Archive
Hurricane Forecast lessened
Doh! I thought that with all the Global Warming bnecause of Manbearpig, that Hurricanes will be so numerous. But I guess Manbearpig is in hiding again.
If you have seen Manbearpig, please call the Goracle.
Forecaster cuts 2007 hurricane outlook
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The 2007 hurricane season may be less severe than forecast due to cooler-than-expected water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic, private forecaster WSI Corp said on Tuesday.
The season will bring 14 named storms, of which six will become hurricanes and three will become major hurricanes, WSI said in its revised outlook. WSI had previously expected 15 named storms of which eight would become hurricanes and four would become major hurricanes.
"Because the ocean temperatures have not yet rebounded from the significant drop in late spring, we have decided to reduce our forecast numbers slightly," said Todd Crawford, a WSI seasonal forecaster.
The energy and insurance industries are keenly watching the 2007 storm season after the record damage caused by hurricanes two years ago.
During the 2005 season, hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast and temporarily knocked out a quarter of U.S. crude and fuel production, sending energy prices to then-record highs.
WSI’s Crawford added that wind conditions due to the lack of an El Nino event were less conducive to formation of tropical storms.
Despite the downgraded forecast, WSI still expects the 2007 season to be more active than last year, and added that storm-weary parts of the Gulf Coast could still be hit.
"We feel the general threat to the western Gulf is reduced slightly, with a corresponding increase in the threat to the eastern Gulf and Florida," Crawford said.
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Geeks gone wild
World of Warcraft: Funeral Ambush
I am banned in China
Looks like I am banned in China. You can go here and see if your favorite blog or website is banned in China also.
Another Y2K
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the new Daylightr Savings Time is starting thihs year. And it is going to play havoc with comuties and other electronics with internal clocks. The Skipper at BMEWS has given us some of the patches and updates to get our computers straightened out:
Windows:
First of all, if you are running any of the following versions of Windows, your computer has probably already been updated via Microsoft Update (Windows Update on some systems). If you have automatic updates turned off, you need to manually run Windows Update to make sure your time zone data is updated. Microsoft is updating the following desktop versions:
Windows Vista (all versions)
Windows XP SP2 (all versions)The following versions of Windows are no longer supported by Microsoft and you will need to follow the instructions here:
Windows 3.0
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP SP1The first thing you need to do is download a little utility called TZEDIT. I have provided it here with help file and these instructions in TzEdit.zip. Click on that link and download the tool. It’s small, only 68K.
Once you unzip the TZEDIT package, you will have three files: TZEDIT.EXE, TZEDIT.HLP and EDIT.TXT. That last one being a text file with these instructions. If you’re ready to start, lets go. Go ahead and double-click on TZEDIT.EXE to start the program. Your screen will look something like this (your time zone may be different) …
If you look at the bottom of the screen you will see that my computer is already set for the new Daylight Saving Time period – from the Second Sunday Of March to the First Sunday Of November. If your display says something different then click the Edit button and let’s start fixing things. The editor screen looks like this …
Now, all you need to do is follow these instructions from Microsoft (which uses the Pacific Time Zone as an example – use your local time zone instead) …
To manually modify time zone settings by using the Time Zone Editor, follow these steps:1. Start Time Zone Editor.
2. In the Time Zones list, select a time zone, and then click Edit. For example, click (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada); Tijuana, and then click Edit.
3. In the Edit Time Zone dialog box, click to select the Automatically set Daylight Saving Time check box.
4. Specify the correct daylight saving time start date and end date. To do this, follow these steps:
a. In the Start Day box, click the number of the day, the corresponding day of the week, and the month that you want. For example, click Second, click Sunday, and then click March.
b. Select the time that you want to start daylight saving time. For example, select 2:00 A.M.
c. In the Last Day box, click the number of the day, the corresponding day of the week, and the month that you want. For example, click First, click Sunday, and then click November.
d. Select the time that you want to end daylight saving time. For example, select 2:00 A.M.
e. In the Daylight Bias list, select how long you want the time to change when daylight saving time is in effect. For example, to set the clock forward 1 hour, leave the default setting of +1:00.
f. Click OK.
g. Select another time zone that has changed, and then repeat steps a-e. For more information about the time zones that have changed, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 931836 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836/) February 2007 cumulative time zone update rollup for Microsoft Windows operating systems
Repeat steps a through f for every time zone that has changed. When you have finished, click Close.
h. Click Start, point to Settings, point to Control Panel, and then double-click Date/Time.
i. Click the Time Zone tab.
j. Select a different time zone than the (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada); Tijuana time zone, and then click Apply.
k. Click (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada); Tijuana, and then click OK.
Note: Steps j and k are required for the new changes to take effect.
In this example, steps a through f update the time zone database. Steps h through k force Windows to read the time zone database and copy the updated information into the TimeZoneInformation registry key in the current control set.
