Have you ever wanted to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV?
One of our suppliers has a nifty Composite AV Cable that allows you to Charge, Sync, and watch Movies from your iPhone or iPod.
RRP is $59.95
Are you bored with the default Clock Gadget in Windows 7?
If so, take a look at these free Vector Clock Gadgets!
Vector Clocks is a collection of clocks, all of them are unique and will jazz up your desktop.
There are heaps of changes you can make to these clocks, including the ability to change the transparency, you can rotate them, change the shadow colors, set alarms and lots of other modifications can be made.
Simply right click on the clocks and edit the settings.
You can download the clocks separately or all together as a single installer package.
PLEASE NOTE that the Installer Package may come with a PRE-CHECKED option to install bundled software. You should UN-CHECK that option.
I installed and tried out the Blue Rumba Clock on my Windows 7 desktop and it looked pretty cool!
Download page: Vector Clocks.
This is a very good article on Fake Anti-virus software and it’s implications.
Take the time to read it and you may prevent the pain of Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud!!!
Article by Sue Marquette Poremba
Fake anti-virus (AV) software is a pain in the rear. It’s annoying as all get-out. And it can do a lot of damage to your computer. Just when you think you’ve figured out that it’s fake, the bad guys make changes.
If you’re lucky enough to have never experienced fake AV, it usually arrives as a piece of malware that pops up on your screen with a dire warning that your computer is infested with viruses — a lot of them.
If you click on the button, it offers to download the AV software to “clean” your computer. But that’s not a good idea.
“There are many versions of fake AV currently circulating on the Internet today,” said Raul Alvarez, senior security researcher for Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs in Sunnyvale, Calif. “While there are different variations, styles and names, they all share a common feature set.”
Anatomy of a scam
The first feature is a professional-looking graphical user interface that makes it look like a legitimate anti-virus application. Once the fake AV gets into a user’s computer system, it launches the interface and pretends to begin “scanning” the computer.
Once the “scan” is finished, fake AV typically tells the user that the system is riddled with malicious software
Next comes the crucial part: The fake AV wants payment in order to “clean” the system of all that bogus malware.
But don’t enter that credit-card information. Once you do, all that data gets shipped off to Eastern Europe or Brazil, and you immediately become a prime candidate for identity theft.
Even worse, some fake AV loads real malware, meaning you’ve just paid to have your computer infected, and others log your keystrokes or try to steal other information from your machine.
[8 Security Basics the Experts Want You to Know]
The new breed
Alvarez and his colleagues recently found a new variant of fake AV that’s got a brand-new look. They’ve given it the catchy name of W32/FakeAV.RA!tr.
“Once the malware is installed, an infected user receives a warning message that reads the software has discovered a spyware infection,” Alvarez said.
The warning balloon looks like it’s coming not from some random anti-virus software that you’ve never heard of, but from the real anti-virus package you’ve already installed. That’s pretty sneaky.
The next part of the scam is par for the course.
“When a user clicks on this warning message, a new application window that resembles a legitimate anti-virus application appears, starts ‘scanning’ the system and begins displaying detected infections,” Alvarez said.
“Once the detection phase is complete, a new window appears that displays the number of infections the software has discovered. The window also includes an option for the user to remove the detected threats or ‘Continue unprotected.’ Common sense dictates a user selects remove the ‘threats.'”
If you continue to click through, you’ll next be asked for your credit-card information and you are taken to a checkout screen. Then things get bad.
“This version of fake AV displays a warning message whenever a user tries launching a program and is particularly nasty as it doesn’t allow a user to launch any applications from their computer,” Alvarez said.
How to protect yourself
Computers are infected with fake AV through infected email attachments, links within emails or social-media links that lead users to malicious sites that automatically infect PCs and Macs via drive-by downloads.
The trick to avoiding fake AV infection is to know what’s already on your system. You should already have genuine anti-virus software that you’ve personally bought or installed.
Alvarez recommended being familiar with your anti-virus software and to know what it looks like when prompts you for an update, if it isn’t done automatically.
