Brought to you each week by the 84 Online Team, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana region.
84 Online is broadcast live each
Sunday from
If you’re new to the Newsletter you can read back issues at http://forums.84online.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=53. Team member JP Durbin mirrors the archive at
http://www.jpdurbin.net/84archive/.
Looking for answers to your computer questions? The 84Online BBS offers 24/7 tech support directly from the 84Online team. Search for answers to frequently asked questions or post a question of your own. Visit us at http://forums.84online.net/.
The WHAS Crusade for Children provides year round support for needy children throughout the Kentuckiana region. Visit http://www.whascrusade.org/ to make donations online.
The Louisville Linux User Group is a resource for local Linux enthusiasts to communicate with one another via BBS and mailing list. To subscribe to the LouLUG list, visit http://www.loulug.com/ for more information.
1-29-09
Since our special issue Tuesday evening concerning MyDoom.A (and please forgive the lousy formatting, I was in such a rush to get that information out that I even neglected to change the date in the header) the situation has gotten a bit worse. As of Wednesday MyDoom has laid claim to being the fastest spreading computer virus ever. SoBig.F from last summer at it’s zenith resulted in 1 of every 17 email messages being infected with it but, according to a Panda Virus Alert newsletter yesterday, MyDoom.A had infected 1 in every 12 and today that number is 1 in 5 messages in circulation and it hasn’t yet reached it’s peak infection rate.
Also on Wednesday a new
variant, MyDoom.B, apparently began spreading in the wild. This one, rather than launching attacks
against SCO starting February 1st, uses infected machines to attack
http://www.microsoft.com/.
According to http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/35189.html
and http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/virus/story/0,10801,89494,00.html,
virus researchers feel that this variant comes from the same individual or group
responsible for the original. Since
it came less than 48 hours from the initial assault they believe there hasn’t
been time for other crackers to reverse engineer the original virus code, make
changes, recompile it and release it.
They also suggest that the
hacking aspect of the .A version allows for easier dissemination of .B through
infected zombie machines, plus the newer variant alters the Hosts file on an
affected machine thus preventing a user from visiting 65 different websites,
mostly antivirus sites.
Coinciding with the current
virus epidemic the Office of Homeland Security has announced a new National
Cyber Alert System. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=4080852&p1=0
has all the information, including a link to sign up for the
service.
The
system appears to be based on the CERT model (the federally funded Computer
Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon) in that it emails notices of viruses
and other security breaches and concerns to a mailing list of opt-in users and
IT professionals.
Speaking of the DoHS, not
all the news this week is good.
There’s a new email “phishing” scam making the email rounds that claims
to be from the FDIC and warns that you may have violated the USA Patriot
Act.
As
a result of this alleged violation the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation), at the behest of Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security, will
drop insurance coverage of all of your financial accounts until you verify your
account information. The helpful
phishers include a link that seems to go to a legitimate FDIC website, where you
can enter all the information they need to steal your identity and play havoc
with your life. You can read the
entire story, as well as view a sample email, at http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_fdic_phishing_scam.htm.
I
can’t stress enough that computer users should NEVER, EVER give out any personal
information, especially financial information, as a result of an email. No reputable company, service or
government agency will EVER request information that way. To flash back to the pre-Internet days,
the same rule applies to phone calls requesting similar
information.
If
you browse Amazon.com or PayPal.com, or call Sears or JC Penney or Holiday Inn
to order a piece of merchandise or a service you can feel secure in knowing that
your information is fairly safe, but there’s no way for you to verify where a
phone call or email message originates so you should NEVER believe them to be
legitimate.
I
was knocked off my original plan for this week’s column by MyDoom news but look
for me to cover why your PC slows down over time next
week.
Until then don’t open any
attachments ;)
Kevin Mefford,
Editor
SCO, the company that sued
everyone but my mother in 2003, is offering a $250,000 reward for information
leading to the arrest of the MyDoom (Norvarg) worm writer:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114479,00.asp
XM
and Sirius satellite radio services have changed the way nearly 2 million people
listen to music, sports and talk radio.
