Friday, November 05, 2004
Money Matters, Intel chief Barrett lays out U.S. tech policy agenda, stinging rebuke of Washington
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
By Dean Takahashi
Mercury News
As Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett received a lifetime achievement award Wednesday night, he used the podium to deliver a stinging rebuke of Washington politicians and offer a tech-policy agenda for the newly re-elected Bush administration to consider.
Speaking to an audience at the annual Semiconductor Industry Association dinner in San Jose, Barrett accepted the Robert N. Noyce Award for his four decades of contributions to the chip industry. Then he let loose in a speaking style that alternated between the stern and folksy.
``None of the presidential debates focused on key issues such as research-and-development funding or physical-sciences education,'' he said. ``Neither candidate put forward a definitive policy.''
The United States, he said, must focus on improving science and math education, spend more on research and development and develop technology infrastructure such as broadband.
He noted with pride how the chip industry fought off Japanese competitors in the 1980s with a combination of smarter design, manufacturing prowess and trade policy that opened the Japanese market. But he said he was disappointed that the presidential candidates this year failed to address matters of concern to the tech industry that are crucial to U.S. competitiveness.
``It's very interesting how fast these things happen, and how everyone says things are inevitable, like the Japanese winning,'' he said. ``Then something comes along and changes everything. That's the beauty of our industry.''
As China, India and other countries join the global economy, Barrett said, the United States ``has to decide to compete.'' If it does, then it must continue to make investments in education, research and development and infrastructure.
He noted that in Japan, high-speed Internet connections cost only about $20 a month for speeds that are 20 to 50 times faster than U.S. broadband connections.
The government also needs to preserve employee stock options, he said.
Barrett said Intel's annual investment in research and development in the past two decades has increased from $182 million to $4.8 billion. But the federal budget for the National Science Foundation's general science research, which is $3.8 billion, has been flat by comparison.
``Giving companies incentives to exist is called corporate welfare here,'' Barrett said. ``In other countries that have chosen to compete, it is called investing in the future.''
In a press briefing, Barrett, who plans to retire next year, was asked if he felt odd receiving the award in a year when Intel had a number of product delays and cancellations.
``I'm not sure the SIA board created this award to look at someone's product record in the last 12 months,'' Barrett replied. ``I prefer to think that they looked at the last 30 years, not just the last one.''
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Two Guilty in 1st Felony Spam Conviction
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
AP - Thu Nov 4, 7:16 AM ET
A brother and sister who sent junk e-mail to millions of America Online customers were convicted Wednesday in the nation's first felony prosecution of Internet spam distributors.
4 The rest of the story from By Karin Brulliard, Washington Post Staff Writer
And remember the site I gave ya awhile back to get in to their site if they ask you for an ID or password, BugMeNot.com
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
What's an Installation Program?
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
Installing a program can be a long, tortuous process. So programmers handled the chore the best way they could. They wrote a second program designed specifically to install the first program.
Known as installation programs, these programs handle the chores of copying the main program to the computer's innards and making sure that it gets along with Windows.
Most programs sold in software stores come with installation programs.
Some programmers are lazy, however, and don't write an installation program. As a result, they leave the installation chores squarely in your hands.
Many shareware programs and other programs downloaded from the Internet don't come with an installation program, so you have to tackle their installation yourself.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Gmail exploit that allows an attacker to steal your Gmail cookie
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
There’s a Gmail exploit that allows an attacker to steal your Gmail cookie, which thereafter identifies them as you to the system, even if you change your password.
This seems like a huge problem for Google, above and beyond the actual security breach. Remember that Gmail uses the same unlimited lifetime Google cookie. The data in that cookie is, presumably, extremely valuable for their tracking efforts, and I’d guess that this will be difficult for them to fix in a way that maintains that.
See I told ya "No free lunch"And how can you complane about something that your getting for no $$.$$ out of packet. And then why should they be very good at what your NOT paying for.
By the way, I got the 2gig of mail space at Yahoo just because Google did what they did. KNow the dog you lay down with.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Monday, November 01, 2004
Moey Matters - Bank Mutual Funds: Not All They're Cracked Up to Be
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
For the past several decades, banks have been losing billions of dollars in customer assets to the mutual fund industry. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, banks were regulated to limit the amount of interest they could pay depositors. When interest rates surged as inflation took hold, bank depositors looked longingly at money market mutual funds, which were virtually identical to bank savings accounts with one major difference: The yield on money market mutual funds was much higher because such funds were not subject to interest rate ceilings.
