Personal PC Pro Blog

Logitech Vid Offers Free and Easy Video Calling

2009-07-15T16:55:00.003-04:00

When you think of Logitech Vid (free with some restrictions), think of an easier-to-use version of Skype with superior quality. The most salient reason for the ease of use verdict comes from the simple fact that you choose people to chat with by their e-mail and a photo they take when they sign up, not some potentially obscure screen name. There's also a simple but intuitive onscreen interface.

If you're a Logitech Webcam owner looking for free and easy-to-use video calling software, Logitech Vid is a good bet.

After signing up for a Vid account, the first thing you're asked to do is pose for the aforementioned photo that will accompany your profile. Vid automatically recognizes the Webcams and mics on your computer, though the PC World reviewer had to increase the volume a skosh on the PC. There aren't a huge number of settings to tweak either: automatic answering of calls, noise reduction, devices, and volume settings. That's a good thing as Vid is trying (and succeeding) to make video calling easier. In short, setup is a breeze.

Vid leverages the SightSpeed technology it bought a while back. It doesn't retain the SightSpeed client's ability to conference 9 people, it does preserve SightSpeed's audio/video quality.

Logitech Vid is simple to use, and it's free for anyone who owns a Logitech Webcam of any vintage or has a Logitech Webcam owner on their list. You may also try Vid with another company's WebCam for 30 days, however, after that you'll have to buy a Logitech device or make friends with someone who has one to keep on keepin' on.

Source: Jon L. Jacobi, PC World

10 handy Firefox about:config hacks

2009-07-14T10:09:00.002-04:00

If you really want to fine-tune your Firefox functionality, you have to roll up your sleeves and tinker with the about:config page. Jack Wallen shares some simple hacks to make Firefox work the way you want.

Unless you’re a Firefox power user, you may not be familiar with the about:config page. The Firefox about:config page is not so much a page as it is a somewhat hidden configuration section. It’s hidden because it’s fairly powerful and not nearly as simple to use as the standard Preferences window. In the about:config page, you have to know what you are doing or you can mess things up a bit. In fact, when you attempt to go to that page for the first time, you have to accept an agreement (which is really just a warning) before you can continue.

How this page works is simple. You reach the page by entering about:config in the address bar. There are entries (one per line) that handle various types of configurations. Each entry has a searchable keyword. The entries can be of Boolean, integer, or string value. Entries contain Name, Status, Type, and Value. Typically, you will be modifying only the Value, by double-clicking on it and making the change. With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at 10 of the best ways you can “hack” the about:config page.

Tip

If Firefox is fubar’d because you accidentally misconfigured about:config, you can fix it in one of two ways:

Make a backup of your prefs.js file before you start editing. Then, if something goes wrong, you can restore it by copying it over the corrupt file.
If you can’t restore via a backup prefs.js file, you can exit Firefox and issue the command firefox -safe-mode to bring up the Firefox Safe Mode screen. Then, just select Reset All User Preferences To Firefox Defaults. Note: This will restore all user preferences to their default values.

1: Speed up Firefox

This hack requires a few steps. Search for pipelining in the filter and you should see:

network.http.pipelining: Change this to true.

network.http.proxy.pipelining: Change this to true.

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: Change this to 8.

Now search for max-connections and you should see:

network.http.max-connections: Change this to 96.

network.http.max-connections-per-server: Change this to 32.

2: Disable antivirus scanning

This is only for the Windows version. If you’re downloading large files, this scanning can seriously slow things down. And since you will most likely scan the downloaded file anyway, you’ll probably want to disable this. Of course, if you are uber paranoid (not a bad trait for computing), you might want to leave this entry alone.

To disable antivirus scanning, search for scanWhenDone and you should see:

browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone: Change this to false.

3: Open Javascript popups as tabs

If a popup window lacks the features of a browser window, Firefox will handle it like a popup. If you would prefer to open all windows, including popups, as new tabs, you need to tell Firefox in about:config. Search for newwindow and you will see three entries. Of those three entries, you will want to modify:

browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction: Change this to 0.

4: Spell checking in all fields

By default, Firefox checks spelling only in multiple-line text boxes. You can set it to check spelling in all text boxes. Search for spellcheckdefault and you should see:

layout.spellcheckDefault: Change this to 2.

5: Open search bar results in new tab

When you use the search bar, the results display in the current tab. This can be a nuisance because you will navigate out of the page you are currently in. To make sure Firefox always opens search results in a new tab, search for openintab and you should see:

browser.search.openintab: Change this to true.

6: Auto export bookmarks

In Firefox 3, bookmarks are automatically saved and exported for you. The only problem is that by default, they’re saved as places.sqlite instead of the more convenient bookmarks.html. To change this setting so that they can be easily re-imported, search for autoExportHTML and you should see:

browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML: Change this to true.

7: Disable extension install delay

One of the few gripes I have with Firefox is the silly countdown you must endure every time you want to install an extension. Fortunately, this can be disabled. Search for enable_delay and you should see:

security.dialog_enable_delay: Change this to 0.

8: View source code in an external editor

When you need to view the source of a page, it opens up in browser popup. Most developers would probably like to have that opened in their favorite editor instead of having to cut and paset. To do this, there are two entries to modify. Search for view_source.editor and you will see:

view_source.editor.external: Change this to true.

view_source.editor.path: Change this to the explicit path to your editor of choice.

9: Get more add-on search results

When you do a search in the Add-on window, you’ll see just five results. You might find it more efficient to increase this number. Search for getAddons and you should see:

extension.getAddons.maxResults: Change this to 10 (or higher, if you want to see even more).

