ThePirateBay might be blocked in the US

I was looking around on Google and thought I just for giggles check out the Piratebay complaints. I tried going to the site and here’s what Popups:

I tried on OpenVPN and my Local ISP, It keeps saying that. I then tried on my Cricket Modem and it tells me the connection has been interrupted, like something stops the connection in the first place. I can ping it and I can Tracert the Site but I can’t even view it. I would like to know if Anyone else is having this problem also. Although I’ve not checked Thepiratebay.org complaints for quite some time because I’ve been so busy with my website. If you want to watch your favorite shows check out these sites like Hulu, CBS, NBC, ABC, ABC FAMILY and TNT.TV for free. I am just curious as to what happened and does this have anything to do with Net Neutrality?   Anyway I wanted to talk about this and see what people are saying.  Anyone know what is going on?  Let’s talk about this and help everyone by saying what you know.   I don’t know if Thepiratebay.org is down but I do wonder if someone is preventing people from getting to the website.   I’ll update when I have more information.

You asked for it, Now it’s real — Vista SP2 Dec 4,2008

Beginning Thursday Dec. 4^th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP). The CPP will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out this service pack. The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release. For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.

[Via Technet]

Yes you heard right, you can get into the Beta of Vista SP2 and not have to wait till April.  Some things to remember:

• It is a Beta
• It will Have Bugs
• It is for people who want to test it out
• It should only be installed for people who need to test it out

Stop botnets in its tracks With a Firewall!

According to PC World and I’ll quote:

According to FireEye chief scientist Stuart Staniford, detection rates are so poor that, on average, only around 40 percent of security software can detect binaries during the period of greatest infectivity and danger, namely the first few days after a particular variant starts being used by botnet builders.

[via PC World]

Now let’s talk about this, having been seeing recent surges of people getting infected.  I’ve come to the conclusion that companies like AVG and other Anti-Virus companies are keeping up.   Now true if all you have is an Anti-virus and nothing else that greatly increases your likely hood of getting a virus.

In a recent virus storm, We have people finding my site because of a Good Firewall.   No if he didn’t have anything but Windows firewall then it would of gotten through and you would not of known about it.  So let’s talk about how to prevent botnet attacks.   This is relatively easy and if you follow some common rules.   You to could be less likely to be infected.  I will say this most people don’t do these common tips and they should do them.

Looks like a scam to me : Personal Shopping Assistant!

Good afternoon!

We found your resume at _________________ and we would like to propose you a
position of Personal Shopping Assistant.

Imagine having an exciting job with incredible salary (up to $100,000/year) that
lets you use your creativity while being paid to shop. Welcome to the world of
personal shopping!

As we know shopping is the world’s favorite leisure activity, but in our busy
society an increasing number of people need to hire someone to do their
shopping. Thus personal shoppers are more in demand than ever before.

There are absolutely NO START-UP FEES and NO FEES for being employed at this
position. As long as you live in the USA, and you have a credit card or any
other line of credit, have 1 or 2 free hours during the day – you are eligible
for this job!

This is what you will have to do in short:
• Purchase the requested goods using your credit card.
• Send us receipts.
• Wait for us to issue a credit to your credit card in the amount of purchase
plus shipping fee plus your commission which comprises 10%.
• Ship out the goods.
• You are finished, come back for a new list of goods.

You have an undelivered UPS/FEDEX Package. (Virus)

From what I’ve seen so far. There seems to be a new rash of email going around with the heading that makes it look and feel like either UPS or Fedex. Saying that you have an undelivered package from them and to either print the order confirmation or to click a link. I will say this once, if you get this delete it. Fedex and UPS will never hide the link and tell you have an package waiting in the email. They will leave a note your door. You must ask yourself how Fedex/UPS found out your email address to tell you have a package waiting? They don’t and they won’t, just a fact.

UPS/FedEx Delivery Failure : Snopes

TROJ_DLOADR.GG and TSPY_ZBOT.NM Trojan, which will Monitor and try to steal your data. The other one is a ZBot and will try to steal you data also. If you need help removing this virus, I’d suggest checking out my other virus article Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc?. There are a lot of ways to remove this virus but the first step is never click on any links in your emails. I also wrote about Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! This will help prevent and fix the common virus problems you might have.

Obama Wins with McCain Leading the 2nd!

