Tracker Tom's Digital Disptach
It's a gas!
Watching gasoline prices at the pump raise and fall like a rollercoaster as of late, has been no fun at all. Trying to find the best price on gasoline on a given day is also not any fun and can be very time-consuming. There are two Web sites now dedicated to tracking the best deals at the pump - they need your help though. Both
www.gasbuddy.com and
www.gaspricewatch.com depend on the help of volunteers to keep their databases updated, which really - is pretty painless. Both sites require folks to register (which is free), then once that is accomplished, you just log-in occasionally and update a specific gas station's prices - typically, after having purchased gasoline there. Of course, larger communities are better represented on these Web sites, but in no way are smaller towns denied a chance to participate.
The Gmail phenomenon:
Last week I wrote about the big demand for a
Google e-mail account and how folks are swapping things (almost anything) to ge their hands on an account.
Click here to see what those accounts are going for on
eBay - it's amazing. Amazing that the email service is not even out of the testing (beta) phase and there has been so much publicity about it - maybe it was all calculated from the very beginning. You think?
Sasser Virus still running strong:
It appears that a new wave of Sasser virus attacks are with us. I've found a program from Mcafee that does a real good job of removing the virus (and all of it's variants) from an infected computer. The program is called "Stinger",
click here to access informattion about it - and, to download it. You'll know you've got the Sasser Virus when your computer flashes a screen that tells you your computer is about to reboot - usually provides a 60 second timer.
You can stop the shut down process by clicking on "Start", and then "Run", then type in "shutdown -A" - without the quotation marks. Then (if you haven't already), run the "Stinger" program to irradicate the "disease".
Marketing Brilliance:
Burger King has launched a Web site, without any promotion or advertising initiative. Within a few days, simply by "word of mouth" advertising - the site has had over one million visitors. What's so special about the site you may wonder? Does the thought of being able to completely control the actions of a person dressed up in a chicken suit sound interesting? It's absurd, it's weird, and at first I felt REAL bad for the person having to perform - that is, until I found out the secret of how this "thing" is pulled off. First of all, visit the "subservient Chicken" Web site by
clicking here. After you've played around for a while, come back and
click here to find out how it's possible for one chicken dressed person to perform for over a million folks, and in most cases simultaneously for hundreds of people at one time.
Somethin' for nuthin':
If you have begun piddling around with computer
graphics or Web page design, and you’ve been
looking for some artwork to use in your creations
– help is at hand. Hop on over to
www.tigerdirectart.com -
and you’ll have access to a pretty good selection
of clipart, backgrounds, borders, textures and
fonts. The best part about this whole “deal” is
that it won’t cost you a penny. The artwork is
provided free of charge from the folks at Tiger
Direct, based out of Miami. They offer some great
deals on computer equipment at their Web site:
www.tigerdirect.com
From the “Fun and Games” department:
Have you ever had the urge to put a puzzle together but didn’t want to go through the hassles of buying one or securing a “safe” location to put it together? Well, the folks at “Jigzone” have a great solution. Just hop on over to
www.jigzone.com and you will find hundreds of free puzzles to put together - right on the web.
You can select the number of pieces that each puzzle has as well as the shape of the pieces. Access to the site is free but if you sign-up for a membership you can actually upload your own images and have them turned into digital puzzles.
Take a break and go have some fun.
It's all in the perception....
The first time I ever went "online" was back in 1987 - Computer Bulletin Boards were very popular back then. These bulletin boards were not connected to the Internet but there was a lot of similarities. My first modem allowed me to connect at 300 baud - baud not Kilobits, that is very, very slow. I then eagerly advanced up to a 1200 baud modem, life was grand. When the 2400 baud modems became available, I thought to my self "I don't see how things could get much faster than this...". It wasn't long though and the 28,800 bps modems exploded onto the scene - talk about blistering fast! The jump to 33,600 bps modem connections wasn't all that impressive, but impressive was the quick jump up to 56,000 bps (in all reality though the average speed was more like 42-46 Kbps).
Now, just about the time that the majority of folks are getting accustomed to broadband connections (500,000 to 1,000,000 bps connections), news of "Internet2" is making its way into the news. "Internet2" offers 10x the speed of our current broadband - can you believe that? It won't be available to the general public for a few years though - it's mainly used by universities and the government for the sharing of research data. Hmmm, that's exactly how the use of the original Internet started out - it appears that history is again repeating itself.
Click here to read an online news story about Internet2.
