Funnies

Photos speak louder than words as demonstrated by the recent case of the reuters journalist who doctored some photos from the chaos in the middle east. And sometimes they say exactly what words cannot express. So I've added captions to these images to give it some more meaning.

Condi Rice on a missionCourtesy of Mike Thompson, Detroit Michigan US

Heathrow Airport Monday morning

Courtesy of Thomas Boldt, alberta, Canada

Condi gets both side talking

Courtesy of Thomas Boldt, alberta, Canada

Bush sends flowers

Courtesy of Larry Wright, michigan

The Virus

Last week I started up the computer and noticed that the task bar had warning balloon telling me my computer was infected with a virus. What!! I exclaimed noting that I had not upgraded nortons anti virus or the virus definitions. However I do have the Microsoft firewall and update my patches on a daily basis. How could this happen I wondered. So I click on the balloon and it opened my browser to an anti spyware page that gave me loads of options for spyware remover. I downloaded one and after installation, the program ran and identified 135 errors with my computer. Wow I thought where did those come from. I tried to run the quarantine function and that took me to a payment page? A payment page? It didn't say this when I was installing the program. So I cancelled that as it looked really dubious and downloaded another spyware remover. This time I only had 121 errors but it also went to a payment page. That was when it occurred to me that I may not even have a virus but a spyware that pretends that I have one whilst doing some other stuff in the background. My suspicions were confirmed when I went online and realise that my browser had been hijacked and the antispyware software page was now my new homepage. I tried to change this manually without success. I remember I had downloaded some antispyware software from BT so I ran that and it found 20 errors. It deleted all 20 and I thought good thats it. But oh no my balloon soon came up again telling me I had a virus. I repeated the delete and after the fourth attempt decided that it definitely was not working. I hopped on the mircosoft security page and downloaded the ***NEW*** windows defender. I installed it and scanned the computer. Your computer is fine and working smoothly came the reply yet still I could still see the balloon and couldn't change my homepage. So much for microsoft security.
So I searched on line and came across spybot. Guaranteed to kill a website claimed; excellent for antispyware said another. So once again I downloaded and installed. Spybot didn't even find this spyware but found some others that it deleted. The only good news after this was I had removed some spyware and still had some but know I knew their names. After a day of searching and trolling through user forums I finally came across a posting of someone who had the same problem and installed a program called SuperAntiSpyware. Not another dud I thought but tried it anyways and it worked. It found 641 errors on the computer and deleted every single one. I now run this on a nearly daily basis and it still picks up one or two adware programs that sneaked their way into the computer.
So I would recommend SuperAntiSpyware for your needs and it is free... Still back that up with an Antivirus program and a firewall for ultimate security. And lastly keep virus definitions up todate...

Review

I recently picked a copy of Sway's debut album aptly named this is my demo. I had caught a few cuts off the album earlier on channel U and on some radio stations so thought well this dawg's got something to say. The album didn't disappoint with some decent beats giving it the London grime feel that works well. Notable cuts are little derek, up your speed, download and month in the summer. The limited edition album even comes with the words to the song which is a mark of a good album and videos, interviews and freestyles. This is a something to pick so I'll give it a 7.5/10.

Busta's new outing on the other hand is surprising. The fact that he has moved to Aftermath and cut off the dreads is a testament to the shift in the album. With dr dre on production and busta slowing down the words there are several decent tracks like 'been through the storm' with stevie wonder, 'in the ghetto' with rick james, 'touch it' and 'i love my chick' the last two which are on constant rotation on MTV/MTV base. The video for I love my chick is hot with gabrielle union doing an angelina. However where the album falls down is that the beats are not really that spectacular and there are too many guests on the album. Every song has someone else on it and you are left wondering whose album did I buy? 6/10 [something to pick up when there is a sale]

Tony Jaa's new movie warrior king/protector/honor of the dragon or the original thai title Tom Yum Goong is one I was waiting for for ages. Having thoroughly enjoyed Ong bak I was eager to see what his new offering would bring. On the storyline side I was disappointed as I struggled to grasp hold of anything. Perhaps I don't understand the sacredness of the elephants but the storyline seemed too farfetched for me. The action sequences on the other hand delivered. More spectacular and imaginative than Ong bak the action sequence reminded one of jackie chan's project A but with the thai twist. See the storyline here. It decent movie to get on video just to see the action sequences 6.5/10

Hustle and flow featuring Terence Howard recently dropped on DVD and I picked this up as I had heard the hype behind it and it did live up to the hype. The story line was so so but that didn't take away from the brilliant sound track and performance by howard and the supporting actors. Synopsis here. The movie held it own for about 3/4 of the way when out of nowhere comes a twist. After this the movie just seemed to just lag like a sprinter who burns out on the bend and gets left behind on the straight. I'll let you decide whether the twist was needed but all in all a decent outing by the production team. 7/10 [a definite pick up]