Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Slow week

What a hot one it is! I am taking a few days off from blogging. I hope everyone is managing, in one way or another, to keep cool.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Malwarebytes Notches 100 Million Downloads, Toots Its Own Horn

I am very happy to see this news. Good for Malwarebytes. These companies that provide us so much good and free at that, deserve our attention and praise. As you know by now, Malwarebytes is one of my highly recommended (free) programs for the detection and removal of malware.  See this June 2011 post of mine for a review of my recommended security baseline, Security Baseline revisited.

I must say, however, that these days whenever I am called to clean up a malware situation, my number one tool to identify and remove malware is the Superantispyware Portable tool.

  Malwarebytes Notches 100 Million Downloads, Toots Its Own Horn

Friday, July 15, 2011

There are lots of pluses to Google’s new social networking site

I got myself a Google+ account a few days ago. As with most things Google comes out with, I tread lightly until I am sure I know what I am doing. I have no real experience yet, and I am not interested in yet another "time sink", as Hiawatha Bray, the author and Boston Globe Staff Writer says below. I have 8 invitations. If you'd like one, please write me.

"I thought Google was supposed to make our lives simpler. Instead, the giant Internet search service has come up with Google+, an impressive new social network that is rapidly becoming another time sink in my too-busy life.

It was easy to ignore Google’s earlier social network efforts. The Orkut service did fine in Brazil and India, but nowhere else. Last year’s Google Buzz began by violating the e-mail privacy of its users and went downhill from there.
But Google+, which launched on a trial basis a couple of weeks ago, has the makings of a first-rate social platform. Google is expanding the service slowly, mostly by invitations from those of us who have already gotten in, so it may take you awhile to score a ticket."


Thursday, July 14, 2011

25 Ways To Ditch Your Cable Bill

I view this as a timely aticle, the title anyway. Cable rates sure are getting to be outrageous. Anyway, maybe we all can find at least one tip (out of 25) that will help a little bit.

25 Ways To Ditch Your Cable Bill

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Windows XP is a Dead OS Walking

I got scared when I saw the title of this Maximum PC article, but no, nothing has changed. Windows XP will still be supported by Microsoft through April 8, 2014, as we all have known all along. I don't know about the rest of you, but my Windows XP hardware, that is the machines I use to run Windows XP, is getting old and tired. It is entirely possible that I personally may abandon it sooner than the final date. If you or I are lucky enough to keep it going until 2014, it's not like our machines will stop working. It's just that Microsoft will no longer provide updates after that date. Ho-hum.

By the way, I will agree with anyone that Windows 7 is as good as or better than Windows XP. Who knows, however, what the name of the replacement will be in 2014?

Windows XP is a Dead OS Walking (For Reals This Time)

Monday, July 11, 2011

Beware: Facebook Scams Use Casey Anthony and Video Chat as Bait

From pcworld.com:

"If you see a post on Facebook about a Casey Anthony confession, or a link to download the video chat app, run away. These two new Facebook scams demonstrate why the social network is such fertile ground for attackers to target.

Malware attacks frequently use social engineering to spread and current events as bait. With the recent unveiling of Facebook's partnership with Skype to deliver video chat from within the social network, and the public outrage over the acquittal of Casey Anthony, attackers have the key ingredients they need to dupe victims into installing malware."

Friday, July 8, 2011

Rootkits

I can't believe it was almost 2 years ago that I wrote this first blog post about rootkits, but here it is:

Rootkits - Be afraid, be very afraid

So  there it is, what I believe was my first warning about rootkits.

Today I was reading Kim Komando's web site, as I do every day, and saw a tip of the day article titled ""Removing an indestructible virus"". It is a very interesting and informative article for those of you who may be having system problems and aren't afraid to take them on yourself. If you are afraid, please call me.

Curious, I downloaded Bit Defender's free TDL-4 rootkit removal program here. This program was quick to download, easy to install, and ran quickly. It is only looking for one thing, and that is the rootkit TDL-4, On my system it found nothing, glad to say, but gave me peace of mind.

