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Archive for the ‘All’ Category
ComboFix (Windows)
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
ComboFix is just as spartan as the screenshot here makes it look. You download ComboFix, run it, and it takes care of the rest. The basic ComboFix process looks like this: It backs up your registry, checks to see if you have Windows Recovery Console installed, and then it goes to town on your system scanning away through 40+ stages. When it’s done, ComboFix spits out a log file and lists all the malware it found, which ones it was able to remove, and which ones you’ll have to use your Google-fu to look up how to remove manually. It isn’t fancy, but it gets the job done and gives you a detailed report at the end to take to security forums for help if you need it.
Tags: security, software, trojan, virus, windows, worm
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Panda Cloud Antivirus is a Lightweight, Always-Updated Virus Killer
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Windows only: Panda Cloud Antivirus uses the power of cloud computing to scan and eliminate viruses from your PC that can identify new malware in almost real time.
Traditional anti-virus applications simply download an update from the servers on a periodic basis to keep your virus definitions scanning for the latest viruses—Cloud Antivirus uses their cloud system to do the work of classifying and scanning for new viruses, and is constantly updated with the latest virus information based on information from every other PC running the software.
The client is lightweight, taking a mere 16mb of RAM on our test system—and while it caches a copy of the definitions for offline use, it doesn’t seem to take much drive space either. We’ve not had a chance to test the software against real malware—in our testing it quickly found and eliminated a bunch of spy cookies, but it’s refreshing to see new innovation in the boring world of virus killing.
Panda Cloud Antivirus is a free download for 32-bit Windows only, and according to CNET will stay free for personal use even after it is released from beta. For more, check out the five best malware removal tools, and the five best antivirus applications.
Tags: microsoft, privacy, software, trojan, virus, windows, worm
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iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.4
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
This update fixes intermittent system freeze issues for iMac computers with ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics and fixes wake-from-sleep issues in Boot Camp.
To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/iMac EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.
After the firmware is successfully applied to your Mac, your Boot ROM Version will be: IM91.008D.B08
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website.
Tags: apple, firmware, imac, updates
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Kindle DX: Larger Screen, Native PDFs
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Bucking the trend for ever-smaller devices, Amazon has announced the Kindle DX, a scaled-up version of the company’s much-discussed ebook reading device. Along with a larger screen, the Kindle DX provides a native PDF reader, finally making it compatible with the most common digital format for highly formatted electronic documents.
Tags: hardware, kindle, news
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Apple Refreshes Wet iPhone Policy
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Apple has recently revised its replacement policy regarding water-damaged iPhones. The company still won’t replace your damaged device for free if its Liquid Submersion Indicator has been activated (see “Liquid Submersion Indicators Reveal Accidental Dips,” 2009-02-17), but you can now purchase a $199 replacement phone. While $199 isn’t cheap, it’s still $400 to $500 less than purchasing a new iPhone without a 2-year contract.
Tags: apple, hardware, iphone
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Things 1.1/Things Touch 1.3.5
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Things Touch 1.3.5 has been released along with Things 1.1 and, among a heap of bug fixes and UI improvements, you’ll find a new feature for syncing Areas of Responsibility from your Mac to your iPhone (it’s not yet possible to create Areas in Things Touch). The feature requires Things 1.1 on the Mac side, which was officially released today, but has actually been available (sans release notes) for about a week (assumedly waiting for Things Touch to make it through App Store approval).
Another new addition (which is more exciting, to me) is full AppleScript support in Things on the Mac. I haven’t had a chance to dive into it yet, but it’s a topic I discussed with Cultured Code at the last Macworld Expo and I’m excited to see it come to fruition. People using Things in any kind of group setting will appreciate the reconsidered approach to task delegation, as well.
Tags: app store, apple, focus, GTD, iphone, ipod touch, itunes, multitasking, news, productivity, software, updates
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Prism single-site browser goes 1.0 beta
Monday, May 11th, 2009
The concept of a single-site browser or site-specific browser (SSB, either way) is simple: give me a window with one website in it, preferably a desktop application replacement like Gmail, RTM, Basecamp or Zoho, and let that window behave like a regular application with its own Dock icon, notifications, etc. If you’re spending a lot of your time on a particular site, this can simplify your life quite a bit; if you’re mixing up GTD with ADD (as so many of us seem to be), an SSB can help limit your distraction horizon while you’re trying to maintain focus and flow.
Tags: focus, GTD, news, productivity, singletasking, software, tips & tricks
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System Preferences panel for .DMGs
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
OS X has a number of options for handling disk images—settings for such things as automatically opening them, moving Internet-enabled images to the trash after opening, verifying checksums, and more. You control all of these options (and a few more) in Disk Utility’s preferences panel.
Tags: apple, tips & tricks
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Information about Conficker
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
Here’s an illustration of how the Conficker worm works
Conficker is a collection of related malware strains typically described as a worm due to its ability to self-propagate through a network. In other words, in contrast to a typical virus, Conficker does not necessarily need a user to do anything such as click on an infected file to compromise a system. There are currently three known variants of Conficker (also called Downadup by some anti-malware vendors) and each of them can propagate through a number of mechanisms, the most common is by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. This vulnerability can be fixed by applying a patch from Microsoft that was released last November (link below).
Tags: conficker, email, microsoft, news, trojan, updates, virus, windows, worm
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Authentication Tokens on iPhone
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
VeriSign has released an iPhone app that lets you supplement a user name and password login at several Web sites with a well-regarded and cryptographically robust method of confirming your identity. AOL, eBay, and PayPal are notable among current sites supporting the system.
The free VIP Access for Mobile application relies on a unique credential created for your iPhone based on its phone number, and confirmed with an SMS message sent to that number. Once the credential is confirmed with this looped-back process, the program generates a unique 6-digit token every 30 seconds using an algorithm that’s uniquely derived from the credential. (VIP stands for VeriSign Identity Protection.)
Tags: identity protection, news, privacy, security
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