Vice – Paul's Tech Talk

Hello Twitter, Goodbye Pounce!

PaulDecember 2, 20083 Replies

In a move that feels more like a cruel prank than a financial strategy, Six Apart has purchased Pownce–only to shut the company down. The blogging company acquired the micro-blogging site for an undisclosed sum before announcing that it would shut Pownce in a mere two weeks.

[via PcMag]

[ad#ad2-right]Although This is nothing to big because those who use Pownce was using just o play around with. People who are using Pownce will have to go back to Twitter or something other like Twit Army. If you have an account there you will need to start looking around for another social outlet. Some of the ones I like are on my About me page and should give you some ideas on where you look.

Although if Six Apart was smart they should of tried to Monitize the service but I guess they just wasted there money in buying Pounce. They wanted something else from the company that owned Pounce but not sure what.

Vista To release Service Pack 2 in April 2009

PaulDecember 1, 20081 Reply

[ad#digg-right] Some sources are reporting that Vista SP2 will be out in April. According to Engadget they claim TechARP is a bunch of Malaysian Kids that like to boast about how they broke the Vista SP1 and XP SP3 release schedules to the world. They claim though that Vista Release candidate is to be out around February.Microsoft has indicated that this SP3 will include Windows Search 4, Bluetooth 2.1 wireless support, faster resume from sleep when a wireless connection has been broken and support for Blu-ray. I personally think it will include some of Windows 7 features to better get people accustomed to Windows 7 when they come out.

[ad#ad2-left]Although this is speculation and no hard evidence I think it has some merit due to the fact that Microsoft has admitted in the past that Vista was a big Letdown. I don’t think they can any more to damage than they have already done. If anything Windows 7 will be a easy Success if they pull it off in the right way!!! Although with WIndows 7 be leaked online there is no telling what will happen. I am sure what ever happens will be interesting to say the least!!!

Microsoft issues Vista patches out of Monthly Patch Cycle!

PaulNovember 26, 20083 Replies

Microsoft issues Out of cycle patch for Vista. These patches are as Followed:
[ad#ad2-right-1]

Kb957321

An update rollup is available for the Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008. This update rollup resolves the problems that are documented in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

954708 An update to add support for the serialization of complex Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data types in the Windows Imaging Component

945060 There may be inconsistencies in the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) values for an image file in Windows Vista and in Windows XP

KB959108

The Windows Portable Device (WPD) API collects and transfers Software Quality Metrics (SQM) data to Microsoft servers. The SQM data is collected only on an opt-in basis through the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. An update is available that disables the collection and transfer of SQL data to Microsoft servers.

This update affects Windows Vista-based computers, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computers, and Windows Server 2008-based computers that are in the Microsoft Windows Media Player Customer Experience Improvement Program.

KB959130

On a Windows Vista-based computer or on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you install a third-party Web browser. You set the third-party Web browser as the default Web browser. Then, you run the Connect to the Internet Wizard. However, if you select the Browse the Internet now option, Windows Internet Explorer starts instead of the third-party Web browser that you set as the default Web browser.

[ad#ad2-right]This seems to be not so important. All of these are not really security related but it does surprise me that Microsoft wanted to release these out of Cycle. If your planning on using your Vista laptop during the holidays you might want to update your vista machine before you go. I don’t think there is going to be any major issues with this but if there is, you can always remove these updates later.

How to disable autorun the easy way!!!

PaulNovember 21, 2008

I read a report from Cnet about USB devices spreading Virus and I will quote:

The bad guys are intentionally developing new flavors of malware designed to propagate through USB devices,” said Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist for IBM’s ISS security division. “They are today’s floppy drives.”

[ad#ad2-right]An infected computer can spread a virus to a clean USB thumb drive that is inserted. That USB drive will then be spreading the virus onto other computers if the operating system on those machines has an AutoRun-type feature enabled. The AutoRun function in Windows launches installers and other programs automatically when a flash drive or CD is inserted. The Mac has an equivalent function, according to Ollmann.

[Via Cnet]

In order to disable “autorun“, which in Vista is called Autoplay. In order to disable Autoplay from starting when you insert media into your computer here is how you do it:

You will need to be Logged in as Administrator before this can be done:

Next click start and type “Autoplay” without quotes. It will bring up a screen but all you have to worry about is this:

You will need to make sure there is no check mark for “Use AutoPlay for all media and Devices”. Click save and close.

[ad#ad2-left]Once that is done, you will have no more Autoruns from USB devices. If you want to disable Autorun in XP, I’d suggest reading some of these articles for XP.

Wikipedia – AutoRun

How to Disable Autorun

These are just a few and are really nice to articles but there are others out there that might be more to your liking. I suggest searching Google for them. I hope this helps you out!!!

Vista has a new Vulnebility!

PaulNovember 20, 2008

According to Techworld.com, Vista has a new Vulnerability that could let a hacker infect a Vista machine with a rootkit. The talk from them is quite intriguing. I will quote it to better let you know what the Vulnerability is:

The vulnerability could allow a hacker to install a rootkit, a small piece of malicious software that is very difficult to detect and remove from a computer, Unterleitner said.

[ad#ad2-left]Phion notified Microsoft about the problem on 22 October. Microsoft indicated to Phion that it would issue a patch with Vista’s next service pack. Microsoft released a beta version of Vista’s second service pack to testers last month. Vista’s Service Pack 2 is due for release by June 2009.
[via Techworld.com]

The way they could do this is through the Device IO Control which in turn could corrupt the Kernel of Windows Vista. Now we all know that Microsoft will release a patch quicker than 6 months away. According to this article, people are already looking for the exploit and want to know more about it. I would be willing to bet they will have a patch out sooner than later. Probably January or Febuary, which will be a big deal because no one will expect it. I would also imagine hackers will start trying to figure out how they could install software as quick as possible before Microsoft pushes out the patch. So what can you do to protect yourself, Get a firewall, a Antivirus and learn how to protect yourself to prevent yourself from getting a computer virus.