DoS Attack Cripples Internet Root Servers

The 13 servers that help manage worldwide Internet traffic were hit by a denial of service attack Tuesday that nearly took down three of them.

It was the fiercest attack on the 13 root servers since an October 2002 assault that took down many of the roots that help manage worldwide Internet traffic, according to Ben Petro, a senior vice president of NeuStar Inc. Three of the servers were nearly overloaded by the attack, but they did not go down, says Petro, who adds that they were in a slowed down brown out stage.

Tuesday's attack nearly matched the 2002 attack in terms of strength, but surpassed the old attack in sophistication, notes Petro. The servers didn't go down this time because of the significant increase in computing power in the last four years and because the roots defenses have been heavily beefed up since then.

"If you take down the roots, you take down the Internet," says Petro. "By comparison, if you take down a company, that hurts them. But this is just an attack of a very different scale. When you see someone going after root, it's an attack directly at the infrastructure of the Internet."

Read the rest of the article here.

Bill Gates made an appearance on the Daily Show

Yesterday, Bill Gates made an appearance on the Daily Show to promote the official launch of Windows Vista. As always, Jon Stewart had some excellent questions for his guest. Enjoy the show!

Microsoft Releases Windows Live Messenger 8.1

Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft's next-generation MSN Messenger. It has the same features as MSN Messenger (contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video) — plus new ways to connect and share photos and documents effortlessly.


YAHOO! - With Windows Live Messenger, you can now connect with your Yahoo! friends.

PC-to-PC Calling - Have a high-quality voice conversation using PC-to-PC Calling.

Better Video Conversations - New Messenger gives better: live, full-screen (640x480) video.

Sharing Folders - Drag a file onto a contact’s name creating a Sharing Folder. Now you and your contact can get to all the files in the folder any time, even if one of you is offline.

Text Message Phones - See a little mobile icon next to a friend's name? Just right click to send a text message.

Windows Live Alerts - Headlines, sports scores, traffic, or just about anything else you want to keep up with — get pop-up notifications of things as they happen.

--> Download Windows Live Messenger 8.1 <--

The latest version of Messenger on each operating system:

For Windows 98 and Windows Me: MSN Messenger 7.0.816

For Windows 2000: MSN Messenger 7.0.0816

For Windows XP and Windows Vista: Windows Live Messenger 8.1.0178.

Safer computing for your kids with Windows Vista

With Windows Vista you can choose to allow or restrict specific game titles, limit play to games with a certain rating, or block games with scary or inappropriate content. In other words, zombies and guns are out, while educational games stay in. If you don't want your kids on the computer on Sundays, for example, because you'd prefer they get some fresh air instead, you can specify which days and times they are allowed PC access.

Here's a rundown of the other ways Windows Vista can help you set limits on your kids' computer usage:

Time limits: Set a limit as to how long children can use the computer

Web restrictions: Restrict the websites kids can visit and what they're allowed to download.

Game restrictions: Restrict the types of computer games children can play.

Application restrictions: Apply limits so kids can only run applications you have approved.

Activity reports: Get a detailed report of what your kids have been doing on the computer, including games played, websites visited and applications used.

Windows Vista Drivers Update

RadarSync put together a free webpage that will list ALL Vista drivers as they become available, with direct download links to the drivers. The page is already up and running and is 100% free for everyone, open to the community of Windows users.. check it out at

http://www.radarsync.com/vista

PC World says Opera is safer than either Internet Explorer or Firefox

In a recent issue of PC World magazine columnist Scott Spanbauer wrote about the importance of staying safe online while browsing. Here is what he had to say about the Opera browser:

“While no software is perfectly secure, many experts (including me) think the Opera browser is safer than either IE or Firefox.”

To be fair, it sounds like he’s basing it on the fact that Opera has a small market share, and thus malware authors aren’t targeting it yet.

Beware: Half of Pirated Vista Is Malware

From PC World Today:

"About half of all downloads that claim to be free versions of Microsoft's Vista operating system are actually malicious Trojan horse software, security vendor DriveSentry warned Thursday.

With Vista's consumer launch just days away, hackers have been bombarding discussion boards with offers of "cracked" versions of Windows Vista, which are typically being distributed on peer-to-peer networks, said John Lynch, vice president of sales and marketing for DriveSentry.

These posts offer downloads of the operating system that skip Vista's activation process, created by Microsoft to prevent users from running illegal copies."

Read the rest at PC World

Malicious Software Removal Tool

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed.

Microsoft releases an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month. New versions are available at the Software Removal Tool Web page, Windows Update, and the Microsoft Download Center.

Because computers can appear to function normally when infected, Microsoft advises you to run this tool even if your computer seems to be fine. You should also use up-to-date antivirus software to help protect your computer from other malicious software.

Note You must be logged on to your computer with an account that is part of the Administrators group to run this tool.

Turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work to bypass web filters.

I posted about this a while ago but thought it needed another post to keep it current. The circumventor freeware program will turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work or school to bypass web filters. Sure, regular web proxies will do the same thing, but isn't it cooler to have your own personal proxy that is ad free? You don't actually install the Circumventor on the computer that is blocked from accessing Web sites. You, or a friend of yours, has to install the Circumventor on some other machine which is not censored.

Download Circumventor here.

Dell Begins Selling Desktops Without Windows Pre-installed

Are you looking for a desktop on which you can run Linux® or other open-source operating systems? Look no further! The n Series Desktops comes with a Pentium D or Athlon X2, and an unformatted hard drive ready for Linux, BSD, or any other free OS (or heck, even Windows if you want)! Go on over to Dell and check it out.

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista

Did you get a new PC with a free Vista upgrade recently? Tech site ExtremeTech tells you everything you need to know about upgrading your XP PC. The article goes tells you how to prep your system for the upgrade and walks you step-by-step through the procedure.

