The new vulnerability in the Symantec software is so huge, that you don’t even have to do anything for it to be exploited. This was discovered by Forrester Research. All a person needs to do to exploit this is create a RAR file and put it on a machine running the Symantec software. This effects both the Windows and Mac versions of the software. There is no 100% patch for the vulnerability yet, so the recommendation is that you turn off RAR scanning. This whole situation reminds me of the Russian matrioshka dolls. Symantec is supposed to be covering the users’ ass but who’s covering theirs? Read more »

Blizzard has shut down 18,000 accounts using illegal software to cheat in World of Warcraft. Some of the programs used collect items automatically, and advance the users’ status. After the stats on an account are built up, many sell their players on eBay. Doing to is a violation of Blizzard’s terms of service, and if you’re cought you will be banned. The game’s popularity probably will be a problem, as they are about to cross the 5 million user mark. Many of the bans were results of reports by WoW users sent by email. Advanced Economic Research Systems estimates that two-million dollars of WoW gold had been been sold as Read more »

Over the past year, Digg.com has been one of the fastest growing sites on the web. This summer, Digg 2.0 was released which helped to make the site more friendly to the non-geeky type by creating a nice clean web design, a friends list, and a report story feature. Their most recent update was one to Digg Spy, making it Digg Spy 2.0. It’s one of the most impressive Web 2.0 applications on the web right now. It allows you to monitor which stories are being dugg at the moment as well as reported, submitted, and commented on using these icons: Comment: New story: Reported story: Dugg story: You can Read more »

I saw this Saturday Night Live skit a few days ago, and I think it’s the funniest thing that’s been on SNL in a while. It’s a SNL “Digital Short” starring Andy Samberg, and Chris Parnell. The short consists of a rap song which discusses The Chronic ‘what’ cles of Narnia, how Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equals crazy delicious, etc… Just see it for yourself. If you don’t want to download the show from iTunes, you can watch it on YouTube. Read more »

I’ve been doing work on a website recently, and I try to always stick to standards set by the W3C. Sure, call me a perfectionist, but following these standards can warn you of possible display errors in the browsers you don’t use. To figure out if your site follows web standards, you can go here. I checked out a list of tech websites, to see if many sites adhered to the standards, the results are pretty surprising. Alienware – 48 Errors Apple – 6 Errors C|Net – 1452 Errors! The most! Del.icio.us – 21 errors Dell – 131 Errors Digg – 7 Errors Fedora – 1 Error GNU – Complete Read more »

Self-proclaimed “Lego Master”, Erik Varszegi has built an 8-foot long Rebel Attack Cruiser out of legos. The ship has been listed on eBay, and includes a Certificate of Authenticity signed by George Lucas. At the time of this posting the bid is already up to $31,000 with a total of 65 bids. The description on eBay – Give a gift of galactic proportions this holiday season to your favorite LEGO® Star Wars™ Fan! Own a one-of-a-kind 8-foot LEGO Rebel Attack Cruiser™ model designed by LEGO Master Builder Erik Varszegi exclusively for display at Star Wars Celebration III, San Diego Comic-Con, LEGOLAND® California and several other national LEGO events* to promote Read more »

Talk about a sense of humor, it appears some Middle Eastern root-kit writers have given their Christmas present to the world; “Mr. Bean”. This new attack on Windows computers downloads a copy onto the victim’s computer, and proceeds to download Mr. Bean, and Disney cartoons. Gee, thanks virus writers. Vital Security believes that this was just a test run, to see if the attack would work. They will probably start distributing real attacks sooner or later. Read more »

For anyone who is interested in programming video games, this is your opportunity to start. A programmer, Mark Trover, has put together an 11-part video tutorial on how to create a C++ RPG on Windows. The story – “An evil demon creature known as the wraith lord has taken control of the world. He controls a vast army of evil creatures who kill people for fun. You must rise against the wraith lord and kill all his minions.” The game consists of various locations, monsters, bosses, weapons, armor, spells, items, formulas, etc… Have fun. Read more »

A Chicago man who bought the Xbox 360 is suing Microsoft, over the largely publicized glitch that causes the 360 to freeze up and overheat. The lawsuit states that because of Microsoft’s eagerness to release the product before their competitors they sacrificed product quality, for money. Other problems include crashing during the use of the XBox Live service, screens going black, and error messages. A comment from Microsoft: “We have received a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected.” Read more »

It’s the 21st century, and with it has come some new ways of doing business. Google is showing that big billion-dollar businesses do not have to be bureaucratic. Google’s setup a sort of mini-democracy, where every employee has a say in how things are done. They are more concerned about the well-being of their engineers, than they are about their bankers or money managers. The CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has put together a summary of the way things at Google are done. Hire by Comittee Cater to their every need. Pack them in. Make coordination easy. Eat your own dog food Encourage creativity. Strive to reach consensus. Don’t be Read more »