According to security researchers at F-Secure the Downadup virus, also called the "Conficker Worm" has infected nearly 10 million PCs worldwide.
F-Secure researchers have said, "As time passes, the number of estimated Downadup infections becomes more problematic to calculate as we are monitoring a varying number of domains. Re-infections may also be inflating the count." Late last week the companies prediction of an estimated 2.4 million infected machines jumped to over 8.9 million during a four day span.
The company however remained optimistic in Friday's blog post stating, "In any case, today seems better than the day before and we think that growth of Downadup has been curbed. Disinfection of the worm remains a challenge."
Downandup exploits a bug in the Windows Server service used by Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008. Although Microsoft fixed the flaw with one of its rare "out of cycle" updates in late October, it is estimated that about a third of all PCs have not yet been patched.
The worm spreads by exploiting the Windows vulnerability, by brute-force password attacks, through networked devices and by hitchhiking on USB devices like flash drives.
For more details on detection and removal of Downandup checkout F-Secure's Downandup page as well as Microsoft's Conficker Worm Virus alert page. Microsoft has recommended that Windows users install the emergency update, then run the January edition of the MSRT to scrub the worm from compromised computers.
While detection and removal of the worm has been a priority researchers have warned that the worm has yet to be fully implemented. Alfred Huger, vice president of development at Symantec Corp.'s security response group notes, Downadup has yet to trigger it's second stage of attacks.
Typically worms of this nature are used to infect PCs so that hackers can then use those machines for further attacks. Either to send spam, launch attacks against other Web sites or compromise more computers. To do that, the original virus or worm directs the infected PC, a "bot" or a "zombie", to download additional software.
"Why is it taking so long? That's what we're all asking." Huger tells ComputerWorld. Stating he couldn't recall an attack of this size with such a long lag time between the initial attacks and follow-on downloads of more malware to the hijacked systems.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Congress Delays DTV Transition Until June 12th
The Senate passed a bill on Monday to delay the nationwide switch to digital TV signals. The transition date would move to June 12 from February 17 under the bill that was fueled by worries that viewers are not technically ready for the congressionally-mandated switch-over.
The delay comes as an estimated 6.5 million U.S. households have yet to make the digital TV transition.
The Senate is expected to vote on the DTV Delay Act next week, the bill will still have to get through the House before a delay becomes official. Under the bill consumers with expired coupons for converter boxes may apply for new coupons. Those coupons originally had an expiration date of 90 days. The bill also extends the deadline to apply for a coupon from March 31 to July 31.
My thoughts:
This delay really misses the bus and fails to solve the fundamental issue at hand. Many of these so called "left behind" aren't uninformed, how could they be, every single channel in my area has hounded viewers for months about the transition. They either don't want or feel the don't need to buy a converter box.
The second issue the delay fails to address is the reported 2.6 million additional coupon requests the NTIA has said they have on a waiting list as of last Wednesday. The $1.3 billion in funding for coupons was depleted earlier this month. As of yet there is no word that they are going to release additional funds. Aside from the current waiting list there are no actual numbers, just estimates, as to how much additional funding might be needed.
I can say from first hand experience, viewing sites like freecycle craigslist and others, that much of the misinformed public has received coupons that they didn't actually need. Almost daily for several weeks I've seen people offering their coupons that they errornously applied for and recieved. So the question remains how many of the more than 11 million outstanding coupons are in the hands of people that don't really need them or aren't actually going to use them. How many of those coupons cover the supposed 6.5 million homes we are delaying the program for.
The goverment can delay the transition all they want, however what is going to make viewers that have put off the transition suddenly act. Short of going door to door there isn't much else the governemt can do to get the word out. No matter how long you postpone it, there are still going to be people who are not ready.
My final though is this:
The NTIA and Nielsen numbers just don't add up. The Jan. 5th NTIA report says, "Nielsen Company reported recently that in January 2008, 14.3 million households rely on TV with an antenna." That same report also says, "More than 24 million households have requested more than 46 million coupons and more than 18 million coupons have been redeemed." Yet the report says "52.5 percent of coupons requested have been redeemed."
52.5% of 42 million is roughly 24 million, so somewhere we are loosing 6 million coupons that according the NTIA's report had been redeemed. According to the DTV2009.gov stats approximately 21million coupons had actually been redeemed so we can use that number.
According to both Nielsen and Centris Research there are only 14.5 million homes in America that, from my understanding, needed the DTV coupons. That number is estimated as high as 19.6 million. We'll given them the benefit of the doubt and say 20 million homes needed coupons.
Comparing the data we can see that obviously some of these numbers are being misrepresented. That or there is a gross amount of converter boxes that are sitting around in household that really don't need them.
The delay comes as an estimated 6.5 million U.S. households have yet to make the digital TV transition.
The Senate is expected to vote on the DTV Delay Act next week, the bill will still have to get through the House before a delay becomes official. Under the bill consumers with expired coupons for converter boxes may apply for new coupons. Those coupons originally had an expiration date of 90 days. The bill also extends the deadline to apply for a coupon from March 31 to July 31.
My thoughts:
This delay really misses the bus and fails to solve the fundamental issue at hand. Many of these so called "left behind" aren't uninformed, how could they be, every single channel in my area has hounded viewers for months about the transition. They either don't want or feel the don't need to buy a converter box.
The second issue the delay fails to address is the reported 2.6 million additional coupon requests the NTIA has said they have on a waiting list as of last Wednesday. The $1.3 billion in funding for coupons was depleted earlier this month. As of yet there is no word that they are going to release additional funds. Aside from the current waiting list there are no actual numbers, just estimates, as to how much additional funding might be needed.
