Jailbreaking iPhones no longer a federal crime

The Librarian of Congress has ruled that 'jailbreaking,' or unlocking your iPhone's computer to use non-App Store programs, is now legal and no longer a federal crime under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Details here: http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/26

Third party apps failing to use Windows security

Yep, thats about it. Several popular program written by people outside of Microsoft(which is why theyre called 'third-party') are failing to use the new security features in Windows 7.

Data Execution Prevention and Address Space Layout Randomization were introduced in Windows XP SP2 and Windows vista respectively, but have not been the easiest things to include in a third party program until the release of Windows 7.
Microsoft has made it easier to include these security features in programs designed to run on Windows 7, but only programs made by Google (Chrome and Picasa) are taking advantage of them.

You can read the article about this here.

AT&T raises data prices for iPhone lovers; lowers them for everyone else.

If you are an AT&T customer, there is good news on the horizon; your phone bill will go down. Unless you are a heavy iPhone user, that is.

AT&T is introducing tiered pricing for iPhone users. (Read article here.) The lower tier is for people who dont use alot of the data functionality of their iPhone. These people will see a low to modest reduction in their billing.
The upper tier is for people who use more than 2GB of data per month. These prices are designed to cover the cost of lowering pricing for everyone else.
So you can expect to pay modestly to significantly more than you are now.

In case you are wondering how much is 2GB per month, Comcast reports that the average Comcast customer uses about 2GB per month for email alone.

Game site Mop.com compromised

Cnet reports that the popular Web-based game site Mop.com has been compromised; which means that user accounts may be stolen. Capsule summary here. Full article here.

How to recognize untrustworthy computer security companies

A blog post on Bruce Schneier's personal blog brought to my attention a video commercial from someone who is arguably the worst representative of the computer security industry.

See the video here. But be warned, the company who put out the ad wants you to Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. (The link to the video does not go to the company mentioned.)

So, how to recognize a bad IT guy from a good IT guy? The bad ones are the ones who speak in hip-hop gangsta language, or who respond to email correspondence like this:

"(name of emailer) you are a fucking joke!!!!! You been doing pen test for 6 years I have been doing for 27 years. I have been in business for 20 years doing it. I wrote 8 books on security. I have contracts with goverment agencies. I will challenge you and any one who wants to go up against me. We can put up $1 million each and have the processed go to charity. If you don't have a $1 million lying around then you are not a real hacker. 6 years is a joke. You are still a rookie!!!!!!! Now I am call you and everyone else out!!!!!"

Also, the bad ones are the ones who try to frighten you into buying their product or hiring their services.
I think that's called a protection racket.

New malware threat turns out to be only hype

Researchers at the pay-us-to-fix-a-problem-only-we-know-about website matousec.com have recently been getting alot of press stemming from their conclusion that all anti-virus programs are worthless and helpless in the face of a new threat they have just discovered.

You may have seen screaming headlines declaring "New attack bypasses EVERY Windows security product! "; it turns out that this is mostly hype the matousec.com website has generated in order for them to make some money by selling a solution to this oh-so-scary sounding problem.

There is a very good article explaining why this is not something to worry about on the Sunbelt Security blog here. Some language may be technical.
The article explains that the portion of Windows this problem exploits has been known about for years, and no-one has been able to take advantage of it yet, because there must be pre-conditions met for this attack to even work.
Your computer must already be infected with a certain type of virus (not just any will do), the attacker, whether human or software, must be able to run a program on your computer without your knowledge, and this particular attack is, for malware, a very large program(which would make you wonder why everything got so slow all of a sudden).

So, in the end, dont believe the screaming headlines. If you are unsure of your protection, call your local friendly repairman. I dont suggest calling the Geek Squad, or your city's equivalent, because they will see your question as a money-making opportunity, instead of trying to reassure a nervous client.

An Easier Way to Move to Windows 7

If you are currently using Windows XP (and most people still are), the upgrade to Windows 7 (which is highly recommended) is problematic.

First, you have to back up everything you want to save, including some things which are hard or cumbersome;
Second, you have to make sure you still have copies of all of your programs;
Third, you must format the hard drive;
And then, you can install Windows 7.

