I hope they take a little expertise off the street for a long, long time… as ‘t were.
apropos of the spammer discussion…
by CJ | Jul 19, 2012 | Journal | 7 comments
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Saw that. Doing happy dance.
hmmmm … only 6 since yesterday …. and some of those not real spam … 😀
Sounds like we should notice some improvement!
I’m just a layperson about computers, but it did trigger some thoughts and (probably unanswerable) questions on the subject.
1. I’m not sure if everyone will notice the improvement: they say that total volume of spam has been down some for a while, but the computer guys at work say the volume of spam the organisation gets has been climbing for months – so maybe it depends on what your contacts have been infected with.
2. If they could get those other 3-5 large spam-networks shut down, this should really save the Internet-infrastructure some delays at the bottlenecks, maybe even make doubling the carrying capacity a bit less urgent at some key points. Dad told me a few years ago how limited (and thus vulnerable) the physical connection of Indonesia to the world-wide Internet is, creating delays, time-limits and obstructions for the people at Bandung University who need the Internet for their international collaborations, work and studies.
The statistics to which the article links through show that most spam comes from Asia, India etc. – this must place a severe strain on the limited amount of hubs responsible for all the traffic in the region.
3. It’s very good that they are getting even countries like Ukraine and Russia to deal with these spam-networks, even though there is probably considerable pressure from the criminals behind them to try to keep them from interference. As it’s a global problem, it can’t be solved while some countries and corporations (like ISPs) are unwilling or unable to cooperate.
4. With the highest percentage of botnet-infected computers found in India, I wonder about the vulnerability of all those organisations who are outsourcing their computerwork to India. If these Indian computer programmers then become a part of your organisation’s internal network, this might make your network in Europe or the USA more vulnerable to the botnets.
5. With the GRUM-botnet infected computers still infected, just not presently controlled anymore, I wonder how long it will be before some criminal writes a virus to search out and reconnect those infected PCs, maybe update the grum-programming, and they start spewing spam again.
Or how long it will take for the criminals behind the spam-adverts to switch to one of the other big botnets as ‘service providers’- the remaining botnets might be able to raise their prices slightly for a short time due to 1/3 less competition, but unless these can also be shut down I wonder if it will have any longer-term effects.
Hummm- why does thinking about this sort of thing end up being so depressing, when the original news was so happy?
OK, I’ll end up with a completely unrelated and much pleasanter off-topic question for CJ, if she feels like answering: at what time of the day should I feed my neighbours’ koi?
I’ll be taking care of their cat, indoor freshwater aquarium and koi pond while they are on holiday. The cat and aquarium get their food and plenty of attention in the evening as soon as I get home (6-7 p.m.), I know how to handle those. The neighbour has shown me how much of which food to give the koi, but he didn’t say at what time to feed them. I was first planning to feed them at 6-7 pm, same as the rest (it stays light here ’till 9.30 – 10 pm), but then I remembered reading something here about them needing time to digest their food at a certain temperature, and getting sick to their stomach if it still contains food when the temperature goes down.
We’re having a cold and wet summer, with daytime temperatures around 17 degrees Celsius, climbing to 25 degrees next week, and nighttime temperatures around 9 degrees, climbing to 12 degrees C. Is this too cold to feed them in the evenings, should I go over an extra time in the mornings to feed the koi?
Koi only get sick from eating if the *water* temperature is below 58 F or 14 C. They do digest better with the sun on their backs, however. I assume the food is ‘floating’ food, and if there is a skimmer on the pond, any food not quickly consumed will be swept into the skimmer and lodge in the filter unless the koi get it fast, meaning, eat enthusiastically. If you can feed them in the morning under sun, better….BUT—water temperature is more like your daily average temperature, since it holds warmth and also cools off by evaporation and ground temperature. This would put your current air temp 26/2, or 13 C, about 53 F, average, right on the borderline. So probably they will be sleepy and slow to eat in the mornings, but if being fed high protein, it could be a borderline problem sleeping with full tummies at these temperatures. Look at the food package. If it says it’s only wheat germ, perfectly ok to feed in the evening. If it says high protein, feed in the morning as *late* as you can manage before going to work, ideally about 10, but whenever you can. If there is a feeding ring, it would be better…a ring would hold the food from the filter. Instructions from them would also be helpful, but maybe they don’t know or are still feeding wheat (spring food), so it doesn’t matter. ‘On the cusp’ weather you’re always best feeding wheat.
Thanks!
I’ll check the package tonight when I get home.
Useful information would be how to check your computer to see if it has been infected by a bot trojan/virus. Fewer bots also means less spam.
This whole bot/virus/trojan thing is the second verse of that old predator/prey arms race.
HEre’s how:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/170546/is_your_pc_botinfested_heres_how_to_tell.html