FaceBook Horror

While i agree that Facebook is an easy way to make friends and a fun web application with alot of widget to play around it, however, social networking website such as facebook poses a larger threat to the online community than email viruses.

I stumbled and read an article on PCworld website and wanted to summarise the potential threats these social networking sites have in common.

1)The Nigerian 419
Sounds like the Nigerian email scan ain't it? Well the logic is about the same, the person hijacked your friend account and sent you seemingly convincing messages telling you that he is in trouble overseas and need some money to be sent there ASAP. People fall for these more easily than on other means because messages can be very convincing as alot of your information may be found on the internet that is maybe on your profile on other internet data linked to your facebook profile

Protection
- Before trusting completely on email, messages recieve contact your friend or relative that might be in contact with him to clear things out.
- Never post too much on personal information on the net

2) Widgets!!!
Damn i love those fun widgets on facebook, however be weary on the widgets you install.
A popular widget that people install is "Secret Crush", a program which "helps" people find their Secret admirer online. This program is actually install adwares and spywares into your computer taking your information and uploading them and about 60million people have downloaded as reports shown. Secret Crush have been "crushed" by facebook however there are still hundreds or maybe thousands of programs similar to it.

Protection
- There are thousands of widgets online that you can install, be wise and make sure that you know how the widget works before granting them permission or installing them.
Dont trust that every single widget is safe to use and do not use programs that ask you for sensitive information like those crush finder programs. (If you think logically if a person have a secret crush on you, will he or her place the information online? )

3)Koopface virus
It starts as you as a innocent facebook user surfing facebook and hey you see someone post a link online that directs to a video or a picture that interest you. You pressed it and it once you are on the page, it ask you to install an active x. You blindly installed it and wahla, the virus is inside your computer and it will start posting link to your facebook friends so that they will also fall for this trick. Its a Malware of lots of type (If you do not know what is malware, go to my malware article)

Protection
Anti-virus would often catch these viruses however this will only work if you downloaded the active X as an exe file to scan or your anti-virus protection is monitoring your online movements.
However if you want to be extra careful go search for the name of the active x online to find if it is legit.


4) Phishing! (I told you its everywhere)
Phishing websites can be made easily and it will look exactly like the website from the information to the design. Thus it is "The" easiest way to scam and take your sensitive information from you. Once they get your account information, it can be used to do alot of things, namely all of the above.

Protection
Check your website address bar and be sure that it is the offical address or manually type it in for e.g. www.facebook.com
(Check out my Phishing articles to learn more about phishing)

5)Communities
One of the biggest selling point of a social website is the strong communities that support it and it even gives you the chance to be in the community and share the joy with the people who have joined it. Joining these communities is not harmful to your privacy however be weary of it too because people can form fake communities that resembles a real one and if they are successful and convincing enough they will be able to get necessary information from you e.g. email addresses, age, name etc.

Protection
- Be sure that you know the community before you join them, even if the admins and members looked convincing enough, be sure to get in contact with them via a different mean e.g. via the community official email.

Conclusion,
Social networking websites is fun and more importantly if increases our social circle. However most of these website require you to provide personal information online and most of it could be seen by your friends or outsiders claiming to be your friends. As you do not know 100% who you are talking to on the internet be sure of what you post online.

1TB thumbdrive

Nanotechnology is changing the way we define BIG. We know that flash drive are a type of solid state drive and it is a fast and efficient way to store information and to transfer them. However the biggest thumbdrive that we have is a 32GB thumbdrive and it is relatively expensive ranging from $35-60. While 32 GB of space is considered very big, scientists at Arizona State University have created a new type of solid state drive using a new kind of nanotechnology which makes it more efficient that a flash drive and reduce it cost to about 1/10 of that a flash drive cost.

The scientist said that this type of new solid state storage medium will use nano tech to charge copper particles on the molecular scale using the copper atoms to store the data thus making it more efficient then how flash drives store information now which stores on record information by charging the cells.