That’s all there is to it. Don’t worry, you can’t seriously break anything if you screw up. You can always re-run TZEDIT to correct any mistake you made. Just be sure to follow ALL of the instructions above exactly like they are spelled out.
Linux:
Linux is actually a little easier but you have to start up a terminal screen because we can’t do this from any of the fancy desktops like KDE or GNOME. We are going to use the zic command-line utility. You can get more information about zic by typing “man zic” at a system prompt. Here are the instructions (which I got from Novell (who distribute SuSE) but apply to all flavors of Linux, including slackware) …
1. Download the most recent time zone data file (at the time of writing, tzdata2007b.tar.gz) from ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/. Updates to this data file have the year and release letter updated.
2. Copy the file to a temporary workspace of your choice on the Linux system.
3. Extract the data with the following command:
tar xvfz tzdata2007b.tar.gz
4. Apply the updates for the region(s) of interest the system’s time zone data through the zic command. E.g., to update the North American data, run
zic northamerica
5. Relink the new time zone names with the old time zone names that were just updated with the following command: (See the Additional Notes below for a workaround to possible error(s) in this step.)
zic backward6. Verify that the updates are applied correctly with the following command
zdump -v timezoneofinterest | grep yearofinterest
e.g
zdump -v Canada/Mountain | grep 2007
The output from the previous step should look similar to this:
Canada/Mountain Sun Mar 11 08:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 MST isdst=0 gmtoff=-25200
Canada/Mountain Sun Mar 11 09:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 02:00:00 2007 MST isdst=1 gmtoff=-21600
Canada/Mountain Sun Nov 4 07:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:59:59 2007 MST isdst=1 gmtoff=-21600
Canada/Mountain Sun Nov 4 08:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 02:00:00 2007 MST isdst=0 gmtoff=-252007. Relink the localtime setting (in /etc/localtime) with the corrected timezone information using the following command
zic -l timezonename
e.g.
zic -l Canada/MountainNote: If you encounter error(s) executing zic backward
Executing zic backward may return errors if other time zone data is not recent enough. One option would be to update those time zone as well in the same manner as noted in step 4 after identifying the specific time zones involved.
A workaround in this situation is to extract only the time zones from backward that need to be re-linked following execution of step 4 above. In this case that would be the time zones that are listed in the northamerica file. The following steps can be substitued for step 5 above:
grep ‘America’ backward > backward.america
zic backward.america
Most of the major distros of Linux (Red Hat, SuSE) have supplied patch packages to automate this process. Check with your vendor to see if they have one.
Thanks Skipper
“Fidel is Dead” spam
Watch out for the "Fidel is Dead" virus
‘Castro is dead’ spam email infects computers
Jan 22 8:34 AM US/Eastern
A spam e-mail with messages including "Fidel Castro dead" and "Saddam Hussein safe and sound" contains a virus which has infected thousands of computers, Spain’s Association of Internauts has said.
With speculation rife about the Cuban leader’s health, the association said that a computer would be infected by the virus if the recipient opened the message.
"The virus is affecting thousands of computers," the association said Monday.
Other messages sent with the virus include Venezuelan President "Hugo Chavez dead", "President of Russia Putin dead," and "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel."
Another read: "The (US) Supreme Court has been attacked by terrorists."
Storm Worm
Be on the look out for emails that are have the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe."
Storm Worm hits computers around the world
Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:08am ET
Rival to Wikipedia
Online rival for Wikipedia
Last updated at 11:02am on 17th October 2006
A rival to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia is to be launched by one of the site’s original founders, it emerged today.
Larry Sanger, who helped create the site in 2001 and is now one of its fiercest critics, intends to bring more order to accessing knowledge on the internet than Wikepedia with his latest venture by drawing up measures of creative authority.
Wikipedia is available to and written by anyone on the internet. But its openness has also drawn charges of unreliability and left it vulnerable to disputes, particularly on politically sensitive topics.
In Mr Sanger’s version – called Citizendium – it will be open to submissions from anyone, but the power to authorise articles will be given to editors who can prove their expertise, as well as to volunteer "constables" who will keep the peace between warring interests.
Accusing Wikipedia of failing to control its writers and editors, he said: "The latest articles don’t represent a consensus view – they tend to become what the most persistent ‘posters’ say."
Mr Sanger said he had financial backng from an unidentified foundation for his venture, while a web hosting company was providing its services free. Volunteers could become editors of his encyclopaedia if they can show "minimum levels of qualification". (Daily Mail)
This will be a good thing for both Wikipedia and Citizendium. There will be competitiona and will keep each other in check about erroneous and falsse posts.
Stix
Be on the lookout for suspicious emails
Be on the lookout for suspicous emails. There is a nasty virus out there. It says to update your anti-virus program, but instead insatlls a nasty bug. Lookout for emails from sophos.com.
and never open a zip file in an email unless you know for sure what it is.
I will see if I can get more information and put it up here. I just got told this by one ot the IT guys at work
Stix
Trojan for Blackberry
BlackBerry Trojan malware developed
August 09, 2006
Got a BlackBerry? For Pete’s sake, don’t go for the free tic-tac-toe download.
