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

Wednesday the 3rd of February 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Wednesday the 3rd of February 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
For free technical support, visit us at http://www.helpforce.com

1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
JS/ScrLd-C on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/jsscrldc.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Banc-B on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malbancb.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MJM on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmjm.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MJP on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmjp.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeAvJs-E on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavjse.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/JSRedir-AR on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojjsredirar.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/VB-EMU on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojvbemu.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/VB-EMV on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojvbemv.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/VB-EMY on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojvbemy.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Csrc-B on 3 February 2010 10:40:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32csrcb.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Microsoft Looking Into Windows 7 Battery Failures
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-_cURP_KclQ/Microsoft-Looking-Into-Windows-7-Battery-Failures)
Jared writes "Microsoft says it is investigating reports of notebooks with poor battery life with Windows 7, as first reported by users on Microsoft TechNet. These users claim their batteries were working just fine under Windows XP and/or Windows Vista, and others are saying that battery problems occur on their new Windows 7 PCs. Under Win7, certain machines spit out the following warning message: 'Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.' The warning is normally issued after using the computer's BIOS to determine whether a battery needs replacement, but in this case it appears the operating system and not the battery is the problem. These customers say their PC's battery life is noticeably lower, with some going as far as to say that it has become completely unusable after a few weeks. To make matters worse, others are reporting that downgrading to an earlier version of Windows doesn't fix the problem."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Harder-Than-Diamond Natural Carbon Crystals Found
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ElepV4Pdoec/Harder-Than-Diamond-Natural-Carbon-Crystals-Found)
HikingStick tips a piece from the science desk at MSNBC.com about a new, naturally occurring form of carbon found in a meteorite fragment. "Researchers were polishing a slice of the carbon-rich Havero meteorite that fell to Earth in Finland in 1971. When they then studied the polished surface they discovered carbon-loaded spots that were raised well above the rest of the surface — suggesting that these areas were harder than the diamonds used in the polishing paste... [G]raphite layers were shocked and heated enough to create bonds between the layers — which is exactly how humans manufacture diamonds... [The research] team took the next step and put the diamond-resistant crystals under the scrutiny of some very rigorous mineralogical analyzing instruments to learn how its atoms are lined up. That allowed them to confirm that they had, indeed, found a new 'phase' or polymorph of crystalline carbon as well as a type of diamond that had been predicted to exist decades ago, but had never been found in nature until now."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Game Industry Vets On DRM
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/TWlVW641cik/Game-Industry-Vets-On-DRM)
An anonymous reader points out an article at SavyGamer in which several game industry veterans were polled for their opinions on DRM. Cliff Harris of Positech Games said he didn't think his decision to stop using DRM significantly affected piracy of his games, accepting it as an unavoidable fact. "Maybe a few of the more honest people now buy the game rather than pirate it, but this sort of thing is impossible to measure. You can see how many people are cracking and uploading your game, but tracking downloads is harder. It seems any game, even if it's $0.99 has a five hour demo and is DRM-free and done by a nobel-peace prize winning game design legend, will be cracked and distributed on day one by some self righteous teenager anyway. People who crack and upload games don't give a damn what you've done to placate gamers, they crack it anyway." Nihal de Silva of Direct2Drive UK said his company hasn't noticed any sales patterns indicating customers are avoiding games with DRM. Richard Wilson of TIGA feels that customers should be adequately warned before buying a game that uses DRM, but makes no bones about the opinion that the resale of used games is not something publishers should worry about.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Courts Move To Ban Juror Use of Net, Social Sites
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/phZkksrmVEU/Courts-Move-To-Ban-Juror-Use-of-Net-Social-Sites)
coondoggie passes along a NetworkWorld report on the pronouncement of a judicial conference committee recommending that trial judges specifically instruct jurors not to use any electronic communications devices or sites during trial and deliberations. Here's the committee report (PDF). "If you think you're going to use your spanking new iPhone to entertain yourself next time you're on jury duty, think again. Judges are going to take an even dimmer view of jury member use of Blackberry, iPhone, or other electronic devices as a judicial policy-setting group has told district judges they should restrict jurors from using electronic technologies to research or communicate. ... The instructions state jurors must not use cell phones, e-mail, Blackberry, iPhone, text messaging, or on Twitter, or communicate through any blog or website, through any internet chat room, or by way of any other social networking websites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- OpenOffice Tops 21% Market Share In Germany
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/xzUYendpelk/OpenOffice-Tops-21-Market-Share-In-Germany)
hweimer writes "A novel study analyzes the installed base of various office packages among German users. (Here is the original study report in German and a Google translation.) While Microsoft Office comes out top (72%), open source rival OpenOffice is already installed on 21.5% of all PCs and growing. The authors use a clever method to determine the installed office suites of millions of web users: they look for the availability of characteristic fonts being shipped with the various suites. What surprised me the most is that they found hardly any difference in the numbers for home and business users."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Why Time Flies By As You Get Older
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/HBonvoWSSXs/Why-Time-Flies-By-As-You-Get-Older)
Ant notes a piece up on WBUR Boston addressing theories to explain the universal human experience that time seems to pass faster as you get older. Here's the 9-minute audio (MP3). Several explanations are tried out: that brains lay down more information for novel experiences; that the "clock" for nerve impulses in aging brains runs slower; and that each interval of time represents a diminishing fraction of life as we age.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/D9--tkUGVQg/Studies-Reveal-Why-Kids-Get-Bullied-and-Rejected)
Thelasko writes "I'm sure many here have been the victim of bullying at some point in their lives. A new study suggests why. '...now researchers have found at least three factors in a child's behavior that can lead to social rejection. The factors involve a child's inability to pick up on and respond to nonverbal cues from their pals.' The article sketches out some ways teachers and councilors are working with bullied kids to help them develop the missing social skills."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Facebook's HipHop Also a PHP Webserver
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Dd1H1z_RVrM/Facebooks-HipHop-Also-a-PHP-Webserver)