With Obama wining the Presidential Elections and McCain giving his concession speech.  We see a lot of potential going to be coming along.  I see the Democrats take charge of the US Senate.  I also see the House seats have gone to the Democrats.  So what is next for the next President, with the inauguration coming soon, what will the new president pick for the Chief of Staff.  I know he has some choices but which one will it be?

In some of the sites with his Bio, they talk about him being the First African American President:

• Biography.com
• Wikipedia.com

Some thing to consider with the Vice President is that it will be Joe Biden.  Now I don’t know very much about him but what I do know comes from the internet.  I wont’t say much because I don’t know much but I will direct you to the pages that I know about:

• Huffinton Post
• Wikipedia.com
• CNN Election Profile
• Joe Biden Delaware Page

I will find out more in the coming weeks, but right now we are making history.  What is your responses on what happened?  Are you happy or angry?  Is the signs of even more economic instabilility?  These are all questions that we have to consider in the time to come!!

Time to Change your clocks.

Time to change those clocks of ours

Having been looking at one of my old clocks that would automatically change for Daylight Savings Time, I’ve had to keep reminding myself that it is an hour off. Starting tonight at 2 PM, it will be right. So I thought I would help people keep there computer clocks up to date by suggesting some good programs to us to keep your system having the right time.  So people know what dates are being affected according to the Greenwichmeantime they say  this:

Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and the schedule for the states of the United States that adopt daylight saving time will be:

2 a.m. on the Second Sunday in March
to
2 a.m. on the First Sunday of November.

So that saying goes it “Fall back, Spring Forward“  So now here are some great programs to better help you get your computer clock up to snuff:

Worldtimeclock Atomic Clock Sync Program – It is a free program for you to use with your Windows.  Although you have to make sure your selected the right timezone once it is installed all you will need in an internet connection to sync your windows time with the atomic clock.

Oprah Recommends the Kindle!

Today in Chicago, and on TV screens across the USA, Oprah Winfrey is going to recommend her new “favorite gadget,” which is Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. A brief video has appeared on Amazon’s website to plug the show — as spotted by Chris Nuttall at the Financial Times — which will also feature a guest appearance by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. (Not his first, by the way.)

[via Guardian.co.uk]

I this recent turn of events I thought I recommend some great Kindle Reviews and let you decide if it is worth your money.  So Here are some fantastic Sources to help you decide for yourself:

• Amazon Kindle Real-Live Review Gizmodo
• MacInTouch Kindle Review
• Cnet Reviews of the Kindle
• ZDnet Reviews of the Kindle

These are just a few that I could find to better help you make choices on if you would like to buy a Kindle.  I hope this better helps you decide if it is worth.

Help stop those slow boot up!!

I was searching for a program to help boot up my system a lot quicker.   I came across this little program call Startup Delayer.  In a nutshell, it allows you to pick which programs to start up first and then lets you decide how many minutes between each program that is asking to load.

In the best way possible you can download this program and use it for yourself.   Although they seem to be having a little server problem right now.   Go download Startup Delayer, and decide for yourself.

Windows XP/ME/Vista and 2000 compatible

Microsoft Windows Server Service Vulnerability (MS08-067)

A vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Windows, which could be exploited by attackers to take complete control of an affected system. This issue is caused by an error in the Server service that does not properly handle specially crafted RPC requests, which could be exploited by attackers to crash an affected system or execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted request.

On Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the vulnerability is only exploitable by authenticated users.

Note: This vulnerability is being exploited in targeted attacks.

[via FrSirt]

This was just discovered and needs to let people know. I will do more research on it and maybe come up with a way to fix the problem. According to my sources there is a patch that will fix the problem!!

*UPDATE*
According to Microsoft:

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Server service. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that this vulnerability could be used in the crafting of a wormable exploit. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect network resources from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter.
[Via Microsoft Security Bulletin]

Mahalo Lay’s off around 10% of it’s workforce!!

In an email he sent to the readers of his publication, Jason Calicanis talks about having to lay off around 10% of people from Mahalo.  Here’s the quote:

We’ve laid off a just under 10% of our full-time staff, cut our overhead by doing smart things like renting desks (we have six desks/offices available fyi), and reorganized our editorial department to focus on freelance positions over in-house editors. The net result
of the effort is we are giving Mahalo another year of “dry powder” (or runway) to complete our mission.

This is not to be unexpected after all the talk about the recession coming our way. It does however emphasizes the need for companies to consider there profit margins and accounting strategy.

