KCNET NEWSLETTER 01/30/05 TECHNICAL PAGE
Here is an interesting find from Advanced User Class attendee, Bill Myers. Mike, I had been getting very infrequent disconnects I just clicked reconnect. They were so infrequent (While browsing) that I didn't pay much attention. Well, I got to checking "M.S.updates" and there to my wondering eyes appeared "Agere pci. soft modem" updates. I updated and haven't had a disconnect. I wonder if since many of these hp,compaq,and dell use a soft modem and since M$. has put out this Agere update, and if users have not kept current with updates This may be part of the disconnect thing ?? Just a thought. And a good thought Bill. I think you found a gem. By the way I like the M$ abreviation for Microsoft, kinda subtle but effective. (Mike)
Two good ones from Worldstart. I love these guys. (Mike) What is the Briefcase for? How do I use it? You've probably had this file just sitting on your desk top and wondered the same thing.
And now the second Worldstart Tip-a-roony/Time Saver! Read this one very carefully. Good to know. Personally I'd treat this problem like a car with a full ash tray...Time for new, trade it in. (Mike) Avoid Windows XP Re-activation The time may come that you'll need to reinstall your Windows XP. It could happen. Maybe you'll add a new motherboard or hard drive. Maybe you'll get constant errors and problems that just won't go away. Or perhaps you're a neat freak who wants to rid yourself of clutter and start fresh with a clean operating system. If you do reinstall Windows XP, then you'll need to re-activate it too—that is, unless you keep this tip handy ;-) See, the first time you activated XP it created a file called "wpa.dbl" that lives in the WINDOWS\system32 folder. By creating a backup of this file on disk, you can simply put it back into the folder after reinstalling XP and avoid the whole re-activation hassle. Here's how... Go to My Computer then select your Hard Drive (usually drive C). Go to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and scroll way down until you find the wpa.dbl file.
Start screen saver quickly Here is a good one from Kim Komando. Even if you do not use the feature it will give one practice doing a lot of Windows management skills. Is there a shortcut or quick keystroke that will make my screen saver pop up immediately? Sometimes I want to quickly hide what I am doing. I don't want to wait for the screen saver to appear. You can easily put a shortcut on your desktop. When you want to start it, double-click the shortcut icon. You stop the screen saver by moving the mouse, so that makes double-clicking problematic. Practice getting your hand off the mouse before the screen saver starts. Otherwise, you'll start and stop it nearly simultaneously. However, if you're working in a window, you would have to close it before you could double-click the shortcut. That would slow things down. There are two ways around that: Put the shortcut in the Quick Launch area, which you can keep visible at all times. Or use a keyboard shortcut. The latter would be my choice. But I'll tell you how to do both. Then you can decide. First, let's make the desktop shortcut. Right-click an empty area on your desktop. Click Properties. Click Screen Saver. Under Screen saver, pick one you like. When you click them, they are shown on the monitor representation. In Windows XP, the screen saver files are located in C:\Windows\System32. They begin with the letters "ss," which makes them easy to find in the alphabetized listing. The file names are similar to the names in the screen saver list, so you may have to experiment to find the correct one. Here are the screen saver file locations in earlier Windows versions: 98 and ME--C:\Windows\System 2000--C:\WINNT\System32 To make the shortcut, right-click an empty area on the desktop. Click New>>Shortcut. Click Browse and surf to the System32 folder. Scroll to the S listings and click the screen saver file. It will end in the extension .SCR. Click OK>>Next. Enter a name for the shortcut and click Finish. That puts the shortcut icon on your desktop. The Quick Launch area is next to the Start button. If you don't see it, right-click the taskbar. Click Properties. Click Show Quick Launch. Also, enable "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows." Click Apply>>OK. Drag the shortcut icon to the Quick Launch area. Move the Quick Launch border to the right to enlarge the area, if necessary. To launch the screen saver, click it once. Remember to remove your hand from the mouse quickly. You can also create a keyboard shortcut. Right-click the shortcut on your desktop. On the Shortcut tab, find Shortcut Key:. The word None will be in the box. Position the cursor after the word None and press Ctrl+Alt+S (or another letter). That will create the keyboard shortcut. When someone approaches, depress the three keys simultaneously. The screen saver will start immediately.
