How do you like your Cricket USB Modem?

Lately I talked about the A600 USB 3G modem and Now I want to hear from the Readers?  You see I can’t do my best reviewing these with comments from the readers, that being you.

Click the picture to send me email, just remember to replace “AT” with “@”.

So I want to hear what you think about either the USB UM100 Modem or the A600 USB 3g Modem?  Here a re a few things to answer when you write your email.

Something will go to the people who email me?  I want to publish some of these comments on my blog for all to read.  I want to hear if what I am publishing helps you?  I will even give your credit as  to who wrote it.  If you have a site or something you want to promote by all means add that to your testimonial.  Here’s the basic questions that should be talked about:

• Which one did you buy? (Cricket USB A600 or Cricket USB UM100)
• Did you Upgrade from the Cricket USB UM100 to the Cricket USB A600?
• Are you using it for travel or Primary internet?
• Is it for business or Pleasure?

Facebook Goes Phishing again

In one of my Previous articles about the Koobface Worm, I talked about the way they were infecting the systems and what you need not do.

It seems that Trend Micro has seen an even more rise in people downloading the WORM_KOOBFACE.AZ and Seems to be on the RISE. This is all done with a Social engineering and Has had some attempts before with this little worm on Facebook.

After your Infected with this new Variant, it searches for cookies and Sends out a message to people from:
* facebook.com
* hi5.com
* friendster.com
* myyearbook.com
* myspace.com
* bebo.com
* tagged.com
* netlog.com
* fubar.com
* livejournal.com

This seems to be a social engineering Nightmare for these websites and as yet are unsure what else it does but it says the same thing it did before by saying “This is a Video of You on the Street.” Which is bogus but none the less people click and think they have to download a codec or update their Flash. Social Engineering is on the rise and will be taken seriously. You should read the full report from Trend on what it does but you also should have an anti-virus and Firewall installed to prevent this from happening in the first place. The only true way of preventing this is not to be fooled, you should NEVER Download from a site you don’t know or trust. See all the Facebook articles for more information.

Rogue Fake Codecs on the Rise

Panda Labs has been talking about Adware/VideoPlay and they are seeing a lot of variants on this.   They even play a game, find the difference in the installation screen:

Now as you can see this look to be the same agreement in all those difference installation.  Some things to consider Never install any software from a website that you don’t know Nothing about about.

Panda Labs also talks about these new variants in regards to what they do:

This file spreads by making copies of itself in the removable drives and it also creates an autorun.inf in order to be run when they are accessed. This file collects the data stored in the browsers, such as cookies, passwords, profiles, email accounts, etc, and connects to a remote address to send the information.
[Via Panda Labs Blog]

And the Oscar goes to . . . Not these guys!

Sans Internet Storm is reporting on Anti-virus Scareware tactic. I’ll quote from them:

ISC reader Gary wrote in to let us know that searching for “oscar presenters” and “oscar winners” with Google brings up a prominently ranked result on a web server in Poland, on a subdomain of “beepl”, which – surprise, surprise – includes a malicious JavaScript. The end result currently seems to reside on stabilitytracewebcom, and is yet another incarnation of the “Fake Anti-Virus Program” malware that we have covered repeatedly. Watch out, the EXE has a meager 6/39 on Virustotal.
[Via Sans]

I did my own research and it is true they are at least 3 sites with the .pl Domain that are used to send you to these fake sites. You should consider checking your system for possible viruses if you been to these sites and are worried. You should also report any site like this to Phishtank to fight this type of scare tactics. Please remember if you are worried about your system this is the best time to install software to prevent these types of scare tactics. Remember you don’t always have to buy software to be safe. There are free anti-virus and Firewall solutions at your fingertips, use them well. It is also a good idea to make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft while your at it.

PolyMorphic Win32:Vitro Most Viraulent Virus

This seems to be an virus that is getting some people hit hard.   I wanted to blog about this because of the nature of Virus and Trojans.   I have read reports that this might be from Online Movies, and I have to say this is one reason why you must stay away from certain online movies.  I am going to take a guess that this virus requires a special CODEC, and you downloaded it and installed it.  It Could also be the update the Adobe Flash player idea to but still results in getting the Virus.