When bond and stock funds boomed in the 1980s, banks again got left behind. Other government regulations, dating back to the 1930s, prevented banks from getting into the mutual fund business.
Thanks to some lobbying and fancy organizational footwork, banks jumped into the mutual fund fray and offered their depositors more investment choices. Bank funds, however, generally charge sales commissions and higher operating expenses and generally have less-than-stellar performance relative to the best no-load funds.
Studies have also indicated problems with investors' not understanding that bank funds don't carry FDIC insurance. (Bank brokers pitching funds to their customers are often more than happy to allow this misunderstanding to persist.) The banking industry is working on better disclosure, and some banks have been coming out with no-load funds. But banks are still generally not the best place to purchase mutual funds.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Sunday, October 31, 2004
New Worm Variant Spreads, Clogging E-Mail
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
By CHRISTINE NUZUM, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - At least one new variant of a worm spread rapidly from Asia and Europe to U.S. computers Friday morning, filling up people's e-mail accounts, but otherwise causing little apparent damage.
Alex Shipp, senior antivirus technologist at the e-mail filtering company MessageLabs Inc., said the variant of the so-called Bagle worm was "comparable in size to MyDoom," the virus that slowed Google and other Internet search sites in January. MessageLabs recently had received about 900,000 e-mails containing the virus. Ship estimates that MessageLabs receives about 1 percent of the e-mails containing a given virus or worm.
"We were seeing 165,000 an hour, but it's leveled off at 100,000 an hour, if you can call that leveling off," Shipp said.
Because multiple e-mails containing a worm or virus are often sent to one computer, it's difficult to estimate the number of affected users, said Shipp.
One software security company, McAfee Inc., said another variant of the Bagle worm was also quickly spreading Friday, but similarly did not seem to be destroying files or damaging software.
Both versions can be transferred through shared network files as well as through e-mail.
They attach themselves to files and then send themselves to e-mail addresses that they find on infected machines. Viruses or worms often use e-mail addresses from computers they infect to fool the recipients into opening an attachment.
If a recipient opens the attachment, the worm creates a so-called back-door, "a small program that sits on your machine quietly listening for someone to contact it," said Kevin Hogan, senior manager of security response at Symantec Corp. A computer user who contacts the backdoor can transfer files between his machine and the infected one, Hogan said. The worm variants can also disable security software, experts said.
"It's pretty much a vanilla mass-mailing worm," said Hogan. "It does a lot of the things that we've seen these sorts of worms do in the past."
McAfee first received reports of the worm variants from Europe. Symantec said the first complaints it fielded were from Japan. Antivirus providers received a rash of reports of a worm in the United States at the start of the workday Friday.
Symantec, McAFee and Computer Associates International Inc.'s eTrust division had received no reports Friday of disabled files or other damage.
Much of the standard security software can readily detect and protect against these latest variants of the Bagle worm, which spreads through shared network files as well as e-mail messages, experts said.
"Most of the major antivirus vendors already have detection and so does Computer Associates," said Stefana Ribaudo, product manager for consumer products at Computer Associates' security division. "Users are receiving the latest signature files from their vendors, which will keep them protected."
McAfee said computer users who don't subscribe to antivirus software can go to its Web site download a free remedy, called "Stinger," that will detect and remove the worm. __
Christine Nuzum is a correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
New IE Flaw Spoofs URLs
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
Larry Seltzer - eWEEK
A series of HTML-based exploits allow a malicious HTML programmer to direct a user to a different Web site than the one indicated in the user's browser status line.
Two separate but similar issues affect Internet Explorer. The first, reported by Benjamin Franz of Germany on the Bugtraq mailing list, involves an improper mixture of anchor and table tags, with links to two different sites.
On fully-patched Windows systems prior to Windows XP (news - web sites) SP2, users hovering over the link will see one URL in the status bar, but when they click on the link, they will be taken to a different address. On Windows XP SP2, clicking on the link brings the user to the same address indicated in the status line. Users hovering just below the link will see the second address, but clicking in this area does not change the browser location.
The second report, also reported on Bugtraq, is by the well-known malware researcher http-equiv. The effect is similar to the first, but the bug works on fully-patched Windows XP SP2 systems. The technique involves the mixture of an empty anchor tag and a form tag with both an action statement indicating one address and an input tag with the type of submit and a value of the other address, all in the presence of a base href tag indicating the second address.
Click here to read about another bug that allows programs to be planted and executed on fully-patched SP2 systems.
The significance of either bug is questionable, as the same effect has long been possible using JavaScript and other techniques.