Clean up duplicate files with CloneSpy

If you have a ton of digital pictures or have a large music collection on your computer, you may wonder whether you've got duplicate files laying around that you could afford to trash. While you can try searching for duplicate filenames using a number of tools including the search functionality that is built in to Windows, to truly know if files are duplicates you need a tool that will examine the bits, and see if they match completely.

CloneSpy is a free little utility that will do just that for you, and it provides enough options to make sure that when you finally do decide to delete some duplicates, it's the right ones that actually get deleted.

Rip your old vinyl to MP3

Don't let your vinyl die a slow an lonely death moldering in your basement for years. Liberate it digitally with the Numark USB Turntable. Simply plug this high-quality turntable into the USB port on your PC and rip your vinyl directly to MP3. Click here to get yours today.

Netflix broadband delivery

The long-awaited Netflix broadband delivery service begins this week, though the initial movie catalog will only consist of around 1,000 movies. Netflix will only be adding around 250,000 users a month at first to help better manage bandwidth demand, but the company's service should reach full stride by June. The interesting bit: if you're already a Netflix customer, you get access to movie downloads without any extra cost. Netflix customers who pay $18 a month already for mail rentals will get 18 hours of video access. The initial launch will work exclusively for the PC, IE and XP only. More detail at the NY Times.

Firefox Google Search vs Yahoo...

The search box built in to the Firefox browser defaults to the Google search engine. But say an internet user escapes the confines of Google, and looks something up in Yahoo, which makes a rival search engine. A message pops up on the top right of the screen, pictured above, encouraging the user to switch. And, look closely, that's a miniature Google logo being selected by the arrow. Here's betting that many Yahoo devotees, not the most sophisticated of internet users, get extremely confused. Bad Yahoo...

How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media

I've just come across an excellent article on Ad Terras Per Aspera which covers how to choose CD/DVD archival media.

"Ahh, I’ve been planning to write this one for awhile: an entire article on archival quality media. As I do professional software development as well as professional photography (what a weird combination), I need archival quality CD and DVD media to store my data on.

However, one of the hardest things to is actually find good media, or even understand why it is good media. This article focuses on the history of Compact Discs, writable CD/DVD media, and why DVD+R is superior to DVD-R. If you want to just know what media is worth buying, skip to the summary at the bottom."

The article gets in-depth in some places but it's well worth reading. However, if you want a summary, here it is.

* DVD+R is much better than DVD-R
* Buy good quality discs

Yahoo Using Dirty Tactics to Switch Google & Firefox Users?

The power struggle between Yahoo and Google for your desktop just took an evil turn, with evidence that suggests Yahoo is covertly trying to switch Google search users without their explicit permission. Read the complete article here at Marketing Pilgrim.

Coming soon Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista

Built from the ground up specifically for Microsoft Windows Vista, this all-new version combines the reliable and easy-to-use features you've always loved from Yahoo! Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of this new operating system.

*Instant message, voice, webcam video, and more

*Use the integrated Yahoo! Messenger Sidebar gadget to keep up with the friends that matter most

*Also add Windows Live™ Messenger friends to your contact list to see when they're online and IM them

*Keep conversations organized by dragging and dropping them into one tabbed window

*Brand new emoticons, program icons and alert sounds

*Instantly change the look and feel of your Yahoo! Messenger interface

*Automatic groups are created in your contact list based on your Yahoo! interests (i.e. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league)

Read more here

My current Desktop

My current Desktop

Problem copying a large file to another Hard Drive?

My son wanted to copy a file that was very large ( over 4 GB ) from one of his internal hard drives to his external hard drive and keep getting an error message that wouldn't allow him to copy the file. After looking at his problem we determined that his external hard drive was formatted in Fat 32. The only way to copy files larger that 4 gigabytes is to have the external hard drive formatted to NTFS. So the lesson to the story is convert your external hard drives to NTFS and you won't have these problems.

To read more about Fat and NTFS go to "Comparing NTFS and FAT file systems"

To learn how to format your hard drive to NTFS or convert from fat to NTFS read this article from Microsoft.

Internet Explorer was vulnerable to threats 284 days in 2006

Brian Krebs at the Washington Post's Security Fix blog wanted to put together some statistics on how long it took major software providers to fix vulnerabilities last year. He started with Microsoft, and found that Internet Explorer was vulnerable to critical flaws for a total of 284 days. That's more than 9 months.

In fact, there were at least 98 days when Microsoft had not issued a fix even though criminals were actively exploiting some of those flaws to grab personal data from Internet Explorer users.

Krebs says he ran his data by Microsoft before posting it on the blog, and that aside from some minor issues, the company didn't bring up anything that would change the overall finding.

By comparison, Firefox was only vulnerable to a serious security threat for one 9 day period last year. What's interesting is that for 2006, Opera 8 and Opera 9 didn't suffer from a single extremely critical vulnerability as classified by Secunia (although both did suffer a single highly critical vulnerability).

Be sure to go read todays post. Krebs takes a look at the number of security patches issued for Microsoft Office in 2006.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Track Santa with NORAD

Here is another Christmas favorite. Track Santa with NORAD.

101 Classic Christmas Videos that you can watch Online

With Christmas just a few days away I thought I would post this link. The website list 101 Classic Christmas Videos that you can watch Online. Go on over and take a look. :)

Uninstall Norton products with Norton Removal Tool

Have you encountered problems with uninstalling Norton or Symantec products. Actually the uninstallation seems to go well when you do it in Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel but when you restart the computer, it shows error and unable to boot in to Windows. Somehow uninstalling Norton or Symantec products can occasionally corrupt Windows!

I found a tool to remove Norton products developed by Norton themselves. Think about this, why would Norton create a Removal Tool when it can be removed from Add or Remove Programs? There must be something wrong with uninstalling Norton products from Add or Remove Programs.