As I said before you take a risk when you go to sites you don’t trust or know anything about.   You also should know that if you need a “SPECIAL” codec, you should just go on to another site.  These sites that claim they need this special codec means only one thing they want to install something without your Knowledge.

So what is this Virus:

The Virut family of viruses uses polymorphism to hide from all anti-virus protection, it infects executable files. File infection makes it very hard to repair a system that has been infected. W32/Vitro injects code in running processes and hooks the following functions in ntdll.dll which transfers control to the virus every time any of these function calls are made.

Offline Update 5.0, Clone of Autopatcher to Some!!

Offline updater 5.0 has been released a couple months ago and I just realized it now.  This is an excellent tool for IT professionals who want to keep all your Systems up-to-date with the last patches from Microsoft.  The systems it supports are Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 x64, And Windows Vista / Server 2008.(32 bit and 64 Bit updates).

I find this a very useful program for people who have a multitude of problems, from not being able to get on the net to computer virus infections.  This is really good for big businesses that want to update a lot of systems in easy way without having to wait for downloads of updates to install.   You can take a DVD and update on the fly within Mins.   DVD being Cheap or buying them in bulk helps saves time and money for the company.   Less time spent downloading the updates and more time actually getting work done.  As with the Conflicker, Downadup, and to some the Conflickr Trojan, if you got infected with that little worm.  This would help install the updates that it prevented you from doing in the first place.  I also found that once you download do the update the files are kept on the hard drive so you no longer have to redownload them again.  You just update the updates every second Tuesday of the month and it downloads the newest patches and creates a whole new ISO for you to burn.

Disaster preparation 101 — Data backup

In this one I will talk about Disaster, it happens to all of us from time to time. A fire, a earthquake, a stolen laptop or any number of ways. So what happens to your data, is it stored on the laptop? Is it important very sensitive data? Could you get fired if you lost that data?

These are all questions you must ask yourself when you have laptop. How do you backup your data or even do you have a backup? Having seen this with my own clients, I must wonder if there are people out there who just don’t care. I had a client the other day who gotten a virus and this was a really mean virus. Deleted some very important files when you tried to clean the virus out. She called me in a panic because she couldn’t load up windows? I asked if she had any backups, she said “what’s a backup” . So I sat there discussing this with the client for over 20 minutes. Finally she started to understand, she said she had the OEM Backup DVD but nothing else. She also said she needed help with getting data off the computer. I told her that I would be able to come the next day and I was lucky the virus didn’t do anything else to her data. We were able to retrieve the data from her system. That is where I start my rant , Why would anyone not have backup of there most important data?

Digital Convert boxes for Feburary 17, 2008

It being close to the change over, I’d figure I’d show you some of them and talk about them. To better help people make up there minds on what might be there choice of a Digital Converter Box. This is to help people get the most out of there products.

The Specs for this Converter is:

Zenith DTT901 Digital TV Tuner Converter Box

• Digital TV Tuner Coverter Box
• Analog Pass-Through for Low-Power TV Stations broadcasts
• On-Screen Program Information with Remote Control
• Simple Connection to TV with supplied RF Cable
• Parental Control to Manage TV Programs and advanced Closed Captioning

$59.95 Free Shipping

It could be on sale so check the link for more price options.  I also found this one that is a little more expensive but supposed to be better:
GE 23333 Digital to Analog TV Converter Box

• Smart Antenna Interface
• Simple Setup
• Analog Pass Through
• Dolby(R) Digital Sound
• Receives Over-Air Hdtv Signals

$76.99 Free Shipping

Microsoft released KB960714 to fix THE IE Problem

This is the update to fix the IE Vulnerability and if you have any questions please make sure to check my other post about this little update.   This was sent out today and should be patch ASAP, on all systems.  If you want to patch the easy way, I suggest downloading Clone to Autopatcher.  This seems to help make an ISO file on a DVD so you don’t have to update a system the old way.