If an update or scan prompt doesn’t match your regular anti-virus software prompt, fake AV has most likely made its way onto your computer.
“Don’t forget, you already paid for the software on your computer,” Alvarez said, “so if you are being asked to pay for something, it is fake.”
If you do end up with fake AV on your system, be assured that you aren’t alone — this is a billion-dollar business for criminals.
First, scan your computer with your legitimate anti-virus software. If it’s blocked by the fake AV, reboot your computer in “safe” mode and scan again.
“In addition, it is advised to do an ‘offline scan,” Alvarez said. “This means a computer should to be scanned and cleaned outside of the full operating system to complete remediation.
“This requires a restart into the Windows Pre-installation Environment (WinPE) to run a scanning utility, such as Windows Defender Offline scan tool,” he added.
Article Source: Security News Daily
The Fractal Design Define R4 is the latest in the Define Series of computer cases offering minimalistic and stunning Scandinavian design fused with maximum sound reduction, configurability and functionality.
The Define R4 side and front door panels are fitted with dense, sound-absorbing material making it a benchmark for noise reduction. Moreover, the Define R4 accommodates up to 8 HDDs, all modern graphics card sizes, and multiple ventilation options – including two standard Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fans – to keep internal components at optimal temperatures.
For ultimate functionality, the Define R4 features a front interface with USB 3.0 and an integrated three-speed fan controller behind the front panel door.
The Fractal Design Define R4 is available for $199.
With the last pre-release version of Windows 8 in hand, PCMag decided it was time to compare Microsoft’s next OS with its last.
Here is their summary of test results.
Article by Michael Muchmore
We’ve heard it before: The next version of Windows is going to start up way faster and run faster than the last. With Windows 7, we were told that we could expect 15 second boot times, but that sure hasn’t been my experience. With Windows 8, it looks like the claims are for real: In using the Windows 8 Developer, Consumer, and Release Previews, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in startup times. No longer do you have to wait for nearly a minute just to log into a typical PC.
And the company has stated that it’s working on reducing another big source of waiting time: Updates. If you don’t use a Windows 7 PC for a week or so, chances are that you’ll have to wait a few minutes for it to download and install updates, and you’ll probably have to go through a second reboot. This is less of a problem for PCs that are left on all the time (to the detriment of energy conservation), which is the case for most business PCs.
In addition to startup and shutdown times, I wanted to compare performance of Windows 8 with that of Windows 7 on some other measures. I used PCMark, Geekbench, and three browser benchmarks. I also timed how long it took to copy large files and encode a video project.I first installed a fresh clean copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) on a Toshiba Portege R835-P88 laptop (a PCMag Editors’ Choice) with a 2.5GHz Core i5-2450M chip, 6GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and an Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics processor. I ran all the tests, and then installed a clean copy of Windows 8 (64 bit) on the same hardware. For each OS, I made sure all updates had been installed.Startup and Shutdown TimesFew performance issues are more important than how long it takes your computer to start up and be ready to use. Windows 8 makes bigger advances in this yardstick than any operating system in memory. Of course, our tests involved clean OS installations, and startup time can be affected by apps you install that load code during startup, such as antivirus. But this, too, is more of a problem for Windows 7, since Windows 8 saves the system state and memory contents to a file on disk, and simply reloads it on reboot, rather than initiating everything all over again.
Another factor for the new OS is behavioral—it’s designed to encourage the user to “sleep” the machine rather than completely shutting it down when use finishes. And, maybe most importantly, with newer hardware that uses a UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) hardware boot process and SSD hard drives, you’ll see even more drastic startup speed boosts. But even without all this, my startup results showed that the upgrade reduced startup time to less than half that of Windows 7. Shutdown time was improved, but not by such a wide margin.
