» Smart Phones, Web Design, Google or whatever
Archive for November, 2008
Hacking NASA
Nov 21st
Its scary that in April 2005 NASA was hacked and still no one is really sure exactly who did the hacking. If they do know, they are not saying. The usual suspects include Russia and China but no formal accusations have been made.
Apparently NASA’s computers are a weak link in the DoD information chain. According to BusinessWeek online:
America’s military and scientific institutions—along with the defense industry that serves them—are being robbed of secret information on satellites, rocket engines, launch systems, and even the Space Shuttle. The thieves operate via the Internet from Asia and Europe, penetrating U.S. computer networks. Some of the intruders are suspected of having ties to the governments of China and Russia, interviews and documents show. Of all the arms of the U.S. government, few are more vulnerable than NASA, the civilian space agency, which also works closely with the Pentagon and American intelligence services.
For about 10 years now NASA has been aware of these intrusions and have not been able to stop them, and its costing actual dollars in terms of hardware, not just data and research. Another quote from this BusinessWeek online article says:
In 1998 a U.S.-German satellite known as ROSAT, used for peering into deep space, was rendered useless after it turned suddenly toward the sun. NASA investigators later determined that the accident was linked to a cyber-intrusion at the Goddard Space Flight Center in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. The interloper sent information to computers in Moscow, NASA documents show. U.S. investigators fear the data ended up in the hands of a Russian spy agency.
So in other words there was a hack incident where a satellite was turned toward our Sun and for all intents and purposes turned into a pile of orbiting junk. You would think in the 10+ years NASA would have secured funding for new software, hardware and manpower to protects its (and our) interests. Undoubtedly something has been done, but as this article seems to indicate, NASA is still a target being successfully penetrated by foreign interests.
Google Adwords Phishing Scam
Nov 21st
Phishing scams are an ever-present danger because for the most part they are not filtered by your computer. Luckily the email address where I received this scam is protected by Gmail’s legendary spam filters and this one never hit my inbox. There are 2 links in the email, one is valid and the other would send you to a look-alike site setup on a .ru (Russia) domain.
ADWORDS -TARGETED PHISHING SCAM EMAIL
From: Google AdWords Team <setup@google.com>
Date: Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 4:28 AM
Subject: Google AdWords AlertOur system was unable to process a payment for your outstanding Google AdWords account balance using your primary credit card. For the time being, your account is still open, and your ads are still running. However, we require you to update the payment information in your AdWords account very soon in order to ensure continued ad serving.
Please update your credit card information in order to trigger our billing system to try processing your payment again. If you plan to use the same credit card(s), please use the ‘Retry Card’ button on the Billing Preferences page of your account. Otherwise, please follow the steps below to update the information in your AdWords account.
1. Log in to your AdWords account at: http://adwords.google.com
2. Click the ‘My Account’ tab.
3. Click ‘Billing Preferences’ link.
4. Click Edit next to the appropriate ‘Payment Details’ section.
5. Enter your new or updated payment information.
6. Click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished.In the future, you may wish to use a back up credit card in order to help ensure continuous delivery of your ads. You can add a back up credit card by visiting your Billing Preferences page or visit the AdWords Help Centre for more.
Tip: You can review the status of your billing on the Billing Summary page, under the ‘My Account’ tab. If a payment has been declined, click ‘Payment Declined’ beside the line item to review information for that particular payment. Once your payment has been processed successfully, you can view and print an invoice from your Billing Summary page.
—————————— ———————————— This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. If you have any questions, please visit the Google AdWords Help Centre at https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_GB to find answers to frequently asked questions and a ‘contact us’ link near the bottom of the page. —————————————————————-
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
The link above to http://adwords.google.com actually goes to a Russian website that is no doubt a look-alike to the Google Adwords login page. You can fight this particular type of phishing email rather easily:
- Don’t click links in your email to visit online login pages
- Roll your mouse over the link before clicking it and read the address its going to take you to VERY carefully. This particular one began with adwords.google.com and might have passed a cursory glance. After that there was a fake session ID number (a number used by websites to track your movement around the site to do things like allowing you to access password protected content) and it ended with ssl85.ru which should set off some alarms.
Don’t forget when looking at web addresses that they can easily be hidden or faked. For example some characters are very similar and can be overlooked. For example I’ll bet looking at the web address ADW0RDS.G00GLE.COM you didn’t notice the capital O’s have been replaced with zeros. In this case it appears that G00GLE.COM is protected by Google or Markmonitor (the Global Leader in Enterprise Brand Protection, Domain Management, Online Trademark Protection, Online Channel Protection, AntiPhishing Solutions).
