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Tuesday the 7th of October 2008

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Tuesday the 7th of October 2008

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
---------------------------------------
Mal/RarMal-B on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malrarmalb.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/AOL-Buddy on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojaolbuddy.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Banhost-AA on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbanhostaa.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bckdr-QPO on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbckdrqpo.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bckdr-QPP on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbckdrqpp.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dloadr-BUQ on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdloadrbuq.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dloadr-BUR on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdloadrbur.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/MalDoc-F on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojmaldocf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Mdrop-BRT on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojmdropbrt.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PsymeZ-Fam on 7 October 2008 09:22:57 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpsymezfam.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Election Dirty Tricks About To Begin
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/f-z9wP0RIWY/article.pl)
An anonymous reader writes "ABC is warning that dirty election tricks are about to start. In the past, they've ranged from late-night robo-calls to voter intimidation. ABC has a pretty good list of what to watch out for as told by Allen Raymond, a former Republican operative, who was reformed after spending three months in prison in 2006 for pulling some of the stunts he now helps to prevent." To make this story timely, last week someone broke into a McCain campaign office in Missouri and stole a laptop computer containing "strategic information" about the local campaign.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Linux-Based E-Voting In Brazil
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/mMu-NSyygzs/article.pl)
John Sokol writes "I just heard from a good friend and Linux kernel hacker in Brazil that they have just finished their municipal election with 128 million people using Linux to vote. They voted nationwide for something like 5,000 city mayors. Voting is mandatory in Brazil. The embedded computer they are using once ran VirtuOS (a variant of MS-DOS); it now has its own locally developed, Linux-based distro. These are much nicer, smaller, and cheaper than the systems being deployed here in the US. Here is a Java-required site with a simulated Brazilian voting system. It's very cool; they even show you a picture of the candidate you voted for."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Mono 2.0 and .NET On Linux
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/lv-qBaNkRaY/article.pl)
Several readers noted the release of Mono 2.0, which is compatible with Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0. According to Miguel de Icaza, "... users can move over server applications built for .NET and client applications built with Windows Forms." InternetNews points out that only about half of the .NET apps out there will work on Mono 2.0, for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to) legacy Windows-only libraries and Microsoft's progress on .NET 3.0 and 3.5 APIs.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Ford To Introduce Restrictive Car Keys For Parents
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/kiNbpNqHH8M/article.pl)
thesandbender writes "Ford is set to release a management system that will restrict certain aspects of a car's performance based on which key is in the ignition. The speed is limited to 80, you can't turn off traction control, and you can't turn the stereo up to eleven. It's targeted at parents of teenagers and seems like a generally good idea, especially if you get a break on your insurance." The keys will be introduced with the 2010 Focus coupe and will quickly spread to Ford's entire lineup.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Programming Contest Hacked and Defaced
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/71n7kCtBZdk/article.pl)
davidmwilliams writes "Microsoft followed their major annual Tech-Ed event in Australia with a week-long programming contest called 'DevSta,' to find 'star developers.' While the quantity and quality of submissions suggest a poor turnout, it certainly caught the attention of at least two hackers who left their mark. Here is the low-down on the contest, what happened, by whom, and screen shots for posterity in case it's been fixed by the time you read this. And unless the volume of submissions increase dramatically within the next few hours, someone may be awarded an Xbox for doing nothing more than rewriting the Windows calculator as a .NET app."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Small Asteroid On Collision Course With Earth
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/j7uENTtCfDw/article.pl)
musatov writes "There's talk on The Minor Planet Mailing List about a small asteroid approaching Earth with a 99.8% probability of colliding. The entrance to the Earth's atmosphere will take place October 7 at 0246 UTC (2:35 after this story goes live) over northern Sudan, releasing the energy of about a kiloton of TNT. The asteroid is assumed to be 3-4 meters in size; it is expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere, causing no harm. As a powerful bolide, it may put on quite a show in the sky. For those advanced enough in astronomy to observe, check the MPEC 2008-T50 and MPEC 2008-T64 circulars. NASA's JPL Small Body Database has a 3D orbit view. The story has been already picked up by CNN and NASA."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Enterprise Software Sales Dried Up In September
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ZCEl7JPPfig/article.pl)
CurtMonash writes "As I predicted a week ago, it looks as if the third quarter was ugly for software vendors, due to the economic crisis. SAP said 'The market developments of the past several weeks have been dramatic and worrying to many businesses. These concerns triggered a very sudden and unexpected drop in business activity at the end of the quarter.' My old acquaintance John Treadway, who used to work in Sybase's financial services vertical unit, reports that things are even worse than that in the financial services industry, Wall Street and retail banks alike. So now what? Well, IT is a huge part of capital spending, and at enterprises that have to cut back capital spending, IT is going to get hurt. On the other hand, high-growth companies — Web businesses, analytic services providers, etc. — may try to power through the downturn. And the more directly an IT project affects near-term profits, the more likely it is to survive."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Malaysian Blogger On Trial For Sedition
