*HOT* Tech News And Downloads, I Would Read This Thread And Post Any Good Info

It's the old Mr. Coffee for me, my wife got rid of our percolators long ago. I suppose if I go dig through a shedload of stored boxes I might find one. Yeah, temp here too will be about 100 with the heat index, the air conditioner is really pumping. It is movies, iced tea and then a Bushmill's at the drink hour. Maybe some ribs on the grill for dinner. No lawn mowing or car washing for me today. Trouble is that heat is gonna last the whole week, so I guess I will catch up on all my movies.

 

@arnie...yeah, we share the same weather and today is just the start, its supposed to get considerably worse as the week goes on. Maybe I'll grille some ribs too later in the day ... Chinese ones .... delivered. (Actually, my favorites are those big meaty country style ribs). That would be good; maybe some potato salad too.

 

My favorites are baby back ribs, get them from BJ's wholesale club. Picked up two slabs for $8.00 the other day. Got some really good sauce to go with them, picked up at the last rib burnoff I was at. I am a sucker for ribs.

 

Yeah, I am too but I don't like beef ones.

 

No I am not fond of the beef ribs either, but I do like barbecue beef sandwiches, go figure

 

LOL! I love bar-b-que beef sandwiches and they just don't have them here in Philly; I make my own sometimes.

 

Guess they figure you got Philly Steak and Cheese sandwiches what more can you want. We got BB sandwiches in this area. The saucey kind, if you go down South, you get the vinegar barbecue, which is not bad. But us Northerners do like our barbecue sauce.

 

The most popular cheese-steak place is Philly is called Gino's in south Philly. The philly paper did a test on them and said that just one Gino's cheese-steaks contained more saturated fat than a stick of butter LOL! Talk about a heart attack on a bun!

 

To me the heart attack on a bun, was a sandwich I posted somewhere in this thread that was a cheeseburger on a krispy kreme doughnut bun. And they wonder why the country is obese.

 

'Invisible' Rootkit Heralds Trouble Ahead
Posted by l33tdawg on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 03:12 AM (Reads: 488)
Source: CIO


Security researchers have discovered a new type of rootkit they believe will greatly increase the difficulty of detecting and removing malicious code. The rootkit in question, called Backdoor.Rustock.A by Symantec and Mailbot.AZ by F-Secure, uses advanced techniques to avoid detection by most rootkit detectors. The rootkit is "unique given the techniques it uses," Symantec?s Elia Florio wrote in a recent analysis. "It can be considered the first-born of the next generation of rootkits." Rustock.A uses a mixture of old techniques and new ideas to make it "totally invisible on a compromised computer when installed," including a beta version of Windows Vista, Florio wrote.

Invisible' Rootkit Heralds Trouble Ahead

JUL 14, 2006 11:39:17 AM | Add Comment (0) | Permalink

Security researchers have discovered a new type of rootkit they believe will greatly increase the difficulty of detecting and removing malicious code.

The rootkit in question, called Backdoor.Rustock.A by Symantec and Mailbot.AZ by F-Secure, uses advanced techniques to avoid detection by most rootkit detectors.

The rootkit is "unique given the techniques it uses," Symantec’s Elia Florio wrote in a recent analysis. "It can be considered the first-born of the next generation of rootkits."

Rustock.A uses a mixture of old techniques and new ideas to make it "totally invisible on a compromised computer when installed," including a beta version of Windows Vista, Florio wrote.

Symantec believes the rootkit originates from Russia, and a string found in the rootkit’s code indicates new versions will probably be forthcoming. Symantec has already logged a variant called Backdoor.Rustock.B.

F-Secure noted Rustock’s use of NTFS’ Alternate Data Streams (ADS) as one significant example of its advanced behavior.

"Saving your data into Alternate Data Streams is usually enough to hide from many tools," wrote F-Secure researcher Antti Tikkanen in a company blog.

"However, in this case, the stream is further hidden using rootkit techniques ... because Mailbot.AZ is hiding something that’s not readily visible; it’s very likely that many security products will have a tough time dealing with this one."

