Tech News Blog
1.28.05
New Worm Attacks Windows
A new attack on Windows systems may have already infected up to 8,000 computers according to a story carried by CNET. This worm is named “MySQL bot” and attacks Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. The worm cracks the system administrator’s password and then begins to take control of your machine.

Bagle is Back
The Bagle worm is back just like a bad dream that you keep re-visiting. According to PC World, the new versions have been given the name Bagle.AZ, and the worm is spreading across the globe. A copycat version dubbed Bagle .AY has also appeared. The naming of these plagues is a source of confusion as some of the security firms refer to these worm as the “Beagle” family of viruses.

A Few Issues With Apple’s Security Update
MacFixIt is reporting that some people have had problems installing the recent Apple update using Software Update. If you are experiencing this type of issue, you can visit the Apple software download page and then download the ‘standalone’ 2005-001 update. Other reports regarding the update include slow startup of applications like Mail. app and problems with Safari. The article also reminds Apple users about the best technique for installing updates. Remember to repair Disk Permissions. I have not installed the update on any of my Macs because of time constraints.

Tips for Linux Newbies
If you are looking for a how-to on migrating to Linux, PC World has a great article published this week. I found the link to this story from Linux Today.

Open Source Update
The following open source systems have updates available according to Secunia: Debian (1, 2, 3), Gentoo, Red Hat, and SuSE.

Apple Tip of the Day: Apple Won’t Go
Today’s tip is the type of thing you need to know about before the situation occurs, how to make your Mac go when it does not start up. Apple provides various fixes at the Apple Support site and if you do not read it now, you will not know what to do if the day comes that your computer does not start.

PC Tip of the Day: Command Line 411
The PC tip of the day is a listing of all the command lines for Windows. Microsoft also provides an explanation of the command and a sample of the code most often associated with the command.

What is a Ping?
We wrap-up the week’s definitions from Wikipedia with following: “ping is the name of a computer network tool used on TCP/IP networks (such as the Internet). It provides a basic test of whether a particular host is operating properly and is reachable on the network from the testing host. It works by sending ICMP packets to the target host and listening for replies; its operation is analogous to active sonar in submarines, in which an operator issues a pulse of energy (a network packet) at the target, which then bounces from the target and is then received by the operator, hence the name.
The tool was written by the late Mike Muuss.
The usefulness of ping in assisting the diagnosis of Internet connectivity issues was impaired from late in 2003, when a number of Internet Service Providers filtered out ICMP Type 8 (echo request) messages at their network boundaries. Internet worms such as Welchia flooded the Internet with ping requests as they sought to locate new hosts to infect, causing problems to routers across the Internet.
Related network tools include traceroute and on unconventional Windows operating systems, pathping.”

Tech News Blog
1.27.05
Beware of Phony Microsoft Email Message
CNET was on the receiving end of an email message/phishing attempt that used this message line: ‘MS Window/ Critical Error’. As usual, numerous mistakes in the text of the message help reveal the true nature of the message. Microsoft never sends updates via email. To update any MS product you will need to visit their web site, or have your box configured to download updates automatically.

Missing Data from iDisk Account
Apple notified .Mac users of a routine system maintenance event that was scheduled for this past weekend and somewhere in the process, something malfunctioned resulting in lost data for some .Mac users. If you try to synchronize your Mac with the iDisk and receive error –39, error –43, or Error= 49 messages you may have a problem. Visit MacFixIt and post your issues if you are having similar conflicts. Unfortunately, Apple no longer provides phone support for the .Mac accounts.

What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been
If you followed the route chosen by Microsoft’s MapPoint for travel between two cities in Sweden, it really would be a long and strange trip; one that leads through Germany, London, and the U.K and then back to Sweden. Check out the map at CNET.

Open Source Updates
Secunia announced updates for these open source systems: Fedora (1, 2, 3), Conectiva (1, 2), Debian, Mandrakelinux (1, 2), and Gentoo.

Apple Tip of the Day: Start in the Safe Mode
There are times that you need to start your Mac without all the normal startup programs firing up too. To start in the safe mode hold down the shift key when you hear the startup chime. Visit the Apple web site to learn more about this issue.

