QBS PC Help Blog

Facebook agrees child safety plan

swordfish — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:15:45 +0000

Facebook is to add a slew of new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyber bullies.

At the heart of the changes are efforts to ban convicted sex offenders from the site and finding better ways to verify users’ ages and identities.

The agreement was announced by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in a deal along with other attorneys general around America. “This marks another watershed towards social networking safety,” he said. It will “protect kids from online predators and inappropriate content,” he added.

It comes on the heels of a similar comprehensive agreement that 49 states and Washington, DC, made with MySpace last January.

Source: BBC Technology News

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CMOS checksum errors

swordfish — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:09:32 +0000

A checksum is used as an error-detecting code to protect a computers BIOS settings stored in the CMOS memory.

Each time a PC is booted this number is recalculated and checked against the stored value. If they do not match, an error message is generated to tell you that the BIOS settings may have been corrupted and as a result some of the BIOS settings may be wrong.

Each brand of BIOS tends to react differently when encountering a checksum error. Some will warn the user and then continue loading the operating system with whatever settings were in the CMOS memory (even if they’ve changed). Other BIOS brands will assume that the settings that were stored in CMOS memory are corrupted and will load default values stored in the BIOS chip “for safety reasons”. The error message resulting from the checksum error will indicate which option your system’s BIOS is running.

If you get a checksum error you should make sure that all the BIOS settings in the system are correct, by rebooting the system, going into BIOS setup and double-checking all the values (hopefully against a recent BIOS settings backup).

The most common cause of checksum errors is a CMOS battery that is losing power. To fix this, just buy a new CMOS battery and replace the failing battery with the new one.

If the BIOS settings have reverted to the default date and time you should fit a new CMOS battery before you change the values (Otherwise, when you next shut down and restart your PC all the BIOS settings will again revert to the default values). Save the changes you make to the BIOS and let the PC reboot. If the battery was the problem the checksum error will not appear and your PC will now boot normally.

Bear in mind that viruses can also affect CMOS settings and can cause a checksum error. Motherboard problems can also affect the values stored in CMOS memory. So its not always the CMOS Battery that causes a checksum error to appear. But battery failure is the most common reason.

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Fake media file snares PC users

swordfish — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:51:51 +0000

Almost 500,000 people have been caught out by a booby-trapped media file, says security firm McAfee.

The fake file poses as a music track, short video or movie and has been widely seeded on file-sharing networks to snare victims.

McAfee said the fake media file outbreak was the largest it had seen for about three years.

Those running the fake file get bombarded with pop-up ads and risk compromising the safety of their PC.

The fake file or trojan has been widely distributed on the eDonkey and Limewire file-sharing networks. The file has many names and is written in different languages to trick people into downloading it.

Here are some of the many file names that hope to get you hooked into downloading the malicious file:

girls aloud st trinnians.mp3
changing times earth wind .mp3
heartbroken fast t2 ft jodie.mp3
meet bambi in kings harem.mp3
paralyized by you.mp3
pull over levert.mp3

So watch out if you frequent file sharing networks!

Source: BBC Technology News

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Yahoo search results warn of malware

swordfish — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:27:36 +0000

Yahoo has penned a deal with McAfee to use its SiteAdvisor software to warn users about potentially dangerous websites.

The new security feature will place a red exclamation mark next to search links McAfee believes are involved with spam, phishing or the spread of malicious software.

SiteAdvisor has been available for some time as a browser plugin, but Yahoo says it has been working for almost a year to integrate the technology into its search results. As part of the integration, sites that are found to be automatically installing malicious code, or attempting to exploit browser vulnerabilities, will be completely dropped from search results.

Source: PC Pro

P.S. The QBS PC Help website has been checked by the McAfee SiteAdvisor and it didn’t find any significant problems!

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Safari gamble triples market share

swordfish — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:41:16 +0000

Following the release of Safari for Windows and Apple’s controversial decision to install it using the iTunes installer, it now seems thatSafari has tripled its market share.

According to Net Applications’ figures, Safari 3.1 took a 0.21% share of the market in its first month, up from the 0.07% of version 3, released a year earlier.

Source: PC Pro

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Grand Theft Auto IV breaks UK first day record

swordfish — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:05:53 +0000

“Grand Theft Auto IV”, the gangster-themed computer game that earned both critical claim and strong criticism, broke first day sales records in Britain, according to an industry body’s initial estimates on Thursday.

The Entertainment Retailers Association, which represents 5,000 stores selling games, music and films, said the game sold about 609,000 copies on Tuesday.

That beats the previous record held by an earlier title in the same series, “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, which sold 501,000 copies on October 29, 2004.

“The past 24 hours have been like it’s Christmas all over again for our members,” ERA Director Kim Bayley said in a statement. “GTA IV is a phenomenon.”

Its release was one of the most hotly anticipated in the gaming world in years. Fans queued outside shops around the world to be the among the first to get a copy.

The ERA said the 40-pound game had eclipsed big releases in the film and music industry.

Source: Yahoo News

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