Now there is an easier way. Cnet has an article on a new product soon to be released which will make the process much easier. (Click here to read the article.)

Is your browser giving you away?

Short answer, yes. Ars Technica has a good article, here, about how you can be individually tracked across the Internet by way of your browser; even if you turn off cookies.

It turns out that the most privacy conscious people are the easiest to track, because of the methods they use to try and be anonymous. Its hard to get lost in the crowd if you are the only one wearing hot pink.

Because of the way the browser talks to websites, even without cookies, websites (and tracking software) can uniquely identify the computer that your browser is installed on, as well as learning all of your browser plugins and other modifications. If you have Flash installed, Flash will reveal all of the fonts on your computer, too.

If you want to be private on the Internet you have to be so normal, so average, that you put your computers health at risk; OR, you have to cripple your browser to the point at which you can hardly see anything or do anything.

How Your Computer Connects To The Internet (in plain English)

The Remote Help Expert 's Blog has a great post on how your computer connects to the Internet, and explains what that box with the funny antennas is and what it does.

And he does it in Plain English! (Just like I try to do.)

The post is here.

All your Facebook posts are now open to entire Internet

Facebook's newest privacy and marketing changes now allow search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, to index and make readable all of your posts.

Facebook used to require that you were a 'friend' of any person whose posts and other details you wanted to see. The new default position is that everything in your Facebook profile is open to everyone to see unless you specify that it is private, post by post, and photo by photo.

If you dont specify privacy, Facebook opens you up for searching by the Internet. Including such people as: your boss, your future employer, your wife/husband/mother/father/etc, and last but not least, credit rating agencies and lenders who have started searching Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to see if you are a respectable and credit-worthy person.

So if you dont get that job, or that loan, just remember "next time, I'll remember to set privacy."

Apple and Nokia continue patent fight

Nokia has increased it patent claims against Apple's iPad.

This means, when things eventually shake out, that the iPad will be ~1% more expensive, because Nokia most likely just wants royalty payments.

See the article here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/05/nokia-applies-patent-thumbscrews-to-apples-ipad.ars

Email options with Windows 7

Deb Shinder, editor of Win7 News, has some really informative things to say about your email options in Windows 7.

There's Outlook(of course), but, "you have to pay for it - usually a little under $100 (You can buy Outlook 2007 from Amazon for $87.94 at the time of this writing). To me, it's well worth the price, since I depend on my email, calendar and contacts for doing business. "

She gives a little history on why there is no longer an Outlook Express, and what happened to its successor, Windows Mail:
"OE was introduced in 1997 as part of Internet Explorer 4.0 and was included in Windows 98, 2000, Me and XP. Recently, as many XP users have bought new computers that come with Windows 7, they have been unhappy to find that part of Microsoft's initiative to cut down on "operating system bloat" included leaving out some of the extra applications - such as the email client.

"Microsoft actually dropped OE when they released Vista, which included an updated mail client called Windows Mail. Unlike OE, it wasn't designed as a part of Internet Explorer, but its interface was very similar to that of OE. One big difference "under the hood" was that WM stored messages as individual files, rather than in one big database file as OE did. This was a very good change, since with OE if the single file got corrupted, you lost all of your messages. Windows Mail also added better security, including the SmartScreen filter and phishing filter. Windows Mail also blocks certain attachment types, and although you can disable this, you can't granularly allow those attachments only from specific senders.

There were some other changes that weren't so great, too. Many folks were not happy that Windows Mail didn't allow for management of multiple identities like OE did. In fact, it will consolidate your identities into a single user profile if you upgrade from OE. Another point of dissatisfaction: Windows Mail couldn't be configured to use a web-based email account such as Hotmail or Gmail"

So, besides Outlook, what can you use with Windows 7?

Thunderbird(from Mozilla, makers of Firefox); Windows Live Mail (the current successor to Outlook Express, downloadable from Microsoft); and numerous others.

Isn't it funny how...

Most computer repair people who advertise on Craigslist dont tell you who they are?