F-Secure said it has released a new version of the BlackLight rootkit scanner, Build 2.2.1041, which can detect Rustock.

According to researchers, other factors that help make Rustock invisible are that it has no process, instead running inside the driver and in kernel threads. It doesn’t hook into any native API, and controls kernel functions via special IRP functions. It removes its entries from kernel structures, and the SYS driver is polymorphic, changing its code from sample to sample.

Rustock also scans for loaded rootkit scanners, then changes its behavior to avoid detection, according to Florio.

-Matthew Broersma, Techworld.com (London)
http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=23011

 

5 Tools To Bulletproof Firefox
Posted by l33tdawg on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 03:08 AM (Reads: 1076)
Source: Information Week


Spyware, adware, drive-by downloads, phish blitzes, malware of all stripes, they all have one thing in common: they reach your computer through the wide open door that is your browser. If the most important step you can take to secure your system is to use a secure browser -- advice held by everyone apparently, including Microsoft, which is working feverishly on IE 7 to close the years'-long security gap it created by not keeping the app up to date -- then the second step is to lock down the browser beyond what it offers out of the box, and/or learn how to use the security tools it does provide. Firefox, which recently regained some of its market share momentum, fits the bill as a secure browser (more secure, anyway, than IE 6.x, its prime competitor). We've wrapped up the second step for you by sniffing out five tools -- four extras and one integrated -- that we see as the most important security add-ons.

5 Tools To Bulletproof Firefox


Here are five essential tools for securing Firefox by disabling JavaScript and Flash, sniffing out suspicious sites, foiling phishing, preventing peeks at private data, and preparing powerful passwords.


By Gregg Keizer
TechWeb

Jul 14, 2006 05:42 PM

Spyware, adware, drive-by downloads, phish blitzes, malware of all stripes, they all have one thing in common: they reach your computer through the wide open door that is your browser.

If the most important step you can take to secure your system is to use a secure browser -- advice held by everyone apparently, including Microsoft, which is working feverishly on IE 7 to close the years'-long security gap it created by not keeping the app up to date -- then the second step is to lock down the browser beyond what it offers out of the box, and/or learn how to use the security tools it does provide.

Firefox, which recently regained some of its market share momentum, fits the bill as a secure browser (more secure, anyway, than IE 6.x, its prime competitor).

We've wrapped up the second step for you by sniffing out five tools -- four extras and one integrated -- that we see as the most important security add-ons.

Now when malware and spyware and adware walk through the door, you can tell them

Not so fast, buddy. I'm Firefox armed and dangerous.

NoScript: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Java

Firefox may not allow ActiveX -- the Microsoft Internet Explorer technology at the root of numerous vulnerabilities over the years -- but it does support other active content that can be as dangerous, like JavaScript. The bulk of Firefox-exploitable active content vulnerabilities are, in fact, JavaScript bugs. (The most recently reported was one that hit the wires in early June; TechWeb covered it here.)

Although it's possible to disable JavaScript entirely -- Tools|Options|Web Features, clear the Enable JavaScript box -- that's not such a good idea; at times you'll not only want JavaScript, you'll need it. (Some online banking sites, for instance, put log-in forms on the screen using JavaScript.)

Enter NoScript.

The extension blocks Java and JavaScript (and Flash if you tell it) on all sites but those on a user-defined whitelist. Better still, you can authorize a site to use JavaScript for that session, or add it to the whitelist.

A small icon at the bottom of Firefox indicates the NoScript status of the site; a click there lets you allow some or all scripts on the page, or turn them off on a previously-whitelisted site.

Page 2:

SiteAdvisor: I Spy Before They Spyware Most security strategies are reactive: like a beat cop, they don't swing into action until a crime's committed. Oops, too late: your identity's been hijacked.

To go proactive, you need something that gives you a hint of how dangerous an Internet neighborhood is before you walk into it. That's the approach of McAfee's SiteAdvisor.

The SiteAdvisor extension ( available here) slaps a green, yellow, or red safety rating next to search results on Google, Yahoo, and MSN; puts a color-coded button in the Firefox frame; and with a fast mouse-over, displays details about why the site's nasty, nice, or in-between.