10: Redefine the Backspace button

Did you know you can configure Firefox to use the backspace button to either go back a page or go up a page? This keeps power users from having to go back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. Search for backspace and you will see:

browser.backspace_action: Change this to 0 for previous page and 1 for page up.

Source: Jack Wallen, Techrepublic.com

Fake e-mails to patch Outlook lead to malware

2009-07-02T21:42:00.002-04:00

All Windows users need to be aware that Microsoft never links to downloads in its e-mail messages, but always requires a visit to a security bulletin landing page to download a patch.

If you receive an e-mail containing a link promising to upgrade Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you should simply delete the message to avoid being nailed by a Trojan horse.

These fake Outlook patch alerts have affected PC users worldwide. As the Sophos blog explains, if you follow the instructions in the bogus message, it results in your running nasty hacker code.

Actual security bulletin notices from Microsoft are quite dull. They never include direct links to the downloadable patch. Instead, they require you to go to a bulletin landing page. Most importantly, they're always signed with a PGP signature. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Microsoft's security-bulletin e-mails are always identified as PGP SIGNED.

When in doubt, always download patches directly from the Microsoft Update site. Even considering the recent problems with update notifications that don't always appear in Windows as expected — see this week's Top Story for details — you should always download updates for Windows and other Microsoft software only from Microsoft servers.

Source: Windows Secrets

Transpose Excel data from rows to columns, or vice versa

2009-06-25T09:51:00.001-04:00

When you need to flip-flop data in an Excel worksheet, don’t waste time doing it manually. Excel offers a handy Transpose option that will quickly take care of the task.

Here’s a tip that eliminates the need to rekey data. Suppose you’ve entered your data with three column headings running across Row 1 and four row headings running down Column A, like the ones shown in Figure A.

Figure A

After working with the data for a while, you decide you’d rather have the current set of row labels (months) running across the columns. Whatever you do, don’t even think about rekeying the data.

You’ll find the best solution on the Paste Special menu. Start by selecting and copying your entire data range. Click on a new location in your sheet, then go to Edit | Paste Special and select the Transpose check box, as shown in Figure B. Click OK, and Excel will transpose the column and row labels and data, as shown in Figure C.

Figure B

Figure C

Note

You aren’t limited to using the Paste Special | Transpose option to rearrange multiple rows and columns of data. It works just as well when you need to turn a single row of labels into a column, or vice versa.

Source: Tech Republic

Two new Mac attacks surface

2009-06-11T19:47:00.002-04:00

This is the message visitors to the porn site get which tricks them into installing an ActiveX object to watch a video but instead downloads a Trojan.

(Credit: Sophos)

Security experts have discovered two new attacks targeting Mac users, a new version of a worm and a Trojan hidden inside a porn site.

Sophos on Wednesday discovered a new version of the Mac OS X Tored worm, according to a Sophos blog post.

On Tuesday, Paretologic warned about a porn site that was downloading malware that targets both the PC and the Mac. Mac users get redirected to the pagemac.php page, which downloads a QuickTime.dmg file, the blog post says.

Sophos explained in blog post on Thursday that visitors to the malicious porn site are told they have to download an ActiveX component to view the videos. Instead, a Trojan, dubbed OSX/Jahlavc, gets downloaded.

"As we've demonstrated before, and as we'll no doubt explain again, the Mac malware threat is real," writes Sophos security researcher Graham Cluley. "Hackers are deliberately planting malicious code on Web sites, and using social engineering tricks to fool you into installing it onto your computer."

An Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: Cnet, by Elinor Mills

Losing Yourself in HDTV Is a Few Tweaks Away

2009-06-11T14:48:00.003-04:00

You have just unpacked the new 50-inch widescreen HDTV that you have been lusting after for months. You turn it on and that gorgeous picture that wowed you in the electronics store looks absolutely ... crummy.

Most likely, there’s nothing wrong with your TV; but unlike the admonition in the classic science-fiction series “The Outer Limits,” this is one time when you do need to adjust your set.

When you watched that new LCD or plasma set in the store, you saw a picture that was meant to grab your eye. The best way to do that in a bright, noisy, fluorescent-lit place is to crank up the brightness, pump up the colors and set the LCD backlight on max.

Which is the worst thing you can do when you get the TV home.

What works well in Best Buy and Wal-Mart will not give you the same enviable results at home. Your living room is (hopefully) not lighted with fluorescents. Warmer lighting demands different settings from a TV to produce pleasing, natural-looking colors and images.

Set manufacturers try to make the job easy by providing a number of preset picture modes. Variously labeled “vivid” (the one used in stores), “cinema,” “game,” and “custom,” they are attempts to take the guesswork out of getting the best picture in your home. But as every home is different, creating the right picture for your place requires a few minutes’ simple tweaking.

Turn Down the Lights

“This is the No. 1 thing to do,” said Mark Schubin, an Emmy-winning television engineer and a technical consultant for the Metropolitan Opera. The picture’s contrast ratio — a commonly used specification that indicates the range of brightness from white to black — is measured in absolutely pitch-black rooms. But no one’s room is absolutely pitch black, and the brighter your room, the more likely your TV will lack detail in the darker parts of an image. If you cannot lower your room’s lighting, make sure that direct light does not hit the screen, it will wash out the picture.

LCD TVs create their images with a fluorescent or LED backlight; typically they are turned to their maximum setting at the factory. Gary Merson, owner of HDTVGuru.com, recommends turning them down to at least half that level.

Set the Brightness

A picture’s black level is controlled by the TV’s brightness adjustment; it needs to be set dark enough so that the screen displays rich, deep blacks. Set too low, many images will lose their detail. Set the black level too high, the picture will look muddy.

Black level is important because the truer the blacks, the greater the perceived sharpness of the TV image. A muddy picture will look less sharp than one that has true blacks.

