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Friday the 26th of February 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Friday the 26th 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
---------------------------------------
Troj/Banker-EWL on 26 February 2010 10:12:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbankerewl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/JSRedir-AU on 26 February 2010 10:12:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojjsredirau.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-IBL on 26 February 2010 05:26:02 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldribl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-IBM on 26 February 2010 05:26:02 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldribm.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Oficla-G on 26 February 2010 05:26:02 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojoficlag.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Oficla-F on 26 February 2010 02:40:26 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojoficlaf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-IBJ on 25 February 2010 23:58:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldribj.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-IBK on 25 February 2010 23:58:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldribk.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeAV-AXN on 25 February 2010 23:58:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavaxn.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/JSRedir-AV on 25 February 2010 23:58:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojjsredirav.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- The Sad History and (Possibly) Bright Future of TiVo
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/MjmEnOdCji0/The-Sad-History-and-Possibly-Bright-Future-of-TiVo)
gjt writes "For the couch-potato geek, one name typically comes to mind: TiVo — the company that invented the DVR, and with it, timeshifting. TiVo has been around for more than 10 years now. And TiVo fans (like myself) tend to love TiVo. Yet, despite being well-loved and despite having been around longer than the Apple iPod, TiVo comes nowhere close to the iPod/iPhone's success. Apple sells more iPod and iPhone products in a single quarter than TiVo has sold in the entire lifetime of the company. At its peak, TiVo had only 4.4 million active users — that was over three years ago. Now TiVo the number is about 2.7 million. So I wanted to find out why TiVo hasn't been more successful — especially with a seeming lack of competition on store shelves. I did some research and posted my finding about TiVo's past, present, and future. The key takeaway seems to be that TiVo is a victim of cable industry collusion, loopholes in FCC regulations, and, of course, plenty of their own mistakes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Anatomy of a SQL Injection Attack
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/zDu4qvUpXto/Anatomy-of-a-SQL-Injection-Attack)
Trailrunner7 writes "SQL injection has become perhaps the most widely used technique for compromising Web applications, thanks to both its relative simplicity and high success rate. It's not often that outsiders get a look at the way these attacks work, but a well-known researcher is providing just that. Rafal Los showed a skeptical group of executives just how quickly he could compromise one of their sites using SQL injection, and in the process found that the site had already been hacked and was serving the Zeus Trojan to visitors."

Los's original blog post has more and better illustrations, too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- When PC Ports of Console Games Go Wrong
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/im1FpBB6XvA/When-PC-Ports-of-Console-Games-Go-Wrong)
A post up at Gamasutra complains about the lack of effort put into the PC ports of some console games. The author picks on the unimpressively-reviewed Ninja Blade in particular: "Just as a quick guide to what we're dealing with here: when you create a new save file at the start of Ninja Blade on the PC, it warns you not to 'turn off your console.' Yes, Ninja Blade is one of those conversions: not so much converted as made to perfunctorily run on a different machine. In-game, you're asked to press A, B, X and Y in various sequences as part of Ninja Blade's extraordinary abundance of quick-time events. Whether you have an Xbox 360 pad plugged in or not, the game captions these button icons with text describing the PC equivalent controls. Only it doesn't always do that. Sometimes, you're left staring at a giant, pulsating, green letter A, and no idea what to do with it." What awful ports have you had the misfortune to experience?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Virgin Promises 100Mbps Connections To UK Homes
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/CQ84Aoqxs9g/Virgin-Promises-100Mbps-Connections-To-UK-Homes)
registerShift writes "Virgin said it will roll out 100 megabit-per-second broadband connections to homes in the UK. The company said users will experience speeds 'very close' to what's advertised as it plans to deploy cable instead of ADSL used by competitors. 'There is nothing we can't do with our fiber optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100mbps service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience,' Virgin Media's chief executive officer, Neil Berkett, said. This is just days after the FCC announced aims of 100Mbps by 2020, and companies panned it as unrealistic."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Examining Virtual Crimes
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/PoZ3oeqHONw/Examining-Virtual-Crimes)
GamePolitics has an article about a research paper issued by the AU government's Institute of Criminology titled "Crime Risks of Three-Dimensional Virtual Environments." The paper discusses the legal questions raised by game worlds and avatars, ranging from regulation of in-game currency to a report of virtual rape.
