Guess Who’s Back, Back Again?

After what has been an amazing summer, I have finally returned to my world online. If you would like to find out what I was up to this past summer, I will posting those stories to the new Replay section. Click through to see what you can look forward to reading about!

OMG!!! Zeus Struck Me Down!

A couple days ago, when I tried to boot into Windows I was unable to since I was one of 100,000 victims of the Zeus botnet attack. At first, I found it strange that I was suddenly getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows 7 which, although a beta, had not given me any trouble since I installed it. However, I later read an article on ArsTechnica.com, entitled “Botnet Master Hits the Kill Switch, Takes Down 100,000 PCs,” where I learned that I was only one of many victims of a botnet attack. For those who do not know, a botnet attack is an attack that uses large groups of compromised computers  for malicious purposes. In the case of the Zeus botnet, it used a software kit, known as Zeus or Zbot, to extract personal and financial data from infected machines. Zeus’ most dangerous feature was the kos, or kill operating system, command that was built into the software and, when invoked, triggered the BSOD, making it difficult to boot into the operating system. In my case, I was fortunate that this attack happened when I was already planning on upgrading my operating system from the Windows 7 Beta to the Windows 7 Release Candidate. After the upgrade, any malware that Zeus left on my computer was gone. In order to stay protected from such a threat, make sure you have some type of anti-malware  ( anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc) software running on your computer and ensure that it is kept up-to-date.

For more info check out Ars Technica

I Was Mentioned in the Wall Street Journal!

A few weeks ago, after reading some of the articles I had been posting here regarding netbooks, Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Scheck contacted me. He wanted to know how I personally felt about netbooks and why I chose the Asus EEE PC 1000HE over the rest. What I have found is that netbooks represent a growing market for those who do not want to lug a huge fifteen inch laptop with them everywhere, especially if all they want to do is get on the Internet.

Click this articles title to read an excert from the WSJ article where I am mentioned.

Conficker Worm Update #2

The Conficker worm is still loose and apparently it is now capable of bypassing security implementations in order to receive updates from its developers, despite the efforts of security experts in the past few months. While it may have seemed like Conficker’s April 1 D-Day came and went without a hitch, something major did happen without any of us actually knowing it. On that day, the worm received an update with instructions on how to link up with all of its newly registered nodes, which number in the tens of thousands. The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) botnet that the worm has created is now at point where it can longer be stopped. It has become apparent to experts that Conficker’s main goal is to infiltrate and sustain itself within computer networks for an extended period of time.

Click this articles title to find out how to check if your computers been infected.

Conficker Worm Update

Well, D-Day for the Conficker Worm has come and gone, and so far nothing has happened. That’s not to say that nothing WILL happen, I’m just saying nothing has happened YET. My sources tell me that the worm has now begun its search for new behavioral instructions by visiting a sizable sampling of around 50,000 randomly generated web addresses. Other than that, not much else will happen. No botnet attack. No DDOS attack. Not even a Dark Google. At least not yet. Only time will tell what nefarious deeds the evil genius behind Conficker will do with it.

Click this articles title to find out more about this worm.

Beware of Worm: Conficker

All the Internet is a buzz over the looming Conficker worm. For those not in the know, the Conficker worm is such that currently threatens millions of PCs around the world. The worm was orignally made to exploit a bug in Windows. Microsoft patched this vulnerability last October, and then version b of the worm was released in January. Now there’s a newer, nastier variant of the worm out in the wild, version c. Wanna know how it got its unusual name?

Click this articles title to find out more about this nasty worm.

Nation-wide Broadband Access

President Barack Obama has just signed the $317.2 billion economic stimulus bill into law, saying that “it is the beginning of the end” of our harsh economic times. Part of this bill includes $7.2 billion that will be spent on a “broadband grant and loans program” which will ensure that all Americans have broadband access to what has recently become a vital resource for communication and education in modern America. 65.3% ($4.7 billion) will be used for Commerce Department run programs, while the rest of the funds will be used for programs run by the Agriculture Department. This obviously means that there is more of an emphasis on rural America getting broadband access.

Those Americans that live in areas where there is limited or no broadband options will greatly benefit from this stimulus package. However, they are not the only beneficiaries. The bill will also create jobs in the areas that it serves. Ethernet cable manufacturers will be getting much larger orders from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and cable companies. These ISPs and companies will then need to send qualified employees out to run their cables to the customers that they serve. They will also need more sales representitives to get people to purchase the new service. That is just a few of the jobs that will be create by this legislation.