Why hide your email address if you're a legitimate business?

They dont even tell you their name.

And, I've noticed, the cheaper they are, the more they go out of their way to hide any contact information.

It's just like my customers tell me: "You get what you pay for."

Controversial National Security-level Internet treaty trimmed

ACTA, the secret police-state copyright "trade agreement" (so it doesnt have to be ratified by elected officials), has had the paragraph that would have forced your Internet Service Provider to cut off your Internet service if you did something the movie studios or record companies didnt like taken out.

This "trade agreement" is still so horrible it will turn all developed nations into police states, though.

Article here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/acta-treaty/ .

Another reason why you shouldnt use McAfee Antivirus

Because a poorly tested virus update file might kill Windows dead.

check out the article here: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/04/broken-mcafee-dat-update-cripples-windows-workstations.ars

Craigslist phish almost catches me

Just about everyone has heard of "phishing," the emails that are supposedly from a trusted website or business that are actually from criminals and scammers.

As you know, all scams that succeed do so because they play on the essential human desire to get ahead, get something for nothing, or to gain an advantage over one's competition. So, on Saturday last, I received an email that looked like it came from Craigslist, and since I have ads on Craigslist I read the email instead of dismissing it.
But because the email promised a reasonable product (free premium ad placement on Craigslist) and because the email did not have any spelling errors or funny grammar, I clicked on the link provided, exactly like I should not have.

This shows how sophisticated some phishing can be, even when the when the message is simple.
This also shows how easy it is to fall victim to scams, even when you know what is going on.

If you are reading this, you may be wondering what the outcome of my encounter with this phishing email was. That outcome was nothing.
I clicked on the link, just like I shouldnt have, and Firefox opened up a new tab and instead of loading the scammers page, Firefox gave me a bright red page with a policeman holding a stop sign next to a warning that said "This page is known to be fraudulent, do you wish to continue?"

This warning stopped me in my tracks and made me go back to the email and examine it more closely. When I did, I saw the obvious markings of a phishing email.

This is why I use Firefox, and why you should too.

The Future of Innovation Requires Ending Copyright Tyranny Now

If you dont know about the current state of copyright or think there is nothing wrong with it, check out this article on Cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-20002541-256.html?tag=newsFeaturedBlogArea.0

The writer makes a great point about how America, you know, The Land of the Free, is quietly and every so subtly become a copyright police state, where Hollywood's movie studios and the record industry corporations are using Congress to demand that the police (yes, your *local* police), the FBI, and the Border Patrol stop, search and seize iPods and any other type of portable media player including iPhones and Blackberrys.

Forget terrorists, murderers, rapists, bank robbers and illegal immigrants, the RIAA and MPAA are even now demanding that every level of law enforcement stop what they are doing and make sure that every portable music or video player contains only legally purchased music or videos.
If the owner cannot produce proof of purchase at the time of search, the player must be seized and destroyed on the spot, lest the police themselves become corrupted.

The problem with having music or video on a portable player, according to the RIAA and MPAA, is that no music or video that exists on a portable player is legal, since the terms of the End User License Agreement clearly state that the music or video is not legally allowed to be transferred to any portable player.

Like the article says, this leads to a copyright police state. In America.

Govt spying on online purchases

Unveiled recently at a wiretapping and eavesdroppers conference, a small Arizona company is selling a box* you can plug into a network and use to secretly spy on what people are saying and doing (i.e. shopping) on what are supposedly "secure" websites, such as Gmail, Ebay, Amazon, etc.

This companies wiretap box requires the cooperation of the same companies who tell your browser what websites are safe to go to.
This box, with the (voluntary, coerced, blackmailed, or bribed) cooperation of the Certifying Authority (CA) allows government agencies, law enforcement or anyone with enough money to use this box to intercept your email, read it and then let go on to its destination.
Also, it can be used to spy on your shopping habits (because its been proven that most bureaucrats are bored and curious voyeurs).

So just be aware that you may be being spied upon by people you would rather not know what your email says or what you are buying.

And no, there's nothing you can do about it.

