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Monday the 7th of June 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Monday the 7th of June 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
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1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Mal/Delf-AR on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/maldelfar.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/EncPk-QF on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malencpkqf.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Refreso-A on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malrefresoa.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/VB-BL on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malvbbl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NNV on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnnv.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NNW on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnnw.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/JSRedir-BM on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojjsredirbm.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Mdrop-CQF on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojmdropcqf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PDFEx-DN on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpdfexdn.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PDFJs-KO on 7 June 2010 10:52:07 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpdfjsko.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Gov't App Contests Are Cool, But Are They Useful?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OznmksG8-OE/Govt-App-Contests-Are-Cool-But-Are-They-Useful)
theodp writes "In 2008, Washington, DC, launched one of the hotter trends in public-sector technology: the 'apps contest'. But even as more jurisdictions jump on the bandwagon, the contests are reportedly producing uneven results, and the city that started it all is jumping off the bandwagon. 'I don't think we're going to be running any more Apps for Democracy competitions quite in that way,' says Bryan Sivak, who became the District's CTO in 2009. Sivak calls Apps for Democracy a 'great idea' for getting citizen software developers involved with government, but he also hints that the applications spun up by these contests tend to be more 'cool' than useful to the average city resident. 'If you look at the applications developed in both of the contests we ran, and actually in many of the contests being run in other states and localities,' Sivak says, 'you get a lot of applications that are designed for smartphones, that are designed for devices that aren't necessarily used by the large populations that might need to interact with these services on a regular basis.' Sivak also cited maintenance of the new apps over the long term as a concern."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- World Cup Forecasting Challenge For Quants
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/D14if6Jsvd4/World-Cup-Forecasting-Challenge-For-Quants)
databuff writes "As a break from projecting the strength of subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, and other obscure financial instruments, quantitative analysts at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, UBS, and Danske Bank have modeled the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Now Kaggle has set up a forecasting competition, allowing statisticians to go head-to-head with these corporate giants. The challenge is to predict how far each country will progress in the tournament."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Canada's Largest Cities Seeing the End of the Phone Book
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ICDladWSZ9U/Canadas-Largest-Cities-Seeing-the-End-of-the-Phone-Book)
innocent_white_lamb writes "Telephone directories are available on the Internet, and many phones even store their own directories. There is less and less demand for a printed phone book, so residential phone books will no longer be printed and delivered in Canada's seven largest cities. Do we now expect everyone's grandma to look up phone numbers on the Internet? Of course, the Yellow Pages, where businesses pay for a listing, will still be delivered."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Men Who Stare At Airline Passengers, Coming To the UK
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/SR5VqNfwoXw/The-Men-Who-Stare-At-Airline-Passengers-Coming-To-the-UK)
An anonymous reader writes, "The Economist's Gulliver reports on a story in Nature that questions the current airport security regimen," excerpting: "Over the past four years, some 3,000 officers in America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have been specially trained to spot potential terrorists at airports. The programme, known as SPOT, for Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, is intended to allow airport security officers to use tiny facial cues to identify people who are acting suspiciously. The British government is currently launching a new screening regime modelled on the Americans' SPOT. There's just one problem with all this: there's no evidence that SPOT is actually effective. The whole thing is mostly based on pseudoscience, Sharon Weinberger reports in Nature."