Removing Win32/Bagle.HE worm

Here is another virus that seems to be spreading lately.   From the looks of it, it sees to be another email worm.  Here is what eset says:

Aliases

Email-Worm.Win32.Bagle.gt (Kaspersky), W32/Bagle.gen (McAfee), Trojan.Tooso!gen (Symantec)

Win32/Bagle.HE is a worm that spreads via e-mail. The size of its executable is 40565 B .

When executed the worm copies itself in the following locations:

• Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\hidn\
  hldrrr.exe
• Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\hidn\
  hidn2.exe

In order to be executed on every system start, the worm sets the following Registry entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\drv_st_key

It seems to have a manual removal process, Unless you pay for the other software but according to the 411 on PC Security:

Win32/Bagle.HE worm is a “threat” that appears in security scans by fake antispyware WinDefender 2008.

The danger of Win32/Bagle.HE worm is supposed to scare you into wasting $49.95 on WinDefender 2008.

Unless you like getting ripped off, don’t download the software the Win32/Bagle.HE worm popup links to. You’re not really infected with Win32/Bagle.HE worm — you’re infected with scamware that you need to remove.

I’ll show you how to get rid of Win32/Bagle.HE worm and WinDefender 2008, for free.

Cricket Wireless Broadband Card — How to get better speed!

After buying the card last month,  I did a quick review about the broadband card. I wanted to talk about the speed problems that I had when I first used the modem.  Here is how to possibly getting better speeds when you use your card.   First off, you will need to disconnect from the internet and go to your quicklink mobile application:

You will click on “Tools”  and then hit ‘Activation’.   If you have it fail on your the first time you should reboot your system then try to do the activation after reboot that should fix the activation problem.
As you can see after I did the activation of the modem, my speed went way up from the last review.  I thought I should talk about how you could possibly fix this.  I called tech support over this to get a better speed.  

CBS Confirms the Axe of Layoffs for CNET

CBS throws the gauntlet and says in a statement :

CBS Interactive continues its integration process, which now calls for the further combination of several portions of the division into unified groups oriented around similar content. This important move allows us to better align our premium content for our audiences and our advertisers, and also results in reduction in certain areas that are now duplicated in the new organization structure. We believe these moves are necessary to continue building CBS Interactive into the most creative, most efficient, most profitable and fastest growing Internet company in the media business.”

Now I can Only guess as to what they will re-organized but if it is anything like Jeff Gerstmann and how we heard people might resign over that little fiasco. I’d give the likely hood of several people from Gamespot and Probably even more people from C-NET. I don’t know who they will lay off but I do know they are going to re-organization. You will probably have to pay for content from them in one way or the other. This is somewhat not un-expected due to the Economic Stress we are currently in and Probably will be for some time.

Google let your work from home with Task Lists!!

As the day go by we have all have tasks, and that means we have to keep a way to remember them.  Google decided to add that to there Google Mail.  Pcworld said it the right way:

If keeping Gmail open all the time just wasn’t enough, Google gave us one more reason to stay glued to our computer screens. The Labs Team have released yesterday a new feature for Gmail – Tasks – basically a To-Do list manager. But besides the usual task list bonanza, the new feature can also associate emails with tasks and create multiple to-do lists.

[Via Pcworld]

So how do you get that to work.  Pcworld has a great resource for people to find out how to get it to work.   Just think it gives you one more reason to work from home.   Google actually did something quite nice when it comes to mail.   It can even convert email into tasks.  If you know of any good uses of this little feature leave a comment.

The Next big Wave of Layoffs is Sony. (9,000 workers)

In a report from Engadget, there seems to be more Layoffs going on.   One such one is Sony.  Here is what Engadget said:

The bad news from the Japanese consumer electronics industry continues. Sony just announced plans to cut about 8,000 global jobs from its beleaguered electronics business while making unspecified reductions to its seasonal and temporary workforce. The move, as Sony explains it, comes “in response to the sudden and rapid changes in the global economic environment.” Ominously, it looks like Sony will also be raising prices in the countries where “Sony makes significant sales” (read: US and Europe) if we’re reading this statement correctly:

[Via Engadget]

In Today’s economy, you need to be prepared.  So I thought I bring back some old Favorites of mine and talk about them.  To see the other layoffs that I’ve talked about CLICK HERE.   If you wanted to know what you can do to be prepared here are some great resources for people who are worried about there jobs:

• 5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.
• Are you asking to be scammed? (Don’t get scammed while finding a job)
• Google : Job Resources
  

Rumor is that Itunes will Remove DRM!