I was helping a friend spec a computer and we ran into Hyper Threading. He said What the he** is Hyper-Threading? I was thinking the same question so I Goggled it and this what I found. What the he** is Hyper-Threading? By Tony Smith Published Tuesday 18th June 2002 Server Briefing Announced last autumn, Intel's Hyper-Threading technology has finally made it to market, courtesy of the latest Xeon processors. Hyper-Threading is a clever way of making a single chip operate like two separate devices without implementing two cores on one die. That, claims Intel, makes for higher performance without having to resort to significantly larger chips or even adding a second processor to the system. So how does it work? HT is Intel's implementation of a technique known as Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT), a technology originally mooted for the cancelled EV8 Alpha processor. It's also going to be implented in IBM's Power5 processor, due 2004. Programmers have long known that some applications will run more efficiently if they're coded into a series parallel tasks, called threads. Modern multi-processing operating systems can then schedule those threads to operate on each of a system's two or more CPUs, just as it schedules the applications and other processes themselves. Intel's technology essentially fools the operating system into thinking it's hooked up to two processors, allowing two threads to be run in parallel, both on separate 'logical' processors within the same physical processor. The OS sees double through a mix of shared, replicated and partitioned chip resources, such as registers, maths units and cache memory. According to Intel, less that five per cent of the Xeon's die area is taken up the SMT-enabling circuitry, primarily because most of the functionality is provided by chip components that would otherwise be standing idle. The chip maker estimates that a single instruction thread only uses around 35 per cent of a processor's available resources. Running a second thread allows those otherwise idle circuits to be do some work. So if one thread is busily hacking away at a list of integer values, the floating-point units are free to crunch numbers for a second thread. Such a smooth division of labour is uncommon, alas, so the best HT can do is increase certain applications' performance by up to 30 per cent, according to Intel, though it admits the average gain is more like 10-20 per cent. That clearly isn't going to allow a single Xeon MP to match the performance of a HT-less multi-processor rig, but it does provide a significant boost. Equally, there's a small performance hit when the OS switches from one thread to two, but these events occur infrequently, Intel claims, and the pipeline is cleared in far less time than it takes the OS to manage the switch. And whatever performance increase HT brings, it does so at almost no impact on power consumption and heat generation, Intel claims. The bottom line, then, is Xeon's delivers more bangs per buck. Of course, server owners will need an HT-aware operating system - Windows XP for certain and possibly Linux by now - and applications recompiled to avoid some performance-sapping pitfalls. Presumably that's one reason why Intel hasn't made as much of HT as it might have done. Another reason is that HT undermines Intel's reliance on clock frequency as the be-all and end-all of processor performance. HT clearly shows that you can boost processing speed without increasingly clock frequency, which is, of course, AMD's argument. ®
**************** As of January 27, 2005 TrendLabs has declared a Medium Risk Virus Alert to control the spread of WORM_BAGLE.AZ. TrendLabs has received several infection reports indicating that this malware is spreading in US, China, and Japan. This kind of report usually leads to a high level of infection. By the time the anti virus folks declare medium risk for a variant the general email population is getting deluged with virus laden emails of that type. Infected machines start lining up on the repair desks at KCnet. Update your antivirus Program now and do not open any attachments with the following file names: guupd02.exe, Jol03.exe, siupd02.exe, upd02.exe, viupd02.exe, wsd01.exe, zupd02.exe with any of the following extensions: COM, CPL, EXE, SCR (Mike) This WORM_BAGLE variant arrives on a system as an email attachment. It sends copies of itself to all email addresses it gathers from files with certain extensions but skips those addresses that contain particular strings. Users must be wary of the email it sends that have the following details: Subject: (any of the following) Delivery service mail Delivery by mail Registration is accepted Is delivered mail You are made active Thanks for use of our software. Before use read the help Message body: (any of the following) Delivery service mail Delivery by mail Registration is accepted Is delivered mail You are made active Thanks for use of our software. Before use read the help The email is spoofed and may appear to have come from a familiar email address. As a general rule, users should avoid opening the attachments of unsolicited email. This worm drops a copy of itself using the following file names into the Windows system folder: sysformat.exe sysformat.exeopen sysformat.exeopenopen It also looks for folders that have the string shar then drops copies of itself using file names with EXE extensions into those folders. In addition, this worm terminates several processes, most of which are related to antivirus and security programs.