Mozilla is not generally subject to these attacks, but others have observed that in some of these attacks, if the user Ctrl-clicks to load the link in a separate tab, that tab will load the second address not indicated by the status line.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Money Matters - Homeowner Headaches
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
By Linda Stern
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Don't look now, but your homeowner's insurance policy isn't the safe blanket of protection you think it is.
In recent years, most insurers have quietly dropped their "guaranteed replacement" provisions, while the costs of rebuilding have risen more rapidly than average inflation rates. Those costs have risen sharply not only for building materials but also for the skilled labor required for installation.
On both coasts, rebuilding costs run $200 to $300 a square foot, and many homeowners -- the majority, by some counts -- don't have the kind of coverage that would pay for that.
Most insurers have moved to a newer form of coverage called "extended replacement policy."
These policies set a fixed dollar amount for full replacement and then agree to add an extra payment of 20 percent or more, if the home is destroyed in a "widespread disaster" such as a hurricane or earthquake, says Jeanne Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute. In many cases, the policies will provide a complete rebuilding, but in many others they will not.
Some people are learning this the hard way. People whose homes were destroyed by last year's southern California wildfires have been complaining in record high numbers to the state insurance commissioner.
Commissioner John Garamendi says one in five affected homeowners is complaining about the way their insurance company has handled their claim, compared with the more typical rate of one complaint for every 100 claims.
It is, of course, best to deal with this problem before your house is damaged. Here are some ways to protect yourself.
-- Hold out for a policy that still offers guaranteed replacement costs. At least two companies -- MetLife and Chubb -- both offer it, says Salvatore. Make sure that the company you go to has a clean record of paying claims in your state.
-- Stick with your current insurer if you've been happy with them, but call for a consultation and find out how you would have to modify the policy to cover replacing your home. "If you follow your insurance company's coverage recommendations, you'll generally be in a strong position should a catastrophic loss occur," suggests Norman Boone, a San Francisco, financial adviser.
-- Make sure your policy has an automatic inflation adjustment in it, and check to make sure your company uses a realistic inflation figure -- that of the cost of building and not just the generic Consumer Price Index (news - web sites) -- to calculate the inflation adjustment every six months or year.
-- Raise your deductible. The point of insurance is to protect your lifestyle against catastrophic loss, not to insulate you from ever spending money, so raise your deductible to $1,000 if it isn't already there.
That helps your insurance picture in more than one way. It will lower your premiums, perhaps by as much as 25 percent. Secondly, it will keep you from filing claims for little things like a branch-damaged gutter or a bathroom floor ruined by a leak. Those little claims can kill you; more insurers are denying coverage to owners living in homes for which many claims have been filed. It is important for homeowners to reserve their coverage for when a true disaster strikes.
-- Look for add-on coverage. Some policy riders to consider are "ordinance and law" coverage and "backup of sewers and drains," says Salvatore. The first covers rebuilding up to current codes, something most older homes probably wouldn't meet. The second coverage is self-explanatory, but used more than you might think. A sewage backup into a home can cause great and expensive damage and may not otherwise be included in your policy.
-- Don't nickel-and-dime your coverage. The average homeowner is paying just over $600 a year, and that's not all that much, when you think about what your home is worth to you. Make sure you are dealing with a quality company by checking it out with your state insurance examiner's office. Then pump up the coverage, and sleep tighter at night.
(Linda Stern is a freelance writer who covers personal finance issues for Reuters. Any opinions in the column are solely those of Ms. Stern. You can e-mail her at lindastern(at)aol.com).
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Sneaky Spyware Becomes Scourge of Internet
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK - Spyware, an amorphous class of software that mostly gets onto computers without their users' knowledge, has become epidemic in the past year as people spend more time online and spyware developers get more aggressive. The resource-hungry programs often render machines unusable.
"It makes spam look like a walk in the park," said Bob Bowman, chief executive of Major League Baseball's Internet unit, which in June started banning new advertisers from using such techniques.
San Francisco marketing consultant David Eckstein turned on his computer one day and launched his Web browser, just as he had every day. This time, however, CNN.com did not automatically open. Instead, the page was a search engine he'd never heard of.
Eckstein tried changing the browser settings back to CNN but the search engine would return whenever he rebooted. Finally, he just gave up, yet another victim of spyware.
"It makes you want to throw your computer out the window," Eckstein said.
As part of a government-backed study, technicians visited Jenna Dye recently in Young Harris, Ga., and found 1,300 spyware-related items on her machine.
