….millions of people depend on Windows Vista software. While Windows dominate the market, feedback about Vista has been less than impressive. One of the key reasons is the fact that while you may have a PC with the minimum system requirements, excess codes from its graphics and utilities would reduce the performance of your pc. Another irritating fact about vista is the fact that many applications cannot work without a vendor update. Imagine the horror one goes through when basic applications like anti-virus, CD burning tools and even browser tools like Firefox require updates to be able to work. To add to one’s misery, Vista is also a favourite target for malware authors!

Nightmare of Windows user

Besides that, Vista’s 64-bit versions complicate matters further by prohibiting any drivers besides the signed ones for kernel mode installation. Even via system administrators to override this feature is an uphill task. Another reason why Vista users are frustrated is the fact that it has a flawed memory protection system that can be easily bypassed! With a weak file backup, problems arise when you attempt to backup files unless it is thought to be part of the operating system.

Premium Price, Hopeless Performance

For the price paid, many of the features Vista offers to its users are a nuisance that do nothing but slow down the computer. These include the rather redundant Super Fetch and even background services like Web Client and PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator Service to name a few. It is rather amusing to know that the software has many features that makes it not only annoying but unproductive!

Last but definitely not the least is the fact that Vista is guarded by a rather severe licensing system that allows allows the transfer of the license only once. This is a fact that many of us overlook when reading the terms and conditions. Value for money? Likely not!

So goobye Windows Vista, so long, farewell, adieu… . RIP

When Malaysia set up the Multimedia Super Corridor, Tun Dr Mahathir guarantees that there will be no censorship whatsoever of the Internet. He has the foresight to understand that technology companies overseas such as Microsoft, Cisco and other Silicon Valley heavyweights are very sensitive about operating environments and wanted to remove as much barriers as possible in order to encourage foreign investments to flow into the country. Now it appears that under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib, all that will be undone.

The Internet Filtering system proposed by Malaysia will be at the gateway level. That means that Internet providers such as TM, P1 and Jaring will be forced to comply with the new legislation and implement the filters on their hardware. This is contrasted with China’s Green Dam, which aims to put filtering software on every computer and has so far been a failure. Unfortunately, this means Malaysia’s filtering system will be much easier to implement and enforce. Minister of Information, Communications and Culture, Rais Yatim, have also stated that his ministry will take over the content and monitoring division of such an initiative, giving the government direct access to what to block.

New media vs Old media

Critics say that the new filtering system will no doubt be used to filter out internet content that is critical of the ruling government. The Barisan Nasional has been in control of the country’s politics for 51 years and have faced great pressure during the last General Elections from the Opposition which have successfully used the ‘new media’ such as Blogs and Twitter to spread their message to people around the country, managing to deny the ruling BN a 2/3rd majority in 2008. Ever since, persistent attacks from the opposition have reduced the government to executing a series of very unpopular moves such as arresting and detaining bloggers and charging them in court for sedition. The war between the government and opposition seems to be heading towards another stalemate as the ‘old media’ have traditionally denied publishing opposition views and it seems soon the ‘new media’ will follow the same trend.

PM Najib rose quickly to shoot down allegations that the filtering will be used to censor the opposition, saying that the government still has no changes in policy and no censorship will be done. He added “however, we are still discussing the matter”.  There are already 4 proposals submitted to the government on the filtering system. A decision is expected to made in December regarding which system is to be used, in time for the High Speed Broadband rollout next year.

Once they successfully establish a connection to you and start downloading data, its pretty much an open and shut case when it goes to court in terms of evidence needed. They simply need to track your IP address, send a subpoena to the company providing you your Internet access to cough up your personal information. To combat this problem, a program called PeerGuardian2 (PG2) came along and promises to alleviate some of your headaches.

PG2 works by keeping a list of ‘blacklisted’ IP addresses that are known to belong to these organizations. If your computer attempts to make a connection to these blacklisted IPs, it will prevent the computer from actually completing the connection and thus save you a potentially hefty fine.

PG2 hasn’t been updated in awhile, so PeerBlock came along. It is based on the same source code of PG2, but with a few bugfixes to correct existing problems in PG2. The software is very easy to download and set up so give it a shot if you are looking to try and reduce your radar fingerprint on the copyright radar.