darthcamaro writes "As expected, Facebook today announced a new runtime for PHP, called HipHop. What wasn't expected were a few key revelations disclosed today by Facebook developer David Recordan. As it turns out, Facebook has been running HipHop for months and it now powers 90 percent of their servers — it's not a skunkworks project; it's a Live production technology. It's also not just a runtime, it's also a new webserver. 'In general, Apache is a great Web server, but when we were looking at how we get the next half percent or percent of performance, we didn't need all the features that Apache offers," Recordon said. He added, however, that he hopes an open source project will one day emerge around making HipHop work with Apache Web servers.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Lancet Recants Study Linking Autism To Vaccine
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Ew4xgt294VE/The-Lancet-Recants-Study-Linking-Autism-To-Vaccine)
JamJam writes "The Lancet, a major British medical journal, has retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease. British surgeon and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues originally released their study in 1998. Since then 10 of Wakefield's 13 co-authors have renounced the study's conclusions and The Lancet has said it should never have published the research. Wakefield now faces being stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. The vaccine-autism debate should now end."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Mozilla Accepts Chinese CNNIC Root CA Certificate
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/JOQ8J220TGI/Mozilla-Accepts-Chinese-CNNIC-Root-CA-Certificate)
Josh Triplett writes "Last October, Mozilla accepted the China Internet Network Information Center as a trusted CA root (Bugzilla entry). This affects Firefox, Thunderbird, and other products built on Mozilla technologies. The standard period for discussion passed without comment, and Mozilla accepted CNNIC based on the results of a formal audit. Commenters in the bug report and the associated discussion have presented evidence that the Chinese government controls CNNIC, and surfaced claims of malware production and distribution and previous man-in-the-middle attacks in China via their secondary CA root from Entrust. As usual, please refrain from blindly chiming into the discussion without supporting evidence. Since Mozilla has already accepted CNNIC as a trusted root CA, the burden rests with those who argue for its removal."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Spray-On Liquid Glass
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/U8Pavn5C5rY/Spray-On-Liquid-Glass)
bLanark writes with news of a new substance that can be sprayed on for a durable, easy-to-clean film on almost any substance, hard or soft. The liquid glass is essentially pure silicon dioxide, and it goes on in a layer 15 to 30 atoms thick. It is breathable and flexible, but waterproof and resistant to bacterial growth. The patent is held by a German company, Nanopool, which is in discussion with many parties about a wide range of uses: keeping public spaces sanitary, keeping restaurants clean, and keeping cars or trains clean. "The spray forms a water-resistant layer, meaning it can be cleaned using only water. Trials by food-processing companies showed that sterile surfaces covered with a film of liquid glass were equally clean after a rinse with hot water as after their usual treatment with strong bleach."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- New iPhone Attack Kills Apps, Reroutes Web Traffic
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/axEZ09GAdX0/New-iPhone-Attack-Kills-Apps-Reroutes-Web-Traffic)
Trailrunner7 sends in a threatpost.com article on exploiting flaws in the way the iPhone handles digital certificates. "[Several flaws] could lead to an attacker being able to create his own trusted certificate and entice users into downloading malicious files onto their iPhones. The result of the attack is that a remote hacker is able to change some settings on the iPhone and force all of the user's Web traffic to run through any server he chooses, and also to change the root certificate on the phone, enabling him to man-in-the-middle SSL traffic from that phone. ... Charlie Miller, an Apple security researcher at Independent Security Evaluators, said that the attack works, although it would not lead to remote code execution on the iPhone. 'It definitely works. I downloaded the file and ran it and it worked,' Miller said. 'The only thing is that it warns you that the file will change your phone, but it also says that the certificate is from Apple and it's been verified.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- UMG v. Lindor Ends, No Fees, No Sanctions
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/IusM4mJE4mU/UMG-v-Lindor-Ends-No-Fees-No-Sanctions)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The 5-year-old case of UMG Recordings v. Lindor (which we've discussed all those years) has come to a close in Brooklyn, without ever reaching the deposition and document production of MediaSentry. The District Judge denied the RIAA's motions for discovery sanctions but granted the RIAA's motion for voluntary dismissal without prejudice and without attorneys fees, adopting the report and recommendation of the Magistrate Judge."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- And Now, the Animated News
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/tNYMvTq2dTg/And-Now-the-Animated-News)
theodp writes "'You have a lot of missing images, in the TV, in the news reporting,' explains billionaire Jimmy Lai. It's a gap that Lai's Next Media intends to fill with its animated news service. Artists lift details from news photos while actors in motion sensor suits re-create action sequences of stories making headlines. Animators graft cartoon avatars to the live-motion action, and the stories hit the Web. When news agencies didn't have footage of scenes from the Tiger Woods car crash, Lai's team raced to put together animation dramatizing the incident that became a YouTube sensation. Thus far, Lai has been denied a television license, but with or without his own station, he thinks his animations are headed for televisions worldwide. His company is currently in talks with media organizations to churn out news animations on demand using Next Media's graphic artists and software tools."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- A Look Into the Chinese Hacker Underworld
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/p_JEuswoTI0/A-Look-Into-the-Chinese-Hacker-Underworld)
beachels416 writes "The NY Times gained access to a Chinese hacker-for-profit, referred to as 'Majia,' and observed him during one of his nightly 'sessions.' From the article: 'Oddly, Majia said his parents did not know that he was hacking at night [hacking is illegal in China]. But at one point, he explained the intricacies of computer hacking and stealing data while his mother stood nearby, listening silently, while offering a guest oranges and candy.' At another point Majia spoke about the recent Google attacks, and claimed to have particular knowledge of the exact vector used. Nothing too new, but an interesting read nevertheless."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- I uninstalled Norton 2000 and now cant startup Windows
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: I had 2 Antivirus's on my Compac Computer and I deleted one of them which was the Norton 2000 Antivirus. I did it incorrectly and my Computer will only start with my start up disk. At first I got a message saying that I deleted Norton incorrectly and to install it again but I don't have the CD on that version to install; I must have gotten it with another program I purchased. I am not getting that message anymore because I tried so many different things to fix this problem that it went away. I want to put in the recovery disk but when I put it into the CD Drive on the screen it recognizes it, pops it out of the CD drive, and then goes into the screen that gives me 3 options: Normal Safe ModeI don't remember what the 3rd and 4th are. I want to know how to either fix my problem or be able to put my CD in to do a recovery which would put me back to Factory Settings. I am so desperate I would be willing to do that.I did buy Norton Antivirus 2003 and I got Norton Doctor 2002 but I don't really know how to use them. I bought both of these last Sunday thinking this could fix the problem. Please help?