Mahalo was launched in May 2007 as an Alpha test. That is to say only a select number of people were able to access the site and create feedback to the development of the site. As of January of 2008 it is in what we call the Beta test phase. Which means more people are testing it out and find out it’s flaws to report back about where they need to improve.  Mahalo’s directory employs human editors to review websites and search engine results.

Is Hulu the “salad course”?

As I’ve been watching Hulu the last few months.  I’ve come to think that Hulu isn’t offering us the viewers the chance of a full course meals.  They seem to like to stop after the first 2-3 seasons on most of the shows.    I recently contacted Hulu about the Naruto episodes and here’s what they had to say about it:

Thanks for the email. On background, sometime in the coming weeks, Hulu
will get the remaining episodes of Naruto Season 1, and we'll also get
episodes from Season 2-3 in the future as well. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
Brandon Boone

So why does Hulu do this? I have a theory and this is one that most people will agree on. My theory is that the distributors are trying to entice us into buying the rest of the seasons from someplace, like Amazon or Itunes. Now I am going to have to say this is really stupid way of business and will sooner or later create even more of a demand to download these shows illegally. In the past people have always looked for the cheap way to watch there favorite shows.

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.

Having seen the economy this week, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is time to redo all the important essentials and get all my ducks in the order as they say.   I’ve been thinking of how best to be ready in case the dreaded day comes when my employer no longer needs my assistance and what could I do to be prepared.

• Get Someone to Critique your Resume — This is the most important step because this is the first place employers look when they want to hire someone.  So how do you get it critiqued?   Here are some good links to help you start off with:  Careerbuilder Critique, Mind of Root Peer Critique(Last until Oct 30, 2008).
• Have your Resume Ready to upload to Resume sites –  You should always register at all the important resume sites just in case.  The Sites that I recommend are : Monster, Career Builder,  Hot jobs, Dice, US jobs, Best Jobs USA, Computer Jobs, and Nation Job.
• Use your website as a place to put your Resume – Have your resume available in case some contacts you and tells you they know someone who is looking to hire people.  Have this resume hidden and only give it out to people you know.   This is also known as networking.
  

Sneak Peak : A Knight In Shining Armor Review

So I just got done watching this on Hulu.   I thought it was intriguing and somewhat like they did with the first show.  Here’s a Small Synopsis of this show:

Mike Traceur has a past and people know who he is but He doesn’t so in the effort to throw people off the trail.  Carrie Rivai decides the only way to get people to leave him alone is to kill him.  So the FBI does a stunt and kills Mike Tracer.  Now Mike has to figure out his new name and reconnect with his old flame.  Which is Sarah Graiman, Who he asked her to marry to him and yet he does not remember it.  In the end, Mike Traceur will be known as Micheal Knight and thus doing a return to the old.  What is old is new again.  I think this plot with Sara and Him will be quite intriguing but I don’t like how they had to bring in the Knight name again, Although It was something that was bound to happen.

Getting Spaz to work with the Twit Army:

I having successfully installed Spaz and use it with the Twit Army. I’d figure I would talk about how to get Spaz to work like Twirl. It’s a very simple way but some people seem to having trouble. This will only work with Vista or XP and I am not sure about Linux or Mac. I’ve been successful doing this with a Vista Premium Machine. It seems to be really easy to use and not take up to much of your desk space.

• Download and Install Adobe Air — (You will need this to installed first.)

• Download and Install Spaz — (This is the main program)

• Once install you will need to go to:

1. Go to the [ Preferences ]





2. Go to [ Other Services ]

3. Put this in exactly as shown (see example)

   
   

   

4. Go to [ Networking ] (optional)
5. Put this in exactly as sown (see example)

   
   >

   

Doing this should get you connected to the Twit Army. I am not sure why it says “ERROR : Server returned invalid data” When you first start the program but if you wait a couple seconds you will see that it will eventually loads up. If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave a comment.

Vista TV Ads Leave me Confused!

Bill Gates and Vista Ad:

So I’ve just got done watching this.  I wanted to point to show people this ad and ask people what the heck are they trying to do.  Is this like an epic AD start off where they have to meet each other first?  I don’t see any real relevance to Vista other than the end of the Commercial!  If I was Bill Gates I’d want to have a really good writer making sure there is some kind of relevance to Vista.  I can only hope they get better over time.  If they keep these this type of acting, these ads won’t get anyone to buy Vista let alone Windows!!