A fan wants to Release Windows 7 Now : My Security Concerns

By Paul | Jan 29, 2009

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After reading about this from Kelly Poe) to find out the site he put up and I am quite impressed. Here are few things that I am concerned about starting with the website.

I love the idea and all but I am quite concerned with the privacy of my email account. I don’t know if you have to submit your email account but I would caution people not enter one until the site says what it will do with your email address.

Now that being said that’s the only thing I can think of when it comes to security for your email address, you don’t want to someone to give out your email address to spammers. That would just make it even worse for your email account. You could however use a 10 min Email account to use but that might make it harder for Microsoft to contact you if they want to verify these accounts!!

Now my main concern is Windows 7 right now and Security. You know the Conflicker/Conflickr/Downadup Worm is currently loose on the internet. It uses the the Ms 08-067 Exploit and currently Windows 7 does not protect against this Worm in fact Microsoft has released information that you would need to install the updates manually to fix this problem.

Twitter Spam bots are hot to trot: http://gentai.com/revenge1

By Paul | Dec 29, 2008

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Ok so I was curious why I all of the sudden got people joining my list. each one I look at just to see who these people are have only one twitter message saying this from two different accounts:

and this one also

and once you click that link it takes you to this website and see what they want you to do:

These people are trying to get you to click on there links and

get you give them email accounts. This has been socially engineered to look like it is real. I gave them a 10 min email account to see what they sent me. It was a link to there porn site. Wanting me to give them my credit card or checking account information and to join there site. I don’t think so, not this old dog. Anyways if you get this spam from a user you might just want to block these people. Some of these people have followers. Hmm I don’t know about these people. I guess they want you to send an email to other people to spam them also. How nice of them to social engineer this scheme so you can make your friends and family mad at you and probably not even talk to you. So that is why it is good not to auto-follow people when they subscribe to your twitter account. Some people have that set. Some people just don’t learn. I am sure some people will like this site for other reasons but please don’t spam people with this little site. Please don’t put people on that list.

Microsoft to Release KB961051 on the Dec 17, 2008

By Paul | Dec 16, 2008

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According to McAfee and I will quote:

December 16, 2008: Microsoft has announced an out-of-cycle patch release for a critical, remote-code-execution, vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (CVE-2008-4844). The patch, to be released on December 17, will address the vulnerability across multiple versions on Internet Explorer running on supported Windows platforms.

[via McAfee Threat Center]

From what I am understanding it will be KB961051 and will be a critical update on all Windows platforms. Microsoft issued a security advisory for this on there Technet support website. This will probably be put online sometime tomorrow and will be available to download after 10am PST although this is just a rumor because when I go to that article they talk about the work around and how to fix it temporary until they release the patch. This is releated to the IE Vulnerability that is in the wild and has been causing havok on the internet.

Office Depot Closed 126 Stores

By Paul | Dec 10, 2008

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This just came from USA Today, According to them and I’ll quote:

Office Depot plans to close 112 underperforming retail stores in North America over the next three months. In addition, 14 stores will be closed in 2009 as their leases expire or other lease arrangements are completed, it said.

The retailer will also close six of its 33 distribution centers in North America, and says it plans to open about 20 stores in 2009, down from an earlier estimate of 40.

[Via USAToday]

Although this isn’t talking about layoffs but this will greatly impact people who will be jobless due to the closings. SO I wanted to talk about how many per store, I estimate it will be like 20 people per store on average. So that will be around 2,500 people will be jobless in the stores and I don’t know how many people will be jobless from the distribution center. If you want to check out my other posts just click here. If you search my site you will find even more tips and tricks to better help you be ready for the job market.

Viacom and ATT layoff some people. (12,850 People)

By Paul | Dec 4, 2008

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Today, we are announcing a company-wide restructuring plan that includes staffing reductions in all divisions. This will result in a reduction of our worldwide workforce of approximately 7 percent, or about 850 positions. We are also suspending salary increases for the Company’s senior level management in 2009. In addition, after a comprehensive review of our operations, we will write down certain programming and other assets. These three actions will bring us significant cost savings and other efficiencies.

[via Gawker]

This is a Sad day for the telecommunications industry both AT&T and Viacom are laying off people. According to reports Viacom will lay off around 850 people. ATT will layoff 12,000 Jobs. Here’s the quote from Associated Press:

AT&T Inc. joined the recession’s parade of layoffs Thursday by announcing plans to cut 12,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.

[Via Associated Press]

So in all today total that is 12,850 people who are going to be laid off. This is another set of layoffs but isn’t the last to see the whole list of of Layoffs in the Tech industry that I’ve talked about please click this link. You may find some usefull tidbits if you search my blog enough, I’ve got some great tips on getting hired and what you should do to be prepared.

Microsoft kills a fake antivirus tool from 994,061 computers!

