Several people on my MSN contact list have been unknowingly spamming me with messages about the acai berry.

The spam messages look like this:

• Are you finally ready to lose some weight with no effort, well I am living proof that those acai berry pills everyone is talking about actually work, I lost 22 pounds in two weeks and it only cost me five dollars over at www.hourstrong.com
• I have been taking Acai Berry now for over a month and already lost 36 pounds, it is the same stuff that was on the Oprah show, Mikey and Karine lost so much weight too with no diets or excersise. Get it now, its only five bucks a bottle, we are living proof that it works like magic. Get it over at www.hourstrong.com
• You must have seen all those ads and messages lately about acai berry pills that make you lose weight, well I took the plunge spend five bucks to try them and its been a couple weeks and I dropped 19 pounds already, I am living proof they do work, get them now at www.townstrong.com

The senders never see this spam and are completely unaware that they are sending it.

Originally we thought this was a piece of malware that had found it’s way into their PC’s, but numerous anti-malware programs were unable to find any form of infection — and complete reinstallation did not solve the problem either.

Instead, it looks now that this is an issue of massive MSN password hacking.  We’re not sure how the spammers are finding people’s MSN passwords, but changing the MSN password seems to fix the problem.

The morons perpetrating this spam appear to be operating out of Community China, so I don’t expect any legal action to be taken against them.  Microsoft appears unable or unwilling to block their spam.  What we can do is not reward them for spamming by purchasing acai berry products from them.

Senator Democrats are attempting to pass legislation which will give President Obama the authority to shut down the Internet and seize private networks.

On CNET News, Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), stated “As soon as you’re saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it’s going to be a really big issue.”

The bill, misleadingly titled “The Cybersecurity Act of 2009″, allows Obama to declare an emergency based upon no hard criteria. Once he declares this emergency, he can effectively shut down free speech on the Internet.

Jay Rockefeller, the bill’s sponsor, said “I know the threats we face. Our enemies are real. They are sophisticated, they are determined and they will not rest.” Unfortunately, it looks like the threat which Jay is most worried about is free speech from Americans who do not approve of Obama’s plans to impose national socialism upon the citizens of the United States.

In addition, the bill will require government licenses of any individual who seeks employment as a “cybersecurity professional”, effectively giving the Democratic party authority to prevent their political opponents from being involved in protecting either government or private networks from attack.

Late last year it became clear to us that The Tech FAQ was technologically out-of-date and that continuing to invest in the current home-grown CMS was a strategy for long-term failure.

I made a radical decision to begin development on a completely new platform and to roll out a significantly enhanced set of features.  Today, I would like to ask you to help test the new platform, tell us what you like and don’t like, suggest new features, and help us harden the platform before it goes live in real production.

The next generation of The Tech-FAQ is online at TopBits.com and includes features such as:

• A forum for tech talk
• Member profiles, with photo and video sharing
• A blog for each Tech-FAQ member
• A glossary of IT terminology
• Games
• An enhanced user interface

Most importantly, this new platform adds something very important to our web site — you.  The current Tech-FAQ.com is very good at sharing information from us to you, but that’s only half a conversation.  We would like to hear from you and that’s why we’re investing in this major upgrade.

Please, visit TopBits.com and help us build a better platform for all of us.

Windows Vista was, from an objective standpoint, a major flop.

This isn’t a new experience for Microsoft.  Windows ME was a terrible disaster which cost Microsoft tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, years of development time, and an incredible amount of public embarrassment.  It was unofficially renamed “Windows Mistake Edition.”

When Windows XP was released, it united Windows 2000 and Windows ME and brought relative peace and stability back to the Windows product line.

And then Microsoft tried something new with Vista — and failed.  The most common user question regarding Windows Vista has been “How do I uninstall Windows Vista?”

This environment of frustration has create a storm of interest in Windows 7.  Microsoft customers want something new and most are anxiously awaiting Windows 7.

Many customers are now trying beta versions of Windows 7 and reporting mostly positive results.  But, of course, beta software can be a source of constant frustration.

My friend Kamal recently created a Windows 7 Forum where Microsoft customers can find news and information regarding the new release — and technical assistance making the new release work and work optimally.

If you are testing Windows 7 now, or if you plan to run Windows 7 in the future, give the forum a visit to make your path easier.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently filed an emergency motion with the Newton District Court in Boston on behalf of a Boston College Student who was accused of criminal wrong-doing and had all of his computer and electronic equipment seized.

