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Monday the 1st of December 2008

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Monday the 1st of December 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

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
---------------------------------------
Troj/Agent-IJR on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentijr.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/BHO-IP on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbhoip.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dloadr-CBN on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdloadrcbn.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Autoham-Fam on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autohamfam.html?_log_from=rss
W32/AutoRun-RE on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autorunre.html?_log_from=rss
W32/MarioF-A on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32mariofa.html?_log_from=rss
W32/MarioF-Gen on 1 December 2008 11:43:32 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32mariofgen.html?_log_from=rss
JS/Agent-IJS on 1 December 2008 06:55:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/jsagentijs.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Dloadr-CBM on 1 December 2008 06:55:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdloadrcbm.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/PWS-AWK on 1 December 2008 06:55:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojpwsawk.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Ninth Anniversary of Amazon 1-Click Injunction
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/smzHWT3577U/article.pl)
theodp writes "Nine years ago Monday, Amazon kicked off the Holiday Season by slapping Barnes and Noble with a court injunction barring BN from using a checkout feature that Amazon said represented illegal copying of its patented 1-Click technology. 'We're pleased that Judge Pechman recognized the innovation underlying our 1-Click feature,' said Jeff Bezos in a press release. But an Appellate Court wasn't quite as impressed with Amazon's innovation. Nor were USPTO Examiners who were asked to take another look at the merits of Amazon's 1-Click patent claims. Still, 1-Click lives on, although Amazon's lawyers are currently fighting two separate rejections by USPTO Examiners, burying USPTO Examiners in paper, and employing canceling-and-refiling tactics that some may find reminiscent of Eddie Haskell's chess end-game strategy. So much for Amazon-led patent reform."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Acorns Disappear Across the Country
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/fUTIM2QviH0/article.pl)
Hugh Pickens writes "Botanist Rod Simmons thought he was going crazy when couldn't find any acorns near his home in Arlington County, Virginia. 'I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe,' said Simmons. Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill. Simmons and Naturalist Greg Zell began to do some research and found Internet discussion groups, including one on Topix called 'No acorns this year,' reporting the same thing from as far away as the Midwest up through New England and Nova Scotia. 'We live in Glenwood Landing, N.Y., and don't have any acorns this year. Really weird,' wrote one. 'None in Kansas either! Curiouser and curiouser.' The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather and Simmons has a theory about the wet and dry cycles. But many skeptics say oaks in other regions are producing plenty of acorns, and the acorn bust is nothing more than the extreme of a natural boom-and-bust cycle. But the bottom line is that no one really knows. 'It's sort of a mystery,' Zell said."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Myth of Upgrade Inevitability Is Dead
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Qmei-RudpxY/article.pl)
Several readers pointed out a ComputerWorld UK blog piece on the expanding ripples of the Vista fiasco. Glyn Moody quotes an earlier Inquirer piece about Vista, which he notes "has been memorably described as DRM masquerading as an operating system": "Studies carried out by both Gartner and IDC have found that because older software is often incompatible with Vista, many consumers are opting for used computers with XP installed as a default, rather than buying an expensive new PC with Vista and downgrading. Big business, which typically thinks nothing about splashing out for newer, more up-to-date PCs, is also having trouble with Vista, with even firms like Intel noting XP would remain the dominant OS within the company for the foreseeable future." Moody continues: "What's really important about this is not so much that Vista is manifestly such a dog, but that the myth of upgrade inevitability has been destroyed. Companies have realized that they do have a choice — that they can simply say 'no.' From there, it's but a small step to realizing that they can also walk away from Windows completely, provided the alternatives offer sufficient data compatibility to make that move realistic."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- IT Job Without a Degree?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/f7DoDTkZdC8/article.pl)
adh0c writes "I have been lurking Slashdot for some time now without registering and I don't think this question has been answered yet. Is it possible to get a good IT job (assuming that there is such a thing), preferably a sysadmin position, without having a BS or other degree? From browsing the job postings on Monster and such, it would seem that everyone wants university papers. Is there hope for computer enthusiasts who didn't go to college?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- James Boyle's New Book Under CC License
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/p4iRYPEuKf8/article.pl)
An anonymous reader writes "James Boyle has released his new book, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (Yale University Press) under a Creative Commons License. It can be downloaded free or read online. There are chapters on Thomas Jefferson's views of IP, musical borrowing and the birth of soul, free software, and synthetic biology. Lessig is impressed. Doctorow says he is a law prof who writes like a comedian (is this a good thing?), and credits Boyle's first book for getting him involved in online rights."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Florence Nightengale, Statistical Graphics Pioneer
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/7BQUgmf9FGI/article.pl)
Science News has a fascinating look at an under-appreciated corner of the career of Florence Nightengale — as an innovator in the use of statistical graphics to argue for social change. Nightengale returned from the Crimean War a heroine in the eyes of the British citizenry, for the soldiers' lives she had saved. But she came to appreciate that the way to save far more lives was to reform attitudes in the military about sanitation. Under the tutelage of William Farr, who had just invented the field of medical statistics, she compiled overwhelming evidence (in the form of an 830-page report) of the need for change. "As impressive as her statistics were, Nightingale worried that Queen Victoria's eyes would glaze over as she scanned the tables. So Nightingale devised clever ways of presenting the information in charts. Statistics had been presented using graphics only a few times previously, and perhaps never to persuade people of the need for social change."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Groklaw Summarizes the Lori Drew Verdict
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/yb2ku7DOTUc/article.pl)
Bootsy Collins writes "Last Wednesday, the Lori Drew 'cyberbullying' case ended in three misdemeanor convictions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 US Federal law intended to address illegally accessing computer systems. The interpretation of the act by the Court to cover violations of website terms of service, a circumstance obviously not considered in the law's formulation and passage, may have profound effects on the intersection of the Internet and US law. Referring to an amicus curiae brief filed by online rights organizations and law professors, PJ at Groklaw breaks down the implications of the decision to support her assertion that 'unless this case is overturned, it is time to get off the Internet completely, because it will have become too risky to use a computer.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Recourse For Poor Customer Service?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/e4EUym-GIxo/article.pl)
