Helpforce | Providing Free 24/7 Computing Technical Support on the Internet

Helpforce provides free technical support 24 hours a day, to the Internet. We support all problems, errors, crashes and aim to answer all questions.

View today's Daily Briefing

Helpforce » Back Issues of Daily Briefings

Send this page to a friend or colleague!

Technical Support

eHelp Support

eTalk Community

eLinks Database

Helpforce FAQ

Downloads

Bootdisks

Other Resources

UNIX Guides

About Helpforce

	Corporate Site
	Headlines
	Contact Us
	eHelp login

	Previous Daily Briefings
	Remote eHelp
	v:Book

Join Helpforce!

Recognize these logos?

Helpforce needs you!

Click Here to sign up and become a Helpforce member

Sunday the 17th of January 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Sunday the 17th of January 2010

1. Virus Warnings
2. Daily Technology News
3. Latest Shareware and Freeware
4. FAQ for the day
5. Advice of the day
6. Internet Advice

This is a free service provided by Helpforce.com, to unsubscribe please visit http://www.helpforce.com
For free technical support, visit us at http://www.helpforce.com

1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Troj/Banker-EVL on 17 January 2010 06:04:15 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbankerevl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-HZM on 17 January 2010 06:04:15 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldrhzm.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/JSRedir-AQ on 17 January 2010 06:04:15 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojjsrediraq.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MEJ on 17 January 2010 03:45:43 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmej.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MCW on 17 January 2010 01:13:20 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmcw.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Buzus-CA on 16 January 2010 20:44:29 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbuzusca.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/VB-F on 16 January 2010 14:42:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malvbf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeAV-AQB on 16 January 2010 14:42:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavaqb.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Rootkit-HR on 16 January 2010 14:42:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojrootkithr.html?_log_from=rss
W32/AutoRun-ABK on 16 January 2010 14:42:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autorunabk.html?_log_from=rss

