Archive for January, 2006
Updated government search facility
From its inception the search facility at FirstGov has been a very useful tool for finding the myriad of pages that the government has on the Internet. It has now been revised and Search Engine Watch describes the new search page
FirstGov’s new, sparse search page is just the tip of the iceberg for a number [...]
Alternative to QuickTime player
When I commented on Apple’s making a security update to the QuickTime player hard to get, I neglected to give a link to an alternative player. Jack Teems at Neat Net Tricks has an entry in his latest newsletter that reminds me that you can download a alternate player at free-codecs.com. Here is [...]
Cybercrime is too easy
Here’s some more evidence (as if it were needed) to support my contention that we need a whole new way of addressing the Internet security problem. Robert Vamosi has an article giving the sorry story of how easy it was for a young man to carry out a career of cybercrime. One thing [...]
Paradigm shift in anti-virus and spyware protection?
The present way that is used to protect computers against malware such as viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware is basically reactive. It depends on a local database of information about known malware in order to recognize and disarm the invaders. Some attempt is made at using so-called “heuristic” techniques to recognize new malware that is [...]
Windows XP in your pocket
I have been writing off and on about the usefulness of thumb drives (or pen drives or flash drives or USB drives or whatever you want to call them) but there’e more. The price has come down to the point where there is no excuse not to have one (or several). It has even become [...]
Easy way for the average PC user to back up files
Backing up important data and files is something that everybody knows they should do but somehow a lot of people never get around to it. One reason may be that it is not a very interesting way to spend your time but then neither is brushing your teeth.
Another reason backups do not get [...]
The sure way to seduce PC users
Well, it seems that a sure way to get people to click on your malware package is to promise lots of sex. Greed is another way but sex is still the number one sucker bait. ZDNet describes the latest outbreak, the “Kama Sutra” worm.
Contribution from a reader on Microsoft Office XP component Ctfmon.exe
A reader, Steve Hobberstad, has sent me a contribution describing his problems with a Microsoft Office XP component Ctfmon.exe. According to Microsoft
Ctfmon.exe is the file that is responsible for controlling the Alternative User Input technologies. It starts the Language Bar component (in the Systray) and remains running in the background even after you quit [...]
Is there any privacy on the Internet?
I have always been very leery of what Google, Yahoo, etc. were going to do with the enormous amount of information that they collect on all of us. I have tried to give as little information as possible when I use the Web. For example, I will not use the Google Desktop search and I [...]
The safety of Internet Explorer vs. Firefox revisited
“Internet Explorer Sucks.” The foregoing is a quote from the latest Crypto-Gram Newsletter by the well-known security expert Bruce Schneier. In it, he points out a study done last August by researchers at a security firm in Belgium called Scanit. Unlike the phony “test” done by George Ou (discussed here earlier) that got [...]
Alternative to RealPlayer
Certain programs are on my list of the most annoying. RealPlayer has been on the list for a long time. It puts stuff all over your computer and makes it hard to get rid of things like its entry in the Notification area (or System Tray, as it used to be called). Nonetheless, I [...]