As for when this will all be done, President Obama wants these funds to be distributed by September 30, 2010 to projects that can be completed within a couple years. This means that by the end of his first term, at least 85% of Americans, if not more, should have broadband internet access. If all goes well, the bill may also make dial-up access obsolete. Here’s hoping!

President Barack Obama promised us that there is hope for America, and that change will come. I think that this bill is the initial delivery of that change.

For more information: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10165726-38.html

Cox Is No Longer My Friend in the Digital Age

When it comes to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), I have been hearing a lot of bad things about Comcast. I don’t like how they throttle bit torrent traffic, but it has never effected me personally because Comcast is not my ISP, Cox is. I am now hearing that Cox is taking its own steps to combat piracy. The steps that Cox is taking takes the fight against piracy to a whole new level that I am not comfortable with. In an article I read on TorrentFreak.com, I found out that, like every other ISP, Cox recieves plenty of copyright related takedown notices. However, instead of forwarding these notices to those customers in question, Cox takes it upon themselves to disconnect the alleged “pirate” from the Internet. Once this happens, a message will be displayed in the browser window stating that under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, they have the responsibility to disable the offenders Internet access. Cox is wrong in stating this because, as the article says, the DMCA does not oblige them to terminate anyone’s Internet access. In fact, doing what they do can easily lead to corruption on the part of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). If either of these organizations suspects someone of piracy, all they have to do is send out the notice and, if the person in question is unfortunate enough to be subscribed to Cox,  his or her access to the Internet will be shut off. Said person could in fact be completely innocent and, because of this system, suddenly find out that he is a suspected criminal. In such a case, all the person has to do is call up Cox and explain the situation, afterwhich his Internet connection will be reinstated. Still, without proper evidence it is wrong for Cox to deny someone access to the Internet.

More Info: http://torrentfreak.com/cox-disconnects-alleged-pirates-from-the-internet-080930/

Kurt Angle to Cross Into MMA

I have been hearing about this for quite a while, but now it seems like it may actually happen. In an interview with SunSport, the Olympic gold medalist stated that it is very likely that he will be competing in the Octagon by the end of 2009. RIght now, Angle is looking into the MMA company that will give him the best deal and the best fights. 

I know there a people out there who believe that someone like Kurt Angle, a pro wrestler, could not possibly do well in MMA simply because pro wrestling is “fake.” These people need only take the example of Brock Lesnar, who recently beat Heath Herring at UFC 87.

More Info: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/ufc/article1724710.ece

Greetings From the Future!

I just read online that Jon Favreau is planning not only and Iron Man 2, but but 3 and 4 as well. In the next Iron Man flick, Rhodey (Terrance Howard) may become the new War Machine. In the subsequent films, The Mandarin, Iron Mans arch-nemesis from the comics, will become the series main protagonist, ala The Emperor from Star Wars. Also in the next few movies, we may see some tie-ins to The Hulk and Captain America which could serve to build towards the Avengers movie. Also, Jon Favreau’s character Happy Hogan will have a larger role in the next few films. 

More Info: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/080912k.php

As a futurist and an avid gamer, I really enjoyed a recent article on TechRadar that explores what the Playstation 4 may be like. Author Dean Evans points out that under the hood we’ll see an improved version of Sony’s current Cell processor similar to those found in IBM’s latest blade servers. In my opinion, this does seem plausible. Oftentimes, components that start off in expensive, high-end hardware tend to trickle down into consumer-grade products within a few years. According to Mr. Evans, we’ll also likely see a chipset upgrade to the 802.11n standard, external power supply, a much larger HDD, improved graphics processor, and more onboard memory. Also, the Playstaion 4 may be Sony’s first console to forgo an optical drive, meaning that all its games will be downloadable to its high-capacity (at least 3-5 TB) hard disk drive. As for when this new machine may be released, Kaz Hirai states that, “If you look at the history of the way we’ve managed our console business, we always try to hit a 10-year life cycle.” Taking that into consideration, the Playstation 2 was released in October of 2000, putting it’s end date sometime in 2010. However, the Playstation 3 overlapped it’s predecessor’s life cycle by 4 years. If this happens again, we can look forward to the Playstation 4 being released during the holiday season of 2012.  

More Info: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/playstation-4-everything-you-need-to-know-464657