The warrant was issued based upon the “evidence” that the student was seen using a command line instead of the Windows GUI they teach at Boston College.

You can read the whole sad story at Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity.

I think that anyone considering either attending Boston College or hiring a graduate of Boston College should think about how miserably low academic standards there must be if students in the Computer Science program are considered “hackers” if they have the skills necessary to use a command line.

I just ran a search on Google, and oh, all the results were “harmful!”

For the first time in its recent history, the most popular search engine in the world malfunctioned. In what could be a temporary delight for Microsoft and Yahoo, users Googling for anything were warned about each result, that “this site may harm your computer.” Even results pointing to Google sites were marked as harmful. Clicking on the link explaining why a particular site was harmful would lead to a 502 Server Error page.

At first, it would seem like a malware attack on your own computer. But observing online discussions would reveal the issue.

The problem was there for at least half an hour, starting just after 14:30 GMT (January 31, 2009). The shock of users was palpable by the rate at which queries appeared at Yahoo! Answers – more than 200 appeared in a span of just an hour.

News websites had been speculating over what could have been the cause for this major issue. The speculation ended when Google itself acknowledged that a human error was behind the problem.

Given the plethora of choices for mobile phones, tech-savvy consumers often love to upgrade to the latest on the market. So what should be done about the old pieces that might uselessly occupy the shelf? Well, recycling your old phone will not only fetch reasonable money, but is an environment friendly option as well.

The BBC reports that a mobile phone trading website called FoneBank recently conducted a survey in the UK to find out the fate of old mobile phones. It was discovered that 28% of them simply put them away in a drawer, and 23% simply chucked them away. With the global recession setting in, consumers could easily opt for many of these second hand gadgets that are otherwise wasted away. And for those who still want to delve deeper into their pockets to upgrade to higher end phones, reselling old phones can fetch some money.

Particularly benefited from second hand phones are consumers living in developing countries. FoneBank, for its part has been recycling thousands of phones in recent months in regions like Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia.

The need for recycling old phones also arises from the concern for the environment. Toxic substances like cadmium found in their batteries can contaminate the water table. Manufacturers, importers and retailers of electronic devices often allow for the resale of old phones.

So before you decide to upgrade to a brand new handheld gadget, don’t forget about your old one!

SourceForge and Freshmeat are both great web sites for finding obscure open source software packages.

Both are very old and authoritative web sites; Freshmeat was started in March of 1998 and SourceForge came along in August of 1999.

SourceForge has a larger database of projects to search, which is a major advantage.  SourceForge also has a better search feature, in that you can filter your search results by meta data fields such as Development Status, License, and Programming Language.

Unfortunately, once you find the list of projects which meet your criteria, SourceForge falls down.  SourceForge presents very little data about each individial development project and the current SourceForge design makes it very difficult to find the real homepage of the development project.  SourceForge is attempting to trap visitors within SourceForge’s limited environment.  This makes SourceForge almost useless.

Freshmeat doesn’t have a search feature with the sophistication of the one you will find at SourceForge, but when you find an open source project at Freshmeat, it gives you all the data you need — including the real homepage of the project — with a far superior user interface.

So what am I stuck with?  I go to Freshmeat and search for projects.  If I find too many or too few results, I go to SourceForge and repeat the search.  But then I take those search results back to Freshmeat to find useful project descriptions.

Freshmeat, please improve your search feature; SourceForge, please stop trying to trap visitors within your horrible new user interface.

Evil Science has just published Internet Explorer vs Firefox vs Opera vs Chrome vs Safari, which contains the results of an extensive competitive speed test between five popular web browsers.

The author is an Opera user who discovered that his favorite browser has slipped to the #2 spot for performance.

The author rates each browser in nine different categories.  The final totals are:

I’m running Ubuntu Linux here, so Google Chrome isn’t really an option for me.  Firefox’s stability and performance issues have become serious enough that I may switch back to Opera.

Have you ever been interested in how a web site like The Tech FAQ gets built and promoted? Now you have an opportunity to find out.

The creator of The Tech FAQ has recently started a forum for webmasters where he shares the knowledge he gained while building and promoting this web site.

If you have an interest in helping to build the World Wide Web, Net Builders will be a great place to learn.