as spam or not spam, and the system learns what constitutes a spam message. KIS also has some inbuilt databases to give it a head start, and these are very good for avoiding the dreaded false positives that plague most antispam software.
Overall then the software (minus the firewall) has been very good and can be reccommended for both casual users, those that browse the web and get email, and proper ardent users of a computer, those who know what a kernel, spyware and keyloggers actually are. In the final part of the review i shall focus on system performance, and once again review the good and bad points of the suite.
Till next time, don't do anything daft, unless you have a permit.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
KIS 2009 Review Part 1
I think its probably time to give you some idea of what i think of KIS 2009. This will be part one of several, not sure how many yet, but I'll try and keep them reasonably condensed.
Installation
Could have been easier, lets put it that way. I don't honestly believe Kaspersky intended it to be quite as difficult as i made it but still...
Started off quite promisingly, uninstalled Nod32 and Comodo Firewall, did the normal reboot that is required when you do that sort of thing, and then all hell broke loose.
Windows arrived back on the screen and immediately i knew something was amiss as i got a huge pop-up "Your System is INFECTED!". Blimey, just a minute, let me get a cup of tea and a biscuit and you can fill me in on the details.
In the four seconds it took me to launch the Kaspersky installer, i had been infested with something called MicroAV. Annoying little bastard it is too, pops up every time you try to do anything, which hampers trying to install the software to get rid of the thing. I even tried to do it in safe mode, but as installations of software can only occur in 'proper mode' according to the vista message i got, that didn't help me much.
Finally managed to get Kaspersky installed and it went a bit downhill again then. Having installed it and restarted (again) it duly informs me that its not activated and needs doing. No problem, i have me key handy, so i click on Activate Now and wait....and wait....oh...its crashed. That's handy then. Try again...nope crashed again...repeat ad nausem...
I then had to become slightly counter productive, and uninstall the program that should have cleaned my system up, restart and install it again. It then occurred to me that when i installed the first time, i had disabled the internet to try and avoid a massive spyware invasion. The second time i left it connected and hoped for the best. Turns out this was a very good idea as the installer told me there was an updated version of Kaspersky and did i want it, much clicking of yes and it downloaded a 37meg update which actually activated and worked properly.
Turns out however that KIS 2009 is more prevention than cure, as trying to conduct a scan that would remove the infections whilst it was sorting out the firewall and working out which programs were safe and which weren't is quite hard. I dare say it would have removed the infections, but i was that pissed off with pop-ups by this stage that i just downloaded other spyware removal software that i know works, removed what bits i could, and sorted the system out that way.
Once i had removed the obvious stuff and got a computer that worked properly, i did conduct a full system scan, and it did find some stuff hidden away in temp directory's and other places and removed them. Whether it has caught the lot i don't know, but everything seems fine up to now.
And now we arrive here, everything is installed, everything is working and the system is ticking along as it should. So what do we draw from this early foray into KIS? Once installed it seems good, if my system was clean, I'm sure the install would have been smooth and painless, but alas. Based on that though, so far I'm quietly impressed, time will tell if i remain so...
Installation
Could have been easier, lets put it that way. I don't honestly believe Kaspersky intended it to be quite as difficult as i made it but still...
Started off quite promisingly, uninstalled Nod32 and Comodo Firewall, did the normal reboot that is required when you do that sort of thing, and then all hell broke loose.
Windows arrived back on the screen and immediately i knew something was amiss as i got a huge pop-up "Your System is INFECTED!". Blimey, just a minute, let me get a cup of tea and a biscuit and you can fill me in on the details.
In the four seconds it took me to launch the Kaspersky installer, i had been infested with something called MicroAV. Annoying little bastard it is too, pops up every time you try to do anything, which hampers trying to install the software to get rid of the thing. I even tried to do it in safe mode, but as installations of software can only occur in 'proper mode' according to the vista message i got, that didn't help me much.
Finally managed to get Kaspersky installed and it went a bit downhill again then. Having installed it and restarted (again) it duly informs me that its not activated and needs doing. No problem, i have me key handy, so i click on Activate Now and wait....and wait....oh...its crashed. That's handy then. Try again...nope crashed again...repeat ad nausem...
I then had to become slightly counter productive, and uninstall the program that should have cleaned my system up, restart and install it again. It then occurred to me that when i installed the first time, i had disabled the internet to try and avoid a massive spyware invasion. The second time i left it connected and hoped for the best. Turns out this was a very good idea as the installer told me there was an updated version of Kaspersky and did i want it, much clicking of yes and it downloaded a 37meg update which actually activated and worked properly.