Norton Removal Tool can remove:

1. Norton AntiSpam 2004 and 2005
2. Norton AntiVirus 2003 through 2007.1
3. Norton Ghost 2009, 9.0 and 10.0
4. Norton GoBack 3.1 through 4.2
5. Norton Internet Security 2003 through 2007.1
6. Norton Password Manager
7. Norton Personal Firewall 2003 through 2006
8. Norton SystemWorks 2003 through 2007
9. Norton Confidential Online 2007
10. Norton Internet Security Add-on Pack
11. Norton 360

Download Norton Removal Tool for Windows XP/2000

Download Norton Removal Tool for Windows Me/98

First Security Updates for Firefox 2.0

Yesterday Mozilla released the first update for the Firefox 2.0 browser, it fixes eight security vulnerabilities.

According to the company, release 2.0.0.1 of Firefox fixes flaws in memory corruption as well as the way the browser executes RSS (really simple syndication), Javascript and CSS (cascading style sheets) code, among other vulnerabilities. Mozilla also patched similar flaws in its Firefox 1.5 browser.

Five of the eight flaws were rated as critical, according to Firefox. A critical rating means a Firefox user would be vulnerable to attack and remote software installation on their machines just from browsing the Web in the usual fashion. Two of the flaws were rated as high, while one received a low security-risk rating, Firefox said.

What's New in Firefox 2.0.0.1? Click here to find out.

School District Dropping Macs for More "Appropriate Technology"

Community Unit School District 300 in Illinois is working to remove Mac computers from classrooms in favor of more "appropriate technology." The district's new director of technology, Eric Willard, claims the move will help students because "most people use Microsoft programs in the real world."

Read the article here.

Young Frankenstein - Puttin' on the Ritz (Video) In memory of Peter Boyle.

Public Service Announcement: Food Commodities will be distributed Friday December 15th, 9:00am Otterbein United Methodist Church

Food Commodities For the Chanute area will be distributed Friday December 15th, 9:00am at the Otterbein United Methodist Church 631 W. 7th, Chanute, KS. Entrance will be on the East side of the church under the canopy.

Foods will be available to individuals and families based on income. Please bring Identification, proof of Address and proof of income for all applicable family members.

Recipients of cash assistance, food stamps and general assistance are automatically eligible for Food Commodities with proof of current benefits.

Income Guidelines are:

Household size - Max Monthly Income

1 - $1062
2 - $1430
3 - $1799
4 - $2167
5 - $2535
6 - $2904
7 - $3272
8 - $3640

For each additional Family member Add: $369

Things you can do instead of buying a PS3

This post is both hilarious and eye opening. It lists a few things you can do instead of picking up a PS3, and if you're a parent that actually wants to teach your children something this holiday season, gives some great advice. Go on over to this blog and take a look.

Apple patches 22 security holes in Mac OS X

A new security update released by Apple patches several exploits recently discovered in its Mac OS X operating system, including one widely publicized issue with its disk image software. Read more here at appleinsider.

PC PitStop market research

PC PitStop is in an interesting position, in return for a free Computer scan it gets to collect a lot of data about Personal Computers. Now they are giving the rest of us a look at some of that information, and it makes really interesting reading.

Here are some of the highlights:

AVG Anti-Virus is the market leader and is gaining serious ground. While trailing far behind, Microsoft is also gaining ground fast on the likes of Symantec and McAfee.

As more users use anti-spyware, there has been a decline in installed spyware.

Most popular anti-spyware apps are Ad-Aware, SpyBot S&D and Windows Defender.

WinZip is losing ground as the most popular compression tool (because they have started to become more aggressive when it comes to charging), WinRAR is gaining ground.

Windows Backup usage has increased 1% over the past year.

When it comes to browser toolbars usage, Google and Yahoo! are on the increase, with Microsoft and AOL are in decline.

Skype is by far the most popular choice for VOIP, up nearly 3% in the past year.

iTunes is on the way up, up over 5% in the last 12 months.

Most popular Office suite, Microsoft Office, followed by Microsoft Works, followed by Microsoft Works Suite. Way behind is Open Office.

Read the report here.

Watch the Video below for more info.

2 College Student's Sue Over Book Prices

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that could affect thousands of college students who think they are overcharged for textbooks, two Daytona Beach Community College students have sued the nation's largest collegiate-bookstore chain and their school. Read the story here.

Firefox, IE vulnerable to fake login pages

Mozilla's Firefox 2 and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 are vulnerable to a flaw that could allow attackers to steal passwords.

Dubbed a reverse cross-site request, or RCSR, vulnerability by its discoverer, Robert Chapin, the flaw lets hackers compromise users' passwords and usernames by presenting them with a fake login form. Firefox Password Manager will automatically enter any saved passwords and usernames into the form.

The data is then automatically sent to an attacker's computer without the user's knowledge.

Read more about this here

Happy Thanksgiving

USDA says 12 mln Americans faced hunger in 2005

More than 12 million U.S. households had trouble feeding themselves last year, but the rate of food insecurity did decline, the government said on Wednesday.

"It is simply unacceptable that after years of economic growth, 35.1 million people in this country face a constant struggle against hunger," said FRAC president Jim Weill. The group urged an expansion of the food stamp and school meal programs as well as a higher minimum wage.


Read the rest of the Article here

Happy Birthday

Just want to say Happy 19th Birthday to my son John. Hope you have a GREAT day. Love, Dad

Firefox 2's built in spell check

Now that Firefox 2 has a built in spell check, it still has one issue, it doesn’t automatically spell check all fields by default. The normal behavior is to only spell check multi-line text fields. If you want to have it always spell check all text fields you need to follow these three simple steps.

1. Go to about:config in your URL bar
2. Search for spellcheckDefault
3. Change the value of spellcheckDefault to 2

That’s it. Now Firefox will spell check all input boxes automatically.

Google Accidentally Sends Out Kama Sutra Worm to 50,000 members

Google accidentally sent out e-mail containing a mass mailing worm to about 50,000 members of an e-mail discussion list focused on its Google Video Blog, the company said Tuesday. You can read about this mishap here at PC World.