2. Latest Technology News From Slashdot
-----------------------------------------------

-- James Cameron On How Avatar Technology Could Keep Actors Young
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-RL7AxaqIVA/James-Cameron-On-How-emAvatarem-Technology-Could-Keep-Actors-Young)
Suki I writes "An article at EW discusses another use for Avatar's sophisticated motion-capture technology: 'Sure, it's terrific for turning human actors into big blue alien Na'vis. But the photorealistic CGI technology James Cameron perfected for Avatar could easily be used for other, even more mind-blowing purposes — like, say, bringing Humphrey Bogart back to life, or making Clint Eastwood look 35 again. "How about another Dirty Harry movie where Clint looks the way he looked in 1975?" Cameron suggests. "Or a James Bond movie where Sean Connery looks the way he did in Doctor No? How cool would that be?"' The article goes on to quote Cameron as saying you would still need actors to play the roles, and that an ethical line needs to be drawn somewhere."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Programming With Proportional Fonts?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/yaaJf4TqhE8/Programming-With-Proportional-Fonts)
theodp writes "Betty or Veronica? Mary Ann or Ginger? Proportional or Monospaced? There's renewed interest in an old blog post by Maas-Maarten Zeeman, in which M-MZ made the case for programming with proportional fonts, citing studies that show proportional fonts can be read 14% faster than fixed-width fonts. Try it for a couple of weeks, he suggests, and you might like it too. Nowadays, Lucida Grande is M-MZ's font of choice on OS X, and he uses Lucida Sans on Windows. Helvetica, anyone?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Another Attack, On Law Firm Suing China
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/9z9HZfzm8Q8/Another-Attack-On-Law-Firm-Suing-China)
An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of the attack on Google, another company claims to be the victim of a similar attack. Gipson Hoffman & Pancione is a Los Angeles law firm whose client, CYBERsitter, is suing the government of China and several Chinese companies for using their intellectual property in the infamous Green Dam censorship filter. According to the firm, they have been targeted by a spear phishing attack from China." Relatedly, smartaleckkill writes with news that the US state department is to formally protest to China over the alleged cyber-attacks on Google, "likely early next week."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Apple Seeks To Ban Nokia Imports To US
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/eChjnwHbars/Apple-Seeks-To-Ban-Nokia-Imports-To-US)
Hugh Pickens writes "Cnet reports that the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Nokia has escalated, with Apple moving to block imports of Nokia cell phones to the US by filing a complaint with the International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency that examines issues including unfair trade practices involving patent, trademark, and copyright infringement. In December, Nokia filed its own complaint with the USITC alleging that Apple infringes seven Nokia patents 'in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers' and sought to ban imports of Apple's iPhone, iPod, and MacBook products. Responding to Apple's latest move, Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant told Bloomberg that 'Nokia will study the complaint when it is received and continue to defend itself vigorously. However this does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia's innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007.' An ITC investigation is a lengthy process, but it's possible that Apple and Nokia might reach some sort of settlement as suits continue to escalate between the two companies."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Providing a Closed Source License Upon Request?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Qk0nW_B1W3o/Providing-a-Closed-Source-License-Upon-Request)
goruka writes "As a citizen of the open source community, I have written several applications and libraries and released under the BSD license. Because of my license choice, I often run into the situation where a company wants to write software for a closed platform using my code or libraries. Even though there should be no restrictions on usage, companies very often request a different license, citing as a valid reason that the creator of such platform has special terms forbidding 'open source software' in the contracts forced upon the developer. So my question is, has anyone else run into this situation, and are there examples of such licenses that I can provide? (Please keep in mind that I'm not a US resident and I don't have access or resources to afford a lawyer there.)"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The FBI's Newest Tool — Google Images
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/b09P4l9W8ow/The-FBIs-Newest-Tool-mdash-Google-Images)
lee317 writes "The FBI recently used a photograph of Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares as an example of what Osama Bin Laden might look like today. According to Reuters, Special Agent Jason Pack said a forensic artist had been unable to find suitable features from the FBI's database of photographs and used a picture from the Internet instead. That photo turned out to be one of Llamazares, who apparently looks strikingly similar to what the FBI thinks Bin Laden would look like with a few extra years on him. 'I am stupefied the FBI has used my photo — but it could have been anyone's — to compose a picture of a terrorist. It affects my honor, my own image and also the security of all us,' Llamazares said."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- AMD Delivers DX11 Graphics Solution For Under $100
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/2PdvroGxOhI/AMD-Delivers-DX11-Graphics-Solution-For-Under-100)
Vigile points out yesterday's launch of "the new AMD Radeon HD 5670, the first graphics card to bring DirectX 11 support to the sub-$100 market and offer next-generation features to almost any budget. The Redwood part (as it was codenamed) is nearly 3.5x smaller in die size than the first DX11 GPUs from AMD while still offering support for DirectCompute 5.0, Eyefinity multi-monitor gaming and of course DX11 features (like tessellation) in upcoming Windows gaming titles. Unfortunately, performance on the card is not revolutionary even for the $99 graphics market, though power consumption has been noticeably lowered while keeping the card well cooled in a single-slot design."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Italy Floats Official Permission Requirement for Web Video Uploads
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/8rk1mtWDpOE/Italy-Floats-Official-Permission-Requirement-for-Web-Video-Uploads)
An anonymous reader writes with some bad news from Italy, noting that new rules proposed there would "require people who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorization from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web." Understandably, some say such controls represent a conflict of interest for Silvio Berlusconi, "who exercises political control over the state broadcaster RAI in his role as prime minister and is also the owner of Italy's largest private broadcaster, Mediaset."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/M1RKQ4LxXSM/Police-Called-Over-11-Year-Olds-Science-Project)
garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Sandy, Utah Tops US Cities For Broadband Speed
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/MyMgxu6lbnc/Sandy-Utah-Tops-US-Cities-For-Broadband-Speed)
darthcamaro writes "If you want to live in the city with the fastest average broadband connection speed in the US, you have to move to Utah. According to Akamai's latest State of the Internet Report, Sandy, Utah is at the top of the list for US cities with the fastest average broadband speeds, with an average connection speed of 33,464 Kbps (33.5 Mbps). Overall in the US, the average broadband connection speed in the third quarter of 2009 came in at 3.9 Mbps, down by 2.4 percent on a year-over-year basis, but that's not a major cause for concern in Akamai's view. 'The overall year-over-year decline in the US average connection speed was relatively minor,' report author David Belson, director of market intelligence at Akamai Technologies said. 'The larger year-over-year sample base may have contributed to the decline, especially as mobile usage grows.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- MiFi Attack Exploits GPS To Reveal User's Location
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OCr3gaODfIA/MiFi-Attack-Exploits-GPS-To-Reveal-Users-Location)
An anonymous reader writes "Security researcher Adam Baldwin has identified that the Sprint and Verizon MiFi devices are vulnerable to a multitude of attacks. Combining these attacks together, an attacker can gain the GPS location of the MiFi device without the user becoming immediately aware. The attack can be successfully executed without authentication and even if the GPS has been disabled by the administrator." There's a video, but a handy text summary, too. Upshot: "Any MiFi user that visits a specially crafted page will give up their GPS location to the attacker."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- CMU Web-Scraping Learns English, One Word At a Time
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ti-DUTZ5aAI/CMU-Web-Scraping-Learns-English-One-Word-At-a-Time)
blee37 writes "Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed a web-scraping AI program that never dies. It runs continuously, extracting information from the web and using that information to learn more about the English language. The idea is for a never ending learner like this to one day be able to become conversant in the English language." It's not that the program couldn't stop running; the idea is that there's no fixed end-point. Rather, its progress in categorizing complex word relationships is the object of the research. See also CMU's "Read the Web" research project site.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Own Your Own Fighter Jet
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/a41YIdLSmNU/Own-Your-Own-Fighter-Jet)
gimmebeer writes "The Russian Sukhoi SU-27 has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (more than 1,300 mph) and has a thrust to weight ratio greater than 1 to 1. That means it can accelerate while climbing straight up. It was designed to fight against the best the US had to offer, and now it can be yours for the price of a mediocre used business jet."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- China Begins Monitoring Billions of Text Messages
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/2qhdp7vy-ro/China-Begins-Monitoring-Billions-of-Text-Messages)
eldavojohn writes "The Telegraph is reporting that China has begun monitoring 'billions of text messages' in order to increase censorship. However, a People's Daily article claims they only monitor users who have been reported, and only shut down their message service if the complaints are true. Anything considered pornographic will require the user to bring a letter of guarantee to the local public security bureau promising to never again send such messages before service can be reactivated."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- RIAA Wants Limits On Net Neutrality So ISPs Can Police File Sharing
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/PvHGF6fB-A8/RIAA-Wants-Limits-On-Net-Neutrality-So-ISPs-Can-Police-File-Sharing)
Presto Vivace writes "Reporting for Computer World, Grant Gross writes that the RIAA is asking the FCC not to make the net neutrality rules so strict that they 'would limit broadband providers' [flexibility] to "address" illegal online file sharing.' It seems the RIAA is unclear on the concept of the Fourth Amendment. 'The FCC should not only avoid rules prohibiting ISPs from blocking illegal file trading, but it should actively encourage ISPs to do so, the RIAA said. ... Other groups called on the FCC to stay out of the copyright enforcement business. If ISPs are required to check for copyright infringement, they could interfere with legal online activities, said six digital rights and business groups, including Public Knowledge, the Consumer Electronics Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