Turns out however that KIS 2009 is more prevention than cure, as trying to conduct a scan that would remove the infections whilst it was sorting out the firewall and working out which programs were safe and which weren't is quite hard. I dare say it would have removed the infections, but i was that pissed off with pop-ups by this stage that i just downloaded other spyware removal software that i know works, removed what bits i could, and sorted the system out that way.
Once i had removed the obvious stuff and got a computer that worked properly, i did conduct a full system scan, and it did find some stuff hidden away in temp directory's and other places and removed them. Whether it has caught the lot i don't know, but everything seems fine up to now.
And now we arrive here, everything is installed, everything is working and the system is ticking along as it should. So what do we draw from this early foray into KIS? Once installed it seems good, if my system was clean, I'm sure the install would have been smooth and painless, but alas. Based on that though, so far I'm quietly impressed, time will tell if i remain so...
Friday, October 03, 2008
T-Shirt
Just whilst you're waiting to get the low down on KIS 2009, im a fan of wild and amusing t-shirts, and thought this image would look superb on one:
I'm Back
Well yes, after over a two year absence, i have finally found something worth writing about!
Hold on to your hats, cos depending on your interests, this may or may not be of interest to you.
Recently i have managed to legally (crumple) acquire a 100 day free trial key for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Which i found quite intriguing...
Stay tuned for some facts, pros & cons, and general impressions of the software that numerous experts think is one of the best security suites out at the moment.
Hold on to your hats, cos depending on your interests, this may or may not be of interest to you.
Recently i have managed to legally (crumple) acquire a 100 day free trial key for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Which i found quite intriguing...
Stay tuned for some facts, pros & cons, and general impressions of the software that numerous experts think is one of the best security suites out at the moment.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Playstation 3 sir? Don't mind if i do...
Yes indeed, i was one of the sad people that ordered the playstation 3 for the launch date, mass spending abound, what with my new television to enjoy it on as well...
Having hooked it up with the mighty HDMI cable, for full High Def pleasure and sensory orgasm, i sat back and turned it on. Having filled out the required basic setup (what language do i speak, name, time, date etc etc) all was going wonderfully, and in all, i can't find fault with it. All these nay sayers who dismiss the ps3 as overly complicated and too powerful for its own good have obviously been inhaling the fumes of the adhesive variety. It is damn heavy though, and slightly on the large side, but heavy is good, heavy is sign of reliability, if it does not work, you can always hit him with it. As someone once famously said...
Complicated my derrière, its as easy as prodding a few buttons and watching the smile break across your face. The wireless controller is stunningly light, and has everything in exactly the same place as the old ps2 controller, so those familiar with that won't have any problems whatsoever in getting to grips with it, although the R2 and L2 trigger buttons have been redesigned for some reason or other and feel very rubbery, although im sure with time it will become second nature to bounce your fingers off them just as you did on the old buttons. One lovely feature that must be mentioned is the magical Playstation button in the middle of the controller. This marvellous brainwave button allows you to turn the console on and off without having to touch the actual console at all. It also allows you to turn the controller off, thus saving precious power, and will also tell you how much charge you have left in the pad, so you won't be reaching for the usb lead until you absolutely have to.
I have yet to fully test out the ps3 capabilities, as i have not got a 1080p tv, nor do i possess a BluRay disc, but dvd's play superbly, albeit a little noisily due to the hdmi being so damn precise, but the built in noise reduction options of the ps3 and my tele soon sorted that little problem out, and i watched the modern "War of the Worlds" film without a problem.
I have only one game at the moment, "Resistance:Fall of Man" so game playing tests can't exactly be conclusive at present, although as shooters go, bugger me its good, hard in places but damn good, and graphically stunning. Those in the know will recall that the ps3 graphics chip is the nvidia 7950GTX, exactly the same as you can buy for your home pc, not as powerful as the 360's ATI effort, but to be fair to it, its not lagging too far behind at present. Interesting to see how the graphics develop throughout the consoles lifespan though, most consoles tend to enjoy their best graphics toward the end of the span, as developers wring the last little drops of performance out the hardware, so we shall see...
I hope i haven't bored you too intensely with my waffle, and if i have, then tough, you read it...
I shall end with a couple of rather amusing jokes.
What do you call 100 nuns in a shop?
A Virgin Megastore
And finally this one, its long, but stick with it, it's worth it...
