It's great to see that the NZ Herald jumped on the reports published here last
week in which I publicised that an IRD webcrawler had been spotted trawling
a couple of local sites.
Herald reporter Michael Foreman did a good job in getting ahold of IRD
IT manager Tony Lester and asking him what was going on -- then writing
this story published in today's edition.
The IRD explains that the crawler is a link-verifier and not some covert
attempt to identify possible targets for further IRD investigations -- sounds
plausible to me.
But Michael -- in light of the IRD's response, why didn't you ask the question
we're all dying to know:
"Does the IRD have any future plans to use web-crawling as a method of identifying
those who may be evading their full tax obligations by trading over the Net?"
Of course anyone from within the IRD who is suitably qualified to answer
this question is invited to submit their response directly to me through
the contact form and I'll gladly relay the department's
comments to Aardvark's readers.
Stupid versus Stupid
Yesterday saw another battle of the stupid versus the witless as yet another
virus ran rampant through the computers of the world's lame-brained
Net users.
Every time I see reports of an email-borne virus blitzing its way across
the face of the globe I am reminded of the oft-repeated scene from The Simpsons
TV program which goes something like "Quit it, ow! Quit it, ow! Quit it, Ow!"
After the Love Bug ran rough-shod over the ranks of the moronic and their
machines a year or so ago you'd have thought that all those who had been hit
would have upgraded their software to avoid getting hit again. You'd have also
thought that Microsoft and/or their dealers would have made absolutely sure
that all the new versions of MS Outlook and all preconfigured systems were
supplied with the patched version of this software.
Unfortunately -- it seems not.
New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Europe -- they were all hit again by one of
the most predictable methods of virus delivery -- an executable attachment to
an email.
If you know someone who got hit by this latest virus -- why not give them a
"Kick Me Again" sign for Valentine's day?
Of course if the person writing the virus had half a brain they would have
cashed-in on the fact that today is Valentine's day and made their email
and attachment appear as if it were a virtual greeting card from an unknown
admirer.
Boy, we're really going to be stuffed if someone with more than half a brain
decides to write one of these viruses!
Shameless Plug
I've got a few weeks of (comparatively) free time coming up shortly so I'm
taking this opportunity to tout for some consulting work.
If you are looking for advice on maximising the return from your current or
planned online presence then contact me and I'll
see what I can do for you. Whether you want to embark on a highly cost-effective
online marketing campaign with significant residual effect or just want
to improve the performance of your existing Internet investment then I'm your man.
There are more than a few "big dollar" websites out there that could benefit
from one of my "site survey" reports too.
Need proof? Try using the
Tech Rentals website
with Netscape 4.x! Duh!
Have you checked YOUR site yet? :-)
The Weekly Is Downloadable
If you haven't received your Aardvark Weekly by email, you can
download it here. Subscribers
to the emailed version will get each version several days before it appears
here.
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
|
Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it
now!
|
|
There is 1 New Press Release today