To get the proper black level, you can use a PLUGE pattern, which typically consists of six vertical bars of varying black levels. Turn the picture level down until one of the bars disappears against the background. PLUGE patterns, and other patterns discussed here, are available on a variety of TV tuning discs.

Users can choose Digital Video Essentials, created by the industry expert Joe Kane, or the Avia II Guide to Home Theater. In addition, more than 300 DVD and Blu-ray movies, like “The Abyss,” the Indiana Jones series, and “Titanic,” include a range of calibration patterns created by THX, the company whose familiar certification logo precedes many movies (for a complete list go to thx.com/home/dvd).

If you prefer to wing it, you can make the adjustments without buying a calibration disc. For example, while watching a dark scene in a movie, turn the brightness/picture control down until the detailed areas in a dark part of the frame disappear, then turn it back up until you can just make out some detail.

Adjust the Contrast

Now that you have set the picture’s black level, you can maximize the image’s whites using the contrast control. The trick is to adjust the set to get the best white level while still maintaining detail in the whites. You don’t want the whites to be so intense that, when you look at a bright scene, it looks as if you’re in a whiteout on a ski slope.

Again, the simplest way to do the adjustment is to use a pattern on a tuning disc or as part of a THX-certified DVD. Otherwise, find a bright scene on a movie — a woman’s white wedding dress, for example — and adjust the contrast control so the dress retains detail, like fabric folds or buttons, without becoming a mass of indistinguishable white.

Keep the Color in Check

Most sets display colors that are much more saturated than in real life, making the world look like a comic book. At first, softer, natural colors may look too muted, but after a few days you will find them more pleasing.

Adjust the color control until people look the way you would expect them to in real life: Turn the color down until it almost disappears, then raise it until you get to the desired level.

Next, look at some grass and make sure the greens look correct. If not, you may need to tweak the color control. Because the color and the hue controls interact, it may be necessary to go back and forth between the two until you get the color right.

If you can’t tell one face from another or have no idea what color grass really is, color bars on the testing discs help automate the process. To make it work, you adjust the color control while looking at a series of differently colored bars through a blue filter, until the entire pattern looks uniform.

Filters are included with tuning discs; if you use a THX pattern on a DVD, you can buy blue filter glasses for $2 from THX’s Web site.

Note the Time of Day

The settings you have created will be appropriate for the time of day that they were made. If you did the settings during the brightest part of the day, the contrast control will need to be lowered at night. All other controls should be able to remain the same.

Consider the Source

On many modern TVs, setting the picture controls when watching a DVD or Blu-ray disc will not affect the settings when you move to another input, like satellite TV. In that case, you will need to readjust the settings for that other program source. As long as you have written down the settings, that should be simple.

Save Some Money

Now that you have spent several thousand dollars on a new flat-panel TV and a surround sound system, you may be tempted to kick in a few hundred more to buy top-of-the-line cables to connect every component.

One word of advice: don’t.

“Cheap cables that cost 75 cents per foot work as well as those that cost $100 per foot,” said Mr. Kane. “With the latest HDMI cables, if you see a picture and hear the sound, you know it works.”

Source: By ERIC A. TAUB, NY Times

Big-name sites spread latest malware infections

2009-06-11T14:29:00.002-04:00

Going by such names as Gumblar, JSRedir-R, Martuz, and Beladin, a new generation of malware has managed to surreptitiously place malicious JavaScript code on tens of thousands of popular Web sites.

The hacker scripts try to infect site visitors and then attempt to use their compromised PCs to spread the infection to yet other sites.

Over the past month, the security services ScanSafe and Sophos have reported infections on such major Web sites as ColdwellBanker.com, Variety.com, and Tennis.com. Niels Provos reported in the Google security blog on June 3 that sites infected with Gumblar numbered about 60,000. Visitors became susceptible to infection simply by opening the sites in Internet Explorer.

After the script infects a PC, it attempts to spread its code to any Web site accessible via that machine's FTP client, if one is present. Webmasters often use FTP to make changes to the sites they manage. If FTP software is configured to save a webmaster's sign-in information, the malware can edit itself into a Web site's pages.

Once a PC is running this class of malware, the hacker code tries to trick the user into opening infected PDF and Flash files. If the PC has an unpatched version of Adobe Reader, Acrobat, or Flash, opening an infected file can install a keylogger or other malware. In the case of Gumblar, Google search results in an Internet Explorer window are rewritten — in a way that end users may not notice — so the links point to hacker sites laden with infected PDF and Flash.

Security firms have made efforts to block domains that serve as malware destinations in this latest round of attacks. But the bad guys quickly move to substitute other domains in what has been compared to a game of Whack-a-Mole.

Meanwhile, it's not so easy to shut down a well-known, legitimate site that's infected (although many such sites have quickly been cleaned up). You can't protect yourself simply by visiting only "trusted" sites, because there's no easy way for an end user to determine whether a legitimate site is infected.

Fortunately, you can stack the odds in your favor by following the guidelines in the Windows Secrets Security Baseline:

Step 1: Use a hardware firewall.
Step 2: Install a set of security software.
Step 3: Scan your system regularly with a software-update service (more on these below).
Step 4: Use Mozilla's Firefox or Google's Chrome browser, both of which are more secure than Internet Explorer.

Source: Windows Secrets Newsletter

Powerpoint Patch for Windows

2009-05-17T12:29:00.002-04:00

Microsoft issued a patch for critical vulnerabilities in PowerPoint this week after a bit of a wait. Mac users will continue to wait, however. PowerPoint's vulnerability was widely known and there apparently were others kept under wraps until Microsoft could issue a patch. Attackers looking to take advantage of the flaw did so by tricking users into opening a PowerPoint file, either by email or other means. Opening the file allowed malicious code to be injected.

