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Monday, May 22, 2006

IM, MS Word threats, and NSA-ATT

So it has been some time since I posted howerver we do have several interesting revalations today...

Coming from our friends at Yahoo, a new work is infecting their IM (Instant Messaging) client known as Yahoo Messenger. This pesky work installs its own web browser and is engaging in spyware like activities. Ironically, the name of the insecure browsers it installs is called The Safety Browser. Check out some more about it here.

Late last week, word (ha!) surfaced on the internet the Microsoft's Word wordprocessor program has a exploit out in the wild. This exploit allows a hacker to take over your comptuer. The good news is that you need to use MS Word and open a document for the exploit to take place. Good thing only 99% of the PC world uses Word. Virus info here.

Finally, the NSA-ATT internet spying scandal is heating up. Today, Wired news/magazing published the 30-page affadavid and ATT documents describing the procedures and setup of the NSA spying equipment. Technically exciting, details things such as procedures, off-limit rooms, and fibre-splitting.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Undetectable "stealth" rootkits are infecting Windows XP SP2 Machines

From E-Week:

"In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

"When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.

Offensive rootkits, which are used hide malware programs and maintain an undetectable presence on an infected machine, have become the weapon of choice for virus and spyware writers and, because they often use kernel hooks to avoid detection, Danseglio said IT administrators may never know if all traces of a rootkit have been successfully removed."

Monday, March 27, 2006

Serioius IE Flaw...

Researchers at various secuirty sites have seen an escalation in attacks using an unpatched Internet Explorer (IE) flaw to steal users account names, passwords and personal financial information.

Microsoft acknowledged the previously undisclosed flaw in a blog posting earlier this week, in which it urged users to practice "safe browsing practices" -- such as only visiting trusted Web sites. I'd like to offer my two cents, which is that readers who use Windows consider downloading and using a different browser, like Firefox, Netscape or Opera.

If you do not want to believe these dangers are real, please check out this article on what the attackers are doing with your computer.

Now more than ever it is important to stop using IE on a daily basis and switch to an alternative browser. If your attached to IE for a specific websites functionality, please be sure to only use IE for that site.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Media wall...


So we started with one rack that was moved from upstairs in my house down to my newly finished basement. What a great way to finish that angled wall I put in to cover up some plumbing. This is the grey metallic color of the Benno CD/DVD tower from Ikea. Enjoy...

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Access your comptuer from ANYWHERE

I found a great program/site for accessing your home comptuer when you are away from it. It is called LogMeIn and it works like Remote Desktop but without the hasstle of having to know your comptuers IP address or complicated setups through firewalls.

Visit the LogMeIn site and sign up for the free basic remote comptuer access program.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Online Word-Processor/Collaboration

From the you-don't-have-to-spend-a-grand on a word processor department, Writely (Beta) is a web based word processor. Great for simple to medium complex documents, this online, AJAX based application is a free product now owned by Google. When I read about the acquision of the product by Google I new it sounded famiar. I actually had an account already (which is good as new account requests are frozen until they move to Google's servers). Anyway, I found this to be great so try it out. You can actually collaborate on the same doc with others at the same time and all get the same changes. If you want an account let me know and I will invite you.

http://www.writely.com/

Friday, March 10, 2006

All Instant messengers, anywhere

Tired of corporate or school firewalls blocking you favorite IM program. Try Meebo. Slick easy to use interface in your web browswer.

http://www.meebo.com/

Bobby

Far too long...

So its been a long time of neglect for Trifster's Domain...lets see if I can get some good contenet back up here.

So for today, lets discuss the cool world of the Blackberry. Since RIM's patent dispute with NTP has been resolved we can not focus on the fun of being a blackberry addict.

The new breed of Blackberry devices have some awesome capability. With the built in web browser a world of web tools and Google awaits. Below is a sampling of my favorite programs for the blackberry with links (visit BlackberryForums.com for more great info):

UPDATED (3/12/2006):Opera Mini Web Browser

Blackberry Messenger
Use this cool tool to "PIN" message your fellow BB carriers.

Google Local
Download this program so you can have maps, satellite images, and directions right on you BB

Google Talk
Google Talk IM on the blackberry. Awesome

Google and Gmail
Access your personalized Google home or Gmail

AOL IM via RAMBLE
AOL IM on the BB. Great program.

Berry 411
Wireless Link: www.thebogles.com/berry411.jad
Desktop Link: www.thebogles.com/Berry411.htm
The best White Pages and Yellow Pages search software for the BlackBerry, this also has a built-in bonus of movie showtimes lookup and weather lookup!
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BBToday
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bbtoday-1.5/BBToday.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
A very nice miniature PIM "Today Screen" that displays your appointments, number of missed phone calls, number of waiting new emails, as well as today's weather, as well as your favourite stock quotes.
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BBReply
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bbreply-1.1/BBReply.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
Ever wish you have multiple different editable "Reply-To:" addresses when writing emails on the BlackBerry? This is the solution - you can now have customizable Reply-To: when writing emails on BlackBerry.
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BBLight
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bblight-1.82/BBLight.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
Configures your BlackBerry light to stay always-on when out of holster. Or automatically turns on backlight when you hit a keypress (a problem on older BlackBerry models)! Be warned, this application affects battery life!
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BBWeather
Wireless Link: blackberrytools.sourceforge.net/OverTheAir/bbweather-0.74/BBWeather.jad
Desktop Link: sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools
Display weather forecasts on BlackBerry on one button click, much faster than BlackBerry Browser. For entering a new city into this weather forecast application, you need an 8-character city code. (The city code is 4 capital letters followed by 4 numbers. Just grab those codes matching this pattern from inside the URL's when viewing weather forecasts at www.weather.com or www.theweathernetwork.com on your desktop PC, and save the 8 character code into the BBWeather software, and viola.)
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QuickCompose
Wireless Link: www.marky.com/files/bb/QuickCompose.jad
Desktop Link: blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=25495
One hotkey access ("C" key) to immediately composing a blank new email message. Requires BlackBerryOS 4.1 or later. This readds the missing Compose icon from earlier BlackBerryOS software, while using the new convenient New Email interface of OS 4.1. Free utility written by Mark Rejhon (based on Ramble's version). To enable hotkeys, turn off "Dial From Home Screen" setting in Phone->Options. (You can press the phone hotkey before dialing, anyway). Hotkeys do not work on 71XX series, so you have to manually launch via icon. However, hotkeys works from PocketDay as an assigned key if you need hotkeys on the 71XX series.
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QuickNote
Wireless Link: www.marky.com/files/bb/QuickNote.jad
Desktop Link: blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=25495
One hotkey access ("Q" key) to immediately jotting down notes that is automatically copied to the clipboard. Requires BlackBerryOS 3.6 or later. Free utility written by Mark Rejhon. To enable hotkeys, turn off "Dial From Home Screen" setting in Phone->Options (hotkey does not work on 71XX).