Interesting Medley Tweak Your Basses KCNET NEWSLETTER 05/30/04 TECHNICAL PAGE VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF TECHNICALLY SPEAKING INTERESTING SITES VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF Friday, May 14 - Friday, May 21 According to Sophos, a leader in Anti Virus Software development, 17 new/improved viruses which required Anti Virus upgrades were released into cyberspace via email. KCnet's antivirus program caught and "defanged" 2854 email viruses yesterday. This was just one day and is similar to every day lately. Viruses are still coming in by the buckets. Nearly 22,884 spam messages were refused. All these stats reflect significant drops from prior reports. LSASS Equals BOBAX - WORM_BOBAX.C WORM_BOBAX.C is a non-destructive worm that exploits the Windows LSASS vulnerability. This buffer overrun vulnerability allows an attacker to gain full control of an infected system. For more information on this vulnerability, please visit Microsoft’s Web site. This worm is currently spreading in-the-wild and runs on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP. Upon execution, this worm installs itself in the Windows system folder using random file names. It also drops a .DLL file in the Windows Temp folder with the name <random number>.TMP. It also creates a registry entry that allows it to automatically execute at every system startup. This malware also checks whether the following mutex exists, and to ensure that only one instance of itself is running in memory: 06:08:07:<random>. It then deletes its executed copy. As part of its propagation routine, it sends a specially crafted packet to a specific port. This packet of data instructs the target machine to download the worm copy from an HTTP server. It saves this downloaded file as SVC.EXE. If you would like to scan your computer for WORM_BOBAX.C or thousands of other worms, viruses, Trojans and malicious code, visit HouseCall, Trend Micro's free, online virus scanner at: http://housecall.trendmicro.com W32/Sdbot-BW Sophos for this one. Aliases Backdoor.SdBot.ma Type Win32 worm Description W32/Sdbot-BW is a worm and backdoor for the Windows platform. W32/Sdbot-BW attempts to connect to a channel on a remote IRC server and allow a malicious user remote access to the infected computer. In order to run automatically when Windows starts up Troj/Sdbot-BW creates the following registry entries: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ Microsoft AUT Update=MSlti32.exe HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\ Microsoft AUT Update=MSlti32.exe HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ Microsoft AUT Update=MSlti32.exe. W32/Sdbot-BW spreads by exploiting computers with weak passwords, unpatched vulnerabilities and backdoors opened by other worms. The worm may be configured to log the users keystrokes to a file named k3ys.txt in the Windows system folder. Have you updated your anti virus program lately? If not, may I recommend that you do it now? IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR IF YOU HAVE NOT SUCCESSFULLY SCANNED YOUR DRIVES FOR VIRUSES LATELY... THIS NEXT SITE IS FOR YOU. Free Virus scans. Trend Micro, more commonly referred to as Housecall, offers free virus scans and in most cases can fix damage down by a virus or worm that your computer may have contacted. The program works well. The first time one uses the free program it is necessary to download a small program. Trend Micro walks you through the process. Then the virus scans are quite simple for each return. You should disable any anti virus program that you have running. If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use this program first and then download one of the free programs listed above of install any anti virus program you have purchased. Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ then choose the link "Scan without registering". Follow the directions. Computer Associates, another reputable and reliable anti virus developer introduced a new free program which allows anyone to do a virus scan without downloading any software or registering for an anti virus program. You must use Internet Explorer for access to Computer Associates and to perform the scan. This is a good one and very simple to operate The address is http://www3.ca.com/threatinfo/virusinfo/scan.aspx Free Virus programs to download Quite a few KCnet members use these programs and like them. Be careful if you download a virus program and you already have one installed on your computer. You need to at least disable the program already installed. http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php Another good free program to take a look at is: http://www.free-av.com/ This list from Trend Micro represents the top 10 reported threats May 14, 2004 to May 20, 2004) 1. PE_ELKERN.D 2. PE_FUNLOVE.4099 3. WORM_NETSKY.P 4. HTML_NETSKY.P 5. WORM_NETSKY.D 6. WORM_SASSER.E 7. WORM_BOBAX.C 8. WORM_NETSKY.Z 9. WORM_SOBOT.KW 10. WORM_SOBER.G True Viruses and Warning Letters of Impending Doom. Believe it or not, the amount of harm done by sending false computer virus alarms and letters of impending doom to your thousand closest friends can be just as damaging as the alleged virus (if it even exists!); if you remember the story of the boy who cried wolf, you understand why. If you think you've got the scoop on the latest new devastating virus or latest doom warning, check it out at the Web sites below before taking it on yourself to alert the world. If the virus is as terrible as you think it is, odds are the virus fighters already know about it and -- good news here! -- your antivirus software provider probably knows about it too and already has an update for it. Sophos supplies this current information about actual hoaxes. Look at them. Read about them. If you are sent one of them, delete it. Here are a few sites of many that can help you determine if an email is a hoax or real. http://www.quatloos.com/ http://www.snopes.com/ http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/ http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxIndex.html http://vil.nai.com/VIL/hoaxes.asp http://kumite.com/myths/ http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html