Once injected the Trojan attempts to communicate with the Windows update site as a check for an internet connection. Once an internet connection is established, the Trojan sends computer identification and location information (computer name, IP address, OS), performs a directory search, lists the contents of the system, and downloads an update or additional malware.

In short, the virus tells a hacker exactly what's on a victim's computer, and the hacker decides whether or not to take action based on that information.

Microsoft has released a patch applicable to all versions of PowerPoint back to 2000. It should be available via Windows update or by clicking "Check for Updates" in the help menu of PowerPoint.

Mac users running 2004 or 2008 versions will have to wait as the patch for those versions are still in development. Until then security experts recommend caution when opening PowerPoint files from unknown or suspicious sources. Microsoft rates the vulnerability as critical.

Source: SecurityProNews

Fake Infection Warnings Can Be Real Trouble

2009-05-14T22:10:00.001-04:00

Michael Vana knew something was up when he saw the pop-up from "Antivirus 2009" in the middle of his screen. The former Northwest Airlines avionics technician guessed that the dire warning of a system infection was fake, but when he clicked on the X to close the window, it expanded to fill his screen. To get rid of it, he had to shut down his PC.

Sound familiar? Dirty tricks like these, designed to get you to install and buy fake antivirus products, are more common than ever. (For advice on how to proceed if you've installed a phony antivirus on your PC, see "Antivirus 2009: How to Remove Fake AV Software.") But while you might recognize such warnings as bogus, you might not know that the fake warning could be a red alert about an underlying bot malware infection. Knowing the difference is key.

"It's not something you even blink at anymore," says Christopher Boyd, senior director of malware research for communications security company FaceTime Communications, of requests for help in dealing with these warning pop-ups.

The increased incidence of these pop-ups is due to more crooks going after easy money from shady affiliate programs, which pay a huge cut of the profits--up to 90 percent--for every person who mistakenly forks over money for a fake program, regardless of what induced them to pay. Often, the inducement comes from a malicious Web site that uses JavaScript tricks to toss up a bunch of pop-ups, or even resize the viewer's browser window, to create something that looks like a real antivirus scan.

You might reach such a site by using a bad search link, like the one Boyd clicked for a free online Batman game. He got redirected to a site that took over his browser to display a fake AV scan, which then found (fictitious) critical infections that could be fixed by purchasing the rogue antivirus program.

If a site merely hijacks your browser, you don't have to worry too much: The pop-ups or fake scanner windows don't cause lasting damage, Boyd says. You might be prevented from closing the window, as Michael Vana was, but you can usually bring up the Windows Task Manager with Ctrl-Alt-Delete and close your browser that way. Sometimes just hitting Alt-F4 will shut it down.

"To do this, [the fake site] uses real code, and doesn't generally exploit a hole," Boyd says. As long as you don't panic and install the pushed program, no real harm occurs.

Bot-Based Fake Antivirus

Unfortunately, the other way you might encounter a fake antivirus program is far worse.

Joe Stewart, a director of malware research with SecureWorks, a security services company for businesses, tracks bot malware for a living. Criminals use bot-infected computers, sometimes gathered into huge networks (called botnets) of a hundred thousand or more systems, to send spam across the globe. But they also use bots to download rogue antivirus programs and other malware onto a victim's PC.

"It's a proven way of monetizing a botnet," says Stewart. "Just about anybody with an already-deployed botnet is potentially looking at this as a way to make extra money."

According to Stewart, crooks make that money either by getting someone to download a supposed trial version of the rogue AV--co-opting a legitimate software sales technique--or by installing that software behind-the-scenes with a bot.

Once installed, the rogue typically uses highly aggravating techniques, such as changing the Windows desktop background to warn of a supposed infection and displaying constant other warnings, to push you to buy the full version of the software.

You might know not to download rogue AV in response to a spurious browser pop-up. But when instructed to download it by a malicious controller, a hidden bot will never give you the chance to apply your good sense.

If you follow basic security precautions, such as keeping your bona-fide antivirus software up-to-date and being careful with e-mail attachments and downloads, you can significantly reduce the odds of getting infected with a bot or other malware. But if you do see pop-ups or other fake warnings from rogue AV on your computer, it's a good idea to try to determine whether it's from a site or from actual software installed by a bot (or by someone else who uses the PC).

Possibilities Endless

There are many variations on the fake software scam, and crooks' tactics vary, so there is no universal indicator that one is present. But watch out for warnings that persist after you reboot your PC, especially if you see them before you open your browser. Seeing an unfamiliar warning icon in your system tray is another bad sign, particularly if you can't right-click it and make it go away. And if your desktop background has changed, you're definitely infected with the rogue antivirus, says Boyd.

As to the source of this garbage, here's a clue. One variety that Stewart examined, then called "Antivirus XP 2008," would first check the PC's system configuration to see whether it was located in a country with many ethnic Russians. It would also examine the user's Internet Explorer for visits to the Russian version of Google. If it encountered any such evidence, the installer would immediately quit without afflicting the potential victim. According to Stewart, that's "enough to pretty much guarantee that Russian-speaking users will not ever see an Antivirus XP 2008 install." But Internet users outside of the former Eastern Bloc had better watch out.

Source: Erik Larkin, PC World

Sort Outlook E-mails with SenderOK Plug-In

2009-04-20T18:51:00.002-04:00

Outlook users, have hope. SenderOK can help you dig your way out from your e-mail avalanche. This free add-in integrates directly into Outlook 2003 and 2007, and gives you a variety of tools for cutting through e-mail clutter. Spend just a little time with it, and you'll likely get a productivity boost.

