chris's blog

Many of us who aren’t particularly computer literate will from time to time turn to our nerdly friends for help and advice. But we do so on the basis that these Dungeons and Dragons playing uber geeks will provide us with advice we can trust. But following this trend of asking nerdly friends to stop playing with each others Broadswords, and give us a bit of assistance, a website that offers advice written by nerds for regular folk is actually a really good idea. Better yet

So after having many headaches with my laptop, and several ongoing arguments with Windows XP, I’ve finally given up Windows on the laptop and now run Linux. Kubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) to be more precise, I did start with Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), but only had that installed a few days before the newer version was released.

After receiving a less than flattering email accusing me of a grandiose image of myself, I have now received this from "Rose".

As you may or may not know, the RBL service known ORDB was discontinued in late 2006.

Today we’ve made some slight alterations to the SiteHound ‘Site Information’ lookups and added in relevant dates associated with that website name. This information can be very useful to consider if you are ever uncertain about a website. Other times, it’s just kind of interesting.

If you own your own website, and have a brand associated with that name then it can be a messy business. With so many different countries having their own suffix, you find yourself in a position where suddenly it’s no longer just “.com”, but also “.net” “.co.uk” “.co.nz” and the list just goes on and on.

In Australia right now it's Fraud Fortnight 2008 which is a campaign of awareness focusing on scams that can deceive and seduce you. Personally I think we could all do with some more seduction, unless of course we are being scammed.

If you want to avoid being scammed, but feel you aren't sure of all the warning signs, then I highly suggest you check out the Little black book of scams.

This is a publication written by the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), and whilst it is written specifically for their Australian audience, it relates to all of us as these scams are global.

ClamAV, an open source anti-virus program for email scanning is a great product, we use it ourselves to filter out the viruses we receive on our personal email accounts. Unfortunately Trend Micro believe they own the patent regarding a technology that’s been in use for many years by many companies, and have now decided to file suit against Barracuda Networks.

One of the benefits of working at Firetrust is being able to work from home. Virtually all of our work is computer based and with broadband now so freely available, that allows us to take our work home with us. As a result some of the staff here has chosen to work from home full time, others remain in the office, and there are those like me who split the time between both. The benefits are really a success, those with younger children can be stay at home dads and we have those with older children who can work from home during school holidays We also have those who enjoy viewing