Don’t be fooled, be safe!
Android-powered T-Mobile G1 is Garage Door Opener
Nov 18th
Brad Fitzpatrick, a Google employee from San Francisco wrote and adopted some Android software on what I am assuming is his T-Mobile G1 to scan for his garage door opener’s server (yes! his garage door opener has a server!) then when its detected an authentication process and logging takes place and his garage door begins opening in time for him to pull in.
INTERESTING QUOTE:
I now have an Android Activity (GarageDoorActivity) which interacts with an Android Service I wrote (InRangeService), letting me start and stop the service’s wifi scanning task. The service gets the system WifiManager, holds a WifiLock to keep the radio active, and then does a Wifi scan every couple seconds, looking for my house.
READ ENTIRE ORIGINAL POST
Minor language warning for the young ones
Android Garage Door Opener, part 2
Gears of War 2 Better Than Original
Nov 12th
Gears of War 2 sports several improvements in visuals, sound, gameplay and even weaponry compared to the original. Don’t take my word for it, check out Gametrailers.com’s Gears of War 2 vs Gears of War Graphics Comparison (age verification required).
GOW2′s improvements heighten the game’s ambiance, the game’s “you are really there” feeling you get from being immersed in a video game (as much as you can anyway). The four burst shot Gorgon Pistol is an awesome pistol, almost as useful as the Lancer (automatic) Assault Rifle or the Locust’s Hammerburst Assault Rifle. Actually, the Gorgon Pistol is better than the assault rifles for some enemies, but I’ll let you figure that out.
The sound is better – whether it be the weapons or the environmental sounds. Falling rain and cracking thunder really come through very crisp and clean, powerful and “bassy”, and that’s with headsets!
EXPLICIT GAME VIDEO - Gears of War 2: Weapons
MORE GOW2 INFO:
Gears of War 2 News (Google News)
Gears of War 2 (Yahoo News)
Circuit City’s Bankruptcy – Another Recession Casualty
Nov 12th
I heard that Circuit City went bankrupt and the first thing I thought of was Best Buy beating them out. Like many people I’ve shop Circuit City and Best Buy and even though the Best Buy is farther away I often buy what I want there.
When I read Circuit City Goes Bankrupt, Files for Chapter 11 Protection, specifically that they “…filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, pressured by the recession and competition from Best Buy and Wal-Mart…” I wasn’t surprised at the mention of the recession or Best Buy, but I was surprised at the mention of Wal-Mart. Then it occurred to me that the pressure Wal-Mart brought to bear wasn’t necessarily better products or selection, but rather better prices (not necessarily for the same products) and better hours (Super Walmarts are open 24/7).
If this news interests you at all check out who they are seeking bankruptcy protection from at the bottom of this page: Circuit City, Electronics Retailer, Seeks Bankruptcy (Update5)
Wow!
Gears of War Again Tied to Xbox 360 Sales
Nov 5th
Its almost time for much-anticipated Gears of War 2 to hit the shelves.When I picked up my first Xbox 360 I finally gave up on the old, used Xbox I had and bought it partly because of the original Gears of War. The way I see it, the Xbox 360 was launched along with Gears of War as the premier reason for Xbox users to spend the extra bucks for this newer, more powerful console gaming system.
Back in September I wrote about Xbox 360 price drops in time for the holiday season, and at the end of the video below, you will see this new, lower price advertised. Microsoft is very good with their advertising… most of the time.
GOW2 VIDEO: Last Day Trailer
MORE GEARS 2 READING
GOW2 Xbox Mini Site
Official GOW2 Site
GOW2 on Google News
GOW2 on Wikipedia
CPU Maker AMD Cuts Jobs again
Nov 5th
According to AMD slashes 500 more jobs this is the second time this year CPU maker AMD has reduced its work force. As recently as early October AMD had spun off its fabrication facilities birthing The Foundry Company in an effort to save money and generate an influx of cash. As it turns out, The newly formed Foundry Company is the only department in AMD that will not suffer from this latest round of layoffs.
READ MORE:
Disk Defrag for Windows – Auslogics Disk Defrag
Nov 5th
Written for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/2008 Server and FREE I find Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.5.19.330 is a great addition to Windows Disk Defrag, which I’m told is not the best. The only thing I don’t like (I have v 1.4) are the integrated advertisements for Auslogics BoostSpeed 4 for $29.95.
Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.4 lets me set up whether or not to remove temporary files first, whether or not to display removalbe drives (USB drives etc) and I can select the level of CPU usage (Low, Normal, High Highest) which allows me to set faster ro slower speed depending upon whether or not I’ll be using the computer while defragging.