When you first install SenderOK, it analyzes all of your sent and received e-mail. Based on the patterns of what it finds, it determines who are those most important people with whom you communicate, and what types of messages are most important to you. Based on that, it sorts incoming email into different folders depending on their level of importance: Routine, Important, and VIP. That way, you can see at a glance what e-mail you need to pay attention to. You can also give it specific instructions, such as to always put e-mail from your boss in the VIP folder. The program continues to learn from your behavior what is important and what isn't, so that the longer you use it, the more effective it becomes.

SenderOK does much more as well. It shows you a history of all of your e-mail exchanges--both by thread and by person--including attachments sent and received. It also alerts you to incoming mail, both with balloon tips, and with voice notification. You'll likely want to turn off the voice notification, because it quickly gets annoying. The voice itself is fine, but you use this add-in because your e-mail is already overwhelming.

Any Outlook users suffering from e-mail overload will want to give SenderOK a try--and that means most of us.

Source: Preston Gralla - PC World

Gmail offers 'undo' email option

2009-03-20T17:18:00.003-04:00

The folks at Gmail Labs obviously dedicate a healthy amount of brainpower to the prevention of regrettable emails sent through their service.

Custodial hearts at Google who've brought us Mail Goggles to stave off late-night drunken e-correspondence have now introduced an Undo Send option to their web-based email lineup.

Gmail's User Experience Designer Michael Leggett illustrates the team's M.O.:

"Sometimes I regret sending a message the morning after. Other times I send a message and then immediately notice a mistake. I forget to attach a file or email the birthday girl that I can't make her surprise party. I rush to close my browser or unplug the Internet - but Gmail almost always wins that race."

Enabling the Undo Send option gives the user a scant five seconds to let wiser heads prevail. The catch is that Undo Send doesn't kill an email that's already been sent, but instead just holds the message while the five-sec clock ticks down.

To this reporter, that doesn't sound like enough time to dismiss an ill-sent email - but Leggett claims that even just five seconds does the trick for him and already has saved him several times.

Undo Send was developed by Yuzo Fujishima, a Google engineer in the company's Tokyo office.

Gmail users can switch on Undo Send in Gmail Labs under settings. The rest is pretty easy - if you're quick:

1) Click 'enable' on GMail Labs tab in settings.

2) Author regrettable email message.

3) Realize you've made a big mistake within five seconds.

4) OH %&@# OH %&@# OH %&@# ...phew!

5) Atone for your wicked, wicked ways.

Follow this link to enable Gmail's five-second grace period. ®

Source: Austin Modine, The Register

Never Lose Your Cellphone Phonebook

2008-09-02T12:52:00.004-04:00

A new product by Spark Technology, called Cellstick, plugs in to your cellphone and backs up your phonebook contacts. According to the product description, Cellstick "works with virtually any cell phone. It'll let you backup, enter, edit and transfer your cell phone contacts. So no matter what happens to your cell phone, your phone book survives. "

The product received a positive review from Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal. According to Mossberg, Cellstick is "A smart solution that really works, and it's about as easy to use as possible... CellStik is a fast and simple solution that could save users from the frustrating ordeal of losing a cellphone and every name and number on it."

For more information and to see if it supports your model of cell phone, visit the website at: http://www.sparktech.com/

Fake News Bulletin Email Spreads Malware

2008-08-31T15:25:00.003-04:00

Spammers and hackers have been sending out e-mail messages that look like they are coming from CNN or MSNBC as news alerts. It's easy to fall for this trick, especially if you actually have subscribed to receive news alerts via e-mail. The e-mails have included subject lines such as "CNN Alerts", "CNN.com Daily Top 10", and "Breaking News" with phony or legitimate news headlines.

According to PC World, one example includes a link that brings users to a fake CNN site, "where they are told they need to download an update to Flash Player, Adobe System Inc. 's popular Internet media player, to view a video clip from CNN."

"If users agreed to download the bogus Flash update, they were trapped in an endless loop, where clicking "Cancel" in the initial dialog produced a second pop-up. Clicking "Cancel" there returned the user to the first pop-up. The only options at that point were for users to shut down the browser or give in and install the malware."

"The bogus update -- named "adobe_flash.exe," ...is actually a Trojan horse identified by security vendors as "EncPk-DA" and "Exchanger.mn" among other names. The Trojan, in turn, "phones home" to a malicious server to grab and install more malware."

As a result of the rash of these fake e-mails, Adobe has issued the following warning: "Do not download Flash Player from a site other than Adobe.com," said David Lenoe, the company's product security program manager, in an entry on a company blog. "If you get a notice to update, it's not a bad idea to go directly to the site of the software vendor and download the update directly from the source. If the download is from an unfamiliar URL or an IP address, you should be suspicious."

Source: PC World: Fake CNN Alert Still Spreading Malware , and Fake News Bulletin Spreads Malware

Easily Add Speech Bubbles to Your Photos

2008-08-21T17:14:00.004-04:00

Adding "speech bubbles" to digital photos used to involve learning how to use a sophisticated graphics program. But now there is a free service called Kyolo that makes it easy.

With Kyolo, all you do is upload the photo, add your choice of speech bubble shapes, enter the text you want for each bubble... and that's it. Once you are finished you can save or e-mail the updated photo.

click here to go the the site

Source: Download Squad

How to Block Cellphone Spam

2008-06-13T23:20:00.005-04:00

Are you receiving unsolicited text messages on your cellphone?

According to Wikipedia, this practice is described as ‘mobile spamming, SMS spam or SpaSMS, but is most frequently referred to as m-spam.’

