April 29th Show Recap & Links!

We finish up our conversation with Ted “The Shareware Man”. Plus we will cover the very exciting subject of Artificial Intelligence and more.

Download:
http://www.thetechnologygeeks.com/shows/042906.mp3

Links mentioned:
Spyware Quiz:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/quizzes/spyware_0306.html
Must have free software @ MajorGeeks.Com:
http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20
Startup List:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Startup_List_d4926.html

Feature:
We finish up our conversation with Ted “The Shareware Man”
· Plus: we will cover the very exciting subject of
o Artificial Intelligence. ( Jim insists he is real but we wonder ).
o From robotic cars to computers that can whip you at chess what’s out there now and where is the future headed.

o Check out our past shows on our website – http://www.thetechnologygeeks.com

Jim’s GEEK OF THE WEEK SOFTWARE PICK:
RssReader:
http://majorgeeks.com/RssReader_d5042.html

Website of the week.
- The Human Dog Years Calculator
- Again technology allows us another incredibly stupid experience.
- Have some fun getting dog-year and people-year translations.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/dogyears.htm

- Don't forget about FlatTim.com. It has officially launched and we will give away MajorGeeks.Com t-shirts for pictures we really like!

Announcements:

o Ted – “The Shareware Man” – Rozelsky, May’s guest speaker for the Central NY PC Users Group will be on air to talk about the upcoming CNYPCUG meeting being held on Monday, May 1, 2006 at the Liverpool Public Library beginning @ 6PM.
o May’s topic is “Barbarians at the Gates – Defending Your Digital Doman” - Ted –“The Shareware Man” – Rozelsky will take you on a security tour of your CyberCastle. You’ll learn: - where to look to discover your digital vulnerabilities. – How to identify the holes in your armaments – and plug them. – Plus much more.
o Members & non-members are requested to register to attend all meeting. Registration forms are available online at http://www.cnypcug.org/reserve.

o Of course your calls at 421-9325.

News Items Mentioned:

Phishers try a phone hook
http://news.com.com/Phishers+try+a+phone+hook/2100-7349_3-6066171.html
In a new twist on phishing, fraudsters are sending out e-mails that attempt to trick people into sharing personal information over the phone.
Cloudmark, a San Francisco-based e-mail security company, said it has seen two separate attacks this week. In both cases, the spammed message warns of a problem with a bank account and instructs the recipient to dial a phone number to resolve it, the company said in a statement published Tuesday.
The caller is connected to a voice response system that is made to sound exactly like the bank's own system, Cloudmark said.
"The phone system identifies itself to the target as the financial institution and prompts them to enter account number and PIN," Cloudmark said.

Calif. agency OKs broadband-over-power-lines test
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060427/tc_nm/utilities_broadband_california_dc
The California Public Utilities Commission approved a plan on Thursday allowing providers of high-speed Internet services to test electricity lines to deliver online access throughout the state.
CPUC commissioner Rachelle Chong, who drafted the plan, said broadband over power lines, or BPL, could become a new competitor to Internet services delivered via telephone, cable and satellites and help reduce prices for consumers.
BPL uses existing utility lines delivering power to neighborhoods to carry broadband signals into homes.
It has been touted by equipment makers and regulators as a possible competitor to cable and telecommunications services, which handle almost all of the roughly 40 million U.S. residential broadband connections.

Microsoft sneaks out piracy detection software
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2154885/microsoft-sneaks-piracy
Microsoft has included software in its latest batch of updates for Windows that checks whether copies of the operating system are legitimate.
Users who choose the Express Install option for Microsoft updates will automatically install the new program without seeing it listed.
However, if they are running a copy or other illegal version of Windows they will soon know about it.
"For customers who are running a non-genuine copy of Windows, the new feature will enable notifications directly to their desktop that the copy of Windows they are running is not genuine," said Microsoft in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060427/tc_cmp/186701259
Just 3 out of 100 Internet users are able to sniff out sites ready to drop spyware or adware onto their computers, security company McAfee said Wednesday.
In an online quiz run by McAfee's recently-acquired SiteAdvisor, a service that alerts users of possible spyware- and adware-infecting sites via search results at Google, Yahoo, and MSN, 97 percent of more than 14,000 consumers were fooled by one or more malicious sites.
"We know it's not easy to judge a site's safety just by looking at it, but that's the point: Bad sites are often very good at providing an aura of safety," said Chris Dixon, head of SiteAdvisor development, in a statement. "No matter how knowledgeable or perceptive you are, you can't rely on your instincts alone."
SiteAdvisor's quiz, first posted in March, asked users to spot the safe site from pairs in five Web categories: screensavers, smileys (emoticons), games, musical lyrics, and file sharing.
(MajorGeeks comes up as a safe site)

Texas Community College Bans MySpace.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060424/ap_on_hi_te/myspace_ban;_ylt=Al6ftoHbxVd5Pp4TX5K51oIjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
Del Mar College students now have to use computers outside the school's system if they want to visit the popular Web site MySpace.com. The community college has blocked the site in response to complaints about sluggish Internet speed on campus computers.
An investigation found that heavy traffic at MySpace.com was eating up too much bandwidth, said August Alfonso, the school's chief of information and technology. Forty percent of daily Internet traffic at the college involved the site, he said.

News Source: Email