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Entries in Mail (10)

Tuesday
May102011

Something great is coming!

 

From Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Big Surprises coming!


Yes I know this is something you probably haven't heard from me for a while.   I do however have some bing plans coming in the following weeks.   I am unsure when this will happen but you can be sure it will be a great challenge for most of my readers.   I've been in talks with a company or two about something that you will love to talk about and also maybe get in the near future.

If you haven't already!


If you haven't already subscribed to my mailing list, this would be an excellent time to jump aboard.   This mailing list is going to be the launching for this Big surprise, so you will know before anyone else.    So If you haven't, you should.   It is also my newest attempt at keeping you up to date on what is going on.   Whenever I post something new to my blog you will receive an email the next day.   So you will never have to worry about missing a post.  I will also be adding special stuff in this email list from time to time so you will always find those nuggets of wisdom from my list.

How do I subscribe?


It isn't rocket science as someone once said but it does require you to verify your email address, so once you receive the verifying process you will automatically be sent updates through the email whenever something new is published or when I want to give my readers something special.





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Thats about it, I will see you on the flip side. Have a Good Day!!

Paul Sylvester


 
Thursday
Jan082009

Microsoft Keynote CES 2009



[ad#ad2-right]

Some Key topics talk about in this Keynotes are:


Windows 7 -- Lighter, Faster, and Reliability. Windows 7 Should boot quicker and faster, and enables cool new interface touch.

Windows 7 -- Beta will be available Worldwide on January 9, 2009 and will be available for download on MSDN and Technet.  Also it will be available at : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 For those who want to download it from Microsoft directly.

Windows Live Essentials -- Windows live Messenger, Mail, and Photo Gallery works with Windows XP, VISTA, and Windows 7. It is available for download worldwide. Dell will also be putting this on their consumer and small business computers.

Windows Mobile -- 11 Different Mobile phones.

Verizon Mobile --  Windows Live Search will be available through Verizon and it's a partnership with Microsoft.

Demo of Windows 7, Live, and Mobile:


Windows 7 will have Windows touch and be able to use net books with Windows 7.

Windows 7 has been designed with the Touch DNA in mind.

Windows Mobile demo with an Panoramic display.

Windows Live Demo --  Various things they discuss here including Photo's and Silver light.

Windows XBOX:

[ad#ad2-left]Halo Wars -- Strategy game and will Available February 28, 2009. The Bungie Will have a demo version February 5, 2009 and will be available for download.

Halo 3 ODST -- Will be available in the Fall of 2009. New Characters, new events and will be like Halo 3.

Various stuff about Xbox Live 360

These were just the main things that I thought was important to let people know what was mainly the important highlights of this keynote. I will recommend everyone to go and watch it for yourself, I am sure I've missed something that someone would consider very important and understand that. This however is a personal and will be different in everyone. I watched this and am excited and can't wait for windows 7 to be released so I can get my hands on this and see how it fairs with a Vista CPU and GPU. So only time will tell. I hope you enjoyed this little run down. Please feel free to leave a comment and talk about this or anything else in the Disqus community.
Monday
Jan052009

Setting up Email Filters for Twitter Phish -- Getting Phishing out of the way

Ok So we've all had the problem of having to deal with this twitter phish, and you can see there are more and more twitter spam.

So how do you start Filtering out the Bad twitter spam?


I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird so this will not be a complete way for people who use other email software.
Select Tools and then Message Filters

Once You find your way to this menu you would click new and then you do this:


To get here in Thunderbird Tools From the Menubar and select Message Filters

Now once you've named your twitter filter, I named it "Twitter Spam" but you may name it whatever you would like.   I then selected to "Match all of the Following", if you don't do this it will send all direct messages to your spam folder.  You'd get no direct message from anyone about anything.   I told the filter if it was from "*@postmaster.twitter.com".   Once you done that you would click the plus sign to add [ad#ad2-right]another row and then I selected the "Subject".  I selected that to filter whatever is in the subject body of the message and filtered for "http://*.access-logins.com".  Then I clicked Move Message to Spam Folder.  You can move it to your own twitter spam folder, it is just nice to move it away from the important stuff.   You also if you like can Mark it as read also by clicking the Plus sign and selecting "Mark as read" so that you don't have to worry about reading each and every one.   For people who are wondering the Asterisk is a Wild Card which means it does not matter what is in there that is import to prevent getting spam from people you know or from sites you know are phishing.


Some people might like to do this for Google Mail and I see no problem in people doing this before you even get the email but if you're not using Google mail and would like to do this for your email hosting account by all means follow these steps and you shouldn't get much phish direct messages.  I will say if they us another Free hosting account you'll get it for the time but it won't be constant.   I hope this helps people get this out of there way.  Soon this will be in the past.