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ErXjMYeymIk/article.pl)
neonsignal writes "Raja Petra Kamarudin, a Malaysian blogger, is in court under the Internal Security Act, under which he can be detained indefinitely. He is well known for his commentary on the Malaysian government, and was arrested after a piece on the murder of a Mongolian woman, who was allegedly killed by two policeman and an associate of the deputy prime minister."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Artists Strive To Wrest Rights From Music Industry
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/jkyZfDbEHxU/article.pl)
eldavojohn writes "The funny thing about the RIAA & BPI is that the artists are just as tired as the fans with how online music is being handled. So they're trying something new called the Featured Artists' Coalition. FAC's site states in their charter: 'We believe that all music artistes should control their destiny because ultimately it is their art and endeavors that create the pleasure and emotion enjoyed by so many.' As digital releases are increasing, the artists aren't seeing any more money. With the advent of online distribution, are the traditional music industry functions of promotion, samples, radio, and marketing now nothing but costly overhead for the artists? From Iron Maiden to Kate Nash to Radiohead, some big names are backing this new organization."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- NSA Open Sources Tokeneer Research Project
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/lWQ5rZP6S94/article.pl)
An anonymous reader writes to mention that the Tokeneer research project has been released to the open source community by the US National Security Agency. The main goal of this project was to show how highly secure software can be developed cost-effectively. "Tokeneer has been written in SPARK Ada, a high level programming language designed for high-assurance applications. Originally a subset of the Ada language, it is designed in such a way that all SPARK programs are legal Ada programs. Ada is the natural choice for mission-critical, high-integrity systems due to its combination of flexibility, reliability and ease of use, and SPARK further adds a static verification toolset that combines depth, soundness, efficiency and formal guarantees."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Scientists Claim Breakthrough On Holographic Display
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/dvnXb4VNwGo/article.pl)
SpuriousLogic writes to tell us that University of Arizona researchers claim to have broken a barrier in holographic technology by creating an updatable, three-dimensional display with memory. While the existing model is only able to update once every couple of minutes, and isn't particularly suited for 3d images, it is certainly a step in the right direction. "Peyghambarian is also optimistic that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. He said progress towards a final product should be made much more quickly now that a rewriting method had been found. However, it is fair to say not everyone is as positive about this prospect as Peyghambarian. Lecturer in Electronic Engineering at Bangor University in Wales, Dr Justin Lawrence, told CNN small steps were always being made on technology like 3D holograms, but, he couldn't see it being ready for the market in the next ten years."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Ask Blizzard Employees About Things That Matter
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/kCxOurWQFOw/article.pl)
In just a few days, some of us will be making the trek to this year's Blizzcon event in Anaheim, CA. In addition to the interesting announcements, sneak peeks, and other distractions, we will be sitting down with several Blizzard employees to answer any questions you might have. So far we have scheduled some time with Chris Sigaty, lead producer on StarCraft II; Jeffrey Kaplan (aka Tigole), game director for World of Warcraft; Leonard Boyarsky, lead world designer on Diablo III; and Paul Sams, Blizzard COO. Please address your questions to one (or several) of these candidates and try to keep them civil and on topic. Questions about Diablo III's art style will most likely be omitted since we have limited time and that dead horse has already been beaten into submission. The usual Slashdot interview rules apply, but beyond that, the sky is the limit.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Researchers To Build Underwater Airplane
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Bi2iwLXfyCw/article.pl)
coondoggie writes to tell us that DARPA seems to still be having fun with their funding and continues to aim for the "far out." The latest program, a submersible airplane, seems to have been pulled directly from science fiction. Hopefully this voyage to the bottom of the sea is of the non-permanent variety. "According to DARPA: 'The difficulty with developing such a craft come from the diametrically opposed requirements that exist for an airplane and a submarine. While the primary goal for airplane designers is to try and minimize weight, a submarine must be extremely heavy in order to submerge underwater. In addition, the flow conditions and the systems designed to control a submarine and an airplane are radically different, due to the order of magnitude difference in the densities of air and water.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ZS_rWKlEZfQ/article.pl)
Martin Ecker writes "Mobile phones and other embedded devices are getting more and more powerful each year. The availability of dedicated hardware for 3D rendering is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and the latest mobile phones come with 3D hardware acceleration that rivals the power of desktop graphics hardware. OpenGL ES 2.0 is the latest version of a cross-platform, low-level graphics API to utilize these new resources available in embedded devices. The OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide published by Addison-Wesley Publishing aims to help the reader make use of the full power of OpenGL ES 2.0 to create interesting 3D applications." Keep reading for the rest of Martin's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Commerce Department Pushing For New "Copyright Czar"
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/e_1PATzHT0Q/article.pl)
TechDirt is reporting that those all-too-familiar "stats" surrounding the cost of piracy are being trotted out in an attempt to push through a new "Copyright Czar" position. "In urging President Bush to sign into law the ProIP bill, which would give him a copyright czar (something the Justice Department had said it doesn't want), the US Chamber of Commerce is claiming that 750,000 American jobs have been lost to piracy. Yet, it doesn't cite where that number comes from."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

