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Sunday the 24th of January 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Sunday the 24th 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

This is a free service provided by Helpforce.com, to unsubscribe please visit http://www.helpforce.com
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1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Troj/Agent-MGN on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmgn.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MGO on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmgo.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bancos-BGZ on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbancosbgz.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bredo-AG on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbredoag.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dropr-CN on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdroprcn.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dropr-CO on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdroprco.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-IAC on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldriac.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/VB-EMH on 24 January 2010 06:22:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojvbemh.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-HZQ on 24 January 2010 01:51:55 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldrhzq.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Autorun-AYT on 24 January 2010 01:51:55 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autorunayt.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Misa Digital Guitar Runs On Linux
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/qeVD-aYyCFs/emMisaem-Digital-Guitar-Runs-On-Linux)
conner_bw writes "Imagine strumming a guitar without any strings, on a touchscreen. Think the idea is too far-fetched? The Misa digital guitar claims to be exactly this. Overcoming the natural limitations of a traditional guitar, this new instrument eliminates the need to pluck strings while using the right hand to control sound. Specs: Linux kernel 2.6.31 (Gentoo); 24 frets; touchscreen; MIDI out; RJ-45 Ethernet. My favourite parts of the site are the FAQ (How do you SSH into the guitar?), and this quote from the developer: 'Because the software is open source I'm hoping people completely change the instrument and share new "firmware" with others. Different graphics, different control ideas etc. It would all be free of charge. So I'm hoping that happens as the instrument becomes more familiar.'" The developer, Michael, has not yet promised a delivery date or set a price for the instruments he is manufacturing.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- UK's Freeview HD To Go DRM
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/39-pmQ0iIFQ/UKs-Freeview-HD-To-Go-DRM)
gbjbaanb writes "The BBC has been granted provisional approval to introduce copy protection for Freeview HD after they resubmitted an amended plan. Quoting from Ofcom's statement: 'In view of the fuller submission provided by the BBC, Ofcom is currently minded to approve its request for a multiplex license amendment subject to consultation responses, on the basis that in principle, content management is a justified objective which ensures that the broadest range of HD content is made available to citizens and consumers.' However, it's not too late yet — you can submit your comment and tell them you'd like to be able to record broadcast HD TV. I'm sure the 'content providers' will continue to sell content to the BBC, ITV, etc., if this is not implemented. They'll still take our license fee money (or advertising) and sell us the content, but refuse to let us record or copy it, hoping we'll go out and buy the DVD/Blu-ray as well."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Artwork Re-Sells Itself Weekly On eBay
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Tlt9m5uQVTY/Artwork-Re-Sells-Itself-Weekly-On-eBay)
Lanxon writes "How much would you pay for a piece of artwork that you could only own for a week? A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, 2009, is a black acrylic box that places itself for sale on eBay every seven days thanks to an embedded Internet connection, which, according to the artist's conditions of sale, must be live at all times. Disconnections are only allowed during transport, says the creator, Caleb Larsen. Larsen tells Wired UK: 'Inside the black box is a micro controller and an Ethernet adapter that contacts a script running on [a] server [every] 10 minutes. The server script checks to see if the box currently has an active auction, and if it doesn't, it creates a new auction for the work.'" Another condition of sale is that the artist gets 15% each time the piece is sold. Maybe the First Sale Doctrine works differently in the UK.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- A Practical LCD Writing Tablet
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/wpY1PnX1n3M/A-Practical-LCD-Writing-Tablet)
An anonymous reader passes along a word about an innovative LCD writing tablet. The Boogie Board costs $30, can be written on with a stylus or a fingernail, and uses no power in the act of writing. Only erasing consumes power — from a watch battery, which lasts for 50,000 erases. The total cost per "page" comes out to only 1/15th that of steno paper. The writing surface is pressure-sensitive and "highly responsive to variable amounts of pressure," so you can make thick and thin lines.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Crazy Firewall Log Activity — What Does It Mean?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/rHP5lpk7Q6g/Crazy-Firewall-Log-Activity-mdash-What-Does-It-Mean)
