Increasing Your Computer’s Performance the Easy Way

Increasing Your Computer’s Performance the Easy Way
 For Windows Vista/2007 and XP, Includes: PDF ebook.

System optimization and tweaks for Windows Vista/XP. Would you like your computer to run as fast as it did the very first day you brought it home? I uploaded an easy to follow step by step tutorial that will get your computer running great again. Through out this tutorial you will learn basic system maintenance tasks, how to clean and edit your windows registry, boost internet explorer’s performance, and optimize your system. If at any time you feel these tasks are too difficult or time consuming then download a Free copy of Increasing Your Computer’s Performance the Easy Way

Microsoft Windows Performance Boost

Microsoft Windows Performance Boost
This Product Includes: PDF ebook.
Is my System Past its Prime?? When your computer was brand new it was running at its peek performance. There was no waiting when you clicked on an icon or visited a web page. There were no pop ups or mysterious errors slowing you down. Now those days are gone and you may be thinking your computer is past its prime, out of date or just plain broken. I have been working on computers for 20 years and I will tell you rarely is hardware ever the problem. In fact I will put a well maintained older system against a newer poorly maintained system any day of the week. What does this mean? Repairing your version of Windows and learning simple maintenance steps will save you from spending hundreds of dollars on a new computer. I find most people would rather give up and buy a new computer then learn how to repair and maintain the one they already own. Hey I understand lazy we all get that way when it comes to learning new things. That’s why I have tried by best to make this book as simple and easy to follow as possible.

To read more download Microsoft Windows Performance Boost PDF FREE

Ika-tako Virus Replaces Your Files With Octopus Photos

It’s always frustrating to find that your computer has been infected with a virus, especially one that can potentially wipe your files. However one hacker decided that he would bring a little humor to viruses by replacing any infected file with a particularly cute sea creature anime. The Ika-tako virus (which is Japanese for Squid-Octopus) as it has been named first came to shore in May via Japanese file sharing Website Winny.

Since then, it has reportedly gone on to infect somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 computers, according to Asahi.com. The virus disguises itself in music files, which users then download. Once the file is played, the malware runs through the computer’s hard drive, infecting anything from family photos to important OS files. The infected files are swapped with the squid, octopus or sea urchin pictures and removed, then supposedly sent to the hacker's server.

The good news is that the hacker, Masato Nakatsuji, was found and arrested. It’s not the first time this guy has been arrested for malware creation either--he was convicted for crafting a similar virus back in 2008, but had used images from the copyrighted anime cartoon Clannad.

He reportedly told police this time that he wanted to see “how much my computer programming skills had improved since the last time I was arrested.” This time, he was arrested on the grounds of property destruction, a first for police in Tokyo. At least he handmade the images himself this time I guess. 

Unfortunately there is no known fix for the virus just yet, so bad news for those already infected, unless police can get into the server he set up. However, considering he had thousands of people’s information stored on the server, it shouts to me that there was a bigger motive behind this virus that just practicing his computer skills.

Originally posted at PCWorld

Trojan Monitors Your Porn Surfing Habits

In an era where online privacy seems like an oxymoron, is it so bad to have your browsing history publicly available? Or to pay less than $20 to have these details removed from the Internet? Several Trojan horses spreading around the Internet these days spam your entire address book with bogus messages and attempt to delete your computer’s security software.

But the Kenzero Trojan out of Japan goes further than pretending to be a legitimate program: Hackers behind the program not only post your browser history, favorites, illegally-downloaded porn, and clipboard content to a public Website, they demand payment of about $18 to remove the personal details of your browsing history.

Kenzero is a Trojan of the “ransomware” variety, where a malicious program masquerading as a game registration window takes your personal details then attempts to extort money out of you. The Trojan then posts that you’ve been downloading illegal Hentai (explicit anime) games, and that instead of just being out $20, you’ll find that scammers have sold your credit card information to the highest bidder. How does Kenzero spread? Mostly via the Winny file-sharing network, which has approximately 200 million users).

