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From the Associated Press: Akamai has posted a few interactive maps and charts, based on the company’s traffic analyses.

I like this map, which shows spikes in Internet traffic, latency, and attacks.

I mentioned latency in this post from September 24, 2006.

Tech: The New York Times describes how spouses use browser histories and cell phone records to discover that their partners are bisexual. Users often forget that, by default, a browser stores all URLs accessed for the last twenty days in the history list. Some monitoring software can recover the history list after it’s been deleted, or analyze cache and password data. Fortunately, the straight spouses can find support online, also.

Tech: E-mail is not dead yet according to the CEO of ReturnPath. His company is the official e-mail change of address contractor for the US Postal Service. They also help companies match old and new e-mail addresses. I usually get an e-mail or two every month with some marketer that wants to “reconnect” with me. And I almost always say “no”.

IMHO, e-mail is still broken, and badly so. Spam filters provide some relief, but an alarming number of zombie PCs on the consumer broadband network continue to send most of the spam. ISPs should cut off user accounts that host zombie PCs, and require the user to repair their computer before getting online.

For my part, I’ve done the following:

1. The only time I use Internet Explorer is when I do a Windows Update. Otherwise, I leave the security settings at High, so I can’t even fill out a form in IE. The cache and auto-complete options are disabled.
2. When Windows XP SP2 goes gold, I’ll install it. The beta is working well on my test box. In the meantime, I check Windows Update at least once a week on each box, and I’ve enabled automatic downloading of updates.
3. I use other web browsers like Firefox for my web browsing. Firefox is fast, free, and relatively safe. It also has some great extensions that add nice features.
4. I stopped using Outlook Express and Outlook years ago. These clients are memory pigs and security nightmares.
5. Instead, I use Thunderbird as my primary e-mail client. It’s still in beta, but it works well. I can always use webmail clients when I’m away from my machines.
6. HTML in e-mail is a bad idea, and I do my best not to send out HTML formatted e-mail. I usually use plaintext, although Thunderbird’s default settings are still a bit strange.
7. I disable HTML formatting of incoming mail in my e-mail clients. I’ll miss your pretty formatting and bouncing smilies, but I’m less likely to load the webbugs and exploits that malware and spammers insert in messages.
8. I use SpamAssassin on my e-mail servers, and have added a block list from Bill Stearns. My SpamAssassin blocklist is here. Server-side blocking takes more time and skill to configure, but it’s a much better approach if you check your e-mail from several different computers. A client-side spam filter will only work on one computer.
9. I run software and hardware firewalls on my home computers. If you have DSL or a cable modem, and you don’t have a router or NAT box, you are living dangerously.
10. I use a free anti-virus program on all my computers, and do a deep virus scan every month. My virus scanner also checks incoming e-mails and their attachments.
11. I scan my computers with programs like SpywareBlaster and Ad Aware. Both are free.

The sad truth is that I’d have an easier time with security if I ran Linux on all of my computers. There just aren’t a lot of malware and virus threats on Linux boxes yet. I rarely have to do any security-related maintenance on my Linux boxes.

Movies: A fanfilm mash of Star Wars and Office Space. Delightful film.

Funny: When things get weird, America turns to H. P. Lovecraft for solace. It’s true.