The Internet Patrol

Are you one of those people who find IVR (integrated voice response) systems and automated telephone attendants impersonal, annoying, and hey, just plain rude? Do you sometimes think that you’ll go postal if you have to navigate one more voice menu? How many times have you entered your account number three or four times only to find yourself frustratingly disconnected because the IVR system “didn’t understand your request”? Well, if any of the above describes you (or hey, even if it doesn’t) you’re going to be thrilled at what we have found for you!

Are you “Internet-illiterate”? If so, according to a new report, you could actually hinder your children or any future children you may have by your Internet illiteracy. The “children of Internet illiterate parents” report (our name, not theirs), was researched by academics at the London School of Economics, and found…

Download.com, a division of CNet Networks, has announced that it has purged its extensive library of downloadable software of all programs which contained adware, and that it will strictly enforce its new policy of zero tolerance for such adware-infested programs. The move follows Download.com’s first announcement of about three weeks…

GlassLock SpyGuard. It sounds like your special spy name from one of those Internet name generators, doesn’t it? But it’s actually a real product. Remember when Aunty told you about the DefendAir paint you could use to paint your house, or at least a room, to keep your wifi from…

Employees can’t be fired for surfing porn on the job. That’s the judgement of a court which has ruled that an employer who fired two employees caught surfing the web for porn on company time must not only reinstate them, but must pay each of them an award of $40,000…

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued online marketing company Intermix, claiming that Intermix has been distributing spyware to unsuspecting users, and that users visiting the Intermix site would end up with ad-serving pop-ups displayed on their computers, or having their computers redirected to another website, often without th user’s knowledge.

Computer mail-order outfit Tiger Direct has sued Apple, Inc, in the 11th hour, over Apple’s use of the name “Tiger” on Apple’s newest release of OS X. How stupid is that? Apple’s Tiger for Mac goes on sale to the public tonight, Friday, April 29th, at 6:00pm. Meanwhile, Tiger Direct…

Never miss a show again! You can take it with you! Internet tv, and even cellphone television, are now a reality! Introducing OMN (Open Media Network) for the Internet, MobiTV for your cellphone! Wow! Cellevision! Aunty has actually tried MobiTV, and she has to tell you, it’s pretty darned neat….

Have you heard about “domain shame”? Do you, perhaps, even suffer from domain shame? Or maybe you are one of the legion of users who identify those who should suffer from domain shame? The term “domain shame”, recently coined by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Don Fernandez, refers to how you feel about and how others perceive that bit to the right of the “@” symbol in your email address.

Net Patroler Phil W. offers the following additional information and very interesting analysis of the Associated Bank phishing scam.

Below you’ll find an email that was mailed to me that appears to be a con. I don’t have anything, not that I know of anyway, with Associated Card Online. Since I don’t recognize this service as being one of mine, I didn’t access the url that they provided. Could you check this out and let your readers know if this is indeed a con job. Thanks for your help.

Aunty told you about wifi hotspot evil twins, but you didn’t quite believe her, did you? Well, attendees of the Wireless LAN Event in England this past week are believers now, after hackers infiltrated the conference, and set up an evil twin hotspot right there at the conference, in a…

Ok, now that you know to avoid the virus which deletes MP3s, here is some happy news. Did you know that Amazon offers free downloads of songs in MP3 format? Yep, it’s true! At any given times there are 200 free songs at Amazon, free for the asking (and the…

Security firm Secunia has issued a “highly critical” advisory for a security flaw in Netscape. The highly critical flaw was discovered earlier this week, and is known to affect at least Netscape versions 6.2.3 and 7.2. It may also affect other 6.x and 7.x versions of Netscape. According to Secunia,…

A new virus aimed (no pun intended) at AOL Instant Messenger Windows users has been discovered this week. It will appear to come from one of your buddies, with a message of “hey check this out!”, along with a link to “http://adwordsvideo.com/gallery/pictures.php”. It sure looks like a website link, doesn’t…