Answer: If you are running Windows XP or ME the safest course of action would be to use 'System Rollback' to roll your system back to a point before these changes were made.Please see Windows Help for details on how to do this.Without the origional Norton CD's used, it would be impossible to restore your PC to a working state. You would need to use your origional Compaq Restore CD to restore your computer to the factory settings.If you have the origional Norton CD's, installing the program again and then uninstalling it should correct the issue.NB: It is unsafe to have two anti-virus program's running on once PC. Anti-virus programs interact with Windows at a very deep down level and can cause problems with each other if they are running at the same time. Usually, one anti-virus program will protect your PC as long as it is kept fully updated from the anti-virus producers web site. Reply Posted on 14/12/2002 It would be best to use the restore feature of Windows XP to take your computer back to the time before you deleted Norton 2002....Or the similar feature of Windows Me.It safe (and wise) to have more than one antivirus program. It is very important to have ONLY ONE running as a real-time or active monitor...The other can be installed and used for manual or schedules antivirus scans. This is reccomended because if one antivirus program (even if kept up to date) may, on occasions, miss a virus. If you have two antivirus programs, keep both up-to-date, and run full system scans with both on a regular basis, you should be able to catch and remove any virus. Personally, I have eTrust EZ Antivirus as my real-time monitor, and run daily scans of my system with it and also with Norton 2002 and Kaspersky Antivirus.I have the original Norton 2002 installation file saved. If you wish, I could e-mail it to you It is a zipped file that when opened will install Norton 2002. It is several months old, so you would need to update it to make it current (as well as enter your registration information). If you do re-install Norton, make sure you disable the "real-time" antivirus scanner that is running first....The Norton "real-time" scanner will be activated by default, and, as stated above, you do not want two real-time monitors running. After installation, you can disable the Norton 2002 real-time monitor and enable the other if you wish. Having Norton 2002 re-installed may allow you to uninstall correctly if that is what you choose to do. I hope this helps

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

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