Though if you’re illegaling downloading computer games, why would you give personal details to a pirated piece of software? It's food for thought. While you’re mulling that, there’s even a paper [PDF] on similar Japanese scams being presented at the upcoming Association for Computing Machinery Computer and Communications Security conference.

Originally posted at PCWorld

zero-day hole in Flash Player

Adobe Systems on Monday warned of a zero-day hole in Flash Player that reportedly is being exploited in the wild and could allow an attacker to take control of a computer.

 The critical vulnerability affects Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 and earlier versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and Android. It also affects Adobe Reader 9.3.4 and earlier version for Windows, Mac, and Unix and Adobe Acrobat 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Mac. Adobe is not aware of any attacks exploiting the hole against Adobe Reader or Acrobat, the company said in its security advisory. 

Adobe is finalizing a fix for the hole and expects to provide an update for Flash Player for Windows, Mac, Solaris, and Android during the week of September 27, the advisory said. Updates for Adobe Reader are expected during the week of October 4. Adobe is moving up the date of its next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat and will also release a patch the week of October 4 for a critical zero-day hole in Adobe Reader and Acrobat that was disclosed last week and is being exploited in attacks on. As a result, there will be no updates on October 12, which was the next scheduled quarterly release date. In the meantime, Microsoft has a tool that can help block the attacks on Adobe Reader and Acrobat on Windows machines. Read more:

Searching for free stuff online can be costly

It's common knowledge that you can catch computer viruses on porn Web sites. But did you know it's also risky to surf the Web searching for free movies or music?

A study from McAfee to be released on Tuesday finds that adding the word "free" when looking for entertainment content in search engines greatly increases the chances of landing on a site hosting malware. For instance, searching for free music ringtones increases the chances of hitting a malicious site by 300 percent, according to the report, "Digital Music & Movies Report: The True Cost of Free Entertainment." (PDF) Searching for "lyrics" for a particular artist is twice as risky on average as searching for "ringtones" for the same artist for the first five pages of results, the report found. And including the term "MP3" increases the riskiness of music searches in general.

There has been a 40 percent increase in the number of Web sites that are delivering infected MP3 files or that seem to be built for purposes of financial fraud or delivering malware, according to the report. Meanwhile, McAfee found malware associated with a number of Web sites around the world advertising free downloads of sports games, movies, and TV shows. Twelve percent of sites that distribute unauthorized content are distributing malware, and 7 percent of sites offering unauthorized content have associations with cybercrime organizations, the report concluded. "The sites often look very professional and attempt to lure the user with the idea of a 'trial period' or even some nominal fee that is much less than what may ultimately be charged," the report says. "Once the user agrees, they have to authorize their computer to access and interact with computers that are involved in a wide range of schemes--from money laundering to stealing credentials such as user names and passwords. In addition, with this access, your computer is profiled--with all of its software versions, user agents, and any other date--and this information can be provided to third parties for malicious purposes. (This is often called 'fingerprinting.')"

To reduce the chances of landing on malicious sites, McAfee recommends avoiding the use of the word "free" in searches for entertainment content, avoiding clicking on links in banner ads on content sites that aren't well established, not clicking on links posted in forums and on fan pages, keeping security software up to date, and using safe search plug-ins like McAfee Site Advisor that warns of potentially risky sites. Read more:

"Here You Have" worm is a Windows Problem

Every time a virus like the current "Here You Have" worm comes around, people shake their heads, wring their hands and wonder how "computer security" can be improved.

The assumption, for many, is that malware like this is simply part of having a computer. Thank goodness for the PC security industry, working hard to protect us with expensive software! The fact, however, is that malware like this does not go hand-in-hand with having a networked computer--it goes hand-in-hand with Windows. Microsoft Windows is the reason our culture gets threatened again and again by malware; if the world ran Linux instead, it wouldn't be a problem. Here's why.