However, both companies are facing new competition and some pretty
serious logistical challenges:
http://www.forbes.com/columnists/2004/01/23/0123whitmore.html?partner=newscom
What’s 25 times larger than
a Goodyear Blimp, hovers 12 miles above the ground and can see 350 miles in any
direction? (Here’s a hint: you’re
going to help pay for it):
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0,12543,583484,00.html
If you use your PC as the core of your home entertainment center you’re probably tired of waiting for the machine to boot up so you can watch TV. But thanks to Linux and Intervideo this wait may become a thing of the past:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/01/23/booting.up.ap/index.html
Philips is ramping up to
produce displays that flex and are portable. However, some analysts aren’t so sure
you’ll buy it:
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32688.html
Finally received your share
of that money from Nigeria? Send my
finder’s fee to md84online@yahoo.com
Matthew
Dattilo
Hello
once again to all of our faithful 84Online subscribers! I hope you have enjoyed
our download tips so far and I have another one for you this week that I really
like.
I
guess I should tell you all that I’m a sports nut. Baseball is my favorite, but
mostly I like all sports. Living in this area, it’s easy to get updates about
UofL, UK and IU but what about MY teams?
I’m from Michigan so I need to know what’s up the Lions, Tigers, and
RedWings!
I
can hear the sympathy from here.
Apparently
the folks at ESPN heard my cries and they have a new ticker, much like the one
we see on ESPN2. It’s called
BottomLine and you can get it at http://espn.go.com/bottomline/.
Here’s
the skinny. It’s small, works well and keeps you up to date. It updates itself
and is completely custom configurable. You can attach it to a side of your
desktop (BOTTOM-line, get-it?) or as a floating box on the screen somewhere. You
can choose what sports you want to get more info about and it does the rest.
ESPN
BottomLine works best with a constant Internet connection. I use it at work so
that I don’t have to go surfing for stories. I can just glance at it every once
and awhile to keep up. What’s better than that you ask? Well, how ‘bout
this? See an interesting score or
note, and click on it. BottomLine will take you right to the page on ESPN.com
with the full article.
So
if you’re one of those who has to keep up with LeBron you can do it free at http://espn.go.com/bottomline
Thanks
again, and enjoy!
Troy
Overton
In
past articles, I've explained how far Linux has come as a desktop operating
system, and have made an argument for why it's ready for consumer desktop
use. This week, I'm going to go 180
degrees and explain why Linux may not be ready for the desktop. And now, the top 5 arguments against
Linux on the desktop.
Argument #1: There are
waaaay to many distros
One
of the main strengths of Linux has often proven to be one of its major
weaknesses: the number of Linux distributions available on the market. Some are free while some are not. Some are aimed at corporate desktops
and/or servers, while others are aimed at home users. Others can be used for both corporate
and personal use. It can be a bit
troublesome to try to figure out which Linux distribution is right for
you.
The
only way that Linux is going to be able to get a strong grip on the
desktop/workstation market is if there is a single distribution designed solely
for that market. The best way to
achieve this goal will be for the distributions available on the market today to
come together and join into a single distribution.
Argument #2: There's no
standard conformity across distributions
One
of my main problems currently with Linux is that there is no real standard
across any platform that's available on the market today. One distribution may give you one thing,
while another may give you something completely different. Some might call this a strength for
Linux but I'm afraid that I can't.
While it's nice to have a
choice, sometimes there is such a thing as having too many choices in programs
and applications. A good example of
this is the Linux kernel. One
distro may give you one specific kernel while another will give you a completely
different one. Even worse yet,
distro #1 may compile their generic kernel in a way that's very different from
distro #2, which may alter your computing experience
completely.
Argument #3: Gaming in Linux
barely exists
I
know that this won't affect most people, but for people like myself who're big
gamers, this is a huge issue. While
Linux has fantastic support for gaming, and in some cases has been proven to be
a better gaming platform than Windows, there just really isn't that much support
for games in Linux. For people like
myself who love to game, this means that you have to keep your fingers crossed
that your favorite game publisher will develop a specific Linux client for the
game you're wanting to play.
Otherwise you're going to be stuck with a dual-boot system, having to go
into Windows just to play games.
There are strides in this
area however. More and more vendors
are starting to develop a Linux client for their games. A good example is Id software, popular
for it's DOOM and Quake games. Id
has been supporting Linux gaming for quite a few years now, and has been
releasing Linux clients for all of its latest and greatest games. Other companies have been following suit
and as a result the library of games on Linux is growing. Add to the fact that a company called
Transgaming Technologies has been working on a DirectX emulator called WineX,
games that were designed specifically for Windows now work on Linux, but the
support for these games is extremely limited.