At Defcon, security researcher Jesse D’Aguanno announced what he said is the first Trojan horse malware for the CrackBerry (disguised as the tic-tac-toe game).
"The BlackBerry hack was written to show that while these devices are often not treated with the same concern as PCs, they can be equally dangerous," writes IDG News Service.
Do you think any self-respecting BlackBerry user would want a tic-tac-toe game? Brickbreaker, definitely, but tic-tac-toe? (source)
Do not ever download anything on your computer or phone if you do not know exactly what it is. That is a good way to get a virus or malware. The bastards that makes these things are getting more clever.
*** More news about trojans
This story appeared on Network World at
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/080806-trojan-data-stealer-hijacks-icmp.htmlTrojan data-stealer hijacks ICMP traffic
A Trojan has been discovered that attempts to evade detection by sending stolen data back to its criminal creators using the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) back channel.
Detected by security company Websense, the unnamed Trojan is a relatively conventional data-stealer up to the point it communicates back to its host.
Once a PC has become infected, the Trojan installs itself as an Internet Explorer browser helper object (BHO), and then waits quietly for the user to access one or more target online banking Web sites.
If a target site is accessed, it logs the field keystrokes, inserting them into the data part of ICMP ping packets after performing a simple XOR encryption routine on them.
The effect is, Websense claims with some justification, to make the data stream very hard to detect because ICMP is the last place one would normally look to find pilfered data. ICMP packets are normally used to send feelers out to Internet hosts, for example by utilities such as Traceroute or Ping, and are a routine occurrence.
Data and password-stealing Trojans more commonly use conventional channels such as e-mail or HTTP mail to send information out of a network or PC, but this is something that can be blocked.
Websense reports that the Trojan works, after testing it out while entering data on the SSL-based Web site of Deutsche bank using an infected PC. The Websense Web site offers an eerie screen grab of the results of this, before and after encoding by the BHO.
Despite being an old criminal pastime, the steady evolution of malware to automate phishing continues. Password stealers still plague Internet users, using every technique going, while others come as a consequence of rapidly-expanding botnet networks.
From being a high-profile crime that depended on social engineering of the gullible, phishing has retreated into a world of automated botnets, and exploits based on subterfuge and stealth. Anyone suffering at the bleeding edge of an ICMP Trojan would never be aware anything was amiss until their bank account suddenly emptied one day.
All contents copyright 1995-2006 Network World, Inc. http://www.networkworld.com
A good defense to this is to have a good Anti-spam program. Spybot is a good one and so is Ad-Aware and they are both free. And always use anti-virus and a firewall. Avast is the anti-virus I use and it is also free. And for a firewall I use Zonelabs which is also free
Stix
More MySpace idiocy
How many idiots are out there??? How many people put too much personal indformation ouyt on the internet for everyone to see. Come on people, the internet is a great place, but do not put too much of your personal life and never meet with people that you never met outside of Myspace. It is truly crazy for anyone to find love on the internet thru MySpace. I have a profile, but I don’t have really too much information on it. I have the schools I went to and that is about it. I ususally only talk to people I am friends with on there. It is a good place to meet people, but not for dating. Most of the time that 18 year old hot blonde is a fat 60 year old guy.
Teenage Girls Rob Man they Met on MySpace
LAST UPDATE: 6/27/2006 11:30:14 AM
Posted By: CyberBob
This story is available on your cell phone at mobile.woai.com.A Jacksonville man says he was duped and robbed by two girls after attempting to meet with a woman he met on the internet.
The victim says he chatted online with a woman, known on her MySpace.com profile as “Natalia”, for two weeks before deciding to meet with her. He says her prfile showed sexy photos, and a blurb which said “just lookin’ for something fun”. That brief, friendly description was all he knew about her before they planned to meet.
"She sent me a message saying she thought she met me somewhere," says the victim.
They decided to meet at what she called her home at the Bentley Green Apartments.
“I went to [the apartment] and knocked on the door, and there was no answer. So I called her and said, ‘I’m here’ and there was no answer."
That is when two girls who were 14 and 15-years-old, approached him saying they knew Natalia, the girl he thought he’d be meeting. They also said they knew where he worked at what car he drove.
"This was not the girl that the picture was of on MySpace," the victim said.
Now sensing something was wrong, he was ready to take off, but was stopped by a shocking discovery.
"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets."
The girls didn’t get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.
Police did a search of the area and found the two teens with another male suspect. They searched a purse and found two loaded handguns.
Myspace.com may have been developed for friends and music, but this victim had to find out the hard way that not everyone is logging on for the right reasons.
The so-called Natalia did tell the victim that she was 18, so he was shocked to learn he was actually talking to a 14-year-old. He says he has since removed personal information from his MySpace profile, like his salary and the kind of car that he drives.
Those teenagers are now charged with armed robbery and carrying a concealed firearm.
(source)
Stix
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