Nigerian Crooks Move South
The fraudsters seem to have moved (or pretended to have moved) to South Africa. But their e-mail comes from Mexico but carries an address in Venezuela. They send an attachment that you need Word to open and then use such garish colors that you'd swear the thing was written by a first grader. Seriously, does anyone fall for these things?
Click any of the images here for a full-size view.
Here's the message that was in my inbox. It claims a Venezuelan address, but the actual address is in Mexico. Of course, it didn't come from either address. Except for "OPEN ATTACHMENT", there is no message. Now what kind of fool would open an attachment from an unknown person? (And don't look at me that way.)
First of all, the attachment claims to be an RTF document. That's the word processor interchange format. It's all ASCII text, if I can believe the extension, so it can't harm my computer. But I don't believe the extension. Instead, I first opened the file in Ultra Edit, to confirm that it's really not a Word file with a nasty macro hiding behind what claims to be an RTF file. The image at the left shows that it is indeed just a plain RTF document. Safe to open in Word.
So what's the "offer"? It's a typical Nigerian scam, but look at the colors. Bright blue and garish purple. Would anyone who got this far actually believe any of what the writer said? It seems that my "IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IS NEEDED TO EXECUTE THIS URGENT DEAL."
The telephone number at the bottom of the letter has a country code of 27, which is South Africa, but that's about the first, last, and only bit of truth in the document.
The letter tells me, "I AM THE BRANCH MANAGER OF A SECURITY COMPANY IN SOUTH AFRICA WITH THE NAME MR. SAMUEL JINO." I have to wonder what the writer's name is because he's told me the the company's name is "MR SAMUEL JINO" or maybe that was just a "dangler". The company that employs him has had a consignment package in storage for quite some time and wants to get rid of it.
The writer, being far more clever than his employers, was able to discover the owner: "FROM EVERY STUDIES AND INDICATIONS, WE FOUND-OUT THAT THE CONSIGNMENT BELONGS TO ONE DECEASED (MR. MOHAMMED AGHAWAL) OF PAKISTAN WHO DIED IN JAIL OF DRUG TRANFFICING OFFENCE."
Of course, our dear correspondent then "DECIDED TO CONFIDENTIALLY UNLOCK THE CONSIGNMENT" and he found that "IT CONTAINED RAW CASH." I suppose this is better than cooked cash or chopped liver. Then my correspondent tells me that I can claim "US$12,000,000. [Twelve Million United State Dollars]" if I simply claim to be the next of kin "TO THE DECEASED PAKISTANI DRUG LORD WHO DIED IN JAIL." (Nice hook: What patriotic American would feel bad about stealing the ill-gotten gains of some bastardly Pakistani drug "tranficker"!)
If I want 30% of the $12 million "United State Dollar", I simply need to provide "[1] YOUR FULL NAME, [2] YOUR PHONE AND FAX NUMBER, [3] YOUR HOME ADDRESS FOR DELIVERY, [4] YOUR AGE, [5] YOUR OCCUPATION." And then "AS SOON AS THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS RECEIVED, WE SHALL COMMENCE DIPLOMATIC CARGO OF THE CONSIGNMENT TO YOUR DESTINATION."
My correspondent's claimed e-mail address is "samueljino0002@terra.com.ve", so I might possibly wonder why someone from South Africa has a Venezuelan e-mail address but a South African telephone number.
Do I expect to become extremely wealthy in the next few weeks? Did I reply to the message? In a word, no.
ThumbsPlus 8 Looks Like a Plum
ThumbsPlus is one of those applications that sees use every week as I work on accounts for TechByter Worldwide because it makes the process of creating the small images I use on the page and the larger images that pop up when you click the small image easy. But that's just the beginning. ThumbsPlus has continued to evolve with each new version and even though I usually avoid installing or reviewing beta applications, I'm breaking that rule for ThumbsPlus 8, but I installed it on a notebook computer.
Why not the desktop? Well, I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. The beta software arrives with a stern warning: This is beta software. Do not expect it to be complete, and do not use it for production work! Beta software usually "times out" and stops working. Beta #1 did that and, although Cerious Software quickly issued a patch that allowed it to continue working during the few weeks required to complete beta #2, this could have been a serious problem had I installed it on my production machine. As of now they're at beta 3 and a lot of new features are working, but some are not. This review is based primarily on the second and third beta versions of ThumbsPlus 8.
Click any of the images here for a full-size view.