A report from last week brought to AppleInsider’s attention by French technology site ElectronLibre asserts that it’s now “clear” Apple will spark new interest in its music store by removing DRM from tracks published by Sony, Universal and Warner on December 9th.

[Via Apple Insider]

Although, this is somewhat unlikely I’ve got my own theories on this.  You see If Apple did this tomorrow that would be a BIG deal, due to the fact that Microsoft will be releasing there patches on the same day.  I find it would be a momentous occasion.

I can only guess why and the guess is just a guess.  If Itune’s did remove there DRM the same time as Microsoft Patch Tuesday, I’d have to guess they will co-inside because of the difficulty of using the DRM, Digital Rights Management, on other products.  For example, Windows Media Player .  If Apple decided to approach Microsoft and come up with a way to make sure all DRM is stripped this would be the ideal situation.   Although this is highly unlikely, I’d have to think Apple wouldn’t wait till tomorrow to strip the DRM.  They know Microsoft schedule.  We will have to find out in the coming days.

Facebook : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

In today’s society, we’ve been to complacent with people with people clicking links for the social group. In one such article on Channel Web, a nice little blog, says this:

The worm was discovered by IT security provider Kaspersky Lab, which said the threat, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, is targeting Facebook users by creating spam messages and sending them to the infected user’s friends via the site.

“Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by ‘friends’ on social networking sites,” said Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. “So, the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high.”

[Via Channel Web]

This seems to be a problem people thinking that a link someone sends them is a real good link but actually is a link to a video site. According to this article the links people are sending are actually a fake video link, telling you have to download some update to flash player, by downloading this program. The user gets involved with the virus and the fun begins. So how can you prevent this from happening, two ways one is a very good group of software to make sure you have the latest and greatest video codecs. That too can be something they’ll say you need and if you’ve already installed this list of codecs then you know they’ll not telling the truth and you can quickly get away from the site laughing.

Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A is not a Firefox plugin.

A new type of malware designed to harvest web passwords has been detected in-the-wild by BitDefender’s antivirus research labs. This latest e-threat – called Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A – is intended to be delivered onto a compromised computer system by other malware for subsequent download into Mozilla Firefox’s Plugin folder. Once installed it gets to work every time Firefox is started.

[Via Bitdefender]

So having seen this I thought I’d come up with ways around this to better protect yourself.  One way to prevent this from getting your sensitive data is to get a program like Sandboxie.   You could stop using Firefox that would be silly, because right now Firefox is more secure than Chrome and Internet Explorer.   I’d also suggest checking out my Anti-spyware page and Anti-Virus page and get some more protection.

The key to this virus protection is just be cautious of where you go and keep all you system update to date to prevent all this from happening.  It is also advisable to not have your passwords saved on Firefox, you should use something like Roboform, it is free  to download and try.  It will encrypt your passwords so if they don’t know the master password then they are out of luck.  Roboform is also good for coming up with some strong passwords.  Just some suggestions to prevent from people seeing your sensitive data, you don’t want anyone to get that data.

sinowal.trojan Problems.

Trojan-PSW:W32/Sinowal.CP drops and loads a password stealing component on the infected system and tries to steal account information from it. It also tries to steal information that is required to access certain online banks’ and online payment systems’ websites.

[via F-secure]

It seems to be a very hard virus to remove but there are ways to get rid of this virus.   Some tips and tricks to get rid are:

• Check out my Anti-Virus Page
• Computing.net
• The Geek Police
• How to Detect Sinowal

This are the beginning steps to get rid of a Virus but it will be a really hard virus because it wants to stay in your system.  You should also Restart in Safe mode and Try to remove that virus that one.   You will also want to disable your system restore due to the fact that it will be in there and might come back if you restore your system.  Just some simple tips to help keep you safe on the net.

Adobe Lays off 600 people

Adobe might also hire new workers within Europe, he said. The cuts will be formally announced on Dec. 15 when the company releases its fourth-quarter financial report.