Unlike regular e-mail spam, you have to pay for it - At least if you don't have an unlimited texting plan. Meanwhile, the spammers can send text messages from a computer’s e-mail program for free. Moreover, there are no anti-SMS spam programs you can install on your cellphone.

But according to AT&T, with a little-known cellular feature you can block cellular spam.

“Our customers can get onto our Web site,” he wrote, “and set their handset so that it receives no messages from the Internet, the origin of the vast majority of wireless spam.”

“Text messages sent from the Internet are addressed as follows: [Your 10-digit wireless number]@txt.att.net.

“What spammers try to do, of course, is attempt to guess your number, largely by trial and error. This brings me to the second capability we offer our customers. Let’s say you want to block spam, but still want to receive messages originating from the Net that you would actually find useful (airline schedules, hotel reservations, etc.). For this purpose, we let you replace your wireless number with an alias. It could be some quirky name, or whatever you like. [You share this address only with people you know.] This could disrupt the guessing game spammers play to try to discern your number and sent you their junk.

“Though not perfect, our efforts have helped keep spam in the category of minor, though annoying, phenomenon. Thanks for listening.”
The beauty of this feature, of course, is that it blocks ONLY text messages from the Internet. Your friends, using cellphones, can still text you.
As it turns out, Verizon Wireless offers these features, too. Sprint and T-Mobile don’t go quite as far, but they do offer some text-spam filtering options. Here’s how you find the controls for each company:

* AT&T: Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.

* Verizon Wireless: Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites. (Here’s where you set up your aliases, too.)

* Sprint: No auto-blocking is available at all, but you can block specific phone numbers and addresses. To get started, log in at www.sprint.com. On the top navigation bar, click My Online Tools. Under Communication Tools, click Text Messaging. On the Compose a Text Message page, under Text Messaging Options, click Settings & Preferences. In the text box, you can enter a phone number, email address or domain (such as Comcast.net) that you want to block.

* T-Mobile: T-Mobile doesn’t yet offer a “block text messages from the Internet” option. You can block all messages sent by e-mail, though, or permit only messages sent to your phone’s e-mail address or alias, or create filters that block text messages containing certain phrases. It’s all waiting when you log into www.t-mobile.com and click Communication Tools.

Source: NY Times, David Pogue

Some Handy Tools & Tips for Microsoft Word

2008-06-09T11:54:00.003-04:00

Microsoft Word is full of tools that can help you work faster and smarter—but only if you know about them. Here's some that you might not be familiar with:

Shrink document by one page. A document whose last page is mostly blank is a waste of printer paper, especially if you have to make a lot of copies. Your letters and mailings will also look more professional if they fill the pages nicely. If Print Preview reveals a skimpy last page, click the Shrink to Fit (Word 2003) or Shrink One Page button (Word 2007). Word will tweak the fonts in the document to make it a page smaller. Don't like the results? Just press Ctrl-Z to Undo.

Calculate in tables. Sure, you can embed an Excel worksheet in a Word document, but if you just need a few simple calculations, you can use Word's own math skills. Select a cell at the bottom of a column and click Formula on the Table Tools Layout ribbon (Word 2007), or select Formula from the Table menu (Word 2003). Word will suggest =SUM(ABOVE), but you can select among over a dozen functions. Besides choosing ABOVE, BELOW, LEFT, or RIGHT to work with all cells in the specified direction, you can reference individual cells and ranges as you do in Excel—for example, =AVERAGE(A1:C3).

Merge to e-mail. Mail-merging to letters and envelopes is too-too 1990s, but you may still need to send a common message to a group of correspondents. That's no problem, since the familiar mail-merge feature in Word can also send e-mail messages. In Word 2007, complete your letter, click Finish & Merge in the ribbon and choose Send E-mail Messages from the menu. In Word 2003 select "E-mail messages" at the very first step of the Mail Merge wizard. Either way you'll be prompted for a subject (the same for every message) and for a data field that holds e-mail addresses of the recipients.

Compare two documents. Your newest client just returned a revised version of a contract document file but didn't mark his revisions. Is he trying to hoodwink you with sneaky changes? Rather than ruin your eyes poring over the old and new documents, have Word find the differences. In Word 2003 open the old document, choose Compare and Merge Documents from the Tools menu, and select the new document. In Word 2007 choose Compare Compare from the Review ribbon and select both the old and the new document.

Document inspector. Your Word 2007 documents may contain a lot more information than you realize--tracked changes, comments, hidden text, private properties, and more. Distributing a document with this kind of data present can be embarrassing. To make sure you're not revealing too much in a Word 2007 document, click the Office button at the top left, point to Prepare, and click Inspect Document in the resulting menu. Word 2003 has no precise equivalent, but you can get some benefit using the Security tab of the Options dialog. Check the boxes "Remove personal information from file properties on save" and "Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments."

Built-in translator. The Research panel in both Word 2007 and Word 2003 includes an option to translate the selected text or the entire document between various languages. It's more useful when you're trying to puzzle out what a foreign-language document means than when you want to communicate your own thoughts with those who don't speak English. To see why, translate a few sentences from English to another language and then back to English.

Create fancy equations. Sure, you can write "the electric field equals one over the electrical conductivity times the electric current density," but is a lot more compact. To insert an equation into Word 2007 choose Equation Insert New Equation from the Insert ribbon and use the tools on the Equation Design toolbar that appears. In Word 2003, it's a bit more awkward. Select Insert Object from the menu, choose Microsoft Equation 3.0, and click OK, then use the Equation toolbar that appears.

Use math autocorrect. (Word 2007 only) All of those fancy math symbols can be available even outside the Equation Design toolbar. Click the Office button at the top left, click the Word Options button, select Proofing, click AutoCorrect Options, and check the box "Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of math regions." Now you can type \aleph to insert an aleph (ℵ), \int for an integral sign (∫) or even type \quadratic to insert the entire quadratic equation (x=(-b±√(b^2-4ac))/2a).