3. Latest Shareware from Planet-Shareware
-----------------------------------------------

4. FAQ of the day from Helpforce
-----------------------------------------------

-- My PC isn't shut down - how can I shut down automatically?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: My PC is ATX Compatible. Operating System Windows Nt 4.0 Workstation. I click Start Menu-> ShutDown button. PC isn't shut down. How can I shut down automatically?

Answer: Hi apo,Windows NT usually won't shut down a computer automaticly. It will either tell you it is now safe to switch off the computer or in some cases the computer will crash or stop responding.There are two things you can do about this:1. Upgrade to the latest Windows NT Service Pack. You can get this from http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/default.asp The latest service pack is 6a.2. If this dosn't help, the only thing you can do is switch off your PC. It is very unlikely this will damage your PC but it is required to do quite often in Windows. I even have to do this with my Windows XP computer as Microsoft havn't fixed the problem yet.Hope this helps.If you require any further assistance, please reply to this email. Please remember to include all previous messages so that we may more easily solve your problem.

5. Advice of the Day from ask-leo
-----------------------------------------------

6. Internet Advice
-----------------------------------------------

-- What Does a Good Password Look Like?(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/257582.htm)

Every day, we log into our Windows 7 or Mac, our email, our eBay and PayPal, our bank accounts, and more. These passwords never seem to end! Well, folks, get used to it......

Thank you for your continued support, please do not reply to this email address as emails will not be answered.

Content copyright by its' respective owners

Search Helpforce

From eTalk

There are a total of 1673 posts on eTalk (501 topics and 1172 replies)

There are 0 guests and 2 members making a total of 2 users on eTalk.

Click Here to enter the eTalk Community.

Advertise Here!

Your Link Here?
Give your website the exposure it deserves!

Click Here For Details

Technology News

Stay up to date with technology, with a free, short daily briefing on current happenings

Alternatively visit here for more information

To view our back issues, click here

Members - eHelp Login

Click here for technical details about Helpforce's site

Kindly Hosted by:

Please visit www.asis.com for more details on Internet Access, Web Hosting and Computer Repair.Skydive North East