Large file set move
One of the few improvements to the traditional Desktop interface that lurks beneath Windows 8’s newfangled Metro user interface is file moving and copying in Windows Explorer. It’s not just the cosmetics of the added ribbon atop the Explorer that’s been changed: Now, when you copy or move multiple files simultaneously, you’ll also see an information box showing each operation’s progress, with an optional throughput graph. To test file-move performance I used a USB 2.0 thumb drive loaded with 500MB of 81 large files of mixed types. I also tried a single large file of just under 1GB.The newer OS also did a better job predicting how long the move operation would take. Though these tests didn’t show a speed improvement (presumably because it’s a hardware-constrained test), when I tried copying the same files to another folder, it was nearly instant, whereas in Windows 7 I had to wait the same time for the file to move again.
Geekbench
Geekbench 2.3, from Primate Labs, runs a series of geeky tests like prime number, Mandelbrot, blowfish encryption, text compression, image sharpen and blur, and memory stream test. The subtests comprise both single- and multithreaded applications. The results are normalized so that a score of 1,000 is the score a Power Mac G5 1.6GHz, so a higher number is better.I ran both the 32-bit and 64-bit tests in Geekbench three times and took the average for each OS. Mostly designed to test hardware, Geekbench didn’t show much change between OS versions. But it’s encouraging that this test version of Windows 8 was a tad faster, rather than slowing down the benchmark’s operations.
Video Rendering
For a real-world, task-based test, I timed video encoding in Windows Live Movie Maker on both operating systems. I used the same 2-minute movie content (made of three different format clips I created, complete with titles and transitions), and had the program convert it to 720p at a 12.26Mbps bandwidth. Windows 8 posted a slight but encouraging improvement on this test, reducing the time it took from 1 minute and 22 seconds to 1:11.PCMark Vantage
The PCMark 7 benchmark runs 7 system tests, each designed to represent a certain type of PC usage, including hard disk access, 3D and graphics physics rendering, Web page rendering, file decryption, and multithreading with video, and image manipulation. The benchmark spits out a result in PCMarks, with a higher number equating to better performance. My Windows 8 system showed a significant performance improvement over Windows 7, upping the score by 388 points.Browser Benchmarks
I tested browser performance in Windows’ native browser Internet Explorer. On Windows 8, that would be version 10, and on Windows 7 I used the latest version available for that OS, IE9. I ran two popular JavaScript benchmarks, SunSpider and Google’s V8 (v.7) as well as a Microsoft test of hardware acceleration, Psychedelic Browsing. I ran the tests in the Desktop version of Windows 8’s Internet Explorer 10 browser.The improvement on Sunspider and V8 was remarkable: Microsoft has clearly done further optimization on IE10’s JavaScript engine, Chakra. And the Psychedelic Browsing test showed a marked improvement as well, meaning Microsoft has done further work on hardware acceleration in the browser.
Without further ado, my results are presented in the table that follows:
Windows 7 Utimate
(64-bit)Windows 8
(64-bit)Startup
(seconds, lower is better)38 17 Shutdown
(seconds, lower is better)12.2 9.9 500MB File Group Move
(seconds, lower is better)25.2 29.2 Large Single File Move
(seconds, lower is better)46.4 46.8 Video Rendering
(minutes:seconds, smaller is better)1:22 1:11 Geekbench 2.3 64-bit tests
(higher is better)8090 8187 Geekbench 2.3 32-bit tests
(higher is better)5962 6122 PCMark 7
(higher is better)2313 2701 Sunspider
(ms, lower is better)180 144 Google V8 (v.7)
(higher is better)3079 6180 Psychedelic Browsing
(higher is better)3997 5292
The key thing here is startup. Windows 7 still takes just too long to get usable, and Windows 8 finally remedies this drawback. Browser performance is also notably better, and it’s encouraging that Geekbench showed a little improvement and PCMark 7 a significant one. Yes, this is not even the RTM, or final release of Windows 8, but the early test results are encouraging. New hardware will, of course, make the new OS scream, particularly if you opt for SSD storage.
Article Source: PCMag.com
This article pretty well sums up all the reasons why WordPress is my choice of platform for a CMS (Content Management System) website.