Source: PC Magazine, Neil J. Rubenking

Problem with 2008 Holidays in Outlook 2003

2008-04-03T18:50:00.005-04:00

If you're using Microsoft Outlook 2003 you might have noticed that you can only add holidays through 2007. Here is a solution from the New York Times Personal Tech Column:

The ability to mark holidays for your particular country or region on your personal calendar is a handy feature of Microsoft’s Outlook program. But you don’t have to be stuck in time if you’re sticking with Outlook 2003. Microsoft has issued a software patch for Outlook 2003 that lets you add holidays through 2012. You can download and install the update at snipurl.com/22r1s.
If you encounter problems installing the update, Microsoft has a technical support document at support.microsoft.com/kb/924423. Outlook’s official blog explains how to add your own custom holidays to your calendar at snipurl.com/22r2n.

On the Mac side, Entourage users can add holidays to their calendars by going to the File menu to Import and choosing the “Import Holidays” option in the box. Mac users looking to add holiday calendars for Apple’s iCal program can download and subscribe to a variety of different dates at apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars.

Covering sporting events, SAT testing dates, Blu-ray disc releases and even Belgian school holidays, the iCalShare site also offers 2,500 calendars for download at icalshare.com. The files are compatible with Microsoft Works and other programs using the iCalendar standard.

The online calendars offered by Yahoo and Google also let you add holidays to your digital datebook. For Yahoo, click on “Calendar Options” on the right side of the screen, and then on “Time Guides” to get to the “Add/Edit Holidays” link. For Google, click on the tiny “Manage Calendars” link on the bottom left side of the screen. Click the Calendars tab and then on the “Add Calendar” button to get to the link for “Holiday Calendars.”

Source: NYT (By J.D. BIERSDORFER)

Wireless Headset for Internet Phone Calls

2008-03-27T17:16:00.002-04:00

Wireless Headset for Internet Phone Calls
By ROY FURCHGOTT
Published: March 27, 2008
The Logitech ClearChat wireless headset, which the company says is the first of its kind with Internet calling in mind, is also meant to be faux-pas-proof.

The addition of an unusual feature can keep you from speaking out of turn. When the headset is muted, the microphone glows red. This confirms that the microphone is off, so you won’t have to ask, “Can you hear me now?” They can’t.
This stereo headset, with a retail price of $100, has over-the-ear padded phones and a boom microphone. Compatible with Macs and PCs, it requires no setup, although a small receiver will occupy one of your computer’s U.S.B. ports.

The headset broadcasts over the 2.4-gigahertz band, just like many portable phones, and Logitech estimates that the signal will carry more than 30 feet. The microphone has noise canceling to diminish background sound, so people can hear you clearly when they are supposed to.

Source: NY Times

Cell Phone Headsets for only $4

2008-03-05T00:38:00.004-05:00

Studies show that the use of hands-free devices greatly improves a driver’s concentration, subsequently decreasing the risk of injuries and deaths.

FreeHeadset.org is an organization dedicated to promoting cell phone safety by distributing high quality cell phone headsets for only $3.94 (includes shipping and handling).

source = "beststuff.com"

Different greetings for different callers

2008-03-05T00:36:00.002-05:00

YouMail is a free service that lets you customize your cell phone voicemail messages. You can have one standard greeting and also a different greeting depending on who is calling you.

YouMail, Inc. (www.youmail.com), the mobile industry's premiere consumer voicemail service, announced in September the addition of two new voicemail features to greatly expand users' control over their cellular worlds. The features -- "smart caller ID" and "personalized away messages" -- allow voicemail to be a much more effective method for personal communication.

SMART CALLER ID
YouMail provides enhanced notification of incoming voicemail through text messages and/or e-mails. Now when voicemails are left, YouMail's "smart caller ID" automatically tells its users not only the number of who called, but also the caller's name, and the length of the voicemail message -- all without the need for any set-up on the user's part.
"Caller ID information has generally been very limited on cell phones, with mobile users knowing only the phone number that left a voicemail," said Ken Brickley, VP of Marketing for YouMail. "With YouMail, users know exactly who left them voicemail, allowing them to save time by retrieving only the voicemails that matter and help verify that callers are who they say they are."

PERSONALIZED AWAY MESSAGES
YouMail allows users to set up personalized greetings for their callers, whether for a single caller or a group of callers like family or friends, and they can record their own outgoing messages or choose from a growing library of thousands of pre-recorded greetings. Now users who will be unavailable can quickly and easily arrange away messages for their cell phone -- akin to the similar ability in instant messaging, but tailored to different groups of people in their lives.
"Cell phone users often find themselves knowing they'll be unavailable or out of coverage for a period of time," said Brickley. "Now a user can simply choose an appropriate message and with a couple of clicks let their friends know they're away on vacation or out surfing, and co-workers or clients know they're in a meeting or on a plane."

USER FEEDBACK
Both innovations were inspired by recommendations from YouMail user feedback.
"YouMail is about cell phone voicemail that truly satisfies its users," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. "Whether it's knowing everything about who's leaving you messages or easily letting incoming callers know when and where you'll be out of reach, with the touch of a button you're in complete control of how you connect with everyone in your life."

About YouMail
YouMail replaces your cellular voicemail with a free and dramatically better voicemail system that helps you save time, simplify their life, and have fun. YouMail is transforming voicemail into something that's amazingly useful and incredibly fun, providing personalized greetings and away messages for individuals or groups of callers, a library of greetings uploaded by its users, and online voicemail access with the ability to share and save special voicemails easily. To learn more and sign up for the free YouMail service, go to www.youmail.com.