New in Version 8
The default interface is now dark. This is a particularly good choice when dealing with photographs because it allows the user to concentrate on the photo, not the interface. The screen shot shown here shows the application's ability to preview typeface files in addition to photos and some movie files.
Support for Adobe's Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP), a labeling technology that allows users to embed information about an image in the file itself. This kind of information is known as metadata. Because all Adobe applications understand XMP, important information about an image can be carried through the entire design, development, and production process.
The ability to rotate to a reference line is new and it's a high-end feature that's a bit surprising to find in ThumbsPlus, which I've generally considered to be a graphics utility. This is the kind of feature I would expect in Photoshop. It works this way: Consider the image at the left. It's an image I happened to run across and found enjoyable. It is not my image and unfortunately I can't credit the photographer. The image is framed properly as is, but maybe I want the frame of the bus to be horizontal. So I select rotate to line and I'm prompted to draw a reference line on the image. You can see this above at the right. Rotating the picture leaves a lot of black around the picture, so I'll have to crop it.
Cropping is easy, too. Just select an area and choose Crop to Selection from the menu. Now the but appears to be going up hill and the frog man's splashes are all but obscured. The original was a better image than my rotated and cropped image, which just goes to show that a good tool in the wrong hands can ruin things.
The ability to edit XMP and EXIF data. EXIF is a more standard method of storing metadata in a file.
EXIF data may be embedded in JPEG, TIFF (starting with v.6), and RIFF WAV file formats. EXIF is not supported by PNG, GIF, or JPEG 2000 formats. Virtually all camera manufacturers embed EXIF data in their cameras' images.
Unicode is now supported. This is not a particularly important feature for users in English-speaking countries where all needed alphabet letters are defined by the ASCII standard, but Unicode is becoming the standard for computer applications because it represents text from languages that use other character sets. Unicode can represent most of the world's writing systems because its character set includes more than 100,000 characters.
The ability to back up its own database. This is relatively unimportant if you have a good backup system in place. If you don't, it's at least a first-line defense against problems caused by a corrupted database.
The ability to view FTP sites in the tree is promised, but not yet working. This will be a helpful feature when the application is released.
Improved user interface and additional options for the user to customize the interface, along with the ability to select an appropriate color rendering model.
Based on an early look at what the new version of Thumbs Plus 8 will be able to do, I predict that users will welcome the new look and the new features.
Renaming Your Computer
A listener was having a problem with his computer: "I agree with backing up and purchased a Seagate external hard drive (you recommended). It works fine for the desktop. When I got my laptop, I used '&' in the name (when setting it up) and it will not work because of that. So I need to rename the laptop. But have not been able to find out how to do this. Can you lead me to a link that will explain how to do this."
Click any of the images here for a full-size view.
Right-click My Computer on the desktop and choose Properties. If you don't display My Computer on the desktop, choose System from the Control Panel. >
< Select the Computer Name tab, then click Change.
Type the new name, then click OK until you've closed all the windows. You may need to reboot the machine for the change to be effective.
That was my first answer, but it turned out to be the wrong answer: "Sorry to be a pain. That is not the name I need to change. When you get a new computer, windows asks you to name it. That is the name I need to change. I named ours Mark & Mary Ann's. The "&" is causing the problem."
Ah, that name. That's a bit more difficult and you'll need to edit the registry. Actually, there are two possibilities here: You may be wanting to change the registered user or the account name. Here are instructions for both.
Start, Run, type regedit, and click Run. Needless to say, be very careful in the Registry.
Click on the plus sign [+] next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to expand that section.
Then click on the [+] next to Software to expand that section.
Then click on the [+] next to Microsoft to expand that section.
Then click on the [+] next to Windows NT to expand that section.
Then click on the folder titled Current Version. Do not click on its [+].
Now move over to the right side of the screen and scroll down until you see Registered Owner.
Double click the words Registered Owner so that a dialog box opens.
There will be a white entry area entitled Value data:. Type the new name here, then close the Registry by clicking on the X box located at the top right corner of the screen.
You must reboot your computer for the changes to take effect for Windows XP.
It occurs to me that you may also be asking about the user name under Users and Accounts. If that's the case, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, User Accounts.
Select the appropriate user name from the list of available users.
Click "Change my name".
Funny Stuff from the Internet
When dealing with computers, a sense of humor his helpful. E-mail and websites can provide some unintended levity as the following images show:
What happens sometimes with a Google browser and Google Mail? A Google error.