SiteAdvisor scores sites on excessive use of pop-ups, how spammy the site is if you give it your e-mail address, and most importantly, prevalence of malicious downloads (including adware and spyware).

Page 3:

Clear Private Data: No Peeking

Every browser lets you cover your tracks -- an essential security step when you're working on a shared computer or one where others may peek inside (think office system) -- but Firefox's privacy retention command is the simplest to call.

Press the Ctrl-Shift-Del key combination -- or if you're more comfortable with the mouse, select Tools|Clear Private Data -- and a dialog box pops up offering to delete everything from the browsing history to saved passwords. (By unchecking the "Ask me before clearing private data" box, you'll save yourself a second click in the dialog.)

The feature, which debuted in Firefox 1.5, can be extended with the very small extension Clear Private Data; it adds a "clear data" item to the right-click menu within Firefox, and an optional icon that can be dragged and dropped to the browser's toolbar.

Password Maker: Password Please!

Security experts may nag us relentlessly to use different passwords for each Web site, but who, frankly, has that kind of brain power? Remember a dozen different passwords? Come on.

Firefox includes an integrated password manager (it's at Tools|Options|Passwords) that memorizes passwords, and if you want offers a "Master Password" to secure all the others, but a better tool is Password Maker, an extension that creates complicated, mathematically-difficult-to-break passwords automatically, but asks you to remember only one password.

Password Maker even has an online version so you can access its protected sites when you're away from your PC.

We're not cryptologists, so we really don't understand the science behind the extension -- there's more information here if you're interested -- but all you need to know is that your passwords aren't stored anywhere, so there's nothing for ID thieves to rip off.

http://www.informationweek.com/news...UNN2JVN?articleID=190400479&pgno=5&queryText=

 

Acronis True Image 9.1 Build 3694
Author: Acronis
Date: 2006-07-15
Size: 75.1 Mb
License: Shareware $49.99
Requires: Win All

Acronis True Image is complete PC backup and restore software for home and home office users that can protect family pictures, videos, music, and important documents stored on your home PC.

Acronis True Image 9.0 provides you two backup options in one solution:

1) The original disk imaging backup option which enables you to create an image of your entire hard disk drive, including the operating system, applications, user settings, and all data. Use the image to restore your PC to a known working state without any reinstallation.

2) A new file-based backup option which enables you to backup and restore individual files and folders, like your My Documents folder or a specific file, like your latest tax return. A wizard walks you through all of the steps.

Acronis True Image 9.0 makes restoring your system even faster with the exclusive new Acronis Snap Restore feature. It also provides several additional enhancements.
Exclusive Acronis Snap Restore — Lightning-speed restore of your PC from an image. You can start working in seconds while your system is still being restored.

Exclude files — Save space when creating backups by only backing up the types of files you want to keep.

Differential backup — Decrease the number of backups you manage. Differential backups capture the changes made since your last full backup.

Expanded Acronis Drive Snapshot technology — We've expanded the no reboot feature to include backing up specific files and folders. We can even backup system files and open files with no issues. No matter which option you select, you can continue to use your PC during backup.

Windows System Restore management wizard — If you run Acronis True Image 9.0 regularly this feature in your operating system is redundant. Free up to 10% of your hard disk drive by disabling this default feature in your operating system using Acronis True Image 9.0.

Limitations: Cannot create and restore a disk image when launched from the bootable rescue media. 15-day trial.


http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2236.html

 

RIP IT 4 ME..........RipIt4Me is a freeware utility that helps you backup your copy protected DVDs. Recently released DVDs are now very often equipped with stronger copy protections - such as ARccOS™ and RipGuard DVD. Programs like DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter cannot handle these types of discs. With the help of RipIt4Me, ripping these DVDs will be a very easy task. The program is fully automated and the wizard will guide you through all the necessary steps involved. If you prefer, there is also a true "1-Click" mode that will perform all the involved steps automatically for you.....(free).....GO THERE!

http://www.ripit4me.org/

 

CUE SPLITTER..........File splitter for multimedia files - Supports WAVE, MP3, FLAC and APE.....(free).....GO THERE!
http://www.enfis.it/

 

Keyfinder Thing 3 3.15
Author: Matt Chugg
Date: 2006-07-16
Size: 196 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All

Keyfinder Things is a simple utility to retrieve and decrypt your Microsoft serial keys. It also includes support for several non Microsoft software titles.
To see the full list of supported software, goto View -> Software list in the program.