So hats off to Kim Komando for informing us all with such a good article about rootkits, and many, many thanks to Bit Defender for providing us with such a valuable tool, and best of all it's free!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Facebook introduces Skype video calling

I haven't tried this yet, but since I recently became a Skype fan I will surely do so as soon as it is up and running.  If it's easy to use it is sure to be popular. Remember that Microsoft bought Skype recently? Strange bedfellows! This article is from itworld.

"Facebook on Wednesday announced a new video chat capability it will roll out in conjunction with Skype, in what the social-networking giant said is the first of many announcements of new applications to come in the next couple of months."

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Google+: Dissecting Google’s Answer to Facebook

This comes from Maximumpc.

"Google+ is officially on the market, and it’s being released in small doses in the form of invites. Much like how Gmail was initially spread in beta, the invite only model creates a sense of exclusivity and belonging. Facebook also used this method to market their network to college students, and eventually became part of the global definition of social media. Whether Google+ mirrors this success is anyone’s guess, but until that time it is time to get to know the features."

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Do hackers have your passwords?

Here is a very good tip from Kim Komando. The article, posted below, contains a link to a useful web site. I was surprised that none of my 3 primary e-mail addresses had been compromised, but obviously happy to see that!

Do hackers have your passwords?

"Data breaches aren't really anything new. However, the number of data breaches has recently skyrocketed. A list of them would more than fill this page.

It's likely you have accounts with at least some of these companies. That can put your information with that company at risk. It could also endanger other accounts you have online.
Hackers aren't just stealing this information. They're releasing it online. That means anyone could have your data.

If your email, username or password is exposed, you want to know. That's where today's Cool Site comes in. It's aptly named Should I Change My Password.

The site aggregates all the information databases hackers have released. You can search for your email address or username. If you see it, it's time to change your passwords."

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Rootkit infection requires Windows reinstall, says Microsoft

Ouch! Be careful, no be VERY careful out there. This is the first time I have seen anything like this, but then I have wondered for years now why the authors of these nasty viruses, trojans, worms, and rogue programs don't do more damage than they do. I have seen many of them that could erase all of your data, for example, but thankfully they don't.

This one, well this is something completely different.

"Computerworld - Microsoft is telling Windows users that they'll have to reinstall the operating system if they get infected with a new rootkit that hides in the machine's boot sector.

A new variant of a Trojan Microsoft calls "Popureb" digs so deeply into the system that the only way to eradicate it is to return Windows to its out-of-the-box configuration, Chun Feng, an engineer with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), said last week on the group's blog.

"If your system does get infected with Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E, we advise you to fix the MBR and then use a recovery CD to restore your system to a pre-infected state," said Feng.
A recovery disc returns Windows to its factory settings."

Monday, June 27, 2011

LulzSec calls it quits after 50 days of 'mayhem'

You have probably heard of LulzSec. They are the people who have been wreaking havoc on the internet for the past 50 days. They say they are moving on. Let's hope they move out of our world (the internet)!

This is from ComputerWorld.com.

"IDG News Service - The computer hacking group LulzSec said Saturday it had ended its campaign of cyberassaults on government and corporate websites and that it was time for it to "sail into the distance."

Its announcement came three days after LulzSec released its latest trove of internal documents, stolen from the Arizona Department of Public Safety computer network, and four days after U.K. police said they had made the first arrest of a man allegedly affiliated with the group.

"Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind - we hope - inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love," the group said in a post on the Pastebin website.

"If anything, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere."

LulzSec spent the last several weeks attacking websites and computer networks of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Senate, the U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Brazilian government and the energy giant Petrobras, among others.

Last Tuesday U.K. police said they had arrested a 19-year-old man who they said was a member of the group. LulzSec said he had operated one of its Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers but that he was not one of its leaders.

