The message wants the reader to update their browser. It includes a link on how the reader could do that.

The author of the article notes that the link takes the reader to a website which has a very similar domain name to the official site and only has a one letter difference. The “Upgrade Certificate” that the site wants the visitor to install is actually a banking trojan.

Source: F-Secure

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Standard Bank Spam

“They don’t want to spend time to learn it, so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks,” said Andy Tung who is the MSI Director of U.S. Sales.

Some blogs pointed out that Tung’s figures may be based on earlier MSI  notebooks, not on Linux-based netbooks.

Source: DesktopLinux

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Notebooks w/ Linux OS

If you are certified and self employed you can hang them on your workshop walls to impress clients but keep in mind it isn’t the testing you had to go through to achieve that certification they are seeing, they are seeing that you look like you know what you are doing, even if they have no idea what they mean. So again, how you look is more important than your certifications.

I see thousands of clients throughout the year and you know how many of them asked what my qualifications were this year? Three of them, and they were all large businesses. When I did tell them my qualifications their eyes glazed over like I was talking another language. They had no idea what it meant, but it sounds good.

I’ll look at this from a clients perspective. The other day, I had a plumber come fix my toilet because part of the flushing mechanism was broken. When he arrived, I dint ask him his qualifications were before he started work. I don’t really care. I just want him to do the job properly. If I had asked and he told me, would I know what they meant? Probably not.

To work on your look as a computer technician, I highly recommend you get a uniform of some kind. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy with your logo embroidered everywhere on it. Just something that looks professional that you can wear to jobs. People like the consistency.

Having a uniform also makes it easier to charge more. Think of it like this, whats the difference between a $100 per night hooker and a $5000 one? A nice dress, nice shoes and a few more teeth but the service is still the same. One just looks more professional/classy and therefor can charge more.

Geeksquad are the masters of this with their whole secret agent look. Most of us have heard about their questionable technical skills but their secret agent outfit still manages to give them a level of respect with new clients, whether deserved or not.

What do I wear to jobs? I wear a nice pair of dress shoes, a black long sleeved collared shirt, nice jeans and a black technician bag and laptop cover to match.

I understand I may receive a fair bit of flak by posting this because qualifications are an important if you want to work for someone else. However, as a freelancer most clients just don’t care nor do they know what it means. What does CCNA mean to a client? If you told them that it stands for “Cisco Certified Network Associate” you will probably hear them ask “Whats a Cisco?”.

What do you guys think? Are you ever asked about your certifications?

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How You Look Is More Important Than Your Certifications

So, I bought a Power Supply Tester specifically designed to test computer power supplies and I am very happy with it. Heres why:

The brushed aluminium case also protects it well since my technician bag tends to get knocked around a fair bit.
Definitely worth the $23.99 to save you time in diagnosing power problems and potentially damaging your test parts with a bad power supply. Even if it saves only one motherboard, it pays for itself.

You can get them for $23.99 at Xoxide.

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Power Supply Tester

The company just found out that a text-filter which was designed to block conversations containing sensitive keywords had been altered. The alteration caused the software to store and log conversations.

They apologised and said the filter was altered “without our knowledge or consent.”

Researchers from Citizen Lab which is based at the University of Toronto found that some of the keywords that were censored and logged are Falun Gong, democracy, and milk powder.

Source: The Register

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Skype Surveillance in China

“As more customers make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment,” said the spokeswoman via email.

Previously, the last date that computer makers could include Windows XP Pro on their systems is January 31, 2009.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD

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XP Extension

The article includes four screen shots. The first one shows the box and the supposed features of the software such as Removes temporary files and Eliminates evidence of any adult websites. The second one shows a section called “Really legal stuff” which is like the EULA of softwares. The author of the article notes that the software’s statements are very similar to another scareware called Antivirus XP 2008.

The author mentions that a search for “really legal stuff” will return results that are not safe for work.

Source: F-Secure

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WinDefender 2008

The message notes that users will receive 250 Euros worth of “loyalty bonus”. The blog entry included screen shots of the message and the website that it leads to. The message is written in Italian language. The link goes to a compromised domain and the author notes that the phish resides in a second domain which users will arrive at after an HTTP redirect.

The phish site has been taken down but the link in the message redirects to another compromised site.

Source: Sophos

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Italian Bank Phish

A typical setup that a technician would have with WPI is to have their OS files and the applications/tweaks on one disk. Once Windows finishes installing, WPI will install the applications such as AVG, FoxIT Reader, Flash etc.. without any input from you. Or, you can make it so you have a choice by clicking checkboxes based on what you want to install.




At first, the applications looks a little overwhelming to use but its not that hard once you get to used to it.

To begin, download the application here and extract it somewhere. I found it easier to extract it to c:\WPI because it helps a little later on.

Find the applications you want this GUI to install such as Firefox and save it in c:\WPI\Install\

Once extracted, navigate to that folder and open the WPI.hta file and it will launch a WindowsXP-Installer-Like interface. Click Config on the right hand side.

Down the bottom, click “New Config” and overwrite the config.js thats already there. eg. C:\WPI\WPIScripts\config.js

In the name field, enter the name of the application. In my example, I wrote “Firefox”.
In the description, just enter the description of Firefox.

I recommend unticking the “Default” checkbox if you want the ability to choose what you want to install. If default is ticked you will have no choice to install Firefox every time WPI is run.

In the Category dropdown you can leave it as Applications for now. However, you might want to change it when you add different installers.

In Command 1, click the picture of the folder on the right hand side and find the Firefox installer in your Install folder. It will fill out this field with something like this: “%wpipath%\Install\firefox.exe”

If you want Firefox to install silently without the prompts, you can change it to:
“%wpipath%\Install\firefox.exe” /S

You can leave the rest blank and press the “Add” button up the top. Add as many applications as you want and when you are done be sure to press the “Save” button down the bottom.

Press the Red X next to the Exit text in the bottom right hand side.

Now, next time you run the WPI.hta file it will have the options you just made.

This is just a basic guide to get you started. If you go into Options there is are a lot more tweaks you can do such as adding music while the installer runs or have it restart the computer once everything is finished.

The application has good documentation so to find out more such as how to slipstream it to a XP cd or make it autorun, press the Manual button inside the application or goto C:\WPI\Manual\en\index.html

Screenshots:

Downloads:
Download from Official Site - 3.20mb

More Information

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Repair Tool of the Week: Windows Post Install Wizard

Better instant messaging alerts are also implemented to fix the problem that people have since they complained that they were unaware that people were trying to contact them when they turned off their alerts that show messages in their screens. Now, users will receive a pop up in the system tray when they receive IMs.

This beta version will be downloadable starting tomorrow.

Source: eWeek

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Skype 4.0 Beta 2