James’s Interactive Technology News Blog

Internet Explorer EXPLOITED AGAIN

mercerjp — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:00:21 +0000

“Microsoft has warned of a ‘privately reported’ vulnerability affecting IE users on XP or Windows Server 2003. The vulnerability allows remote users to execute arbitrary code with the same privileges as the users. The vulnerability is triggered when users visit a web site with malicious code. ‘Security experts say criminals have been attacking the vulnerability for nearly a week. Thousands of sites have been hacked to serve up malicious software that exploits the vulnerability.’ The advisory can be found at TechNet. Until Microsoft develops a patch, a workaround is available.”(Slashdot)

This is just another reason to not use IE. Internet explorer is extremely vulnerable to viruses and exploitation. Please be advised Microsoft themselves is telling people to be careful using their own product. Download and install Firefox from Mozilla.org and do not use internet explorer. This is an advisory post. Do not use Internet Explorer.

80% of Spam is sent from Botnets

mercerjp — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:00:45 +0000

A Botnet is a collection of computers infected with trojan’s that are centrally controlled. Large botnets have been found to be in the excess of 10 million computers. These computers are controlled to do devious tasks such as information mining (credit cards etc..), spam sending, and DOS (denial of service attacks). Most computer users do not know that their computer is infected by these trojan’s. Now a day’s virus makers have become smarter and are only concerned with money. They do not want you to know that your computer is a zombie and controlled by someone else. For if you suspect your computer is infected, you will try to remove the infection compromising the Botnet. To show the power of these botnets, in a recent story Norton has said that 80% of spam is from Botnets.

“According to MessageLabs’ June report, spam accounted for 90.4 percent of all e-mail sent in the month of June—this was roughly unchanged since May. Botnets, however, sent about 83.2 percent of that spam, with the largest spam-wielding botnet being Cutwail. Cutwail is described as “one of the largest and most active botnets” and has doubled its size and output per bot since March of this year. As a result, it is now responsible for 45 percent of all spam, with others like Mega-D, Xarvester, Donbot, Grum, and Rustock making up much of the difference.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/06/report-botnets-send-over-80-of-all-spam-in-june.ars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet

The Pirate Bay is DEAD

mercerjp — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:48:55 +0000

“The Pirate Bay is to be bought for $7.8 million by Global Gaming Factory X, a Swedish company specializing in internet café management software, the company has announced. As well as taking over the controversial brand, GGF has also bought Peerialism, a small IT company with roots at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology, which has developed a new file sharing technology. The acquisitions mean that GGF will be at the heart of ‘the international digital distribution market,’ allowing it to introduce a new pay model for file sharing.” http://www.thelocal.se/20364/20090630/

TPB is officially dead. The buyers will find that they’ve bought another Napster: i.e. nothing but a recognized name, with a value proposition that fades away like fairy gold once the free content goes away. TPB founders will start up another interesting project, with boatloads of cash to fund it, but until then avoid TPB. If you ask me this is a pretty smart move: the establishment will effectively be funding a new political project around the freedom to share… For as you know The Pirate Party is gaining momentum.

Multi-touch interface

mercerjp — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:37:53 +0000

Most new touch screen computers are single touch. Which means changes are registered based on 1 location of touch, for example you can only interact with a touch screen with one finger. I recently came across a video in the archives at TED.com which I thought was very interesting about a multi-touch screen. This screen can register almost unlimited points of impact. As you see demonstrated in the video, this application can be really cool. I cant wait until a multi-touch laptop comes out that would be great. Another idea which you might have all seen in the movies, is a screen similar to the one he has in the demonstration as a table in a living room, where people can play with the photos and other applications just like in the demonstration. This would be the perfect piece for any living room. I’ve seen in a movie one that would create illuminations around objects placed on it like cups or magazines. New technology is great… and expensive. Sometimes I guess it’s just fun to look at.

Mom fined 1.9 Million Dollars for downloading Music.

mercerjp — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:39:13 +0000

Mom fined 1.9 Million Dollars for downloading Music.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading

“A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.”

The mom used Kazaa to download her music. Kazaa as you may know automatically shares the songs that you download so that other people can download them from you too. It has been said that she was offered a settlement of 3,000 a song but refused and took the case to trial. Her shares were found by a company who searches p2p networks and reports findings to record companies. They successfully downloaded songs from her computer which is how they brought up the charges.

“Although the plaintiffs weren’t able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds (the prosecutor) told the jury it’s only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that’s what Kazaa was there for.”

She was arrested, tried and found guilty with no hard evidence of other people even downloading from her.

If you have children that use the computer, be careful.

mercerjp — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:09:04 +0000

Welcome to James’s Interactive Technology News Blog! This blog will update you with the latest and greatest stories surrounding the topic of technology and what I find interesting about them. Here users will be able to exchange opinions about the latest headlines. Not only can you read the stories here, you can also comment on them. Check in regularly for updates.