http://www.scambusters.org/VirusHoaxes.html http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/ http://www.truthorfiction.com/ TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: Why Intel's new chip names are so bad! Rafe Needleman, Editor Reviews - May 24, 2004 Just when I thought I had a handle on the scheme, they change it. One would think they would want to make things easier to understand. Nope, of course. (Mike) Speed isn't a measure of speed. That's Intel's message with its new naming scheme for its mobile CPUs. The company will soon bury the old, reliable gigahertz rating on its chips. Instead, if you're getting a PC with an Intel chip, you'll get a 300-, 500-, or 700-series model--much like BMW's car-naming scheme. While it's true that clock speed tells you less than it used to about how well a particular chip will perform, this new scheme will likely confuse buyers more than it helps. Here's Intel's justification for it: According to Intel VP Anand Chandrasekher, speaking at the launch of the Dothan (a.k.a. 700 series) CPU last Monday, the new numbers are not about performance so much as "goodness." Goodness me, that makes no sense When I buy a car, I don't want to know how good the manufacturer thinks the engine is. I want to know how powerful it is--how much horsepower it has. Even BMW's cryptic naming scheme makes more sense than Intel's new plan, because the last two digits in most BMW model numbers indicate engine displacement in (a BMW 325 has a 2.5-liter engine), which is a pretty good indication of how much oomph the car has. By comparison, an Intel-series 745 chip runs at 1.8GHz. Do you see the correlation? Me neither. Because there isn't one. Of course, with car engines, we care about linear things--horsepower and torque. With CPUs, we care about performance when playing games and performance when processing videos, and top-of-the-heap performance in one doesn't necessarily mean best-of-class in the other. But even so, fast is fast. What Intel is doing with its new scheme is taking into account other factors that have nothing to do with speed. For example, Chandrasekher says the new scheme takes into account power draw (and thus battery life). This is a good thing to know, but it's like BMW naming its cars based on fuel economy. Intel's new scheme also considers things such as cache size and bus speed, which do affect performance. And Intel has to do this. The problem, if it can be called that, is that the new Pentium M chips run faster than older Pentium Ms with the same, or even faster, clock speeds. So Intel needs to attach bigger numbers to the new parts to telegraph to consumers that they are faster. This scheme also appears to be a shot at AMD, Intel's chief competitor. AMD's chip-naming scheme is grounded in its competition with Intel. For example, an AMD Athlon 64 3200 is sold as a direct competitor to an Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.2GHz--even though the AMD's internal clock speed is 2.2GHz. With Intel's new series-based naming scheme, AMD will have to figure out some new way to compete. Pick a number, any number Ultimately, just as engine displacement really doesn't equal horsepower (some engines wring more power out of less, and the number of cylinders and turbochargers and things like that throw off any displacement rating), because of the large impact of things such as the size of a processor's cache, CPU processor speed is meaning less and less in terms of performance. And Intel is working on dual-core processors, which will essentially (in theory) double performance at a given clock speed. So what we need is an agreed-upon measure of processor performance. It doesn't have to be exact. Car engines are rated in horsepower, a performance measure the public understands, even though a car's overall performance will vary depending on a car's total weight and many other factors. Chips can be benchmarked on simple or complex tasks--from a raw number such as MIPS (millions of instructions per second) to something more real world, such as the BAPco SysMark tests we run on desktops and laptops. I'd like to see the chip companies adopt a performance number from such a standardized test. It won't tell you precisely how well a chip will perform, but it will put you in the ballpark, just like a horsepower rating does. And it'd be a lot easier to decipher than an arbitrary number that seems destined to confuse buyers more than help them understand what it represents. For more information on how these chips really perform, see our comparison of new Pentium M laptops, the first with the chips that carry the new names. Microsoft behind $12 million payment to Opera Last modified: CNET News May 24, 2004, By Evan Hansen and Paul Festa Staff Writer Foul! Foul! Foul! Heck this is a Technical Foul!!! I just knew the Microsofties were sandbagging the other browsers. (Mike) Microsoft agreed to pay Norway's Opera Software $12.75 million to head off a threatened lawsuit over code that made some Web pages on MSN look bad in certain versions of Opera's Web browser, CNET News.com has learned. Opera disclosed the payment last week in a terse press release that omitted other details, including the name of the settling party and the nature of the dispute. But a source indicated that the payment came from Microsoft in order to close the books on a clash over obscure interoperability problems. On at least three separate occasions, Opera has accused Microsoft of deliberately breaking interoperability between its MSN Web portal and various versions of the Opera browser--charges that the software giant has repeatedly denied. Microsoft agreed to pay $12.75 million to Opera Software to close the books on a clash over interoperability problems affecting Opera's browser. The deal marks the latest in a string of settlements from Microsoft, which is seeking to simplify its business by clearing up potentially damaging legal claims. A Microsoft representative said the company does not comment on rumors. Reached by phone, Opera executives refused to name the company involved in the settlement or describe the nature of the legal claims, citing a confidentiality agreement. "We forwarded a few facts to a big