A new virus is coming and the time bomb will detonate on April Fool's Day. It is called the Conficker worm and it will be no fun joke. To prevent the infection make sure your Windows (XP Vista) operating system is up to date. I had my updates turned off, so today I updated them all. Most had not been updated for some time and it was a time consuming chore. I was lucky, only one of my camera programs would not run after installing SP3. Read a complex article that most of you will not understand here:
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/090330/
The best way to prevent the Conficker is to update your Windows OS and have your virus program also up to date.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Taxpayers Strike Back With "Tea Parties"
You may think you are just one voice and what you think won't make a difference. Well, yes it will and YES, WE CAN!!
If you are disgusted and angry with the way Washington is handling our taxes. If you are fearful of the fallout from the reckless spending of BILLIONS to bailout and "stimulate" without accountability and responsibility then we need to become ONE, LOUD VOICE THAT CAN BE HEARD FROM EVERY CITY, TOWN, SUBURB AND HOME IN AMERICA. There is a growing protest to demand that Congress, the President and his cabinet LISTEN to us, the American Citizens. What is being done in Washington is NOT the way to handle the economic free fall.
So, here's the plan. On April 1, 2009, all Americans are asked to send a TEA BAG to Washington, D.C. You do not have to enclose a note or any other information unless you so desire. Just a TEA BAG. Many cities are organizing protests. If you simply search, "New American Tea Party", several sites will come up. If you aren't the 'protester' type, simply make your one voice heard with a TEA BAG. Your one voice will become a roar when joined with millions of others that feel the same way.
Send it to:
Pres. Obama's Afternoon Tea
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Try to attend or organize a Tea Party in your area on April 15th. We can't spend our way out of debt and anyone with any sense at all knows it. This has got to stop. The only thing they will listen to is people taking to the streets. Please tell this to everyone you know. We have to start somewhere to try and rein these morons in before they take us down.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509445,00.html
Image borrowed from:
http://www.politicalshop.com/showitems_new.asp?mainpage=showitems&keysearch3=Teaparty
Saturday, March 21, 2009
AVG Free Virus Protection
If you are using AVG Free virus protection you will receive a warning to upgrade very soon, if not already. If you click the button to upgrade it takes you to a page that is a slight bit tricky. You see AVG wants you to buy their products and do their best to hide the link to get the free version. I am always looking out for you, So here is the direct download link. Click it and install.
http://tinyurl.com/dkvgou
If you downloaded a 30 day trial of AVG, un-install it from the control panel, then install this free version.
http://tinyurl.com/dkvgou
If you downloaded a 30 day trial of AVG, un-install it from the control panel, then install this free version.
Pete Rose
March 21, 1989 – An article in Sports Illustrated alleged that Pete Rose, the Manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was involved in baseball gambling.
Read about Pete
Thursday, March 19, 2009
SuperAntiSpyware
While SuperAntiSpyware has an unfortunate name, it is a scan tool worthy of addition to your arsenal of spyware/malware protectors. I've used this application for only a few days but recommend it heartily. It’s speedy, too. The most recent scan of my storage was completed in 10 minutes. This useful program does a thorough job of scanning your system for dangers, and then deletes any it finds. SuperAntiSpyware scans not just your files and memory, but your Registry as well in search of potential dangers.
There is a pro version you can pay for, but I'm using the free one and think it is all I need.
Get the free or pro program here:
http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html
There is a pro version you can pay for, but I'm using the free one and think it is all I need.
Get the free or pro program here:
http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
equinox, Eggs in the balance
The egg being the most literal and obvious of all fertility symbols, ancient eggish customs survive not only in the form of egg rolling and Easter eggs, but also in the quaint superstitious belief, most often attributed to the Chinese, that you can stand a raw egg on end during the equinox. Apparently this derives from the notion that, due to the sun's equidistant position between the poles of the earth on the first day of spring, special gravitational forces apply.
From a skeptical point of view, the first objection that comes to mind is the fact that there's another equinox on the first day of autumn. Why is there no talk of balancing eggs on end in September? Secondly, while it's true that on both equinoxes the earth's axis is perpendicular to the sun, so day and night are of exactly equal length, there's no scientific reason to suppose that that alignment has any appreciable effect on gravitational forces here on earth. Thirdly, if the equinox can cause this curious anomaly, why aren't there others? Why don't we hear talk of being able to stand broomsticks, pencils, lollipops, or toothpicks on end?
