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Monday the 8th of March 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Monday the 8th of March 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
---------------------------------------
Mal/BredoZp-B on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malbredozpb.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/EncPk-NZ on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malencpknz.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeAV-AZC on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavazc.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Iframe-CN on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojiframecn.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PDFJs-CX on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpdfjscx.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PDFJs-IK on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpdfjsik.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/SWFLdr-N on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojswfldrn.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Taterf-D on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojtaterfd.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zapchas-DI on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzapchasdi.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Autorun-ASQ on 8 March 2010 11:23:44 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autorunasq.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Apple's "iKey" Wants To Unlock All Doors
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ka5onVHDrvo/Apples-iKey-Wants-To-Unlock-All-Doors)
Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that Apple is developing technology, already being nicknamed the 'iKey,' which will allow users to gain access to their office and unlock their car or front door with a single electronic device like an iPhone. Users would simply have to enter a PIN and wave the device over an electronic pad fitted beside a door to open it. 'The device can communicate with an external device to open a lock. By way of example, the electronic device may be a model of an iPhone,' says the newly released patent application. 'The external device may be any suitable electronic device such as a portable media player, personal data assistant or electronic lock that may be used to access a door, car, house, or other physical area.' The technology behind the invention is known as Near Field Communication; it allows electronic devices to transmit information when in proximity. 'If true, it's a very big deal. As well as opening doors and unlocking your car, it could also turn your iPhone into an electronic wallet and ID card,' says Leander Kahney, a consumer technology expert. 'The trouble is that the technology hasn't gone completely mainstream. If Apple were to adopt the technology, they would likely set the standard, and that would drive widespread adoption as everyone scrambles to make their systems iPhone-friendly.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Ask the UK Pirate Party's Andrew Robinson About the Issues
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/xhnWXuKBDgw/Ask-the-UK-Pirate-Partys-Andrew-Robinson-About-the-Issues)
VJ42 writes "With the 2010 UK general election fast approaching, the Pirate Party of the United Kingdom will be fielding elections for the first time. The Digital Economy bill and ACTA are hot topics for UK geeks, and the Pirate Party is looking to pick up some votes. Their leader, Andrew Robinson, has agreed to answer your questions. Normal Slashdot interview rules apply."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Insomniacs, the Phantoms of the Internet
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/oAzfQ0kL_w4/Insomniacs-the-Phantoms-of-the-Internet)
theodp writes "Ever since she was a toddler, freelance writer Lily Burana has been a Stay Up Late kind of girl. When her kindergarten teacher asked students 'What time do you go to bed?,' young Lily felt compelled to lie rather than rat out her own mother by saying, 'Oh, between midnight and 1 a.m.' She still suffers from insomnia, but has discovered that Facebook is the Promised Land for the awake and alone. She finds comfort in the company of others who, like her, live counter to the conventional rhythm of a sunny-day world."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Time To Take the Internet Seriously
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/C_FW6M8nV0k/Time-To-Take-the-Internet-Seriously)
santosh maharshi passes along an article on Edge by David Gelernter, the man who (according to the introduction) predicted the Web and first described cloud computing; he's also a Unabomber survivor. Gelernter makes 35 predictions and assertions, some brilliant, some dubious. "6. We know that the Internet creates 'information overload,' a problem with two parts: increasing number of information sources and increasing information flow per source. The first part is harder: it's more difficult to understand five people speaking simultaneously than one person talking fast — especially if you can tell the one person to stop temporarily, or go back and repeat. Integrating multiple information sources is crucial to solving information overload. Blogs and other anthology-sites integrate information from many sources. But we won't be able to solve the overload problem until each Internet user can choose for himself what sources to integrate, and can add to this mix the most important source of all: his own personal information — his email and other messages, reminders and documents of all sorts. To accomplish this, we merely need to turn the whole Cybersphere on its side, so that time instead of space is the main axis. ... 14. The structure called a cyberstream or lifestream is better suited to the Internet than a conventional website because it shows information-in-motion, a rushing flow of fresh information instead of a stagnant pool."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Facebook Founder Accused of Hacking Into Rivals' Email