I can say from first hand experience, viewing sites like freecycle craigslist and others, that much of the misinformed public has received coupons that they didn't actually need. Almost daily for several weeks I've seen people offering their coupons that they errornously applied for and recieved. So the question remains how many of the more than 11 million outstanding coupons are in the hands of people that don't really need them or aren't actually going to use them. How many of those coupons cover the supposed 6.5 million homes we are delaying the program for.
The goverment can delay the transition all they want, however what is going to make viewers that have put off the transition suddenly act. Short of going door to door there isn't much else the governemt can do to get the word out. No matter how long you postpone it, there are still going to be people who are not ready.
My final though is this:
The NTIA and Nielsen numbers just don't add up. The Jan. 5th NTIA report says, "Nielsen Company reported recently that in January 2008, 14.3 million households rely on TV with an antenna." That same report also says, "More than 24 million households have requested more than 46 million coupons and more than 18 million coupons have been redeemed." Yet the report says "52.5 percent of coupons requested have been redeemed."
52.5% of 42 million is roughly 24 million, so somewhere we are loosing 6 million coupons that according the NTIA's report had been redeemed. According to the DTV2009.gov stats approximately 21million coupons had actually been redeemed so we can use that number.
According to both Nielsen and Centris Research there are only 14.5 million homes in America that, from my understanding, needed the DTV coupons. That number is estimated as high as 19.6 million. We'll given them the benefit of the doubt and say 20 million homes needed coupons.
Comparing the data we can see that obviously some of these numbers are being misrepresented. That or there is a gross amount of converter boxes that are sitting around in household that really don't need them.
More Pirated Mac Software Infected
Security and privacy software vendor Intego has reported that pirated copies of Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Apple may contain a variant of the same virus found in pirated copies of Apple iWorks '09 last week.
Intego warned last week that copies of Apple iWorks '09 found on several popular torrent sites contain a virus dubbed, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A. According to Intego's report released today, a new variant dubbed OSX.Trojan.iServices.B, is now being found in torrent downloads of Adobe Photoshop CS4.
"The actual Photoshop installer is clean, but the Trojan horse is found in a crack application that serializes the program," warns Intego.
Intego warned last week that copies of Apple iWorks '09 found on several popular torrent sites contain a virus dubbed, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A. According to Intego's report released today, a new variant dubbed OSX.Trojan.iServices.B, is now being found in torrent downloads of Adobe Photoshop CS4.
"The actual Photoshop installer is clean, but the Trojan horse is found in a crack application that serializes the program," warns Intego.
After downloading this version of Photoshop, users will run the crack application to be able to use it. The crack application extracts an executable from its data, than installs a backdoor in /var/tmp/, a directory which is not deleted when the computer is restarted. (If the user runs the crack application again, the Trojan horse creates a new executable with a different name; these random names make it harder to ensure safe removal of the malware.)
The crack application then requests an administrator password, launching the backdoor with root privileges. This copies the executable to /usr/bin/DivX, then creates a startup item in /System/Library/StartupItems/DivX. The program checks to see if it has been launched with root privileges, then saves the root hash password in the file /var/root/.DivX. It listens on a random TCP port, and answers requests such as GET / HTTP/1.0 by sending a 209-byte packet, and makes repeated connections to two IP addresses.
Next, the crack application opens a disk image which is hidden in its resource folder, in a folder named .data, and proceeds to crack the Photoshop program, allowing it to be used.
Since the malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet, the creator of this malware will be alerted that this Trojan horse is installed on different Macs, and will have the ability to connect to them and perform various actions remotely. The Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.
My.BarackObama.com Spreading Ransomware
A once popular site for Pre-Election Barack Obama supporters, My.BarackObama.com, is being used by hackers to spread malicious ransomware. A trojan downloaded from the site installs a pieces of software which poses as fake security program creating phony warnings that a users computer is infected with spyware. The persistent pop-ups will continue to plague users until the victim pays for the worthless program usually priced between $40 and $50.
According to ComputerWorld.com, the criminals have set up bogus accounts on the site and used them to create blogs. When a user reaches one of the fake blogs, a YouTube-like video window is displayed; clicking on that video frame takes the user to a malicious Web site packed with pornography.
If the user clicks to view the porn, a message pops up claiming a video codec must be downloaded and installed. The executable file is not a real codec, but rather a Trojan horse that hijacks the PC and installs the ransomware.
Websense first uncovered the phony blogs a week ago, it has had no luck reaching someone responsible for the My.BarackObama.com site. "We've been constantly trying to reach them, and tried every possible angle, from e-mail to the site itself to the phone, but we haven't heard back," said Dan Hubbard vice president of security research at Websense. "Obviously, they've been fairly busy."
Visitors to the site that have already been infected should download and run actual spyware removers. There are several free alternatives such as Ad-Aware, Spy-Bot Search & Destroy or Avira. In past dealings with these tricky pieces of malware I've had success removing them using the Smitfraudfix as well as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
According to ComputerWorld.com, the criminals have set up bogus accounts on the site and used them to create blogs. When a user reaches one of the fake blogs, a YouTube-like video window is displayed; clicking on that video frame takes the user to a malicious Web site packed with pornography.
If the user clicks to view the porn, a message pops up claiming a video codec must be downloaded and installed. The executable file is not a real codec, but rather a Trojan horse that hijacks the PC and installs the ransomware.
Websense first uncovered the phony blogs a week ago, it has had no luck reaching someone responsible for the My.BarackObama.com site. "We've been constantly trying to reach them, and tried every possible angle, from e-mail to the site itself to the phone, but we haven't heard back," said Dan Hubbard vice president of security research at Websense. "Obviously, they've been fairly busy."