The first cell that would power this technology will come out this April. If this technology works, i can throw away my harddisk and buy a solid state drive using this technology at a cheaper price.

Comprehending the thumbdrive's ability to store 1000Gb is crazy :S we will see what happens later

Finally! a DVI cable for my LCD monitor

I was still searching a DVI cable today for my LCD and Graphics card connection and with some luck i found it at a store near my school selling them for $25. A Two side DVI cable woohooo finally.

It looks something like this




















So everyone out there using LCD monitors check that if you are using a DVI cable if not check if your graphics card or motherboard supports DVI, the slots should be the opposite of what you see in the picture, a 24 hole and 1 slot connection. DVI will make your images sharper and nicer. Wont go into technical details but it makes your whole viewing experience better.

If you are still using a VGA(Blue connector) cable on your LCD, it is still fine however if you want images to be sharper and not so blurry try and change it into a DVI connection. Once you experience it you might never wanna change back. ;) Personal experience might differ because once you sit infront of the computer for 12 hours a day you will notice for every single detail.

VGA TO DVI CONVERTER WHERE ARE YOU?

I got a graphics card that supports DVI and also a LCD monitor that supports DVI, there is no CRT monitor with DVI because DVI is digital input and CRT only support analog input. Currently my monitor is recieving VGA input because i cannot seem to find from any shop a single VGA to DVI converter. Just to show you what it looks like, it looks like this.













I am super pissed because my home is near Jurong Point shopping center, the biggest shopping mall in Singapore, its even bigger than Vivo city now after the extension. In this Big Mall there are computer stores such as cyberactive, PK computer, Super computer stores such as Challenger and even bigger electronic stores such as Courts and Harvey Norman. I Browsed all this shops and ask them for this object or a full DVI to DVI connection cable but NONE have them. OMG 5 freaking computer stores and none have this.

They only have VGA output which does not display the best on LCD monitor and HECK who still uses CRT now, they waste energy and produce blur images the only upside of a CRT is its freaking TV display so color wise it wins the LCD but DVI is going to solve this problem.

Super pissed.

NetBooks

There is an increase in popularity surrounding netbooks in recent years. Asus/Acer and a few other computer/laptop manufacturer have been hitting on this market providing a series of products into the laptop/desktop market to get the best out of this demand and hopefully to get the market leadership for netbooks.

It is worth your money then?

Lets look at some of the advantage and disadvantage of netbooks

Pros

1. Lightweight
2. Some netbooks uses solid state drives resulting in smaller but a more reliable storage medium
3. Low power demand thus leading to long to extremely long battery life (Some claim to reach 9 hours)
   
4. Somewhat cheap
5. Wireless connectivity
   

Cons

1. Small storage space, limited amount of data stored heavily require an external storage device
   
2. Processor used is often slow to increase battery life but slows down the process of everything else and thus reduce functionality of it compared to a notebook
3. No DVD/drives
   
4. Very small screens usually less than 10-inch making you strain your eyes on some dense documents
   
5. Few input slots
   

Considering the pros and cons, consider wisely on the odds before you invest on a netbook because a netbook is only designed to for low workload stuff like typing documents and surfing the net.

If you want a computer that only do those, a netbook might be suitable for you.

My personal opinion, i cant stress that it is indeed ultra portable, light and have a long battery life however the lack of functions and the slow processing speed kill the joy out of it. E.g My uncle bought one and i tried to install a vista makeover program for xp but even for that program it cannot run smoothly. So think hard.

Phishing and YOU!

Probably the most serious threat to the world of networking is not viruses or spy ware nor is it the 2k bug(You will be remembered) :P.

It is the threat of phishing and it sounds like fishing because the term derived from there and in logic too. Like fishing there is a bait and there is an ignorant fish and in real life there is a bait and there is YOU.

How phishing work is simple, a person create a website or sent you an email asking you to type in sensitive information usually in return for a service e.g security update, getting bonuses and even ridiculous things like to help saving the website(omg, if the company is failing no enough email will be able to sustain it).

You might say that hey i am not stupid! I will never fall for these tricks ever!