Transgaming Technologies
WineX
Argument #4: Your favorite
applications may not have a Linux counterpart
This argument falls in line
with argument #3: not many software vendors are porting their popular
applications to Linux. This problem
has kept many companies from making a switch solely to Linux, as they have
become dependant on a proprietary program that only runs on
Windows.
I
can personally provide a good example of this problem: Macromedia
Dreamweaver. As a web developer, I
have used Macromedia Dreamweaver for several years as my WYSIWYG Web site
editor. There are currently NO
equivalents for Dreamweaver in Linux, either open source or proprietary. The problem is so bad that people are
petitioning Macromedia to port some of their products, like Dreamweaver, so that
people can finally make the switch to Linux without having to dual-boot
Windows.
Thankfully, a company called
CodeWeavers are listening to these pleas for help and have developed a program
called Crossover that will allow users like myself to run Dreamweaver and Flash,
in addition to Microsoft Office, on Linux.
You can find out more about them at the URL below:
CodeWeavers Web
Site
List of Supported Apps in
Linux
http://www.codeweavers.com/site/products/cxoffice/supported_apps/
Argument #5: Not all
hardware is supported in Linux
Linux, being an open source
operating system, generally has to rely on crafty hackers to write the software
that will run all of the hardware available on the market. This generally can be a headache for all
Linux users, as there can be a wait to get a specific driver/module out on the
market to use the newest hardware on the market. As a result your new hardware may or may
not work directly out-of-the-box.
Of
course, the real problem here once again is gaining the support of the hardware
manufacturers to create Linux drivers for their hardware. Initially, only a few hardware
manufacturers provided either their own drivers or opened the code to allow
Linux hackers to write their own drivers for Linux. Thankfully the tide is beginning to turn
in this area as Linux begins to move up in the market and more vendors are
starting to provide Linux drivers for their hardware. A good example of this change is the
video card market, which is currently controlled by NVidia and ATI. Both of these vendors are now providing
Linux drivers for their most recent hardware, allowing for better gaming in
Linux.
Most of these arguments
won't last for long...
Now, I'm aware that there
are other arguments against Linux on the desktop, but these are the top five
that are the current major hurdles that need to be passed before Linux can take
a better hold on the desktop market.
As Linux gains in popularity, the arguments given above will eventually
become invalid as more vendors begin to support Linux by releasing versions of
software and drivers specifically for Linux. Considering that the tide has already
begun to shift in favor of Linux, it will only be a matter of time before you
start seeing Linux specifications on the bottom of your favorite software
boxes.
Ed
Engelking
online@edengelking.com
This article was written on
OpenOffice Writer, a free word processing program for Windows, Mac and Linux
that is completely compatible with Microsoft Office. Try it today at http://www.openoffice.org/.
Q: As I was surfing online last night, a
full page popped up and said that I was being traced. It stated that I was using Insight, gave
my correct IP address, and the browser I was using. Of course it also said click here to
stop this investigation... Do I
have anything to be worried about?
A: It's nothing to worry
about. The people sending you these pop-up ads
are just trying to
scare you into buying some useless software. Your
IP address, service
provider and the browser you run are always known
when you are on the
Internet. Without your IP address the web site
you are visiting
wouldn't know how to send the information you
requested.
This is the
Internet equivalent of me watching you drive your Red Ford
pickup truck on
the road and then trying to scare you by saying "I know
you drive a Red Ford
Pickup truck". It just sounds ominous, that’s all.
If the pop-ups
get annoying you can use programs such as Google Toolbar http://toolbar.google.com/ or PopThis
http://www.mathies.com/popthis/
to
get rid of pop-ups. Or else stop using Internet Explorer and get
a
more secure and better browser like Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/,
which has built
in pop-up blocking in its preferences.
Thanks for
listening.
Hash
hash@ucanweb.com
If you have tech support
questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please email them to bob@iglou.com.
Copyright 2004, The 84
Online Team. All rights
reserved. Publication, rebroadcast
or storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward
this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and B)
no fee is charged.
Information provided in this
publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed
or implied. Although the
information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL
systems. Make use of any
information supplied at your own risk.
The 84 Online Team is a
group of volunteers who provide support for the 84 Online radio broadcast. Team members are not directly affiliated
with nor employed by Clear Channel Communications or WHAS. Views and opinions voiced in this
publication do not necessarily reflect the views held by Clear Channel or
WHAS.
To unsubscribe from this
newsletter send an email to majordomo@84online.net with the
words “unsubscribe newsletter” (without the quotes) at the top of the body of
the message.