Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!

By Paul | Feb 19, 2009

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I just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn’t believe what I saw:

As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.

I feel that I should warn people the important necessity. You shouldn’t be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.

Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their “walls” – personalized message boards.

[Via Computing.Co.UK]

Understanding Adsense for the Beginner

By Paul | Feb 7, 2009

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So you have a website and you’d like the site to pay for itself. That can be arranged it however depends on your website performance. You see you won’t make a lot of money if you don’t have several things going for you. I thought I share with you my experience with making money through Adsense. As you saw, I made enough money to pay for the website for 5 years. It isn’t hard to make money it is however very difficult to keep getting the money. Most people don’t know the tricks to making money with Google’s Adsense.

I’m here to help you out a little with understanding it and getting even more money from your adsense. So here we are 3 months into to putting Adsense seriously on my site and let’s take a look shall we:

Understanding a Cellular Modems

By Paul | Dec 22, 2008

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So you bought a modem, and you’re not getting the speed you expected.

Yep it is unavoidable to not get that broad band speed you expected from buying a Cellular Modem and you want to learn more about what can affect your upload/download speed on the modem. Each carrier has there own specific speeds or usage. We will go through each and everyone one them talking about the kinds of speeds:

EVDO — is known as Evolution-Data Optimized and is most commonly around the major city areas. It is sometimes consider 3G and is considered the fastest in the industry. Although there are always going to be debates on who is the fastest, it really doesn’t matter because of the limitations of the networks.
GPRS — General Packet Radio Service and is also part of the 3G network but requires different frequency to acquire the signals from the tower. This is used in lower end of companies due to the fact it is easier to maintain than EVDO, but the speed is still comparable to all the other 3G family because of the interdependency of the connectivity.

The Important Windows patches Released Today

By Paul | Dec 9, 2008

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As many of you know we talked about the Non-critical patches that Microsoft will release today. IF you want to read those please go and check it out. I’ll be talking about the REALLY important ones that Microsoft has kept tight until now. These are the more important ones but I will list the ones that I previous talked about to better help people recognize the non-important ones:

KB955839

KB957388

KB890830

KB905866

These are just the tip of the iceberg. although this list are not A lot. I’d wanted to let people know about what people coin “Exploit Wednesday“. I really don’t know if this is a Myth or actually does exist but I’d figure we discuss the problems associated with installing the critical updates and try to tell you which ones should be installed As soon as possible. Though people have in the past used a Virtual Machine to see if there is any problem, that should be your first step if you don’t want to have any problems with these updates. I don’t suggest testing it more than a couple days. Here are some good Virtual Machine software to try out yourself:

Are you patched, Secunia Says NO

By Paul | Dec 5, 2008

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Think you’ve got nothing to worry about, according to Secunia 98% of computers are not fully patched and are vulnerable to some kinda of attack.

So I wanted to talk about this a little and give you a few good ways to make sure you are patched. There are several ways to get your system up to almost 100%.

Some things to do is make sure you have your Windows systems updated. This is easy to make sure, if you have an internet connection you can just check for updates. If you don’t know how to do it, it is quite simple, Just go here. If you have Windows Vista all you have to do is hit Start and type in the search box “Windows Update” and hit Enter and you will be taken to the update page.

If you have a system that is off of the Net you could use the Clone of Autopatcher Program to do it for you. You also need to update all your secondary programs such as Audacity, Open Office, and other programs that you use weekly.

Spying on Spyware.ISpynow!!

By Laforge129 | Nov 29, 2008

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This is another Virus that is going around and thought I’d tell you about it:

Spyware.ISpyNow monitors files, network traffic, and keystrokes. This Spyware gives the person who installed it a Web-based interface with summaries of logged information on the host computer.

[Via Symantec]

Now this one isn’t to hard to figure out what happened. You have to manually install it on your system to get infected. Symantec has a great way on uninstalling this annoyance. I also suggest checking out my other program list just in case you don’t want to buy Symantec Anti-Virus programs. Some other things to check out is:

Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc? – This has a great article on how to use HiJackthis program and how to make sure you no longer have the virus.
Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! — This article gives you some other programs to use other than Symantec. You have a wide variety of choices on Anti-virus programs and Firewall Choices. You also have some choices on Spyware removal programs.

Microsoft issues Vista patches out of Monthly Patch Cycle!

By Laforge129 | Nov 26, 2008

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Microsoft issues Out of cycle patch for Vista. These patches are as Followed:

Kb957321

An update rollup is available for the Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008. This update rollup resolves the problems that are documented in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

954708 An update to add support for the serialization of complex Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data types in the Windows Imaging Component

945060 There may be inconsistencies in the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) values for an image file in Windows Vista and in Windows XP

KB959108

The Windows Portable Device (WPD) API collects and transfers Software Quality Metrics (SQM) data to Microsoft servers. The SQM data is collected only on an opt-in basis through the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. An update is available that disables the collection and transfer of SQL data to Microsoft servers.

This update affects Windows Vista-based computers, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computers, and Windows Server 2008-based computers that are in the Microsoft Windows Media Player Customer Experience Improvement Program.

Cricket USB UM100 Broadband Wireless Modem Review.

By Paul | Nov 25, 2008

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The UM100c is No Longer Available, Please check out the Cricket A600 Modem Review Or the UM185 Broadband modem. The UM185 modem might be a replacement to the UM100.