1. Users Are Dumb
There's no point denying it -- humans are extremely gullible, forgetful, distracted, and yes, just plain stupid sometimes. That is simply a fact of life, and no "helpful reminders" or even automated warning systems are going to keep them from being stupid. Offer them pictures of cute puppies or porn, and they'll go wherever you want them to.

This is only a problem, however, because of Windows. Rather than protecting foolish users from themselves by minimizing the potential consequences--which is what a good operating system should do--Windows gives them all administrator access by default. That means that they pretty much have the keys to the castle at all times--which, in turn, means that viruses do too.

As I've said before, it's like giving terrorists high-level government positions. With Linux, on the other hand, users do not have "root" privileges by default. So, even if a Linux system is compromised--which is rare--the virus won't have the access it would need to do damage systemwide; rather, just the user's local files and programs would typically be affected. That's much less motivating for evil-doers.

 2. It's a Monoculture
So Windows gives each and every user the keys to his or her local castle, which--thanks to the Internet--is linked to every other castle on the planet. Since the majority of those also run Windows, imagine the fun viruses can--and do--have! It's a simple matter of frolicking from one castle to another--again and again and again--taking the keys, and then watching the email servers fall! It's a worm's dream come true.

That, of course, is why Linux isn't popular with worm developers. With the diversity of environments that Linux includes--Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and so on, not to mention all the many shells, packaging systems, mail clients and even underlying architectures-- reaching more than a relatively small part of the Linux community is much more difficult. Much less gratifying for worms.

 3. Closed Access
Less applicable in the present case, and yet still a factor in Windows' relative insecurity, is the fact that its code is closely guarded by Microsoft. No matter how many developers Redmond has, it simply can't compare with the countless users around the globe constantly scrutinizing Linux's open code for vulnerabilities. Microsoft developers also don't typically tell anyone about the problems they've found until a solution has been created, leaving the door open to exploits until that happens.

I'm certainly not saying that Linux is perfect, and any business user, in particular, should still enable firewalls, minimize the use of root privileges, and keep the system up to date. They could even implement a virus scanner for Linux, such as ClamAV.

The difference, though, is that such extra measures are not simply an accepted part of computing in the Linux world--they're additional steps you can take, if you want extra peace of mind. Malware is primarily a Windows problem. Use Linux, and you can mostly forget all about it.

Originally posted at Yahoo News

Firefox patches DLL load hijacking vulnerability

Mozilla has joined Apple in being among the first to fix the DLL load hijacking attack vector that continues to haunt hundreds of Windows applications. The open-source group released Firefox 3.6.9 with patches for a total of 15 vulnerabilities (11 rated critical), including the publicly known DLL load hijacking flaw that exposes Windows users to remote code execution attacks.

The majority of the 15 vulnerabilities in this Firefox patch batch could be exploited to launch drive-by download attacks from booby-trapped Web sites. According to Firefox, the DLL load hijacking issue only affects Windows XP users:

 Firefox could be used to load a malicious code library that had been planted on a victim’s computer. Firefox attempts to load dwmapi.dll upon startup as part of its platform detection, so on systems that don’t have this library, such as Windows XP, Firefox will subsequently attempt to load the library from the current working directory. An attacker could use this vulnerability to trick a user into downloading a HTML file and a malicious copy of dwmapi.dll into the same directory on their computer and opening the HTML file with Firefox, thus causing the malicious code to be executed. If the attacker was on the same network as the victim, the malicious DLL could also be loaded via a UNC path. The attack also requires that Firefox not currently be running when it is asked to open the HTML file and accompanying DLL.


Originally posted zdnet

Software Testing as a Service

In today's unforgiving business environment where customers demand zero defect software at lower costs—it is testing that provides the opportunity for software companies to separate themselves from the competition.

Providing a fresh perspective on this increasingly important function, Software Testing as a Service explains, in simple language, how to use software testing to improve productivity, reduce time to market, and reduce costly errors. The book explains how the normal functions of manufacturing can be applied to commoditize the software testing service to achieve consistent quality across all software projects.

