I paid around 2000 bucks for my PC. I pay about $50 a month for my internet connection. I have paid for all the software I run on my computer. The computer is in my house and sits in my office. Last summer a house guest download Kazaw onto my pc. He was looking for some Albanian folk music for a wedding and ever since that date my system performance has been poor at best. In May of this year I downloaded a copy of Ad-aware. (spyware removal software) Which fixed the problems I was having. Since I installed it I have executed the program system scan 39 times. I have removed 739 pieces of spyware in all. I can't express in words how this makes me feel. It baffles me to think that my random wanderings online are considered so valuable. I also find it unsettling that my keystroke information among other things has been collected by someone. Could you imagine someone reading your snail mail? Listening in on your phone calls? Taking pictures of you while you drop your kids off at school? Rooting through your trash? I know I can continue to remove this intrusive violation of my privacy but the satisfaction in that is short lived at best. What would make me feel much better is Photographs of the perpetrators personal life, tape recordings of their personal phone calls and survellance of their movements. Then they could walk a mile in my footware. I wonder if their anonimity was taken away, their privacy exploited for my personal gain and their information shared with whom ever I wished would upset them?

Excerpt - Software License (dis)Agreement
Some aspects of spyware activity are legally questionable. While software installing a spyware module should disclose this fact to the user and offer the option of refusing, any such disclosure is often buried in a long and densely-worded License Agreement, slipped in among page after page of mind-numbing legal jargon on such topics as copyright, distribution, disassembly, reverse-engineering, government and restricted rights, disclaimer of fitness for a particular purpose, and similar topics of little relevance to the average user². Additionally, the actual spyware notice is often written in such a roundabout, flowery and disingenuous manner that a reasonable user would have no reason to take special interest in it³. To most users, a phrase such as "may include software that will occasionally notify you of important news" is NOT equivalent to "will place a stealthy Trojan Horse on your system that you can't get rid of, which will collect information about you and send it to us, and allow us to bother you with targeted advertisements all day". Once the spyware has been "disclosed" and the spyware company can argue that the user has "agreed" with it by continuing beyond the License Agreement, it is much more immune from potential lawsuits from users who accepted the license and installed the software,  blissfully unaware of the spy that would now be living on their computers. Some spyware companies do not mention the spyware at all, often pointing the finger at the company whose software utilizes it for not disclosing it. (How convenient!)

One of my favorite memories as a boy growing up in Peterborough, ON was playing in the rain water on my street after a big thunder storm. There was a low point in the road just in front of my house and as soon as the storm grates would clog with debris it would start to flood. The water would never cause any serious damage rarely exceeding 30 inches in depth but was just deep enough to be a spectacular, big, dirty, wadding pool. I remember how much fun it was to try and navigate the water with our bikes. It was like driving a seadoo before seadoo's existed.

All those memories came rushing back this past week as I watched my hometown try and bail out from some of the worst flooding ever. I can just imagine the basement of my old house filling up with water like so many others in the city. It's amazing that no one was hurt. My in-laws own a small restaurant in the downtown core and spent the better part of 2 days cleaning the mud out after the 24 inches of water had receded. It was neat seeing my old hometown on the news even if was covered in water.

I can't help but notice my neighbor runs the air conditioner with their windows open all summer. They drive 2 cars and always put out 5 or more bags of trash each garbage day. I guess they have short memories. As we come up on the anniversary of the great blackout of 2003 I thought it appropriate to post something on the subject prior to that date (August 14 ,2003) I did some research on compact fluorescent light bulbs on another blog of mine a while back and came across some interesting information regarding energy consumption. With Ontario about to fire up more Nuclear reactors isn't it time we all tried to do something other than consume.. Want to make a difference? Its as easy as changing a light bulb.

Every little bit helps. Replacing just ONE 60-watt incandescent light bulb with a 20-watt compact fluorescent in every Canadian household (more than 12 million of them) would save up to $73 million a year in energy costs. It would also reduce GHG emissions by almost 400,000 tonnes —the equivalent of taking more than 66,000 cars off the road.

Saturday night our Neighborhood had it's 2nd annual street party. (well 2nd in 4 years) We had a great trunout and tons to eat and drink. I never realized how many kids are on our 2 streets. I guess its because you just don't see them all together very often. They all enjoyed the pool immensely and swam until 10 pm. The Scooter came in handy for trips back and forth to the houses located far away from the festivities.

Friday was my wife’s annual work picnic. It was held at The Docks in Toronto. The weather was acceptable, cloudy with sunny breaks was the forecast and it could not have been more accurate. In fact there were 3 sunny breaks if I recall correctly.

Enough said about the weather. The booze was cold (and free, thanks) and there was a lot to do. We played mini-golf, Beach Volley ball,

Jousting which was a huge hit.

 Ping-Pong, Billiards, Paint Ball target practice, an arcade, a swimming pool and of course the

 "Scream'n Demon Giant Swing Ride"

of which only the bravest, most courageous souls dared attempt. After a full afternoon of activities hunger took over. A buffet style dinner was served and plenty to eat was had by all. Sausages, hamburgers, salads, chicken breast and lots of deserts were the menu faire. With a full belly and 2 very tired children we headed for home.

It's official. while pondering my career options I came across this. It looked good and took but a moment of my time. Thanks Robin.

Reverend Richard Geoffrey MacCormack is available to preform the following services for a small fee.

Reverend

Richard Geoffrey MacCormack

has been ordained this Friday the 9th of July 2004 07:00:17 AM

To perform marriages within any US state, following the rules laid out by the state in which    you wish to perform said marriage. • To perform funerals, baptisms, last rites or any other sort of legal ceremony or ritual you    wish to perform, except circumcision. • To start a church of your own, be it a bricks and mortar building or on the internet. • To absolve others of their sins as you have been absolved of yours.

I finally sat through an entire soccer game. Well almost, I dozed off for about 2 minutes and missed the only goal. From what I did see Portugal looked like the better team. They had more shots on net. They had the ball more of the time. They had the better players. But in the end Greece won the game. 4 shots on net. 1 goal. game over. My neighbor (from France) commented "what a great game" afterwards. I smiled and agreed thinking to myself I would sooner watch my daughter play.  I took these pics off my TV Just for fun. Congratz Greece.

One sunny Sunday I decided to go for a walk down the street. It was a warm summer day with a mild breeze blowing from the south east. The birds were singing and the roses were in full bloom. As I enjoyed my stroll a complete stranger approached me, pulled out a gun and shot me in the leg. I dropped to the ground like a stone writhing in pain. I looked down to see my blood gushing from the gaping hole in my thigh. I couldn't help but wonder what did I do to the stranger to cause them to want to do this to me? As I looked up to ask the question, the stranger vanished in a puff of smoke. Nothing left but the echo of his laughter ringing in my ears and my misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A "denial-of-service" attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service.

I am a Cogeco Cable customer. For the last 7 days my weblog has been inaccessible by me.  I've always felt it’s easy to provide good service when everything is working well. It's when something goes wrong that a company's metal is tested. Cogeco responded to my problem by informing me it's not there problem. I can understand that what happened was out of there control but you would think that they could at least pretend to care. Thanks for the great service Cogeco! Your #1 in my book.

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