Here the link to a couple of articles on the topic, here, and here.

*I say "box," but it is actually a router; "box" is easier to understand for the non-technical audience.

Should you care about 4G?

4G is the new next-generation of cell phone network speeds.
Technically, 4G means "4th Generation network." Yes, the ads promise it to be faster, better, etc.,etc.; but should you care?

The short answer is "not really."

The long answer is if you are an average user with a non-smart phone, this wont matter to you.
If you have a smart (Windows, Android, or i) phone, the speed difference wont be tremendous, and probably not existent anywhere 3G doesnt reach now.

You're better off using Wi-fi, wherever its available. In fact, most major networks (except Verizon) are expanding their wi-fi networks to handle the expected increase in data traffic.

PDF overtakes Word as virus spreader

As it happens, Adobe's Acrobat PDF(Portable Document Format) program has overtaken Microsoft Word as the program most attacked by viruses.

This is because Microsoft has been trying very hard to fix any and all of the loopholes in Word and Office that allow viruses to attack them, while Adobe has not.

This has become a problem because more computers have some version of Adobe Acrobat on them than have Word, and most installed versions of Acrobat are old and unpatched; this allows loopholes in the program to be exploited by the bad guys.

See the article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/09/adobe_reader_attacks/

If you would like an alternative to Acrobat, try the free Foxit PDF Reader: http://download.cnet.com/Foxit-Reader/3000-10743_4-10313206.html

MagicJack's agreement allow spying on your phone calls

If you have the MagicJack USB phone service you may want to know that by using it you are allowing the MagicJack company to listen in on your phone calls and sell any information obtained to advertisers who will then pay MagicJack.

I'm not saying that you should not use the service; just be aware that anything you say while on the phone will be used to target advertising at you, and that confidential information between you and the person to whom you are speaking may be sold to interested third parties such as your employer or your health insurer.

Here is the link to the article: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/04/14/magicjacks-eula-says.html

Malware causes Windows crash during Auto Update

ZDNet has a story about a piece of of malware(virus, spyware, etc.) which infects Windows below the operating level, which caused some PC's to stop working during or right after Automatic Updates in February.

This type of malware is called a 'rootkit', because it is a 'kit' of programs that infects Windows at the 'root' of the software.
If you looked at the listing of all of your files and folders, you would notice that all of the folders appear to start downward from the Desktop and branch out from there; kind of like an upside down tree. (This is why the listing is called a "folder tree.")

The very top is called the "root," like the root of a tree; If you have access to the root of any computer, you can do anything you want, even reprogram the whole computer.

Next Explorer wont run on XP

Microsoft's newest version of Internet Explorer wont run on Windows XP, according to the general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer group.

He said at a recent conference that a "modern browser" needed a "modern operating system" to run.

Also, of note, because of security concerns surrounding Internet Explorer 6, some large and popular websites have announced that they will no longer be allowing computers who are using IE 6 to access their websites.

This may not seem fair, but it is in the best interests of all concerned. Anyone who is still using Internet Explorer 6 really should be using IE 7 or 8.
The newer versions will help in preventing virus attacks for you and help these websites from being attacked; which is also good for you.

New hard drives may hurt XP performance

Ars Technica has a good article on why Windows XP may be slower when using brand new hard drives: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/03/why-new-hard-disks-might-not-be-much-fun-for-xp-users.ars

It boils down to bigger hard drives need more error correction space to keep your data intact; and so, as hard drives get bigger, it becomes harder to maintain the integrity of your data.
The solution is to change the size of the storage areas on the hard drive so that it is easier to maintain the integrity of the data.
Because Windows XP was created before this was an issue XP has to perform more actions to read and write data of off these newer hard drives, which makes everything slow down.

This is another good reason to move on to Windows 7 as soon as possible.

First post of the New Year

Here it is, the first post of the New Year.

Last year, I resolved to post more often and I almost made it. Three quarters of the year, I posted at least once a week (on average).

Lets see if I can do better this year.

So, until I have something to write about, have some free stuff. This is Maximum PC magazines's Best Free Applications of 2009.

See you next time.