After a full week of playing around with this USB wireless, I wanted to talk about it. So let’s break it down into pieces.

(USB Broadband A600 Modem card for Free after Instant online rebates and Mail in rebate Free shipping & first month free! Shop today.)
Installation – The installation of the USB was not to difficult. I did have to do some more steps than this: Install the Software, then hooked up the USB device to the USB port.
Manual Activated the Broadband – For some reason in my area they had several people have problems with the broadband activation. So I had to activate it manually!!

After that all went well, I was on the internet just a cruising along. I did however wonder why I was getting such a slow response speed. When I went traveling I thought I would share some of my local results with you to better show you my speed. All these test were done at

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

By Paul | Nov 12, 2008

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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.

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.

Are you asking to be scammed?

By Paul | Oct 15, 2008

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As we go further into the economic death, we are faced with the most undesirable aspect of the human culture. That is to say, scammers are going to use the chance to find people to scam. I don’t say this lightly because scammers have become more cunning and dubious through the years. They are actually using the internet as well as most companies. They are going to sites like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and other hiring sites to get people to apply for jobs.

<<See Previous Post – Nationwide Marketing Scam

Having said that, I recently had a problem with being tried to be scammed. I applied to a job posted on Careerbuilder and that is how they got a hold of my home address. I did not think about the security problems associated with applying for jobs on line, until recently.

As you can see that is how they got a hold of my information and have made myself vulnerable to scams and also, other potential problems. I am talking about Theft ID and also spam. Although spam is to be expected with anything we do online. I’ve come to the conclusion that we will always have to deal with spam. I wanted to talk about how to be careful when you apply for online jobs and put your information out on the internet. I’ve started taking some steps to prevent this from happening again.

Scam ALERT: NATIONWIDE MARKETING!!

By Paul | Oct 14, 2008

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*Update* Seems to be that they’ve went and changed to another name. They are now using Excel Marketing, and I plan on keeping people updated. Read the comments to find out about what people have said!!!

Hi all,

Just got this nice little letter from Nationwide Marketing. This was sent snail mail, or Postal mail. I came home today to find I got mail from 30 Centurian Drive/Markham, ON L3R 8B9 Canada. I opened it up and find a check from Nationwide Marketing. it’s the old routine, they want you to cash the check send them $3,500 and you keep the rest. The fake check that I know is faked, I call the bank in question. It says you have to do a 2 hour evaluation training and get paid training for 200$ per Hour. The fake check was for $3,990.00 and $3,500 was supposed to be sent through a Wal-mart Money Gram. The so called position was Customer Service Evaluator (Rep ID#: KB0C0608). I am supposed to call 1-905-598-1519 I received this assignment to validate the enclosed payment.Thank goodness I did a little searching and found out this was a scam.

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.

By Paul | Oct 10, 2008

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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.

Backup your Mozzila Thunderbird profiles

By Paul | Oct 7, 2008

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So you have all this mail you want to back up in case something terrible happens to your hard drive. So here is ways to backup your email and other programs in Vista. I think Vista has a new way of keeping program profiles in an hierarchical setup. So what is the HIDDEN directory it is:

C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Now as you can see your Thunderbird profile is in a hidden directory in the AppData Directory. You can easily get to the hidden directory by typing %appdata% {enter} in the search bar of Vista. Now How do you backup and restore. The program I use to backup is GoodSync. I send the data to the cloud and when I need it I can restore it back to the directory. Now what about restoring, if you have to do a complete re-install of Thunderbird you can always copy over the back up to the Thunderbird Profiles directory and install Mozilla Thunder bird and it should see it. If by chance you load up Thunderbird and you have to re add everything you would have to delete everything in that directory and then restore from the back up.

Taking back Program Controls : For the Beginners!

By Paul | Oct 1, 2008

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So, let’s face it, this is one of the most annoying problems there are with programs. Programs that you think are shut down but are actually still active in the Taskmanager. So I figured I’d talk about some of the most common fixes for these problems. Now as you know there can be any number of programs or glitches as they say, causing the problems. So let’s talk about the why, shall we.

Most of the time programs don’t quit because they are waiting for some kind of response from the system or the System is waiting for the program to close by itself. It could also be a problem with a Virus or Root kit? How do you fix it?

Fixing the problem is somewhat just trial and Error. It isn’t always the hardest thing to do but sometimes people overlook the easiest solutions. So here are some easy ones:

Check to see if one of the Microsoft updates are causing the problem – Sometimes you might not realize it, but having installed an update can cause problems like KB951748. That one caused a major Headache for Zonealarm. So it is wise to check each months updates when you start seeing problems, sometimes it could of been happening for a while but it can sometimes cause troubles.

Fixing the Adobe Problem!!

By Paul | Sep 3, 2008

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If your have been having problems with Flash Players stoping after 2 seconds of playing. I have a few ideas to try to get rid of the problem. It used to happen all the time with Vista in the early days. Here’s what I did to occasionally get the flash player to work:

Cleaning out the Prefetch Directory! — Having seen this from time to time. If you have programs startup that might need to be refreshed this will refresh them so that they run like new. You occasionally can get programs that will load in a odd way and this will fix that also.

You want to be more anonymous? — Cleaning out your cache on your browser can sometimes fix the problem. It’s like anything else it can sometimes be corrupted.

Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! — Having seen this with my own two eyes, if you have a viruses or malware on your system that too can cause problems with playback of flash media. So just double check making sure you don’t have any viruses.