Another similar program is called Protowall. It works using the same concept as PeerBlock/PG2 but has an even more comprehensive lists that is maintained around the clock by armies of dedicated users. Their block lists includes AntiP2P organizations, Spyware, AD Trackers, Spam, and so on. These will ensure that your computer will never be allowed to establish a connection to blocked IP addresses to communicate with them.

Finally, a more complicated method involves running your BitTorrent trackers through the Tor network, although for most users this is quite a challenging task, with in-depth guides written about it such as the one available here. Anyway, most of the world has moved on to using file upload websites such as Rapidshare, Megaupload and so on. This next generation file-sharing service seems to be providing a viable solution to the problem of ‘throttled’ P2P traffic by internet providers and the fear of being caught using P2P software. Sites like Rapidshare are no different than an ordinary website and downloads are done through HTTP, so it is indistinguishable from legitimate surfing traffic. It remains to be seen whether P2P is able to offer this kind of protection soon before file sharing sites such as Rapidshare figure out a way to handle the problem of removing illegal content on their servers.

We often see in movies scenes, illogical sometimes, involving a person facing a problem of having to guess the password to the villian’s computer. Usually there are some creative ways employed that gives the hero inspiration for guessing the correct password, such as glimpses into the villian’s mind, piecing together clues and other literary licenses. However, in real life it’s not always the case.

Enter KON-BOOT.

For the first time, reality is better than fiction. By inserting this CD and booting the computer from it, the software dynamically patches the kernel of most major Windows and Linux operating systems allowing you to login as the administrator effortlessly. Once you are done, simply execute a command and KON-BOOT will wipe all traces of itself and your victim is none the wiser.

Head on over to the author’s website and snag a copy. It works for all versions of Windows up to 7. The author did not disclose much technical information on how KON-BOOT works, or whether it can be countered via a security fix by Microsoft. Whatever the case, feel proud knowing that you can PWN any password-ed computers you come across now.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has also gained some notoriety as of late due to their strongarm tactics to coerce universities and ISPs into giving up private data for use in prosecuting download of illegal copyrighted content. Their efforts have thus far been futile, garnering many criticisms and ridicule from netizens everywhere, and hilarious stories of how their tactics have led them to prosecuting dead people and toddlers who don’t know how to use a computer!

However, the fundamental problem remains that file sharing using Bit Torrent is something that can be traced and this is becoming a big fear as copyright holders start to demand private information to be released to aid them in their quest to prosecute. However, a solution may have arrived.

It comes in the form of an application called OneSwarm, developed by students at the Washington State University. Currently, it implements some unique features that make it capable of answering the problems laid in the opening paragraph of this post, which is privacy. It does so by routing data through multiple intermediaries in an overlay mesh, meaning to say it does about the same thing as what you see in the spy movies, where a telephone call is routed to various sites around the world to avoid being tracked.

The feature however works only for file sharing between friends, using OneSwarm’s Friend List feature. Although it can download files from Bit Torrent, the anonymous capabilities of OneSwarm do not currently extend here yet. However, as a proof of concept, it gives us an idea of how the future of Bit Torrent might look.

Anyway, Maybank2u now has this notice on the homepage.

Well, clicking on the login link will automatically direct you to the old login page.

So, what do you think? You prefer the old classic version which works, or the more fancy newer version?

1) My Lockbox

Let’s say that you’re like any ordinary computer user who like to bring files from your home to your workplace. These files usually consist of your family photos, videos, social security number (just in case you forget it), and other confidential files. Now, let say that a noisy jerk called a “co-workers” likes to spy on other co-workers by accessing their personal files. What are you going to do? Don’t fret! My Lockbox is here to help.

What’s My Lockbox? My Lockbox is a security software enabling you to password protect any folder on your computer! But, how will My Lockbox work? Simple, you just place any folder in the My Lockbox folder, set your password, and volia! The protected folder (lockbox) is hidden from any user and application of your system, including the Administrator and the System itself! It is impossible to access the lockbox not only from the local computer, but also from the net! My Lockbox Control Panel allows you to easily change basic lockbox parameters: lockbox location, protection status, and the password.

In addition, skinned user interface lets you choose from different skins to select the most comfortable look and feel of the software. You can even activate My Lockbox with a simple key-stroke! Trust me, once you have downloaded My Lockbox, you’ll wonder how life would be without it!

