Geek Court

Energizer Bunny Software Contains Malware

Edg3 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:56:00 +0000

Those of you who have been using the Energizer DUO might want to uninstall the included software. A blog post from Symantec has confirmed that the software that comes with the DUO USB battery charger contains a Trojan that can infect Windows computers. Once installed, the Trojan remains active even when the charger is not connected to the pc.

The software installs Arucer.dll which is a backdoor designed to accept connections via port 7777 and is capable of sending and receiving files, listing directories, and executing programs on the infected computer.

If your computer has been infected, uninstall the software and delete Arucer.dll located in the Windows system32 directory. Reboot your computer. If you can’t delete the file, try rebooting before attempting to delete the .dll. For added technical information, take a look at US-CERT’s advisory.

[Energizer Bunny Image Courtesy of DragoArt]

IE6 Bites The Dust — Finally

Edg3 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:37:01 +0000

It was bound to happen. Microsoft’s long suffering browser, Internet Explorer 6, was finally laid to rest. The funeral, facilitated by Aten Design, was an open casket affair. Check out pictures of the ceremony on Flickr. The obituary on the official page was short and sweet:

“Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.”

I wish we could put a few other apps to rest as well.

Open Hardware Monitor Shows You Everything Under The Hood Of Your PC

Edg3 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:35:00 +0000

When your computer starts acting weird and you suspect that it’s a hardware problem what do you do? Download different programs to check the various parts of your rig? Call the resident tech to take a look? If you think your computer has hardware problems, you only need one app to confirm your suspicion.

Open Hardware Monitor is a free Windows utility that shows you the current state of your hardware. The app displays fan speeds, load and clock speeds, voltages, temperature sensors, mainboard status, hard drive status, video card status, and CPU status. Users can choose what they want displayed and have the application minimized to the system tray. No installation needed.

The program is still in beta so there are bound to be bugs from time to time but definitely worth using.

Open Hardware Monitor runs on 32 and 64-bit Windows and requires .Net Framework.

Chuck Norris Botnet Brings The Pain To DSL Modems And Routers

Edg3 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:35:04 +0000

Those of you who have been too lazy to change the default password of your router might want to change it before Chuck Norris hits it. According to Czech researchers, the Chuck Norris botnet has been hitting DSL modems and routers that are not secure. This botnet behaves differently as it goes for modems and routers instead of attacking the PCs themselves. Infected routers go after other systems on the Web in a DDOS attack.

Why the name? Well, part of the malware’s commented code contains the phrase “in nome di Chuck Norris” or “in the name of Chuck Norris”, and we all know that Chuck can break anything right?

The botnet resides in the router’s RAM so a restart should get rid of it. To prevent infection, just make sure you have a good password preferably something different than the default one. Finally, what’s an article about Chuck without a picture right? Here you go.

[High Five to Robert McMillan]

The Easy Way Of Fixing Windows 7 Common Problems

Edg3 — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:08:35 +0000

Some of the more common problems when you’re a Windows user includes getting the task manager disabled, recycle bin not refreshing, and a lot more. Nothing really major since you can just search for fixes for each problem you encounter. The thing is, you’ll probably end up going to different sites just to find the solution. While the probability of getting hit with all the common issues of Windows systems at one time is remote at best, wouldn’t it be nice to have the fixes sitting in your hard drive just waiting to be used?

FixWin is a free troubleshooting app for Windows 7 and Vista and can fix 50 of the most common Windows 7 and Vista problems. The app detects which version of Windows you have and displays fixes for your version.

FixWin reminds you to create a Restore Point before applying any of the available fixes. The solutions are separated into 5 categories namely: Internet & Connectivity, Windows Explorer, Windows Media, System Tools, and Misc. Additional Fixes.

FixWin is a 529 KB download and is a portable app as well. Did I mention it’s free?