Well, Then most likely they are smarter you. They grab pictures, logos of the company to "camouflage" it making it look as official as possible. A completed phishing email may look something like this.



Woah looks convincing,

Ok so the scenario start
You recieve the msg on the day at work and you are think heck! i got ban and try to follow the information below to get started.




You look at the link in the email thinking that its the correct link. (Officially it is the correct link) So it will be safe to go and submit the information. You clicked entered this page and try to type in your user, true enough you cannot log in.

Comment : Why? Because the link for this page is fake, there is not database that have your user in it Yet..




Thus you try to create a new account on the "Ebay" site entering your credit card number and your bank account by clicking the register button over there. You might be thinking that everything looks ok and real hey! they even have the Trust thingy there.
Comment : People can fake alot of things, that is just a picture that links to the offical site and have no function whatsoever on the website after you submit the information, the phisher will get his needed information and with any luck he will have a extra big bill for you to pay by the end of the month :D




Tips on fighting phishing.

Never click on links
Links can be faked to look like real. Example the link on the eBay email, it seems correct however when you click on it, it brings you to a page which looks like the official eBay and from here you are already inside the phishing website. Check the links before you click them, mostly when you right click on the link and check the properties it will show you where it really goes. Make sure that it is the official link/site

example of a fake link www.yahoo.com :D

Call up the necessary organisation or email them if in doubt
If you receive any emails which create anxiety and demand immediate action, it will properly be a phishing bait and the best way to deal with it is to get in contact with the official corporation. Make sure the telephone number and website is official before you do these, there are phone phishing too but i will not talk about that.

Never send sensitive information out
No business corporation will ask for you to sent credit card information/password or bank accounts via email. NONE because there is such a thing called a server and a backup server. Do not reply these messages.

If things are too good to be true it often aint
There is not free lunch in this world ever, if you recieved an email stating that you have recieved a 1000million dollar lucky drawn from a secret sandhole and expect you to give them your bank account or credit card number and pay a sum of money for the transaction. FAKE!.

Check the letter
Official letter often provides you with your name, they dont greet you are sir or mdm and also the sender's name and how to contact the him/her. If there aint any of these most prob is an automated email and automated email are usually just comfirmation letters which requires no action to deal with. However if the letter causes anxiety and demand immediate action which in the case might be proberbly very important it is a fake because companies do not sent out important letters automatically.


The pictures are taken from some guy, its not mine. :) thanks whoever he is

The wonderful world of hacking(Software)

People use this term too often and it diminishes the value of the word.

This article is to talk about the general aspect of hacking.

Lets talk about different types of hackers.

1) White Hats - They are people that hack in legitimate ways for example using their knowledge of php and the hackers try to hack into the database system to test the security of the system. They often are employed by companies to do this(Those IT security people)

2) Grey Hats - They are people that hack on borderline legality. Sometime do for good sometimes for bad

3) Black Hats - They are people that hack illegally for example hacking close source software/ into bank credit card accounts etc.

4) Script Kiddie - They are often people like Singaporeans who boast that they are hacking but just using people's program/script to do the work. Often the users do not have any idea what the hell is happening with the program.

5) Hacktivist - Hackers that hack for some political thingy. (An example that is not political is the rickroll video which some hackers(not software) hacked the TV line to change the television programming of the singer of the rickroll to his video) LMAO

6) "Trusted" Employee - Prob a category of hackers who have administrator access to the company server/database and want to use this power to do good/bad maybe he wanna shutdown the company's server because he have his pay deducted (My friend Pee Eng requested me to do this as it is a more serious threat to the business world. Thanks Uh :D)

Being a hacker requires you to be very smart, think out of the box and have an complete and detail understanding on the things that you wanna hack. That is why if you want to hack a software you will need to understand coding, understand how it works, the vunerabilty of the software that you might take advantage of etc etc... You wanna hack a network, complete you understanding on how the network works, maybe send a packet sniffer or two.

