Trusting Microsoft to Keep the Bad Guys at Bay
Would you trust Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) to protect your computer? I decided to give it a try on the netbook I use at the office. The office desktop is protected by an enterprise version of the McAfee antivirus applications and all of my home computers have Norton Internet Security 2011. MSE is a bit light on advanced features, as you might expect with a product that contains the word "essentials" in its name, but the basic protection seems to be acceptable.
MSE has four tabs to organize its functions: Home (security status and scanning selections), Update (automatic and manual definition downloads and updates), History (a table that shows what the system has found and what actions it has taken), and Settings (where you specify program preferences). In other words, similar to most other similar programs.
The primary difference is that this one is from Microsoft and it's free. I have long been a proponent of incorporating malware protection into the operating system but Microsoft probably considers antitrust legislation and intentionally avoids making MSE a best-of-breed application.
MSE includes virus and spyware detection, rootkit protection, and real-time warnings via Microsoft SpyNet, an Internet-based service that anonymously compares file behavior on computers whose owners have opted in to SpyNet. Basic SpyNet membership submits information about the detected software's origins to Microsoft, the system's response, and the outcome. An advanced membership option also reports the questionable application's location on your computer, what it does, and how it has affected the computer. Both memberships are voluntary and users are opted out by default.
MSE integrates well with Internet Explorer and the Windows firewall to provide better protection for those who are running either Vista or Windows 7. All attachments and downloaded files are automatically scanned by Security Essentials.
The program is scheduled to scan your computer once a week at 2am and new malware signatures are downloaded once a day.
These settings and others can be changed on the Settings tab. If 2am isn't good for you, change the time or disable automatic scanning. Although MSE provides a reasonable number of settings, this is the area where other applications have more robust choices.
MSE is a free download from Microsoft.
Works of the Old Masters from Your Photographs
The last time I talked about Alien Skin's Snap Art 2 (2009) I said that it would have blown my socks off (if I had been wearing any at the time). Having heard a discussion of the amount of force required to blow one's socks off and the pain such operation might inflict, I've decided that I need better terminology. How about: If you'd like to create an old-master "painterly" works of art, but you don't have the skills or the time needed to work in paint on canvas, Snap Art 2 is for you.
The the advent of Photoshop CS5 and the update to CS5.5 (which, for Photoshop is still 5.1), changed enough that I wanted to see how the applications perform when Photoshop is running as a 64-bit application.
The outstanding features are all still there and the interface continues to be both easy to understand and easy to use. Now everything happens faster, too. Speed is critical if you're a pro. Waiting several minutes for an effect to render could seriously cut into your productivity. Even with large raw images, Snap Art 2 is fast—usually just a few seconds to render even the most complex effects.
Snap Art 2 In the Workflow
Alien Skin is responsible for a wide array of filters. Some should be used early in the workflow and others should be used near the end. Snap Art 2 is one that should be used near the end to convert the finished photograph into a work of art.
Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view.
I started with this photo of Phoebe, the glamor cat. It's an OK snapshot, but I wanted something more. After all, I had gone to the trouble of setting up a background and using good lighting techniques.
What needed to be addressed first was the color balance. The original was much too cool.
A vignette also helps focus attention on the cat.
This might be enough or you might want to do more—possibly brighten the eye color—but this is where I'll stop.
Snap Art 2 offers several starting points: Comics, pastel, oil paint, stylize, and such. I selected oil paint.
Within the oil paint filter set, the broad selections range from abstract to realistic.
I selected abstract with a large brush and thick paint as my starting point. You can simply use the default effect if you wish to make adjustments on any of the additional tabs: Basic, Colors, Canvas, and Lighting.
On the Basic panel, you'll find Create Output In New Layer Above Current and it's important to leave this selected because it makes the changes non-destructive. The change will be applied to a new layer instead of modifying the original layer.
On the Colors panel, I increased the color saturation and contrast a bit and slightly reduced the brightness.
Moving to the Canvas panel, I made the canvas thicker and the weave (zoom) larger. It's important to preview these effects at 100% magnification. You'll see why in a moment.
The larger view of this image will be near 100% magnification and you'll probably agree with me that the effect is too strong. So as you're using Snap Art 2, be sure to examine the image at full resolution.
Before moving on to try another effect, I proceeded to the Lighting panel and made some slight changes to the light.
For the final image, I selected a portrait setting with high realism and no canvas.
And here's the result.
Two Years Later, Another 5-Cat Rating
The clarity provided by modern digital cameras is astonishingly good. Even lenses by second-tier manufacturers create technically better images than many high-priced lenses from the past. Sometimes there's too much clarity, though, and for those times when you want a soft painterly effect, there's Alien Skin Snap Art 2.
For more information, visit the Alien Skin website.
Still More Spam From Sears
You might think that a large company such as Sears would abide by anti-spam legislation, but that's apparently not the case and the violations have been going on for so long that it would seem that the law simply isn't being enforced or that Sears has found a loophole through which they can direct their spew.
