VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF TECHNICALLY SPEAKING INTERESTING SITES
VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx
Click here for a pic of the actual CD Picture site provided by Ken Dale, KCnet Tech.
Is he a nice guy or what?
BagleDl-A Trojan horse From Sophos we have seen this one a lot this past week. Not pretty when one gets infected. It entices you to open a zip file for fotos. Do Not Do It BagleDl-A Trojan horse can disable firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2 Trojan horse mass-mailed to many internet users, Sophos warns of malware menace The Trojan horse can disable security applications, including the firewall built into Windows XP Service Pack 2. Experts at Sophos have warned users to be wary of unsolicited emails claiming to contain photographs, after a Trojan horse was spammed to internet users. Many companies have reported sighting the Trojan horse at their email gateways. The Troj/BagleDl-A Trojan horse has been distributed in an email with the following characteristics: Subject: foto Message body: foto Attached file: foto.zip or fotos.zip If the user opens the attached zip file, and launches the HTML file contained within, the Trojan will attempt to download a malicious program from one of more than 130 separate websites, many based in Eastern Europe, every six hours. "Whoever is behind this Trojan horse is trying to increase the harm they cause by using a wide variety of different websites to spread their code, and by telling infected computers to download an updated payload every six hours," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "This makes it harder to shut down every website under his or her control, and means the malware code can be easily and regularly updated. The mass distribution of this Trojan horse is a seeding for further attacks." "All computer users should ensure their anti-virus protection is up-to-date and able to counter this latest menace," continued Cluley. "Everyone should be wary of launching unsolicited email attachments and ensure their PCs are properly defended." Sophos notes that the BagleDl-A Trojan horse is capable of turning off the firewall built into Microsoft's recent Windows XP Service Pack 2 update. "Just because you are running the latest version of Windows XP you shouldn't think you are necessarily protected from this Trojan," continued Cluley. "If you launch it on a PC running Windows XP SP2 it can turn off your firewall opening the door to hackers and other internet attacks." The BagleDl-A Trojan horse appears to be from the same author as the Bagle worm which struck thousands of unprotected computer users earlier this year. Sophos recommends companies protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.
Thursday, August 12 -- Thursday, August 19 According to Sophos, a leader in Anti Virus Software development, 24 new/improved viruses which required Anti Virus upgrades were released into cyberspace via email. This is the highest number of releases in many months. & KCnet's antivirus program caught and "defanged" 15,967 email viruses in addition to refusing 175,483 spam messages. This was an extra heavy week for virus messages. The spam and viruses are still coming in by the big buckets.
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/securityadvisor/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/
Top 5 Viruses for August 13 to August 19 from Trend Micro 1 WORM_SASSER.B 2 PE_ZAFI.B 3 WORM_NETSKY.P 4 HTML_NETSKY.P 5 WORM_NETSKY.D
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: Longhorn changed to make deadlines By Michael Kanellos and Ina Fried Staff Writers, CNET News.com August 27, 2004 Microsoft on Friday set late 2006 as the deadline for it to ship Longhorn, the next major version of Windows. But to make that date, it had to delay the full implementation of WinFS, an ambitious file system geared toward letting users search through all of their files at once. Whether Microsoft makes this latest deadline will likely be one of the dominant issues for the tech industry over the next two years. The operating system was originally expected in 2004, and many have predicted that further delays could dampen PC sales. Meanwhile, the growing popularity of Linux has begun to nibble at Microsoft's dominance on the desktop, while Google has emerged as a major competitor on the Internet. Will Longhorn be dazzling enough to undercut these trends? The fate of the industry hangs in the balance. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates spoke exclusively with CNET News.com on Friday about how Microsoft handles deadlines and new opportunities. Read Bill Gates doing spin doctor on the Longhorn project. http://news.com.com/Gates%3A+Longhorn+changed+to+make+deadlines/2008-1016-5327377.html?part=dht&tag=ntop
Windows chief: 'Don't call it Shorthorn' By David Berlind, ZDNet Tech Writer Now that the priorities for Microsoft's next operating system have changed, Microsoft's Windows chief Jim Allchin is trying to reset the public's expectations for Longhorn. Apparently upset with the derogation, Allchin took offense to the nickname "Shorthorn" and continued to position Longhorn as the the best operating system that Microsoft will ever release. Once long on ambition, the OS, which is still expected to ship in 2006, is growing shorter on revolutionary features.