Article by Khaled Shihabi
Individuals who are just starting out in the world of Internet marketing might find that it is somewhat overwhelming at first. There are so many different choices they need to make and if they are not careful they can end up spending weeks or even months reading and learning without taking any action. The most important step toward success in Internet marketing is taking that first step. The first thing people can do is deciding what type of content management system (CMS) they will use. A CMS is a system that allows users to manage a wide variety of content in an easy to use way.
The vast majority of sites on the Internet today use some sort of content management system because they are so simple to set up and extremely customizable. The most popular options are WordPress, Movable Type, Drupal, Custom CMS and Blogger/Blog Spot. Each of these tools has its own set of loyal users, but most people agree that WordPress is the ideal option for almost any type of site. People just starting out who haven’t yet made a dime, and people who have been doing it for years earning millions of dollars use it.
The top 5 reasons to use WordPress are:
1. WordPress is free to use – WordPress is an open source piece of software that is completely free to use. Many of the other options may be free for a limited time, or free to use with limited features but not completely free. WordPress, on the other hand, is free to use forever, and there are no restrictions on the features you can use or how many sites you can use it on.
2. Finding WordPress hosting is extremely easy – Creating a website with WordPress is so easy because almost all web hosting companies support the technologies needed to run WordPress. In fact, many companies have specific WordPress hosting options available that will allow the WordPress software to be installed automatically with just one click. This means it is possible to have a site up and running within minutes of signing up for some hosting packages.
3. There are thousands of WordPress plugins – A plugin is a small piece of software written to expand the features of another piece of software. WordPress is an open source content management system, which means that other programmers can see its code and write plugins to help make WordPress look and function exactly as they want it to. Thousands of these plugins are available for free so website owners can create a truly unique sites that have all the amazing features available on the web today.
4. Google loves WordPress – Anyone looking to make money on the Internet will quickly learn that one of the best ways to get visitors to their site is through Google. The WordPress system is designed with Google’s search algorithms in mind. In addition, many of the plugins are written specifically to optimize a site for Google. This gives site owners who use the WordPress content management system a big leg up over their competition. It makes running a site much easier and less time consuming than could otherwise be possible.
5. WordPress is expandable – When people start out with their first website they often don’t fully grasp how big it could become. As time goes by site owners will continue to add more and more content, and without a good content management system it will quickly become confusing and difficult to browse for the users. In addition, the technologies used on these sites continue to advance as more and more features are being developed. Using WordPress allows the web master to keep everything well organized, and the software is updated regularly to ensure all the latest technologies can be used seamlessly on any site.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Could your computer or networking equipment be one of more than 10,000 that are still affected by the “DNSChanger” malware from last year?
Over 10,000 users in Australia and New Zealand could potentially be infected and be left with no access to the Internet after 9th July 2012.
Initially these dodgy DNS servers were going to be shut-off on 8th March, but that deadline has since been extended to 9th July 2012.
After this date, if your computer or network equipment is infected you may not be able to access the Internet.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) recently launched a very simple website that enables you to check if the computer you’re using is relying on the DNSChanger DNS servers.
You used to be able visit the site at: , but it no longer exists.
Well for example, you might type “www.google.com.au” into your web browser and instead of connecting to Google, your computer could connect to somewhere completely different – or to a computer pretending to be Google!
As you now may appreciate, it is a very effective means of attack and the ramifications of this type of attack can be very serious.
Internet banking sites and other previously trusted websites could be faked, right down to the address in the browser address bar.
A beginners guide to Microsoft’s soon to be released Operating System Windows 8.
In this video you will learn about the new interface and special features of Windows 8.
Windows 8 is designed specifically for use with Touch Screen and portable devices, so it will be interesting to see how this impacts on those using a conventional PC and monitor.
Here is an interesting article about how a hacker can take control of your PC or Laptop web-cam.
By Kim Boatman
Steven Fox, an IT security expert, was chatting with friends on his webcam one night when he started receiving some strange emails. Imagine his surprise when he opened one and found images of himself chatting.
