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Saturday the 29th of May 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Saturday the 29th of May 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/DwnLdr-IFZ on 29 May 2010 04:33:27 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldrifz.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/TDSS-CT on 29 May 2010 04:33:27 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojtdssct.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-PT on 28 May 2010 21:31:46 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotpt.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/EncPk-DW on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malencpkdw.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/GamePSW-E on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malgamepswe.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Lisp-A on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/mallispa.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NLV on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnlv.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NLW on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnlw.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NLX on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnlx.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NLY on 28 May 2010 19:07:19 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnly.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Google Describes Wi-Fi Sniffing In Pending Patent
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/98CXH17uwBw/Google-Describes-Wi-Fi-Sniffing-In-Pending-Patent)
theodp writes "After mistakenly saying that it did not collect Wi-Fi payload data, Google had to reverse itself, saying 'it's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks.' OK, mistakes happen. But, as Seinfeld might ask, then what's the deal with the pending Google patent that describes capturing wireless data packets by operating a device — which 'may be placed in a vehicle' — in a 'sniffer' or 'monitor' mode and analyzing them on a server? Guess belated kudos are owed to the savvy Slashdot commenter who speculated back in January that the patent-pending technology might be useful inside a Google Street View vehicle. Google faces inquiries into its Wi-Fi packet sniffing practices by German and US authorities."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Ofcom Unveils Anti-Piracy Policy For UK ISPs
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/X2ZeUXjPtpA/Ofcom-Unveils-Anti-Piracy-Policy-For-UK-ISPs)
krou writes "Under plans drawn up by Ofcom, UK ISPs are going to draw up a list of those who infringe copyright, logging names and the number of times infringement took place. Music and film companies will then be allowed access to the list, and be able to decide whether or not to take legal action. '"It is imperative that a system that accuses people of illegal online activity is fair and clear," said Anna Bradley, chair of the Communications Consumer Panel.' The Panel, in partnership with Consumer Focus, Which, Citizens Advice and the advocacy body the Open Rights Group, has released a set of principles it believes should govern the code of practice. The principles say sound evidence is needed before any action is taken, consumers must have the right to defend themselves, and the appeals process must be free to pursue. The code shall come into practice by 2011, and only initially applies to ISPs with 400,000 customers or more." Update: 05/29 09:11 GMT by T : As an anonymous reader points out below, that's 400,000 users, rather than 40,000 as originally rendered.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- How Google Can Make Android Truly Tablet-Worthy
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ign1Ptb-vKY/How-Google-Can-Make-Android-Truly-Tablet-Worthy)
With an Android armada on the horizon (or at least expected), reader androidtablet plugs this piece on ways Android could be truly tablet-friendly. Armchair engineering may be easy to knock, but I like the ideas presented here, like aggressively using the inactive (locked) screen state to display useful information.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- How Viruses Evolve Into All-Purpose Malware
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Z_PLyQGwJN4/How-Viruses-Evolve-Into-All-Purpose-Malware)
KingofGnG writes "Computer threats are continuously evolving, and some malicious codes are a problem difficult to tackle because of their inherent complexity and an intelligent design capable of constantly putting under pressure security companies. A remarkable 'intelligent' threat is for instance Sality, the 'new generation' file virus that according to Symantec has practically turned into an 'all-in-one' malware incorporating botnet-like functionalities as well."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Low-Level Format For a USB Flash Drive?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/3SLnNEP-tk8/Low-Level-Format-For-a-USB-Flash-Drive)
Luyseyal writes "I unwittingly bought one of these terrible flash cards at Fry's and have managed to nuke two of them, successively. I have a USB flash card reader that will read/write the current one at USB 1.0 speed, but it locks up every Ubuntu and XP machine I've come across in high-speed access mode. I have read that if I low-level format it that it could be fixed, though my current one doesn't support it. My Google-fu must be weak because I cannot seem to find a USB flash reader that specifies that it will do low-level formatting." Can anyone offer advice for resurrecting such drives?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Earthlink Announces It Must Honor Comcast Cap
