Ramblings of an old Doc
DrJBHL's Articles » Page 75
November 6, 2011 by DrJBHL
  It’s a neat little free app (1.5 MB) which will tell you given your usage stats, brand and make of SSD when it will be likely to fail. That’s not a guarantee, but if you have an early make and model SSD, you might want to find out and make plans around that rather than one bright day, poof and you’re running around like a crazy person, hunting and posting “What kind should I get?” Forum posts. SSDs from the very beginning have stories about bad life e...
November 5, 2011 by DrJBHL
  A real quicky for you folks. Microsoft has issued a fix to prevent exploitation of the True Type vulnerability which allows exploitation of the Win x32 true type font parsing engine (the Duqu Trojan/virus rootkit). An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode. The attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. The fix is for x486 and x64 systems. It’s a ...
November 5, 2011 by DrJBHL
  Hope you remember the posts I put up about the phishing, phony and ransom malware. At the time, I didn’t know about this malware removal tool. You remember how they’d advertise a “free scan” and install their malware on your computer that way (either via link in email or by following an “ad”). Others even advertised themselves as AVG, Bitdefender or Microsoft antivirals. Recently in gHacks, I read about a specific piece of software which has ...
November 5, 2011 by DrJBHL
  CBS News has notified that the venerable reporter and commentator Andy Rooney died today. He recently had routine, simple surgery but it complicated requiring readmission to the hospital. Andrew Aitken "Andy" Rooney (January 14, 1919- November 5, 2011) is an American radio and television writer. He is most notable for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired ...
November 3, 2011 by DrJBHL
  To complement Island Dog’s recent article “More Ways to Promote Your Skins”   I’m posting to help folks understand more about Reddit   with a new, free manual available through makeuseof.com   which just came to me in email.     Reddit can be confusing (an understatement), but the guide is well written, short and explains the site’s organization well. Reddit is essentially a collection of links (so you’d be well served to have an ex...
November 1, 2011 by DrJBHL
  BigDogBigFeet   notified me of the following offer: I started to check up on it and because of URL’s, etc. I thought there might be some phishing going on, or perhaps worse.       I checked out the website:   http://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/home.aspx?culture=en-US .  I checked up on it on MS’s real website. No trace of any such offer. So I called Digital River, and they directed me to Customer Service at MS to ...
October 31, 2011 by DrJBHL
  I was talking to another grandpa (grandpas have a Secret Society replete with handshake and avatar) who told me about a program his grandkids love. It’s called Tux Paint. It isn’t the only program out there, nor are the age recommendations cast in stone. Qaquarelle (last changed in 10/2010, Windows, Linux) is another, and gpaint (Linux) and Drawing for Children are other, and  older - not changed since 2009. There are even more which can be further explor...
October 28, 2011 by DrJBHL
I don't know if anyone here is a StubHub customer or not... there is general info here as well as "what to do if" info which might be useful. A brand new email scam masquerading as an order confirmation from StubHub was sent to an undetermined number of people yesterday, 10/27/2011. StubHub is an online ticket broker subsidiary of Amazon.com and it was swamped with calls related to the email fraud yesterday. MSNBC reported that StubHub  posted a warning on their ...
October 26, 2011 by DrJBHL
  EaseUS Partition Master Professional Edition (EPMP 9.1) is an all in one partition solution and disk management utility. I’m reviewing it alone, and its merits but not comparing it to other tools since it really is a composite of three separate tools. To try and sum up all the features, I’d need a website all my own, but EaseUS already has that. You’d be better served to download the trial copy (link at end) read the “Help” file fully, watch the tutori...
October 26, 2011 by DrJBHL
  Everyone knows I believe Acoronis’ backup software to be the “Gold Standard”  of backup and recovery software. No discussion about that. Here’s a great, scary Halloween deal! For half price of Acronis you’ll get that AND -  Malware’s Anti-Malware PRO for FREE!       Please note: If you use PayPal: Your order MUST BE PAID by 10/31 or it will not be delivered   Oh yes….  Once again the ...
October 22, 2011 by DrJBHL
Claiming security as the reason, MS’s new OS W8 won’t allow “Dual Boot”. OK, no tragedy, right? OEM systems shipping with Windows 8 will have secure boot enabled by default to only load verified operating system loaders during boot time. This prevents malware from switching the boot loader, but also other operating systems that are not signed from being loaded. According to the gHacks article I read (among others), this is only a issue for UEFI systems, if you plan t...
October 21, 2011 by DrJBHL
  Wow! So many skins, Windowblinds, Walls, Icons, Sysmetrics! I don't know how you'll choose from all this, I'm sure. No room for all the possible picks... So please cruise the " Last Updated " and feast your eyes! Enjoy... My deep thanks for all the submissions and to all the artists who make WinCustomize "The Place for Skinning".   Windowblinds: Corners - Lightstar              &nbs...
October 20, 2011 by DrJBHL
  Macworld reports a new Trojan with a nasty twist. It poses as an update to Flash, but once double-clicked, it installs and sends the computer’s records to a remote server. As if that weren’t bad enough, it also disables the Mac auto-download for malware definitions: ( http://www.macworld.com/article/160191/2011/05/snow_leopard_malware_protection.html ).   This little gem has been named Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.C and was reported in September (M...
October 19, 2011 by DrJBHL
It was bound to happen. Progress. Soon, you won't really be able to tell the difference between what is a real picture and what isn't.... not just for pictures, but for animations as well.   Take a look at this video:  http://vimeo.com/28962540 Sorry but it's a vimeo vid and won't embed with the code they give.  Anyway, you can see more about Kevin Karsch on his homepage.  http://kevinkarsch.com/publications/sa11.html    
October 19, 2011 by DrJBHL
  The " Duqu " variant of the Stuxnet Trojan worm has been discovered, and its potential for attacking critical infrastructure computers around the world is worrisome. The original Stuxnet managed to infiltrate computer systems in Iran and do damage to that nation's nuclear research program. “On October 14, 2011, a research lab with strong international connections alerted us to a sample that appeared to be very similar to Stuxnet. They named the threat "D...