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Sunday the 12th of October 2008

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Sunday the 12th 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
6. Internet Advice

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For free technical support, visit us at http://www.helpforce.com

1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Troj/Agent-HWV on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagenthwv.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-HWW on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagenthww.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-HWX on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagenthwx.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Banker-ENS on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbankerens.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dloadr-BVL on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdloadrbvl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dloadr-BVM on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdloadrbvm.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeVir-GJ on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakevirgj.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Pushdo-Y on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpushdoy.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PWS-AUF on 12 October 2008 12:17:33 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpwsauf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bckdr-QPT on 12 October 2008 02:21:58 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbckdrqpt.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- The Rise of the (Financial) Machines
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4tGtRACPHwo/article.pl)
BartlebyScrivener writes "A New York Times Op-Ed quoting Freeman and George Dyson wonders if Wall Street geeks and 'quants' outsmarted themselves with computer algorithms to create the current financial debacle: 'Somehow the genius quants — the best and brightest geeks Wall Street firms could buy — fed $1 trillion in subprime mortgage debt into their supercomputers, added some derivatives, massaged the arrangements with computer algorithms and — poof! — created $62 trillion in imaginary wealth. It's not much of a stretch to imagine that all of that imaginary wealth is locked up somewhere inside the computers, and that we humans, led by the silverback males of the financial world, Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson, are frantically beseeching the monolith for answers.'" The quoted essay from George Dyson is available at Edge.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- FCC Report Supports Use of White Spaces For Wireless
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/I6tL0IzuHvE/article.pl)
After the FCC's tests mentioned early last month, andy1307 submits word of the FCC's report (released Friday), writing that "the major telcos disagree with the FCC's report that concluded that using white spaces to provide free wireless internet 'would not cause major interference with other services. ... The FCC concluded that sufficient technical protections would prevent major problems.' FCC chairman Kevin Martin's proposal is to auction off the spectrum, with some rules attached. 'Some of the spectrum would be used for free Internet service, which would have content filters to block material considered inappropriate for children.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- 3D Printing On Demand
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/NK2Mz2mS5kg/article.pl)
Iddo Genuth writes "The Netherlands based company Shapeways is beta testing a new service allowing people to print three-dimensional models. Customers can upload designs or use a creation tool hosted at the Shapeways website, then order a printed model of their designs for less than $3 per square centimeter. The printed items are shipped to the customer in ten days or less, bringing 3D printing to consumers and not just companies large enough to afford their own printers."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- A Robot To Destroy Breast Cancer Cells
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/dvPFTAfyOE4/article.pl)
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the University of Maryland are developing a robot able to detect and destroy breast cancer cells in a single session. After a tumor is located on an MRI, the robot will perform a biopsy of the breast while the patient is inside the scanner. 'If the biopsy displays cancerous cells, the robot will then insert a probe into the breast until it reaches the tumor. The probe will then burn the cancer cells until they are destroyed.' This looks great, but the researchers have only built a prototype. After they refine this robot, they'll need to go through clinical trials and obtain FDA approval. So this is not a robot that will appear on the medical market before several years."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- A 3D Curve Sketching System For Tablets
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/IyRt3XRgGkk/article.pl)
dominique_cimafranca writes "The Dynamic Graphics Project of the University of Toronto has released a pretty nifty 3D curve sketching system. Apart from the large drawing area, the tablet software looks very intuitive to artists. From the site: 'The system coherently integrates existing techniques of sketch-based interaction with a number of novel and enhanced features. Novel contributions of the system include automatic view rotation to improve curve sketchability, an axis widget for sketch surface selection, and implicitly inferred changes between sketching techniques. We also improve on a number of existing ideas such as a virtual sketchbook, simplified 2D and 3D view navigation, multi-stroke NURBS curve creation, and a cohesive gesture vocabulary.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Open Office Plans To Party Like It's Version 3.0
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/pKaRo-u6Brg/article.pl)
penguin_dance writes "The Register reports that 'OpenOffice.org is throwing a launch party in Paris on 13 October' to celebrate eight years, and hopefully announce the release of version 3.0. Some notes: [OpenOffice.org 3.0] will support the OpenDocument Format 1.2 standard, and be able to open files created by MS Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac OS X." As maj_id10t notes, though the OO.o site does not yet carry an announcement, "Lifehacker has posted an entry stating the final release of OpenOffice 3.0 is available for download via their distribution mirrors."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft's New Programming Language, "M"
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/sQ3r4V3v7vA/article.pl)
Anthony_Cargile writes "Microsoft announced Friday their new 'M' language, designed especially for building textual domain-specific languages and software models with XAML. Microsoft will also announce Quadrant, for building and viewing models visually, and a repository for storing and combining models using a SQL Server database. While some say the language is simply their 'D' language renamed to a further letter down the alphabet, the language is criticized for lack of a promised cross-platform function because of its ties to MS SQL server, which only runs on Windows."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Loebner Talks AI
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/d0xtMJkgkS4/article.pl)
Mighty Squirrel writes "This is a fascinating interivew with Hugh Loebner, the academic who has arguably done more to promote the development of artifical intelligence than anyone else. He founded the Loebner prize in 1990 to promote the development of artificial intelligence by asking developers to create a machine which passes the Turing Test — meaning it responds in a way indistinguishable from a human. The latest running of the contest is this weekend and this article shows what an interesting and colourful character Loebner is."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Huge Credit Fraud Ring Sends Europeans' Data to Pakistan
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-xO71PdWiD4/article.pl)
marshotel excerpts from a story at the Wall Street Journal: "European law-enforcement officials uncovered a highly sophisticated credit-card fraud ring that funnels account data to Pakistan from hundreds of grocery-store card machines across Europe, according to U.S. intelligence officials and other people familiar with the case. Specialists say the theft technology is the most advanced they have seen, and a person close to British law enforcement said it has affected big retailers including a British unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tesco Ltd."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Map of Web Content By Perspective
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4e7EP--oNHs/article.pl)
Anonymous Coward writes "Cruxlux has a perspective-based search engine up. It provides a map of results laid out by viewpoint. For example, querying 'Obama' shows a map with liberal blog posts, articles, and video clumped together, conservative stuff nearby, and nonpolitical sources farther away. It works for nonpolitical queries too (sports, etc.). It also lets you limit results to certain types of views — you can focus on hot 'Obama' content from a liberal angle, for instance."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Esther Dyson To Train For Space Flight
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-kqJPBtqE_g/article.pl)
DynaSoar writes "Esther Dyson, known to many as a founding and consistently guiding member of ICANN, and for working with the startups of Flickr, del.icio.us, Medscape and others, is now expanding her interests upwards. She recently announced that she will be heading to Moscow to train as backup astronaut for Charles Simonyi, who plans to fly aboard Soyuz TMA-14 next year. The US$3 million price tag won't be her first cash contribution towards personal space flight. She's already an investor in Space Adventures, the company that arranges the space tourist flights on Soyuz."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Lessig's "In Defense of Piracy"
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/r9AvGAM3Qkw/article.pl)
chromakey writes "The Wall Street Journal is running an essay from Lawrence Lessig about the fair use of copyrighted material on the Internet. He makes the case that companies who go to extreme lengths to squash minor videos, such as Universal, are stifling creativity in the modern era. Lessig makes specific reference to a YouTube video that was hit by a DMCA takedown notice, in which a 13-month-old child is dancing to a nearly inaudible soundtrack of Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy.' Lawrence Lessig is a board member for the Electronic Frontier Foundation."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Hands-On With Microsoft's Touchless SDK
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/unIiFn8QD5Y/article.pl)
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister takes Microsoft's recently released Touchless SDK for a test spin, controlling his Asus Eee PC 901 with a Roma tomato. The Touchless SDK is a set of .Net components that can be used to simulate the gestural interfaces of devices like the iPhone in thin air — using an ordinary USB Webcam. Although McAllister was able to draw, scroll, and play a rudimentary game with his tomato, the SDK still has some kinks to work out. 'For starters, its marker-location algorithm is very much keyed to color,' he writes. 'That's probably an efficient way to identify contrasting shapes, but color response varies by camera and is heavily influenced by ambient light conditions.' Moreover, the detection routine soaked up 64 percent of McAllister's 1.6GHz Atom CPU, with the video from the Webcam soon developing a few seconds' lag that made controlling onscreen cursors challenging. Project developer Mike Wasserman offers a video demo of the technology."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- How Should I Teach a Basic Programming Course?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/x4LgS2EC0Q8/article.pl)
riverman writes "I have been 'provisioned' at the school where I work to teach a new Computer Science/Programming course. I'm supposed to be teaching everything from the very-very basics (i.e. where that myspace thing is in your computer monitor, and how it knows who your friends are) to the easy-advanced (i.e. PHP classes and Python/Google App Engine). I'm an experienced programmer, but I'm not sure where to start — I could easily assume that my students know something basic they don't. Are there any resources on the internet that could help me find a solid curriculum? What are your suggestions?" I'm sure many of us have gone through intro-level programming courses of some sort; what are some things your teacher or professor did that worked well, and what didn't work at all?Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Looking for Earth-Like Exoplanets
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/9IwoFctnkqY/article.pl)
Discover Magazine is running a story detailing the search for planets like Earth orbiting other stars. While we've been able to locate a few "super earths" so far, none of them really compare in size or the potential for habitability with our own world. Fortunately, advances in data analysis and new space-based telescopes — such as Kepler, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the already-launched CoRoT (PDF) — have some astronomers predicting we'll find such an exoplanet by 2010, and a habitable one by 2012. Earth-based telescopes are also in the hunt, though the article notes, "even if a habitable Earth-like world is found first from the ground, it will most likely take a space observatory to search for the chemical signals that tell us what we really want to know: Is anything living out there? If the planet is one that can be observed transiting, it just might be possible to provide a hint of an answer in the next few years."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
-----------------------------------------------