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/wOLWZBARD0w/Facebook-Founder-Accused-of-Hacking-Into-Rivals-Email)
An anonymous reader notes a long piece up at BusinessInsider.com accusing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of hacking into the email accounts of rivals and journalists. The CEO of the world's most successful social networking website was accused of at least two breaches of privacy. In a two-year investigation detailing the founding of Facebook, Nicholas Carlson, a senior editor at Silicon Alley Insider, uncovered what he claimed was evidence of the hackings in 2004. "New information uncovered by Silicon Alley Insider suggests that some of the complaints [in a court case ongong since 2007] against Mark Zuckerberg are valid. It also suggests that, on at least one occasion in 2004, Mark used private login data taken from Facebook's servers to break into Facebook members' private email accounts and read their emails — at best, a gross misuse of private information. Lastly, it suggests that Mark hacked into the competing company's systems and changed some user information with the aim of making the site less useful. ... Over the past two years, we have interviewed more than a dozen sources familiar with aspects of this story — including people involved in the founding year of the company. We have also reviewed what we believe to be some relevant IMs and emails from the period. Much of this information has never before been made public. None of it has been confirmed or authenticated by Mark or the company." The single-page view doesn't have its own URL; click on "View as one page" near the bottom.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Ubisoft's Authentication Servers Go Down
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/bqfKsfPm6jU/Ubisofts-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down)
ZuchinniOne writes "With Ubisoft's fantastically awful new DRM you must be online and logged in to their servers to play the games you buy. Not only was this DRM broken the very first day it was released, but now their authentication servers have failed so absolutely that no-one who legally bought their games can play them. 'At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin's Creed 2 forum that they couldn't access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games.' One can only hope that this utter failure will help to stem the tide of bad DRM."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Pixel Qi Introduces a DIY Kit
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/DlnQ1fRLqO4/Pixel-Qi-Introduces-a-DIY-Kit)
jones_supa writes "Pixel Qi has just revealed their DIY kit for netbooks, planned to be out near the end of Q2 — sounds like June. This makes it possible to retrofit a screen to one fully readable in direct sunlight. In her blog, Mary Lou Jepsen says: 'It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: it’s basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting the old screen and plugging this one in. That’s it. It’s a 5 minute operation.' She also talks about the 'laptop hospital,' a service depot started by kids in Africa."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Correcting Poor Typing Technique?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/1YNYd_c16nI/Correcting-Poor-Typing-Technique)
An anonymous reader writes "When beginning to use keyboards I did not pay much attention to touch typing technique. Instead, I eventually achieved decent rates by simply doing what felt natural to me. These days my qwerty typing speed is in the range of 90-110 WPM, probably more toward the lower end. While this isn't too shabby, I feel some awkwardness in my technique (such as not using my little and ring fingers when I really should). Has anyone been in a similar situation, wanted to fix it, and actually done so? What do you reckon is the best way to fix half-broken typing? Touch training sessions? Should I switch to Dvorak and pretty much learn typing from scratch, but properly this time?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Algebra In Wonderland
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/nyAEqEr_jZs/Algebra-In-Wonderland)
theodp writes "As Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' shatters 3-D and IMAX records en route to a $116.3 million opening, the NY Times offers a rather cerebral op-ed arguing that Alice's search for a beautiful garden can be neatly interpreted as a mishmash of satire directed at the advances taking place in mid-19th century math. Charles Dodgson, who penned 'Alice' under the name Lewis Carroll, was a tutor in mathematics at Christ Church in Oxford who found the radical new math illogical and lacking in intellectual rigor. Op-ed writer Melanie Bayley explains: 'Chapter 6, "Pig and Pepper," parodies the principle of continuity, a bizarre concept from projective geometry, which was introduced in the mid-19th century from France. This principle (now an important aspect of modern topology) involves the idea that one shape can bend and stretch into another, provided it retains the same basic properties — a circle is the same as an ellipse or a parabola (the curve of the Cheshire cat's grin). Taking the notion to its extreme, what works for a circle should also work for a baby. So, when Alice takes the Duchess's baby outside, it turns into a pig. The Cheshire Cat says, "I thought it would."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Herschel Space Observatory Finds Precursors of Life In Orion
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/RGQFU4vz6OI/Herschel-Space-Observatory-Finds-Precursors-of-Life-In-Orion)