If you suspect you will get more blogspot.com links also you can set up a seperate filter to filter for "http://*.blogspot.com" just follow the instructions just like you did but use that instead of the other internet address.  I'd also tell people to not Direct message you about a site  if it is important to look at to reply to you but don't direct message you. 

Monday
Dec292008

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

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:
twitbot3

and this one also


twitbots2

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


twitterbots
These people are trying to get you to click on there links and [ad#ad2-left-1]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.

Monday
Dec292008

Panatech PX-500 PCMCIA Sprint EVDO BroadBand Card

[ad#tmi-right-1-1]The Pantech PX-500 wireless mobile broadband card for Sprint gives you data communication access for your PC laptop anywhere you roam on the Sprint network at faster speeds than ever before. EV-DO rev A compatibility gives you download speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps and beefy upload speeds of up to 1.8 Mbps. Simple to use, the Pantech PX-500 wireless mobile broadband card lets you surf the Internet, send and receive email and text messages, and connect to corporate networks from just about anywhere.

Technical Specs:

  • Dimensions - 4.57 in x 2.13 in x 0.51 in

  • Weight - 1.8 oz

  • Data Download Speed - EV-DO rev A (Up to 3.1 Mbps Down/1.8 Mbps Up), EV-DO rev 0 (2.4 Mbps Down/153 Kbps Up), 1xRTT

  • Download Protocol - CDMA 850, 1900

  • Compatible Carrier - Sprint PCS

  • Network Compatibility - CDMA 850, 1900

  • 3G Data Speeds - Yes


Compatibility Features

  • Device Supports Data Plans - Yes

  • Available For Purchase Without Service Plan - Yes


Saw this card and did a little digging.  I looks like the newest updated software and drivers for this card can also make it Vista and Linux compatible.   Although with any card you will use up more battery life but it is a small price to pay to check email and surf the web. Also if you have an newer laptop or am about to upgrade I'd suggest Getting a Sierra Wireless Compass 597 USB Modem from Sprint! This is good for anyone who wants to surf the web and not have to buy the hardware to do it with.  Both are free to buy and ship with a two year contract. If in doubt please get the USB card that way you know you know you will be able to use it.
Saturday
Dec132008

Uncovering a Virus/Trojan

Getting done with the first part really got my juices flowing. I was shopping looking and thinking about this next article. I came up to only one option turning this into a 3-5 length post due to all the content that I will have.  So where did we leave off?  Oh that is right figuring out if you have a virus/Trojan.  The instant I made a post about this 12 hours later someone make a comment and here is what he said:
[ad#ad2-right]
Rene Van Belzen

I can't wait to read part two of this article. I always wondered how you'd know you're infected if a virus don't want to be detected and no virus definitions are yet available, because the virus is so new.

Now the truth is anytime a Virus does something it usually leaves a footprint somewhere and somehow.   Even the hardest working hacker can't plan for all possibilities and that is where we begin.   I have been helping people for a while with viruses and know that no matter how hard the virus tries to hide you can usually find it relatively quickly and easily do to virus check here are the ways I've done to figure out if they may or may not have a virus/Trojan.

Now if this is a client's computer and you don't want to be rude to the client, there are a few indications of user error and installing a virus.   This is relatively simple, all you do is do a quick inventory of all the start menu programs.  You'd want to look for any P2P file sharing program, If they have Firefox Installed, and if they are using Window Mail and not Thunderbird.   You see 80% to 90% of virus downloaded are installed by the End USER.  They either downloading a game and installing a virus with [ad#ad2-left]a game, or not protecting themselves by using Internet Explorer or Using Windows Mail.  That is usually my first step due to the fact, I've got to be diplomatic about finding out about security ways.  Also make sure they are up to date on there Window updates, unless they are using a really old system then you will have to work even harder.  Also you can suspect a virus if the client is talking about having problem with a program recently although this isn't always true it sometimes is the case due to the fact hackers don't have a big chance to test these viruses/Trojans out before they set them into the wild.  So there are always going to be unplanned problems associated with them.

After the first initial search of desktop, you should really know the likely hood of a possible virus getting on the system and later we will talk about counter measures to prevent virus attacks in the future.   There are a few places a hacker likes to put commands.   Hackers love to put in the Registry to run a program every time Windows starts.  It usually in:

  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\


Usually 50% to 70% of virus like to make sure the program to runs.  This is a flaw in Windows because hackers can edit this without much effort but there isn't many places a hacker can go to make sure a program is set to run when you boot.   So this is also a benifit to finding those little programs.