international corporation and settled before we took legal action," Opera Chief Technology Officer Hakon Lie said Tuesday. "This resolves an issue very close to my heart." The deal marks the latest in a string of settlements from Microsoft, which is seeking to simplify its business by clearing up potentially damaging legal claims. In the past year, the company has agreed to pay billions of dollars to wrap up litigation with Sun Microsystems, digital rights management developer InterTrust and Time Warner's Netscape Communications division, among others. More good stuff at: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+behind+%2412+million+payment+to+Opera/2100-1032-5218163.html?part=dht&tag=ntop A good one from Langalist. Fred was in a good mood when he wrote this one. Uncover The Real Power Of XP's Maintenance Tools Windows XP has gussied up some of its built-in maintenance tools, but in doing so, has actually hidden some of their power. For example, take Defrag. The normal, manual way to run Defrag is to click to Start/Control Panel/Performance and then select "Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster." All those clicks, and all that verbiage, simply starts the Defrag.Exe program (usually located in the Windows\System32 folder). When you run Defrag this way, it comes up with a graphical front end that requires still more pointing and clicking to make anything actually happen. So, this approach is useless for automated defrags when no one will be there to point and click as needed. And that really *is* the way Microsoft steers you to use tools like Defrag. For example, if you search for "Defrag" in XP's help file, the primary search results ("Using Disk Defragmenter" and "Disk Defragmenter") offer links to the graphical, manual--- and limited---version of Defrag. But Defrag actually can run *better* with no graphical front end at all and that's the key to using it (and other, similar system tools) in a far more powerful and fully automated fashion. That's the topic of the full-length feature article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15600170 : We'll start with the basics to make sure those new to Windows and XP are on board. But we'll end with some advanced ideas that can let your PC perform multiple automated unattended maintenance tasks of arbitrary complexity, and in whatever sequence you choose--- and all for free, using only the tools built into XP! For example, if you want to have your PC automatically wake itself up every night at 3AM, clean up your hard drive, backup all your files, defrag every disk or partition in your system, and then go back to sleep- -- no problem! In fact, it's easy, once you know how. Let me show you how simple it can be, using Defrag as the working example. Just click on over to the free article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15600170 for the full scoop. See you there! Stop Homepage Hijacking Thanks to Worldstart for this one We get e-mail from people all the time telling us that their homepage has been changed without their permission (Internet Explorer). Most of the time, a quick trip to the Tools menu, Internet Options will let you reset the page. However, sometimes it's an even bigger problem. Some folks find that each time they re-boot their computer, their homepage switches back to the unwanted one and no amount of screaming seems to help. What's going on? How did their web browser get hijacked? There are several ways this can happen, both for a simple homepage change and the nastier, seemingly permanent change. First, some web pages will ask you if you want to make them your homepage. If you hit Yes, then it's a done deal. After all, you can't be too surprised that your homepage was changed after you told your browser it was OK. However... Some will modify this question to something like "Do you like freebies?". When you hit Yes, it secretly changes your homepage on you. Most of the time, the same dialog box that's asking you if you like freebies (or whatever) will also say something to the effect that it's going to reset your homepage. They try to distract you from that message and just get you to click "Yes". So, be careful. Fortunately, when your homepage is switched in the ways outlined above, going to the Tools Menu, Internet Options will let you set your page back to whatever you want (of course, you'll need to know the address of your homepage). Normally, that takes care of the problem and you're back to normal again. Another way your homepage can get switched is through a security hole in Iinternet Explorer (yeah, I know, imagine that). As long as you keep your browser up to date, this shouldn't be a problem though. If it does get switched through this security hole, it's my understanding that generally a script is placed in the Startup menu (Start button, Programs, Startup) that will reset the homepage each time Windows loads. Deleting it should let you switch back your homepage permanently. Oh, and make sure you update IE if you aren't in the habit of doing it. That's one nasty little security hole! Finally, software can even be a problem. Some programs will load automatically when you start windows and the first thing they do is to reset your homepage. You may be able to disable this though their options area (don't hold your breath though). Best bet is to disable or get rid of any program you catch doing this. OK, but if it is a program that's switching your homepage, how do you figure out which one it is? Well, if your browser's homepage was reset to the homepage of a particular software company (who's software you just installed), you probably aren't going to expend too much mental energy figuring out who done it. (Believe it or not, UPS had a program that reset their customer's homepage to UPS's homepage - it's not just little guys doing this. Of course, it was "on accident", which begs the question, "How do you accidentally stick a code in that manipulates the end user's homepage?"). Anyhow... If you have no clue where the homepage in question came from, then look back on recently installed programs. Did your homepage change right after you installed a particular program? If so, you may have a place to start looking. Seems that