For those who really wants to learn computer/software hacking. Learn software coding first and make sure you know and understand everything before you start thinking on hacking.

For now just use scripts you kiddies :P.

PC prank :D

Hate someone in school? or just wanna prank somebody for fun. Well you can "harmlessly" get your revenge on somebody by using the computer commands!~ YAY~ :)

The prank i am going to show you is one of the most wide spread shortcut joke on the internet and i am about to spread it wider.

The prank is so easy to do and i will go through the basics on how it work later for those who are interested :X.

Firstly create a shortcut on the person's computer that you wanna prank on.

A shortcut menu will appear and type in shutdown -s -t 60 -c "whatever you wanna type for eg. YOU GOT PWNED" under the target. (-c function works on vista too just found out :D place your msg inside the " " )

Now you will have a cmd icon shortcut on ur desktop, to make it better, change the icon to a firefox icon or any icon(Games, document, whatever)

And the next time the person click on the icon you just have your eyes on him/her "wink".

On to the technical aspect on this joke. It is using the windows command actually to do this, by writing shutdown on the target the computer goes to the shutdown command list and the -s prompt the computer to execute the shutting down sequence. -t is actually another command in the shutdown command list which lets you set the time and -c is a optional msg box where you can type your things in.

To aboard the shutting down sequence visit the website to see for urself and learn something :P

The following website have it all :D >>>>>http://www.ss64.com/nt/shutdown.html<<<<<

For those out there who have nothing to do, read through it and see what other helpful/prankyful ideas you can make out of it.

Cheers

How to reformat your computer

This is a short post on how to reformat a personal computer.

Reformat your computer ONLY if the system files on your computer are unrecoverable and your system is messed up thus making your startup fail. (For those who are unfamiliar with repairing system files or too lazy to fix them then reformat is the only way :D )

BEFORE YOU CONTINUE. Back up all the files that you need.

If you have a automatic data backup software like acronis you are quite lucky because in events of a failed start-up the program still can help u create a image back up without going into windows. For others without a back-up software just pray that you have your files on a thumbdrive or that your data are stored into a different partition then your system files if you intend to do a reformat only on the system partition

Reformatting is as easy as 1,2,3 (not literally ;P)

1) Place your windows dvd/recovery disk inside your dvd drive

2) Restart your computer and go to your CMOS/setup
page by hittingthe shortcut key listed on the BIOS boot screen(Black picture)
usually it is F2 but different Manufacturer = different keys.

3)Once inside the CMOS(Blue picture), search for an option
named Boot Sequence(Or similar) and hit enter,
inside it will show a page similar to the picture on the right.

4) Change the 1st boot device to the CD/DVD drive

5)Exit the BIOS and the system will restart and BOOT from the DVD drive first and if you have your system disk inside the setup will be booted up.

6)Follow through the intructions and choose the options to reformat your computer.

I will not guide you through hereafter because different startup/operating system disk have different options and it properply will have loads of information to guide you through.

Good luck!

SUPER COMPUTER

As a part of my previous post for advanced AI, i will now do a topic on super computers, these computers are at the top end of computing technology, desktop computers stand aside please.
To show you the power of a super computer, lets do a demostration on both of their speed.

According to wiki, the fastest PC processor (quad-core) perform over 37 GFLOPS (Intel QX9775)
that is over 37 billion Floating Point operation per second. Fast aint it?

But what about super computers?

The fastest super computer now is the Blue Gene. It processing speed is at a whopping 500 TFLOPS. Thats about 500 Trillion FLOPS.

Lets do some fun calculations

500 * 10^12 / 37 * 10 ^9 = 500000000000000/37000000000 = 13513.5135.....

Logically you need 13513 fastest quadcore to to produce the same amout of processing power that is processed by the Blue Gene in one second. Or another example if a supercomputer process a data in 1 hour, your quadcore will need 13513 hours to complete :)

We are still growing in speed doubling every 1.2 years and when we reach Quintillion speed we are can start to produce techology to simulate organic cells.

IF you want to think fast, think supercomputer fast :P

Advanced AI anyone?