MagicJack - A Jack That Lets Regular Phones Take Advantage of Those Cheap Internet Long-Distance Rates

2008-03-05T00:26:00.002-05:00

Computer-based phone services like Skype allow you to call friends and family free — as long as they have a PC with a sound card and a microphone. A little device called MagicJack will let you make calls from your phone to other phones in the United States for fractions of a penny a minute.

The device costs $39.95, a price that includes a year of unlimited domestic calls; additional years cost $20. MagicJack, which looks like a U.S.B. memory stick, plugs right into your Windows PC, which immediately displays a telephone keypad. (A Mac version is planned.) Each MagicJack is assigned its own phone number, and the price includes voice mail and call waiting. You can also use the MagicJack overseas to reach numbers in the United States and receive calls from there.

These sorts of Internet calling devices aren’t new. The MagicJack, however, has a real telephone jack on the side, letting you quickly bring almost any corded or cordless phone into the 21st century

Source: New York Times (By JOHN BIGGS)

New Word Document Format

2008-03-04T18:37:00.000-05:00

Microsoft changed the document format used by the Word program in its Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac software suites. The old .doc file extension used by previous versions of the program has been replaced with .docx, which refers to the Office Open XML format. (This file format was developed by Microsoft and is not to be confused with the OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite, a set of open-source programs with their own formats.)
While people using the newer versions of Word can save their documents to a format that is compatible with older editions of the program, not everyone remembers to do so. You are not forced to upgrade to Word 2007 just to read these files, though, and there are a few ways to crack open a .docx file.
Microsoft offers its own compatibility pack that lets older versions of the Word program open and save files in Office Open XML format. An article in the company’s online knowledge base explains the process and provides a link to the compatibility pack for Word 2003, Word 2002 and Word 2000 at support.microsoft.com/kb/924074. (Some elements in a Word 2007 document may not convert properly, and an article at snipurl.com/1yos2 describes many of the things to look out for.)
For those using Word 2004 or Office v.X for Macintosh, Microsoft offers a free Open XML File Format Converter program that can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx.
If you don’t want to use Microsoft’s solutions, the Web site at http://www.docx2doc.com/ offers both inexpensive Web-based file conversions and a standalone converter program. The Docx2Rtf program for Windows can also convert .docx files into rich text format (.rtf); the software is free and available to download at www.nativewinds.montana.com/software/docx2rtf.html.

Source: New York Times

Convert To Digital

2008-03-04T11:22:00.002-05:00

HOME MOVIES
The simplest way to digitize those shoeboxes full of Super 8 movies is to use the technique perfected by movie pirates: project the image on a white wall, set up a digital camcorder on a tripod, and then shoot the film.
This is one case where you won’t get the best results if you make it a do-it-yourself project. The different frame rates of movie film and a camcorder could cause annoying flickering of the final image. Send your movies to a commercial transfer service like Audio Video Memories (audiovideomemories.com), Digital Transfer Systems (digitaltransfersystems.net), and Just8mm.com that uses a telecine machine, a much more sophisticated version of the same home technique.
Movies arrive back on DVDs, ready to be imported into the PC for editing with a program like Apple’s iMovie ($79, part of iLife ’08) for Macs, or for PCs, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 ($100).

VHS TAPES
To transfer VHS footage, which is analog, into a computer, the PC needs to receive the data digitally. One way to check if your PC is so equipped to do that is to look at the computer’s ports. If it has the familiar RCA inputs — the yellow, white, and red connectors — then it most likely is analog ready.
If not, analog images must first be converted to the digital format. To do so, combination VHS/DVD player/recorders are one of the simplest ways to get your home movies off your aging video tapes and onto more permanent DVDs. Available from Panasonic, Sony and others, prices start at under $200.
Alternatively, connect a stand-alone VHS player to a DVD recorder to make a digital copy.
VHS tapes can also be recorded onto a computer’s hard drive by plugging the VCR’s output cable into a digital camcorder that offers a “pass through” mode (most do). The signal is digitized within the camcorder, and then passed on to the PC’s hard drive.
Sony’s $229 VRD-MC5 is specifically made to record DVD copies of VHS tapes, or recordings from any camcorder or digital video recorder, without using a PC. VCRs and camcorders are plugged into the device, which resembles a portable DVD deck.
If you do not own a camcorder or DVD recorder, but you have loads of valuable tapes, consider an intermediary conversion product, such as the DAC-200 ($184; synchrotech.com); Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge ($300; omegamultimedia.com), and VHS to DVD 3.0 ($80; honestech.com). Each product includes hardware and software that converts analog signals to digital,.

LPS, EIGHT-TRACKS, AND CASSETTES
Getting your old Country Joe and the Fish albums into your PC is one of the easiest conversions to do, according to Tom Merritt, executive editor of CNetTV.com.
Assuming you still have a phonograph turntable (or eight-track or cassette deck) and it is not the console type from the 1950s or earlier, plug the audio output from the turntable’s amplifier/receiver into the minimike port found on virtually all home computers.
While commercial audio editing software is available, Mr. Merritt recommends installing Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net), a free program available for Macs, PCs and Linux/Unix machines that will manage the files, convert them into a specific format (for example, WAV or MP3), and remove clicks and crackles.
For those who value their time more than the fun of connecting cables and reading manuals, there are plenty of commercial companies happy to do the converting for you. Cassettes2CDs.com will convert audio and video tapes, LPs and 45s to digital format, storing the data on a CD, DVD or MP3 format for iPod use. The company does not handle 78 r.p.m. records, reel-to-reel or eight-track tapes.