Pensacola Computer Help Technoblog

The past few weeks, I have noticed an alarming increase in email spam that contains links to viruses. Some of the most common ones are “Update for Microsoft Outlook” (contains a link that appears to come from microsoft), “Worldpay CARD transaction confirmation (with a virus attachment), and of course the common “You have received an eCard” (with a link to a virus exe file). For those who don’t know, you should NEVER EVER click on a link in an email. If you are tempted to visit a link sent in an email, manually type the link in your browser, and then only do so if you are sure of the site the link points to. Even if the email came from Mom, or a family member or friend, it doesn’t mean that they actually sent the email. The latest swarm of email worms infects computers then sends emails using the infected computers email accounts to every email address the worm can find on the infected computer.

Email scammers are tricky and will hide the real link inside the link that you normally see in the email. If you are using an email client like Outlook, hover your mouse over the link and you will see a pop-up which shows the real link you will go to if you click it. For example, in an email I recently got, the link started out:  update.microsoft.com/microsoftofficeupdate… when in reality, the actual link was pointing to update.microsoft.com.1ikij.net. If you are using a web based email client like hotmail or yahoo, you can right click on the link (be careful not to actually click the link to open it), then select copy shortcut. You can then paste that link into a document, or address bar to see where it really goes (once again, be careful to not actually go to the link if you paste it into the address bar).

There are some real nasty viruses out there, but honestly, most of the time people only get infected by allowing the virus to infect their machines by doing something like running an .exe file attached to an email, or visiting sites by clicking on unknown links – the link trick can be done even on a Facebook or MySpace page, so be careful of clicking links there as well1

Apple can be pretty sneaky when it comes to hiding things about their computers. While they constantly tout how good they are, how much ‘better’ they are than PC’s, things do slip out, and they should know better than try to shift blame on some things.

Yesterday, MacBook Pro users read that the great Apple was releasing a firmware update that could double the throughput on the SATA interface for their hard drives. This surely must be a good thing <sar> oh wait, hold on a sec, could this be the bait and switch type move ?  Yes, we will double the throughput, that is after we have first cut it in half. Yes Mac Fans, Apple did the okey dokey on you. As reported by macrumors last week, Apple quietly downgraded the SATA interface from 3.0 to 1.5Gbit in some of the new MacBook Pros released last week. Pretty sneaky.

But wait, more information reported on Beta News that Apple has now (after being caught) issued a firmware update that allows users to use drives at faster than the 1.5Gbps transfer rate. Oh, but wait, they also released a tricky disclaimer that reads “This update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5 Gbps, however Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac portable computers, and their use remains unsupported. All previous and current Apple portables with a SATA drive interface include a SATA 1.5 Gbps hard drive.”

SATA 1.5 Gbps drives are OLD technology as 3.0 Gbps have been around for quite a while and are the standard for most mid to upper range PC’s. So that top of the line technology that you thought you were paying all that money for when you bought your Mac turns out to be less that top of the line.

As if that wasn’t enough, Techtree reported today that MacBook Pro’s are still facing a display distortion issue that has plagued the aluminum unibody MacBook Pros, and is still evident in the newest releases. While Apple blamed these issues on nVidia drivers, they still remained after the driver fix, and Apple has apparently released a firmware update to address the issue , although Techtree reports that even after the firmware update, the issue still remains. Yet another high quality product Apple, way to go <more sarcasm>.

Photos from Techtree showing display distortion.

If you get an email that appears to be inviting you to Twitter, beware! There is a batch of fake Twitter email invitations bombarding email accounts that carries a mass-mailing worm in an attached zip file. Once a user unzips the file the worm activates, searches the infected computer for email addresses, then sends out emails with copies of the worm to the addresses it finds. It also searches for pre-programmed websites which contain instructions to download more malware to the infected machine.

The header on the email invite reads:
From: invitations@twitter.com
Subject: Your friend invited you to twitter!

The worm has been identified as Ackantta.B

I have been working on computers for many years, and in my experience, those who know IT and computers stay away from Norton’s security products. Back in the day, Norton’s had some good products (and by back in the day, I mean like Windows 3.1), but over the years, their products have not only become overbloated so much that they really slow systems down, but they have also become a target for virus and malware writers. I can’t tell you how many machines I have run across that were running a Norton’s security product that indicated the system was fine, that in fact was seriously infected with all manners of malware and viruses.

The real scary thing is computer companies that actually recommend or sell customers this product, knowing full well of it’s vulnerabilities. While it isn’t the worst product out there, and it can protect peoples systems from some things, because of the fact that Symantec (which makes Norton’s) has deals with most computer manufacturers to put a trial of their product on a majority of new computers, virus and malware writers target it specifically with code written to disable it, work around it, or just blow right through it.

While the companies that sell Norton’s will provide customers with all kinds of fancy detection rates, and articles on how good Norton’s is, all I can say is that when I work on a machine that has Norton’s, and it’s programs indicate that everything is fine, and then I remove Norton’s and install some free antivirus and antispyware products and find over 2000 infection signatures, that indicates a real problem with Norton’s ability to protect a computer. This isn’t something that I have run into just once, but rather many times, and the sad thing is how much people have paid to protect their computers only to find out that they have been severly compromised.

It seriously irks me that computer shops actually sell Norton’s to their customers when they know darn well that it is inadequate protection. Some even offer guarantees, but no guarantee is worth squat once your data and computer has been compromised – sure, they might clean your computer for free, but what about the cost of your credit card numbers being stolen, your computer being in an unusable state for a period of time?

I actually had to laugh at some advice I saw on how to make sure your computer system doesn’t get infected. While some of the advice was good, it was incomplete and more of a scare tactic. One thing it said was to never ever go to any ‘adult’ sites. While it is true that many ‘adult’ oriented sites can harbor malware, the real truth today is that sites such as Facebook and MySpace are much more dangerous in terms of the risk of getting your computer infected with malware.

It should be noted that this is my opinion based upon my own experiences, and while I’m sure that some will disagree and swear by Norton’s, I am not one of them (I often swear because of Norton’s, but not for it

Microsoft has officially announced that Windows 7 will hit retail markets on October 22nd. In addition they will shortly be announcing the final details regarding a Windows 7 upgrade option for people buying new computers between the end of June and October. Right now it looks like anyone who purchases a new computer that has Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate after the end of June will recieve a free or deeply discounted copy of Windows 7 when it is released. Hopefully Microsoft will open up on the exact details soon. One thing to note though – don’t expect any free or discounted upgrades on netbooks as most are currently running Windows XP which will not be part of the upgrade promotion (however, Windows 7 will certainly run, and run well on most netbooks currently on the market).

I have been running Windows 7 for many months now and must say that it is very stable, seems quicker than Vista in many tasks, and is definitely more secure than XP and even Vista. It has quite a few new features, and while some people seem to always resist change, the changes in Windows 7 seem really to help productivity and ease many common tasks.