Read more
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Symantec's Norton products
**** this is a long but important post***
Back in the olden days Symantec's Norton products was the standard and the best virus protection on the market. As time went on the programs produced were loaded with more pork than the stimulus bills. Most new computers now come with some form of Symantec or Mcafee products. I won't go into detail here, but the first thing I do is un-install these pieces of software. The reason ? They slow the system down greatly, and for the below reasons, I just don't trust them.
Jack
Yesterday (Mar. 11) Symantec may have started down the same road. Starting over night Monday into Tuesday morning users running firewall software reported something odd coming from Norton security products.
An unknown file called pifts.exe fired up from a nonexistent folder under Symantec LiveUpdate and attempted to connect to the Internet. Software firewalls, including Norton’s own, warned of this attempt and prompted users for permission for this access.
Researchers at ThreatExpert determined that the file was attempting to connect to a server in Africa belonging to Symantec.
Norton customers started posting questions about the activity on the Symantec Community forums but these missives were oddly deleted without response. As the evening wore on the deletions continued, until word started to spread to other sites like Slashdot and Digg.
Naturally at that point things became a three-ring circus and postings were deleted due to violations of the terms of service including profanity, sexual innuendo and spamming.
The Washington Post ran a story on the problem (http://tinyurl.com/apg4ah) and quoted a senior product management director who stated the file was a “diagnostic patch” designed to determine how many users were switching to Windows 7 and need to be upgraded to newer version of Norton security products.
Symantec’s official statement is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ao58jg
In the official release it was stated that the “patch” was pushed out between 4:30 and 7:40 PM on March 9th and that abuse was detected on the Norton forums at 10:30 PM Monday and the posts were deleted. The firewall detection was caused by the failure to digitally “sign” the file.
It makes no statement about what the patch does, what data it collects or why its own firewall shows the path for the file includes a nonexistent (or invisible?) folder.
Nor does it address why early posts about the warning were removed without comment before the onslaught of abuse began almost three hours after the patch was stopped and users would have noticed the problem and asked about it.
It’s still early in this flap and information is sketchy but it sounds rather suspicious. Hidden folders suggest some sort of rootkit activity and the deletion of early legitimate questions posted to Norton’s forums smacks of cover-up.
If all is above-board and it’s just a survey of OS usage, why the subterfuge? Why sneak the information out without warning instead of just asking? I’m sure the EULA allows them to take your first born if they so choose so changing the rules in the middle of the game may be perfectly legal but it’s certainly worth questioning.
This whole fiasco has had unforeseen consequences as well. Malware writers, getting wind of the lack of information, posted websites keyed to pifts.exe and manipulated the sites to the top of Google’s searches. Of course the sites lacked any real information but they did pose a real threat by employing trickery in an attempt to get users to install their malware.
I’m sure this will play out over the next few days and we’ll find out what’s actually going on, most likely from security researchers studying the purpose of this file and what it is actually doing.
Even if it’s just an innocent “oopsie” by Symantec it’s still a black eye. Security firms aren’t supposed to say “Oops”.
I’ll keep you posted…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
pcguru@microdome.net
Back in the olden days Symantec's Norton products was the standard and the best virus protection on the market. As time went on the programs produced were loaded with more pork than the stimulus bills. Most new computers now come with some form of Symantec or Mcafee products. I won't go into detail here, but the first thing I do is un-install these pieces of software. The reason ? They slow the system down greatly, and for the below reasons, I just don't trust them.
Jack
Yesterday (Mar. 11) Symantec may have started down the same road. Starting over night Monday into Tuesday morning users running firewall software reported something odd coming from Norton security products.
An unknown file called pifts.exe fired up from a nonexistent folder under Symantec LiveUpdate and attempted to connect to the Internet. Software firewalls, including Norton’s own, warned of this attempt and prompted users for permission for this access.
Researchers at ThreatExpert determined that the file was attempting to connect to a server in Africa belonging to Symantec.
Norton customers started posting questions about the activity on the Symantec Community forums but these missives were oddly deleted without response. As the evening wore on the deletions continued, until word started to spread to other sites like Slashdot and Digg.
Naturally at that point things became a three-ring circus and postings were deleted due to violations of the terms of service including profanity, sexual innuendo and spamming.
The Washington Post ran a story on the problem (http://tinyurl.com/apg4ah) and quoted a senior product management director who stated the file was a “diagnostic patch” designed to determine how many users were switching to Windows 7 and need to be upgraded to newer version of Norton security products.