Visitors to the site that have already been infected should download and run actual spyware removers. There are several free alternatives such as Ad-Aware, Spy-Bot Search & Destroy or Avira. In past dealings with these tricky pieces of malware I've had success removing them using the Smitfraudfix as well as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
More Companies Hit With Layoffs
Despite having a new President in the White House that is looking to act quickly to bolster our failing economy several top companies have continued to layoff employees. It may only be Monday but so far this week we've lost nearly 50,000 jobs.
Amongst the companies announcing cuts today were Home Depot, Sprint Nextel, GM, Pfizer/Wyeth, Philips and Caterpillar.
Sprint Nextel, the nation's third largest wireless carrier will cut 8,000 jobs by the end of March or about 13 percent of its overall work force. (Press Release)
Home Depot, the nations No. 1 home improvement retailer, announced that it is shuttering its high-end EXPO business and shrinking its support staff, with both moves resulting in a reduction of 7,000 jobs. (Press Release)
In by far the largest of today's layoff Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, said it plans about 20,000 job cuts. Including positions held by Caterpillar employees, contract and agency workers. (Source: Bloomberg.com)
General Motors Corp. said Monday it will cut 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio, and it will halt production for several weeks at nine U.S. plants over the next six months due to slow sales. (Source: Associated Press)
Philips Electronics, Europe's largest consumer-electronics firm, on Monday reported fourth quarter losses of $1.9 billion as it took hefty write-downs on the value of its stakes in LG Displays and NXP and as demand for its televisions and multimedia equipment continued to weaken. Following those losses the company has said it plans to cut about 6,000 jobs in 2009. (Source: Associated Press)
Pfizer Inc. is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal that will increase its revenue by 50 percent, solidfy its No. 1 rank in the troubled industry and transform it from a pure pharmaceutical company into a diversified health care giant.
Pfizer also plans to cut about 8,000 jobs, 10 percent of its workforce, as part of what it expects will be a staff reduction totaling 15 percent of the combined companies' workers — implying a total job loss of almost 20,000. (Source: Associated Press)
Worldwide a total of 85,000 jobs have been cut today, piling more pressure on President Obama as he pushes his $825 billion stimulus plan.
Amongst the companies announcing cuts today were Home Depot, Sprint Nextel, GM, Pfizer/Wyeth, Philips and Caterpillar.
Sprint Nextel, the nation's third largest wireless carrier will cut 8,000 jobs by the end of March or about 13 percent of its overall work force. (Press Release)
Home Depot, the nations No. 1 home improvement retailer, announced that it is shuttering its high-end EXPO business and shrinking its support staff, with both moves resulting in a reduction of 7,000 jobs. (Press Release)
In by far the largest of today's layoff Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, said it plans about 20,000 job cuts. Including positions held by Caterpillar employees, contract and agency workers. (Source: Bloomberg.com)
General Motors Corp. said Monday it will cut 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio, and it will halt production for several weeks at nine U.S. plants over the next six months due to slow sales. (Source: Associated Press)
Philips Electronics, Europe's largest consumer-electronics firm, on Monday reported fourth quarter losses of $1.9 billion as it took hefty write-downs on the value of its stakes in LG Displays and NXP and as demand for its televisions and multimedia equipment continued to weaken. Following those losses the company has said it plans to cut about 6,000 jobs in 2009. (Source: Associated Press)
Pfizer Inc. is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal that will increase its revenue by 50 percent, solidfy its No. 1 rank in the troubled industry and transform it from a pure pharmaceutical company into a diversified health care giant.
Pfizer also plans to cut about 8,000 jobs, 10 percent of its workforce, as part of what it expects will be a staff reduction totaling 15 percent of the combined companies' workers — implying a total job loss of almost 20,000. (Source: Associated Press)
Worldwide a total of 85,000 jobs have been cut today, piling more pressure on President Obama as he pushes his $825 billion stimulus plan.
Internet Explorer 8 Achieves Release Candidate Status
Microsoft took the "beta" tag off Internet Explorer 8 today with the announcement of Windows Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1. IE8 RC1 is the next best thing to a full release of the software. Stocked with all the features, functions and most of the bug fixes you'll see in the final version.IE8 for the most part appears nearly ready for widespread release, so don't be surprised if the final version arrives relatively soon.
The release candidate software comes in bot 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Vista as well as a 32-bit Windows XP edition. There is no installer for the Windows 7 Beta and RC1 will not work properly on the new OS. Microsoft has said the version of IE8 currently running on the Windows 7 Beta and the current IE8 revision are two seperate builds and should remain so.
If you aren't running Windows 7 and would like to get the latest version of IE8 the Windows Internet Explorer blog has a great post for upgrading to IE8 RC1.
As previous mentioned for Windows XP users if you are not running service pack 3 it is recommend that you install it before upgrading to IE8 or you will not be able to roll back to a previous version.
New Malware Steals Money From Your Cell Phone
Kaspersky Labs has discovered a new piece of malware that targets Symbian based cell phones provided by an Indonesian mobile phone operator. The virus know as Trojan-SMS.Python.Flocker, sends SMS messages with instructions to transfer part of the money in the user’s account to another account, which belongs to the cybercriminals.
So far the amounts transferred has remained small ranging from $0.45 to $0.90. It is likely the attackers are using the small amounts to fly under the radar. However as Kaspersky Labs notes if the cybercriminals behind the Trojan manage to infect a large number of phones, the amount transferred to their mobile phone account as a result could be quite substantial.