According to Supercomputer growth, by 2025 we will have enough processing power to simulate a human brain for uploading that means we can simulate a human brain using a computer and it can have the ability to upload the completed calculations and do things.

Imagine the possiblities, Skynet, Cylons, Terminators, who knows? However if a computer have enough power to simulate a human brain Computers will definately outperform a human brain because it will not be wrong. There will not be any human error, give a computer the functionaility of a human brain and we might advance into another technology age which the normal human mind cannot comprehend. However with so many sci-fi movies, shows around it shows are the possiblilty that maybe, the computer's AI will become so powerful that it develops consciousness and learn to "survive" in the world. Would it kill us all?

Computers follow functions, lines of codes written by humans and if the computer have the power of a human brain, it will be able to create his own function aint it? Also computers do not have conscience so when generating its own functions they will not know that it is good or bad. For example, If the Advanced AI have control of America Defense system, it will prob write some functions like to overwrite and delete the football function(The controller to the america president to launch a nuclear attack) and launch it itself. However we know thats not going to happen but its just a idea of how bad things can get.

The above post is just to summerise how far computing have brought us and some ideas can come through my mind.

Dawn of war 2 first impression and mini review

what??? Dawn of war? Dawn of war winter assault? Dawn of war Dark Crusade? Dawn of war SoulStorm?
NO!~ its DAWN OF WAR 2 for warhaming sake. THQ have revamped what is called RTS action as there will be no more building of buildings to product units but straight into the action. Killing capping points, Upgrading points for resource. Whats more is that it is commander/tatics based so you choose your tatics before you play the match. Each Tatic have their own specific ideas like Assault/Support/Stealth etc.

Try out the Demo on Steam to find out for yourself if it is worth your money because you basically will LOVE this type of gameplay or hate it to the core.

Techical side
This game will use a revised/upgraded version of the Essence Engine which powered the Company of Heroes series and it is named Essence Engine 2 =.=.
So be prepared for lots of physics going around like flying shards, bits of armour, smoke, blood and flying bodies.
It will be a very graphic intensive game so be sure you have a powerful graphics card to handle it or be forced to look at polygons.


Personal opinion
I own all the previous dawn of war games and COH series but i have not tried the full version of this game, tried the multiplayer beta and it is kinda easy comparing to the previous dawn of war series and the company of heroes series. Its daring for THQ to change how the series work. So far in forums i have not seen a massive complain about this.

Overall
For those who are in need of a good action RTS with heroes and orks holding oversized rifles, sick of building the same buildings over and over again, want to get into the action straight away at the start of the game, this game is for you.

However for those who love Depth in their RTS games, this game may not be suitable because it is comparative the easiest RTS that i have played.

Ratings
GameSpot 8.5
IGN 9.0
PCNerds 8.1

Malware: How to prevent them

Malware aka: Virus, Trojans, Spyware, Botnets etc.. The term Malware is malicious softwares (Programs written with bad intension)

I will NOT be going thru deeply each of them but hey here are some preventive measures. (PC tips, Macs it would be your turn soon if you keep try to take market leadership :P)

1) Install Anti-Malware(Anti-virus is a wrong representation) softwares.
- Free one include AVG, Avira (I personally recommend Avira)
- Buying a subscription for Anti-virus protection may be expensive but remember to read reviews before buying a protection.

Free ones are generally do not protecting you from everything therefore step 2

2)Install a second Anti-Malware program generally targeting at Spywares
- Free one include Spybot(Powerful scanner)
- Two is enough, dont overload your computer with overlapping Malware softwares

3)Verify and scan files before downloading
- Omg, cant stress this enough, if you guys recieve emails/files from another person esp for those that you are not familiar with, please scan your files using your personal Anti-Malware scanners and verify with the sender on the file. 99.9999% of the virus can be caught this way

4)Clicky Clicky Bang Bang
- Click all you want but make sure you know where you are going. A popular example is the msn botnet attack which alot of "Innocent" PCs got infected and become herds of zombie computers for spam attacks because they click on the "party/photo link" posted by offline contacts(I know you dont mean it, but the herders mean it) Check out on botnets on wiki, its interesting :) .