His webcam had been hacked by a “script kiddie,” a person who uses malware written by someone else to show off their skills at accessing other computer systems, says Fox. He quickly detached the webcam, but he had to reinstall his operating system after he found malware installed on his computer. “It was painful, but it was a learning experience,” says Fox, who writes a column for the journal of the Information Systems Security Association.
The Risks of Web-cams
Webcams may let you stay in touch with friends and family, but they also pose risks of people hacking into them and spying on you. A Pennsylvania lawsuit accused a school district of using webcams on school-issued laptops to spy on students and their families. And in 2009 in China, a sophisticated network of hackers known as GhostNet cracked 1,295 webcams in 103 countries.Since most laptops now come with a built-in webcam, it’s critical to understand the risks, says Richard Stiennon, a malware expert with IT-Harvest, a research firm that specializes in Internet security. “We all have to become aware that our every action could be watched,” says Stiennon.
How Hackers Attack Web-cams
Most hackers utilize so-called Trojan horse attacks, says Stiennon. You click on an attachment or download a piece of music or video infected with malware, and a hacker is able to remotely control your PC’s functions.Fortunately, you can take steps to secure your webcam. Experts offer these do’s and dont’s:
- Don’t click on suspicious attachments. You’ve heard it before, but too often we click without thinking. Email attachments remain a prime source for malware. Be wary of those supposedly funny emails forwarded by friends and family. You should also avoid suspicious sites offering free downloads of music, TV shows or videos.
- Do use a firewall. “Firewalls provide a measure of protection against unwanted traffic,” explains Fox. Your computer comes with a firewall, but you need to make sure it’s turned on. If you use a Windows operating system, click on the Windows symbol in the lower-left corner of your screen, search for Windows Firewall, and you’ll be able to check the firewall settings. If you use a Mac OS, open System Preferences, click on the Sharing icon, select the Firewall tab and click Start.
- Do use strong antivirus software. Install a security suite that offers malware and spyware protection, then make sure you keep the protection up-to-date.
- Don’t keep PCs with web-cams in bedrooms. Limit webcam use to high-traffic areas, and remind family members not to do anything in front of a webcam they wouldn’t want the world to see.
- Do secure your wireless connection. Make sure your wireless connection is protected with a unique password (not the default one that came with the router).
- Don’t talk to strangers. Avoid IM conversations with people you don’t know, and advise your kids to do the same.
- Do be cautious about accepting tech help. Would-be hackers have been known to ingratiate themselves with acquaintances by offering computer help. But that gives them the chance to rig web-cams so they can spy on the computer user.
- Do look for the indicator light. On external web-cams, you’ll usually see a red light indicating the camera is on. Laptops with internal webcams usually have an LED indicator too. If you use an external webcam, simply detach it from the USB port when it’s not in use.
In the end, your best bet is to use a decidedly low-tech solution, say the experts. “The ultimate security control is to cover the lens,’’ says Fox. If your webcam doesn’t come with a lens cover, use an adhesive bandage or even a yellow sticky note to cover it up. (Just make sure nothing sticky is touching the lens itself, so you don’t damage it.) “It sounds silly, but it gives you positive feedback that no one is spying on you,” says Stiennon.
Kim Boatman is a Silicon Valley, Calif., journalist who writes about security and technology. She spent more than 15 years writing about a variety of topics for the San Jose Mercury News.
AVG (AU/NZ) reminds consumers and small businesses to be alert to the latest online scams and phishing attacks targeting this tax return season.
MELBOURNE, 13 June 2012 — Ahead of this year’s tax return season, AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd, distributor of AVG Technologies’ award-winning AVG Internet and mobile security software in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, alerts consumers and small businesses to the latest attempts by cyber criminals to gain access to lucrative identity and financial information. With upwards of 2.5 million individuals using the Australian Tax Office’s e-Tax electronic tax return service, cyber criminals have a huge, potentially receptive audience for their activities. Security Advisor at AVG (AU/NZ), Michael McKinnon, said: “Internet crime and taxes are now two of life’s certainties. Cyber criminals are starting to release this year’s crop of end of financial year scams to trick taxpayers into revealing highly valuable personal and financial information. As younger members of the community join the workforce and others shift from paper-based to online tax return processes, there is always a new audience for inventive tax season scams.” There’s a certain inevitability about June 30: it will bring new ways to scam the unwary and new phishing frauds asking for your credit card details including:
- Offers of government grants needing to make payments prior to the end of the financial year.