arkowitz writes "I happened to have access to five days worth of firewall logs from a US state government agency. I wrote a parser to grab unique IPs out, and sent several million of them to a company called Quova, who gave me back full location info on every 40th one. I then used Green Phosphor's Glasshouse visualization tool to have a look at the count of inbound packets, grouped by country of origin and hour. And it's freaking crazy looking. So I made the video of it and I'm asking the Slashdot community: What the heck is going on?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Claims of Himalayan Glacier Disaster Melt Away
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/UTMx498q_q0/Claims-of-Himalayan-Glacier-Disaster-Melt-Away)
Hugh Pickens writes "VOA News reports that leaders of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have apologized for making a 'poorly substantiated' claim that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. Scientists who identified the mistake say the IPCC report relied on news accounts that appear to have misquoted a scientific paper — which estimated that the glaciers could disappear by 2350, not 2035. Jeffrey Kargel, an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona who helped expose the IPCC's errors, said the botched projections were extremely embarrassing and damaging. 'The damage was that IPCC had, or I think still has, such a stellar reputation that people view it as an authority — as indeed they should — and so they see a bullet that says Himalayan glaciers will disappear by 2035 and they take that as a fact.' Experts who follow climate science and policy say they believe the IPCC should re-examine how it vets information when compiling its reports. 'These errors could have been avoided had the norms of scientific publication including peer review and concentration upon peer-reviewed work, been respected,' write the researchers."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Russian Whistleblower Cop Arrested
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-RXcxN5BxY4/Russian-Whistleblower-Cop-Arrested)
Remember the Russian cop's YouTube narrative on police corruption? Reader Max_W writes with the news that Alexei Dymovsky, the cop whose videos started a movement, was arrested (Google translation; Russian original) on January 22, 2010. He is in prison in the south of Russia. Max_W adds: "It seems only a president is allowed to have a video blog in Russia."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- PayPal Freezes the Assets of Wikileaks.org
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Y3ACOXKTBfc/PayPal-Freezes-the-Assets-of-Wikileaksorg)
matsh sends word that PayPal has frozen the assets of wikileaks.org. From their Web site: "Paypal has as of 23rd of January 2010 frozen WikiLeaks assets. This is the second time that this happens. The last time we struggled for more than half a year to resolve this issue. By working with the respected and recognized German foundation Wau Holland Stiftung we tried to avoid this from happening again — apparently without avail." The submitter adds: "Hopefully we can pressure PayPal to resolve this quickly, since this seems like a dangerous political decision."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Larry & Sergey To Cash In $5.5B of Google Chips
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/_c8DzHGkCp4/Larry-amp-Sergey-To-Cash-In-55B-of-Google-Chips)
theodp writes "According to an SEC filing, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have adopted five-year trading plans to sell about 5M shares each, which would yield each about $2.75B based on Friday's closing stock price of $550.01. BTW, Google kicks in 12 cents to Social Security and another 2 cents to Medicare on its founders' celebrated $1 annual salaries." After this stock is sold, the founders will hold less than 50% of the voting shares and thus will give up voting control of Google.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Deadline For Data.gov Arrives, and Delivers
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/sA8HhpARsEI/Deadline-For-Datagov-Arrives-and-Delivers)
inKubus writes "According to a story carried by AP, as part of President Barack Obama's 'Open Government Directive,' the 24 major departments and agencies that make up the executive branch of the federal government had until Friday to release at least three 'high-value' data sets. Over 300 new data sets have been released on data.gov. There's a lot of interesting stuff on there and more to come." One of the departments required to release data is the office of the US Trade Representative. Wouldn't it be nice if they posted the ACTA negotiating drafts?Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Rockstar Employees Badly Overworked, Say Wives
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/3R52CJXKn9I/Rockstar-Employees-Badly-Overworked-Say-Wives)
juicegg writes "Wives of Rockstar Games employees in San Diego recently published an open letter on their Gamasutra blog. The authors say that Rockstar employees are seriously strained by unending crunch periods of 12-hour work days and 6-day weeks. High levels of stress are leading to serious psychological and physical problems for some of the employees. They charge that studio management uses arbitrary, deceptive and manipulative practices to get employees to work more unpaid overtime hours at greater intensity — despite over $1 billion in Grand Theft Auto revenue. Among the blog comments, some current and past Rockstar employees are confirming problems with the studio. 'Ex Rocker' writes: 'What makes R* crunch periods different then any other studio is that they tell you the game has to be finished in 6 months, so let's start our final push to get this awesome game out there! 6 months turns into 1 year, 1 year turns into 2.' Other comments reveal worker hopelessness and general mismanagement at the San Diego studio. This turmoil is affecting development on upcoming games as well." Read on for responses from Rockstar itself and other members of the industry.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Motorola Asks ITC To Ban BlackBerry Imports
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Nwca8Xv_Kwc/Motorola-Asks-ITC-To-Ban-BlackBerry-Imports)