*************** MyDoom--one year and counting By Munir Kotadia ZDNet January 27, 2005 MyDoom first appeared on January 26 and according to antivirus firm F-Secure, during its first day the worm generated more than 100 million e-mails, "a major part of all e-mail traffic globally." During its first two weeks MyDoom hit SCO's Web site with one of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded and kept the site offline for more than a month. MyDoom, which was quickly followed by the various Bagle and Netsky variants, indicated that virus writing had been adopted by underground organizations that are motivated by money rather than fame, according to Scott Chasin, chief technology officer at e-mail security specialists MX Logic. "MyDoom signaled the end of the juvenile worm author and was the bridge to the commercialization of virus and worm writing. There has been a global shift away from the egocentric teenage hacker to the economic-orientated threat. It has also taught us that there is an underground open-source community that actively trades in virus-writing techniques," said Chasin. Adam Biviano, senior systems engineer at antivirus firm Trend Micro, said that MyDoom didn’t do anything that antivirus firms had not seen before, but it was far more efficient than previous worms. "Mass-mailing viruses are nothing new--we saw the first one with Melissa in the late '90s--but MyDoom was written in a more sophisticated language so it was able to both fool content filtering systems into allowing its e-mails through and trick users into executing it’s payload,” said Biviano. Over the past year, Biviano said that worms have generated a large number of variants--more then 30 for MyDoom alone--each of which improve on the previous design in order to stay one step ahead of the IT security community. "If a vendor comes out with a new product to stop security vulnerabilities being taken advantage of--like on Microsoft’s Windows XP SP2--then the new variants simply take that into account by changing the list of controls and processes that need to be terminated,” said Biviano. Biviano said he expects variants of MyDoom and other big worms to continue being created and released into the wild. "I have seen nothing that gives any indication that this will stop any time soon. If you build a smarter mousetrap the mouse gets cleverer,” said Biviano. MX Logic’s Chasin agrees that more variants are on the way but he said one of the biggest challenges will be to try and overcome the social engineering aspect. "The source code, which anyone can access if they do a smart Google search, is the foundation of future threats. The big problem is the social engineering effect--there is a lot we can do from a technology perspective to minimize the risks but there is always a weak link in the chain and that is usually the human operator," said Chasin.
IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR IF YOU HAVE NOT SUCCESSFULLY SCANNED YOUR DRIVES FOR VIRUSES LATELY... THESE NEXT SITES ARE FOR YOU. Free Virus scans. Computer Associates, a 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
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. Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ then choose the link "Scan without registering". Follow the directions.
You should disable any anti virus program that you have running. If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use one of the programs offered above first and then download and install one of the free programs listed below or install any anti virus program you have purchased.
Free Anti Virus programs for 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.
AVG Free AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
Avast Avast has been "anti virusing" for quite awhile. The following info comes from their download page: Avast! Home is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more info here. http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html Note: This product is free for home non-commercial use after registration! HINTS: Click on the English Version Link and download the installation file. Then click on the installation file and follow the directions. You will need to return to the download page and click on the link to get the registration key. It will be sent to you in an email after you provide some registration information. This will give you 14 months of coverage including any updates which can be set to auto download. You can reregister for additional free coverage at the end of the 14 months. You will want to browse around and choose from the many options available for operation. This process will take some time and digging.
Another good free program is: http://www.free-av.com/ This one installs a bit easier than Avast.
Top 5 Viruses for January 14 to January 20 from Trend Micro.