Been busy and Movies

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I have been busy. I finally ordered two movies that I have not seen in a long time, Sharkys Machine, and Three Days of the Condor from Wal-Mart.com. I would have just rented them but our local rental place ( Movie Gallery) doesn't carry them, it seems like they only carry movies for young people, by that I mean 18-25 year olds. It is almost funny, every time my wife calls them and ask do you have this movie or that movie the answer is no we don't. Luckily the cost of buying them is not much more that the normal rental fees. My movies should be here by the end of the week, that will be nice.

We did rent three movies last weekend, "Click" which had a good concept but was full of sophomoric jokes tailored for teenagers, "Failure to Launch", which was not too bad. "Failure to Launch", is about a guy that does not want to move out of his parents house, apparently this is happening allot now in real life. When we were growing up we couldn't wait to move out and be on our own, not so nowadays. The last movie we rented was "the break-up", we will watch that one later this week.

In other news we did get our Flu Shots yesterday, I am glad that we got them early. When I had the flu last year I was sick with 103-104 fever and on the couch for a week feeling like crap. I don't want to do that again. Hope everyone has a great week and make sure you get out and exercise your right to vote today. :)

Windows Media Player 11 for XP is available for download.

Windows Media Player 11 offers great new ways to store and enjoy all of your digital media. It's easier than ever to access all of your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV on your computer. Play it, view it, organize it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go, or share with devices around your home - all from one place. Windows Media Player 11 is designed to work with all versions of Windows XP with Service Pack 2, including Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional.

Download size: 24.6MB. This download requires that you are running a genuine copy of Windows and that it passes validation.

The Internet is just a fad

"MySpace Is So Last Year".Washington Post story, the Post uses the following quote as its story-ending clincher:

Evan Hansen, a sophomore at Falls Church High School, said he didn't buy into the MySpace hype and is waiting for the craze to die.

"Over time, people are going to get sick of talking to people on the computer," he said. "I just think people will want to spend more time with each other -- without the wall of technology."

You heard it folks, The Internet is just a fad. LOL

How-To make Tombstones for Halloween

Just in time... How To make Tombstones for Halloween.

Internet Explorer 7 Quick Reference Sheet

IE 7 is the latest browser from Microsoft. And here is an excellent Quick Reference Sheet of it. Here you will find all the General shortcuts,Tab shortcuts and Common tasks.

Internet Explorer 7 Quick Reference Sheet

Set Your Clock: It's the End of Daylight-Saving Time

Officially we will fall back to standard time at 2 a.m. Sunday, though most of us will change our clocks Saturday night.

This is the last time the change will come in October. Thanks to a law passed last year, daylight-saving time will start earlier and end later beginning in 2007. It will last from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.

Some states and territories don't observe daylight-saving time and won't have to worry about changing their clocks. Those are Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Daylight-saving time returns next March 11.

IE 7's heavily promoted security features

CNET News.com's Joris Evers and CNET.com's Robert Vamosi discuss IE 7's heavily promoted security features in this week's Security Bites. Click here to watch the video at Cnet's news.com

Firefox 2 due out tomorrow

For those of you who don't want to take the risk of installing IE7 of their machine, preferring instead to wait for the final release of FireFox 2 instead, well rejoice! PC Word has just announced that the new version of Mozilla's browser will be available for download on Oct. 24. Just 1 day left until we can finally get our hands on one of the most expected pieces of software of the year.

Internet Explorer 7 is Out

Just a quick post to let you guys know that IE7 was released just a few hours ago.

Some improvements over IE6 includes: New Interface, RSS Feeds, Phishing Filter, Protected Mode, Tabbed Browsing, and PNG support among many others.

Upgrade with confidence. Get downloads for Internet Explorer 7, including recommended updates as they become available. To download Internet Explorer 7 in the language of your choice, please visit the Internet Explorer 7 worldwide page

The setup is available from this location.

Windows Live Writer...Free Blogging App.

Microsoft has released a new beta version of its unexpected free Blogging app, Windows Live Writer. Writer 1.0 beta puts some more polish on the program, as well as a few new features, in particular support for tagging via several services including Technorati and del.icio.us (still no Ultimate Tag Warrior), support for the new Blogger Beta, and improved category handling. It also features faster start-ups and improved style detection for Blogs, and about a dozen other little improvements. On top of that, Microsoft has added a Writer section to Windows Live Gallery where you can download plugins for the app or submit your own. The selection is sparse just now, but it does have Firefox and IE "Blog This" plugins, an Event plugin (with hCalendar microformat support) and a Flickr plugin.

Public Service Announcement, Chanute, Kansas... Commodities

TEFAP Food Commodities For the Chanute area ( Neosho County Kansas ) will be distributed Monday September 25th, 9:00am - 4:00pm or until I am out of food at the Otterbein United Methodist Church 631 W. 7th, Chanute, KS. Entrance will be on the East side of the church under the canopy.
Foods will be available to individuals and families based on income. Please bring Identification, proof of Address and proof of income for all applicable family members.
Recipients of cash assistance, food stamps and general assistance are automatically eligible for Food Commodities with proof of current benefits.

Income Guidelines are:

Household size - Max Monthly Income

1 - $1062
2 - $1430
3 - $1799
4 - $2167
5 - $2535
6 - $2904
7 - $3272
8 - $3640

For each additional Family member Add: $369

Want to Digg? Not if you have Firefox

Going to Digg today? Not if you use Firefox. I went to Digg.com and went to digg a post and received an error "Digg not saved, Please try again later." I tried it in IE and Opera and had no problem with Digg. Does Digg have a problem with Firefox? It looks like it. By the way I asked my son to test it and he had the same results as me.