"A person controlling an avatar that is unexpectedly raped or assaulted might experience the physical reaction of 'freezing,' or the associated shock, distrust and loss of confidence in using [3D virtual environments]. While civil redress for psychological harm is conceivable, the 'disembodied' character of such an incident would invariably bar liability for any crime against the person. However, Australian federal criminal law imposes a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment for using an internet carriage service to 'menace, harass or cause offence' to another user. Further, US and Australian laws ban simulated or actual depictions of child abuse and pornography. Therefore, any representations of child avatars involved in virtual sexual activity, torture or physical abuse are prohibited, regardless of whether the real-world user is an adult or child."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- AIDS-Like Virus New Threat To Koala
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/K_dV85hcWZM/AIDS-Like-Virus-New-Threat-To-Koala)
An anonymous reader writes "A virus that may weaken the immune system of koalas, similar to HIV in humans, is a new 'wild card' among threats facing the species and nearly all koalas in the Australian state of Queensland could already be infected."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Aussie Internet Censorship Minister Censors Self
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/q3Ta1dkjiEY/Aussie-Internet-Censorship-Minister-Censors-Self)
An anonymous reader writes "Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, the minister attempting to ram the great firewall of Oz down everyone's throat has been removing all traces of the unpopular legislation from his main website with a JavaScript filter. From the article: 'It was revealed today a script within the minister's homepage deliberately removes references to internet filtering from the list. In the function that creates the list, or "tag cloud," there is a condition that if the words "ISP filtering" appear they should be skipped and not displayed.' Bear in mind, this is the same minister that tried to get the ISP of tech forum Whirlpool to pull the site after users there posted a response email from the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- BlackBerry Bold Tops Radiation Ranking
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/tklD7dTTk8k/BlackBerry-Bold-Tops-Radiation-Ranking)
geek4 writes with this excerpt from eWeek Europe: "Data from the Environmental Working Group places the BlackBerry Bold 9700 as the mobile device with the highest legal levels of cell phone radiation among popular smartphones. Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold 9700 scores the highest among popular smartphones for exposing users to the highest legal levels of cell phone radiation, according to the latest 2010 Environmental Working Group ranking. Following the Bold 9700 are the Motorola Droid, the LG Chocolate and Google's HTC Nexus One. The rankings still put the phones well within federal guidelines and rules."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Next Week, 500+ Geek Talks Around the World
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/uu7Ph-D1B2o/Next-Week-500-Geek-Talks-Around-the-World)
Brady Forrest writes "Next week, from March 1-5 there will be ~65 Ignite events happening around the world. Ignite is an opportunity for geeks to share their passions and ideas with local peers. Each speaker gets 20 slides that each auto-advance after 15 seconds for a total of just 5 minutes. The result is bite-size chunks of information that inform the crowd on new topics. Most of the Ignites will be streamed on the new Ignite video site."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Is Mozilla Ubiquity Dead?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BUPm4b54Sb4/Is-Mozilla-Ubiquity-Dead)
darthcamaro writes "Remember Mozilla Ubiquity? It was an effort to bring natural language commands to the Firefox browser. Now after almost two years of development and a half million downloads, the project is no longer being actively developed. Project founder Aza Raskin is now working on other projects, including Mozilla Jetpack, so Ubiquity is on the back burner. '"There is huge demand for being able to connect the Web with language — to not have to move from one site to another to complete your daily tasks," Raskin said. "And there is huge demand for anyone to be able to write small snippets of code that lets them command the Web the way they want. Ubiquity gave everyday developers a voice with how the browser and the Web works."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Wireside Chat With Lawrence Lessig
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/pwrpw3oz3-Q/Wireside-Chat-With-Lawrence-Lessig)