PC Tip of the Day: Start in Safe Mode, Too
PC users can start their Windows machine in the safe mode by pressing F8 while the machine is starting up. Microsoft has more on the subject at their web site.

What is an IP Address?
Wikipedia has the following for the is definition of the day, “An IP address is a unique number, akin to a telephone number, used by machines (usually computers) to refer to each other when sending information through the Internet using the Internet Protocol. This allows machines passing the information onwards on behalf of the sender to know where to send it next, and for the machine receiving the information to know that, it is the intended destination.
An example IP address is 207.142.131.236. Converting to such numbers from the more human-readable form of domain addresses, such as www.wikipedia.org, is done via the Domain Name System. The process of conversion is known as resolution of the domain name.”

Tech News Blog
1.26.05
Lineage Gamers Beware
The security firm Sophos is reporting a new worm dubbed LegMir-Y is targeting gamers playing the online fantasy game Lineage. The report carried by CNET states that the Trojan horse attempts to obtain sensitive information from players and can disable any security software running on their PC.

Apple Releases Security Update
Apple announced the release of Security Update 2005-001 for the Panther and Jaguar operating systems (OS X 10.3.7 and 10.2.8, respectively). For a detailed report on this update you can visit MacFixIt and for an overview of the patch surf to the article in CNET. Many experts like Sean King from Your Mac Life (catch the show Wednesdays evenings) recommend waiting seven days before installing these patches in case of problems. I will monitor MacFixIt for any conflicts and keep you posted. If you decide to install the update, remember to repair permissions first, backup, and disconnect any Firewire devices before installation.

Pirated Windows Won’t Get Patches
PC World reports that Microsoft is lowering the boom on pirated copies of XP and the company will start requiring verification of ownership before allowing updates to be downloaded. The program will begin in three countries and expand to the rest of the world by mid-year according to an article on the same subject in CNET.

Free Download From Apple iTunes
You can download a free tune by Ellie Larson (no relation) from the Apple iTunes Music Store. Just click on the iTunes logo to the left and download the song available to Multiple Platforms users.

Recover Music from iPod
Kirk McElhearn, Apple author and Mac guru, has a great how-to article on recovering your audio files from an iPod in the event of an accident on your computer. Visit Kirkville for the scoop on this handy tip.

Apple Tip of the Day: Convert Audio Files
You can convert audio files and reduce the file size at the same time using the built-in capabilities of iTunes. First, open the program and follow this path: iTunes/ Preferences/ Importing. Then from the drop-down menu for the field ‘Import Using’, choose the encoder option of your choice. From the drop down menu for ‘Setting’, you can choose the quality of the encoding. You can leave the other boxes on their default settings or change them if you desire. Now go to the file that you want to convert, right-click then select ‘Open With’ and choose iTunes. The file will open in iTunes and then you need to select ‘Advanced’ from the toolbar. You will see an option that will allow you to convert the file to the format you selected during the preference setup. If you selected the WAV option, you will see ‘Convert Selection to WAV’ double-click on that and the file will begin to convert (you will see the activity icon in the source column. When it is done converting, right-click on the file in the Song Name field and selects ‘Show Song File’. You will then see the converted file with the new file extension. Then you can move the file to the desktop or wherever you store your music files.

PC Tip of the Day: Convert Audio Files, Too
PC users can use the free iTunes program to convert audio files too, and this was recently a question from a Multiple Platforms reader. For the complete directions, visit our ‘Answers’ page.