Two Windows Security Flaws

The first is a zero day exploit that affects Internet Explorer ( and Outlook ) even on fully patched copies of Windows XP. The second is a file corruption bug in Windows 2000 introduced by a Microsoft patch. Steve Gibson has fixes for both in his Security Now podcast, plus an interview with the fellow who discovered the VWL exploit. For 16kpbs versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of ShieldsUp and the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

If you have never heard of Steve Gibson you really should go over to his website at Gibson Research and at least do the ShieldsUp test. You just might be amazed and surprised at what you find.

Microsoft issues workaround for latest Internet Explorer 0-day exploit

Researchers at Sunbelt Software have discovered a new exploit in Internet Explorer that is being used to compromise systems using Internet Explorer. This flaw forms part of something called VML or vector markup language an XML Web programming language used to create scalable graphics.

On the Sunbelt Blog, Eric Sites, VP or Research and Development, shows how a fully patched system can be compromised by visiting a web page making use of the malicious code. This is being used to install nasty spyware and adware.

Microsoft has issued a workaround for latest 0-day exploit for Internet Explorer. This workaround will disable VML rendering but most users won't really notice this.

The workaround involves unregistering a DLL file called vgx.dll (to do this you need admin privileges).

Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 -u "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll", and then click OK.

Undoing this change is simple and only requires you to re-register vgx.dll.

Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll", and then click OK.

This should be safe to do once a patch is released.

The Top 10 Most Stressful Professions

According to 33 News abc survy IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional , A staggering 97 percent of people working in IT claim to find their life at work stressful on a daily basis.The poll revealed that IT professionals say it is difficult to get the work done when managers are constantly on their backs.

One IT respondent said: “I spend most of my day fielding calls from people who don’t even have a basic knowledge of computers and printers.“It is amazing the amount of time I spend teaching people where the on-off button is. “And when I do actually find a technical problem to solve, I have my manager breathing down my neck wondering why I have a backlog of complaints.”

People working in medical professions have the second most stressful job – with 96.8 percent saying caring for others is rewarding but traumatic on the same hand.

Engineers, Sales and Marketing professionals and Teachers also have demanding roles, according to the poll.

TOP TEN STRESSFUL PROFESSIONS

IT
Medicine / Caring Profession
Engineering
Sales and Marketing
Education
Finance
Human Resources
Operations
Production
Clerical

TOP TEN WORK STRESSES

Workload
Feeling undervalued
Deadlines
Type of work people have to do
Having to take on other people’s work
Lack of job satisfaction
Lack of control over the working day
Having to work long hours
Frustration with the working environment
Targets

TOP TEN COLLEAGUE IRRITATIONS

Seeing others not pulling their weight
Managers changing their minds about what they want doing
Lack of support from managers
Pressure from managers
Feeling put-upon by managers
Interruptions by colleagues
Interruptions by managers
Bullying behavior by managers
Lack of support from colleagues
Bullying behavior by colleagues

Firefox Update 1.5.0.7

Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7 is now available for download from the Mozilla Firefox product page. Users of previous version will be offered the upgrade through the Firefox software update system. This release fixes several critical security vulnerabilities. See the Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7 Release Notes for more information.

Public Service Announcement Chanute, Kansas

TEFAP Food Commodities For the Chanute area ( Neosho County Kansas ) will be distributed Monday September 25th, 9:00am at the Otterbein United Methodist Church 631 W. 7th, Chanute, KS. Entrance will be on the East side of the church under the canopy.
Foods will be available to individuals and families based on income. Please bring Identification, proof of Address and proof of income for all applicable family members.
Recipients of cash assistance, food stamps and general assistance are automatically eligible for Food Commodities with proof of current benefits.

112 Run Commands for Windows XP

Good morning, I woke up about an hour ago and am on my second cup of Coffee and was reading my tech news and came across this. It's a list of 112 Run Commands for Windows. This will really save a lot of time. There are many commands which you might have never seen or never knew. Go check it out here.

Tribute Sept. 11

'Tribute in Light' illuminates the sky over Manhattan, Monday, Sept. 11, 2006 in New York, marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks

The History Of Hacking

A quality documentary about hacking from the 1960's to date. Takes a historical approach, looking at the role of the hacker during this time.

FineTune -Create your own Playlist, Listen and Share with Others!

Finetune is all about good music. It's a web based service that lets you create playlists that you like, listen to them online and share it with your friends. You can choose from 2 million sound tracks that already in Finetune library.

read more | digg story

University Survival Guide

Professor Steve Dutch's University Survival Guide is an excellent resource for anyone entering College.

Topics covered are

* Who are these people and why are they messing with my mind? Ever wonder why you have to take some of the courses you do? This might help.

* Taking Multiple Choice Tests

* What is an A? What exactly do professors want in an essay exam or term paper? Includes samples of A, B, C, and D-F writing with explanations why.

* References for College Papers Can I reference my class notes? (No) What about the Internet? (Maybe) Get The Rules here.

* Top Ten No Sympathy Lines Warning! Blunt Language!

* How to Learn Facts

Go here to read the answers.

Turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work to bypass web filters.

The circumventor freeware program will turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work or school to bypass web filters. Sure, regular web proxies will do the same thing, but isn't it cooler to have your own personal proxy that is ad free?

Download Circumventor here.

Philadelphia Opens High-Tech School of the Future ( Our city schools banned PDA's this year )

In our town in south-east Kansas the local school system ( USD 413 ) banned students from bringing PDA's and laptops to School this year. My son used a PDA all the way through high school for his notes and other school papers, it really seemed to help him allot. In Philadelphia they opened a public high school where students work on wireless laptops, teachers eschew traditional subjects for real-world topics and parents can track their child's work on the Internet.Called "The School of the Future" and created with help from software giant Microsoft the school combines innovative teaching with the latest technology.

It looks to me like Kansas wants to keep the kids in the dark ages. Technology is all around us; and we can’t predict what that technology will look like in the future, as it changes far too fast. We do know that the students who have the ability to use technology will have far more opportunities than those who cannot use technology.