- Prompts for baby bonus applications.
- Assistance to find lost superannuation funds.
- Notification that your company tax rate has changed.
The Government’s SCAMWatch website is currently alerting Australians to be aware of Carbon Price scams seeking your personal banking details to pay carbon tax compensation into your bank account or offering to sell you fake carbon credits. Many of us now communicate directly with tax advisors via email so other tricks include sending phishing emails that ask you to open what appear to be legitimate attachments to fill out personal details. The simple act of clicking on that attachment could redirect you to a malicious website, or deliver to your computer an infection that could launch an attack on your accounts and extract financial details. McKinnon said: “When you consider all the information included in your return – your tax file number, details of investments, retirement accounts, employment, the property you own – in the hands of cyber criminals, your identity and more could be at risk. And if you see an offer that looks too good to be true – avoid it. Any offer of an online refund will absolutely be a scam because that’s not how the ATO or any other Australian government agency operates.”
Some top tips to help you safely file your tax return this year:
- Use the end of financial year to review your personal or business online security systems to ensure your protection is fully and automatically up to date – on all computers, phones, other mobile technologies, plus USB and other memory devices from which you will gather, store and send your financial information.
- Do your homework by reviewing the ATO and SCAMWatch online security pages.
- In communicating with your tax advisor, consider creating a password protected Zip file of your financial data.
- Always open your e-Tax filing directly from the ATO’s site (www.ato.gov.au); never click through to the site from an email invitation. The filing of tax returns directly via the ATO’s e-Tax service is secure.
- Always use a trusted WiFi or Ethernet connection from your home or office to file your tax return – never use a public WiFi without a firewall in place and Internet security installed.
- Be cautious of anything that you haven’t directly requested and only respond to those communications you’ve initiated.
- Delete all related emails from your server once you’ve filed your return.
- While the ATO uses emails and SMS for service alerts, it will never request the confirmation, update or disclosure of confidential personal details. If you receive suspect communication from ‘the ATO’ or any other ‘government department’, do not click on any links in an email or answer phone questions. Report it immediately to the ATO.
Tax Time Cyber Crime Assistance
- Examples of current Tax Refund scams: http://www.ato.gov.au/onlinesecurity
- The Australian Government’s cybersecurity website, Stay Smart Online, provides information for Australian Internet users on the simple steps they can take to protect their personal and financial information online.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s SCAMWatch provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams.
I took the plunge and upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Ok. It looks slicker, a bit of window dressing as far as aesthetics are concerned, and I won’t go into Window’s 11’s features and functions. But the thing that immediately strikes you is …
I took the plunge and upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Ok. It looks slicker, a bit of window dressing as far as aesthetics are concerned, and I won’t go into Window’s 11’s features and functions. But the thing that immediately strikes you is …
With ever increasing actions by “Big Tech” in general to collect more and more data about us, and the rise in Governments monitoring what we are doing as well as our ISP’s, I’ve been meaning to write something like this for some time now.
But it was the recent actions by FaceBook to take down News Pages and Links…
Well it’s not long now before Windows 7 reaches End Of Life (EOL). So what does this mean for you, and what do you need to do?
I recently had dealings with Microsoft on behalf of a customer that I can only describe as disgraceful and disappointing. The customer in question was an elderly lady with Parkinson’s disease. She had been the victim of a crypto-virus attack, and I had no alternative other than ….
We’ve heard it before: The next version of Windows is going to start up way faster and run faster than the last. With Windows 7, we were told that we could expect 15 second boot times, but that sure hasn’t been my experience. With Windows 8, it looks like the claims are for real: In using the Windows 8 Developer, Consumer, and Release Previews, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in startup times. No longer do you have to wait for nearly a minute just to log into a typical PC.