1. WORM_NETSKY.P 2. HTML_NETSKY.P 3. JAVA_BYTEVER.A 4. EXPL_DHTML.GEN 5. WORM_NETSKY.D
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://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/
Map Collections: 1500 to 2004 Good site from Amanda. Join me at the Library of Congress to look at this wonderful map collection. With maps dating as far back as the 1500's and as recent as 2004 there's a lot this site has to offer. Cities and Towns — As usual with the Library of Congress you choose the main topic you want to browse. In this case Cities and Towns, and then you choose how you want to browse it with the options Subject Index, Creator Index, Geographic Location Index, and Title Index. Choose how you want to browse and you get a listing of images that you can browse. Click on the link of the one you want to browse and you are taken to the photo, or the map you wanted to see. In Cities and Towns there is a great collection of aerial photographs that really give you the feel for what the City or Town was like when the map was made or the photo taken. I, of course, had to check out where I live, so it was by Geographical location that I browsed searching for Toledo, Ohio which I found and the image they had dated back to 1876. Conservation and Environment — "The historic and more recent maps contained in this category show early exploration and subsequent land use in various areas of the United States." You can still browse by Subject, Creator, Geographic Location, and Title. The maps in this section are really neat because they show you more of what the terrain is like during the time period that the maps were made in. Discovery and Exploration — "Many of these maps reflect the European Age of Discoveries, dating from the late 15th century to the 17th century when Europeans were concerned primarily with determining the outline of the continents as they explored and mapped the coastal areas and the major waterways. Also included are 18th and 19th century maps documenting the exploration and mapping of the interior parts of the continents, reflecting the work of Lewis and Clark and subsequent government explorers and surveyors.” The best way I've found to search this section is by Title. Click Title Index, and it comes up with one link, click that link and you get a huge listing of links to maps to check out. This section was so neat, with pictures of rivers as they were discovered, and the territories before they were states. I love the maps of the Mississippi, there are several and it is really interesting to see things develop around it. General Maps — If you browse by Title in this section, you get more options. Here you will find General Maps from all over the globe. And from different time periods too. This is neat if you want to pick your favorite country, and then watch how it changed over the years till you reach present day. Cultural Landscapes — "Cultural Landscapes geography is documented in this category by large-scale maps such as individual land surveys, county land ownership maps and atlases, large-scale topographic maps, and thematic maps showing economic activity.” Military Battles and Campaigns — Here you can see maps from battles and campaigns. If you scroll down the page you will notice that the Civil War, American Revolution, and such are in their own sections, click there to view those. This is very interesting you can look at maps of specific battlefields and battles themselves. When you view maps if you click them to make them larger, you will also be able to use the Zoom feature. So you can zoom in and out for more or less detail as you desire. I hope you enjoy this site which shows history in motion. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
There is a lot of very interesting reading here along with great pictures of the various archeological finds. The findings bring a lot of questions to mind. They would stimulate interesting and vigorous discussion among archeologists and avid digging hobbiest. http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Archeology.html
DOGNOSE HEAVEN Yet the dog nose is Nature's truest work of art Cold, wet, beautiful -cot How many times have you wasted hours on end, scouring the Web, searching for that perfect picture of a dog's cold, wet nose? Admit it, we all have. Take heart, proboscis canis admirers. Now, you can find all the dog noses you could dream of, all conveniently located in one place! Big noses. Small noses. Flat noses. Long noses. Black, pink, or brown. From boxers to beagles, from huskies to hounddogs. They're cold, wet, and ready to sniff your ear! At dognoses.com, you get only the best in dog nose photography. We feature the best of the Web, plus exclusive contributor's content! http://www.dognoses.com/
Rock On, Rock ON! The Balanced Rock Art of Bill Dan It's an art! (he tells us). Wow, Super Glue must be really really strong. Please don't sneeze! There is a video of the art in progress. -Good Site - This site is dedicated in specific to the work of San Francisco balanced rock sculptor Bill Dan and to the art, discipline and craft of rock balancing in general. It includes images of Bill's balanced rocks and stones, links to other rock balancers and examples of their work, with information about naturally balancing rocks and world-wide rock and stone balancing and stacking traditions. http://rock-on-rock-on.com/gallery.html
HTML KALEIDOSCOPES! (not at all like animated fractals) Be the first to witness moving shapes and colors through an octagonal cone of opposing offset mirrors......oh, you've seen a kaleidoscope before? This one doesn't make that crunching sound. There is another link on the kaleidoscope page that will take you to many other simple games. These pages will be fun site for moms, dads and kids or grandparents and grandkids. It is interesting that something so simple can produce so much fun and art. I really like this page and am anxious to spend time with grandkids and the simple games. (Mike) http://www.zefrank.com/byokal/kal.html Link to the many other games: http://www.zefrank.com/