What is a Host Name?
According to Wikipedia, “A hostname (occasionally also, a site name) is the unique name by which a computer is known on a network. The hostname is used to identify a particular computer in email, Usenet news, or other forms of electronic information interchange.
On the Internet, a hostname is an ASCII string, e.g. ‘en.wikipedia.org’ that consists of a local part ("en") and a domain name ("wikipedia.org"). The hostname is translated into an Internet address either via the /etc/hosts file, NIS or by the Domain Name System (DNS) or resolver. It is possible for one computer to have several hostnames (aliases) though one is designated as its canonical name.
It is often possible to guess a hostname for a particular institution. This is useful if you want to know if they operate network services like anonymous FTP, World-Wide Web or finger. First try the institution's name or obvious abbreviations thereof, with the appropriate domain appended, e.g. ‘mit.edu’. If this fails, prepend ‘ftp.’ or ‘www.’ as appropriate, e.g. ‘www.data-io.com’. You can use the ping command as a quick way to test whether a hostname is valid.
The folklore interest of hostnames stems from the creativity and humor they often display. Interpreting a site name is not unlike interpreting a vanity license plate; one has to mentally unpack it, allowing for mono-case and length restrictions and the lack of white space. Hacker tradition deprecates dull, institutional-sounding names in favor of punchy, humorous, and clever coinages (except that it is considered appropriate for the official public gateway machine of an organization to bear the organization’s name or acronym). Mythological references, cartoon characters, animal names, and allusions to SF or fantasy literature are probably the most popular sources for site names (in roughly descending order). The obligatory comment is Harris's Lament: ‘All the good ones are taken!’”

Tech News Blog
1.25.05
Latest Patch Still Not a Fix
Security experts claim that the latest patch issued by Microsoft has not fixed all the issues. A problem still exists with the ActiveX component of Internet Explorer. Crackers could take advantage of this hole to place spyware on your PC according to a story carried by CNET. You can take this security worry of your list if you stop using Internet Exploder and switch to another browser like Firefox from Mozilla.org/.

Crackers Find New Targets
PC owners are not the only targets of crackers and Computerworld has a story on the latest objective, breaking into phone networks to steal our sensitive information. The avenues of entry are varied and one expert said securing sensitive information in this manner was like ‘stealing candy from a baby’. The information obtained is generally sold by the cracker to a third-party that uses the information to ruin innocent peoples credit and lives.

Ready to Strike Back at Spammers
Project Honey Pot is after spammers that use a technique called email address harvesting and their efforts are but one of those reported on at the Spam Conference at MIT according to Wired. Those attending the conference included an executive from Microsoft and the presentation of several academic papers on the subject of spam. Project Honey Pot has been successful in gathering information that is used to prosecute spammers for their activities. The key to the project is a trap set within a web site to snare spammers and does not effect how the web site appears to the normal visitor.

Thirteen Ideas for Using Mac Mini
O’Reilly Network is a great web site for technical information and they have the link for a story carried by Technology Review.com regarding thirteen ways you can use a Mac mini. Some of the suggestions are interesting including using the mini as a SCADA system (Systems Control and Data Acquisition) to control monitoring systems, and as a hardware firewall for laptops. The article also cites our idea of using a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch and use the Mac mini to start living in a Multiple Platforms world.

Open Source Updates
Secunia has released bulletins for these open source systems: Gentoo (1, 2, 3), Mandrake (1, 2, 3, 4), Debian (1, 2), SuSE and Fedora.

Apple Tip of the Day: Compress a File
Today the tip is from the Apple Pro Tip of the Week and provides instructions on how to compress a file. The end of the tip has another handy item, just double-click on a zip file and Panther will automatically open the file.

PC Tip of the Day: Format iPod for PC
The PC tip of the day is for iPod owners that want to format the music player to work on a PC and you can switch formats on an iPod by following this technique. The first step is to load the iPod Updater and the instructions from the Apple site have similar directions for both platforms.

What is DNS?
Wikipedia has this definition for DNS, “The Domain Name System or DNS is a system that stores information about host names and domain names in a kind of distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. Most importantly, it provides an IP address for each host name, and lists the mail exchange servers accepting e-mail for each domain.
The DNS provides a vital service on the Internet, because while computers and network hardware work with IP addresses to perform tasks such as addressing and routing, humans generally find it easier to work with host names and domain names, for example in URLs and e-mail addresses. The DNS therefore mediates between the needs and preferences of wetware and of software.”

