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Information Technology Corner

Advice and commentary on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of IT & Internet. ============================================================

Today's Topic:

Beware of virus creators and hackers paddling antivirus software on the net

True story, and you have to absolutely watch out.

Just before Christmas, I was looking for some nice holiday clipart on the net. Suddenly, a big Microsoft security screen popped up warning me that my computer was infected by a list of viruses. The site offered me an untivirus software to download and install immediately to remove the so called viruses. However, I knew better and called their bluff.

Essentially this was a site getting me to install their malware. From that point on, they could do a number of things ranging from infecting my computer to collecting my usernames and password for everything including banking. A friend who didn't know any better proceeded to install one such program and the computer stopped working.

Moral of the story: never download and install antivirus or any other security software offered over the Internet. All you need to do is ensure you have a reputable antivirus running on your computer and update the virus signatures (or DAT files) very frequently.

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Today's Murphy's Law

Among economists, the real world is often a special case

Against Africa's Development Effort

The debate about Africa's under or slow development has been going on for ever. So, lets construct a simple pop quiz. What is the main cause of the continents underdevelopment? Answer:
a) colonialism
b) corrupt rulers with no leadership skills, no imagination
c) corrupting and exploitative actions of Western countries and businesses
d) discriminatory and ill-conceived practices by WTO/IMF/World Bank
e) all of the above
If your answer is e), you're probably right. Joan Baxter, an author from Atlantic Canada is making a strong case for answer c). with her book, Dust from Our Eyes: An Unblinkered look at Africa . She should know better as she spent over 20 years in Africa.
Remember at one time long ago, colonialism was cited as the single most important factor.  But as African dictators and the the connected classes became affluent from lining their pockets with the countries' wealth and foreign aid, there was a slight shift. More people started pointing the finger to Africans themselves and especially the ruling class. Any one still arguing that colonialism and developed Western countries contributed to African's under development was labelled a whiner.
Well, not so fast. Joan shines a new light and exposes how the the continent's resources - gold, diamonds, coltan, oil, uranium, timber etc are plundered. by western-owned companies with acquiescence of African heads of state.
This book will certainly interest those of you who share a concern about issue of Africa's underdevelopment