By Paul | Nov 25, 2008

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According to Arstechnica and I’ll quote:

Win32/FakeSecSen has gone by various names, including Micro Antivirus 2009, MS Antivirus, Spyware Preventer, Vista Antivirus 2008, Advanced Antivirus, System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Windows Antivirus, XPert Antivirus, Power Antivirus, and Ultra Antivirus 2009. Furthermore, it is skinnable, so each of these variants has a different GUI, although the basic functionality is the same: bother users with warnings of malware until they pay up.

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center recently released some data on how the removal tool performed this month: FakeSecSen was removed from 994,061 machines. That number isn’t the highest Microsoft has recorded before, and the number of removals depends on which malware Microsoft adds each month and how widespread it is.

[via Arstechnica]

This seemed to of happened this month with the usual Windows update. If you haven’t updated your system just yet you should. This troublesome fake virus seems to have been killed from several systems. This could effectively make it harder for these guys who ever designed this program to make money. I hope microsoft does even more virus removals in next month. If you still want to try to get rid of these viruses don’t forget to check out my tips on Virus removal.

Windows update is getting a revision!

By Paul | Nov 2, 2008

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According to Computer World, dated Oct 31, 2008 and I’ll quote:

“Over the next couple of months, we’ll be rolling out another infrastructure update to the Windows Update agent (client code),” said an unidentified Microsoft employee on the Windows Update team’s official blog. “This update makes it possible for users to install more than 80 updates at the same time.”

[via Computer World]

Now if your like me and have several computers who need to be updated at a given schedule, you sometimes worry about these updates that come along that might just break your system. I have been using a program call Offline Updater, which does what Autopatcher does really nicely. So why is Microsoft sending out this patch? Two reasons, one they want you to be able to update your operating System without hurting your system integrity.

Now lets talk about the integrity of having to reboot your system. You see, every time you reboot the system, it causes the system hardware some strain. It is something like having starting up a car, sooner or later you will have the starter go out, because of to much start up.

UPS expected to layoff people also

By Paul | Oct 24, 2008

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According to New York Times:

United Parcel Service reported a 9.9 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday and said it expected consumers to cut back on holiday gift purchases. The company is planning cost cuts, including layoffs, in 2009. It said it expected profit for 2008 to be toward the low end of a range it provided in July.

[Via NYtimes]

So that creates more of a demand on Jobs and if you want to hear some other layoffs that I’ve seen on the go, just search my site. Some useful links to check out is:

Largest Employer : University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is planning layoffs!!

By Paul | Oct 23, 2008

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Is this the beginning or the end of the recession? After seeing this today I wanted to talk about this development. If they layoff a large number of people is this going to effect your chances of finding a job? Here’s what they had to say:

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has plans to reduce its 50,000 workforce by a small percentage. UPMC did not immediately release any specifics.

“As the economy deteriorates, we are proactively taking these steps to ensure that our growth in expenses is not outpacing our growth in revenues,” a UPMC statement said.

[via WTAE.TV]

So now that they have said this, what’s the percentages of the workforce are going to be laid off? I wanted to talk about how you could get ready for the imminent day of this. Here’s some good links to consider:

And here are some other companies who are planning layoffs or have laid off people:

What’s with Google trends?

By Paul | Oct 20, 2008

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Having been going to the Google Trends and keeping watching. I am starting to wonder something? Take a look at this and you tell me?

Can you see how someone might use this to create a Goog-411 and use it to promote there website? It is all about the hits and getting what publishers like to say the eyes on a website. Now is that going to confuse people or make people not want to come to a site. So how would people abuse this?

Very Simple, they’d watch what is trending and post accordingly. Now you as a reader would click on the website expecting to see what you want to see but instead it would popup with advertisements and maybe malware? Check these links to better understand it:

Now even though these are just a few. You can see how someone might want to abuse it and get there site up on Google trends and be able to infect several to even millions of computers before Google sees that or stops. You could in theory take over a website high in Google rankings and do exactly that.

Cleaning out the Prefetch Directory!

By Paul | Aug 26, 2008

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From time to time you will need to clean out the Prefetch directory in Vista and XP. Here is how you do it in Vista. You first would need to boot into safe mode in Vista then you will log into Vista and go to:

[C:\Windows\Prefetch Directory]

Having been using XP and Vista for the past few years, I’ve found that deleting all of the files in prefetch directory and letting them rebuild actually speeds up the system. I got a feeling it has something to do with file corruptions. After you go into the Prefetch directory and delete all the files. You would then go into your Readyboost Directory if you are using Readyboost then there will be a Readyboost directory inside the Prefetch directory. Deleting all the files in the Readyboost directory also will greatly improve performance of your system. Don’t delete the Prefetch Directory or the Readyboost Directory, Vista won’t let you delete the Prefetch but will with Readyboost. Deleting the Readyboost directory will prevent Vista from using Readyboost and then you would have to restart the process of using Readyboost.