alphadogg writes "Patent litigation between Motorola and Research In Motion is heating up, with Motorola filing a complaint with the US International Trade Commission. In the complaint, Motorola alleges that RIM engages in unfair trade practices by importing and selling products that infringe five Motorola patents. The patents cover technologies related to Wi-Fi access, application management, user interface, and power management, Motorola said. Motorola is asking the ITC to investigate RIM and bar the company from importing, marketing, and selling products in the US that use the technologies."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Skydiver To Break Sound Barrier During Free-Fall
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ENd1M1e0lco/Skydiver-To-Break-Sound-Barrier-During-Free-Fall)
Hugh Pickens writes "Over fifty years ago, American Joe Kittinger made history by leaping from a balloon at 102,800 ft, and although many have sought to repeat the feat, all have failed. Now, BBC reports that Austrian extreme sportsman Felix Baumgartner will try to break the long-standing record for the highest ever parachute jump, skydiving from a balloon sent to at least 120,000 ft, and it is likely that 35 seconds into in his long free-fall of more than five minutes, he will exceed the speed of sound — the first person to do so without the aid of a machine. 'No-one really knows what that will be like,' says Baumgartner. Although challenges in the endeavor include coping with freezing temperatures and ultra-thin air, a key objective for Baumgartner will be to try to maintain a good attitude during the descent and prevent his body from going into a spin and blacking out. 'The fact is you have a lot of different airflows coming around your body; and some parts of your body are in supersonic flow and some parts are in transonic flow. What kind of reaction that creates, I can't tell you,' adds Baumgartner."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Nmap 5.20 Released
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/EbfrNtFlWzQ/Nmap-520-Released)
ruphus13 writes "Nmap has a new release out, and it's a major one. It includes a GUI front-end called Zenmap, and, according to the post, 'Network admins will no doubt be excited to learn that Nmap is now ready to identify Snow Leopard systems, Android Linux smartphones, and Chumbies, among other OSes that Nmap can now identify. This release also brings an additional 31 Nmap Scripting Engine scripts, bringing the total collection up to 80 pre-written scripts for Nmap. The scripts include X11 access checks to see if X.org on a system allows remote access, a script to retrieve and print an SSL certificate, and a script designed to see whether a host is serving malware. Nmap also comes with netcat and Ndiff. Source code and binaries are available from the Nmap site, including RPMs for x86 and x86_64 systems, and binaries for Windows and Mac OS X. '"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Widespread Attacks Exploit Newly-Patched IE Bug
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BPWLFo_nzZk/Widespread-Attacks-Exploit-Newly-Patched-IE-Bug)
itwbennett writes "The first widespread attack to leverage the Internet Explorer flaw that Microsoft patched in an emergency update Thursday morning has surfaced. By midday Thursday Symantec had spotted hundreds of Web sites that hosted the attack code. The attack installs a Trojan horse program that is able to bypass some security products and then give hackers access to the system, said Joshua Talbot, a security intelligence manager with Symantec. Once it has infected a PC, the Trojan sends a notification e-mail to the attackers, using a US-based, free e-mail service that Symantec declined to name." Relatedly, reader N!NJA was among several to point out that Microsoft has apparently been aware of this flaw since September.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- My modem and Dial up networking has disappeared, help!
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: Windows 1998.4.10Missing modem.cplModem icon disappearedTried extracting from Win98 CDandCannot open Dial-up Networkingfollowed Microsoft Knowledge Base Article -142806From research reinstalling Windows does not correct issue

Answer: Dear User,In most cases of missing files under Windows 98, re-installing windows is the only cure because of the way the Windows Registry works. Once a file does go missing, the registry may not reflect this change properly causing problems, such as in your case not being able to open Dial-up networking.I can suggest two possabilities:1. Open the Add/Remove Programs control pannel2. Goto Windows Setup3. Under communications, un-check all options.4. Look through the other catagories under Windows Setup and un-check all options relating to Networking, Dial-up networking and modems/communications.5. Reboot your pc.6. Return to the Add/Remove control pannel and select again all the items you unchecked.7. Click ok and Windows will ask for your Windows 98 CD.8. After re-starting your PC for a second time, you may find your modem control pannel restored and your dial-up networking operational.If this does not work, try my second alternative.1. Open the System Control Panel.2. Select 'Device Manager'.3. Find your modem, usually under the Modem or Communications catagory.4. Click 'Remove'.5. Reboot your PC and allow it to automaticly detect your modem, providing the origional Windows 98 CD or Modem Driver disk as appropriate.6. You may now find your modem control panel and/or Dial-up networking restored.If this is not successful, re-installing Windows from a completely blank hard drive may be the only way to restore your system to it's previous operation.NB: You may need to try my suggestions above in a different combination a couple of times in order to get both the Dial-up networking and the Modem control panel restored.Hope this helps!If you require any further assistance, please reply to this email. Please include all previous correspondance so that we may more easily track your problem.

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

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