Virus Warning

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I’m not big into virus warnings unless something radically changes. Well, it has. So, read up and rethink your backup strategies.

New Ransom Ware

There is a new style of ransom ware that has come to America. Europe has apparently been dealing with it for weeks. It is called Ransom Ware 2.0 or CryptoLocker.

To understand what Ransom Ware 2.0 is doing read: Destructive malware “CryptoLocker” on the loose – here’s what to do. It’s a bit techie.

As best I can tell, the program leaves your readable copies of files in place while it makes encrypted copies using strong encryption. When it finishes encrypting your files, it then erases your readable copies and displays an extortion notice. If things go as they planned, you will probably not notice a problem until you see the notice.

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Cyan Worlds Obduction 2014-44

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Every so often Cyan is giving us an update on their new game. In less than two weeks the Kickstarter project has funded $628k of the targeted $1,100k. During that time we’ve now got eight updates on the project. The eighth update tells us we are already playing the Obduction game… or can be.

A previous hint...
A previous hint…

An email I received says:

Obduction has already begun! We’re not talking about the Kickstarter campaign, or even the game production – the actual gameplay has started.

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Second Life TOS News 2013-43

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There is a post in the SL Forum by Toysoldier Thor about a letter Linden Lab® sent in response to the United Content Creators of SL. See: PeterGray @ LL Responds to UCCSL RE: LL TOS Concerns.

There is a point that is obvious to users, which the letter now suggests is the official policy of the Lab. It is the idea they are not going to be debating the merits of the change. They, the Lindens, have been very silent on the subject. You may have noticed that Lindens in general will not discuss the TOS change. I think we can safely speculate that it is official policy for staff to keep silent in regard to TOS.

Peter gray, the PR person for Linden lab, leaves little if any about whether or not the Lab will discuss this issue with users or user groups.

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Surveillance

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Mainstream media is not reporting well on what the US government is doing.Much of the miss behavior is omitted from US news. Privacy is on the back burners. But, there are some celebrities that are starting to get involved. Reporting is shifting in the media, you will still have to dig for the truth.

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In Europe things are cooking on the front burners: Online privacy protection, and Words not enough: Berlin and Paris want a ‘no spy’ deal with Washington. There is even talk of a second Internet that the US won’t control. In the past the US was a leader of free speech and privacy and considered a protector of the Internet. The US has lost most of its reputation on those points in the last 3 years.

SWAT team raids investigative journalist’s home, seizes confidential files. More and more often American law enforcement is doing whatever it wants.

Firestorm 64-Bit Viewer?

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Seems the Firestorm Development Team is thinking about a 64-bit version of the viewer. Jessica Lyon has placed a post on the Firestorm Viewer blog about a 64-bit viewer. See: Firestorm 64bit Viewer o.O.

Image by: DoctorWho80 - Flickr
Image by: DoctorWho80 – Flickr

There is a link to the explanation of what 64-bit software is and how it differs from 32-bit software. Unfortunately, the link leads to a Microsoft site. My experience is you need to be a graduate of some geek college to understand what they’re saying. So, I’ll give you the short version… well… at least a version with, I hope, understandable language. 

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Cloud Party TOS

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Cloud Party hasn’t said much about their Terms of Service (ToS) lately. That changed as they pointed out the major difference between CP’s and LL’s ToS’s.

See: A quick review of our Terms of Service

This dramatically illustrates what is needed to operate a virtual world service and what a company thinks they can get away with. The free market allows competition. There is usually someone that will cater to people’s desires. In a free system they can do that. In this case CP is hungry for users. So, we ‘users’ get treated better.

I see it as the difference between big established companies verses small start ups. Management has different concerns.