[MikesWhatsNews] MWN #496

MikesWhatsNews, 20, 05, 2002
in today's issue #496
Clix
Be ON Guard for a False Klez Fix
Fun with Fingerprint Readers
TagGen v2.0
Get to the Start  Menu
The Value of Software in Our Daily Lives ~ Part 1
Tina's FrontPage Tips
CCC   Spring Cleaning
         Wacky Uses     
____________________________________________________________
NOTE: Any time you see the "  ++ ",  it means there is more of the 
article, or story, on the linked site. Mike
____________________________________________________________

There is a complete archive of past MikesWhatsNews newsletters 
available to members on the Yahoo page, it is searchable by word or
issue #. Here is the address direct to the messages;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MikesWhatsNews/messages
____________________________________________________________

Clix   By Scott Porter  ~ Free
http://www.javascript-games.org/
This game is based on Mahjong clicks! 
The idea is to clear the stacks of tiles by clicking on tiles that have 
another of the same colour adjacent to them, vertically or horizontally. 
Easy to pick up, but very hard to master! 
This game works well with all recent browsers, and even looks good 
with WebTv and Dreamcast!  
++
____________________________________________________________

Be ON Guard for a False Klez Fix
An imitation cure for the Klez Internet worm has emerged.

Kaspersky Labs, an international data-security software developer, 
warns computer users about a distribution by an unknown malicious 
person of the Trojan program "TrojanDownloader.Win32.Smokedown", 
which is hidden under the guise of a cure for the Klez Internet-worm.

This malicious program was distributed via email. 
The infected message has an HTML format and harbors the following 
characteristics:

Subject: You're under a serious threat! Message Text: Kaspersky Labs
urging users to take the necessary measures to protect themselves
against the mounting threat from the latest version of the 
Internet-worm Klez, most users lightly regarded the problem of 
securing their personal data, resulting in a global Internet virus 
epidemic. Over the past several days our technical support services 
have received over twelve thousand inquiries concerning Klez 
Internet worm infections.

The sender is shown as "Kaspersky Labs" and the address shown 
is "support@xxxxxxxxxxxxx". In actuality the anonymous evildoer 
sent out this malicious program from a mail server located in 
Australia and the aforementioned sender information was 
deliberately falsified.

The message body also contains a disguised Java script that
imperceptibly loads the Trojan horse "Smokedown" from a 
remote server and installs it on the user's computer. 
To complete this the malicious code exploits a vulnerability in 
the Internet Explorers security system that was first revealed in 
March 2001 and described in the Microsoft bulletin found here:
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp>

The patch for this vulnerability can be downloaded from the 
following address:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/q290108/default.asp>=


At this time Kaspersky Labs has not registered actual contaminations
from "Smokedown", regardless we recommend users proceed with 
extreme care if they receive an email containing the contents described 
above.

The cure for "Smokedown" was included in the Kaspersky Anti-Virus
database nearly a month ago.
From; Kaspersky Lab news 
If you would like to subscribe to other Kaspersky Lab news blocks or 
to unsubscribe from this news block, you can do so by visiting
http://www.kaspersky.com/subscribenow.html
____________________________________________________________
Fun with Fingerprint Readers 
http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0205.html#5
Tsutomu Matsumoto, a Japanese cryptographer, recently decided to 
look at biometric fingerprint devices. These are security systems that 
attempt to identify people based on their fingerprint. For years the 
companies selling these devices have claimed that they are very 
secure, and that it is almost impossible to fool them into accepting a 
fake finger as genuine. Matsumoto, along with his students at the 
Yokohama National University, showed that they can be reliably 
fooled with a little ingenuity and $10 worth of household supplies.
++
____________________________________________________________

TagGen v2.0  ~ free
http://steve.panthers.net.au
A random tagline creator for any email program or newsreader. 
It works with ANY email program which uses a normal text file 
for it's signature. 
TagGen has been tested with Outlook Express, Eudora, 
Forte Agent and Xnews.

TagGen runs under Windows 95/98/Me/2k/XP

____________________________________________________________

Get to the Start  Menu
If you come across an application or instalation that covers your 
task bar, you can get to the Start Menu by clicking Ctrl and Esc
key's at the same time.
____________________________________________________________

The Value of Software in Our Daily Lives ~ Part 1
Copyright =A9 2002, Bill Platt 
The Phantom Writers
http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,48

Long, long ago when I was in high school during the early 
1980's, personal computers were just coming into existence. 
Back then, I had taken on Basic programming as a high school 
student. In those days, the PC of choice was the Radio Shack 
TRS-80 --- this was just a couple of years before the 
introduction of the first Apple computer. 

In those dark days before the Internet and before Microsoft, 
the only software choices we had were retail programs that 
could cost hundreds of dollars, or cheap video games that 
were offered as Shareware. 

Believe it or not, in those days, we computer nerds would 
pass around software on floppy disk. These days, there simply 
are not too many programs that can be loaded onto a single 
diskette.

I mention this now as I contemplate the various ways in which 
software is now distributed. We consumers are always playing 
a cat-and-mouse game with software developers.