[via Infoworld]

This is another technology company to lay off people, there are some talks that it would be around 600 workers on some blogs. Others are just talking about the Management shakedown, and some workers are going to be moved around. I don’t know who is going to be laid off, or if there will be a tremendous amount of people who will need to start looking for a job. I do know that Adobe is looking for ways to cut cost, and I expect they are having problems just because of the Recession.  If you want to check out other jobs that have laid people off, just click this link.

Adobe also announced the implementation of a restructuring program, and has taken steps to reduce its headcount by approximately 600 full-time positions globally. The restructuring will result in anticipated pre-tax charges totaling approximately $44 million to $50 million. The Company expects approximately $28 million to $30 million of the restructuring charges to be recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008.

Apple’s Immunity, Botnet sanctuary.

But is Apple projecting a false sense of security just to save face? Many experts repeatedly warn that all operating systems are susceptible to viruses, and as the Mac becomes more popular OS X will inevitably become a bigger target for malicious attacks.

[via Pcworld]

Having said that I feel the notion that Apple is trying to keep there reputation as a virus free system. I can only hope that they stay that way. Which as much as I know, Apple will most like start to be the main source for botnets, because of the lack of security.

According to reports on this blog, people are worried Apple stance on it being the safest and having so much immunity to viruses. Apple in the past has stated they have mislead people with there firewall. Yet Apple takes down that suggestion of having an Anti-virus(Quietly).

Everything I’ve seen suggest that virus writers and Malware writers will MOST likely start targeting the Mac OS X, they know Apple sense of security is Vulnerable to attack and they will exploit it more and more. So what does that mean for Apple, it just means that soon every hacker who has a botnet will want a piece of the Apple Pie and is right now.

GTA 4 Causes fatal error mma10, how to fix it!!

After seeing all this happened I thought I would help people out on how to fix it.   This seems to be a DRM problem according to some reports.  Others are thinking it is the Securerom.  Anyways the problem seems to be with the Rockstar Social Club and not to log in to that.  That will fix the problem, you will at least be able to play the single player game.  This is a temporary fix till the developers fix in the update.  This will also fix the Steam version of the game.

Vista To release Service Pack 2 in April 2009

Some sources are reporting that Vista SP2 will be out in April.   According to Engadget they claim TechARP is a bunch of Malaysian Kids that like to boast about how they broke the Vista SP1 and XP SP3 release schedules to the world.  They claim though that Vista Release candidate is to be out around February.Microsoft has indicated that this SP3 will include Windows Search 4, Bluetooth 2.1 wireless support, faster resume from sleep when a wireless connection has been broken and support for Blu-ray.   I personally think it will include some of Windows 7 features to better get people accustomed to Windows 7 when they come out.

Although this is speculation and no hard evidence I think it has some merit due to the fact that Microsoft has admitted in the past that Vista was a big Letdown.  I don’t think they can any more to damage than they have already done.   If anything Windows 7 will be a easy Success if they pull it off in the right way!!!  Although with WIndows 7 be leaked online there is no telling what will happen. I am sure what ever happens will be interesting to say the least!!!

Spying on Spyware.ISpynow!!

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.

Black Friday gets way out of hand!!! (No JOKE)

OK, Black Friday has officially gotten out of hand. A 34-year-old WalMart employee was trying to hold back the crowds at a Long Island store this morning at 5am, when they took the doors off their hinges and stormed the store. The man fell down and was trampled by over 200 people as he gasped for air. It’s sad and despicable, and it’s equally the fault of the dehumanized shoppers and the WalMart store it happened at.
[via Gizmodo]

This is a sad day when people are more interested in deals then someone getting stampeded by other people.   This happened in the Long Island Wal-mart.    I much prefer CyberMonday, where you don’t have to worry about someone getting killed.   I feel sorry for the people involved they now have to deal with there conscience.   I hope this teaches Wal-mart to do something different next year.  Next year they should have them enter one at a time in a line, every 2 seconds or so!!

Microsoft issues Vista patches out of Monthly Patch Cycle!

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.

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.

1. (USB Broadband A600 Modem card for Free after Instant online rebates and Mail in rebate Free shipping & first month free! Shop today.)
2. 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.
3. 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

Google SearchWiki dies after two days!!