This up-to-date reference reviews different software testing tools, techniques, and practices and provides succinct guidance on how to estimate costs, allocate resources, and make competitive bids. Replete with examples and case histories, this book shows software development managers, software testers, testing managers, and entrepreneurs how proper planning can lead to the creation of software that proves itself to be head and shoulders above the competition.

Get your copy of Software Testing as a Service (Price: $71.95)

Software Testing and Analysis: Process, Principles and Techniques » Barnes & Noble.com

The first comprehensive book on software test and analysis You can't "test quality into" a software product, but neither can you build a quality software product without test and analysis. Software test and analysis is increasingly recognized, in research and in industrial practice, as a core challenge in software engineering and computer science.

Software Testing and Analysis Process, Principles, and Techniques is the first book to present a range of complementary software test and analysis techniques in an integrated, coherent fashion. It covers a full spectrum of topics from basic principles and underlying theory to organizational and process issues in real-world application. The emphasis throughout is on selecting a complementary set of practical techniques to achieve an acceptable level of quality at an acceptable cost.

Highlights of the book include
* Interplay among technical and non-technical issues in crafting an approach to software quality, with chapters devoted to planning and monitoring the software quality process.
* A selection of practical techniques ranging from inspection to automated program and design analyses to unit, integration, system, and regression testing, with technical material set in the context of real-world problems and constraints in software development.
* A coherent view of the state of the art and practice, with technical and organizational approaches to push the state of practice toward the state of the art. Throughout, the text covers techniques that are suitable for near-term application, with sufficient technical background to help you know how and when to apply them.

Exercises reinforce the instruction and ensure that you master each topic before proceeding. By incorporating software testing and analysis techniques into modern practice, Software Testing and Analysis Process, Principles, and Techniques provides both students and professionals with realistic strategies for reliable and cost-effective software development.

 Get your copy of Software Testing and Analysis (Price: $61.58)

Webcam software senses motion, sounds siren, captures images, records video, and sends captured images by e-mail

I'm using webcamera software. I
can webcast Internet video to watch my site
from anywhere.

With my new

web camera software, I can run a broadcasting tv station
of my site visible online. This opens up a number
of possibilities, the surface of which has not even been scratched in today's world. I can use
this webcast for surveillance purposes, allowing me to watch what's going on in my home
at any moment from a remote viewing computer.

As long as I have the camera
running and a remote computer with Internet access, I can watch the home.
With the software and the webcam, I can change the options to capture picture,
detect motion (if I don't want to keep the camera running at all times),
or use a combination of a online feed and recorded video to realize a security
system that takes full benefit of modern technology.

With a capture card,
I can simply move appropriate video and screenshots to use on
any station.

With sensitive files on my computer
and valuable belongings in my apartment,
it only makes sense to have a security setup that I can monitor whenever I feel that my privacy
is being compromised. If I owned a small business or lived with roommates, I couldn't imagine
living without it.

Webcam software identifies movement, triggers
siren, captures snapshots, records video, and sends captured images by email

Web cameras
are not bad for more than just making ip communications
more realistic. They can furthermore be
an enormously helpful tool
for exploit in house or industry protection.

title="Web camera software senses movement, sounds alarm, captures snapshots, records video, and sends captured images by email">
Application
is now accessible that can sense movement and use
it as a trigger for different events.


The way that
it works is to study the picture sent by a webcam that is either connected by USB
or using a video capture device for movement. While it picks up
that movement, it can after that take any number of actions,
including triggering an alarm.

A more popular application, though, is to either
send live frames of what is happening in the field that is covered by the camera
or to even broadcast via live streaming exactly what is
happening with both audio and picture. If installed stealthily,
this software could even be used for covert surveillance.

Given the
large amount of systems that either have a webcam connected
or can support one, this is an perfect way to inexpensively and easily defend
the spot around that property
from infringement or robbery.

