Its Mr X time again, here an interview with Mr X about how it all started: click here.

I recently caught a virus on my work computer.

My antivirus program picked it up and seemed to remove it but what was actually happening was that it wasn’t removing the main virus file – only the files that were being infecting. It didn’t look like it was doing anything particularly bad until I logged into my online banking with LloydTSB…

It seemed to intercept my login and replace the “enter three characters from your memorable information” with a text box for me to enter ALL of my memorable info. Now LloydsTSB have recently changed their online banking so I thought this maybe a part of it. But once I did this a strange permissions page came up and telling me to set up a temporary payment which I can adjust later – click continue and there was a genuine looking payment set up page asking me to set up a payment between my main bank account and “LloydsTSB”.

At this point I know something isn’t right so I logged out and tried again – same thing.
It turns out that this is the (very clever) virus intercepting my login and trying to set up a payment from my bank account to who knows where!

So I picked up the pace in trying to get rid of this virus from my pc. After a number of failed attempts by Norton, Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware bytes I found the only scanner that got rid of it is Eset online virus scanner. Thats right a web page that scans your pc and removes virus’!

The link to the page is http://www.eset.com/online-scanner/run.

I’ve also noticed that the LloydsTSB login page now has warning and antivirus advice so I’m obviously not the only person this has happened to.

My advice is always being careful when dealing with your online banking and watch out for anything unusual. Also if anything like this happens to you change EVERY password you have!!!

Its Mr X time again!

If you are able please consider joining the appeal and donating a Christmas present to a deserving child.

You can find more information on this link:

http://www.scvs.org.uk/volunteeringandcitizenship/volunteering/involve/p2546/mrx.html

How many SEO copy writers does it take to screw in a light bulb, lite bulb, light, bulb, lite?

Blog comments have now been turned off.

The reason is the massive amount of spam that suddenly appeared! I logged in to find 136 comments, mostly offering me naked pictures of celebs. I’m not sure why this happened all of a sudden, maybe google indexed my site again and the comments page of my blog was made publicly accessible for spam bots.

So comments will be turned off for a while.

I’ve turned on the ability to add comments to my blog posts so feel free to add opinions and ideas…

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Just a quick note to those of you who haven’t already volunteered for Mr X that there is still time if you want to participate.

And just to tug on those heart strings…

This year, Mr X has more than 4,500 kids across South West Wales on his list. “It does make a difference to people’s lives,” he said.

“We all know how magical a time Christmas can be, and those happy memories stay with you for life. Sadly, some children run the risk of not having that. It’s an appeal like no other,” he added. “It’s not a case of just putting in your hand in your pocket. Because people go out and buy gifts, it gives the appeal more of a personal touch. In doing that, it encourages people to think of those less well-off.”

“I know people’s spending is going to be tight this year, but I’m not asking for money. All I want is for people to buy presents, and they don’t have to go on a crazy shopping spree.”

“People can be creative — It’s really not about how much you buy, but the thought of all that joy you will be bringing.”

For more information on the Mr X appeal and contact details please click here, the article is from last year but the details are the same.

How important is a domain name? After you’ve been to the site a couple of times you don’t need to pay attention anymore do you? It’s either bookmarked or you type it in without thinking about it. But what about your web site? Doesn’t your domain name need to be instantly recognisable as part of your business/brand/whatever?

I’m my humble opinion domain names fall into three categories:
• those instantly recognisable as part of a brand, for example google.com, bbc.co.uk and disney.com
• those where the domain name tells you what the site is about or what the product is – download.com, domain-name-ideas.com and tvguide.co.uk
• domain names that have very little or no relation to the product, service or web site theme – mazumamobile.com, quimble.com and amazon.co.uk.

Ideally we would all like to have the best possible domain name but that isn’t always an option – if you come up with a good one someone else will have already though of it and bought it.

There are a number of web sites out there that can help you find domain name “hacks“, this is where the domain name is also part of the suffix. For example dras.co.uk or del.icio.us. This type of domain name is very effective in terms of being easily remembered but can also cause confusion. How many times have you told someone a domain name only to forget if its a .com or .co.uk? Add a hacked domain name and you have the potential for confusion, so to be on the safe side do you also buy the .com and .co.uk versions as well? Doesn’t this defeat the object of doing it? I feel that if you’re going to use this style of domain name it should be very good like del.icio.us.

So what type of domain name should you use? In short it depends on the business you’re in, the contents of the web site and what’s available to purchase. The domain name should fit in with your identity. With the millions of web sites already out there a little creativity in you domain name can help you stand out from the crowd.

The new look website is up and running! I’d be interested to hear what people think about it…