The Washington Post ran a story about a 20th person being charged in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Juxtaposed to the story was a Google ad for a lobbyist who will do "whatever it takes" and, below that, an ad from somebody who claims already to have received more than $27,000 in government stimulus checks and wants to show you how you can cash in, too.
Spam illiteracies are always amusing, too. On the left, you'll see an ad for a fake drug store that offers its customers "exclusive benefits" because it is a "huge company" with "absolute superb service". It's such a huge company, in fact, that it must use a free Geocities Web hosting account and doesn't even have its own domain to send mail from.
On the right, we have an offer to "grow your manhood". I have to wonder about the photograph hung on the wall by the toilet.
And how about the address at the bottom of the ad? West 426th Street doesn't exist in New York City (streets in Manhattan end at 218th Street and extend only to 263rd Street in the Bronx). If 426th Street did exist, it would be in Ardsley, Elmsford, or (most likely) Terrytown and 770 west would put the address in the middle of the Hudson River, if not in New Jersey.
The Zip code (12540) belongs to LaGrangeville, New York, which is about 60 miles north of New York City. In the mountains. It appears to have about a dozen streets and maybe a traffic light.
The link provided? It goes to a website in (Surprise!) China.
Nerdly News
Time to Visit Adobe's Website
If you have any version of Acrobat installed on your computer, now would be a very good time to visit Adobe's website to obtain an update that patches critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader 9, Acrobat 9, and earlier versions of those applications. Unless you have already installed version 9.1 of Acrobat or Reader, you should visit the Adobe website at your earliest opportunity.
These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to crash the application in a way that could allow the attacker to take control of the affected system.
Adobe has released the Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1 product updates to resolve the problem. If you're using a version 9 product, you should immediately upgrade to version 9.1. Updates are also available for users of versions 7 and 8. If you're using an earlier version, you're out of luck. And if you're using a Linux or Unix version, you'll have to wait a few more days for your update.
Users who have already updated to versions 9.1 on Windows or Macintosh computers will not need to take any additional actions. For more information, see the Adobe website.
April Fool from the Conficker Worm
On April Fools Day, the Conficker worm will do whatever it's supposed to do and several million people will discover what it's supposed to do at the same time. Estimates put the number of infected machines at 12 million. How many owners of those machines have removed the worm isn't known, though. The good news for users in the United States is that most of the infected machines are not located in the United States.
If you have a legitimate copy of Windows and your patches are up to date and you have a current antivirus application installed, you, your computer, and your computer's data are all probably safe and secure. If not, well -- consider this a warning.
Over time, the Conficker worm has become more sophisticated. In some cases, it can remove anti-virus applications and shut off Microsoft's update service. It has been shown to be able to open ports in firewalls and to block attempts to connect to security websites.
But what will it do on April Fools Day? Researchers know that it will generate tens of thousands of domain names and try to communicate with or through them. The worm will set up a peer-to-peer network. All that is known. What isn't known is the purpose of all this effort.
Chances are good that whoever is behind it isn't just seeking notoriety. Organized crime is the likely source of Conficker, and that means they'll be trying to monetize the system, possibly by using all those machines as part of a large spam-bot network. Or possibly something worse.
We'll find out in about a week.
Microsoft Releases IE8
The latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer is now available. Having run the beta version of the browser on 3 computers and having removed it from 3 computers, I'll be waiting a while to install the new version. The problem has probably been fixed by now, but the last beta would routinely just stop responding. It didn't lock the entire computer, but the only way to get the browser to function was to use the Task Manager to kill it and start over.
IE has copied some of the better features from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. I found the look and feel to be quite good, when it was working. But my preferred browser is Firefox because of all the add-ons that allow me to custom-build a browser, Chrome because of its clean design, and Opera for some of its designer-geek features. I use Internet Explorer only when some poor misguided developer has designed a site that requires Internet Explorer.
At one time, Internet Explorer had nearly 100% of the browser market, but now it's estimated to be in the high 70% range. Firefox continues to inch upward, even with the advent of Chrome, which now has about 2% of the market.
Except for when it stops responding entirely, IE8 was significantly faster than previous versions of IE. It starts considerably faster than Firefox, but then everything (including molasses in January) is faster to start than Firefox. The good news for developers is that with IE8, Microsoft seems really to have adopted design standards instead of trying to push its own "features" onto the rest of the Internet. But IE8 has a "compatibility" feature that allows it to digest all the hacks that designers had to create to allow their sites to display properly on earlier versions.
My recommendation: Wait for a few months.
The author's image: It's that photo over at the right. This explains why TechByter Worldwide was never on television, doesn't it?