"Obviously, the authors of the Trojan want to make money,” said Denis Maslennikov, a senior malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “It seems that the focus on financial fraud in the mobile malware industry will only get more pronounced over time. Until recently, many people thought that malicious programs that send SMS messages without the user’s knowledge were a purely Russian phenomenon. Now we can see that the problem no longer affects only Russian users - it’s becoming an international issue."
According to PC World the software is a variant of the Trojan-SMS.Python.Flocker malware, originally written by Russian fraudsters. This software had originally been used to dupe victims into singing up for expensive mobile services such as ringtones, downloadeable games and other high priced services, presumably with the program's authors getting a healthy kickback. "It seems like some Indonesian guys had a look at this stuff and thought, 'Hey, we could do this in Indonesia,'" said Roel Schouwenberg, an antivirus researcher with Kaspersky.
So far the Trojan is limited to a specific Indonesian cell phone provider which allows transfer of funds through SMS, the exact provider was not disclosed. The affected Symbian operating system is used in phones made by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, among others.
So far the amounts transferred has remained small ranging from $0.45 to $0.90. It is likely the attackers are using the small amounts to fly under the radar. However as Kaspersky Labs notes if the cybercriminals behind the Trojan manage to infect a large number of phones, the amount transferred to their mobile phone account as a result could be quite substantial.
"Obviously, the authors of the Trojan want to make money,” said Denis Maslennikov, a senior malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “It seems that the focus on financial fraud in the mobile malware industry will only get more pronounced over time. Until recently, many people thought that malicious programs that send SMS messages without the user’s knowledge were a purely Russian phenomenon. Now we can see that the problem no longer affects only Russian users - it’s becoming an international issue."
According to PC World the software is a variant of the Trojan-SMS.Python.Flocker malware, originally written by Russian fraudsters. This software had originally been used to dupe victims into singing up for expensive mobile services such as ringtones, downloadeable games and other high priced services, presumably with the program's authors getting a healthy kickback. "It seems like some Indonesian guys had a look at this stuff and thought, 'Hey, we could do this in Indonesia,'" said Roel Schouwenberg, an antivirus researcher with Kaspersky.
So far the Trojan is limited to a specific Indonesian cell phone provider which allows transfer of funds through SMS, the exact provider was not disclosed. The affected Symbian operating system is used in phones made by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, among others.
Thermaltake Launches New Products For Enthusiasts
Thermaltake Technology has announced two new products lines geared towards hard core enthusiasts the new Thermaltake Element S chassis series and new high-performance Toughpower XT power supplies.
Thermaltake Unveils the New Generation of PSU – Toughpower XT
Thermaltake Technology, the leading brand of computer components, today announced the next generation of its high-performance Toughpower family – Toughpower XT. Toughpower XT features a number of cutting-edge innovations that set it above the competition. New features such as FanDelayCool for thorough cooling, S.P.T. Indicator for real-time monitoring, and 12Vin1 for the best compatibility have never been offered in most of the current PSUs. Toughpower XT is currently available in three models: 850W, 750W, 650W.
Since its successful launch in 2006, Thermaltake’s top of the line PSU-Toughpower Series- has gained a great reputation for its high-performance and excellent quality in the past years. To maintain and even surpass its own leading position in the industry, Thermaltake’s R&D engineers have redesigned the inner structure to upgrade the current Toughpower PSU.
To provide users with the highest performance and the best user experience, Toughpower XT is equipped with a three-position FanDelayCool switch that controls how long the fan should continue to operate after system shutdown. FanDelayCool is a brand new feature that ensures the PSU is completely and thoroughly cooled after you shut down your PC. Toughpower XT also utilizes S.P.T. Indicator LEDs to indicate the standby mode, the power good signal, and the temperature of your PSU, bringing you the real-time monitoring over the power supply. Besides, Toughpower XT is also equipped with S.F.C. Quiet for the quietest operation, 12Vin1 for the best compatibility, and High Quality Japanese Capacitors for superb performance and reliability.
All Toughpower XT models are built to the highest standards of quality, delivering stable continuous output at 50℃ operating environment. It also comes with built-in two 6pin & two 8pin PCI-E connectors for Multi-GPU graphic cards, support for Dual Core CPU / Quad Core CPU / NVIDIA SLI and all Multi-Core GPU technologies, and strict voltage regulation (±3%) & high efficiency (qualified for 80Plus Bronze standard). Thermaltake believes the Toughpower XT will bring the highest performance and best quality to all the enthusiasts again!
Thermaltake Toughpower XT: Exclusive Website / Video Introduction / Official Web Page
Element S, New Classic from Thermaltake – Create for Pros!
Thermaltake is a well-known brand for producing high performance, premium quality and superior design product and widely recognizable by media around the world. In the beginning of a new 2009, Thermaltake presenting a whole new line of chassis “Element S” as the year featured chassis. The profound appearance and structure design, “Element S” will the most stylist and unique of the year. Element S will first release exclusively in North America, and absolutely fulfills PC professionals demands.
Element S is entirely different from the chassis Thermaltake made especially for gamers and enthusiasts in the past. It is masterpiece focus on upper level of consumers' satisfaction by satisfy the creative professionals like 3D modeler, music composer, graphic designer, video editor and gamer themselves. The “S” for Element S represents Silence, Sophisticated, Specious, Stream, Speedy and Substantial. With the six core design concepts, every surface, curve, line and crease has a function, expressing its potency and performance. With a seductive flow that incorporates profound detailing and powerful stance, the Element S delivers breathtaking beauty with performance.
The materials and traditional skills are essential elements of the Thermaltake’s experience. In the Element S, the beauty and performance is without equal.
