Free Republic

FIGHTING BACK AT THE OUTRAGEOUS ATTACK ON A WAR HERO

In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate's savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. "She's a whiz on the keyboard, and I'm so laborious," McCain admits. ... Moving on to South Carolina, the McCain campaign tried to keep its Internet momentum going by hosting a...

A couple of days ago, I was greeted by a message on my Gmail login screen that says, "Sorry, your account has been disabled." I did click on an e-mail a day before that turned out to be a Google-related phishing attempt, but I of course did not enter any credentials or identifying info, or do anything that would provide assistance to the phisher. I have e-mailed Google and e-mailed Google, to no avail. I get absolutely nothing except canned responses. I have been through their "report" process, during which I enter numerous elements of information to prove that the...

The sound on my computer is not working properly. When I play mp3, mov, wav, wmv, wma, rm, and avi files, there is a beeping/crackling noise. Most of the time the jibberish noise is complete. Sometimes, a bit of the intended audio can be heard through the beeping/crackling. The only audio that plays well is from YouTube videos and .flv files. I have a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy sound card. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers for the sound card with no success. I have removed the sound card and reseated it with no success. My speakers are 6.1 Cambridge...

A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected. Orbital outbreak Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS....

I bought my laptop computer. Because I have some disability in my hands I am looking for a dock for it. I have found three docks from Targus, ACP 45, 50, or 60. The 60 is for big video issues. Looking around the internet the review are pretty grim. Amazon and CNET. Is there any black box that I can plug into my laptop that will let me plug in my all in one printer, my backup dooohicky (yes, after all those crashes you saved me from I finally have backup doohickies) My computer is a 64bit machine running Vista...

I have been hijacked by an adserver/virus. I am running AdAware, but does not fix problem. I consider myself tech-savvy, but this is ridiculous. Problem started this morninng, and occurs on FR, and any other website I visit. Any suggestions, or ideas? Thanks.

UPDATE .BIN error information... Aug 16th 2008Posted by: rdsok - Moderator (IP Logged) Date: August 17, 2008 12:07AM Currently the update for AVG Free v8 is corrupted... you will have to wait for AVG Technologies to address the issue with the update. Reporting the issue again by other users here will not do any good until it is resolved. The updates that your AVG currently have will still provide the protection it is setup to detect. In otherwords, not being able to get this update will not make your AVG Free ineffective and as soon as AVG Tech resolves the...

The Air Force on Monday suspended all efforts related to development of a program to become the dominant service in cyberspace, according to knowledgeable sources. Top Air Force officials put a halt to all activities related to the establishment of the Cyber Command, a provisional unit that is currently part of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, sources told Nextgov. An internal Air Force e-mail obtained by Nextgov said, “Transfers of manpower and resources, including activation and reassignment of units, shall be halted.” Establishment of the Cyber Command will be delayed until new senior Air...

Now being installed by a Japanese car manufacturer, the Accelerator Force Feedback Pedal (AFFP) gives warning of dangerous situations by vibrating and exerting counter pressure in the accelerator pedal. This should make the driver take his foot off the pedal and brake. With the aim of reducing accidents and CO2 emissions Continental's AFFP reaches market production for the first time. The system relies on warning the driver through sensory stimulation. The hazard warning is felt directly by the driver's foot, making him aware of the situation so that he can react. The pedal can also help to drive at...

A criminal gang is using software tools normally reserved for computer network administrators to infect thousands of PCs in corporate and government networks with programs that steal passwords and other information, a security researcher has found. The new form of attack indicates that little progress has been made in defusing the threat of botnets, networks of infected computers that criminals use to send spam, steal passwords and do other forms of damage, according to computer security investigators. Several security experts say that although attacks against network administrators are not new, the systematic use of administrative software to spread malicious software...

George Ledin teaches students how to write viruses, and it makes computer-security software firms sick.In a windowless underground computer lab in California, young men are busy cooking up viruses, spam and other plagues of the computer age. Grant Joy runs a program that surreptitiously records every keystroke on his machine, including user names, passwords, and credit-card numbers. And Thomas Fynan floods a bulletin board with huge messages from fake users. Yet Joy and Fynan aren't hackers—they're students in a computer-security class at Sonoma State University. And their professor, George Ledin, has showed them how to penetrate even the best antivirus...

Hackers are deluging web users with malware-laden spam claiming that World War III has started following a US invasion of Iran. Security experts warned today that spam emails with subject lines including 'Third World War has begun', '20000 US Soldiers in Iran' and 'US Army crossed Iran's borders' have been intercepted. The emails contain links to a malicious webpage that displays what appears to be a video player showing the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion. Text on the page reads: 'Just now US Army's Delta Force and US Air Force have invaded Iran. 'Approximately 20000 soldiers crossed the border...

Chuck Thacker is something of a hero in the world of technology yet outside of it, he remains a virtual unknown. Show people a photo of say Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and I bet quite a few people on the street will know who they are. Certainly they will have heard of them and probably have one or more of their products but Chuck Thacker is a different kettle of fish. And that's a shame given the influence he has had on so much of our lives. In short, Chuck is the man who essentially gave us the...

I could use some computer help please. I have a portable hard drive and am saving old photos previously saved on zipdisc (Iomega portable zip drive). I have 2 folders that show pictures (jpeg files which I know were Ok before). The details list shows the files and the bites are there on the zip disc but I cannot view them in thumbnail mode or move them, I get a prompt that says "cannot read" Any help rescuing these pictures would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

RPG game about Warsaw Risisng 05.07.2008 It was published by Bully Pulpit Games, in the US and designed by Jason Morningstar. It proved a huge success in America, though has not found its way to Poland yet. ‘Grey Ranks is a game for three to five players’, write the publishers, ‘that puts you in the shoes of child soldiers during the Warsaw Uprising. The game is designed to be played over three sessions and includes a scene structure, with each scene corresponding to a specific date in 1944. As the game progresses, success becomes increasingly difficult and the player is...

Windows XP updates are causing more and more problems with my laptop and I have Norton's Systemworks 2008, Systemworks Premier 11.0, and Ghost 12.0, as well as several other freeware programs. I believe that Microsoft is intentionally trying to destroy Windows XP with unstable patches and service packs, so as ... to sell their new operating system coming out soon. I'm seriously considering going to an Apple for my next computer, because I'm sick of Microsoft trying to squeeze more money out of me every two years, for a quote better system unquote. Am I wrong, or just too disgusted,...

Walk the halls of the computer science buildings on college campuses across the United States and you'll notice a peculiar thing: there are very few women. At a time when women are swelling enrollments in many other university departments, computer science is conspicuous for its lack of female students. Worse, percentages of female bachelor degrees earned in computer science are falling-down to 25 percent in 2004, the latest available figures, from a high of 37 percent in 1984. And all this is occurring at a time when National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to encourage women in the computer sciences --...

A child porn possession charge lodged against a Department of Industrial Accidents investigator fired for having smut on his state-issued laptop has been dismissed because experts concluded he was unwittingly spammed. “The overall forensics of the laptop suggest that it had been compromised by a virus,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley. Nationally recognized computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs told the Herald Michael Fiola’s ordeal was “one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen.” Loehrs, who spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense, explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was running corrupted...

Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts. One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the...