Gmail Mania:
I wrote earlier this week about Google's new e-mail service that is currently under testing. The hype just doesn't stop, people are becoming obessed with this thing.
Click here to read a
USA Today story about the subject.
Takin' a bite out of crime:
The law is starting to come down hard on those Internet predators who attempt to steal other people's credit card information. Learn all about Zachary Hill and what he gets to do for the next few years - by
clicking here.
G-Mail Craziness!
Google has been beta-testing a new e-mail service. Only a few "special" folks (I'm one of them) have been invited to participate in the testing. Occasionally a user is given the option to invite someone else to join the Gmail service. Apparently, there are Internet users out there just chomping at the bit to get a Gmail address.
Click here to read the breaking news story or just go to
www.gmailswap.com and check it out for yourself.
Anit-virus Assistance:
Computer Associates has established a Virus Information Center on their Web site.
Click here to visit the new service - which is free.
Alert for Symantec users:
If you do not use the "automatic update" feature for your Symantec anti-virus and firewall software, you need to run an update now. You can read why by
clicking here.
Sasser Worm variant on the loose:
Yet another variant (F) of the Sasser Worm is on the loose on the Internet. This one though, seems to be crudely fashioned and experts predict it will not be near as troublesome as the original version. By the way, 5 more individuals have been picked up for questioning in Germany, it appears they may have been in cohoots with the Sasser Worm author.
Click here to read an article at
PCWorld.com, it pretty much covers all of the bases.
Security Alert - again, and again, and again...
Microsoft has just announced that yet another flaw has been found in their XP operating system. The flaw could allow someone to access another's computer and to control it.
Click here to read the breaking story on the
CNN.com Web site. It's time to run "Windows Update" - again.
Gee - Mail:
I've been fortunate enough to be able to beta test a new e-mail service. The service is provided by Google. The biggest and best feature of this service, is that one can do a keyword search. The second best feature of the service, is that users are given 1 Gigabyte of space to store their emails - that is a lot of space. So, let's say you've go a thousand emails tucked away in your Gmail account, you need to locate just one email that contains information about pineapples - you simply type in the keyword "pinapples" and "shazam", there's your errant email missive.
Click here to learn more about this new impressive service.
He's busted!
In breaking news, the author of the latest plague on the Internet - the Sasser Worm, has been caught. Yep, looks like a $250,000 reward was just too much for the hacker's friends to ignore. Now, they will be out spending the money - and he, well - the German teenager (18), could receive up to 5 years in prison. Hmm, I wonder if his buddies will save any of the reward money for him?
Click here to read the news story that I came across on the San Francisco Chronical Web site.
By the way, I've read at other Web sites - that this guy could also be the creator of the NetSky virus that began making its rounds a few months ago, and still probagates around the Internet.
An un-holy marriage:
Computer experts are predicting that the "Sasser Worm" and the "Netsky" virus could combine with each other and cause a major problem for computer/Internet users. And, just when we thought we were getting over the "Sasser" issue.
Click here for a breaking news story from Reuters.
Sasser Worm Fix Hoax:
If you receive an e-mail, purporting to have attached to it - the "fix" for the Sasser Worm; delete that e-mail and do not download or run that attachment. The attachment is actually a new variation of the Sasser Worm. You can
click here to read the Reuters news story about the hoax.
Sasser Worm fix available:
Click here to visit Symantec's Web site. There you will find instructions on how to run their Sasser Worm removal tool; and there is a link to the program on that page. You may not need to run the tool yourself - but a friend or family member may, you can download the file, burn it to CD ROM and then have it available if someone needs it.
More on the Sasser worm:
First of all, make sure you've run "Windows Update" on your computer - run it often to make sure that you always have the latest patches installed. Microsoft included the "fix" for the Sasser worm in their updates a few days ago.
Click here for more information about the worm - this time, straight from Microsoft. The link also provides access to an online scan of your computer to assure that the worm is not already present on your computer.
Worm Alert:
Click here to read about the "Sasser" worm which has been wrecking havoc in Taiwan since Friday, and is now quickly moving around the world. If you are not using anti-virus and firewall software - you may find yourself in serious trouble. I'll post more information on this "worm" as I come across it.
IRS warns of scam e-mail/Web site:
A new scam has been initiated, this one attempting to gain personal information by scaring individuals into believing that they are the subject of an IRS investigation. This is simply another attempt to get information that can be used to commit identity fraud.
Click here to read the press release from the IRS.