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/J5a4tm8BWnU/Earthlink-Announces-It-Must-Honor-Comcast-Cap)
LostCluster writes "For those in Comcast territory, a popular way to get around Comcast's 250 GB monthly cap was to sign up for EarthLink Powered by Comcast Service, where there was no cap. Forget about that.... Earthlink just posted an FAQ explaining that Comcast will enforce the cap against Earthlink customers starting July 1."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- STIX Project Releases v1.0 of Its Scientific Fonts Set
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ro7JvkMZW6U/STIX-Project-Releases-v10-of-Its-Scientific-Fonts-Set)
starseeker writes "The Scientific and Technical Information Exchange (STIX) font creation project has released version 1.0 of its font set. This release is the product of almost 15 years of work, with the goal of creating a comprehensive set of fonts for scientific and engineering manuscript creation. The fonts have been released under the SIL Open Font License, and can be downloaded here. Among the many potential applications is proper universal support for MathML in web browsers." If you want a peek, here's "a page for viewing the thousands of glyphs (as a first approximation, think of a glyph as an individual character)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Hurt Locker Producers Sue First 5,000 File-Sharers
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/StIpzSLfw64/emThe-Hurt-Lockerem-Producers-Sue-First-5000-File-Sharers)
Voltage Pictures, the production company behind 2008's Oscar-winning Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, today sued 5,000 people who illegally downloaded the movie over BitTorrent. Quoting CNET:
"Attorneys for Voltage wrote in the complaint that unless the court stops the people who pirate The Hurt Locker then Voltage will suffer 'great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money.' Voltage has asked the court to prevent those who downloaded the movie without paying for it from downloading its movies ever again, and order them to destroy all copies of The Hurt Locker from their computers and any other electronic devices they may have transferred the film to. As for monetary damages, the movie's producers want those found to have pilfered the movie to pay actual or statutory damages and cover the costs that went into filing the suits."
According to the complaint (PDF), the 5,000 infringers are known only by their IP addresses at this time.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- US Navy Considering Wii Fit and DDR For Boot Camp
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BIvwmXrnUDs/US-Navy-Considering-emWii-Fitem-and-emDDRem-For-Boot-Camp)
almehdaaol writes "New military recruits are coming in physically heavier and out of shape, so the US Navy has decided to take an interesting course of action by creating a new training regimen inspired by the fitness-centric Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution."
This comes alongside a report confirming some of the BS we told our parents when we were growing up: "Bavelier said playing the kill-or-be-killed games can improve peripheral vision and the ability to see objects at dusk, and the games can even be used to treat amblyopia, or lazy eye, a disorder characterized by indistinct vision in one eye. She said she believes the games can improve math performance and other brain tasks."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Gulf of Mexico Gets Wave-Powered Desalination Plant
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/F2KjwydgY6c/Gulf-of-Mexico-Gets-Wave-Powered-Desalination-Plant)
blair1q writes "The US Army Corps of Engineers has issued the first permit for a wave-powered desalination plant in American territory to a company called Independent Natural Resources. Waves will operate 'Seadog' pumps, which will lift water into the plant and onto a water wheel connected to a generator, which will create electricity to operate a reverse-osmosis desalination system. The permit runs for four years. Let's hope they don't harm the environment, permanently impact drilling operations, or give Rube Goldberg any crazy ideas..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Hobbit On Hold
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/zqqJlWNgZMo/emThe-Hobbitem-On-Hold)
Flea of Pain writes "Director Guillermo Del Toro has confirmed upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been put on hold indefinitely because the movie has been caught in a 'tangled negotiation' over the future of the MGM movie studio. The film, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's first book in the fantasy series, was reportedly due to begin shooting this summer, but has been mired in delays. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who will act as producer on the new film, recently dismissed rumors of trouble with the picture, insisting, 'It's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Google WebM Calls "Open Source" Into Question
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/RYVGGXy1dZk/Google-WebM-Calls-Open-Source-Into-Question)