Thermaltake Element S: Exclusive Website / Video Introduction / Official Web Page
Thermaltake Unveils the New Generation of PSU – Toughpower XT
Thermaltake Technology, the leading brand of computer components, today announced the next generation of its high-performance Toughpower family – Toughpower XT. Toughpower XT features a number of cutting-edge innovations that set it above the competition. New features such as FanDelayCool for thorough cooling, S.P.T. Indicator for real-time monitoring, and 12Vin1 for the best compatibility have never been offered in most of the current PSUs. Toughpower XT is currently available in three models: 850W, 750W, 650W.
Since its successful launch in 2006, Thermaltake’s top of the line PSU-Toughpower Series- has gained a great reputation for its high-performance and excellent quality in the past years. To maintain and even surpass its own leading position in the industry, Thermaltake’s R&D engineers have redesigned the inner structure to upgrade the current Toughpower PSU.
To provide users with the highest performance and the best user experience, Toughpower XT is equipped with a three-position FanDelayCool switch that controls how long the fan should continue to operate after system shutdown. FanDelayCool is a brand new feature that ensures the PSU is completely and thoroughly cooled after you shut down your PC. Toughpower XT also utilizes S.P.T. Indicator LEDs to indicate the standby mode, the power good signal, and the temperature of your PSU, bringing you the real-time monitoring over the power supply. Besides, Toughpower XT is also equipped with S.F.C. Quiet for the quietest operation, 12Vin1 for the best compatibility, and High Quality Japanese Capacitors for superb performance and reliability.
All Toughpower XT models are built to the highest standards of quality, delivering stable continuous output at 50℃ operating environment. It also comes with built-in two 6pin & two 8pin PCI-E connectors for Multi-GPU graphic cards, support for Dual Core CPU / Quad Core CPU / NVIDIA SLI and all Multi-Core GPU technologies, and strict voltage regulation (±3%) & high efficiency (qualified for 80Plus Bronze standard). Thermaltake believes the Toughpower XT will bring the highest performance and best quality to all the enthusiasts again!
Thermaltake Toughpower XT: Exclusive Website / Video Introduction / Official Web Page
Element S, New Classic from Thermaltake – Create for Pros!
Thermaltake is a well-known brand for producing high performance, premium quality and superior design product and widely recognizable by media around the world. In the beginning of a new 2009, Thermaltake presenting a whole new line of chassis “Element S” as the year featured chassis. The profound appearance and structure design, “Element S” will the most stylist and unique of the year. Element S will first release exclusively in North America, and absolutely fulfills PC professionals demands.
Element S is entirely different from the chassis Thermaltake made especially for gamers and enthusiasts in the past. It is masterpiece focus on upper level of consumers' satisfaction by satisfy the creative professionals like 3D modeler, music composer, graphic designer, video editor and gamer themselves. The “S” for Element S represents Silence, Sophisticated, Specious, Stream, Speedy and Substantial. With the six core design concepts, every surface, curve, line and crease has a function, expressing its potency and performance. With a seductive flow that incorporates profound detailing and powerful stance, the Element S delivers breathtaking beauty with performance.
- Silence - With the silence environment that Element S created, Audio/Music composer can concentrate on their work without distraction of the noise come from the computer.
Sophisticated - With it's not so flashy appearance and very carefully painted black interior, Element S is a perfect companion for graphic designers.
Spacious - With tremendous HDD space Element S can offer, it can helps them to finish their masterpiece with ease.
Stream - With the superior airflow that Element S can provide, the heat energy that the system produce will be effectively take away.
Speedy - With Element S's advance mechanism like plug & play fan and direction-free HDD cage, gamers can minimize installation time when changing new key components. Their system can get online faster than ever!
The materials and traditional skills are essential elements of the Thermaltake’s experience. In the Element S, the beauty and performance is without equal.
Thermaltake Element S: Exclusive Website / Video Introduction / Official Web Page
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Enter Google's Knol For Dummies.com Contest
Google's Knol and Dummies.com have teamed up to announce the Knol for Dummies.com contest. The contest will be open to residence of the US age 13 or older and any subject matter within the Knol TOS is acceptable.
Simply go to the official contest page, create your own "how to" knol about a subject you know well, and the contest judges will select five finalists who will be eligible to have their knols featured on the Dummies.com site. In addition, the best entry overall will be awarded a $1,000 grand prize.
Submissions are open through March 23rd, 2009, click here for the full contest rules
Simply go to the official contest page, create your own "how to" knol about a subject you know well, and the contest judges will select five finalists who will be eligible to have their knols featured on the Dummies.com site. In addition, the best entry overall will be awarded a $1,000 grand prize.
Submissions are open through March 23rd, 2009, click here for the full contest rules
Monster.com Hit By Security Breach
Popular job search engine Monster.com is reporting their databases have been illegally accessed and user information has been stolen.
Monster posted the following warning about the breach:
Users of both Monster.com and Monster.com's government client USAJobs.com should change their passwords as soon as possible. You should also be on the lookout for very real looking phishing attempts made by fraudsters that could be using your personal details from this breach.
Monster posted the following warning about the breach:
We recently learned our database was illegally accessed and certain contact and account data were taken, including Monster user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data. The information accessed does not include resumes. Monster does not generally collect – and the accessed information does not include - sensitive data such as social security numbers or personal financial data.
In order to help assure the security of your information, you may soon be required to change your password upon logging onto the site. Please follow the instructions on the site. We would also recommend you proactively change your password yourself as an added precaution. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, but feel it is important that you take these preventative measures.
As a further precaution, we want to remind you that an email address could be used to target “phishing” emails. Monster will never send an unsolicited email asking you to confirm your username and password, nor will Monster ask you to download any software, “tool” or “access agreement” in order to use your Monster account. Monster’s security page, http://my.monster.com/securitycenter, provides users with a substantial amount of information about different types of Internet fraud. We encourage you to review the information to learn more about what you can do to protect yourself on the Internet.
