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Sophos going downhill or Sophos vs Microsoft Security Essentials – which title suits this post i am not too sure but anyways read on and be the judge of that yourself !
At work both as a student and employee at the university we are suppose to be using Sophos for virus and Trojan protection… but I have had few notify me that sophos is failing to deliver… Windows Security Essentials (MSE codename Morro) is beating down hard on Sophos. .. More about the Security Essentials can be read from and also downloaded free of cost if I am not mistaken via : http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Since, I run XP 64 bit I am not able to try it out myself cause it does not apparently have an installer for that version of XP. It’s rather limited to XP 32 bit, Win 7 32/64 bit only. If it was just one person saying that “o windows essentials thingy found Trojan and malware that were not detected by sophos” I be more speculative about the situation, but I have about 3 or 4 users, all very well versed with computers and some quite versed with computer security, not afraid to say out loud “ Sophos Failed “ .

Looking around on the web, I read a rather interesting article at softpedia, stating this very interesting find [“With a detection rate of 56%, Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 managed to grab the fifth position, along with F-Secure, which delivered a similar performance. Only five products bested MSE, namely ESET NOD32 with a detection rate of 60%, Kaspersky with 64%, G Data with 66%, and Avira with 74%. However, at the same time, Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 also delivered a very low number of false positives.

MSE mistook no more than 15 legitimate code samples for malware, while not the same can be said of Avira, Sophos, McAfee, TrustPort, Norman, and Kingsoft, which all had in excess of 15 false positives. This is why MSE received the highest possible certification from AV-Comparatives, along with additional security solutions that balanced a high detection rate with a low number of false positives. “] – source http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Security-Essentials-vs-Kaspersky-Nod32-BitDefender-Symantec-McAfee-128482.shtml

Now reading that article it was no surprise to me that users were coming to me complaining about how “Sophos Sucks” compared to MSE. It’s funny how Sophos wrote an article about Vulnerabilites in Windows 7 stating  “Lesson learned? You still need to run anti-virus on Windows 7. Microsoft, in the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report released yesterday, stated that “The infection rate of Windows Vista SP1 was 61.9 percent less than that of Windows XP SP3.” – source http://www.sophos.com/blogs/chetw/g/2009/11/03/windows-7-vulnerable-8-10-viruses . At the end of the article Sophos had a very nice conclusion: Read the rest of this entry »

Quick update, bloggy bloggy now has newer version of wordpress, lets wait and see how long it is before another update comes around the corner.

The plug-ins were upgraded also but a note to users who might be using plugin named ‘AdSense-integrator’ it might get broken, and you might have to edit the settings again and enable 1 repetition and check all the pages/archive options there that you want them to be visible on. For me after install my AdSense stopped working, and had to much around the code and see what the problem was, realized too late that all i had to do was enable at-least  1 repetition and check off the options where you want the ads to be shown and save each individual option one after another, for it does not save options on all ads units you create, they have to be saved individually !

If any issues or errors are seen on site, give me a shout !!

So, this seems to be the second time I had to clean my refrigerator due to “coke can” exploding its guts out. Last time it was nothing similar to what I have to show you. Do note that there are three other cans sitting right beside the can that went kaboooom overnight, leaving an ugly mess for me to clean ! Some images are not sharp enough but still gives you an idea of what happened.
The top of can shows you exactly what happened, and do look at the amount of coke left inside the can after the lid got popped out ! Lid/top was bent as if it was run over by something, at the bottom of can you can see that it tried to expand but thanks to weaker lid at top bigger mess was avoided, because if the bottom had ruptured it would have spilled all the coke inside the fridge.  For those wondering that, yaa maybe the can was chilled before putting it in, well that would be incorrect, all cans placed inside are at room temperature prior to their storage and above all none of them are shaken before they get stored. So to conclude, what happened overnight was due to following reasons :

1. Cheapness of Coke Can (who is responsible ? The makers aka Coca-Cola) [NOTE: IT was not in FREEZER, other Cans were not affected]

2. Bad Karma !

It’s  up to the users reading this post, to come up with their own reasons as to why would the can would rupture the way it did. For me this is not the first time, and till i keep drinking coca-cola zero and storing it at work like i do with all other drinks, it wont be last time either.  Next time I will try to get temperature of inside the refrigeration unit and that of the can that ruptures leaving nothing to drink, and lots of mess to clean up.  Do share your horror stories if any of such a similar incident.