On Saturday, shortly after group's last missive was posted, a hacker thought to be one of the group's leaders, Sabu, dismissed a suggestion that LulzSec disbanded because of the arrest or any internal disagreement.

"If you read the statement your questions will be answered," he wrote in a Twitter message. "There's only been one arrest; Ryan, and he isn't part of lulzsec."

LulzSec conducted its campaign "just because we could," it said in its statement.

"All to selflessly entertain others -- vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy.""

Friday, June 24, 2011

Rogues, rogues, and more rogues

There seems to be a never-ending stream of new rogue programs every week. I think what is happening is that they come out so fast and get spread so quickly that the anti-virus programs can't keep up with them, and so they slip through. Today I had 2 customer calls where McAfee ($$) failed to protect a system and another system running AVG Free also managed to get infected with yet another new rogue.

Frequently one result of these rogues is that the user cannot access the internet. Also, the more clever rogues will block the usual programs from executing. One solution that seems to work most of the time for me is another free program. I have a new number one favorite tool to fight the rogues. It is SuperAntispyware Portable. I download it at home to a flash or thumb drive and show up at my customer's home or shop, which was the case in one of the 2 calls today, ready to go. I point to my flash drive, click on the icon, and select Open. That's it. No installation. The portable tool goes right to work. Unfortunately, as with so many scanners, the program runs for a long time, but today it did the job for me.

You can download it here and use it on your own machines, although if you are able to, I suggest you favor the full free version of SupreAntispyware that you already have on your system. You do ave it installed already, right?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Inside the Anonymous Army of 'Hacktivist' Attackers

I get this question a lot from many of you: "Who are these guys who do this stuff?". The Wall Street Journal provides a partial answer in this article.

Inside the Anonymous Army of 'Hacktivist' Attackers

"HOOGEZAND-SAPPEMEER, Netherlands—In this sleepy Dutch town last December, police burst into the bedroom of 19-year-old Martijn Gonlag as he hurriedly pulled on jeans over his boxer shorts. He was hauled away on suspicion of taking part in cyber attacks by the online group calling itself Anonymous.

Mr. Gonlag admits taking part in several attacks on websites, but he recently had a change of heart as some hackers adopted increasingly aggressive tactics."

Read more here.....

Note: If this link does not get you to the complete story, go to Google and search for "Inside the Anonymous Army of 'Hacktivist' Attackers". Click on the link provided in the Google results. By the way, watch the video found imbedded in the article.
 

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Firefox 5.0

I got a pop-up from Mozilla this morning informing me that Firefox 5.0 was available and I was encouraged to download and install it, which I did. The download and install was very simple and quite fast and the resulting product (what I see on my screen) is identical to the old Firefox 4. I am not interested in bells and whistles yet. I just wanted everything to look the same, and it does. Most importantly, my Bookmarks are all there, displayed as a sidebar down the left side of the screen. I guess you could say I am pretty set in my ways, and you'd be right. I am happy with Firefox 5.0.

As an aside, I would probably be happy with Google's Chrome too, but for some strange reason Google is adamant about NOT providing a sidebar for displaying Bookmarks, so a Firefox user I shall remain. I am disappointed to see, as I travel around to your homes or work on your laptops that many of you have Chrome installed, but don't know how it got there or why it was installed and you don't even use it. The answer is pretty simple. Google has paid some companies a lot of money, I imagine, to have them also download and install Chrome when you download and install their product. Be careful and read the fine print when you download programs and make note of what options are pre-selected, usually with a check mark in a box. The good news is that it is easy to get rid of Chome if you don't use it or want it. Just go to your Control Panel and uninstall it.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

CDS Parts

CDS Parts bills itself as the place to go for "hard to find notebook & laptop replacement parts".

Most of those of you who know my PC services know that I am pretty much a software guy and I don't normally like to dismantle laptops. Desktops, I will work on those, but laptops are a whole different breed. If you take a laptop apart, you'd better read and then reread the instructions before putting screw driver to screw. One false move and you might as well salvage your hard drive and scrap the rest.