"It would shut itself down in the middle of doing stuff. We had lots of pop-ups. The (CD-ROM) drawers would pop open," the mother of two complained. "It's frustrating. We spent $1,800 on our computer and we didn't want to use it."
Until the machine was cleaned up, Dye and her husband would make 2 1/2 hour trips to the nearest mall to avoid shopping online. "We use it every day now again," she said.
Spyware was found on the computers of 80 percent of participants in the study, conducted by America Online Inc. and the National Cyber Security Alliance.
Since EarthLink Inc. began offering free anti-spyware tools, each scan has found an average of six such programs. When including "cookie" data files that online sources use to track user behavior, the average rises to 26.
The most common type of spyware is more properly termed adware, its main goal to generate pop-up and other ads.
Browser hijackers, the kind Eckstein got, direct users to rogue search engines, from which spyware developers or distributors get a commission. Dialers scam users by making international phone calls that carry hefty per-minute surcharges. A rare but malicious form can steal passwords and other confidential data.
The intrusive programs aren't always well-written and can use resources inefficiently.
"Often, you don't just have one. You might have a half-dozen or even a dozen that can bring your computer to a screeching halt," said Tim Lordan, staff director of the Internet Education Foundation. "They are undermining confidence in the Internet. People are getting fed up."
The most common way to get spyware, including adware, is to download file-sharing software, screensavers and other free programs that rely on revenues from such tagalong programs to cover costs. Spyware developers consider it part of the bargain, though they also depend on users' fascination with freebies.
"A lot of them say, `I'm going to get free smileys in my e-mail or some sort of free ... download without realizing the resource drain the sponsoring software is going to cause," said Wayne Porter, co-founder of SpywareGuide.com.
Users themselves invite spyware by breezing through prompts and not reading licensing agreements they are required to accept. Consent to spyware is often buried there.
Many of the larger companies whose software is delivered online with freebies have tried to clean up their act to the point that many don't actually harvest data anymore, though the term "spyware" has stuck.
And their methods for disclosure and removal have improved in response to consumer complaints.
But for every reputable operation, scores of shadier ones, often located abroad, are intent on tricking users into accepting spyware without any accompanying software.
In a technique known as drive-by downloading, code embedded within pop-up ads or on Web sites that offer free songs, games or even pornography can instruct computers to begin downloading the rogue programs with minimal warning.
Sometimes, those warning prompts even are programmed to keep popping up until users finally give up and say "yes," said Neel Mehta of Internet Security Systems Inc.
And exploiting known flaws with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system or the Internet Explorer browser, spyware developers can bypass the prompts entirely.
"In the rush of doing things, people get confused and end up hitting one wrong button, and all of a sudden stuff is on your computer and you can't get it off," restaurant manager Damien LaRuffa said.
His Washington, D.C., restaurants lost two computers for a few days because an assistant manager apparently was tricked into accepting a fake pitch for anti-spyware software. LaRuffa said the repair bill exceeded $400.
Matt Davin, technical services manager at a repair shop in Walla Walla, Wash., estimates that half his jobs are directly tied to spyware. Customers, he said, often blame it on their kids downloading free programs.
Spyware can infect power users as well. Just ask Ricky Rodrigue, who runs Dell Inc.'s customer support center. His son invited spyware onto his home machine while downloading games, and he once found more than 100 spyware items on his work machine.
"That's how creative (they are) and how challenging it is to protect PCs," Rodrigue said.
The less innocuous programs can usually be removed manually or by running one of several anti-spyware tools, many free. The nastier ones, however, immunize themselves and persist.
"Almost every new threat released today comes with a reinstaller so that as soon as you try to remove it, it goes and reloads it," said Ron Franczyk, co-founder of anti-spyware vendor Giant Company Software Inc.
Many spyware files carry names that mimic key Windows components and even hide among them in folders typically reserved for system files.
"How do you know if you need a spool.exe?" asked Vilis Ositis, chief technology officer at Blue Coat Systems Inc. "Windows comes with thousands of files. How do you know which ones you need and which ones are spyware?"
Congress is working on a ban, and industry groups have launched efforts to educate consumers and fight back with technology. Experts believe a solution will ultimately involve a combination of law enforcement, education and engineering.
"We're at a crossroads," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy-advocacy group.
Fail to properly address spyware, Schwartz warned, and "users will not want to use the Internet for commerce, for government services, for interaction with other people. We'll lose the great potential of the Internet."
Anick Jesdanun can be reached at netwriter(at)ap.org
END
Ad-aware from Lavasoft is the software I use. And Please defrag and clear those old files by doing a Clean desk.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