YouTube Adds Parental Controls With Safety Mode

Edg3 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:41:34 +0000

Popular video sharing site, YouTube, recently announced that it has finally added parental controls with its Safety Mode. The move is a clear indication of the service’s desire to placate the growing number of parents concerned about what their children view on the site. To access it, users will need to scroll down to the bottom of any YouTube page and look for the link at the bottom left corner of the page.

Not really hard to find but not instantly viewable either. Users can click on the link to activate the feature, or they can log into their YouTube account before turning on Safety Mode so the feature becomes the default setting for their account. Any search done once the feature is activated will filter results with violent or adult content.

How effective this will be depends on the parents and the age of the children browsing YouTube. Still, it’s a step in the right direction and some praise should be given to the site although they could make the link more visible by putting it on the top of each page.

Here’s a video of how YouTube’s Safety Mode works:

Minipad: Feature-Packed Notepad

Edg3 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:34:44 +0000

Minipad is not your typical freeware Notepad clone. Aside from the Notepad feature, the application comes with a calculator, a launcher, a dictionary, text template, reminder, enhanced clip board, and an address list. Impressed yet? If you want to disable some of the features, the options menu lets you choose which ones you want. Users can switch between the treeview or the multi-page style.

The download size is only 297KB and does not require installation.
Runs on Windows.

What Comes After The Touch Screen? Gesture Recognition.

Edg3 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:21:52 +0000

If you look at most of the newer phone models these days, you’ll notice that they have something in common. They’re all touch screens. Sure, the technology is definitely useful and has a lot of potential, but have you ever wondered what the next big thing will be? Two words: gesture recognition. Take a look at this next gadget to see what I mean.

The Gesture Cube is a multimedia cube that recognizes hand movements which means you can access applications and media without having to touch the screen. With a wave of your hand you can sort and view your collection of photos, organize and listen to your favorite MP3s, look up the local weather, and even do some instant messaging.

Here’s a video of the Gesture Cube in action:

Impressive really, but what’s even more impressive is the potential for gesture recognition. Think of a house with touch screen and gesture recognition gadgets and appliances and you get the idea. A true geek paradise.

Gesture recognition? It’s all in the wrist.

Psykopaint: Free Online Photo Painter

Edg3 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:46:33 +0000

There are quite a number of image editors available today. Some are free, and some cost an arm and a leg. Most people who have photos saved on their computer have most likely tried using some sort of photo editor to retouch their photos, or just to add some sort of effect. Regardless of which editor you’ve tried, there’s a good chance you haven’t tried this next editor I’m going to mention.

Psykopaint is a free online photo painting tool that will turn any image into a work of art. The application uses the color palette of your uploaded image to paint and comes with certain painting style presets like Monet, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, SpiderWork, and Graffiti. Standard adjustment sliders for contrast, brightness, hue, and saturation are available. If you’re expecting lots of tools and filters, this isn’t the app for you.

Not having tons of filters and effects, Psykopaint actually performs great with the tools it has. Brush size, alpha, glow, and shadow are included along with sliders for other effects.

Here’s a sample of the original image:

Psykopainted:

Pretty good right? The app will let you save your edited image as a PNG file. What are you waiting for? Get your photos psykopainted now.

Upload And Download Facebook Photo Albums With Ease

Edg3 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:30:05 +0000

If you’re a regular Facebook user, then you spend a lot of time looking through your friends’ photo albums and uploaded videos. If you’ve ever wished that you could browse through your friends’ albums without needing to be logged in you’re in luck.

Bloom is a free application that lets you upload or download photo albums and videos to and from Facebook. When you want to upload an album, just drag and drop pictures to Bloom, set who can access it, and you’re all set. As for downloading, just click on a friend and right click on any of their albums. It’s as simple as that. The app comes with a photo viewer so you don’t have to open a different program to view your downloaded photo albums.

Interestingly, the app seems to perform much better when downloading whole albums compared to single images. You can still download images one at a time but the process involves more steps. Well, it’s an album downloader after all. All in all, Bloom performs as advertised.

Bloom runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.