eleventypie writes "I am in the Army and currently stationed in Afghanistan. Recently I found myself without a laptop so I decided to build a studio 17 from Dell. I designed/customized my laptop on 2008-09-17 and placed my order, which totaled approximately $1,700. The laptop was built and apparently shipped on 2008-09-28. Given my APO address, I know mail can sometimes take a little while to get here, though 7-10 days is normal. Dell said to give my laptop 6-8 business days and occasionally, it might take as much as 4-6 weeks. So on 2008-11-12 I sent another email to Dell informing them I still had not received my laptop. One person said to give it more time, while another person responded to my message telling me to send my address again and they would send me a replacement. So I sent my address immediately and never got a response. It is now the 30th of November and I still have no laptop and Dell seems to have quit responding to my emails. This is very frustrating being out $1,700 and not having a laptop to talk to my friends and family and do school work. Phone calls aren't easy so calling them is pretty much out of the question. Any advice on what I can or should do at this point to get the computer I ordered or get my money back?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- "Reality Mining" Resets the Privacy Debate
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/xhqPtecJnnI/article.pl)
An anonymous reader sends us to the NYTimes for a sobering look at the frontiers of "collective intelligence," also called in the article "reality mining." These techniques go several steps beyond the pedestrian version of "data mining" with which the Pentagon and/or DHS have been flirting. The article profiles projects at MIT, UCLA, Google, and elsewhere in networked sensor research and other forms of collective intelligence. "About 100 students at MIT agreed to completely give away their privacy to get a free smartphone. 'Now, when he dials another student, researchers know. When he sends an e-mail or text message, they also know. When he listens to music, they know the song. Every moment he has his Windows Mobile smartphone with him, they know where he is, and who's nearby.' ... Indeed, some collective-intelligence researchers argue that strong concerns about privacy rights are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history. ... 'For most of human history, people have lived in small tribes where everything they did was known by everyone they knew,' Dr. Malone said. 'In some sense we're becoming a global village. Privacy may turn out to have become an anomaly.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Solving the Knight's Tour Puzzle In 60 Lines of Python
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OBtMkH_OSDo/article.pl)
ttsiod writes "When I was a kid, I used to play the Knight's Tour puzzle with pen and paper: you simply had to pass once from every square of a chess board, moving like a Knight. Nowadays, I no longer play chess; but somehow I remembered this nice little puzzle and coded a 60-line Python solver that can tackle even 100x100 boards in less than a second. Try beating this, fellow coders!"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Should Taxpayers Back Cars Only the Rich Can Afford?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/g3UardE1NHI/article.pl)
theodp writes "The NY Times questions the $400M in low-interest federal loans requested by Tesla Motors as part of the $25B loan package for the auto industry passed by Congress last year. 'The program is intended to encourage automakers to improve fuel efficiency, but should it be used for a purpose like this, as the 2008 Bailout of Very, Very High-Net-Worth Individuals Who Invested in Tesla Motors Act?' Tesla says it is assembling about 15 cars a week and has delivered about 80 of its $109,000 base-price Roadsters to date, many of which have gone to the Valley's billionaires and centimillionaires who are Tesla investors as well as early customers. We discussed the company's financial difficulties last month."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- iPhones, FStream and the Death of Satellite Radio
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/SpwI4OjOO_0/article.pl)
Statesman writes "Only a little over a year ago, the FCC approved the merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio companies and the combined stock was trading at $4 a share. Despite being a monopoly — or perhaps because of it — the company is failing. They are losing subscribers, the stock is now trading around 22 cents a share (a 97% decline), and they have written off $4.8 billion dollars in stock value. So, what happened? The CEO is blaming pretty much everyone except himself and his business model. But is pay-for-bandwidth even a viable business plan anymore? With millions of iPhone and gPhone users out there, free streaming audio applications like FStream, and thousands of Internet radio stations to access, the question is: why would anyone want to pay for proprietary hardware and a limited selection of a few hundred stations all controlled by one company?" Read on for the rest of Statesman's thoughts.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Linux Foundation Says All Major Distros Are IPv6 Compliant
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/UnoeAx-uvEE/article.pl)
ruphus13 points out news from the Linux Foundation, which announced that all major Linux distributions meet certification requirements for the US Department of Defense's IPv6 mandates. The announcement credits work done by the IPv6 Workgroup, whose members include IBM, HP, Nokia-Siemens, Novell and Red Hat. Quoting: "Linux has had relatively robust IPv6 support since 2005, but further work was needed for the open source platform to achieve full compliance with DoD standards. The Linux Foundation's IPv6 workgroup analyzed the DoD certification requirements and identified key areas where Linux's IPv6 stack needed adjustments in order to guarantee compliance. They collaboratively filled in the gaps and have succeeded in bringing the shared technology into alignment with the DoD's standards."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Diet of Fast Food and Candy May Cause Alzheimer's
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BXZH-LcCBS0/article.pl)
lurking_giant sends along a Reuters report on research out of Sweden indicating that a diet rich in fat, sugar, and cholesterol could increase the risk of Alzheimer's, at least in mice. "'On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain,' [said] Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center... 'We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's.' ... These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an abnormal build-up of the protein tau as well as signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory storage."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Royal Society of Chemistry Slams UK Exam Standards
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/iwszQL8lvCU/article.pl)
cheesethegreat writes "The Royal Society of Chemistry has sharply criticized the 'catastrophically' falling standards for UK school exams in the sciences. The RSC had 1,300 highly achieving students take an exam made up of questions taken from the last 50 years. The students averaged an appalling 15% on 'hard' numerical questions set in the 1960s, but managing much higher marks on the more recent 'soft' non-numerical questions. This latest report has garnered mainstream media attention. The RSC has also created a petition on the UK Prime Minister's official website, calling for urgent intervention to halt the slide, which has garnered over 3,000 signatures. The issue of declining exam standards has been an ongoing concern in the UK, with allegations that exam results have been manipulated by the government to increase pass rates and meet its own targets."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
-----------------------------------------------

