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Little Big Planet Delayed Due to offending phrases.

PaulOctober 17, 2008

Just off the presses folks, “Little Big Planet” has been delayed. Here’s what Sony is saying:

“During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an.

“We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologize for any offense that this may have caused. We’ll confirm the new launch date shortly.”

[via dot.life]

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So here I am as a gamer waiting to see all this and they have to stop it due to so called “offending phrases”, I would like to know what they were.

I am going to take a guess that it will be a short delay they have to get all the product they shipped and ship new ones to the stores. It will create a big deal in the US due to all the new releases that are coming out just before Christmas so I would have to think around December if they are lucky.

Are you mad about this? Were you going to buy this game for a christmas gift?

AVG detected trojan ; Generic11.BEOG

PaulOctober 17, 2008

I had a Friend tell me his system detected this Trojan GENERIC11.BEOG. I did my research and right now. It looking like Adobe added something to there recent updates *see updates below*. I’ll Have to check with some other sources but it looking like AVG over did it again and found something that might just be an AVG issue. (correction)

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I usually wait before updating something like adobe. It is sure to be some minor change to adobe but if your are worried here’s the link to watch and see what people are asking or talking about this false positive:

Malwarebytes Security Forums

It seems that AVG is calling this possible virus but yet it looks like it is a false positive. So don’t you worry. If it was a true virus you’d probably would never know!! 😉

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*UPDATE*

I installed Adobe 9.0 and updated the virus scan database for AVG. It hasn’t found any thing yet but I am still scanning my system. I’ll let you know if it finds this false positive on my Vista machine!! I’m doing this to test it out!!! Come back later to find out the results of the test. (if you like this website by all means google this website so it too can be on google trends. I want to see it be up on google trends for a day or two.)

*UPDATE #2*

Just did a whole system scan. It did not find anything. So I will be doing a reboot and scanning again. It might be something that is attached to a PDF, if you went to a malicious website. So I will do another scan.

*Update #3*

I just rebooted and almost finished scanning with AVG. I still haven’t found anything wrong. I have did some more digging into what might cause it. I just did a look registry look up on {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001} and I found out something really interesting. It’s a PDFFile_8.ico File. This is tells me this is an Icon for the desktop. I’m using one of the examples from Malwarebytes Security Forums to try to figure out what might be infected.

Here’s what AVG said after it finished scanning my system:

So I must assume that it is neither Adobe or AVG who have anything to do with this. I will have to say that it must be a real infection as to not having any viruses after an install of Adobe. How do you get this type of virus. Check out my article on : Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!!

There you will find some useful tips on how not to get infected and other useful tools to help restore you system to it’s glory days.

So I will tell my friend to do a full virus scan and double check the results. I can’t replicate the so called virus but I am sure there is something going on with the HASH files of the AVG Database and something might be coming back from the adobe install that has the same HASH files. That also might be making AVG flag it as an Virus or Trojan. I might never know though.

Are you asking to be scammed?

PaulOctober 15, 2008

As we go further into the economic death, we are faced with the most undesirable aspect of the human culture. That is to say, scammers are going to use the chance to find people to scam. I don’t say this lightly because scammers have become more cunning and dubious through the years. They are actually using the internet as well as most companies. They are going to sites like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and other hiring sites to get people to apply for jobs.

<<See Previous Post — Nationwide Marketing Scam

Having said that, I recently had a problem with being tried to be scammed. I applied to a job posted on Careerbuilder and that is how they got a hold of my home address. I did not think about the security problems associated with applying for jobs on line, until recently.

As you can see that is how they got a hold of my information and have made myself vulnerable to scams and also, other potential problems. I am talking about Theft ID and also spam. Although spam is to be expected with anything we do online. I’ve come to the conclusion that we will always have to deal with spam. I wanted to talk about how to be careful when you apply for online jobs and put your information out on the internet. I’ve started taking some steps to prevent this from happening again.

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No Longer am I going to apply for any more private companies — if I can’t see who they are then they have something to hide.

To prevent spam — I am going to make an email address just for my resume. That way I don’t have to worry about spam on my main account.

If it’s too good to be true, it is probably not — I am going to start using that philosophy when I’m about to apply for a job. See picture above, advertising way to much money for a Customer Service rep.

Don’t ever put your Social on your Resume — That is the most crucial part, if you want your identity stolen that is one sure way to get it stolen. Even though that should be painfully obvious it is sometimes overlooked.

I am sure there are more but that is the basic idea of the whole thing. I will probably come up with even more ideas later on but this was one thing that I have been thinking about all day. I also think we have to starting asking the questions before the seriousness of the scammers come to bear. They will never go away but until we get serious, they will always be there to taunt us and laugh us. I am not sure how to do it, Do you? Are we just supposed to sit here and take it or do we fight back and how? These are importantquestions for anyone to consider when you are faced with the possiblity of fraud or being scammed? How do we deal with it in the future? Should scammers be punished serverely or moderately?

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.

PaulOctober 10, 20083 Replies

Having seen the economy this week, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is time to redo all the important essentials and get all my ducks in the order as they say. I’ve been thinking of how best to be ready in case the dreaded day comes when my employer no longer needs my assistance and what could I do to be prepared.

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Get Someone to Critique your Resume — This is the most important step because this is the first place employers look when they want to hire someone. So how do you get it critiqued? Here are some good links to help you start off with: Careerbuilder Critique, Mind of Root Peer Critique(Last until Oct 30, 2008).

Have your Resume Ready to upload to Resume sites — You should always register at all the important resume sites just in case. The Sites that I recommend are : Monster, Career Builder, Hot jobs, Dice, US jobs, Best Jobs USA, Computer Jobs, and Nation Job.

Use your website as a place to put your Resume — Have your resume available in case some contacts you and tells you they know someone who is looking to hire people. Have this resume hidden and only give it out to people you know. This is also known as networking.

Network as much as possible — There are sites out there that have made it easier to network. Sites like linkedin.com, this site is great because of the 6 degrees of possibility as I call it. You know someone, they know someone, and then you will both know the same one!! This also will greatly increase your chance of an employer finding you.

For those who want to be Self employed — I wanted to say that most people who want to be self employed know just how hard it is to begin with. So I’ve got some interesting links to help start you on your way. First link is Technibble.com Computer Business Kit, This has Maintenance Sales Letter, Work Order, Marketing Analysis and Payment Overdue Letter. It is also a good idea to have an MP3 Advertisement that you can give to podcast and throw them the link to it. You will need to market yourself to the public in ways that no one has thought of. You will on an occasion have to spend money in order to get money, it’s always been that way but it seems to work.

These are some great tips that will greatly improve your chances of landing that job or becoming even more chance of you making money. If you have any tips or want to suggest ways to improve upon these tips please email me. If you like what you see discuss it on the blog or click on my ads to help offset the cost of this blog.