ogre7299 recommends an announcement out of Caltech on a milestone for HIFI, the Herschel Space Observatory's Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared. "The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed the chemical fingerprints of potential life-enabling organic molecules in the Orion Nebula, a nearby stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy. ... This detailed-spectrum, obtained with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) — one of Herschel's three innovative instruments — demonstrates the gold mine of information that Herschel-HIFI will provide on how organic molecules form in space. The spectrum, one of the first to be obtained with HIFI since it returned to full health in January 2010 following technical difficulties, clearly demonstrates that the instrument is working well. ... [The HIFI instrument had previously been offline since] August 2009 when HIFI experienced an unexpected voltage spike in the electronic system, probably caused by a high-energy cosmic particle, resulting in the instrument shutting down. On 14 January 2010, HIFI was successfully switched back on using its spare electronics, with science observations commencing on 28 February."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- ABC Pulls Channels From Cablevision
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/LLdFBYVZkdI/ABC-Pulls-Channels-From-Cablevision)
wkurzius writes "Cablevision and ABC have failed to come to an agreement after two years of negotiations, and as a result ABC has pulled all their channels from the Cablevision lineup. The dispute is over $40 million in new retransmission fees that Cablevision says they won't give to ABC. On the other side, Cablevision has been accused of not being fair to their customers despite pocketing $8 billion last year. 'The companies immediately published press releases Sunday morning, blaming each other for failing to reach a deal. Cablevision subscribers on Twitter expressed their frustration, saying they shouldn't be deprived of ABC shows, including the Oscars on Sunday, because of a multi-million-dollar deal gone awry. Competitors such as Verizon Communications took advantage of the dispute. The company launched television, newspaper, and online ads offering Cablevision customers speedy installs to subscribe to its FiOS television service along with $75 gift cards, highlighting a fierce war for subscribers in the valuable New York market.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Demos Three Platforms Running the Same Game
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/A1m4P_x1oPA/Microsoft-Demos-Three-Platforms-Running-the-Same-Game)
suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Engadget:
"Microsoft's Eric Rudder, speaking at TechEd Middle East, showed off a game developed in Visual Studio as a singular project (with 90% shared code) that plays on Windows with a keyboard, a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype device with accelerometer and touch controls, and the Xbox 360 with the Xbox gamepad. Interestingly, not only is the development cross-platform friendly, but the game itself (a simple Indiana Jones platformer was demoed) saves its place and lets you resume from that spot on whichever platform you happen to pick up."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- New "Hairy" Material Is Almost Perfectly Hydrophobic
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/pjhUBOiBSfU/-New-Hairy-Material-Is-Almost-Perfectly-Hydrophobic)
drewsup writes "Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Florida, has created a material modeled after spider hairs that acts as a nearly perfect water-repelling surface. Quoting Science Daily: 'A paper about the surface, which works equally well with hot or cold water, appears in this month's edition of the journal Langmuir. Spiders use their water-repelling hairs to stay dry or avoid drowning, with water spiders capturing air bubbles and toting them underwater to breathe. Potential applications for UF's ultra-water-repellent surfaces are many, Sigmund said. When water scampers off the surface, it picks up and carries dirt with it, in effect making the surface self-cleaning. As such, it is ideal for some food packaging, or windows, or solar cells that must stay clean to gather sunlight, he said. Boat designers might coat hulls with it, making boats faster and more efficient.' Hairy glass, anyone?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Toyota's Engineering Process and the General Public
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/A9OZSU1BY_w/Toyotas-Engineering-Process-and-the-General-Public)
Doofus writes "The Washington Post has published in today's paper an article titled 'Why it's so hard for Toyota to find out what's wrong' by Frank Ahrens on the Toyota situation and the difficulties of adequately conveying to Senators and Representatives — most of whom are non-technical — the debugging process. Ahrens interviews Giorgio Rizzoni, an 'expert in failure analysis' at Ohio State, who describes the iterations of testing that NHTSA will likely inflict on the Toyota sample cars they have purchased, and then moves into the realm of software and systems verification: 'He explained that each vehicle contains "layers of computer code that may be added from one model year to next" that control nearly every system, from acceleration to braking to stability. Rizzoni said this software is rigorously tested, but he added: "It is well-known in our community that there is no scientific, firm way of actually completely verifying and validating software."' Ahrens ends the piece with a quote from a 2009 LA Times interview with former UCLA psychology professor Richard Schmidt about how user reports are often unreliable: 'When the driver says they have their foot on the brake, they are just plain wrong. The human motor system is not perfect, and it doesn't always do what it is told.'"