Few pictures posted below, rest can be browsed via : Exploding

Bent Ruptured Lid and Top of the Can

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I cannot stop giggling while writing this post, for this is a story about dual RMA on OCZ Equalizer and one message that I received from a friend of mine yesterday evening. First of all OCZ Equalizer is an amazing mouse for however long it lasts for you. There is only 1 drawback for OCZ Equalizer Gaming mouse : its thin flimsy wire. I have had my OCZ mouse for about close to 2 years now, till it decided to go kabooom on me. All the sudden i saw “Device not Responding” message on my Windows 7 machine, while trying to read the details of it, i suddenly realized my cursor on the screen would not move, looked at the leds/lights on the mouse, and seemed like they had turned to the “dark side”.  I was like “oh crap noooo”, while I dashed to grab some old cheapo logitech usb mouse. Wiggling the cable a bit at the end where it leaves the mouse, did seem to bring mouse back to life, but i cannot keep messing with wire with one hand, while trying to use the mouse with other !!

Opened up the RMA ticket with OCZ, and in about less than a week, I was ready to dispatch my fried mouse to OCZ for replacement or w/e they will do to the poor thing. This happened while I was in a game, and one of my friends was there asking why i was not moving ? I was like omg omg dude my mouse is dead. He was like “how can you kill a mouse”, I was like “huhhh it just dies sometimes, i do not know how to kill a mouse”. He was like, oh you need to treat your mouse better or something similar I do not recall. So, I was like “ok, mouse doctor”.  Whenever he gets to read this post, he be like ” i did not say that” cause i do not think he did either, or maybe he did; my memory is iffy ! Anyways, it is the evening when i prepare to RIP the mouse and send it off the next day, I get a ding on my screen…. It’s a message from “mouse doctor” reading …. “omg laser on my mouse is dead” . I could not stop LOLing for it’s like OCZ Equalizer Apocalypse, for his mouse was apparently the “OCZ Equalizer” too, for I had convinced him to buy it for his gaming needs . “Hehehehehehe”, I kept typing to him,till I lost count.. I am still giggling right now thinking about the message i saw on my screen 18 hrs ago. I did not go through my RMA dispatch yet, for am trying to do a combined DUAL RMA if possible to save of shipping for both us, and for OCZ too.. The mouse seems to have lots of cases of laser failing, but not many have had that bad luck, so I ding (aka send instant message) up another friend of mine asking if the mouse I recommended (aka OCZ Equalizer) was still working… and she was like, yaa … she have had it for about 6 or 7 months now and enjoying it. Let’s hope it lasts for her for as long as it did for me

I have ended up buying HP vooodna mouse, about $45 ish, and my friend ended up getting some logitech one. Funny thing is, I still keep recommending OCZ equalizer mouse, if i get a new mouse for dead one, that be awesome for there are no shops in this little city, where i can actually go and pickup a new OCZ product. O well.. Below is a picture of what OCZ equalizer mouse looks like :

Last Sunday, went for bowling with friends of mine, and was excpecting some challenge from one known as “Spidey”, so much for the thingly feeling he never saw it coming ! 5 Strikes that included 2 doubles (aka 2 strikes in a row) in a game of 10 pin bowling. I think bowling is suppose to be 10 pin bowling, but not sure what would you call 5 pin bowling than ? Either ways, played 1 game of 5 pin bowling and 1 that of 10 pin.