Users of both Monster.com and Monster.com's government client USAJobs.com should change their passwords as soon as possible. You should also be on the lookout for very real looking phishing attempts made by fraudsters that could be using your personal details from this breach.
Windows 7 Beta Download Deadline Extended
Microsoft has decide to extend the Windows 7 beta download deadline which originally ended today to Feb 10th."Because enthusiasm continues to be so high for the Windows 7 Beta and we don’t want anyone to miss out we will keep the Beta downloads open through February 10th. Customers who have started but not completed the download process will be able to do so through February 12th," said Windows Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc in a post to the Windows 7 blog.
Microsoft originally planned to limit the number of downloads and licenses to 2.5 million copies. Due to an overwhelming initial response the company's servers were overloaded resulting in Microsoft lifting the original limit and offering an unlimited amount of downloads through today, Jan. 24.
Despite the fact they "are at a point where we have more than enough beta testers and feedback coming in to meet our engineering needs" Microsoft decided late Friday to extend their deadline two and a half more weeks.
The shutdown of general availability for the Windows 7 Beta will occur in 3 phases over the course of the next few weeks:
- Starting January 27th, the Windows 7 page will be updated with a warning that time is running out on downloading the Windows 7 Beta and that we will be limiting downloads shortly. People will be encouraged to register and start the download of the Windows 7 Beta sooner rather than later.
- February 10th, new downloads of the Windows 7 Beta will no longer be available. People who have already started their Windows 7 Beta download and have not yet finished will still be able to finish their download and are encouraged to do so.
- February 12th, people will no longer be able to complete their download of the Windows 7 Beta. Anyone who hasn’t finished downloading the Windows 7 Beta will be unable to do so.
Product keys for the Windows 7 Beta will continue to be available. So if you have the Windows 7 Beta but didn’t get a product key you will be able to do so even after February 12th.
If you have yet to download the beta you can head over to the Official Windows 7 page for download details and instructions on installation.Thursday, January 22, 2009
Microsoft Reports Lower Earnings, Cuts 5,000 Jobs
Amidst lower than expected 4th quarter earnings Microsoft has announced it will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.Prior to Microsoft's release of their 4th quarter earnings the company reported they would cut up to 5,000 jobs in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and IT. With the first 1,400 job cuts coming as early as this afternoon.
In today's earnings report Microsoft announced revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter ending Dec. 31, 2008, a 2% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.94 billion, $4.17 billion and $0.47, declines of 8%, 11% and 6%, respectively, compared with the prior year.
“Economic activity and IT spend slowed beyond our expectations in the quarter, and we acted quickly to reduce our cost structure and mitigate its impact,” said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “We are planning for economic uncertainty to continue through the remainder of the fiscal year, almost certainly leading to lower revenue and earnings for the second half relative to the previous year. In this environment, we will focus on outperforming our competitors and addressing our cost structure.”
Microsoft says revenue declined 8% as a result of PC market weakness and a continued shift to lower priced netbooks. But one has to wonder how much the failure of Vista and the lower than expected adoption rates has really hurt the company.
According to at least one report Vista might have a great role in the drop in revenues than expected. Tom Sullivan at InfoWorld writes: "Windows Vista has been trouble for Microsoft perhaps since the operating system's beginning. And this last quarter was certainly no exception."
"Windows Vista didn't do well. Based on our data, a lot of clients are skipping Windows Vista," said Neil McDonald, an analyst at Gartner. Indeed, nearly every other major analyst firm found a similar lack of Vista adoption, with Forrester Research likening the (operating system) to the failed New Coke.
Vista clearly isn't to blame for all of Microsoft's woes but you've got to admit that they have suffered some set backs because of it.
Seagate Releases New Firmware Fix For Bricked Drives
Seagate has released a new firmware update that, this time , should fix the issues faced my many users. The company has published detailed instructions for how you can identify which model of hard drive a user has and whether it needs a firmware upgrade. Models affected are the Barracuda 7200.11, ES.2 SATA and DiamondMax 22.I highly recommend anyone looking to flash their drive back them up before hand. While so far there have been no reported issues with the new firmware that is no guarantee. The last firmware released by Seagate was faulty and bricked several previously working drives.
Seagate will be offering data recovery services through their i365 subsidiary to any customer that was affected by this issue. Since this is a bios issue the data on the drives that are not inoperable is unaffected and should still be on the drives and can be recovered.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Red Herring Global 2008 Awards Announced
The Red Herring Global 100 awards are given to the top 100 tech startups from around the world. This years event was held January 16th in San Diego and featured more than 1,800 of the top Tech companies worldwide.
The Red Herring editorial team reviews thousands of privately held companies meticulously narrowing their list down to 1200 of the top companies from Europe, North America, and Asia. Deploying a detailed process Red Herring then drills-down that list to of the best companies, first to 200 finalists, then to the top 100 winners.
Past award winners include prestigious names such as Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, and YouTube. This years Red Herring Global 2008 Winners list features several great up and coming companies you might or might not have heard of. Here are a few of the companies I've had a chance to look at and suggest checking out:
There are undoubtedly more great companies on the list, and even more still on the finalists list. I've only had the time to check through a few at random. Please feel free to share your feedback on any companies or services you find.
The Red Herring editorial team reviews thousands of privately held companies meticulously narrowing their list down to 1200 of the top companies from Europe, North America, and Asia. Deploying a detailed process Red Herring then drills-down that list to of the best companies, first to 200 finalists, then to the top 100 winners.