most of the time, these type of programs run from the Startup folder (mentioned above). So, if you see something in there that shouldn't be (or you're not sure), you may want to remove the item, reset your homepage back to one you actually want (like www.worldstart.com :-), then see if it stays. Oh, one last thing - watch out for install programs too. Some of them have an option for resetting your homepage that's checked or selected by default (you know, for your convenience). Whew, that's enough of that. Be careful out there—everyone wants you to use their homepage for your homepage and they'll go to just about any length to make it happen. INTERESTING SITES: Here are some sites to get one started into reviewing the history of our conflicts and the patriots that served us well. Remember the events and honor the participants this Memorial Day. World War I http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/ World War II http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ The Forgotten War, Korean. http://www.koreanwar.com/ Viet Nam http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/ Gulf War 2002 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/ Bosnia http://www.hri.org/nodes/balkans.html Gulf War 2003 http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar2.html More sites dedicated to Memorial Day and the United States of America. Boalsburg, Pa., Birthplace of Memorial Day http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacentre/memory.htm DC City Pages: History of Memorial Day. http://www.cnn.com/US/9805/25/memorial.day.wrap/ General Logan Biography http://www.jal.cc.il.us/johnlogan.html General Logan's General Order 11 http://www.usmemorialday.org/order11.html Help Restore the Traditional Day of Observance of Memorial Day http://www.usmemorialday.org/act.html Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 from Duke University). http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncdhtml/hasmhome.html How to Observe Memorial Day. http://www.usmemorialday.org/observe.htm Luminaria Program http://www.nps.gov/frsp/luminari.htm Phone cards for members of the U.S. Armed Forces and hospitalized veterans http://www.operationuplink.org The Origins of Memorial Day http://www.va.gov/articles/celebam/memday.htm Roy, Nuhn. Portfolio: To Honor The Memory of the Departed. American History Illustrated 1982 17[3]: 20-25. S 189 and H.R. 1474, bills to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day. http://www.usmemorialday.org/act.html "S. Con. Res. 100", resolution for a National Moment of Remembrance. http://www.usmemorialday.org/resolution.html Statement on Signing the National Moment of Remembrance Act http://www.usmemorialday.org/speeches/president/dec2800.txt Taps Information. http://www.usmemorialday.org/taps.html VFW's "Buddy" Poppy program http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=what.levelc&cid=127&cfid=205008&cftoken=78050593 Waterloo, Official Birthplace of Memorial Day. http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyseneca/memorial.htm Do you remember first Etch A Sketch? I had trouble completing a circle and forget a connecting the sides of a rectangle. Here is a guy that is in the Etch A Sketch Hall Of Fame, and rightly so. His work is awesome. When George first started doing portraits they only took about 5 hours to finish. Now they take between 50-60, or as many as 70 hours to complete. It's a good weeks worth of work. With hard work and perservance the etches keep getting better. People see the end results but don't realize the dedication, focus and sacrifice that make his art work so unique. http://www.gvetchedintime.com/web/shaking.jpg The words go like this but the name eludes me. Ever hear a song and don't know its name? Search for a song by typing a few words of its lyrics in the box below. The system should output the name of the song and the artist, along with a link to the full lyrics (note that all links are to external sites; I take no responsability for contents...). You'll also be given an opportunity to buy the album at Amazon (Amazon is planning to introduce MP3 download too). http://songsearch.synnottsoftware.com/ Microphones and celebrities through the times. Lots of good pictures here and some nice stories. http://www.coutant.org/ States and Capitals Thanks to Amanda This site is really simple to navigate. You can either choose the state from the list, choose the state from the state map, or choose the capital from the capital map. Choosing Ohio from the list, I got a page full of information about the State. It starts off with the capital (Columbus), the longitude and latitude, and then information about when it was admitted as a state and so on. You can find out about Famous Ohioans, the State Bird (cardinal), Colleges, Climate, Economy, Editorial Cartoons, State Flag, Population, Presidents born there, Soil, State Song and much, much more. If you choose to view the State map, you get a map of the United States with the abbreviations for the states. If you choose the Capital map you get a map of United States with both the abbreviation for the state as well as the capital. If you want to skip the middle man to find just the State bird, flag, news, song, or tools—scroll down a little further, and choose the section you want. For example, I chose "song", and a list of states loaded with their songs beneath them. This is a wonderful site if you need to do a report or need quick information on the state you live in. http://50states.com/ HOME PAGE KCNET NEWSLETTER COMMENTARY AND CLASS SCHEDULE PAGE MIKE'S COMMENTARY, SCHEDULE OF KCNET CLASSES, NEWS & NOTES BY SUE FOUST FUN PAGE SIGN PARODY, QUOTES, CHUCKLES AND BELLY LAUGHS KCNET SENIORCENTER.NET HOMEPAGE NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES 2004, 2003, & 2002 KCNET NEWSLETTER MEMBER PAGES
KCNET NEWSLETTER 05/30/04 TECHNICAL PAGE
VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF TECHNICALLY SPEAKING INTERESTING SITES
VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF Friday, May 14 - Friday, May 21 According to Sophos, a leader in Anti Virus Software development, 17 new/improved viruses which required Anti Virus upgrades were released into cyberspace via email.
