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Wednesday the 27th of January 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Wednesday the 27th 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
---------------------------------------
Mal/Behav-360 on 27 January 2010 11:14:56 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malbehav360.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Swizzor-J on 27 January 2010 11:14:56 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malswizzorj.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MET on 27 January 2010 11:14:56 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmet.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-LU on 27 January 2010 11:14:56 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotlu.html?_log_from=rss
VBS/Autorun-AYI on 27 January 2010 11:14:56 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/vbsautorunayi.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Aliser-Dam on 27 January 2010 11:14:56 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32aliserdam.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/EncPk-HJ on 27 January 2010 06:43:41 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malencpkhj.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/FakeAV-CL on 27 January 2010 06:43:41 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malfakeavcl.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Oficla-A on 27 January 2010 06:43:41 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/maloficlaa.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Rootkit-W on 27 January 2010 06:43:41 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malrootkitw.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Ubuntu Moves To Yahoo For Default Firefox Search
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ZlI9QlsmE_I/Ubuntu-Moves-To-Yahoo-For-Default-Firefox-Search)
An anonymous reader writes "Starting in Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx release, Firefox's default search engine will be switched from Google to Yahoo. The switch was made after Canonical 'negotiated a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo.' Google will still be available as a choice. Since Yahoo search is now powered by Microsoft's Bing, this would seem to mean that Microsoft will be paying people for using Ubuntu."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Future Ubisoft Games To Require Constant Internet Access
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/jf8Jdt4pksY/Future-Ubisoft-Games-To-Require-Constant-Internet-Access)
Following up on our discussion yesterday of annoying game distribution platforms, Ubisoft has announced the details of their Online Services Platform, which they will use to distribute and administer future PC game releases. The platform will require internet access in order to play installed games, saved games will be stored remotely, and the game you're playing will even pause and try to reconnect if your connection is lost during play. Quoting Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "This seems like such a bizarre, bewildering backward step. Of course we haven't experienced it yet, but based on Ubi’s own description of the system so many concerns arise. Yes, certainly, most people have the internet all the time on their PCs. But not all people. So already a percentage of the audience is lost. Then comes those who own gaming laptops, who now will not be able to play games on trains, buses, in the park, or anywhere they may not be able to find a WiFi connection (something that’s rarely free in the UK, of course – fancy paying the £10/hour in the airport to play your Ubisoft game?). Then there's the day your internet is down, and the engineers can’t come out to fix it until tomorrow. No game for you. Or any of the dozens of other situations when the internet is not available to a player. But further, there are people who do not wish to let a publisher know their private gaming habits. People who do not wish to report in to a company they’ve no affiliation with, nor accountability to, whenever they play a game they’ve legally bought. People who don’t want their save data stored remotely. This new system renders all customers beholden to Ubisoft in perpetuity whenever they buy their games."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Scientology Attacker Will Be Sentenced To Jail
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/olki_eT13Jg/Scientology-Attacker-Will-Be-Sentenced-To-Jail)
OBG writes "A Nebraska native charged with taking part in a massive cyber-attack against the Scientology website will be spending the next year behind bars. 20-year-old Brian Thomas Mettenbrink will plead guilty to the charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer for his involvement in the denial of service attack, which was orchestrated by the online group 'Anonymous.' Mettenbrink's is the second successful prosecution connected to the 'Anonymous' attacks. Last year, Dmitriy Guzner of Verona, New Jersey, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for attacks on Scientology sites."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Facing Class-Action Suit Over Xbox Live Points
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/T9xD5sOwWS4/Microsoft-Facing-Class-Action-Suit-Over-Xbox-Live-Points)
