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Sunday the 21st of February 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Sunday the 21st 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
6. Internet Advice

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1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Troj/FakeAV-AVB on 21 February 2010 02:08:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavavb.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zhel-B on 21 February 2010 02:08:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzhelb.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/BHO-PF on 20 February 2010 22:42:20 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbhopf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-IAW on 20 February 2010 15:52:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldriaw.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Gampass-E on 20 February 2010 10:32:21 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malgampasse.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Mdrop-CKM on 20 February 2010 10:32:21 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojmdropckm.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Monkif-A on 20 February 2010 02:12:47 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malmonkifa.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MNR on 20 February 2010 02:12:47 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmnr.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MNS on 20 February 2010 02:12:47 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmns.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MNT on 20 February 2010 02:12:47 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmnt.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- After Learning Java Syntax, What Next?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/eWOv8kzS6WM/After-Learning-Java-Syntax-What-Next)
Niris writes "I'm currently taking a course called Advanced Java Programming, which is using the text book Absolute Java, 4th edition, by Walter Savitch. As I work at night as a security guard in the middle of nowhere, I've had enough time to read through the entire course part of the book, finish all eleven chapter quizzes, and do all of the assignments within a month, so all that's left is a group assignment that won't be ready until late April. I'm trying to figure out what else to read that's Java related aside from the usual 'This is how to create a tree. This is recursion. This is how to implement an interface and make an anonymous object,' and wanted to see what Slashdotters have to suggest. So far I'm looking at reading Beginning Algorithms, by Simon Harris and James Ross."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Surreal World of Chatroulette
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/2Zw3zKXDaao/The-Surreal-World-of-Chatroulette)
Hugh Pickens writes "The New York Times reports that Chatroulette, the social Web site created by a 17-year-old Russian named Andrey Ternovskiy, drops you into an unnerving world where you are connected through webcams to a random, fathomless succession of strangers from across the globe. The site activates your webcam automatically; when you click 'start' you're suddenly staring at another human on your screen and they're staring back at you, at which point you can either choose to chat (via text or voice) or just click 'next,' instantly calling up someone else. Entering Chatroulette is akin to speed-dating tens of thousands of perfect strangers — some clothed, some not. You see them, they see you. You talk to them, they talk to you. 'It's very strange, and not just because you are parachuting into someone else's life (and they yours), a kind of invited crasher,' writes Nick Bilton. 'It is also the eerie thrill of true randomness — who, or what, will show up next?' The Web has long allowed anonymous conversations among strangers. Text-based chat rooms are rife with deceit — people pretending they are someone else. Video makes this harder — even if you're wearing a mask. 'From my experience on the site, echoed by those I've spoken to, it seems as if 90 percent of users are genuinely looking for novel and unexpected conversation,' add Bilton. 'The rest — well, let's just say they have debauchery in mind.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Atlas V's Sonic Boom Made Visible By Sundog
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/c_UCETKo7Ng/Atlas-Vs-Sonic-Boom-Made-Visible-By-Sundog)
Ross-Shire Geek writes "Atlas V lifted off on Feb 11 from Kennedy. As it goes supersonic through a sundog (aka parhelion) you can see (video link) wonderful visible ripples of the shock wave in the sky."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Stone Tools Found on Crete Push Back Humans' Maritime History
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/yFq3wwl8Rps/Stone-Tools-Found-on-Crete-Push-Back-Humans-Maritime-History)
The New York Times reports that stone tools discovered on the Greek island of Crete, and reported last month at an academic conference, are strong evidence for rethinking the maritime capabilities of early humans. The researchers who found the tools (hand-axes, cleavers, and scrapers) estimate them to be at least 130,000 years old; if they're right, humans have been traveling long distances at sea (Crete is 200 miles from the northern African coastline) for at least several tens of thousands of years longer than earlier believed.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Photoshop 1.0 Recreated On iPhone