2) Avast Antivirus

Goodbye, Norton! Goodbye, Mcafee! Goodbye, every single overpriced antivirus software! There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Avast Antivirus! You know why I love this antivirus program so much? Avast is a multi-award winning solution to virus protection, with anti-spyware and anti-rootkit software built in for added security. The best part is that it’s free for non-commercial and home use.

Because of the program’s fast, automatic updates, you can see why avast antivirus is already being used by more than 50 million users worldwide to provide continuous protection against all forms of malicious software (malware). But that’s not all! Avast comes with an On Access Scanner that’s constantly protecting your computer from malicious malware and viruses! The setting for this On Access Scanner’s sensitivity can be adjusted, so you can download you videos, music, etc. in peace. Basically, the On Access Scanner is your firewall in some aspects.

Oh! How can I forget the main feature of the program; the antivirus feature! The antivirus feature will scan everything on your computer, and it rarely misses any viruses or malware. Avast can even scan your removable media to see if it has a virus inside!

So the next time you see someone shoving out $50 for a mediocre antivirus program, do me a favor; smack them on the head.

In this case the URL is so much longer and has a folder called “paypal.com” in it. Luckily Firefox is smart to sense that this is a fake or the so called phishing website and warned me just in time before I tried to sign in. If I was foolish or careless to enter my real Paypal username and password, those people who operate the phishing sites will have access to my account and all the money from my checking account and credit cards. Think about it also make me sweat!

Haha, no there is no free porn videos to download here, but I was surprised to see a lot of entries with the above catchy headline on Project Petaling Street (PPS) since a couple of days ago… and this went on until today! Clearly, this is a job done by some spammers on Malaysia’s most popular and most visited blog portal. Come on, PPS is undeniably one of Malaysia’s most visited website, why there is no moderator removing such spam entries and block them from happening again?

Glance through the latest entries and you will see the same spam entry was submitted every couple of hours. Looking at the time they were submitted, I guess it’s done through a cron job, i.e. automated submission. Now, I am a little impressed by this job. If this went on and nobody moderate this, I guess I want to do something similar too… haha… submit my blog entries to PPS every other hour to get more visitors!

PPS moderators, where are you?

Now, we all know about the licensing agreement that we have to agree to whenever we want to install a program right? It’s some long winded statements that tell us what we can’t do with the software and how we can be persecuted if we do this and that to the software. I don’t know precisely what it contains because I just never did have the time to bother to read them. I see a tick box and I ticked it, and then I press ‘Next’. Easy.

Well, looks like the malware and virus authors are lining up side by side with those legitimate software authors and companies with their licensing terms. They are now protecting their rights to their virus codes as well. Who would have thought? What an honest thing to do!

According to the news at wtopnews.com, there are professional virus authors out there that are selling a suite of software on the Internet with a highly unusual attachment; a detailed licensing agreement that promises penalties for redistributing the malicious codes without permission.

Okay, let’s take a step back now. If I were someone who wants to release a virus into the World Wide Web, what are the chances that I’d follow the agreement that came along with it? Will I or Won’t I?

The malware that came with the licensed agreement is a virus that infects computers to gain remote access to the computers. These computers will then be turned into ‘zombie’ computers and will be known as the bot nets. And apparently the authors put the following licensing terms (in Russian) in the software:

The Client:
1. Does not have the right to distribute the product in any business or commercial purposes not connected with this sale.
2. May not disassemble / study the binary code of the bot builder.
3. Has no right to use the control panel as a means to control other bot nets or use it for any other purposes.
4. Does not have the right to deliberately send any portion of the product to anti-virus companies and other such institutions.
5. Commits to give the seller a fee for any update to the product that is not connected with errors in the work, as well as for adding additional functionality.

And apparently, if the user violates any of the terms as above, the virus author will then report them (the user, not the author) to the antivirus company with the information on how to dismantle the user’s bot network and how to prevent it from getting bigger.

Needless to say, none of the antivirus companies have ever received any reports similar to the threat. It’s easy to threaten the users, but I don’t really see how the virus authors would make real of their promises. More salt on the authors’ wound, apparently the software is freely traded online. No justice for the virus coders?