My cell phone can get a virus and now my ipod. What next? My DVD player, my car, my refrigerator? We want more and more of our devices to talk to one another but if major companies can't keep malware from getting into their products how are we expected. I can spend hours reinstalling the OS and apps on my computer after being infected with a virus. How long will it take if I have to reinstall the OS on all my electronic appliances because of one virus?
Pay attention also to how Apple blames Microsoft for this.
Here's an interesting find by Robert Jaques of vnunet.com
Apple ships Windows malware on video iPods
Firm admits small number of players have been affected Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 18 Oct 2006
Apple has admitted shipping video iPods infected with Windows malware.
The company confirmed in a statement on its website that some video iPods available for purchase after 12 September 2006, shipped from a contract manufacturer in China, carry a malicious file called RavMonE.exe.
"We recently discovered that a small number, fewer than one per cent, of the video iPods available for purchase after 12 September 2006 left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus," Apple stated. "This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date antivirus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it.
"So far we have seen fewer than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all video iPods now shipping are virus free.
"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, said: "It is most likely that some of the video iPods were plugged into a Windows PC for testing purposes at Apple's Chinese contractor's manufacturing plant, which is why only some of them are infected.
"However, unfortunately, if you have bought a video iPod in the past month there is a chance that it could have a Windows virus on it."
Sophos claimed that Apple is not presently displaying the correct name for the malware on its website, referring to it instead as the RavMonE.exe Windows virus.
The malware is "more likely to be a member of the RJump virus family", according to the security firm.
"There are a number of different pieces of malware which use a file called RavMonE.exe so we do not know at the moment precisely which Trojan or virus may have been shipped," said Cluley.
"The name RavMonE.exe actually comes from a perfectly legitimate program called RAV Anti-Virus so it would be wrong to call a piece of malware by this name.
"Hackers sometimes spoof the names of legitimate programs to cause greater confusion."
Earlier this week it was reported that the Japanese subsidiary of McDonald's was recalling 10,000 MP3 players distributed as a giveaway. The fast food giant had discovered that a spyware Trojan was contained on the devices.
Here is a post from Tony Morgan's website. It's an old post but he recently resurfaced it in his best of post. It's a great bullet point article on what not to do on a church website but could be applied to about any site. If you haven't read any of Tony's posts, head over to his site. It's full of useful tidbits.
Brian
10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website
I spent quite a bit of time tonight visiting church websites throughout the country to find a cool church to tell you about this week. Don't worry. I found one, and I'll tell you about it in a separate post. In the process, though, I found lots of uncool sites. With that in mind, I thought this list might be helpful. Now, at least, you'll know what it might take to become my cool church of the week. Here are the...
10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website
1. Avoid telling me what's going to happen at your church this weekend. I found churches that had weather reports but nothing about their upcoming weekend service. I found two churches that had prominent information about upcoming golf scrambles (which I appreciated as a golfer), but nothing about this weekend's service. Why would I come if I don't know what I'm going to experience? 2. Put a picture of your building on the main page. After all, ministry is all about the buildings. 3. Use lots of purple and pink and add pictures of flowers. Really. Are you expecting any men to show up? And, for my benefit, please don't put any doves on your website. Doves scare me. 4. Make me click a "skip intro" or "enter site" link. I don't have time for that and it's very annoying. If I have to wait for something to load or have to click around intro pages to get to the real information, I'm probably going to skip your church service. 5. Add as many pictures and graphics as you can to the main page. My life is already complicated. I don't have time to figure out what's important at your church. If you dump everything on the main page, I'm assuming you don't know what's important either. 6. Use amateur photography. And, for the record, it would be helpful to have at least one normal looking person on your site. Do us all a favor and hire a graphic designer, a professional photographer or purchase some stock photography. 7. List every single ministry you have at your church. Frankly, I don't care what ministries you have. I just want to know whether or not I should visit your church this weekend. My first step isn't the men's Bible study or joining your church's prayer partners ministry. 8. Make it as difficult as possible for me to get directions, services times, or find information about what will happen with my kids. It's important that my kids have a great experience. If you can't convince me that that will happen, I'm probably not going to risk visiting your service. 9. Put a picture of your pastor with his wife on the main page. That tells me it's all about a personality, and I see enough of those people on television. I actually found one church that had not one but two pictures of the senior pastor on the main page. He was looking mighty dapper, though, in his fancy suit. 10. Try to sell your church rather than telling me how I will benefit from the experience. I don't care how great your church is. I just want to know if visiting your church will help me and my unchurched friends take our next steps toward Christ.
OK. I have to go check our new web design (coming in just a few weeks!) to make sure we haven't made any of these mistakes. I'd hate it if I couldn't visit my own church.
Here is the video making headlines now. Madeline Albright is fuming mad over this saying that in the two Clinton terms there were no nuclear tests in North Korea. Maybe that was because they did not have any nuclear bombs to test and now they do. If that is the case, how did they get them?
Found this interesting article. I wonder how many cover bands know this and does the band not have any liability?
Restaurant owner says songs may cost him his business
A performance of the Jimi Hendrix classic, "The Wind Cries Mary," may cost Michael Dorr his restaurant.
Dorr, the 37-year-old owner of Imbibe on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, has been slapped with a federal lawsuit by companies that own the rights to a trio of popular classics that were performed at Dorr's restaurant in 2005.
The songs at the center of the suit?
Other than the Hendrix song, the music companies say Stevie Wonder's "That Girl," and a 1971 tune, "Slippin' into Darkness."
Dorr says a rep from the American Society of Musicians and Publishers paid an unannounced visit to his restaurant one night and heard covers of the songs performed by local band "Black Notes."
Because his place features local musicians and covers are rare, he didn't think he had to pay the musicians and publishers group an estimated $2,000 to cover performances of copyrighted tunes.
But the owners of the songs, including Wonder and Hendrix's estate, say he does.
Now they're suing Dorr for copyright infringement - and they're seeking payment of between $750 and $30,000 for each song, along with attorney fees.
"It's basically going to bankrupt me and put me out of business," Dorr said this morning. "I can't afford the lawyer and the fees. It's going to close me down."
The married father of two, who opened Imbibe a couple of years ago, said bands typically start playing after 10. But after Friday, the restaurant will do without live music because of the lawsuit.
"It's a total bummer," he said. "It's scary for me and my family. The restaurant business is hard and on top of other things, business is slow. This is the icing on the cake."
The new 30gb Microsoft Zune Media Player is reported to have a retail retail price of $229.99 compared to the ipod at $249.
It has a larger screen than the ipod, can send songs by WiFi, and songs are a buck...but it is still bigger than the ipod. Seems like a step back to me. Video players can only get so small before the are impractical to view but they still need to have a small footprint for portability. Can it fit comfortably in my pocket?
Ordered a new cell phone. It's a Blackberry 8100 Pearl. It should be in tomorrow. I've never had a Blackberry. Hopefully it will be an easy transition from my Windows Mobile phone that I currently use.
Also, I have paired it up with the Cardo Systems Scala-500 Bluetooth Headset.
I guess its the geek in me because I am really looking forward to getting it. My previous phone, Motorola MPX200, was very good but was starting to show its age, more so technologically rather than cosmeticly. I wish there was a really nice, affordable, clamshell style phone that ran under Windows. Oh well, maybe I'll be glad I switched to Blackberry.
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