An anonymous reader writes "Lawrence Lessig, the foundational voice of the free culture movement, will deliver a talk on fair use, politics, and online video from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You'll be able to tune in to a live webcast. The lecture by Lawrence Lessig will last 45 minutes, and will be followed by a 30 minute interactive Q & A session. The event will be moderated by Elizabeth Stark of the Open Video Alliance. Questions can be submitted using the hashtag #wireside. This is a talk about copyright in a digital age, and the role (and importance) of a doctrine like 'fair use.' Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, and is essential for commentary, criticism, news reporting, remix, research, teaching and scholarship with video. As a medium, online video will be most powerful when it is fluid, like a conversation. Like the rest of the internet, online video must be designed to encourage participation, not just passive consumption. Tune in here on February 25th, 6:00pm US Eastern time (see more time zones), or check out our screening events in cities across the world."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- ARM Designer Steve Furber On Energy-Efficient Computing
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OEf7Sp8GU5c/ARM-Designer-Steve-Furber-On-Energy-Efficient-Computing)
ChelleChelle writes "By now, it has become evident that we are facing an energy problem — while our primary sources of energy are running out, the demand for energy is greatly increasing. In the face of this issue, energy-efficient computing has become a hot topic. For those looking for lessons, who better to ask then Steve Furber, the principal designer of the ARM (Acorn RISC Machine), a prime example of a chip that is simple, low power, and low cost. In this interview, conducted by David Brown of Sun's Solaris Engineering Group, Furber shares some of the lessons and tips on energy-efficient computing that he has learned through working on this and subsequent projects."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Says It Never Meant To Knock Cryptome Offline
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/W62uojiFm6E/Microsoft-Says-It-Never-Meant-To-Knock-Cryptome-Offline)
CWmike writes "Microsoft withdrew on Thursday its demand that Cryptome.org yank the 'Microsoft Global Criminal Spy Guide' document from the site, and said it had never intended for the whistleblower's domain to be knocked off the Web. 'In this case, we did not ask that this site be taken down, only that Microsoft copyrighted content be removed,' said a Microsoft spokeswoman. 'We are requesting to have the site restored and are no longer seeking the document's removal.' The document, a 17-page guide to law enforcement on how to obtain information about users of Microsoft's online services, including its Windows Live Hotmail, the Xbox Live gaming network and its Windows Live SkyDrive storage service, was published by John Young, who runs Cryptome.org, on Feb. 20. Earlier this week, Microsoft demanded that Young remove the document from his site, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When Young refused, his Internet provider shut down the site, and Network Solutions, the registrar of Young's domain, put a 'legal lock' on the domain name. The last prevented him from transferring the URL to another ISP. Computerworld blogger Preston Gralla dug into the document today in his 'Leaked Microsoft intelligence document: Here's what Microsoft will reveal to police about you' post."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Leak Shows US Lead Opponent of ACTA Transparency
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/AZExI_VC-h8/Leak-Shows-US-Lead-Opponent-of-ACTA-Transparency)
An anonymous reader writes "Throughout the debate over ACTA transparency, the secret copyright
treaty, many countries have taken public positions that they support
release of the actual text, but that other countries do not.
Since full transparency requires consensus of all the ACTA partners,
the text simply can't be released until everyone is in agreement.
A new leak
from the Netherlands fingers who the chief opponents of transparency
are: the United States, South Korea, Singapore, and Denmark lead the
way, with Belgium, Germany, and Portugal not far behind as problem
countries."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Independent Programmers' No-Win Scenario
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/8Z0TTzEI4pA/Independent-Programmers-No-Win-Scenario)
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister writes about the no-win scenario facing today's independent programmers: 'In a knowledge economy, programmers rank among our most valuable workers, yet the current legal and regulatory climate makes a career as an independent software developer virtually a dead-end prospect.' Section 1706 of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, the hurdles and costs of obtaining health care for one's own family, a hostile legal climate in search of accountability for any defects in code — these harsh realities make it 'easy to see why software developers would give up on entrepreneurship. For many, the risks simply don't match the potential rewards. Better to keep their heads down, not rock the boat, and hope they can hang onto their jobs until retirement.' Great news for big software vendors, which will be 'ensured an endless supply of programmers desperate for the safe haven of a steady paycheck, predictable taxation, health benefits, and a shield from civil prosecution when their code turns up buggy. But where will the next Microsoft come from? A field that discourages self-reliance sends the message that the status quo is the highest goal.'"

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
-----------------------------------------------

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