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/CjB2G6jdXJ4/Photoshop-10-Recreated-On-iPhone)
Dotnaught writes "Photoshop co-creator Russell Brown asked Ansca Mobile to re-create Photoshop 1.0, originally introduced in 1990, for the iPhone. The resulting app, created in three days using the Corona SDK, was distributed to 50 attendees of an event celebrating Photoshop's 20th anniversary. Programmer Evan Kirchhoff in a blog post explains that Ansca took the project on to prove its claims about how Corona makes iPhone development faster."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- "Immortal Molecule" Evolves — How Close To Synthetic Life?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/FAq7wXqfxXk/Immortal-Molecule-Evolves-mdash-How-Close-To-Synthetic-Life)
An anonymous reader writes with word of ongoing work at Scripps Research Institute: "Can life arise from nothing but a chaotic assortment of basic molecules? The answer is a lot closer following a series of ingenious experiments that have shown evolution at work in non-living molecules."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Fingerprint Requirement For a Work-Study Job?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/NfOpNXvQAfw/Fingerprint-Requirement-For-a-Work-Study-Job)
BonesSB writes "I'm a student at a university in Massachusetts, where I have a federal work-study position. Yesterday, I got an email from the office that is responsible for student run organizations (one of which I work for) saying that I need to go to their office and have my fingerprints taken for the purposes of clocking in and out of work. This raises huge privacy concerns for me, as it should for everybody else. I am in the process of contacting the local newspaper, getting the word out to students everywhere, and talking directly to the office regarding this. I got an email back with two very contradictory sentences: 'There will be no image of your fingerprints anywhere. No one will have access to your fingerprints. The machine is storing your prints as a means of identifying who you are when you touch it.' Does anybody else attend a school that requires something similar? This is an obvious slippery slope, and something I am not taking lightly. What else should I do?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Math Anxiety Affects Skills As Basic As Counting
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Ag90EY5hPdA/Math-Anxiety-Affects-Skills-As-Basic-As-Counting)
thirty-seven writes "According to four Canadian psychologists, a study they have conducted shows that math anxiety, 'the feeling of fear and dread of performing mathematical calculations,' can negatively affect mathematical tasks much simpler and more basic than previously thought. In the study, participants were asked to count black squares on a white screen. The number of squares shown ranged from one to nine and participants were given as much time as they wanted before answering. When the number of squares was in the subitizing range (one to four), both math-anxious and non-math-anxious participants performed equally well, but when the number of squares was in the counting range (five to nine), the math-anxious group took longer and were less accurate. The University of Waterloo's news release about the study includes this interesting note: 'Previous studies have shown that a weakness in basic math abilities has a greater negative effect on employment opportunities than reading difficulties [do].'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- USPTO's 1-Click Indecisiveness Enters 5th Year
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/0qEuZyKjoQw/USPTOs-1-Click-Indecisiveness-Enters-5th-Year)
theodp writes "When it comes to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click patent, the USPTO is an agency that just can't say no. Or yes. It's now been 4+ years since actor Peter Calveley submitted prior art that triggered a USPTO reexamination of the 1-Click patent. Still no 'final answer' from the USPTO, although an Examiner recently issued yet another Final Rejection of 1-Click related claims (pdf), admonishing Amazon for making him 'sift through hundreds of submitted references to identify what applicant allegedly has already submitted,' which he complained is 'adding an undue burden' to his workload. Looks like Bezos' 2000 pledge of 'less work for the overworked Patent and Trademark Office' isn't working out so well in practice. Not too surprising — after all, Amazon did inform Congress that it 'has modified its specific [patent] reform proposals from the year 2000.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Ars Analysis Calls Windows 7 Memory Usage Claims "Scaremongering"
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Pa4uVCtFO94/Ars-Analysis-Calls-Windows-7-Memory-Usage-Claims-Scaremongering)
Via newsycombinator comes a reaction at Ars Technica to the recently reported claims of excessive memory use on machines running Windows 7. From the article: "I installed the XPnet performance monitoring tool and waited for it to upload my data to see what it might be complaining about. The cause of the problem was immediately apparent. It's no secret that Windows 7, just like Windows Vista before it, includes aggressive disk caching. The SuperFetch technology causes Windows to preload certain data if the OS detects that it is used regularly, even if there is no specific need for it at any given moment. Though SuperFetch is a little less aggressive in Windows 7, it will still use a substantial amount of memory—but with an important proviso. The OS will only use memory for cache when there is no other demand for that memory."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Students Build 2752 MPG Hypermiling Vehicle