-- My Lexmark printer's output is pale
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: I have a lexmark z82. When printing from the pc the color is pale.I purchased new cartriges.cleaned aligned everything and the color still pale

Answer: I have found that the Lexmark does print in a "different" shade from my HP printer. You may try going into the properties and choosing a higher quality print mode. In "Draft" it will print very pale...in "Normal" it will print better...In "Fine", it will print very good, but also very slow...Please note that the terms Draft, Normal, and Fine are used by my HP printer...The Lexmark will have similar, but possibly different terms for the different printing modes.

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

-- How do I recover a corrupt system file if my Windows was pre-installed?

I have Windows XP home media edition. The message reads: "Windows
could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt -
<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe Please re-install a copy of
the above file." The computer came with pre-installed Windows. All I
have is recovery disks. I already lost all of my data once and I can
not afford to lose it again. Please advise. I also spent hours looking
for an answer on the internet. I saw nothing that could solve my
problem.

I've addressed this and similar questions here several times before,
but I want to revisit this because there are two important reminders
that arise out of addressing this situation.
The first, of course, is that even if Windows is pre-installed you
should always get the installation, not recovery, CDs
when you buy a new machine.
Why manufacturers think it's a good idea not to provide them
automatically is beyond me.

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

-- What is "Ratware"? How Does Ratware Work?(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/257712.htm)

"V*i*a*g*r*a for cheap. You've been sent an Insta-Kiss! STEAMY HOT GIRL ACTION LIVE." If you've been spammed by emails like this, then you have been attacked by ratware. You see,...

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

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