This blog uses built in WordPress tools to ensure that I don’t see any spam posted in the comments but keeping control of my mail client’s filters isn’t quite so easy – I should say wasn’t quite so easy!

All my registered domains have spam filtering on their mail servers but increasingly this doesn’t always catch the latest rubbish, that still makes its way through to my desktop and, in my case, Outlook. The inbuilt Microsoft filter isn’t that bright and for some years now I have relied on a little add-in called SpamBayes which is an Open Source solution to the problem using Baysian filters to “score” each message and filter it accordingly. All fine and dandy then? Well no, not really. Unfortunately updates to SpamBayes have been few and far between over the last 2 or 3 years and the project seems to have stalled. This means that recent updates to Windows and Outlook have started causing proiblems with it.

I have noticed that Outlook often doesn’t fully quit when I shut it down. That means that when I restart it, I actually get two copies, 1 hidden from the previous session and 1 for the latest startup, this causes resource problems by the end of each day as I have seen 5 or 6 Outlook sessions running in Task Manager. There are various add-ons to cure this but so far I haven’t found one without its own problems.

Enter SpamFighter! I came across this when I decided to ditch SpamBayes for something more up-to-date and have been using it for the last few weeks. It works a treat and doesn’t interfere with Outlook at all, so I decided to lash out the £17 for a years subscription to the system. After a very simple download/install, I now have aclean inbox again.

SpamFighter works as an add-in to Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird and for the main part operates as a basic spam filter, putting all bad mail into its own folder and marking it. The clever bit is that it is user supported and anything it misses which makes its way through to the inbox can simply be marked by me as spam and that action is relayed to several million other SpamFighter users who systems will also mark that message in the same way. Of course they do the same for my inbox! In addition to the “community” rules I can also add my own white or blacklist for senders and the software uses those rules to override the community ones if needbe.

There’s a free, fully functional, 30 day trial available at the website. Download SPAMfighter today.

There’s a bigger version available if you click on it…

The WWF want a billion people around the world to sign up and switch off their lights for one hour.

If they achieve their billion people it will send a powerful message – suggest all readers sign up now.

The fact that I am blogging the subject should give you a clue that they didn’t deliver on time and in fact provided some of the worst service I have encountered for ages. Promise after promise was made and broken, in the end I contacted the Jersey Trading Standards office and gave them all the details.

Within a couple of hours, I got a response from memorybits and after 4 days the parts actually arrived.

I won’t be using memorybits again but can recommend the Jersey Trading Standards people for their excellent intervention.

Note to self: before buying online, check out the reviews of the company involved…

Click on the logo to visit http://www.axethebeertax.com/, they have 5 basic demands of our government:

1. To stop plans to increase beer tax by up to a third
2. To enforce existing laws – not create new ones – to deal firmly with irresponsible drinkers and premises
3. To end the irresponsible promotion of alcohol in supermarkets, pubs and elsewhere
4. To trust responsible adults to make informed choices about what they drink, not punish them for the actions of an irresponsible minority
5. To support the British pub as a vital part of social life in local communities.

Earlier in 2008 we were told that those who didn’t like smokey old bars would flock to them when smoking was banned, that appears not to have been the case and the increasing economic pressures have made it impossible for the likes of The Wishing Well, The Colwell Bay and the Plough and Barleycorn to survive – and while driving around in the evenings there are many more which seem to close after about 9.30pm. This might not seem like much at first glance but it takes on a degree of importance in very rural areas with few or no other gathering places.

Take Newchurch Parish as an example; odd and very old covenants on the land mean that only one pub is allowed in the area (corrections welcome!), and I now hear that even this is under threat from an over-zealous brewery who want a rent increase of some 50%!

Pic from Matt and Cat

The pub in the spotlight here is The Pointer Inn in Newchurch itself; yes, the one which has just won an award for the Island Dining Pub of the Year for the second year running. The Pointer is the very best of breed providing a real public bar for those looking for a drink and a seperate, busy restaurant for those in need of a quality meal. Balancing the two needs is not easy (yes, I do have pub experience, both sides of the bar) and Nathan and staff do an excellent job which deserves our full support. It’s a real shame that Messrs Gale and Co seem intent on making life impossible for them by demanding such an increase.

I’m really not sure what difference my small voice can make but I’ll try. Publicity can only help and I again draw your attention to what may be the last event at the pub – Public Star Gazing, 25th Jan 2009.

Please support your local if you can as, in the words of Joni Mitchell, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone..”