The program should run on any x86 or x64 version of Windows that has the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 installed.

GO HERE
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5188.html

 

Claim: Teachers have gotten into trouble over using 'The L.A. Math Test,' a piece of Internet humor, in the classroom.

Status: True.



City of Los Angeles
High School Math Proficiency Exam


Name:__________________________
Gang:__________________________

1. Johnny has an AK-47 with an 80-round clip. If he misses 6 out of 10 shots and shoots 13 times at each drive-by shooting, how many drive-by shootings can he attempt before he has to reload?

2. Jose has 2 ounces of cocaine and he sells an 8-ball to Jackson for $320 and 2 grams to Billy for $85 per gram. What is the street value of the balance of the cocaine if he doesn't cut it?

3. Rufus is pimping for three girls. If the price is $65 for each trick, how many tricks will each girl have to turn so Rufus can pay for his $800-per-day crack habit?

4. Jarone want to cut his 1/2 pound of heroin to make 20% more profit. How many ounces of cut will he need?

5. Willie gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for a Chevy, and $100 for a 4X4. If he has stolen 2 BMWs, 3 4X4s, how many Chevies will he have to steal to make $800?

6. Raoul is in prison for 6 years for murder. He got $10,000 for the hit. If his common law wife is spending $100 per month, how much money will be left when he gets out of prison and how many years will he get for killing the bitch that spent his money?

7. If the average spray can covers 22 square feet and the average letter is 3 square feet, how many letters can a tagger spray with 3 cans of paint?

8. Hector knocked up 6 girls in his gang. There are 27 girls in the gang. What percentage of the girls in the gang has Hector knocked up?

9. Thelma can cook dinner for her 16 children for $7.50 per night. She gets $234 a month welfare for each child. If her $325 per month rent goes up 15%, how many more children should she have to keep up with her expenses?

10. Salvador was arrested for dealing crack and his bail was set at $25,000. If he pays a bail bondsman 12% and returns to Mexico, how much money will he lose by jumping bail?




Origins: The Internet humor piece variously entitled "The L.A. Math Proficiency Test" or "The City of Los Angeles High School Math Proficiency Exam" has been part of online lore since at least 1993,
and others recall seeing photocopied versions of it as far back as the mid-1980s. Over time it has gone through some changes, notably the inclusion of questions 9 and 10 (which were not part of the earlier versions). Its humor is obvious: it simultaneously deplores the state of education in large urban centers and furthers the myth that teens from such regions are thoroughly steeped in a drugs, guns, gangs, and promiscuity culture by asserting that even the math questions directed towards them have to be framed in that context to be relevant to their lives. None of the Norman Rockwellian "Johnny has three apples; if he sells two to Ben, then Becky gives him five, how many does he now have?" innocence appears here even the test's header furthers the jape by asking for the student's name and gang affiliation, presenting the casual presumption that all the high schoolers being given the test are gang members.

Obvious humor or not, the "test" has landed a number of educators into trouble over the years. The Canadian National Post reported that a teacher at the Juniper School in Thompson, Manitoba, was suspended from her duties in June 2002 for distributing this test to students:
A Manitoba school district has barred a Grade 8 instructor from classroom teaching for a year after she distributed a math quiz that used pimps and cocaine trafficking to illustrate questions of arithmetic.

The 10-question quiz asked how much Willie would make for stealing a number of luxury cars, the distance a thief could travel on a stolen skateboard before he gets "whacked," and how many "tricks" a day three prostitutes must turn to support their pimp Rufus's cocaine habit.