An anonymous reader tips news that a lawyer in Pennsylvania has filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging that the company's handling of Xbox Live transactions is, in some cases, fraudulent. "Samuel Lassoff, of Horsham, PA, said an invoice he received earlier this month from Microsoft included charges for purchases he couldn't complete due to a balky download system—and he claimed it wasn't an accident. Microsoft 'engaged in a scheme to unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling' of his account, Lassoff charged in papers filed earlier this week in US District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania. ... 'Microsoft breached that contract by collecting revenues for digital goods and services which were not provided,' Lassoff said in his lawsuit."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Champerty and Other Common Law We Could Use Today
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/dIQW-Pv2dR0/Champerty-and-Other-Common-Law-We-Could-Use-Today)
pevans writes "Over on Red Hat's Opensource.com I found this neat summary of a few old laws that could really help us today with the patent trolls. The article 'What's wrong with champerty?' is brief, but full of legal goodness that seems to have fallen by the wayside: 'Let's bring back barratry, maintenance, and champerty for patent lawsuits. Combine that with a limitation on the assignment of patents and a lot of patent trolls would be out of business. ...do patents have to be freely assignable? And why can't we prohibit a cause of action for patent infringement where there is no net gain to society?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Canadian Android Carrier Forcing Firmware Update
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/IcrqKP5PAOo/Canadian-Android-Carrier-Forcing-Firmware-Update)
Wolfier writes "For wireless carrier Rogers in Canada, it seems that 'Customer Safety' only becomes a concern after months of neglect. Rogers is the only GSM carrier in Canada and so the only choice for Android users. Months ago, a customer called Rogers to report a firmware bug that was preventing users from making 911 calls under certain circumstances, and informed the carrier that Google had fixed the bug (recording of that call). But Rogers is only doing something about it now — namely, cutting data access of paying customers until they accept a mandatory firmware upgrade that not only fixes the 911 problem, but also contains 'extra' features that prevent users from ever gaining root access to their phones — even non-subsidized ones. And some phones are also getting bricked by this 'official' update. The moral: we really need to open up the competition here up North."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- GM Is Selling Saab To Spyker Cars
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/yjHOwitJqFM/GM-Is-Selling-Saab-To-Spyker-Cars)
johncadengo writes "General Motors said today that it has struck a preliminary deal to sell Saab to Spyker Cars, a tiny Dutch maker of high-end sports cars, saving the Swedish automaker from what seemed like certain extinction after previous bids for it collapsed. A previous bid from Spyker was rejected by GM in late December because GM was uncomfortable with Spyker's Russian backers. The biggest investor in Spyker is the Russian bank Convers Group, which is controlled by Alexander Antonov. In March, Mr. Antonov was shot seven times and reportedly lost a finger in an attempt on his life in Moscow. No arrests have been made. His son Vladimir, 34, is a top executive at Convers and the chairman of Spyker." GM is taking a bath on the deal, financially speaking.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- AMD Launches Budget Processor Refresh
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/aF0UGHrcg9U/AMD-Launches-Budget-Processor-Refresh)
MojoKid writes "AMD has again launched a bevy of new processors targeted squarely at budget-conscious consumers. Though Intel may be leading the market handily in the high-performance arena, AMD still provides a competitive offering from a price/performance perspective for the mainstream. HotHardware has a performance quick-take of the new 3.2GHz Phenom II X2 555 and 2.9GHz Athlon II X4 635. For $100 or less, bang for the buck with AMD is still relatively high."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Darwinian Evolution Considered As a Phase
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/DibB7XeGc0M/Darwinian-Evolution-Considered-As-a-Phase)
LucidBeast tips a mind-bending report at New Scientist on the latest paradigm-breaking work of Carl Woese, one of whose earlier discoveries was the third branch of life on Earth, the Archaea. Woese and physicist Nigel Goldenfeld argue that, even in its sophisticated modern form, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection applies only to a recent phase of life on Earth. Woese and Goldenfeld believe that horizontal evolution led to the rise of the genetic code itself. "At the root of this idea is overwhelming recent evidence for horizontal gene transfer — in which organisms acquire genetic material 'horizontally' from other organisms around them, rather than vertically from their parents or ancestors. The donor organisms may not even be the same species. This mechanism is already known to play a huge role in the evolution of microbial genomes, but its consequences have hardly been explored. According to Woese and Goldenfeld, they are profound, and horizontal gene transfer alters the evolutionary process itself."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- BSkyB Wins £709m Lawsuit Against HP-EDS
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Eelq1pfA-Ss/BSkyB-Wins-pound709m-Lawsuit-Against-HP-EDS)
E5Rebel writes "In a massive legal case in the UK, HP-EDS has been found guilty of 'fraudulent misrepresentation' by their sales team when winning a major CRM project. Settlement could cost £200M out of an initial claim for £700M. HP's only relief was that parts of the claim were dismissed, but the core claim was upheld. HP is likely to appeal. Outsourcing will never be the same again. HP workers have been on strike against pay cuts last week; no doubt management will try and screw them further to pay for this debacle."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- "Normal" Prions May Protect Myelin