The 5 pin bowling did not go too well for me, but it definitely did not go too great either for our friend Spidey. 134 was spidey’s final and 121 for me. A difference of  “13″ points. Do look at the pictures below for the final scores of our other 2 contenders, F……A and V……H (due to privacy i guess did not want to disclose their names ). Reflecting upon the first time bowling scenario and the scores : Check it out , I have to admit Spidey aka Jose did better this time around, and so did I, seems like it.

Anyways as usual was a close game, but still would like to see better performance next time around, even from our friends F……A and V…….H. Before i forget and due to my habit of taking topics offtrack, we again went to the same bowling arena, known as “East View Bowling” or is it “East View Bowl”, I wish they had a better looking site than what they have right now, seems like a website from the late 70’s !

In the final game of bowling, official bowling aka 10 pins or is it seemed to have had more ? I started off with 2 doubles aka 2 strikes in a row, giving me an edge over spidey. Others, well F….A had the worst time ever, kept hurting her fingers/nails and stuff. We kept asking her to go slow, but for her what seemed to be slow, looked like a speeding bullet for us. Due to the sheer speed, there seemed to be little or no directional control ! Hence, the loss I would say.. better slow down next time, “speed racer” .

Funny part of the whole thing was, on one hand we had “Speed Racer” and on the other it seemed like we were watching bowling in “Replay” or in “Slow Motion”. V…..A was awesomely slow, it took about 30 seconds if not more for the ball to reach the pins it seemed like. There was one shot, where it was so slow that it seemed like it the ball would come to a halt just before touching the pins !

Time to get back to dual against spidey and myself. Seemed like spidey, tried to do everything possible to not make any mistakes, but what he did not do, was try to go for big strikes, his shots seemed to be well thought out, but poorly planned out, now that line does not make any sense. I suppose that means, he as being too careful, and not taking the risk ? Well I cannot speak for what he was thinking or planning, that only he knows. For me, seemed like getting a strike was way more fun than actually winning, and not to mention the goal to achieve a “free coupon” to whatever. Free is always good, as long as free is good in itself. For example free hot dog, wont be good in itself for me, but a free ice-cream would be .
We knew it was going to come down to the last round, well spidey tried, and did manage to get a strike, putting him in the lead and uber pressure on me, had no choice, but to go for a strike, which luck you may call, did get a strike, but was still not leading the board, hence tried to get another good throw, which turned out to be a strike. Thus, giving me my 2nd double in the game and the 5th in-game strike.  Won the game, which was won last time by spidey, thus providing him with grounds/reasons to improve his game hehe. My score seemed to be my highest ever, 170, next time will aim to get 200 or more. I must remember to use 11 sized ball for the next game, seem to work for me quite well and did not even hurt my hand this time round.

Ok time for you all to gaze at the pictures below . Names have been scrapped out for F….A and V….H for i do not want to get sued, cause my name invites such action !
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Just a little blog post of my dream from last night, we dream a lot, but do not remember most of the time what we dreamed about, sometimes i get lucky and remember them for long enough to write about .

Starts of with me and someone else in a party some where in a tall building, probably close to some ocean. There is another building we can see from the window to its left, and we are thinking of buying some flat or something in that building, but all the sudden we call the building owner or someone, saying that its bit too far from this building we are in already, and the next minute see the other building move closer, i still do not understand how that is possible, maybe in the future. But hey its a dream so anything is possible in there. For a few minutes or so I imagine some scenarios of living in tall building, and imagine a huge tidal wave or something hitting the building and some floods, flooding the botttom floors, and thinking good thing we want to get the top level accomodation .

Next the other person asks me to drive to some friend of ours, house. So we take off, and the next thing i notice or remember is, me driving one of those geared Vespa Scooters. See Picture below. And guess what, we are all the sudden driving Vespa on a rural round probably somewhere in punjab,India, cause the fellaw we were going to meet comes from punjab, but all i know is that the person currently lives Canada, so how we went from Canada to India, I dunno.

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