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/A2JUbUwiYTQ/Students-Build-2752-MPG-Hypermiling-Vehicle)
MikeChino sends along this awe-inspiring excerpt: "Think claims of electric vehicles that get over 200 MPG are impressive? Try this on for size: a group of mechanical engineering students at Cal Poly have developed a vehicle that can get up to 2752.3 MPG — and it doesn't even use batteries. The Cal Poly Supermileage Team's wondercar, dubbed the Black Widow, has been under construction since 2005. The 96 pound car has three wheels, a drag coefficient of 0.12, a top speed of 30 MPH, and a modified 3 horsepower Honda 50cc four-stroke engine. It originally clocked in at 861 MPG and has been continuously tweaked to achieve the mileage we see today." It's not quite as street-worthy, though, as Volkswagen's 235 MPG One-Liter concept. Updated 20:01 GMT: The Cal Poly car's earlier incarnation achieved 861 MPG, not MPH; corrected above.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4wy-lyVyoFg/Which-Linux-For-Non-Techie-Windows-Users)
obarthelemy writes "Having at last gotten Linux to run satisfactorily on my own PCs, I'd now like to start transitioning friends and family from XP to Linux instead of Windows 7. The catch is that these guys don't understand or care much about computers, so the transition has to be as seamless and painless as possible. Actually, they won't care for new things; even the upcoming upgrade to Windows 7 would be a pain and a bother, which is a great opportunity for Linux. I'm not too concerned about software (most of them only need browser, IM, VLC, mail and a Powerpoint viewer for all those fascinating attachments). What I'm concerned about is OS look-and-feel and interface — system bar on the bottom with clock, trash, info on the right, menu on the left, menu items similar to those of Windows. Is it better to shoot for a very targeted distro? Which would you recommend? Are there themes/skins for mainstream distributions instead? I've been looking around the web, and it's hard to gauge which distros are well-done and reasonably active."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Nintendo On the Hunt For More Scalps
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/mCCCRbXWrUc/Nintendo-On-the-Hunt-For-More-Scalps)
rjch writes "After its recent win against mod chip piracy in the Australian Federal courts, Nintendo is now on the prowl for other companies to sue. 'Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise the gaming industry by using all means available to it under the law. In particular, Nintendo is currently contemplating bringing further actions against other sellers of game copying devices in Australia.' The game company said since 2008 it had pursued over 800 actions in 16 countries to stop game piracy, confiscating 'well over' half a million game copiers for the Nintendo DS. The company said piracy affected sales, the price of video games, and employment in the video game industry."
Reader daria42 sends in a related piece asking whether Nintendo is being too harsh over this and the recent $1.5 million settlement with a man who leaked New Super Mario Bros. Wii.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- FBI Probing PA School Webcam Spy Case
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OT_KMEqWO7s/FBI-Probing-PA-School-Webcam-Spy-Case)
On Thursday we discussed news that a Pennsylvania high school was spying on students through the webcams in laptops that were issued to the students. The FBI is now taking an interest in the case, investigating whether federal wiretap and computer-intrusion laws were violated in the process. "The FBI opened its investigation after news of the suit broke on Thursday, the law-enforcement official said. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman may also investigate, she said Friday." Ferman said her office is "looking to see whether there are potential violations of Pennsylvania criminal laws."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Two Chinese Schools Reportedly Tied To Online Attacks
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/PwidSZ4syPM/Two-Chinese-Schools-Reportedly-Tied-To-Online-Attacks)
squidw* writes "Online attacks on Google and other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation. From the NY Times: '... the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. ... The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry. Jiaotong has one of China’s top computer science programs. Just a few weeks ago its students won an international computer programming competition organized by IBM — the “Battle of the Brains” — beating out Stanford and other top-flight universities. Lanxiang, in east China’s Shandong Province, is a huge vocational school that was established with military support and trains some computer scientists for the military.'"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
-----------------------------------------------

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

-- What Is 'Cloud Computing'?(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/257811.htm)

Cloud computing really is a strange concept for most people. The idea of using the Internet as your computer platform is hard to wrap the mind around. But there is...

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