KCnet's antivirus program caught and "defanged" 2854 email viruses yesterday. This was just one day and is similar to every day lately. Viruses are still coming in by the buckets. Nearly 22,884 spam messages were refused. All these stats reflect significant drops from prior reports.
LSASS Equals BOBAX - WORM_BOBAX.C WORM_BOBAX.C is a non-destructive worm that exploits the Windows LSASS vulnerability. This buffer overrun vulnerability allows an attacker to gain full control of an infected system. For more information on this vulnerability, please visit Microsoft’s Web site. This worm is currently spreading in-the-wild and runs on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP. Upon execution, this worm installs itself in the Windows system folder using random file names. It also drops a .DLL file in the Windows Temp folder with the name <random number>.TMP. It also creates a registry entry that allows it to automatically execute at every system startup. This malware also checks whether the following mutex exists, and to ensure that only one instance of itself is running in memory: 06:08:07:<random>. It then deletes its executed copy. As part of its propagation routine, it sends a specially crafted packet to a specific port. This packet of data instructs the target machine to download the worm copy from an HTTP server. It saves this downloaded file as SVC.EXE. If you would like to scan your computer for WORM_BOBAX.C or thousands of other worms, viruses, Trojans and malicious code, visit HouseCall, Trend Micro's free, online virus scanner at: http://housecall.trendmicro.com
W32/Sdbot-BW Sophos for this one. Aliases Backdoor.SdBot.ma Type Win32 worm Description W32/Sdbot-BW is a worm and backdoor for the Windows platform. W32/Sdbot-BW attempts to connect to a channel on a remote IRC server and allow a malicious user remote access to the infected computer. In order to run automatically when Windows starts up Troj/Sdbot-BW creates the following registry entries: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ Microsoft AUT Update=MSlti32.exe HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\ Microsoft AUT Update=MSlti32.exe HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ Microsoft AUT Update=MSlti32.exe. W32/Sdbot-BW spreads by exploiting computers with weak passwords, unpatched vulnerabilities and backdoors opened by other worms. The worm may be configured to log the users keystrokes to a file named k3ys.txt in the Windows system folder.
IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR IF YOU HAVE NOT SUCCESSFULLY SCANNED YOUR DRIVES FOR VIRUSES LATELY... THIS NEXT SITE IS FOR YOU. Free Virus scans. Trend Micro, more commonly referred to as Housecall, offers free virus scans and in most cases can fix damage down by a virus or worm that your computer may have contacted. The program works well. The first time one uses the free program it is necessary to download a small program. Trend Micro walks you through the process. Then the virus scans are quite simple for each return. You should disable any anti virus program that you have running. If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use this program first and then download one of the free programs listed above of install any anti virus program you have purchased. Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ then choose the link "Scan without registering". Follow the directions.
Computer Associates, another reputable and reliable anti virus developer introduced a new free program which allows anyone to do a virus scan without downloading any software or registering for an anti virus program. You must use Internet Explorer for access to Computer Associates and to perform the scan. This is a good one and very simple to operate The address is http://www3.ca.com/threatinfo/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Free Virus programs to download Quite a few KCnet members use these programs and like them. Be careful if you download a virus program and you already have one installed on your computer. You need to at least disable the program already installed. http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php Another good free program to take a look at is: http://www.free-av.com/
This list from Trend Micro represents the top 10 reported threats May 14, 2004 to May 20, 2004) 1. PE_ELKERN.D 2. PE_FUNLOVE.4099 3. WORM_NETSKY.P 4. HTML_NETSKY.P 5. WORM_NETSKY.D 6. WORM_SASSER.E 7. WORM_BOBAX.C 8. WORM_NETSKY.Z 9. WORM_SOBOT.KW 10. WORM_SOBER.G
True Viruses and Warning Letters of Impending Doom. Believe it or not, the amount of harm done by sending false computer virus alarms and letters of impending doom to your thousand closest friends can be just as damaging as the alleged virus (if it even exists!); if you remember the story of the boy who cried wolf, you understand why. If you think you've got the scoop on the latest new devastating virus or latest doom warning, check it out at the Web sites below before taking it on yourself to alert the world. If the virus is as terrible as you think it is, odds are the virus fighters already know about it and -- good news here! -- your antivirus software provider probably knows about it too and already has an update for it. Sophos supplies this current information about actual hoaxes. Look at them. Read about them. If you are sent one of them, delete it.