-- SpiceLogic Document 2 Text Converter
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/SpiceLogic_Document_2_Text_Converter.htm)
SpiceLogic Document 2 Text Converter is a Windows software that provides you an efficient way of converting your document files from various types to plain text The supported conversion types are MS Word doc MS Excel xls PDF HTML and RTF It allows you to convert a lots of files as BATCH PROCESSING by a single mouse click You dont need

-- Hide My Files
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/Hide_My_Files.htm)
Hide My Files is an easy to use folder lock used to hide files and folders from unauthorized use This file and folder security software provides an easy to use interface that allows you to choose the files by selecting the directories in which you choose to block users from viewing

-- NET Document 2 Text Converter DLL
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/.NET_Document_2_Text_Converter_DLL.htm)
NET Document 2 Text Converter DLL is a NET class library that provides you an efficient way of converting your document files from various types to plain text Recommended for Windows application only Not for ASPNET The supported conversion types are MS Word doc MS Excel xls PDF HTML and RTF You dont need MS Office installed to r

-- SPYWIPE
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/SPYWIPE.htm)
SPYWIPE is the fastest scanning techniques in the market It will protect your PC from the thousands of SpyWare and AdWare internet surfers come across In addition SPYWIPE have the ability to manage the infected lists so the user can take an action later without performing a new scan A set of scan options is proviided so the user can highly custo

-- SPYWAREWIPE
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/SPYWAREWIPE.htm)
SPYWAREWIPE is the fastest scanning techniques in the market It will protect your PC from the thousands of SpyWare and AdWare internet surfers come across In addition SPYWAREWIPE have the ability to manage the infected lists so the user can take an action later without performing a new scan A set of scan options is proviided so the user can high

-- Flowers Screensaver
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/Flowers_Screensaver.htm)
A Screen Saver with pictures of different flowers in nice colors It has a black background and the pictures of the flowers change every five seconds This Screensaver can be installed with one click A nice Screen Saver for spring dreams at the computer

-- ReplaceMagic ExcelOnly Standard
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/ReplaceMagic_ExcelOnly_Standard.htm)
Have you ever been in situation that you need to change text header footer comments OLE object links hyperlinks or even more in thousands of files and you had to open each file manually to make changes? With ReplaceMagic you can scan folders for files and by entering search and replace strings let application to do all changes automatically fo

-- Easter Bonus
(http://www.planet-shareware.com/Easter_Bonus.htm)
Love match-three games? Spring into action and play Easter Bonus Slick and addictive and really really cute; this is the latest game from the Xmas Bonus team Fluffy chicks chocolate eggs and the Easter bunnywe know you cant resist A calorie-free treat for players of all ages

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

-- Setting up security Policies for Windows 98 PC
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: Hi, we are setting a small LAN with about 15 Win 98 SE PCs.Is there any adm app or prog to avoid users from installing software in the PCs ? We want to install only the necessary software for the users and keep the computers "clean".BTW Windows 98 SE is a must, and we cannot consider another Operating System.Thanks

Answer: Dear Pablo,The only way to lock users out of vairious elements of Windows 95/98/ME is to use Policy Manager.Policy manger is a Windows NT tool that usually relies on you running it from a Windows NT server, but if you can't use Windows NT the tool is a little tricky to use.The Policy manager is just a simple .exe program, but you will need to go to every single PC to set the policy up as it's part of the registry and can't be coppied as a file from one machine to the next.Once you had the tool it would simply be a case of loading it, finding the option to lock out setups and installs then saving hte policy and moving on to the next.However, if you leave the tool on the PC there is nothing to prevent the user from unlocking the option again so it would need to be removed once you are done.For absolubt waterproof security you'd also need to lock out the registry to prevent users from opening up the setup options that way.If you would like a copy of the tool which is Microsoft Freeware (A part of the Windows NT options pack) It can be downloaded from: http://download.microsoft.com/download/win95upg/poledit/1/W95/EN-US/policy.exe(Related knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q135315)(If you hadn't already told me you couldn't consider another operating system I would strongly recomend having a Windows NT or 2000 server on your network of 98 PC's as without a server a workgroup as large as this can very easily be a network management nightmare.)

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

-- I have an old, old program I need to run in Vista, but it won't. Is there a way?

We use Visual BASIC for DOS, ver 1.0, to compile BASIC programs on
Win 98SE and Win XP computers. The compiler doesn't work in Vista. Is
there some way in which we can get the compiler to work under Vista? If
the programs are compiled in XP, the programs run on Vista.

Boy, now there's a blast from the past. It's quite possible that you
might actually be using software that I had a hand in creating, many
years ago.
I can't guarantee that this will work for any specific program (like
VB-DOS), but Vista does include some compatibility tricks that may be
able to help.

Thank you for your continued support, please do not reply to this email address as emails will not be answered.

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