Symantec’s official statement is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ao58jg
In the official release it was stated that the “patch” was pushed out between 4:30 and 7:40 PM on March 9th and that abuse was detected on the Norton forums at 10:30 PM Monday and the posts were deleted. The firewall detection was caused by the failure to digitally “sign” the file.
It makes no statement about what the patch does, what data it collects or why its own firewall shows the path for the file includes a nonexistent (or invisible?) folder.
Nor does it address why early posts about the warning were removed without comment before the onslaught of abuse began almost three hours after the patch was stopped and users would have noticed the problem and asked about it.
It’s still early in this flap and information is sketchy but it sounds rather suspicious. Hidden folders suggest some sort of rootkit activity and the deletion of early legitimate questions posted to Norton’s forums smacks of cover-up.
If all is above-board and it’s just a survey of OS usage, why the subterfuge? Why sneak the information out without warning instead of just asking? I’m sure the EULA allows them to take your first born if they so choose so changing the rules in the middle of the game may be perfectly legal but it’s certainly worth questioning.
This whole fiasco has had unforeseen consequences as well. Malware writers, getting wind of the lack of information, posted websites keyed to pifts.exe and manipulated the sites to the top of Google’s searches. Of course the sites lacked any real information but they did pose a real threat by employing trickery in an attempt to get users to install their malware.
I’m sure this will play out over the next few days and we’ll find out what’s actually going on, most likely from security researchers studying the purpose of this file and what it is actually doing.
Even if it’s just an innocent “oopsie” by Symantec it’s still a black eye. Security firms aren’t supposed to say “Oops”.
I’ll keep you posted…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
pcguru@microdome.net
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
New American Tea Party
There's a storm abrewin'. Send a Tea Bag to the President !!! What happens when good, responsible people keep quiet? Washington has forgotten they work for us. We don't work for them. Throwing good money after bad is NOT the answer. I am sick of the midnight, closed door sessions to come up with a plan. I am sick of Congress raking CEO's over the coals while they, themselves, have defaulted on their taxes. I am sick of the bailed out companies having lavish vacations and retreats on my dollar. I am sick of being told it is MY responsibility to rescue people that, knowingly, bought more house than they could afford. I am sick of being made to feel it is my patriotic duty to pay MORE taxes. I, like all of you, am a responsible citizen. I pay my taxes. I live on a budget and I don't ask someone else to carry the burden for poor decisions I may make. I have emailed my congressmen and senators asking them to NOT vote for the stimulus package as it was written without reading it first. No one listened. They voted for it, pork and all.
O...K. folks, here it is. You may think you are just one voice and what you think won't make a difference. Well, yes it will and YES, WE CAN!!
If you are disgusted and angry with the way Washington is handling our taxes. If you are fearful of the fallout from the reckless spending of BILLIONS to bailout and "stimulate" without accountability and responsibility then we need to become ONE, LOUD VOICE THAT CAN BE HEARD FROM EVERY CITY, TOWN, SUBURB AND HOME IN AMERICA. There is a growing protest to demand that Congress, the President and his cabinet LISTEN to us, the American Citizens. What is being done in Washington is NOT the way to handle the economic free fall.
So, here's the plan. On April 1, 2009, all Americans are asked to send a TEA BAG to Washington, D.C. You do not have to enclose a note or any other information unless you so desire. Just a TEA BAG. Many cities are organizing protests. If you simply search, "New American Tea Party", several sites will come up. If you aren't the 'protester' type, simply make your one voice heard with a TEA BAG. Your one voice will become a roar when joined with millions of others that feel the same way.
Send it to: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500
Unknown author, but I agree.
The Sky Is Falling
COSMOS IS FALLING: The first fragments of shattered satellite Cosmos 2251 are about to reenter Earth's atmosphere. According to US Strategic Command, fragment 1993-036PX will reenter on March 12th, followed by 1993-036KW on March 28th and 1993-036MC on March 30th. These are probably centimeter-sized pieces that will disintegrate in the atmosphere, posing no threat to people on the ground.
http://spaceweather.com/
http://spaceweather.com/
Sunday, March 08, 2009
The RCRA weather net
The RCRA weather nets are a lot like a pro football game. We have the pre-game talk, then we have the actual play by play info, then we have another hour or so of post game talks.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
NASA to search for Earth-like planets
The Kepler Mission will use a space photometer developed by NASA to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It will observe the brightness of over 100,000 stars over 3.5 years to detect periodic transits of a star by its planets (the transit method of detecting planets). The mission is named in honor of Johannes Kepler.
Read the full article