Here are a few sites of many that can help you determine if an email is a hoax or real. http://www.quatloos.com/ http://www.snopes.com/ http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/ http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxIndex.html http://vil.nai.com/VIL/hoaxes.asp http://kumite.com/myths/ http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html http://www.scambusters.org/VirusHoaxes.html http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/ http://www.truthorfiction.com/
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: Why Intel's new chip names are so bad! Rafe Needleman, Editor Reviews - May 24, 2004 Just when I thought I had a handle on the scheme, they change it. One would think they would want to make things easier to understand. Nope, of course. (Mike) Speed isn't a measure of speed. That's Intel's message with its new naming scheme for its mobile CPUs. The company will soon bury the old, reliable gigahertz rating on its chips. Instead, if you're getting a PC with an Intel chip, you'll get a 300-, 500-, or 700-series model--much like BMW's car-naming scheme. While it's true that clock speed tells you less than it used to about how well a particular chip will perform, this new scheme will likely confuse buyers more than it helps. Here's Intel's justification for it: According to Intel VP Anand Chandrasekher, speaking at the launch of the Dothan (a.k.a. 700 series) CPU last Monday, the new numbers are not about performance so much as "goodness." Goodness me, that makes no sense When I buy a car, I don't want to know how good the manufacturer thinks the engine is. I want to know how powerful it is--how much horsepower it has. Even BMW's cryptic naming scheme makes more sense than Intel's new plan, because the last two digits in most BMW model numbers indicate engine displacement in (a BMW 325 has a 2.5-liter engine), which is a pretty good indication of how much oomph the car has. By comparison, an Intel-series 745 chip runs at 1.8GHz. Do you see the correlation? Me neither. Because there isn't one. Of course, with car engines, we care about linear things--horsepower and torque. With CPUs, we care about performance when playing games and performance when processing videos, and top-of-the-heap performance in one doesn't necessarily mean best-of-class in the other. But even so, fast is fast. What Intel is doing with its new scheme is taking into account other factors that have nothing to do with speed. For example, Chandrasekher says the new scheme takes into account power draw (and thus battery life). This is a good thing to know, but it's like BMW naming its cars based on fuel economy. Intel's new scheme also considers things such as cache size and bus speed, which do affect performance. And Intel has to do this. The problem, if it can be called that, is that the new Pentium M chips run faster than older Pentium Ms with the same, or even faster, clock speeds. So Intel needs to attach bigger numbers to the new parts to telegraph to consumers that they are faster. This scheme also appears to be a shot at AMD, Intel's chief competitor. AMD's chip-naming scheme is grounded in its competition with Intel. For example, an AMD Athlon 64 3200 is sold as a direct competitor to an Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.2GHz--even though the AMD's internal clock speed is 2.2GHz. With Intel's new series-based naming scheme, AMD will have to figure out some new way to compete. Pick a number, any number Ultimately, just as engine displacement really doesn't equal horsepower (some engines wring more power out of less, and the number of cylinders and turbochargers and things like that throw off any displacement rating), because of the large impact of things such as the size of a processor's cache, CPU processor speed is meaning less and less in terms of performance. And Intel is working on dual-core processors, which will essentially (in theory) double performance at a given clock speed. So what we need is an agreed-upon measure of processor performance. It doesn't have to be exact. Car engines are rated in horsepower, a performance measure the public understands, even though a car's overall performance will vary depending on a car's total weight and many other factors. Chips can be benchmarked on simple or complex tasks--from a raw number such as MIPS (millions of instructions per second) to something more real world, such as the BAPco SysMark tests we run on desktops and laptops. I'd like to see the chip companies adopt a performance number from such a standardized test. It won't tell you precisely how well a chip will perform, but it will put you in the ballpark, just like a horsepower rating does. And it'd be a lot easier to decipher than an arbitrary number that seems destined to confuse buyers more than help them understand what it represents. For more information on how these chips really perform, see our comparison of new Pentium M laptops, the first with the chips that carry the new names.