In this case “support” doesn’t mean spending loads of cash, it does though mean making a fuss! we have a community in Newchurch and surrounding areas, and it makes no sense for us to lose something valuable. Please join me in protesting about this unfairness, sign petitions, write to the brewery, complain to your councillors…. whatever! I love my local and I’d like to see you in there too!

MR. FRANCIS JOHNSON
TELE:234-7031622282
FINAL NOTIFICATION

GOOD DAY,
- I AM WRITING TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR OUT STANDING PAYMENT OF $10.5 HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR PAYMENT AND WILL BE RELEASE TO YOU AS SOON AS YOU RESPOND TO THIS LETTER, KINDLY REPLY WITH YOUR NAME INFULL, TELE/FAX, CONTACT ADDRESS, YOUR AGE AND OCCUPATION, SEX, AS SOON AS I HEAR FROM YOU I WILL GET BACK TO YOU WITH THE CERTIFICATE OF OWNERSHIP TO ENABLE YOU HAVE YOUR FUND, FOR MORE INFORMATION YOU ARE ASK TO CALL ME IMMEDIATELY YOU RECEIVE THIS LETTER, HERE IS MY DIRECT TELEPHONE NUMBER: 234-7031622282, FEEL FREE WHILE CALLING AND YOU ARE ASK TO CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION, BEST REGARD MR. FRANCIS JOHNSON

I may need $10.5 one day but not just yet eh?

This mail arrived this morning and is the first personalised one of its type I have seen:

YANG LIM & ASSOCIATES
SOLICITOR AND ADVOCATES
NO. 101, JALAN PUDU RAYA,
TAMAN DESA RAYA
MALAYSIA
TEL: +60122473440
Email: barryanglim@XXXXXX.XXX
I am Yang Lim, an attorney at law. A deceased client of mine, Mr. Andrew  Curd, that shares the same last name as yours, died as the result of a heart-related condition on March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia.
I  can be reached on barryanglim@XXXXXX.XXX for more information.My late Client has a deposit of Nineteen Million Dollars (US$19 Million Dollars) left behind.
Best regards,
Yang Lim
Attorney at Law

Perhaps I’ll be rich in 2009 after all! Somehow I suspect not…..

Yesterday three of us were lucky enough to be invited to attend the Space: 08 event at the Barbican Centre.

The highlight of the event for me was the Masterclass conducted by Roger Shawyer the Director of SPR Ltd. After introducing himself and explaining his background in various satellite launch products, Roger went on the explain his EmDrive, a revolutionary propulsion system for both satellite launch and manoeuvring.

Now back on the Island with a net connection, I have done a bit of digging around on the web and found stacks of reports on the EmDrive, among them:

• New Scientist with a whole string of peer comments which are worth a read.
• Wikipedia has some more detail
• Yawiki

New Scientist raised a lot of comment – mostly negative, over its coverage and I think it’s fair to say that the scientific community are very skeptical of the whole idea. I recommend you at least have a read about it and then make up your own mind.

Were we, yesterday, in the presence of the man who will revolutionise space (and perhaps other) travel or were we listening to somebody who, despite apparently having a solid CV, has lost the plot? Either way Roger has convinced enough people (DTI, Smart Award etc) to financially support further R & D and of course publicise the device to people like me!

Personally I hope it works – perhaps then the web will be filled with the writings of detractors “eating” their words!

Unfortunately, the cause was a couple of pieces of so called AntiVirus and AntiSpyware software which were in themselves carriers and propagators of this rubbish. Same old story really, the PC user gets a pop-up telling them they are infected and guiding them to a site and some utility or other that will rid them of the problem…. for a fee of course, usually $29.99.

Symptoms on the machine were all too apparent; it was impossible to get on the web, at least to a site other than the utility seller’s and everything else was extremely slow. Eventually, I came across some forum discussions and a couple of them mentioned, the rather tacky sounding, “SUPERAntiSpyware” software. Cautiously, I grabbed a copy (it’s free for the basic version with manual updates), and ran it on the infected PC. Lo and behold, after about 15 minutes of scanning, it informed me of some 130 odd infection traces and offered to clean them off automatically. I accepted the offer and it got on with the job – result? one clean and uninfected PC!

I’m not suggesting for one minute that this will save every PC but it is certainly worth having in your toolbox. Strangely perhaps, the full version costs yes, you guessed it, $29.99! but this has full tech support and a decent user forum.

SUPERAntiSpyware is available at http://www.superantispyware.com/ – well worth a try…