snydeq writes "As open source becomes mainstream, vendors are under pressure to market their offerings using the 'open source' brand to the highest degree possible — a trend that may eventually degrade the meaning of 'open source' as we know it, Savio Rodrigues writes. Witness WebM, which Google has positioned as an open alternative to H.264. After examining the software license, some in the open source community have questioned whether WebM should be classified as open source software. Google did not use an OSI-approved license for WebM, meaning that, at least in theory, WebM cannot be considered open source under the OSD — the 'gold standard' by which many government and business open source policies are defined. Moreover, when prodded for OSI review, Google required that the OSI agree to 'changes to how OSI does licenses' as a precursor to submitting a license for OSI review and approval. 'When Google, one of the largest supporters of open source, goes out and purposefully circumvents the OSI, what signal does this send to other vendors? How important is using an OSI-approved license likely to be in the future if other vendors follow Google's lead?'"
An anonymous reader adds: "It turns out that libvpx, Google's VP8 library, isn't compatible with the GPLv2. Google is apparently aware of the problem and working on a solution.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- How To Get a Game-Obsessed Teenager Into Coding?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/GqtM8yyG7jk/How-To-Get-a-Game-Obsessed-Teenager-Into-Coding)
looseBits writes "I have a friend whose 14-year-old son spends all his time gaming, like any normal teenager. However, my friend would like to find a more productive interest for him and asked me how to get him into coding. When I started coding, it was on the Apple II, and one could quickly write code that was almost as interesting as commercially available software. Now, times have changed and it would probably take years of study if starting from scratch to write something anyone would find mildly interesting. Does anyone have experience in getting their children into programming? How did you keep them interested if the only thing they can do after a week is make the computer count to 10 and dump it on the screen?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- High-Tech Burglars May Get Longer Sentences In Louisiana
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/e0vdxWR3bkY/High-Tech-Burglars-May-Get-Longer-Sentences-In-Louisiana)
Hugh Pickens writes "Burglars and terrorists should be careful not to use Google Maps if they plan on committing crimes in the state of Louisiana. Nola reports that a bill approved 89-0 by the Louisiana House will require that judges impose an additional minimum sentence of at least 10 years on terrorist acts if the crime is committed with the aid of an Internet-generated 'virtual map.' The bill, already approved by the Louisiana Senate, defines a 'virtual street-level map' as one that is available on the Internet and can generate the location or picture of a home or building by entering the address of the structure or an individual's name on a website. If the map is used in the commission of a crime like burglary, the bill calls for the addition of at least one year in jail (PDF) to be added to the burglary sentence. The House measure is now being sent back to the Senate for approval of clarifying amendments made by a House committee."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The "Scientific Impotence" Excuse
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Z_I1Ye5XuhY/The-Scientific-Impotence-Excuse)
chichilalescu writes "I've had the feeling for a long time that people refuse to listen to scientists. The following is from an article on Ars Technica: 'It's hardly a secret that large segments of the population choose not to accept scientific data because it conflicts with their predefined beliefs: economic, political, religious, or otherwise. But many studies have indicated that these same people aren't happy with viewing themselves as anti-science, which can create a state of cognitive dissonance. That has left psychologists pondering the methods that these people use to rationalize the conflict. A study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology [abstract here] takes a look at one of these methods, which the authors term "scientific impotence" — the decision that science can't actually address the issue at hand properly.' The study found that 'regardless of whether the information presented confirmed or contradicted [the subjects'] existing beliefs, all of them came away from the reading with their beliefs strengthened."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- How can I delete a program?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: How can I delete a program? Can I only delete, or there is another way ?

Answer: You can delete almost all your programs from:Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Add or Remove ProgramsYou will see a list of *all* your programs, and you can delete them from there.what I mean with *all* is that some programs aren't listed there, probably because they don't have an uninstaller, and you gotta delete them manually

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

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

-- How to Spot Fake Torrent Files(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/2010/05/29/how-to-spot-fake-torrent-files.htm)

If you are a P2P downloader, you'll want to heed these warnings.Â WMV files, unusually-high numbers of seeds, .Rar files,Â release dates... all of these can be telltale signs that...

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