Microsoft behind $12 million payment to Opera Last modified: CNET News May 24, 2004, By Evan Hansen and Paul Festa Staff Writer Foul! Foul! Foul! Heck this is a Technical Foul!!! I just knew the Microsofties were sandbagging the other browsers. (Mike) Microsoft agreed to pay Norway's Opera Software $12.75 million to head off a threatened lawsuit over code that made some Web pages on MSN look bad in certain versions of Opera's Web browser, CNET News.com has learned. Opera disclosed the payment last week in a terse press release that omitted other details, including the name of the settling party and the nature of the dispute. But a source indicated that the payment came from Microsoft in order to close the books on a clash over obscure interoperability problems. On at least three separate occasions, Opera has accused Microsoft of deliberately breaking interoperability between its MSN Web portal and various versions of the Opera browser--charges that the software giant has repeatedly denied. Microsoft agreed to pay $12.75 million to Opera Software to close the books on a clash over interoperability problems affecting Opera's browser. The deal marks the latest in a string of settlements from Microsoft, which is seeking to simplify its business by clearing up potentially damaging legal claims. A Microsoft representative said the company does not comment on rumors. Reached by phone, Opera executives refused to name the company involved in the settlement or describe the nature of the legal claims, citing a confidentiality agreement. "We forwarded a few facts to a big international corporation and settled before we took legal action," Opera Chief Technology Officer Hakon Lie said Tuesday. "This resolves an issue very close to my heart." The deal marks the latest in a string of settlements from Microsoft, which is seeking to simplify its business by clearing up potentially damaging legal claims. In the past year, the company has agreed to pay billions of dollars to wrap up litigation with Sun Microsystems, digital rights management developer InterTrust and Time Warner's Netscape Communications division, among others. More good stuff at: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+behind+%2412+million+payment+to+Opera/2100-1032-5218163.html?part=dht&tag=ntop
A good one from Langalist. Fred was in a good mood when he wrote this one. Uncover The Real Power Of XP's Maintenance Tools Windows XP has gussied up some of its built-in maintenance tools, but in doing so, has actually hidden some of their power. For example, take Defrag. The normal, manual way to run Defrag is to click to Start/Control Panel/Performance and then select "Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster." All those clicks, and all that verbiage, simply starts the Defrag.Exe program (usually located in the Windows\System32 folder). When you run Defrag this way, it comes up with a graphical front end that requires still more pointing and clicking to make anything actually happen. So, this approach is useless for automated defrags when no one will be there to point and click as needed. And that really *is* the way Microsoft steers you to use tools like Defrag. For example, if you search for "Defrag" in XP's help file, the primary search results ("Using Disk Defragmenter" and "Disk Defragmenter") offer links to the graphical, manual--- and limited---version of Defrag. But Defrag actually can run *better* with no graphical front end at all and that's the key to using it (and other, similar system tools) in a far more powerful and fully automated fashion. That's the topic of the full-length feature article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15600170 : We'll start with the basics to make sure those new to Windows and XP are on board. But we'll end with some advanced ideas that can let your PC perform multiple automated unattended maintenance tasks of arbitrary complexity, and in whatever sequence you choose--- and all for free, using only the tools built into XP! For example, if you want to have your PC automatically wake itself up every night at 3AM, clean up your hard drive, backup all your files, defrag every disk or partition in your system, and then go back to sleep- -- no problem! In fact, it's easy, once you know how. Let me show you how simple it can be, using Defrag as the working example. Just click on over to the free article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15600170 for the full scoop. See you there!
Stop Homepage Hijacking Thanks to Worldstart for this one We get e-mail from people all the time telling us that their homepage has been changed without their permission (Internet Explorer). Most of the time, a quick trip to the Tools menu, Internet Options will let you reset the page. However, sometimes it's an even bigger problem. Some folks find that each time they re-boot their computer, their homepage switches back to the unwanted one and no amount of screaming seems to help. What's going on? How did their web browser get hijacked? There are several ways this can happen, both for a simple homepage change and the nastier, seemingly permanent change. First, some web pages will ask you if you want to make them your homepage. If you hit Yes, then it's a done deal. After all, you can't be too surprised that your homepage was changed after you told your browser it was OK. However... Some will modify this question to something like "Do you like freebies?". When you hit Yes, it secretly changes your homepage on you. Most of the time, the same dialog box that's asking you if you like freebies (or whatever) will also say something to the effect that it's going to reset your homepage. They try to distract you from that message and just get you to click "Yes". So, be careful. Fortunately, when your homepage is switched in the ways outlined above, going to the Tools Menu, Internet Options will let you set your page back to whatever you want (of course, you'll need to know the address of your homepage). Normally, that takes care of the problem and you're back to normal again. Another way your homepage can get switched is through a security hole in Iinternet Explorer (yeah, I know, imagine that). As long as you keep your browser up to date, this shouldn't be a problem though. If it does get switched through this security hole, it's my understanding that generally a script is placed in the Startup menu (Start button, Programs, Startup) that will reset the homepage each time Windows loads. Deleting it should let you switch back your homepage permanently. Oh, and make sure you update IE if you aren't in the habit of doing it. That's one nasty little security hole! Finally, software can even be a problem. Some programs will load automatically when you start windows and the first thing they do is to reset your homepage. You may be able to disable this though their options area (don't hold your breath though). Best bet is to disable or get rid of any program you catch doing this. OK, but if it is a program that's switching your homepage, how do you figure out which one it is? Well, if your browser's homepage was reset to the homepage of a particular software company (who's software you just installed), you probably aren't going to expend too much mental energy figuring out who done it. (Believe it or not, UPS had a program that reset their customer's homepage to UPS's homepage - it's not just little guys doing this. Of course, it was "on accident", which begs the question, "How do you accidentally stick a code in that manipulates the end user's homepage?"). Anyhow... If you have no clue where the homepage in question came from, then look back on recently installed programs. Did your homepage change right after you installed a particular program? If so, you may have a place to start looking. Seems that most of the time, these type of programs run from the Startup folder (mentioned above). So, if you see something in there that shouldn't be (or you're not sure), you may want to remove the item, reset your homepage back to one you actually want (like www.worldstart.com :-), then see if it stays. Oh, one last thing - watch out for install programs too. Some of them have an option for resetting your homepage that's checked or selected by default (you know, for your convenience). Whew, that's enough of that. Be careful out there—everyone wants you to use their homepage for your homepage and they'll go to just about any length to make it happen.