Educators should give students the knowledge and skills they need to adapt to and use technology. What's your view?

read more | digg story

Bug Found in ICQ Client "AOL"

AOL is advising users of its ICQ instant messaging service to update to the latest version of the ICQ software following the discovery of a bug in an older version of the product.

Security researchers at Core Security Technologies today reported that they had discovered the flaw in ICQ Pro 2003b, a version of the ICQ client that AOL still offers for download and bills as a "veteran version" for users who prefer the earlier look and feel.

Although the bug doesn't affect more recent ICQ software like ICQ 5.1, it could mean serious problems for ICQ Pro 2003b users

Core has also discovered less-critical issues in AOL's ICQ Toolbar 1.3 for Internet Explorer. These flaws could allow attackers to change the toolbar's configuration settings or possibly even run scripting code by sending victims maliciously encoded RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds.

AOL says it is working to fix the bugs, but the company classifies them as "minor and low-risk". Any users who are concerned can simply upgrade to the latest version of ICQ or not load suspicious RSS feeds, said an AOL spokesman

September 12th Patch Tuesday "Microsoft"

On 12 September 2006 Microsoft is planning to release:

Security Updates

Two Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Important. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. Some of these updates will require a restart.

One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Microsoft will release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center. Note that this tool will NOT be distributed using Software Update Services (SUS).

Non-security High Priority updates on MU, WU, WSUS and SUS

Microsoft will release Two NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates for Windows on Windows Update (WU) and Software Update Services (SUS).

Microsoft will release three NON-SECURITY High Priority Updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

Fix Sign in Error 80004005 for Windows Live Messenger

If you are encountering this error 80004005 when signing in to Windows Live Messenger, go install the latest version of Windows Live Messenger from

http://get.live.com/messenger/overview

After installation, verify that you have the version 8.0.0812. If you are still experiencing the issue, pelase contact Messenger Support at http://support.live.com and choose Windows Live Messenger.

Use your Windows Media Player playlist in Foobar 2000

We have several playlist saved for windows media player and I was just wondering how to use these playlist in Foobar 2000 and I found the solution. You have to save the playlist as M3U Playlist. To do this follow the directions below.

By default, playlists in Windows Media Player 9 Series or later are saved as Windows Media playlists with a .wpl file name extension. However, you can save a Windows Media playlist as an M3U playlist with a .m3u file name extension by doing the following:

1. Click Library.

2. In the Contents pane (the left pane), expand the My Playlists category, and then click a playlist.

3. On the File menu, click Save Now Playing List As (Save Playlist As in Windows Media Player 9 - 11 Series), click Save as type, and then click M3U Playlist(*.m3u).

4. In the File name box, type a file name for the M3U playlist, and then click Save.

Go into Foobar 2000 and open the M3U playlist. :)

A Little Learning is an Expensive Thing

With a son that just started College this year I think this is relevant to all Parents and College Freshman. This is the honest speech a college President never got to give. :)

Go read the speech and let me know what you think.

Click here to read his speech.

Sofa that turns into a bunk bed

I just had to post about this. I saw this while reading the news today. It is really neat. It is a sofa that turns into a bunkbed. This would be great for cramped spaces or college dorms. You can see it here at Compact Living.

New Codec really a Trojan

Security firm Panda Software last week warned that zCodec, which claims to offer "up to 40 percent better (video) quality", is in fact an adware program that can install Trojans, rootkits and other malicious software. zCodec is freely available online and, as of Monday afternoon, was easy enough to find, offering downloads from its own website - zcodec.com. The site uses images from the films Sin City and Pulp Fiction, and claims zCodec will boost audio as well as video quality. "zCodec is a multimedia compressor/decompressor which registers into the Windows collection of multimedia drivers and integrates with any application using DirectShow and Microsoft Video for Windows," the site states.

Panda's advisory last week revealed that the 100KB file is in fact adware, which "downloads and runs files, changes the DNS configuration and monitors accesses to several adult websites". zCodec, formally known as Adware/ZCodec or Adware/EMediacodec, affects most versions of Windows and was first detected last week, Panda said.

When run, the program alters the system's DNS configuration in order to divert traffic to DNS servers of its choice, a technique sometimes used as part of a phishing scam or to rack up clicks for advertising schemes.

zCodec also accesses a particular IP address to randomly select and download one of a collection of files. The files that could be downloaded include Ruins.MB, a Trojan horse that uses rootkit techniques to conceal itself, Panda said. zCodec could also download an online casino program.

A second file launches every time the user starts Internet Explorer and monitors Web usage. Panda said its software can remove zCodec.

Online music on demand

I am still on my first cup of coffee for the day and was just reading the news and then I came across this site called blogmusik. Blogmusik allows you to listen to your favorite music on the net on demand. You can also share a song with a friend or make your own playlist. It uses Adobe Flash Player. Go on over and take a look and try it out.

www.blogmusik.net

The service has an associated blog here, and Myspace page here.

Stop Badware

Badware is software, such as spyware and adware, that has been deceptively installed in the user's computer. Although it may also be called "malware," badware is not designed to purposefully destroy data or compromise a system as is a virus or Trojan. However, badware can slow down a computer while monitoring and reporting a user's habits to a third-party Web site.

Go on over to stopbadware.org and take a look. StopBadware.org is a "Neighborhood Watch" campaign aimed at fighting badware, that garbage that comes bundled with some software. If you want an example of Badware look no furthur than AOL 9.0. Read the report here.

Link to Stopbadware.org

The Foobar 2000 audio player, An alternative to Windows Media Player.

