noel alanguilan

i’ve been receiving a lot of these emails of late. they’re scams in my view. the first one came from the “facebook team” saying that i have to “submit a new, updated account agreement” and that i should “unzip the attached file and run the agreement.exe by double-clicking it.” the other is supposedly from the “microsoft team” providing a system scanner to check and get rid of the conficker.b virus in your computer. these are email scams to get a user to run the attachment which is actually a virus. so when you receive them just delete them.

below are samples of the scams i received. i’ll likely post an excerpt any new emails that i think are scams.

from the “facebook team”:

Dear Facebook user,

Due to Facebook policy changes, all Facebook users must submit a new, updated account agreement,
regardless of their original account start date.
Accounts that do not submit the updated account agreement by the deadline will have restricted.

Please unzip the attached file and run “agreement.exe” by double-clicking it.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

from the “microsoft team”:

Dear Microsoft Customer,

Starting 12/11/2009 the ‘Conficker’ worm began infecting Microsoft customers unusually rapidly.
Microsoft has been advised by your Internet provider that your network is infected.

To counteract further spread we advise removing the infection using an antispyware program.
We are supplying all effected Windows Users with a free system scan in order to clean any
files infected by the virus.

Please install attached file to start the scan. The process takes under a minute and will prevent
your files from being compromised. We appreciate your prompt cooperation.

Regards,
Microsoft Windows Agent #2 (Hollis)
Microsoft Windows Computer Safety Division

watch out. these are scams. do not fall for them.

the stock papt introductory letter

a client of mine recently received a letter from the pilipinas anti-piracy team shown on the left. with the exception of to whom the letter was addressed to, i received this exact same letter about a year ago. when i first got this letter i had the impression that the company i was working for is using pirated software. that’s strange. i know for a fact that all the software programs in the office are either properly licensed or legally free. reading the letter the second time puts it in perspective–its a reminder not to use pirated software, albeit worded rather aggressively so the first tendency is to panic. some might even consider it a veiled threat.

its nice to know that some people in government are doing their job.

so what do you do when you get a copy of this letter? first, do not panic. read that letter again. no one is actually accusing you of using pirated software. its just a notice.

next thing you do is to take their advise and perform a software license check. remember that for each kind of software there is a single corresponding license. so, if you have a windows set up like most of the world, each computer should have one license for microsoft windows and one for microsoft office. there is no one license to rule them all (we’ll get to the linux license later).

and the cost of those licenses add up–php7,700 for microsoft windows and php18,000 for microsoft office 2007; php25,700 in total. multiply that by the number of computers that you have. if you have 10 computers the cost is going to run up to a quarter of a million pesos. that’s jusT for 10 computers. that’s quite a hefty sum considering the recession and all.

if you do not want to spend that much on software there are legal alternatives. you can replace microsoft office with open office. that’s a savings of php 180,000.00 already for 10 computers. and yes, it can open all your word documents, excel spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations.

if you want further savings, replace your pirated microsoft windows with linux. that’s savings of php 77,000.00 for 10 computers. there are so many distributions (loosely, types of linux) out there. off the top of my head, ubuntu is a nice alternative if you’re coming from the windows world. you can look for more distributions over at distrowatch.

if you want to stay within the microsoft world then be ready to pluck down a hefty sum to use their software.

okay folks. let’s put this one in black and white. microsoft office is not free. it does not come with that new laptop or desktop that you recently bought. the cheapest ms office you can get is the Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 OEM (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) selling at php 3,800.00 (discounted 50%). the most expensive ms office listed in villman is the Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 OEM w/ BCM, Access going for php 17,988.00. this is just the oem version (original equipment manufacturer) which i heard cannot be upgraded to the next version. the boxed version of ms office can be upgraded although its more expensive than php 17k.

there you have it. microsoft office is not free. open office is the one that’s free.

microsoft just realeased internet explorer rc1 (release candidate 1) and pc mag has a preview. will they make it cross platform, i wonder.

well, its not as if no one has at least given a passing thought, considered it as an impossibility and discarded the idea half a second later. (my 10-year old did say, “impossible” after reading the title.) but i ask you to give some more serious thought to this. really think about it for a period longer than two seconds — what if windows 7 is free? now, it doesn’t mean that windows 7 has to be open sourced. microsoft can keep their code proprietary and close to their heart  but they can have anyone and everyone including their cat use se7en for free.

what do you think will happen?

this will definitely prolong the battle for os dominance. it will keep windows on top for a longer period with linux and os x still patiently chipping away. i honestly don’t think the “destroy microsoft” mantra Is going to pan out. and it shouldn’t. linux would need the competition just to keep the developers on their toes. so does windows. so there’s no point to the “battle”. no one will let a single operating system to rule them all. not windows. not even linux. one may eventually come on top of the other but the other will always be around in one form or another. waiting to pounce.

but wait, i just read something about windows se7en being a linux killer. huh?!? i know vista has its problems but when did the penguin become the goliath penguin? and is se7en really that good? from the in-depth review of the first beta of se7en done by ars technica it appears that although it is fast and sleek, and all that, it is also based on vista. which means the hardware requirements are roughly the same as vista. which means that the programs and/or thingamajigs that didn’t run on vista will not run on se7en as they have identical compatibility. which means that if you didn’t like vista’s user interface then you wouldn’t like se7en’s because it is built on vista’s ui. which leads me wonder if se7en is really just a service pack for vista.

so, the major redeeming feature that se7en may possess is if it costs zero. then you may have the linux killer. although the word “suppressor” or “competitor” may be more appropriate as i don’t think that linux can really be “killed”.

se7en being free of charge means it may be easier to distribute than vista — let it loose in the torrents or a make it a free download from microsoft. people may find that deciding to install windows rather than linux is much easier since both systems are free but the majority of users are used to using windows so its to their advantage.

se7en being free of charge will just likely help micrsoft’s office suites stay in the market along with the other software that microsoft sells. its hard enough that there are free alternatives to office available for windows and linux from ibm (with lotus symphony) and sun (with open office). making se7en free of charge makes it a lot easier to sell an all-microsoft package — from operating system to application that run on the os. of course, this would be good news to other developers who make program for the windows platform. access to their programs got a step easier.

essentially, by making windows se7en free of charge, microsoft ensures that it remains viable to users at the same time making it a little difficult for the users to switch to linux (or maybe os x). if it does happen, i’m sure the proccess and the outcome is going to be pretty interesting.

biases notwithstanding, my gut tells me a merger between the two is a bad idea. for both companies.

my take:
44 billion is a huge amount. microsoft may be desperate. competition or not, if this bid will go through it will stress microsoft out. maybe a year before real results become visible. changing logos on websites doesn’t count. yahoo! will slowly loose its identity which is not good. imagine suits in the fun room. will there be a fun room? services other than search may or will suffer. microsoft is a business and if something doesn’t perform it gets frozen. and as the ashes cool, some former yahoos will form a company and offer something that will make this bidding exercise pointless.

leave it be.