A german man was on holiday in America, and decided that he needed the attentions of a hooker. Pulling his rental car over to one, he leaned out the window and said
"I vant to have sex vis you"
The hooker replied "No problem, i charge $100 an hour"
"Ja, dis ist gut, however, i must warn you, i am ze little bit kinky"
"Not a problem, i can do kinky"
And off they go back to his hotel room. Whence they arrive he presents her with four bed springs and a duck caller, "You vill tie zees bedsprings to your hands unt knees"
She does this, a little confused, but intrigued never the less. When she has done this she is told "You vill put ze duck caller into your mouth, and blow it vhilst i am ravishing you from behind"
She duly does this, and enjoy an hour of bouncing round the room, quacking away as loudly as she can, whilst enjoying the best sex she has ever had in her life.
When it finally ends, she is exhausted, but very satisfied, and enquires of the german "That was fantastic, but what's with all the equipment?"
To which he replies
"Zat is the Four Sprung Duck Technique"
See, i told you it was worth it!
Having hooked it up with the mighty HDMI cable, for full High Def pleasure and sensory orgasm, i sat back and turned it on. Having filled out the required basic setup (what language do i speak, name, time, date etc etc) all was going wonderfully, and in all, i can't find fault with it. All these nay sayers who dismiss the ps3 as overly complicated and too powerful for its own good have obviously been inhaling the fumes of the adhesive variety. It is damn heavy though, and slightly on the large side, but heavy is good, heavy is sign of reliability, if it does not work, you can always hit him with it. As someone once famously said...
Complicated my derrière, its as easy as prodding a few buttons and watching the smile break across your face. The wireless controller is stunningly light, and has everything in exactly the same place as the old ps2 controller, so those familiar with that won't have any problems whatsoever in getting to grips with it, although the R2 and L2 trigger buttons have been redesigned for some reason or other and feel very rubbery, although im sure with time it will become second nature to bounce your fingers off them just as you did on the old buttons. One lovely feature that must be mentioned is the magical Playstation button in the middle of the controller. This marvellous brainwave button allows you to turn the console on and off without having to touch the actual console at all. It also allows you to turn the controller off, thus saving precious power, and will also tell you how much charge you have left in the pad, so you won't be reaching for the usb lead until you absolutely have to.
I have yet to fully test out the ps3 capabilities, as i have not got a 1080p tv, nor do i possess a BluRay disc, but dvd's play superbly, albeit a little noisily due to the hdmi being so damn precise, but the built in noise reduction options of the ps3 and my tele soon sorted that little problem out, and i watched the modern "War of the Worlds" film without a problem.
I have only one game at the moment, "Resistance:Fall of Man" so game playing tests can't exactly be conclusive at present, although as shooters go, bugger me its good, hard in places but damn good, and graphically stunning. Those in the know will recall that the ps3 graphics chip is the nvidia 7950GTX, exactly the same as you can buy for your home pc, not as powerful as the 360's ATI effort, but to be fair to it, its not lagging too far behind at present. Interesting to see how the graphics develop throughout the consoles lifespan though, most consoles tend to enjoy their best graphics toward the end of the span, as developers wring the last little drops of performance out the hardware, so we shall see...
I hope i haven't bored you too intensely with my waffle, and if i have, then tough, you read it...
I shall end with a couple of rather amusing jokes.
What do you call 100 nuns in a shop?
A Virgin Megastore
And finally this one, its long, but stick with it, it's worth it...
A german man was on holiday in America, and decided that he needed the attentions of a hooker. Pulling his rental car over to one, he leaned out the window and said
"I vant to have sex vis you"
The hooker replied "No problem, i charge $100 an hour"
"Ja, dis ist gut, however, i must warn you, i am ze little bit kinky"
"Not a problem, i can do kinky"
And off they go back to his hotel room. Whence they arrive he presents her with four bed springs and a duck caller, "You vill tie zees bedsprings to your hands unt knees"
She does this, a little confused, but intrigued never the less. When she has done this she is told "You vill put ze duck caller into your mouth, and blow it vhilst i am ravishing you from behind"
She duly does this, and enjoy an hour of bouncing round the room, quacking away as loudly as she can, whilst enjoying the best sex she has ever had in her life.
When it finally ends, she is exhausted, but very satisfied, and enquires of the german "That was fantastic, but what's with all the equipment?"
To which he replies
"Zat is the Four Sprung Duck Technique"
See, i told you it was worth it!
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