This is a good one from Worldstart. Maybe old hat for some. When I start Windows, I get an error message saying that it can't find a file. I click OK and everything seems alright. How do I get rid of that annoying message? This has to be one of our most frequently asked questions. Probably what has happened is you've uninstalled something that normally loaded when you started Windows. The program is gone, but there is still a reference to it floating around somewhere. Now, you can go hunting through your autoexec bat, registry, startup menu, and your "ini" files to locate the program reference and get rid of it. However, the "down and dirty" way to do it is to use msconfig (win98 or higher). Click your Start button, Run. Type in "msconfig" (no quotes) and hit OK. Click the Startup tab and try to locate the program that is causing the error message. Usually if you look at the end of the "Command" column you can find the file name that Windows claims it can't find. Once located, just uncheck it and hit OK. Oh, note that if you can't see the end of the command line, you can expand the size of the column (digital elastic ;-). Just hover your mouse over the boundary between the columns and drag it over. Make sure you pay attention to what you're unchecking so if you uncheck the wrong item, you can go back and re-check it if necessary. Once you're done, reboot and see if that error message is gone.
This one from The Langalist. It interested me because one can store and carry information about in a very portable manner. The links to previous articles on the "thumb drivers is most interesting. It beats the heck out of making CDs for transport and you can delete unwanted info and use the space over again. (Mike) More Pen Drive Options Fred, I've been interested in the PC since the guys at Xerox' research center invented it and I can honestly say that there is no computer related newsletter as useful as yours, period. I was very interested in the articles/discussions of thumb drives http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22100588 and would very much like your opinion of the Archos 20 GB drive http://www.archos.com/products/prw_500455_specs.html. Although not quite as small as the thumb drives you reviewed, I am very impressed with a 3 inch square device weighing less than 3 ounces, packing 20 GB and selling for about $160 on the street. From Sailfree It's a very attractive price; if you don't need the ultra-compact form factor of a pen drive, then something like the Archos could be good. For that matter, if size is no issue at all, you might consider buying (1) a usb hard drive enclosure and (2) a separate low cost, full-size (2.5" or 3.5" platter) drive. The enclosures cost as little as $10 and up; and these standard-size drives offer the cheapest cost-per-byte storage available. You could create a custom, external, USB drive that exactly meets your needs. Note that the larger size and greater weight means you lose portability compared to a pen drive; and standard drives are also much more fragile (you can't just toss a standard hard drive in a briefcase or pocket, while that's exactly what pen drives excel at); but you gain in available, low-cost storage space. USB external drive enclosures: http://langa.com/u/5w.htm Drives: http://froogle.google.com/froogle?scoring=p&q=+hard+drive Because of the durability/fragility issues, my personal preference for portable drives is something solid-state, like a true pen drive; or a USB device built around a tiny hard drive specifically meant for portable use. But there are many, many options, and if your needs and preferences differ from mine, then something like the Archos, or a separate drive+enclosure setup, may be just the ticket for you.
I just have to share this one because I have been an ANTI - AOL guy since Al Gore invented the internet. This also was a Fred Langa presentation. (Mike) Fred stated: AOL, and Irresponsible Tech Long-time readers know how I feel about AOL--- it's overpriced, underperforming, technologically backwards, and the cause of more connectivity and mail delivery trouble than any other ISP I know (worse than some third-world ISPS!). Because my feelings are (ahem) well-known, when I speak of AOL, some people tune out. So let me hand the virtual microphone to a reader who describes his own experiences: I recently got a new cell phone and number, it is part of one of those family plans (this is important). The controlling number is not under my name but one of my sons. Things were good but then after a few days I notice that I am getting text messages. The messages are from AOL and seem to be ads or something. Next we notice that the text sometimes contain news items. A call to the phone provider Cingular says that the messages are not from them and yes there is a charge for them after a certain number per month. These messages are probably from either a previous user of the number or from someone who set up an account and put in the wrong number. Can we stop or block them? Not from an individual provider. You can only turn the text message service on or off for the entire account (not just the one phone). OK, then lets try AOL the sender of the messages. Note, I do not have an AOL account nor ever had an Instant Messenger Account with them (big problem but that is why I never liked them to start with). A call to AOL was at first like playing a bad game of lets send this customer to another line as I tried to explain my problem and got sent from one call center to another. The catch was without an account or a sign on it was almost impossible to get information or help, even the tech center was stumped. Finally after an hour or so I got someone who at least understood my problem and was willing to try a fix. Now one would think that if they were sending auto messages to a specific phone number they could just search their database and turn it off. But that can not be done, AOL's database is all by account or log on name. There is no way to search for a phone number in any system of theirs (so they claim). It is a privacy thing. But with the number and my service provider and my phone model number there may be a way to with over rides they have. OK.......but now another problem the phone I have is a new model and there is no such model in their program to turn it off. So sorry we know we are sending you these messages (that are costing money and are a bother when they arrive) but we can not stop them, can we help you in any other way, have a good day and thank you for calling AOL customer service. Now, it seems to me that there should be a law that if you set up a computer system to send something that costs the receiver money that you should also have to have a way to stop it. You just don't put out half baked programs that can affect more then the customers who purchased it. That is irresponsible! Right now it looks like we will just kill text messaging for all the phones on the account. But I can't believe that I am the only one who this has or will happen to. Another thought crossed my mind what if I set up an AOL Instant Messenger Account (remember there is no verification for these free accounts) with phony information, then collect the cell phone numbers of people I don't like. Now I'll set up auto text messages to these phones for every sports team, stock, news headline and weather report to go to them. That should keep their phones beeping half the day and it will be a bitch to stop. See where this could go without the proper safeguards and programming in place? Technology must be used responsibly and must be thought out before releasing it to the public. Companies often wonder how they get a bad reputation when they think that they are providing a wanted service. But if that service is not thought through and controlled the results can kill any good will and more then they create. Hope I haven't taken up to much of your time. I guess I'd better go and renew my Plus subscription. Jim Lewis AOL grew through aggressive marketing for years, Jim, but they're finally starting to shrink: Almost any ISP can offer a better deal than AOL can, with almost all the same content, except for AOL's limited proprietary content. But even that general type of content is available elsewhere, for less. People with AOL really would do themselves a favor by considering a switch to another ISP. And new users, considering giving AOL a try, really would do better with almost any other alternative ISP.