New professional surveillance software works with
any web camera, IP cameras, and major capture cards.

Surveillance software
has become so difficult that the regular
businessman who has been busy minding his store instead of pouring over electronics and internet
know-how articles can be easily overwhelmed when it comes time to setup or renew his security system.


Fortunately, there is new professional surveillance software that simplifies much of the decision making.
You don't necessarily have to get rid of a working analog closed circuit TV system in order to modernize to a streaming
video that can be watched from any ip connected pc or 3G phone. Video capture cards can digitally convert the
snapshots for webcast. Until recently, there had been no real attempts to regulate the new IP
cameras; every make and manufacturer functioned a tiny differently. And when you connect webcams into the
merge, finding one software to control them all was cumbersome.



Professional surveillance software 
is now available that will work for any web camera
or Internet camera and for most capture cards as well. You can supervise anything your movement
sensors are picking up at your room or firm while you can be half a globe away.
The application itself may not be easy, but it can make life simpler for you.

inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner

inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner
MetaGeek's InSSIDer is a great tool for finding Wi-Fi networks within range of your computer and gathering a great deal of information about each. It's also useful for troubleshooting problems with your own Wi-Fi network. For every Wi-Fi network InSSIDer finds, it shows you the MAC address of the router, the router manufacturer (if it can detect it -- it usually does), the channel it's using, the service set identifier (SSID) or public name of the network, what kind of security is in place, the speed of the network and more. In addition, it displays the current signal strength of the network, as well as its signal strength over time.

How would you use the software to troubleshoot your wireless network? If you see that your network uses the same channel as nearby networks with strong signals, you'll know that you should change the channel your network transmits over and thereby cut down on potential conflicts. (Most routers have a settings screen that lets you do this.) You can also use the software to detect "dead zones" that don't get a strong Wi-Fi connection. Walk around your home or office with InSSIDer installed on your laptop to see where signal strength drops. You can either avoid using a computer in those spots or else try repositioning the wireless router to see if it helps with coverage. Whether you need to troubleshoot a network or find Wi-Fi hot spots to which you want to connect -- or you're just plain curious -- this is one app you'll want to download and try.
What's Unique about inSSIDer?
* Use Windows Vista and Windows XP 64-bit.
* Uses the Native Wi-Fi API.
* Group by Mac Address, SSID, Channel, RSSI and Time Last Seen.
* Compatible with most GPS devices (NMEA v2.3 and higher).

How can inSSIDer help me?
* Inspect your WLAN and surrounding networks to troubleshoot competing access points.
* Track the strength of received signal in dBm over time.
* Filter access points in an easy to use format.
* Highlight access points for areas with high Wi-Fi concentration.
* Export Wi-Fi and GPS data to a KML file to view in Google Earth.

Price: Free
Compatible with: Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32- and 64-bit)
Download inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner (2.24MB Free)

Free SMTP Server

Free SMTP Server Version 2.5
Features:
Free SMTP server
Free SMTP Server supports all email programs
The program is freeware
Free SMTP Server is useful for laptop PC users

Free SMTP Server is a SMTP server program for Windows that lets you send email messages directly from your computer. It's very simple but very useful for laptop users traveling around the world and connecting their PCs to different Internet Service Providers in different countries. You can use it instead of ISP's SMTP server to increase your security and privacy. Free SMTP Server supports all email programs like Outlook Express and Eudora, but best optimized to work with Outlook Express. The email program you already use for sending and receiving messages can be connected to the server in a very easy way - by using the word "localhost" instead of your current SMTP host. Having done so, you can send messages in a usual manner. Free SMTP Server is very fast, while sending, it establishes dozens of SMTP connections, and gets the most out of your Internet connection. The user interface of the program is very easy to learn, excellent documentation is included. The program is freeware so there is no reason not to download and try it! 

Download Free SMTP Server (619Kb/ Free)
Platform: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win7