I have been tempted to take my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop apart to fix a faulty left "mouse" key built in on the touchpad. I communicated with CDS after reviewing what I thought were my options. I had two wonderful e-mails as a fellow named Chad from CDS responded to my inquiries. He seemed very knowledgable and replied quickly to my notes. I was very impressed by this level of customer service, sorely lacking in so many companies today. I have not yet done any business with CDS, mostly because I am a little nervous about the tasks that lie ahead if I try to fix this problem myself. If I do decide to proceed as a DIY project, I will definitely deal with CDS Parts based solely on the way Chad handled my inquiries. I do not hesitate at all to recommend CDS to you too, should you find yourself needing "hard to find notebook & laptop replacement parts".

Thank you CDS.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Excited About the Cloud? Get Ready for Capped Data Plans

From the New York Times, by David Pogue.

"The tech world seems to move in spurts and spasms, and right now we’re in the middle of the “cloud” wave.

Personally, I find the term “in the cloud” pretentious and annoying. Don’t they just mean “online?” Yes, I realize that computer professionals are referring to something much more specific — “data and application software stored on remote servers,” for example — but the world’s marketers and P.R. people seem to think that “the cloud” just means “online.” (“Now you can buy your toiletries in the cloud!!”)"

Sunday, June 19, 2011

100 Years of IBM: Milestones

My employer for 30 years has turned 100. Happy Birthday IBM!

This article is from PCWorld.

"IBM is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding Thursday. Led by American capitalist icons Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and Thomas J. Watson, Jr. until the 1970s, the company grew from a pre-World War I conglomeration of companies making tabulating machines and time-keeping devices into a globe-spanning technology behemoth that pioneered the development of electronic computers and dominated the mainframe era.

The company holds a mind-boggling array of patents and pioneered advances in a wide range of technologies including punched cards, processors, transistors, storage, word-processing, databases and OSes. As one of the emblematic 20th-century corporations, IBM also went through turbulent times. The U.S. government brought several antitrust lawsuits against the company, and critics have attacked it for alleged cosiness with repressive regimes. After Tom Watson Jr. retired in the 1971, the company seemed to lose its way as mainframe computing began to face competition from smaller, more modular systems. Increasing bureaucracy contributed to missteps during the PC revolution, and IBM suffered a series of annual losses in the early 1990s. Under the reins of then-CEO Lou Gerstner, starting in the mid-90s, the company bounced back to profit by focusing on software, system integration and other services, which remain key to the company's growth today."

Friday, June 17, 2011

Compressed air

A few years back I bought a 4- or 6-pack of compressed air when it was on sale, knowing that this was a good tool for a PC Doctor to carry in his bag. I hardly ever used it to clean out a laptop, but it is a very valuable tool, as I found out his week.

I was getting a can out of my storage cabinet to use on a customer's laptop. It had some sticky keys and short of removing key tops or a keyboard, I thought his might be a good first step.

Was I surprised when I tested the can out on my own laptop. My laptop had gotten sluggish lately, but like the shoemaker's kids, this laptop got little attention from me. So I tried the can out, mosly just to see that it worked okay, on my Acer laptop. This machine is maybe 4 years old. As I shot the compressed air into all of the vents, I was very surprised to see dust fly out. Hmmm. Maybe this is what is ailing my laptop, I thought. So I continued and finished up the job, and to my amazement the sluggishness is completely gone form my laptop!

All in all this was a 10 minute exercise. It required no dismantling of the laptop, and was a near-instant fix to what had been ailing it. I bought my compressed air at Costco, but I know that Staples and Best Buy carry it, as do most all computer stores. It might just help you out with your machine and is a small investment. It sells for about $5 per can, although most stores seem to prefer to sell packs of 4 or 6. Suggest this fix to a few fellow laptop owners and share the cost.

Compressed air or even a small brush will also do the trick on desktops. Open up the case and look for the dust and get rid of it. Mostly you will find dust around the fan(s).