Tech News Blog
1.24.05
Internet Explorer Loses More Users
Internet Explorer continues to lose their share of the browser market according to a report carried by PC World. Most switchers cite the continuing security threats aimed at IE as the reason for moving to an alternative browser. Leo Laporte, The Tech Guy on KFI mentioned on his Sunday show that IE is no longer the dominant browser used by visitors to his web sites. At Multiple Platforms.com, IE is still the number one browser, but their dominance is diminishing. Here are the top ten browsers used by visitors to Multiple Platforms: MS Internet Explorer 46.7 %; Mozilla 16.2 %; Safari 14.2 %; OmniWeb 10.2 %; Unknown 8.4 %; Netscape 2.9 %; LibWWW 0.3 %; Opera 0.2 %; Firebird 0.1 %; Konqueror 0.1 %. By comparison, the statistics from my other web site CaliforniaFairsandFestivals.com reveal that a whopping 78%of the visitors continue to use Internet Explorer. The two possible explanations for this discrepancy are more Apple and open source users visit this web site because of the Multiple Platforms theme, and return visitors to this site have been heeding our cry regarding switching to a safer browser like Firefox from Mozilla.org/.

Targets Sells Mac mini
How mainstream is the Mac mini? You can now order the latest Apple offering from Target’s online store according to MacNN. Several other web sites that carried this story had input from readers regarding discounts available from Target applicable to the Mac mini. If you are interested in ordering a Mac from Target, please help support this web site and order your new computer through our Target link to the right, thanks!

Switching as Told by Linux Newbie
I have featured articles from tech experts making the change between open source systems, but the author of the article highlighted by LinuxToday is more characteristic of you and me. This Linux newbie gives some valuable insight to those contemplating a switch to the open source world.

New Podcast Tomorrow
I will have a new podcast ready for release tomorrow. Have you checked out the podcasts yet? Just click on the podcast logos below or on the archive page to hear an mp3 recording from this web site.

Have A Question?
Do you have a computer problem that is bugging you? My original intention for establishing this web site was to help people use their computers more effectively. If you are having a computer experience that is less than satisfying because of a bug or annoyance, email me and let me try to solve your problem. It worked for these visitors: “Yet again, you have got it sorted!! I am very impressed!!” and “You have got my iPod working again...Thanks a million for your help...I can barely express how gracious I am…”

Open Source Updates
Secunia has released the following updates and security bulletins for open source systems: Gentoo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), SuSE, and Red Hat.

Apple and Windows Tip of the Day: Restore iPod
The Apple and Windows tip of the day is for owners of iPods that might need to restore their music player to the factory settings. The Apple web site warns of the differences between an update and restore. The latter is a rather drastic measure that erases all your songs and files and you should back them up before attempting to restore the iPod. Most often, you are going to restore the settings when something you did not expect has occurred and you might not have the opportunity to backup first. Learn how to accomplish the restoration with either platform, visit the Apple web site.

What is a Domain Name?
This week we will focus on web related terms for the subject of the ‘what is’ section and Wikipedia has this definition for domain name: “A domain name is the unique name of a computer on the Internet that distinguishes it from the other systems on the network.
Every website, email account, etc, on the Internet is hosted on at least one computer (server). Each server has a unique IP address that is nothing but a set of numbers, such as ‘207.142.131.235’. To access a particular Internet service, one can specify its IP address in an appropriate application, such as an FTP client; however, because it is difficult to remember numbers, an IP address can be associated with a fully qualified host name (a domain name), such as "www.wikipedia.org". Domain names also provide a persistent address for some service when it is necessary to move to a different server, which would have a different IP address.
Each set of letters and numbers between the dots is called a label in parlance of the domain name service (DNS). There are some rules about the size and make up of labels. Each must start with a letter or number, and then may be made up of letters, numbers, and hyphens, to a maximum of 63 characters. These are the rules imposed by the way names are looked up ("resolved") by DNS. Some top-level domains (see below) impose more rules, like a minimum length, on some labels. Fully qualified names are sometimes written with a final dot.
Translating numeric addresses to alphabetical ones, domain names allow Internet users to localize and visit websites. Additionally since more than one IP address can be assigned to a domain name, and more than one domain name assigned to an IP address, one server can have multiple roles, and one role can be spread among multiple servers.”