If you're like me, your life is punctuated by conversations in which folks gripe about the latest problem with their computer. Lately, the biggest single gripe has been spyware--the software that looks at your keystrokes and Internet habits, and may "helpfully" redirect browsers to various entertaining web sites.

I was surprised, then, by this article that says fewer than ten percent of companies have installed any sort of anti-spyware software on their desktop computers. Now, it's true that most anti-spyware software is something of a pain in the rear, but it can make a huge difference in keeping people productive. If you're looking to experiment, Ad-Aware is a good place to start. I've been using ZeroSpyware for a while now, and it's caught several helper objects trying to attach themselves to my browser.

With virus and worm traffic continuing to grow, spyware may seem just an inconvenience, but I have seen heavily-infected systems taken down because of the burden placed on the CPU, and no one wants strangers watching your keystrokes. Anti-spyware software is easy enough to find and install--make it your Awesome Autumn gift to your employees and their bosses.

If it's Friday, it must be time for another Bagle/W32 variant. This time, it seems that the coders are playing games that make it easier for the virus to get past AV scanners. It is a good reminder to keep signature files up to date, and post notices that employees really shouldn't go around opening strange attachments they weren't expecting.

I suppose it's appropriate to get a little scare just before Halloween. Just remember to keep the little goblins in check, and have a scary, safe weekend.

Is the era of the Handheld seeing its sunset? As 2004 heads towards a finale, IDC reports that the third quarter this year saw another decline in the wordlwide market for the devices. Shipments are dropping, and as a result, companies are limiting where they sell their products.

One of the main reasons for the decline? New cell phone models are coming out offering many of the features you can find in PDAs -- plus the added benefit of telephony.

Ever see the guys who build their houses out of old tin cans and other refuse? Wonder how long it will be before we see a Cabana made out of handhelds?

Bill Gates is a spry 49 years young today! I wonder what you could get the man who has money enough to buy everything?

Oh yes, I went there.

Niku, a player in the project and IT portfolio management space, has an open source alternative to MS Project. Open Workbench is available now.

If you already use MS Project - not a problem. OWB will import your existing MS Project files so you can minimize the migration headache.

Give it a whirl - it's free, so you've got nothing to lose by trying it out.

Ah, Stanford Wallace -- remember him? Stanford's in hot water for sending out his unwanted emails, as well as illegally installing spyware and other malicious programs into millions of computers. Then, with as much chutzpah as he could muster, the "SPAM King" would offer "spyware removal" programs to the masses.

Well the first step to showing Mr. Wallace the error of his ways has come to pass. A Judge has placed a temporary restraining order upon the SPAM-meister, ordering him to cease and desist all activity.

This may not seem like much, but its still an important step -- one of many.

The eventual goal is no doubt to see Mr. Wallace paying an exorbitant fine, as well as perhaps spending some quality time as a guest of New Hampshire's finest correctional institutions, where the only SPAM he'll get to deal with is the stuff on his cafeteria tray.

Mark your calendars -- 2007 is the year of the Robot!

The robotics field is expected to see a huge surge in the next few years, in both the home and industrial markets. According a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the chances of having a robot perform menial or even hazardous tasks has increased dramatically.

The report predicted healthy growth for the use of home-robots, from 610,000 today to more than four million in 2007. Industrial-class robots will continue to grow and continue to extend their record 18 percent rise in the first half of the current year.

So keep an eye out on your lawn, your wash, or that building down the road that's scheduled to be torn down. With Episode III almost done, Artoo and Threepio are bound to be looking for work.

Is 2005 the year you see a pay increase? The Meta Group thinks so.

According to a new report, the research firm says the improving U.S. economy should help to give a boost to salaries for IT professionals, and could be as much as 15% over the next three years.

The report also says this could lead to a familiar Tech sector tactic from the mid-90's -- job-hopping as IT professionals look for better payscales.

Think the odds are good for getting a pay boost next year? Think its about as likely as George Lucas ever doing anything other than Star Wars movies? Take our Quick poll and let us know!

Uncle Sam's not letting up on the Sleazy spyware makers. Under the banner of the "deceptive business laws," the government has filed a suit against Sanford Wallace of New Hampshire.

If you're Sanford's neighbor, or see him occasionally in the aisles in the local Stop 'n' Shop, you may want to thank him for his involvement in trying to trick people into thinking their computers are on the fritz, and therefore need to download the 'spyware' software his convenient pop-ups advertise.

Meanwhile the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a second spyware bill -- that imposes jail sentences -- with an impressive unanimous vote of 415 to 0.

Seems both liberals and conservatives can finally agree on something!

Don't worry, we're not getting all political on you. Nor are we going to remind you to 'get out there and vote.' You already know this an important election this November.

BUT, we do want you to take our special poll -- and tell us if Senator Kerry was an operating system, which one would he be?

And come back on Monday to tell us which OS President Bush would be.

Our good friends at InformationWeek announced yesterday that a flaw in MS Word 2000 -- and possily in Word 2002 -- could be utilized by hackers to crash PCs or run other malicious code on the invaded machines.

We've got a few months left in the year -- wanna take bets on how many more bugs we see before the clock chimes 12:01 am 2005?

The Jabber Software Foundations' work on XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) has been recognized by the IETF. XMPP has been assigned several RFCs regarding the protocol and its usage as a messaging standard.

• RFC 3920: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core -- The core XML streaming technology that powers Jabber applications, including advanced security and internationalization support.


• RFC 3921: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence -- Basic IM and presence extensions, including contact lists, presence subscriptions, and whitelisting/blacklisting.


• RFC 3922: Mapping the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) to Common Presence and Instant Messaging (CPIM) -- A mapping of XMPP to the IETF's abstract syntax for IM and presence.


• RFC 3923: End-to-End Signing and Object Encryption for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) -- An extension for interoperable, end-to-end security.

The latest high-visibility security exploit is trouble in the way that some Microsoft products deal with JPG files. The problem revolves around the comment field in a JPG file--Microsoft programmers assumed that the field would always have a length greater than one. If the field is defined in the file as zero- or one-length, the system may crash, but if the right information is included in the proper place, the info can be passed to the system and interpreted as computer instructions.

The bad news is that Microsoft was aware of this exploit for a long time before they fixed it in SP2. The good news is that they did, in fact, fix it in SP2, and the risk should decrease as more people update their systems.

If you want to see exactly what the exploit will do, let me refer you to an excellent security site, K-otik Security. Look at the Exploits tab, and you'll find out precisely how someone can take advantage of this (and many other) weaknesses in software. Reading about the nasties is one thing, but there's no real substitute for looking at code that can harm your system. It's not the most comforting reading on a Friday afternoon, but if it help prevent problems over the weekend, you can relax just a little bit more.