INTERESTING SITES: Here are some sites to get one started into reviewing the history of our conflicts and the patriots that served us well. Remember the events and honor the participants this Memorial Day. World War I http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/ World War II http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ The Forgotten War, Korean. http://www.koreanwar.com/ Viet Nam http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/ Gulf War 2002 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/ Bosnia http://www.hri.org/nodes/balkans.html Gulf War 2003 http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar2.html
More sites dedicated to Memorial Day and the United States of America. Boalsburg, Pa., Birthplace of Memorial Day http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacentre/memory.htm DC City Pages: History of Memorial Day. http://www.cnn.com/US/9805/25/memorial.day.wrap/ General Logan Biography http://www.jal.cc.il.us/johnlogan.html General Logan's General Order 11 http://www.usmemorialday.org/order11.html Help Restore the Traditional Day of Observance of Memorial Day http://www.usmemorialday.org/act.html Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 from Duke University). http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncdhtml/hasmhome.html How to Observe Memorial Day. http://www.usmemorialday.org/observe.htm Luminaria Program http://www.nps.gov/frsp/luminari.htm Phone cards for members of the U.S. Armed Forces and hospitalized veterans http://www.operationuplink.org The Origins of Memorial Day http://www.va.gov/articles/celebam/memday.htm Roy, Nuhn. Portfolio: To Honor The Memory of the Departed. American History Illustrated 1982 17[3]: 20-25. S 189 and H.R. 1474, bills to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day. http://www.usmemorialday.org/act.html "S. Con. Res. 100", resolution for a National Moment of Remembrance. http://www.usmemorialday.org/resolution.html Statement on Signing the National Moment of Remembrance Act http://www.usmemorialday.org/speeches/president/dec2800.txt Taps Information. http://www.usmemorialday.org/taps.html VFW's "Buddy" Poppy program http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=what.levelc&cid=127&cfid=205008&cftoken=78050593 Waterloo, Official Birthplace of Memorial Day. http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyseneca/memorial.htm
Do you remember first Etch A Sketch? I had trouble completing a circle and forget a connecting the sides of a rectangle. Here is a guy that is in the Etch A Sketch Hall Of Fame, and rightly so. His work is awesome. When George first started doing portraits they only took about 5 hours to finish. Now they take between 50-60, or as many as 70 hours to complete. It's a good weeks worth of work. With hard work and perservance the etches keep getting better. People see the end results but don't realize the dedication, focus and sacrifice that make his art work so unique. http://www.gvetchedintime.com/web/shaking.jpg
The words go like this but the name eludes me. Ever hear a song and don't know its name? Search for a song by typing a few words of its lyrics in the box below. The system should output the name of the song and the artist, along with a link to the full lyrics (note that all links are to external sites; I take no responsability for contents...). You'll also be given an opportunity to buy the album at Amazon (Amazon is planning to introduce MP3 download too). http://songsearch.synnottsoftware.com/
Microphones and celebrities through the times. Lots of good pictures here and some nice stories. http://www.coutant.org/
States and Capitals Thanks to Amanda This site is really simple to navigate. You can either choose the state from the list, choose the state from the state map, or choose the capital from the capital map. Choosing Ohio from the list, I got a page full of information about the State. It starts off with the capital (Columbus), the longitude and latitude, and then information about when it was admitted as a state and so on. You can find out about Famous Ohioans, the State Bird (cardinal), Colleges, Climate, Economy, Editorial Cartoons, State Flag, Population, Presidents born there, Soil, State Song and much, much more. If you choose to view the State map, you get a map of the United States with the abbreviations for the states. If you choose the Capital map you get a map of United States with both the abbreviation for the state as well as the capital. If you want to skip the middle man to find just the State bird, flag, news, song, or tools—scroll down a little further, and choose the section you want. For example, I chose "song", and a list of states loaded with their songs beneath them. This is a wonderful site if you need to do a report or need quick information on the state you live in. http://50states.com/
