Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

Yesterday I installed Kaspersky Internet Security suite onto my spare PC, running Windows XP. I was not very impressed by it requiring me to uninstall every other anti-spyware, anti-virus and firewall on my computer - regardless of whether they were running or not. This meant bye-bye to ZoneAlarm, which had been working just fine.

Then when I finalised the installation, it offered to check my computer for viruses etc, and when I clicked OK it merrily deleted every program on that drive.

Compounding the problem, Windows System Restore was unable to find any restore points, beyond today, and even though I returned the system to before the Kaspersky nightmare, all those programs are gone for good.

Then, everytime I went to use FireFox I got a blue screen.

Thank Goddess for spare PCs to trial shite like Kaspersky on.

(I do admit that it is possible some virus was lingering, and did the damage when it saw Kaspersky arrive... but I guess I'll never know.)

Labels: kaspersky

I thought it was a bit dangerous when I rode the Shotover Jet last decade - but that thought is what creates the thrill. As it happens, just like most forms of transportation, it is a lottery ticket, for someone died this week when that jet boat flipped.

...the victim is a woman who with a group of Chinese tourists. She died when the twin-engine boat, with 22 people on board, including its driver, flipped at the mouth of the Shotover River, near Queenstown.

If you live in a country where $1/hr is a typical wage for working hard, you might want to consider a virtual job. One helps spammers, the other saves poor little rich kids from the tedious aspects of WOW:

The practice known as gold-farming, where a player attempts acquire gold, equipment or tradable skills, usually by actions like killing monsters, is growing rapidly according to researchers at Manchester University.

They say the industry, which is largely based in China, although also includes Romanians, Indonesians and Mexicans, currently employs about 400,000 young people who earn an average of £80 per month.

Typically the large-scale gold farms, which have been termed "virtual sweatshops" provide meals and accommodation and the farmers work 12-hour shifts with only a short break. The businesses are run 24-hours every day all year round. The market earns hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

This isn't so cool, but I'd do it if it saved me from starvation:

...an army of low-waged India CAPTCHA breakers human CAPTCHA solvers officially in the business of “data processing” while earning a mere $2 for solving a thousand CAPTCHA’s

Labels: virtual jobs

In Australia, and I guess most western or "first world" countries, used condoms go in the bin, and then to the garbage dump. Not in China:

Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China and selling well in local markets and beauty salons.

..."These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well ... threatening the health of local people," it said.

Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.

"People could be infected with AIDS, warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while weaving their hair into plaits or buns," the paper quoted a local dermatologist as saying.

A bag of ten of the recycled bands sold much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said.

Labels: condoms, recycling

One woman, different decades, two bizarre news items:

1. Paying $50,000 to a South Korean lab to have her dead pitbull terrier cloned, in the first transaction of its kind. She now has 5 little Boogers.

2. In 1978, someone who looks the same, and has the same surname, disappeared after being charged with kidnapping a 17-stone male Mormon missionary, whom she had chained to a Devon cottage bed with mink handcuffs and forced to have sex.