The School District of Mystery Lake in Thompson, Man., suspended the veteran Juniper School teacher on June 5, two days after irate parents brought the "joke" test to the district's attention. This week the district disciplined her further by assigning her to non-classroom teaching until June, 2003. The teacher has not been identified.

"I don't know where she got the idea to give this to kids. We were outraged," one student's father, who asked not to be identified, told The Winnipeg Sun. The father saw the "Juniper School Math Proficiency Exam" after his young son brought his copy home from school.
(Diana Hiscock, general manager of the Thompson Citizen, said that the controversial quiz wasn't given out as an official school assignment or test: "The teacher gave it to a few of her grade 8 students to read as a fun thing. They took it home, and one of the parents saw it and complained to the school board.")

The unnamed teacher from the Mystery Lake School Board in Manitoba wasn't the first to have passed out the "L.A. Math Test" in class and paid the price for it. In 1997, six teachers at the Elsie Robertson High School in Lancaster, Texas, and another at the Norte Vista High School in Riverside, California, were suspended for doing the same thing. Likewise, in 1994, a Chicago elementary school teacher who gave a similar test was suspended for thirty days without pay and then resigned. Also in 1994, an Indiana high school teacher who gave the test apologized but was suspended anyway. And in 1993, a similar test was printed on phony school letterhead and passed around at workplaces in Redwood City, California.

Barbara "the prime suspects of Miss Jean Brodie" Mikkelson

 

Skype code cracked

Charlie Paglee

p2p news / p2pnet: A Chinese software firm has copied eBay's Skype, says Charlie Paglee, co-founder of VoIP start-up Vozin Communications.

As things stand, only Skype users can call other users via their PCs, but, “I received a call through Skype from a friend at a company in China, except he told me he was not using Skype to call me,” says Paglee on his blog, going on, “His company has successfully reverse engineered the Skype protocol and he wanted to call me in the United States to see how it worked between physically distant IP addresses.

“We talked for a little over nine minutes before the call dropped. Then I called him back using my Skype and we spoke for another three minutes.”

This could have a, “terrible effect on eBay should they choose to leverage their Skype client to host advertisements,” says the blog. “Now that there is the prospect of a competing client available there is little doubt that there will be an ad free alternative to Skype should advertisements on Skype appear in the future.”

Pagelee says for the moment, the Chinese version of Skype, cracked by Hanzen Corp, according to Dow Jones, only supports the placing of Skype p2p phone calls and although they haven't yet “implemented presence, “They have plans to add presence, instant messaging, and a host of other features. Their end goal is to create a client 100% compatible with Skype. They sent me a screen shot of their software (below) and my IP address was 100% correct.”

From a legal standpoint eBay is in a hard place, contines Paglee.



READ IT ALL HERE
http://p2pnet.net/story/9364

 

Lite-On IT to offer 20x DVD burners in 4Q
Posted by Dan Bell on 17 July 2006 - 14:52 - Source: DigiTimes

chas0039 used our news submit to tell us that according to this report from DigiTimes, we will be seeing some 20x drives before long. Remember the old CD writer jokes? Like, when's the 21x coming? At any rate, it looks as though the 18x drive will soon dominate the market, at least in the next couple years, replacing the very popular 16x burners. But, much depends on the availability of 18x chipsets.

Lite-On IT, given the fact that several global leading brands will follow Japan-based Plextor and unveil 18x DVD burner models this quarter or early next quarter, is preparing to offer 20x DVD burners in the fourth quarter to enhance its competitiveness, according to industry sources.

Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST), NEC, Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), Pioneer and I-O Data Device are among the brands expected to release 18x DVD burners soon, the sources indicated.

The article went on to say, that NEC is currently the largest supplier of the 18x chipset. However, their sources indicated that if Taiwan's MediaTek should begin volume production of the 18x chipset, there is a good chance that current 16x models will be overtaken by the faster drives.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13683

 

So where do I find 20x media?

 

Are we(The World) in that big a hurry? I never seen a reason to burn over 8x no matter what media I use. To each his own!

Just my penny's worth....