In the early 80's, the companies who had deep pockets were 
the ones selling their software at retail. The ones who were 
struggling to find traction in the marketplace were the ones 
offering their software as Shareware. 

If you doubt this conclusion, then let me ask you a question. 
Which Microsoft products are available to the public as 
Shareware packages?

You just proved my point.

Being an individual who has played both sides of the software 
fence as both a consumer and developer, I am in a position to 
tell this story so that you as the consumer can really 
appreciate the quandary of the developer.

Nag screens are the storefront of the shareware developers. 
See, the challenge is that it really does cost money to 
develop software. Yet, the public is still of the mindset 
that they want all of their software for free.

Understanding the free mindset of the consumer, software 
developers have tried various schemes to get paid for their 
time and efforts. These days, you will find Shareware, 
Trialware, Adware and Retail. 

See, the retail boys have the best advantage. They can afford 
to dump millions into advertising to build the interest in 
their products. Funnier still, the consumer does not expect 
to get retail products for free. For some reason, it is okay 
to pay the big boys retail for their products, but the little 
guy is supposed to give away his work for free! 

So, why is it that we consumers treat the small companies 
differently? We will pay $100 to $175 for Microsoft Office XP, 
but we would not pay for Sun Office! Sun Microsystems Office 
product is considered by many to be a much better product than 
Microsoft's, but Sun had to resort to offering their version 
for free to get market share!

Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to 
helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote their 
businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles. All articles 
are distributed to 6,500+ publishers & web-masters as part of the
package. Do you write your own articles? Let us distribute them
for you.  http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,48

Continued tomorow in MWN #496
____________________________________________________________

Tina's FrontPage Tips, by Tina Clarke

Themes

Most times themes are contained in a zip file when you
download them. Here is what you need to do once you download
the file:

1. Open the zip file

2. Unzip all the files (using a program such as Winzip,
which can be found at http://www.winzip.com )

Note: unzip each theme to a separate folder and make sure
that the name of the folder is the name of the .elm file
below are the two paths for fp98 and fp2k.

FrontPage 98 -

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Front Page\Themes\*\

FrontPage 2000/02 -

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Themes\*\

*(Insert name of folder for theme here)

3. Open Microsoft FrontPage

4. For FrontPage 98 - Apply the theme by going to the themes
view and selecting it.

For FrontPage 2000/02 - Apply the theme by going to the
Format menu and selecting 'Theme'.

AccessFP - FrontPage Resource Centre
Site -  http://www.accessfp.net/
Ezine & Forums - http://anyfrontpage.com/  FREE FP E-Books
Journal - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AccessFPJournal
____________________________________________________________

Christies Computer Corner thanks to Christy;
<1stPicksoftware-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=3Dsubscribe>

Wacky Uses

Discover hundreds of little-known uses for well-known products,
by just clicking on a product! 

http://www.wackyuses.com/uses.html

Did you know you can use Jell-O as hair gel? Did you want to
know? If so, check out WackyUses.com. It's a web site that lists
unintended -- but possible -- uses for well known consumer
products. 

~~~~~~~

Spring Cleaning

Launching the Disk Cleanup utility is easy. To do so, access the
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools menu and then
select Disk Cleanup. When you do, you'll see the Select Drive
dialog box, which prompts you to select the drive you want to
clean up. 
 
Once you select a drive and click OK, Disk Cleanup immediately
scans your hard disk in order to discover what files are on that
disk and then calculates how much hard disk space you'll be able
to free. As it does, you'll see a Disk Cleanup dialog box that
keeps you apprised of its progress. 
 
When Disk Cleanup finishes its calculations, you'll see the Disk
Cleanup properties sheet for the drive you selected. This
properties sheet contains three tabs titled Disk Cleanup, More
Options and Settings, that you can use to configure the Disk
Cleanup. 

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____________________________________________________________

Antivirus software is a good choice to scan your system for possible 
viruses, however no virus scanner is 100% effective as manufactures
cannot keep up with the rapid change of viruses that happens daily.
Be sure to update yours regularly.
http://www.hackfix.org/software/antivirus.html
____________________________________________________________

Please feel free, to offer constructive criticism, as that will help me=
 keep
it interesting.
I also welcome any submissions about new products, web pages, or 
articles of interest.

All submissions posted in the newsletter will be given proper credit.
"MikesWhatsNews" believes in giving credit where credit is due but at
times deadlines and information that is very important to readers we
accidentally misspost an item.
If you believe something to be miscredited, or you know the author of
one of the articles which we have posted as 'unknown', please do let us
know so we can correct the information where applicable.

Many times in a article you may see a click here for more information,
or to go to a link, these often will not work, as the original information,
was taken from a page with HTML links.
This is when you will want to go to the webpage indicated in the article,
++ ,for 'the rest of the story'
***MfM*** indicates that I am adding my own information to a 
                  particular article.
Mike ~It's a good day if I learned something new.
<mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=3Dsubscribe>
You can read a sample of my newsletter on my web page
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/
My virus pages http://virusinfo.hackfix.org
mytech@xxxxxxxxxxx


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