5) Firewall
- Firewall acts like a Firewall..... =.=. It acts as a protective shield from attacks via the internet, it blocks off unused ports so that information will not be sent out nor enter your computer without your knowledge. Do not ever off this function (Yes, gamers just open a port and you will be able to host your games). Firewall is strong however if you personal add/open on of your ports it will not monitor it e.g. MSN port is open thus viruses, spam attacks can all go thru this port. Thus even the PC with the strongest firewall will not stop it from attacking your computer.

6)CCleaner
- Clear your internet caches/files, most of the spyware/adware will be found there under your temp files. Make it a habit and clear them everyday. Using a freeware called Ccleaner you just run it and it will do everything for you. Its free and easy. :P

By following these steps your risk of getting an infection will be minimal.

How to reduce lag spike on Vista Wireless

This is a common problem for gamers who wants to play online games but because of frequent lag spikes you cant get your headshots/kills etc. The tip i am about to tell you is particularly useful especially on the call of duty series however it will impact every online game/experience on vista.

Vista have a new wireless interface. YAY! However bad news it is will keep on checking on new wireless points consitantly. Thus causing lag spikes like every 2 min in a game =.= (You try so hard to climb up a half-life 2 custom puzzle map and because of a lag spike u drop to your death) Bad experience :(.

Ok onto how to solve it.

Firstly know your interface name, if you do not know go to ur Network and Sharing Center. There you see your connection. By default it should be Wireless network connection(your name for your wireless) The italic part is your interface name.

Secondly create two shortcut on your desktop

1) For the first shortcut, it is to disable the function of searching for a better wireless signal

Name it as disable wireless interface and change the target to C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe /k netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="Wireless Network Connection"

2)For the second shortcut, it is to enable it again so that after you restart/power on again you will still be able to search for your internet connection.

Name it as enable........ and change the target to C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe /k netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=yes interface="Wireless Network Connection"

Again the italic part varies for your interface name.

You will now have two CMD shortcuts on your desktop. If you want to play any online games click on the shortcut to disable your wireless interface after you have connected to your home wireless.

And if you want to re-enable back your wireless interface just click on the enable wireless(or whatever you name it)

Thats it you will now have connectivity as lag free as in a wired condition. And you cannot blame your internet for being a noob anymore :D.

PC Games! OMGz

Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty~~

BURN OUT FANS REJOICE~!

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box

is finally on PC and woot i cant say how much it rocked. The best $22 i have spent original price is $50 but i have a $28 discount coupon so.... Anyway it is well worth the full amount.

The whole city is yours to drive, and in a race you just have to get to your destination ASAP there are no retriction on where you wanna drive so you will have the freedom to choose which tracks/road/underground passes/train tracks/broken bridges you want. You can even jump into the sea!~(Bad idea) For those racer out there that is sick of racing games limiting your freedom with yellow transparent ghostly arrows this is the game for you.


Screenshot from my PC. Everything on Max running at 55fps so if anyone have a PC near my rig you can have the same performance (Higher/Lower) Depending on your rig.

GameSpot Score : 9.0 Editor's Choice
IGN Score : 8.4 Impressive
PCNerds Score : 9.0

So if you are going to buy a racing game go burnout. NFS is .... meh... the same old transparent yellow arrow :P

My PC Rig

Well before i post anything else i would like to post my RIG up. Its not the most powerful desktop but meh i bought it under budget less then 1.5k. So here goes.

Its a default PC by HP and i just change the graphics card which cost $150 for a 9600GT(Mid range card) from Nvidia. For the mouse pad it is free... :P, I will not spend so much on a razer mousepad even if i got the money to buy it.

First Post

Hi all,

Testing on my first blogs on things PC. It will include tips on PCs games on PCs Hardware for PCs etc... Created this because OMG the holidays are long cept for those in SP. :P

Well have fun in my blog.