-- I have a corrupt Windows 95/98/ME installation left over from when I upgraded to Windows 2000
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: I had a Win2k installed on a Thinkpad, and it was working just as it should for several days. On each boot, it presented me with a small menu, asking me whether I wanted to boot "Windows 2000" or "Windows", the latter unspecified. There is no other Windows OS on the machine, only Win2k. Out of curiosity. and in an excess of confidence a few days ago, I chose the "Windows" option, to see what the menu had in mind. I was rewarded immediately with an error message telling me that file NTOSKRNL.EXE was missing or corrupt. From previous experience, I do not believe the message, and hypothesize that in fact my experiment screwed up the file BOOT.INI (I am open to other interpretations). I know what BOOT.INI should look like, and could edit it if I could access it. Unfortunately, I have nothing that can enter the FAT32 partition and find and open the file. Is there a utility that will run under DOS or Win16 which will do that? Or another suggestion?

Answer: The error message comes from when you upgraded to Windows 2000. Sometimes, Windows 2000 leaves parts of the old operating system in tact.If you enter your system using a FAT operating system you will not be able to see your boot.ini file because Windows 2000 creates the file in an NTFS partition, not a FAT partition. These are completely different methods of accessing the hard drive.From an NTFS operating system (Windows NT, 2000 or XP) you can see a FAT operating system's hard drive, but not the other way round.The only way to edit your boot.ini file is to start up in Windows 2000, open boot.ini in notepad (or go to the system control pannel and edit it from there)under the [operating systems] section, remove everything except the Windows 2000 line. (there may be 2 windows 2000 lines, in which case leave both of them.Hope this helps. If you require any further assistance, please feel free to reply to this message.Regards,-Lawrence Stromski, Helpforce Technical Support.

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
-----------------------------------------------

-- 10 Reasons to Start a Blog(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/257742.htm)

Web logging, or "blogging" is becoming a household term. Most anyone who uses the Internet either has a blog, or has read someone else's blog. But does that mean you...

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