Click on image to see it full size

An alternative to Windows Media Player is Foobar 2000. It is open source and has a nice clean interface and is easy to use. My wife complained that there was no volume control in foobar but after a little looking I found it. It you want to use the mouse, double-click on the lower-right-hand corner of your foobar2000 window where it says 0.00 dB. A window with a volume bar will pop up. See my screenshot in this post. Just to let you know foobar 2000's volume control is independent from the Windows mixer so it won't affect your overall system volume.

Download Foobar 2000 here.

Microsoft releases latest version of Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2

Microsoft has released it's latest version of Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2

The second beta for WMP 11 includes additional stores: eMusic, VidZone and Music Giants. The total number of stores offered by WMP 11 is 14, Microsoft said in a statement. One of the new features in the latest beta version of Windows Media Player 11, released Thursday, allows a user to share content with multiple devices within a home.

The upgrade of the jukebox is important to Microsoft's plan for unseating Apple Computer as top dog in digital music. WMP 11 has received favorable reviews and critics have said that it's a sign Microsoft could be finally moving out of Apple's shadow.

The media-sharing abilities of WMP 11 are a step towards ushering in the so-called "digital home."


Download WMP 11 here.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the favorite No. 1 album of all time

The British public has "overwhelmingly" selected the Beatles' legendary 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as the favorite No. 1 album of all time. Results of the poll were broadcast Monday (Aug. 28) on BBC Radio 2 to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Official U.K. Album Chart.

The Beatles had four albums in the top 10, with "Revolver" at six, "Abbey Road" at eight and band's eponymous set, also known as "The White Album" at 10.

Michael Jackson's '80s blockbuster "Thriller" was ranked No. 2, ahead of U2's "The Joshua Tree," Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," respectively.

Also making the top 10 were Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at No. 7, and Queen's "A Night At The Opera" at No. 9.

Pink Floyd's ground-breaking 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" topped a separate list, winning the "Best of the Rest" title for those albums which did not reach the pinnacle of the albums chart. The album, which has gone on to become one of the all-time best-sellers, peaked at No. 2 in Britain following its release.

The public was invited to vote online at the Official U.K. Charts Company's official Web site, and the BBC Radio 2 Music Club Web site.

From Billboard.biz

First Annual Top Gaming Colleges Survey

As the end of summer approaches, hundreds of thousands of college students are reporting to their institution of choice. Which can only mean one thing: fire up your rocket launchers, boys and girls. It's time to take your classmates to school.

Some choose colleges for their diverse student bodies, great football teams, crazy parties or active Greek life.

But a growing number of students are choosing colleges based on their compatibility with video gaming. Super hi-speed connections and dedicated servers, big-screen TVs in lounges, gaming-related classes, social events centering around LAN parties and perks like free download licensing are increasingly part of the lure of certain schools.

If your still undecided on which College to attend then read the rest of he article here.

MSN Messenger Adds One-Click Sex Offender Report Button.

Young people using Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger to chat online with friends can now make a report to police with one click if they are concerned their online 'buddy' is a sex offender.

read more | digg story

Senator Ted Stevens Downloads the Entire Internet and Complains It's Slow!

Regarding a recent vote, Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) explained why he voted against the amendment (basic net neutrality) and gave an amazing primer on how the Internet works: "It's a series of tubes." and "...an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday." Story includes an mp3 link.

read more | digg story

Watch your favourite TV channels in your browser - FREE

Watch more than 150 TV channels for free. Here is a collection of more than 150 free channels that you can watch from your browser. Includes HBO, ESPN, Playboy TV, Bloomberg, ABC News, AL Jazeera, E-Music, Deejay TV, Deluxe Music, Fashion TV, Horror Channel, Comedy Channel, Sci-Fi Channel, Lifestyle Network, and a lot more.

read more | digg story

AOL chief technology officer resigns:

AOL's chief technology officer Maureen Govern, who oversaw the division responsible for accidentally releasing search data for more than a half a millions users, has resigned from the company, according to an internal company memorandum. Read more here.

Cat Schwartz on the Today Show

For all of the old TechTV fans out there that used to watch Call For Help, you can see Cat Schwartz tomorrow Tues. the 22nd, between 8-9am on the Today Show on NBC. She will be talking about back-to-school tech. If you don't know who she is you can read more here.

150 Cool Downloads for Windows XP

This morning I found a great site (on Live Spaces, no less) that tracked 150 cool downloads for Windows XP. I have known about most of these before but it's nice to have them all listed in one place.

Is your personal computer ready for college?

With my son starting college today I thought this was relevant. Whether you're attending college for the first time this fall or you are a returning student, now is the time to think about whether your PC is ready for the upcoming academic year. Here is some great info to help you find out.

read more | digg story

What does your browser reveal about your personality?

I often tend to judge people based on the type of browser they use. Believe it or not, the choice of your favorite browser reveals allot about your personality. This post analyzes the personalities of the users of most popular browsers including IE, Firefox, Opera, Netscape and etc...

read more | digg story

Thank you Cableone...

Good morning, as you may have seen in an earlier post here we have been having problems with our internet connection with Cableone for about a month. The problems, slow speeds and the cable modem going offline altogether. Yesterday it happened again, we couldn't get anywhere on the net so after a few calls to cableone tech support and one call to our local office the general manager of our local cable office came out. He had run some test and determined that our modem was not getting enough of a signal from the cable line. He himself put a new line and a new splitter on the outside of our house and ran the new line directly to the cable modem. Now everything seems to be working great. He also said that he will come out next week to replace the cable lines to our TV's. I just want to thank Clarence Matlock for coming out and doing this for us yesterday in the 106 degree heat. We really appreciate it.

Skype + Outlook = Skylook!

Skylook records voice calls to MP3 and archives all your Skype communications into Outlook folders.

read more | digg story

Firefox Video tutorials

Do you want to teach someone how to use Firefox? Maybe they would learn more if you gave them a visual to study? I ran across this series of Firefox video tutorials this morning.

Right now they cover: Tabbed Browsing, Live Bookmarking, Integrated Search, Themes, and Add-ons or Extensions.

Go here to check them out.