INTERESTING SITES:
AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION John Laubscher sent this site. Kitty Laubscher's brother William gave his life in the Korean War. Typing his last name into the data base produced the following information: William A. Hager, Jr. Lock Haven, Pennsylvania Born June 10, 1932 Private, U.S. Army Service Number 13314837 Killed while a Prisoner of War Died September 26, 1950 in Korea Private Hager was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in South Korea on July 16, 1950 and was killed by a guard in South Korea on September 26, 1950. Private Hager was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal. You may have family or friends that were KIA during the Korean conflict. This database is very inclusive and could be very helpful. http://www.abmc.gov/SEARCH.HTM
World War II KIAs also have an "Honor Roll"- a similar data base. John Laubscher also had a URL for World War II fallen which he shared at the Wednesday Users Group. We accessed and tested it on three or four relatives of class attendees. This data base shows a certificate that indicates the name, rank, and other particulars about the dead service person, no picture. Each one had a second reference to access that indicated the location of remains. Click on the "Search The Registry" Link http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=registry.asp&subpage=intro The main page is interesting too. http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=home.asp
Color Test.............Jim Rockwell wrote, "HAVE FUN WITH THIS ONE!" If you're feeling especially sane and well-balanced today, click on the link below and you'll change your mind. Betcha' it will take a few tries. It's the pressure. http://www.njagyouth.org/colortest.swf
Quaint Places Amanda for this one. I have no idea how she finds such nice sites. (Mike) This site is all about quaint places, which means that travelers and vacationers will find information and photos from historic, artistic, romantic and picturesque locations from around the US and Canada. This site is just beginning so there will definitely be tons of updates to this site. What you'll find here now are quaint places, wonderful photos, and tons of information. To find their favorite locations click on "Quaint Favorites" on the side bar. There are some wonderful places in this list. I particularly liked the look and sound of California's Carmel-By-The-Sea. Next in the line up is the question, "What are Quaint Villages, Olde Townes, Historic Towns, Quiet Towns, and Pit Stops?" This is where you'll find how these things qualify to be listed. What criteria they are looking for as they add locations to this site. If you visit the link below this on the side bar you can Nominate your Favorite Quaint Place. You'll find photos in the Photos section. There are two links to this section you'll find one on the menu at the top of the page and one in the text on main page around the middle. Here you'll find some fabulous photographs of great quaint places. http://quaintplaces.com/
Visionary Designs in Transportation Engineering: What is “transportation futuristics”? Many of us are familiar with covers from Popular Science that depict commuters buzzing around in tiny aircraft and landing on rooftops, or fanciful drawings of vehicles that run on roads, float on water and also take to the air. The basic problem many of us face each day-- how to get from Point A to Point B in the least amount of time with the least amount of trouble-- has inspired many to dream of marvelous ways to solve that problem. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/futuristics/index.html
Tumbleweed homes. You say you like compact living. These new homes pictured and accompanying floor plans might work for you. I need a bit more space. I did enjoy browsing though. Some fit on wheels. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
Nice Geographic quizzes. I'll bet that most cannot actually pick out the 50 states, one at a time. http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html
News from the Votemaster A colorful polling graphic depicting the Electorial College tally on a daily basis. Below is the status report when I accessed on Monday August 30, 2004. The master tally master graphic is super. Take a look at the today's status. (Mike) Nobody is going to win. For the first time since this site went live on May 24, neither candidate has the required 270 votes in the electoral college because three states are now tied. A new Research 2000 poll in Florida puts Kerry and Bush at 46% each with Nader at 2%. A new Gallup poll in Pennsylvania puts Kerry and Bush at 47% each, with Nader at 2%. The latter poll is bad news for Kerry because he had been leading in Pennsylvania for some time now. Colorado is also tied. http://www.electoral-vote.com/
Nothing but pictures of cute cuddly cats. Even if you do not care for cats and kitties you will appreciate the excellent photography. http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~shane/stasj/pics/dyr/cats/unger/