Past award winners include prestigious names such as Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, and YouTube. This years Red Herring Global 2008 Winners list features several great up and coming companies you might or might not have heard of. Here are a few of the companies I've had a chance to look at and suggest checking out:
- www.zoomorama.com - photo album developer
- www.xcerion.com/ - they have a very interesting looking cloud OS platfrom
- www.nimbuzz.com - an all-in-one instant messenger
- www.medialets.com
- www.museeka.com/ - they will be launching their web based music search this year
- www.sclipo.com - social learning, video tutorials
There are undoubtedly more great companies on the list, and even more still on the finalists list. I've only had the time to check through a few at random. Please feel free to share your feedback on any companies or services you find.
Cell Phone Manufacturers Cutting Prices
Weak demand and an overstock of inventory has led to price cuts by many popular cell phone makers.
Sales of consumers electronics were down sharply over the holiday season leading to grim sales figures and an overstock of product. In an attempt to cut inventories and boost sales numbers in the first quarter of '09 several manufactures including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola have cut prices by as much as 10%.
Reports in Reuters suggest that while vendors often cut prices in January, some actions this year have been more aggressive than usual.
"Our researchers have seen significant price cuts in Europe by the major handset vendors as 2009 begins," said Tom Byrd, who leads device-pricing research at CCS Insight. "This reflects the highly competitive pricing environment we have been predicting for this year."
Insight and other analysts have predicted slow cell phone sales in 2009. Suggesting the economic downturn will affect the entire cell phone market, from handset manufacturers and network operators to component suppliers, developers, distributors and retailers.
According to new data from the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, cell phone spending has increased steadily, out pacing residential spending in both 2006 and 2007. Expenditures increased rapidly, from $210 "per consumer unit" to $608 in 2007, an increase of almost 200 percent. It is expected that the 2008/2009 numbers will show an even greater increase as the number of U.S. households move away from residential service and towards cell phones.
Sales of consumers electronics were down sharply over the holiday season leading to grim sales figures and an overstock of product. In an attempt to cut inventories and boost sales numbers in the first quarter of '09 several manufactures including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola have cut prices by as much as 10%.
Reports in Reuters suggest that while vendors often cut prices in January, some actions this year have been more aggressive than usual.
"Our researchers have seen significant price cuts in Europe by the major handset vendors as 2009 begins," said Tom Byrd, who leads device-pricing research at CCS Insight. "This reflects the highly competitive pricing environment we have been predicting for this year."
Insight and other analysts have predicted slow cell phone sales in 2009. Suggesting the economic downturn will affect the entire cell phone market, from handset manufacturers and network operators to component suppliers, developers, distributors and retailers.
According to new data from the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, cell phone spending has increased steadily, out pacing residential spending in both 2006 and 2007. Expenditures increased rapidly, from $210 "per consumer unit" to $608 in 2007, an increase of almost 200 percent. It is expected that the 2008/2009 numbers will show an even greater increase as the number of U.S. households move away from residential service and towards cell phones.
ASUS Adding Phoenix Technologies' HyperSpace
Phoenix Technologies, the leader in PC 3.0 products, services and embedded technologies, has announced a partnership with ASUS to accelerate the adoption of its award-winning HyperSpace product by consumers worldwide. HyperSpace is a revolutionary new instant-on and always-connected application environment that makes operating a mobile PC as easy and efficient as operating a cell phone.
Based on the partnership agreement, ASUS will incorporate HyperSpace into its next generation notebooks. With HyperSpace-installed notebooks, users can instantly launch important web-based applications (before Windows ever boots), automatically connect to the best available network, dramatically extend battery life and achieve new levels of uptime and security protection. HyperSpace is available for download at http://www.hyperspace.com
"Phoenix is pleased to be working with ASUS to offer a broad choice of affordable products that are revolutionizing the mobile PC user experience," said Woody Hobbs, president and CEO of Phoenix Technologies. "With HyperSpace, we ensure users will enjoy a dynamic online experience seconds after turning on their PCs. And once Windows has fully booted, users will be able to quickly and easily toggle back and forth between their Windows applications and the instant-on, always-available HyperSpace environment. An added benefit is that HyperSpace extends the battery life on an average notebook by more than 25%."
Mr. Hobbs added, "All-day mobile computing is a cornerstone of our PC 3.0(TM) promise to simplify the PC end user experience and transform PCs into more user-friendly, fun, versatile and effective systems."
"As the fastest growing notebook brand, we are committed to bringing to market innovative technology solutions that simplify consumers' lives; we are glad to see Phoenix's PC 3.0 vision is in line with our commitment to our customers. HyperSpace's easy-to-use, smart, instant-on and longer battery life features will allow ASUS to deliver richer, more dynamic products and satisfy our customers' desire to make mobility a far more elegant and intuitive experience," said Henry Yeh, General Manager, ASUS Notebook Business Unit.
Phoenix HyperSpace was named "Best Software" by Laptop Magazine at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). HyperSpace is also the winner of Laptop Magazine's 2009 CES Readers' Choice Award. For more information about HyperSpace, please visit http://www.hyperspace.com
Source: Phoenix Technologies Press Release
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Gaming: Sony Provides "Sneak Peek" Of The Upcoming PS3 Firmware (v2.60) Update
Eric Lempel the Director of PlayStation Network Operations provides PS3 users with a sneak peek into the software updates for PS3. The newest Firmware v2.60 is said to be coming soon and is designed primarily to enhance the system’s media capabilities.
According to Lempel's blog post the key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3’s firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.
While there is no official word on the release date some sites are speculating it will be available for download tomorrow January 21. Until then here’s a video walk-through of the firmware showing off the Photo Gallery.