A New Way to test your Bandwidth Speed

Applications that test bandwidth speeds have been around for a long time, but Speedtest.net takes this concept to a new level.

The site allows you to select servers to ping from around the country on an interactive map and graphically displays connections as they travel with varying speeds along the way. It also lets you store results of tests for your computer and sort them by date, time, speed and distance.

Go and check your speed

Testing Windows Live Writer

 

I just installed Windows Live Writer and this is a test post.

Microsoft has released a new blogging tool called Windows Live Writer. While obviously compatible with Windows Live Spaces this program also works with Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress and more!

Setup auto-detects your blog & settings
Edit & format text just like Microsoft Word
Place photos where you want them, even wrap the text!
Insert a Windows Live Map!
And . . Spellcheck!

Download Windows Live Writer Here

Malware Analysis: Drive-by Download

Network security analyst Corey Nachreiner, CISSP, shows what happens when you're browsing the Web and a "drive-by download" attack hits you. Produced by LiveSecurity for WatchGuard Technologies.

DM2 - Windows Enhancements

DM2 provides several Windows enhancements that may help in every-day work. One of the nicest and most popular features of DM2 is minimizing windows to floating icons (unique feature!) freeing both task bar and tray bar space. Moreover, DM2 can manipulate windows in various ways.

read more | digg story

Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning to Windows users

The U.S. government's Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning to Windows users, apply the patches to fix the MS06-040 vulnerability.

"Windows Operating Systems users are encouraged to avoid delay in applying this security patch. Attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems routinely occur within 24 hours of the release of a security patch. This vulnerability could impact government systems, private industry and critical infrastructure, as well as individual and home users."

The reason that this vulnerability is being taken so seriously is that it could be used in a network worm attack similar to Blaster, Slammer of Sasser.

Users can apply the Microsoft MS06-040 security patch here

Home user may prefer to go to Windows Update at http://update.microsoft.com and select “express” to install critical security updates, including the MS06-040 security patch.

New build: Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0812.00

New build: Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0812.00

Less than two months after the final release of Windows Live Messenger, a new build was released last night. No word on any changes in Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0812.00 from the previous version, but I'm looking into it.

Download it here

http://get.live.com/messenger/overview

Addendum

Serious improvements to the quality of audio and video

Fewer messenger crashes, hangs, and connectivity issues.

Fix for "error 80004005"

“Before I got this error, I had just changed my friendly name to something REALLY long w/ emoticons.”

That was the key! In messenger, there is a max length for friendly names. When you sign-in it checks to make sure your friendly name is under this max. But it was calculating the length in two different ways:

Below is from the Messenger Blog

"Say limit is 6 characters per friendly name. Messenger would let me type “LeahJ” no problem, because it was counting the whole emoticon as one character, and thus my friendly name was 5 characters total. But the next time I tried to sign-in, Messenger would do a check which would count each character of the emoticon separately and thus “Leah:-)” added up to 7 characters, which is over the max limit of 6. Error."

I am beginning to think that the hot weather will never go away

I am beginning to think that the hot weather will never go away, yesterday was another 100+ degree day and today the forecast is for a high of 104 degrees. This sucks. The grass and bushes in our yard are all dying. We have not had a good rain in what seems like forever. The long range forecast does not give us any real hope. From what we can see it looks like most of August will be this way.

The Hollies (1988)- He ain't heavy, he's my brother

For My Brother Mark, Happy Birthday

My Brother turns 40 tomorrow

My little brother turns 40 tomorrow August 5th, Happy Birthday Mark ( that's him in the pictures above ). Hope you have a great day....

“Life begins at 40 - but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times.”
Helen Rowland

Microsoft Heads for Another Big Patch Tuesday

On 8 August 2006 Microsoft is planning to release:

Security Updates

Ten Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool. Some of these updates will require a restart.

Two Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.


Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Microsoft will release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center. Note that this tool will NOT be distributed using Software Update Services (SUS).

Non-security High Priority updates on MU, WU, WSUS and SUS

Microsoft will not release any NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates for Windows on Windows Update (WU) and Software Update Services (SUS).

Microsoft will release two NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

Maybe I was too hard on Cableone

Maybe I was too hard on Cableone. Yesterday afternoon I called the local office ( earlier I had called the 800 number for tech support ) and told them that I was thinking of switching to ATT DSL and they sent a tech over to my house. The tech, Tom was very knowledgeable and said that he would look into things and he even gave me his personal cell phone number and told me to call him anytime that I was having problems. I had a slow down last night at 9pm and I promptly called Tom and he said that he would go to the local office and check to see what was going on. I had to leave to do some stuff and by the time I was home at 10:30pm we were back up to speed. This morning my speed is 3124 Kbps or 3.12 Mbps download, now that is more like it. :) Thanks Tom....

What is your connection speed? Go to www.testmy.com to find out.

Slow internet speeds with Cableone

We have been having problems with our speed on cableone ( our ISP ) for about two weeks. Lately sometimes it seems like we are back on dialup. This morning I did a speed test and my results were 429 kbps down and 26 up. That is ridiculous for the price that we are paying. We have a package deal with our cable company and our monthly bill runs at just above $100, no we are not getting movie channels on cable. So the $100 price tag is for cable TV and Internet service. I decided to call cableone this morning, by the time they answered the phone my connection was back to high speed with a test result of 3221 download and 322 upload. It's somthing, in all the years that I have had cableone internet they never admit that the problem might be on their end ( it's always the customers fault ), even when several other people in town are having the same problem, here is a quote from today from the tech support person " even if several people in your area are having slow connections it just means that their computers are not working correctly" LOL I am seriously thinking about switching to ATT DSL if this is not resolved soon.

Test your speed here

This was resolved with a new cable modem and a separate line for the cable modem, thank you Cableone.

Fun with the Heat Wave

Just a funny heat wave cartoon. We are in for another 100 degree day....