Toyota is currently planning an event to challenge evidence presented by professor David W. Gilbert that called into question Toyota's electronic throttle system.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Why Broadband In North America Is Not That Slow
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/z4tJoqlpRNo/Why-Broadband-In-North-America-Is-Not-That-Slow)
An anonymous reader writes "The Globe & Mail has an article written in response to a recent study done by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard about how far behind the rest of the world the US and Canada are with regard to broadband internet. The refutation basically tears apart Harvard's analysis and shows why the US and Canada are actually far ahead of most European countries. 'Canada has a true broadband penetration rate of close to 70 per cent of households. And North Americans use the Internet somewhat more intensively than do Europeans, according to Cisco Systems data on Internet traffic. Further, business Internet traffic in North America appears to be at levels substantially higher than elsewhere in the world. Sadly, there is little systematic effort by international agencies to measure the intensity of Internet usage. Instead, we see comparisons of advertised speeds and "price per advertised megabit," which are especially misleading. Advertised broadband speeds vary from actual speeds. In North America, this is largely a result of "network overhead," and is quite modest. In Europe, however, the variation is often dramatic.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- LED Codes on IBM RS/6000 Servers
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: hi,I have an IBM RS/6000 type 7011 model:200 that runs AIX 4.3.3- My problem is that system without any visible reason stops with ledcode 185. After restart it works perfect.- From other side sometimes it stops with blinking 888. Thank after pressing the reboot button appears 102, 300, 0c4 codes on the led display. After restart it works perfect.I have a feeling that it might be some hardware error, but I am not sure.I would really appreciate your opinion.Regards, Z

Answer: Hi Z,IBM Servers arn't my specialty, but I shall try to be of assistance. LED 185 can be caused by one of two things:1. Attempt access to a memory address that doesn't exist or2. A fatal memory errorThis could, as you say be a hardware problem, possibly faulty memory.When you get LED 185, 186 or 187 you should check in the system error report upon startup for "CHECKSTOP". This will confirm that a Checkstop has occured on the system.The IBM Knowledge base that goes with this fault is: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&context=HW130&q=185%2Bled&uid=aix12b04ff3cc8b6d8e9852568160069fefa------------------------------------------------LED 888 relates to a completely different set of faults, which usually do not have anything to do with Memory.If you are running SNA, I recomend reading this article from the IBM Knowledge Base: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q=led%2B888&uid=aix1bc1459eebc52a8eb85256816006a0513If you are not, I would recomend browsing the search results I came up with for LED 888 at: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/search.wss?rs=0&apar=exclude&q=led+888&tc=&Submit.x=57&Submit.y=9888 appears in most cases to relate to a software hang/crash so without knowing the particular software on your server it would be difficult to make a complete diagnosis.In relation to 185 and 888, you are definately dealing with two different problems, one hardware and one software.Hope this helps!If you require any further assistance, please feel free to reply to this message. Please include all previous emails so that we may more easily track your problem.Regards,-Lawrence Stromski, Helpforce.

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

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

-- Is Chasing Cybercriminals Worth the Effort?(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/258440.htm)

According to John Sutter at CNN, there is a growing sentiment that "it is futile to chase down online bad guys". While it is relatively easy to catch low-level cybercrooks,...

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