According to Lempel's blog post the key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3’s firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.
While there is no official word on the release date some sites are speculating it will be available for download tomorrow January 21. Until then here’s a video walk-through of the firmware showing off the Photo Gallery.
Amazing GeoEye Pictures Of President Obama’s Inauguration
The GeoEye gallery feature some great 1/2 meter resolution images of the Washington D.C. area during the President's Inauguration. The images were taken from space, some 423 miles up in, by the GeoEye-1 or as many know it the “Google Satellite”.
This half-meter resolution image of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds, shows the masses of people attending the Inaugural Celebration.
This half-meter resolution image of Washington D.C.’s National Mall was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds, shows portions of the monuments along the National Mall and the masses of people between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
The images definitely offer a different perspective. The little blobs of people looks so minuscule, yet each blob represents 10's of thousand off people, if not more.
This half-meter resolution image of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds, shows the masses of people attending the Inaugural Celebration.
Click to enlargeThis half-meter resolution image of Washington D.C.’s National Mall was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds, shows portions of the monuments along the National Mall and the masses of people between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
Click to enlargeThe images definitely offer a different perspective. The little blobs of people looks so minuscule, yet each blob represents 10's of thousand off people, if not more.
Payment Processor Heartland Hit With Security Breach, 100 million Accounts Vulnerable
Information is now being disclosed about a massive data breach that hit payment processor, Heartland Payment Systems, late last year. The breach may have may have led to the theft of more than 100 million credit and debit card accounts.
Robert Baldwin, Heartland's president and chief financial officer, said the company had receiving several fraudulent activity reports late last year from MasterCard and Visa on cards that had all been used at merchants which rely on Heartland to process payments.
"We found evidence of an intrusion last week and immediately notified federal law enforcement officials as well as the card brands," said Baldwin. "We understand that this incident may be the result of a widespread global cyber fraud operation, and we are cooperating closely with the United States Secret Service and Department of Justice."
Upon investigating suspicious activity surrounding processed card transactions, Heartland uncovered malicious software that compromised data that crossed Heartland's network. The company reportedly took immediately steps to further secure its systems. In addition, Heartland will implement a next-generation program designed to flag network anomalies in real-time and enable law enforcement to expeditiously apprehend cyber criminals.
Heartland has created a website, www.2008breach.com, to provide information about this incident. It is advised that you check your credit reports for any suspicious activity and scan your credit card statements closely. Even the smallest of charges should be considered suspicious as credit card thieves often create a test charge for something small to see if the card works. Then they'll go in for the kill and buy those high ticket items.
Robert Baldwin, Heartland's president and chief financial officer, said the company had receiving several fraudulent activity reports late last year from MasterCard and Visa on cards that had all been used at merchants which rely on Heartland to process payments.
"We found evidence of an intrusion last week and immediately notified federal law enforcement officials as well as the card brands," said Baldwin. "We understand that this incident may be the result of a widespread global cyber fraud operation, and we are cooperating closely with the United States Secret Service and Department of Justice."
Upon investigating suspicious activity surrounding processed card transactions, Heartland uncovered malicious software that compromised data that crossed Heartland's network. The company reportedly took immediately steps to further secure its systems. In addition, Heartland will implement a next-generation program designed to flag network anomalies in real-time and enable law enforcement to expeditiously apprehend cyber criminals.
Heartland has created a website, www.2008breach.com, to provide information about this incident. It is advised that you check your credit reports for any suspicious activity and scan your credit card statements closely. Even the smallest of charges should be considered suspicious as credit card thieves often create a test charge for something small to see if the card works. Then they'll go in for the kill and buy those high ticket items.
Obama Officially Takes Office
I'm not one for politics so instead of being glued to the TV like many of you I was sleeping during today's historical inauguration. Being the geek I am I knew there would be much missed as everyone, everywhere would be streaming the video. So I headed over to YouTube and watched the Associated Press video.
Being a "Semi-Republican", I'm a nonpartisan voter that votes Republican more often than not, I'm not a big supporter of our new President. I'd like to be optimistic and think he'll turn things around. That he can walk the walk and back up some of what he has been talking. I'm just not getting my hopes up. Politicians all to often make big promises, get into office and then don't deliver.
Today's historical significance aside I don't see the event as being worthy of the attention it is receiving. More than a million people crowded the National Mall and the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue for the inauguration of President Obama. That's great that all those people wanted to be a part of the inauguration of our first black president, but at the end of the day that really doesn't mean much.
If President Obama can't, or doesn't deliver on his promises and the economy doesn't make a miraculous turn around then he goes down in history as what he is, just another President. In my opinion for this to truly be a noteworthy even President Obama has to make a significant impact on the world. If two years down the road things are as bad or worse then today's historic moment losses all of its shine.
Being a "Semi-Republican", I'm a nonpartisan voter that votes Republican more often than not, I'm not a big supporter of our new President. I'd like to be optimistic and think he'll turn things around. That he can walk the walk and back up some of what he has been talking. I'm just not getting my hopes up. Politicians all to often make big promises, get into office and then don't deliver.
Today's historical significance aside I don't see the event as being worthy of the attention it is receiving. More than a million people crowded the National Mall and the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue for the inauguration of President Obama. That's great that all those people wanted to be a part of the inauguration of our first black president, but at the end of the day that really doesn't mean much.
If President Obama can't, or doesn't deliver on his promises and the economy doesn't make a miraculous turn around then he goes down in history as what he is, just another President. In my opinion for this to truly be a noteworthy even President Obama has to make a significant impact on the world. If two years down the road things are as bad or worse then today's historic moment losses all of its shine.
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