Otis Rylander tells me that he receives spam daily from Sears—sometimes twice daily—and the company defends the practice! Otis clicked the "unsubscribe" link. He wrote to Sears asking to be removed from their mailing list. He complained by e-mail. When he was told there was nothing he could do to stop the spew, Rylander asked to speak with his correspondent's manager.
Kirk L. (Social Media Support - Senior Case Manager) wrote "I apologize that I can't be more help to you. I have no one else to forward your concerns to. I am your Senior Case Manager at Sears corporate. If you write to the CEO, your letter will come back to me. I will have the same answer that I provided in my previous email. I suggest you click Unsubscribe at the bottom of the unwanted email or identify as SPAM in your inbox so unwanted emails go to your SPAM folder. Thank you for your input."
Why does Kirk L. write "SPAM"? Perhaps he thinks it's an acronym for "Sears Pushes Annoying Mail". I see the same thing with photographers who write about using the "RAW" format. ("Raster Always Wiggles"?) If it's not an initialism (unpronounceable, as in NCAA) or an acronym (pronounceable, as in NATO), there's no reason for all those caps.
It's Not a New Practice
In 2008, I wrote about a similar problem with Sears. When I complained to Sears, Christian Brathwaite told me that "based on our information, you opted in to receive email offers via a third party vendor we work with. Our information shows you signed up at elitesurveygroup.com on Feb. 29th. If you would like to opt out from receiving additional communications from any Sears Holdings retail formats, please let us know."
I had never heard of elitesurveygroup.com and what I saw on their website didn't give me much confidence. Having never heard of the organization, I had also never filled out one of their surveys. And to reveal Brathwaite's statement for the lie it was, the spam had been sent to my TechByter address—an address I would never use for any online business activity.
In a post called "Sears: The Email Tar Baby", Christian Nielsen cautions against complaining: "If you get email spam from Sears/Experian, do NOT try to contact them or ask them to remove you from their list. Just report them to www.spamcop.net or their upstream provider. The harder you struggle, the more you will entangle yourself."
Sears had one of Nielsen's e-mail addresses. When he wrote from another address to complain, they captured that address, too, and started sending spam there. Then, when Nielsen complained about their use of the other address, they justified sending spam to the address because he had used the address to communicate with Sears!
Jonathan Kamens continues the Sears spam story: After trying several times to convince Sears to stop spamming him, "I’ve submitted a complaint to the FTC as well as submitted a complaint to Sears through their Web site. This is one of several reasons why I won’t be letting anyone from Sears into my house to repair my appliances."
Clearly Sears seems to think that spam works, but it appears to me that they are alienating and thereby losing previously loyal customers.
And I offer this from Only E-Mail, a spam blocking service:
While in the thrall of the Holiday Spirit, one of our staff members went out on a limb and joined the Sears Craftsman Club. “How bad could it be?” he thought. “Surely Sears wouldn’t abuse my trust in giving them my email address. If there’s a problem, I’ll just unsubscribe and it’ll be over.” Five unsubscribe requests later he’s still getting unwanted email from Sears.
Short Circuits
Google Hacked. Again.
When I started receiving e-mail messages from people I don't know and finding that these messages contained only a link, I knew something was up. But what? Google has admitted that "hundreds of accounts" has been compromised and the company blames Chinese hackers operating in the province of Jinan. This just happens to be where the People's Liberation Army runs an intelligence operation.
Accounts were compromised when the victims fell prey to phishing schemes. Google didn't blame the Chinese government for the attack, but a spokesman for the Chinese government denied government involvement. Hong Lei, a foreign ministry spokesman, said that blaming the government (which Google didn't do) is unacceptable.
Although the phony messages I received coincided with this recent attack, it's unlikely that they were related to the attack. Here's why: This attack was highly targeted, aimed at government officials and others—the kinds of people whose e-mail would be a treasure trove for government or commercial espionage.
Google quickly detected the attack and notified both the victims and the FBI. The attack sought to gain user names and passwords for what seemed to be "personal G-mail accounts of hundreds of users, including, among others, senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries, military personnel, and journalists" according to a statement released by Google.
Another Break-In at Sony
Sony is reported to be thinking about buying NetFlix or some other company but it looks as if Sony and its customers would all be better off if the company invested some of that cash in security. That's because there's been another break-in and the crackers who did it are gloating.
LulzSec says that it has stolen the information belonging to more than 50 thousand Sony customers. Far from claiming sophistication, LulzSec says the methods it used were simple because Sony had left a huge, "primitive" security hole. Sony says it's investigating.
Specifically, the group says that the technique used is known as SQL injection, which takes advantage of poorly protected HTML forms to pass commands to a database server. If that is true, then this is indeed a primitive security hole, one that should be covered by the end of the first semester of Web training for programmers.
Sony's PlayStation Network just recently came back on line following a gigantic security breech in April. LulzSec posted a taunting message: "Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?"
This is the same group that broke into and defaced PBS.org when members decided that they didn't like a PBS report on Wikileaks. They also broke into Fox.com in early May.
The author's image: It's that photo over at the right. This explains why TechByter Worldwide was never on television, doesn't it?
