Somewhere around 600,000 Mac users have this Trojan written in an unknown language. It gets on your OSX without a password. What it does (per F-secure): “Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.I connects to a remote site to download its payload; on successful infection, the malware modifies targeted webpages displayed in the web browser.” How to discover if it’s there and disinfect (per F-Secure): Manual Removal Caution: Manual disinfection is a risky p...
You can’t ignore the latest update (11.2). That’s because it plugged a security hole. Along with it came a new background updater which offers “automatic updating”. So this is all about the shiny new automatic updater and how to keep it’s functionality (updating) without adding updates to stuff you don’t have or necessarily want. The KISS principle: You want Adobe Flash updates only, so keep it simple. OK. You’ve opted to update and on installing th...
Finally. No WC’er nor gamer should be without one! Even people using Winstep need this! No more “Spaghetti Junction” wiring mess. No more wires for the cat to chew through (how come they never get electrocuted?) ThinkGeek is marketing this great invention, and $34.99 is not “too much”. I don’t want to hear that in the comments: No negativity at all. This ingenious device deserves everyone’s support. Hell, it&r...
You can’t imagine how proud I felt when I read that my old high school classmate Danny (now Danny, Ph.D.) made an amazing discovery after a lifetime of work with penguins. Kind of amazing, really, because Danny always told me he hated cold weather, and New York City winters. Anyway, Dr. Danny Ksepska has made the discovery of a lifetime. He’s found flying penguins that actually migrate. He started his research as an unde...
Apparently, a data breach occurred between January 21, 2012 and February 25, 2012 and both major credit card companies and approximately 10,000,000 accounts have been compromised. Please make sure to check your credit statement for charges (you can do this by phone), or if you’re like me – change your card number. If you opt to do this, you’ll get a new card in 7-10 days, and then you’ll have to activate it. Please do your due diligence: Best t...
If you don’t care about the info collected about you by any website you decide to visit, then at least do this: “Disable third party cookies’. Almost every website you’ll visit has ad banners, and they give you ad tracker cookies. Now not every cookie is bad. Some sites actually need cookies to be displayed correctly, and even speed up site rendering. So what’s a cookie? A cookie is a text file which collects and stores information and can only be ac...
You wouldn’t believe me if I told you who the Easter Bunny really is. Anyway, he couldn’t resist leaving me a really yummy Easter Egg. I’m not even making you guys and girls go hunting for this one. Thanks, Easter Bunny. You warm, cuddly, crazy wabbit! For the FAQ about the deal: http://www.acronis.com/promo/easter/faq.html Get it here: http://www.acronis.com/promo/easter/?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoguq7OZKXonjHpfsX%2B4...
Sometimes you don’t feel well. You have some symptoms and don’t know what to do about them, or maybe your friend told you he/she isn’t feeling well. In the latter case, and if you aren’t a Doctor, best to tell him/her to talk with one…. this isn’t something you try to do at home without really knowing what you’re doing. Sometimes you just want an idea of what might be wrong and what to do as initial self care. In that framework, i...
Neowin software blogger Razvan Serea wrote a brief article on PicPick v. 3.1.3 today so I thought I’d give it a mention as well. It’s free (for home users), but continues to be developed probably thanks to the sales of its commercial version. I use Snagit10 and Ashampoo Snap 5, and find them more intuitive and somewhat easier to use. They however are not free. I put together a composite of screenies to illustrate it’s features: &#...
It’s amazing. Simply and totally amazing. It supposedly makes CS5 look primitive, and that takes some doing. You can watch Russell Brown’s video on his six favorite new features: Adobe’s Mercury Graphics Engine has also speeded up the “Liquify”, “Puppet Warp” and “Crop” tools. Some stuff Russell Brown didn’t mention: “Shadows and Highlights” – No more halos (unless you go to truly insane val...
Really fast and thorough defragging can speed up your HDD. Both Iobit’s SmartDefrag2 (with skinnable – its own skins) and Auslogic’s Disk Defrag have both been updated. I have no preference… both look ok, although SmartDefrag2 might have the edge there as it has a dark (charcoal gray) and light interface. Auslogic’s Disk Defrag: Features : Defrag and optimize Free space consolidation System files smart placement Keeping the MFT reserved z...
Stardock’s newest app to make Windows 8 more usable for desktop and tablet pc users was reviewed by Matthew Nawrocki on his blog over at TechRepublic. He has immediately adopted Start 8: “I immediately adopted this add-on for Windows 8, since it does wonders for working within the new interface and it makes Windows 8 a good bit more tolerable to use. Who knows, perhaps Microsoft may pay heed to Stardock’s tweak and officially reincorporate the Start button ...
Yesterday I wrote about BCI – brain computer interface and medical, etc. (hopefully non military) applications. Today it’s Tobii’s turn… well, I have written about that before as well as gaze control for Windows 8 (demonstrated at CES 2012). Tobii (no, I haven’t invested in that Swedish company, and have no interest beyond reporting news) has now created an asteroid shooter game and a way to interact with it … without the clumsy glasses. Here’s a pic from Tobii. ...
Back in June 2011 ( http://drjbhl.joeuser.com/article/409427/Just_Think_About_This ) I told you about a company named Emotiv and the possibilities ahead of us. At CES 2012, I admit it managed to skate by my attention but it seems they’d managed to demonstrate mind control over a skateboard! Please watch “The Board of Imagination” video here : http://vimeo.com/37232050 How cool is this? Awesome! Beyond skateboarding, lie...
Hankers sent me to Neowin to find this one (I was lazy), so thanks, Hankers. What I found there, and after reading the original at Incapsula truly amazed me. I knew there was bad stuff out there but this much? Incapsula published research done on 1,000 of its customers (anonymous) and found the following (nice graphics, Incapsula!): So, 51% of the traffic on these 1,000 sites was bot related. Now, that isn’t all bad. There are ceaseless bot searches being d...