Now just like the Regisitry, Hackers also like to put programs in a few areas on the hard drive.   This is also kinda hard to hide because most of the time these are consider important to the system but if you know what to look for you can pretty much figure out if it is truelly a system file.  These areas of the hard drive are:




  • C:\WINDOWS\System32[ad#ad2-right]

  • C:\WINDOWS

  • %programfiles%\common files\microsoft shared

  • %windir%\temp\


These are just a few but if you look hard enough it can be found most of the time.   Most of the time I use the registry to tell me where these programs are so I can do a further check of the program.  Some of this is not needed with some of the programs that I recommend but this is for those who want to be a through job and make sure the virus is gone.

On my next post we will talk about some good tools for the trade to help get rid of a virus/Trojan.  This little step here is used to  better help identify a virus and also give you chance to google each name on the list of registry and the hard drive  to see if you can identify the virus.
Friday
Dec122008

Inside understanding of win32.netsky.q

Netsky.Q is a worm that spreads through e-mail. It is distributed as a 28,008 byte Win32 executable, compressed with PEtite, which drops a 23,040 byte DLL file. It also distributes itself inside ZIP archives.

I saw this on on the net and through we should talk about and let people know how you could get that the worm off your computer. It seems to be a self-replicating worm, it will continue to send out fake messages to people with the subject lines Like:
[ad#ad2-left]

  • Delivery Error

  • Delivery Failure

  • Delivery

  • Mail Delivery failure

  • Mail Delivery System

  • Mail System

  • Delivery

  • Delivered Message

  • Error

  • Status

  • Failure

  • Failed

  • Unknown Exception

  • Delivery Failed

  • Deliver Mail

  • Server Error

  • Delivery Bot


And with each message there is the reciepts email address at the end.  This worm seems to be spreading like wildfire today.   It is because people have not install

Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS01-020)




[ad#ad2-right]Now how do you get rid of it.  It seems that most of Anti-Virus software would get it done.  All you would need to do is scan for this virus with the latest updated virus databases and will go away.   According E-Trust Anti-Virus they say they can remove it.   This is a really old virus, according to my sources this was first seen in 2004.   In order to prevent this in the future I'd suggest installing a free anti-virus and using it.    This is one smart little worm according to CA IT.



If you have quite a few Desktops in your Office and want to update all of them to the newest patch all in one swoop, I'd suggest downloading Clone of Autopatcher and making an ISO image so you can go around to each computer and install the patches quickly and easily.  Prevent yourself from getting that virus and some others in the future.   This is a friendly tip for all those hard working IT workers.
Tuesday
Dec092008

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:


[ad#ad2-left]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]



[ad#ad2-right]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.
Sunday
Dec072008

Upcoming Patch Tuesday

[ad#ad2-right]I wanted to get prepared for the updates for this Tuesday and I thought I'd go through them and list what Microsoft said about each.   These are what's been said on Technet and I am sure there will be more.   Each one of these don't look to serious but I will post Tuesday if there is anything I've missed on this post.   As you might know this is not set in stone but just the direction of Microsoft for this Months Release.


KB955839

Update for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP

Install this update to resolve an issue that is caused by revised daylight saving time laws in many countries. This update enables your computer to automatically adjust the computer clock on the correct date in 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Server 2008 License Terms.

[ad#ad2-left]KB957388

Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Install this update to resolve a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Server 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

KB890830

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Microsoft released the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool to help remove specific prevalent malicious software from computers that are running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000. After you download the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, it runs one time to check your computer for inflection by specific prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps remove any infection it finds. Microsoft releases a new version of the tool every month.

[ad#ad2-right]KB905866

Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [November 2008] (KB905866)
Install this update for Windows Mail to revise the definition files that are used to detect e-mail messages that should be considered junk e-mail or that may contain phishing content. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Vista License Terms.


I am sure there are going to be others but right now this looks like the normal things Microsoft sends out.  I am sure they are keeping a tight lid on the really serious stuff until last second so I'll have to report the really important stuff Tuesday.
Sunday
Nov092008

Rumor: GE to be the next to layoff its workers!!

GE to Layoff 11,000 Workers!! GE to Layoff it workers!

According to sources of friends close to me, their seems to be a consensus that there will be a major layoff coming from GE. My source is talking about it being a lot of people will be laid off and that it will start happening in the coming weeks.

According to Yahoo Finance saying this "52 week change of GE is -50.86% from last year. "

[ad#ad2-right-1]Now last year this time there Stock Price was 38.38 a Share and now they are 18.60 a share.  They dropped -19.78 over the year.   The seemed to get close to the 38.38 a share on April 4, 2008 with making  37.56 a share.  That was there highest this year, due to the fact that people were getting there income tax refunds in the mail.    Also NYSE says they had a slight increase in July and Aug, that is due to the Stimulus package that we got in 2008.



Now I'm not a financial expert in the least.  I just see what I see with stock prices.  These could mean they are doing extremely well, or they could indicate that the company is planning on laying people off.  I'm just trying to provide a background on why they might lay people off.  We are getting to he point of becoming a Depression and no longer a Recession.  What do you think?