According to Techcrunch Google Pulls the Google SearchWiki.  Unsure as to way  but here’s what they said:

Users are reporting that the recent changes to Google’s search engine, called SearchWiki, have simply disappeared from the site. It’s certainly gone from my account.

User reactions were mixed but weighted heavily towards “this is lame,” and there was no way to turn off the features other than to conduct Google searches without being logged in. Another way to turn it off was to switch search engines.

[via TechCrunch]

I’ve got my theory on this, and it’s quite a good theory.   I think it was a making search results come up wrong or not at all.   The last two days they’ve had that going my page views have drop BIG time.    According to my Stats I’ve had 236 Unique Visits for Thursday, and 232 Wednesday.   My Friday stats show that I only got 185 Unique Visits, dropping 40 to 50 people.  My stats for today which is incomplete shows that I’ve only gotten 136 unique visits.  Although that is complete you can see where I dropped drastically.   I think Google was getting yelled at by websites due to the stats dropping.   I am guessing people could tell if they wanted to go to a site just by reading the comments.  This will hurt every site, including TechCrunch.   I will say this is only a theory and this might or might not be the case.

How to disable autorun the easy way!!!

I read a report from Cnet about USB devices spreading Virus and I will quote:

The bad guys are intentionally developing new flavors of malware designed to propagate through USB devices,” said Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist for IBM’s ISS security division. “They are today’s floppy drives.”

An infected computer can spread a virus to a clean USB thumb drive that is inserted. That USB drive will then be spreading the virus onto other computers if the operating system on those machines has an AutoRun-type feature enabled. The AutoRun function in Windows launches installers and other programs automatically when a flash drive or CD is inserted. The Mac has an equivalent function, according to Ollmann.

[Via Cnet]

In order to disable “autorun“, which in Vista is called Autoplay. In order to disable Autoplay from starting when you insert media into your computer here is how you do it:

You will need to be Logged in as Administrator before this can be done:

Next click start and type “Autoplay” without quotes. It will bring up a screen but all you have to worry about is this:

Vista has a new Vulnebility!

According to Techworld.com,  Vista has a new Vulnerability that could let a hacker infect a Vista machine with a rootkit.  The talk from them is quite intriguing.   I will quote it to better let you know what the Vulnerability is:

The vulnerability could allow a hacker to install a rootkit, a small piece of malicious software that is very difficult to detect and remove from a computer, Unterleitner said.

Phion notified Microsoft about the problem on 22 October. Microsoft indicated to Phion that it would issue a patch with Vista’s next service pack. Microsoft released a beta version of Vista’s second service pack to testers last month. Vista’s Service Pack 2 is due for release by June 2009.
[via Techworld.com]

The way they could do this is through the Device IO Control which in turn could corrupt the Kernel of Windows Vista.  Now we all know that Microsoft will release a patch quicker than 6 months away.  According to this article, people are already looking for the exploit and want to know more about it.  I would be willing to bet they will have a patch out sooner than later.  Probably January or Febuary, which will be a big deal because no one will expect it.  I would also imagine hackers will start trying to figure out how they could install software as quick as possible before Microsoft pushes out the patch.   So what can you do to protect yourself, Get a firewall, a Antivirus and learn how to protect yourself to prevent yourself from getting a computer virus.

Stargate Atlantis ends after the 5 Season!

After 5th season there will be no more weekly shows of Atlantis.   According to Gateworld:

Atlantis remains an extremely strong performer in DVR-delayed viewing, though, often building as much as 25 to 30 percent on its premiere night audience.

I kept saying Atlantis should of been on Hulu, just like every other show they would have a more solid audience and more  viewers to count.  The only reason Eureka and others got more ratings was because they could watch the latest shows on Scifi or Even Hulu.  Unlike Stargate Atlantis on Hulu, they only have small clips.   In order to build a fanbase, you need to build around the most current way to show the show off.   Granted it still did rather well with ratings and all but it could of done better by putting it on HULU.   There are sites out there that would like to Save Atlantis and I agree with them.  I would love to see more seasons of Atlantis, and see it on HULU.