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/crNiyleyn3c/Normal-Prions-May-Protect-Myelin)
thomst writes "Nature Neuroscience just published an online article about the function of 'normal' prions in protecting myelin, the substance that sheathes and protects sensory and motor nerves. The international study (which has 11 authors) concluded that 'normal' (i.e., not mis-folded) prions may form a protective coat around myelin. The researchers found that Prnp -/- mice (mice with the gene for prions knocked out) consistently developed progressive demyelination, inevitably leading to persistent polyneuropathy by 60 weeks of age. Their data suggest that damage to myelin sheaths cause normal prions to cleave, and the resulting prion fragments activate Schwann cells, which are known to play a part in myelin repair. This research might eventually lead to possible treatments for progressive polyneuropathies in humans, including those mediated by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and even diabetes."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Google Gets Its iPhone Voice
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/olYQl37gh7s/Google-Gets-Its-iPhone-Voice)
snydeq writes "Google has found a way to let iPhone owners use Google Voice, launching a Google Voice Web app that runs on iPhone 3.0 OS devices, as well as on Palm WebOS devices. The Google Voice application leverages HTML 5's functionality for running sophisticated Web applications on a browser at speeds matching those of native applications, Google said. The Google Voice-iPhone conflict is one of several issues putting the companies on a collision course, the latest of which involves Apple potentially courting Microsoft to tap Bing as the iPhone's default search."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- NASA Concedes Defeat In Effort To Free Spirit Rover
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/kIix4iHd81k/NASA-Concedes-Defeat-In-Effort-To-Free-Spirit-Rover)
An anonymous reader writes "NASA has conceded defeat in its battle to free the Spirit rover from its Martian sand trap. The vehicle became stuck in soft soil back in May last year and all the efforts to extricate it have failed. NASA says that Spirit, which landed on the Red Planet over six years ago, will 'no longer be a fully mobile robot,' and has instead designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- CompTIA Reneges, Reconsiders on Lifetime Certifications
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ideK8Rk85sA/CompTIA-Reneges-Reconsiders-on-Lifetime-Certifications)
garg0yle writes "Recently, it was reported that IT certification house CompTIA had changed their A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications — rather than being 'for life,' there would now be a recertification requirement through continuing-education credits (and an accompanying fee). Needless to say, this made a lot of people very unhappy, and today it was announced that CompTIA has reversed their decision. Basically, any certification obtained before 2011 will still be 'for life.'" Ars notes the coincidence that CompTIA contacted them about the change of heart an hour after Ars's story about CompTIA's initial switcheroo went live.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Evidence Weakens That China Did the Recent Cyberattacks
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/yvMGHJKz7U8/Evidence-Weakens-That-China-Did-the-Recent-Cyberattacks)
click2005 notes a an article in The Register calling into question the one piece of hard evidence that has been put forward to pin the Google cyberattacks on China. It was claimed that a CRC algorithm found in the Aurora attack code was particular to Chinese-language developers. Now evidence emerges that this algorithm has been widely known for years and used in English-language books and websites. Wired has a post introducing the Pentagon's recently initiated effort to identify the "digital DNA" of hackers and/or their tools; this program is part of a wide-ranging effort by the US government to find useful means of deterring cyberattacks. This latter NY Times article notes that Google may have found the best deterrence so far — the threat to withdraw its services from the Chinese market.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- I have fitted my CD Burner, what now?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: I have my cd burner hook up but i dont know what to do

Answer: ok, well, it should have come with some drivers, you will need to install these to get it working. If you have not got any drivers, then go to the company's website (if you do not know this, then search in yahoo for it, or try our links page at http://www.helpforce.com/main/elinks.html. If you wish to copy CDs, then you will probably need another piece of software (available via the internet, try www.downloads.com)Please note though, burning data (either programs or audio) to CDs that doesnt belong to you and which you have not got permission for may be illegal

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

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

-- Choosing Tax Software(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/258322.htm)

Tax software and electronic filing is absolutely the way to go! If you can do some basic data entry, springtime need not be challenge in accounting. The secret is...

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