Happily, Nature's original article is available in full, rather than paywalled.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Why Beatrix Potter Would Love a Digital Reader
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/WeXzxLBdIFQ/Why-Beatrix-Potter-Would-Love-a-Digital-Reader)
destinyland writes "In 1906, children's book author Beatrix Potter tried creating her own new, non-book format for delivering her famous fairy tales. 'Intended for babies and tots, the story was originally published on a strip of paper that was folded into a wallet, closed with a flap, and tied with a ribbon.' This article includes a link to actual images from one of Potter's strange wallet-sized stories — 'The Story of A Fierce, Bad Rabbit' — plus an image showing you exactly what Beatrix Potter thought 'a fierce, bad rabbit' would look like!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Plotting a Coup In the Internet Age
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/F72p_mYKrq8/Plotting-a-Coup-In-the-Internet-Age)
chrb writes "The Guardian is reporting on the attempts of an exiled Sheikh to regain power in a bloodless coup. The plot, led by British solicitor Peter Cathcart, involves the use of Washington political lobbyists, PR agencies writing fake blogs and Twitter accounts, and a newspaper advertising campaign in the US. The coup attempt is remarkable in its choice of modern communications and political lobbying, rather than the traditional resort to violence."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Australian Police Ask Facebook For Police Alarm Button
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/T4dVv-Ereww/Australian-Police-Ask-Facebook-For-Police-Alarm-Button)
littlekorea writes "The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has requested social networking site Facebook install a law enforcement representative in Australia and introduce some sort of button in which users can immediately report online crime to the police in a single click. It is National Cyber-Security Awareness Week in Australia, so the AFP is on an all-out offensive — announcing it is also investigating whether Google committed offences under Australia's Telecommunications Interception Act when it harvested Wi-Fi data." Something like this has been in the works for a while.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Prosecuting DDoS Attacks?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Wom9he0ns-s/Prosecuting-DDoS-Attacks)
dptalia writes "We all have heard of major DDoS attacks taking down countries, companies, and organizations. But how many of them are ever prosecuted? And how many prosecutions are even successful? I've done some research and it appears the answer is very few (Well duh!). And those that are successfully prosecuted tend to have teenagers as the instigators. Does this mean DDoS is a fairly safe crime to conduct? Are the repercussions nonexistent? Does anyone have some knowledge an insight into this that I don't have? How would you go about prosecuting a DDoS attacker? What's your experience with getting the responsible parties to justice?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Gizmodo Not Welcome at 2010 WWDC
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4T5btYuKexE/Gizmodo-Not-Welcome-at-2010-WWDC)
recoiledsnake writes "Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has refused to answer its request to attend the company's big Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this Monday. Apple's move to ban Gizmodo seems a direct repercussion of Apple's prototype leak by Gizmodo and subsequent actions of Apple to get the prototype back. Meanwhile, Gizmodo said that it would resort to a live blog to cover the event in case of the ban. This comes a few days after San Mateo County authorities announced that a 'special master' had been appointed to assist in the search of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's belongings: goods seized as part of a police investigation into the disappearance (and Gizmodo acquisition) of one of Apple's prototype iPhones. It's the very device that's rumored to be announced at the Monday keynote."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- California Judge Routes Campaign Robocalls Through Colorado
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/9-1s_ijeH9Y/California-Judge-Routes-Campaign-Robocalls-Through-Colorado)
Thomas Hawk writes "Victoria Kolakowski, a current sitting law judge at the California PUC, is running for Alameda Superior Court judge in California. As part of her campaign she is robodialing people in California with a pre-recorded message. The only problem is that in Califorina robodials are actually illegal unless first introduced by a non-recorded natural person who gains consent to play the call. Ironically, the agency set up to protect our privacy and enforce this law, the California PUC, is the very agency where Kolakowski works today. Kolakowski originally apologized for the calls but then later deleted messages on her Facebook account from people objecting to her use of these calls. Now Kolakowski is trying to argue that because 'technically' she is routing her calls through Colorado from outside the state that her robodials are actually legal."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- University Networks Block Student Project
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/VSEo9qh0SSk/University-Networks-Block-Student-Project)
An anonymous reader writes "A computer science student at University College London put together FitFinder as a bit of a joke — it's been described as a cross between Twitter and personal ads, and it rapidly became very popular. The university took exception to this and started by blocking the site from being accessed on campus. Not content with this, a few weeks later it fined the student £300 and had him take the site down completely. Currently, the site is still offline, although there is a petition with several thousand signatures requesting its return. In the meantime, a site called PhitFinder has appeared, claiming to have no link to the original."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Australian Police To Investigate Google Over Wi-Fi Scanning
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/npLanjXed0s/Australian-Police-To-Investigate-Google-Over-Wi-Fi-Scanning)
daria42 writes "Those who thought the brouhaha over Google's scanning of Wi-Fi networks by its Street View cars was over (whether you believe it was deliberate or not) are destined to be disappointed. News comes from Australia over the weekend that the Australian government has referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police for investigation. The country's Attorney General, Robert McClelland, was quoted saying, 'Obviously I won't pre-empt the outcome of that investigation but they relate in substantial part to possible breaches of the Telecommunications Interception Act, which prevents people accessing electronic information other than for authorized purposes.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- EVE Online PVP Tournament Streamed Live
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/9v8AJ8QJRsU/emEVE-Onlineem-PVP-Tournament-Streamed-Live)
infinitevalence writes "Every few months the good Viking programmers of the north organize and present one of the most geeky e-sports out there. Thanks to them, for three weekends in a row we get to watch player-controlled spaceships fight it out for accolades and unique in-game items available only to the first, second, and third place winners. This year CCP has all of the content live online and streaming in HD for your viewing pleasure. So find a drink, whip up some snacks, watch the shiny explosions, and listen to the soothing words of player experts as they walk you through the action!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Why Some Supermassive Black Holes Have Big Jets
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/w9C3u_sn38Y/Why-Some-Supermassive-Black-Holes-Have-Big-Jets)
astroengine writes "Some of the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies have powerful jets blasting from their poles, and others have weak jets, but many don't have jets at all. Why is this the case? In new simulations carried out by astronomers at NASA and MIT, it would appear that the way in which the black hole spins relative to its accretion disk may be a contributing factor. Strangely enough, the results indicate that if the black hole rotates in the opposite direction to its accretion disk, the most powerful jets form. The region between the black hole event horizon and the accretion disk still baffles scientists, so these simulations are very speculative, but the results seem to match what radio astronomers are seeing in the cores of active galaxies. Perhaps it's time to fire up that event horizon telescope!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Apple's HTML5 and Standards Gallery Not Standard
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/QVWDKUNPkKs/Apples-HTML5-and-Standards-Gallery-Not-Standard)
snitch writes "Apple has created an HTML5 Showcase that presents its vision for the next generation of the WWW. The fact that this page is only accessible using the Safari browser, while Apple advocates about web standards, has caused many to criticize the company's lack of broader platform support. The showcase demonstrates several HTML5 capabilities and features that have to do with video, typography, transitions, audio, etc. Further, on the front page the company states that 'Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.' The latter statement falls short by the fact that the featured examples only work with the Safari browser, and in the case of the CSS 3D transforms demonstration, require Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Safari PC or plain Leopard won't do)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- Do I need a system disk to start Windows XP?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: I am building a new computer. I plan on installing XP on it. I am a novice builder. I was wondering with XP if I need a system disk to start with. I thought I read where with XP it does not need DOS. I hope this is not a dumb question. Thanks in advance.

Answer: In the bios you need to make sure that its primary boot device is set to cd-rom, you can then put the cd in the drive and setup will load from the cd.

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

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