Most likely, your web browser is up to date. Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome use their own automatic updates, Internet Explorer updates are handled through Microsoft Update, and Linux systems typically use a package manager to keep everything updated. While this is good and will help keep you more secure, more and more exploits seem to target browser plugins - small helper programs that can play movies, music, games, and more right in your browser. This is probably due to the fact that some estimates show 80% of all browsers have some outdated, vulnerable plugins. Adobe's Flash has been in the news a lot recently because Apple refuses to release it on the iPhone or iPad, supposedly due (in part) to security concerns. Adobe routinely patches known bugs and vulnerabilities in Flash, but many times those updates are not installed by users. Google recently started bundling Flash together with Chrome and new updates will be installed silently - the same way Chrome updates itself.

Why root?

I recently decided that I would "root" my T-Mobile G1 phone, thereby bypassing the normal security restrictions that keep me from accessing the Linux core of the Android operation system. For me, the main reason I decided to root was the limited amount of space to install applications on the G1. I had already begun uninstalling apps to make room for more and I believe the limited amount of free space caused the Android operating system to obsessively clear the cache.

I like to keep my installation of Firefox free from Microsoft products, but it seems that Microsoft doesn't like that. Today I had Microsoft Update pop up and say I needed to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update. It had the update listed as important so I went ahead and installed it. Unfortunately, it changed my user agent, installed an extension and a plugin in Firefox without asking or telling me. Apparently these additions are yet another proprietary Microsoft technology, this time to allow web browsers to run .NET programs as if they were installed locally on the computer. I haven't looked into it much, but that seems like a big security risk to me and if I absolutely need to use it (which I doubt), I can always run Internet Explorer.

There is a possibility that it is snowing in Hell right now - all because I got a new phone. Yes, you heard me correctly. For those of you who don't know me, I had a Sanyo SCP-4700 from Sprint, which if I remember correctly came out in late 2000 or early 2001. It had a green monochrome screen, speakerphone, and a calculator that wasn't very user friendly. My friends and family have been telling me to upgrade for quite a while now and it is getting to the point that strangers on the street would look at my old phone with curiosity and nostalgia.

Recently I decided to switch my website to Drupal. Drupal is an advanced CMS that includes functionality such as blogs, wikis, forums, user management, and more. It's functionality can be extended through a wide variety of modules that can add almost anything. It can be themed to look like almost any way you can think of. If you want to get an idea of what can be done with Drupal, just check out some of the sites using it.

Extensions

Extensions are plug-ins that add new functionality to Firefox. I recommend the following extensions:

• Google Toolbar - Google's official GoogleBar now works in Firefox. The new version comes with a spell checker and AutoLink. GoogleBar is an excellent clone that works with Firefox.
• FlashBlock - This blocks a Flash files and replaces them with a button that you can click to load the Flash file. Flash animations are usually advertisements and sometimes they can be very nasty (ugly, distracting, or cover up useful information).
• BetterPrivacy -Deletes so-called super cookies - cookies from the Flash player or DOM objects that do not normally get deleted. BetterPrivacy helps you maintain your privacy and avoid being tracked on the Internet. It will silently and automatically delete these cookies so you will can just install this addon and forget it.
• BugMeNot - This plugin connects to the BugMeNot.com servers when you right-click on a log in box and will (hopefully) get a username and password for the site. This is great if you do not want to sign up on a site just to read the news or download a program.
• Redirect Remover - This removes redirects from links. This is when one site sends you to another, but does not link to it directly. This is usually only to keep track of how many people click the link, but can be used for evil.
  
• SyncPlaces - This lets you synchronize and sort your bookmarks and passwords to your website by using FTP or WebDAV. This is a great way to share bookmarks between different systems and keep a backup in case something bad happens.
  
• RetailMeNot - When you visit a site like Amazon.com, it pops up a notification bar that alerts you of current coupons. It downloads a list of coupons about once a week and does not send any information to RetailMeNot.com.
• Web Developer - This handy tool helps you work on your website by doing things like allowing you to edit HTML and CSS on the fly right within Firefox.

I used PhpWiki to create my tutorials in the past, but I decided that it was restricting me from doing certain things and had too much overhead for my simple tutorials. I decided that I would just hard code the tutorials in PHP, but I knew that in doing so, the traffic from my site from search engines would pull up 404 errors. I really didn't want that to happen and I know that some search engines take forever to reindex a site.

What is Ahkntfs.exe? It is spyware. This is what I know of Ahkntfs.exe so far:

I am running a Windows 2000 machine. I use Mozilla Firefox as my web browser. I am not sure whether it exploited a bug in Firefox or if it got on my system some other way.

On my Win2K machine, the file path is "C:\WINNT\System32\?hkntfs.exe". The command line "C:\WINNT\system32\Ahkntfs.exe".

Here are some sites to find free and legal music for downloading (in MP3 format unless otherwise specified). It may or may not be legal to burn these off on a CD. Since I am lazy, I will leave it up to you to find out. Downloads that require BitTorrent can use uTorrent for Windows or Azureus for Linux.

I just joined the EFF today with a monthly donation. I have been thinking about it for a while now, especially since the EFF was the first one to file a lawsuit against AT&T over the illegal warrantless wiretapping. On July 9th, 2008, Congress passed a law giving retroactive immunity to the telecoms. The EFF is now in court challenging the legislation as unconstitutional.