Computer Geeks Unite! And farging help me!

[Geowhizzer]

Suddenly got a remittant buzzing from my speakers last night.  I switched speakers but still get the buzzing.  It sounds almost like when a record gets to the end, but you don't lift the needle up (yes, I'm getting old).

Is my sound card blown?

[General_Failure]

I've got the same problem, but mine is from all my wires being tangled together. Had it previously, sorted out the wires, and it went away. Came back again recently when I moved some crap around.

[SD_Eagle5]

So I got a B on my first IST 110 lab. I messed a few things up that he didn't explain which goes right along with what the students said on RMP.

This week we have a 5 page (actual 5 pages, no double spacing) paper due on the history of computing. Then he gave each row a number and we had to use Boolean Algebra to figure out this algorithm he created, then we had to draw each answer out (64 in all) using symbols he made up to represent 'And', 'Or', 'Not', and 'XOR'.

[Geowhizzer]

I've got the same problem, but mine is from all my wires being tangled together. Had it previously, sorted out the wires, and it went away. Came back again recently when I moved some crap around.

Tried it, and it seems to work again.  We'll see, this computer has been, shall we say, "quirky."

[Father Demon]

Computer nerds needed...

Anyone in here have time to blow by creating a jibjab-like talking head of my boss in Flash so I can put it in a PowerPoint presentation?  It needs to have the mouth open and close, plus a little rocking back-and-forth*, just like JibJab.  I already have the picture of his face with all background cleared away. 

I would need it by Sunday morning.



* Yes, I know how incredible gay-pornish that sounds.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I'm glad to see your new job is keeping you busy with important things.

[Sgt PSN]

here's a question for you geeks.  i need a tv tuner for my laptop.  i've got my xbox set up wirelessly and can use it as a media center extender, so basically i can stream any media file from my laptop to the xbox and view them on my tv.  one of the other functions is supposed to be the ability to use my laptop as a dvr and record tv.   thus, the need for a tv tuner.  gotta be external that plugs in with to a usb port. 

the problem i'm running into is that the usual suspects like best buy don't have what i need.  they have tv tuners, but they aren't compatible with the vista media center.  they just store the tv info on a data stick.  any suggestions? 

[Seabiscuit36]

www.tversity.com

download tversity, farg Media Extender
I never got the DVR thing to work for the Media Extender, good luck with that

[PhillyPhreak54]

So my PC has been getting slower and slower. Its a basic model Dell that I bought in 2004ish. Keep in mind that I know jack shtein about computers for the most part...but I do Ctrl+alt+del and bring up the task manager a lot to see what processes are going on and I see a lot of the wuauclt.exe and wmivrse.exe stuff. I did a google for them and saw a program called Uniblue Registry Booster. I downloaded it and it found 397 registry errors. Is it worth the $30 to fix everything as it claims?

I've run the adware/spyware programs and the McAfee scans and it finds nothing, so my guess is that its gotta be the registry that is slowing the system down, right?

[Rome]

Buy a 10 dollar hammer and smash it.

[Father Demon]

There free registry cleaners out there, too.  Google it, and see what you can find.

[Geowhizzer]

Phreak, try http://www.malwarebytes.org/

[Seabiscuit36]

http://delawareonline.com/article/20090330/NEWS/90330013

Giant Internet worm set to change tactics April 1

By JORDAN ROBERTSON
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO – The fast-moving Conficker computer worm, a scourge of the Internet that has infected at least 3 million PCs, is set to spring to life in a new way on Wednesday – April Fools' Day.

That's when many of the poisoned machines will get more aggressive about "phoning home" to the worm's creators over the Internet. When that happens, the bad guys behind the worm will be able to trigger the program to send spam, spread more infections, clog networks with traffic, or try and bring down Web sites.

Technically, this could cause havoc, from massive network outages to the creation of a cyberweapon of mass destruction that attacks government computers. But researchers who have been tracking Conficker say the date will probably come and go quietly.

More likely, these researchers say, the programming change that goes into effect April 1 is partly symbolic - an April Fools' Day tweaking of Conficker's pursuers, who for now have been able to prevent the worm from doing significant damage.

"I don't think there will be a cataclysmic network event," said Richard Wang, manager of the U.S. research division of security firm Sophos PLC. "It doesn't make sense for the guys behind Conficker to cause a major network problem, because if they're breaking parts of the Internet they can't make any money."

Previous Internet threats were designed to cause haphazard destruction. In 2003 a worm known as Slammer saturated the Internet's data pipelines with so much traffic it crippled corporate and government systems, including ATM networks and 911 centers.

Far more often now, Internet threats are designed to ring up profits. Control of infected PCs is valuable on the black market, since the machines can be rented out, from one group of bad guys to another, and act as a kind of illicit supercomputer, sending spam, scanning Web sites for security holes, or participating in network attacks.

The army of Conficker-infected machines, known as a "botnet," could be one of the greatest cybercrime tools ever assembled. Conficker's authors just need to figure out a way to reliably communicate with it.

Infected PCs need commands to come alive. They get those commands by connecting to Web sites controlled by the bad guys. Even legitimate sites can be co-opted for this purpose, if hackers break in and use the sites' servers to send out malicious commands.

So far, Conficker-infected machines have been trying to connect each day to 250 Internet domains - the spots on the Internet where Web sites are parked. The bad guys need to get just one of those sites under their control to send their commands to the botnet. (The name Conficker comes from rearranging letters in the name of one of the original sites the worm was connecting to.)

Conficker has been a victim of its success, however, because its rapid spread across the Internet drew the notice of computer security companies. They have been able to work with domain name registrars, which administer Web site addresses, to block the botnet from dialing in.

Now those efforts will get much harder. On April 1, many Conficker-infected machines will generate a list of 50,000 new domains a day that they could try. Of that group, the botnet will randomly select 500 for the machines to actually query.

The bad guys still need to get only one of those up and running to connect to their botnet. And the bigger list of possibilities increases the odds they'll slip something by the security community.

Researchers already know which domains the infected machines will check, but pre-emptively registering them all, or persuading the registrars to neutralize all of them, is a bigger hurdle.

"We expect something will happen, but we don't quite know what it will look like," said Jose Nazario, manager of security research for Arbor Networks, a member of the "Conficker Cabal," an alliance trying to hunt down the worm's authors.

"With every move that they make, there's the potential to identify who they are, where they're located and what we can do about them," he added. "The real challenge right now is doing all that work around the world. That's not a technical challenge, but it is a logistical challenge."

Conficker's authors also have updated the worm so infected machines have new ways to talk to each other. They can share malicious commands rather than having to contact a hacked Web site for instructions.

That variation is important because it shows that even as security researchers have neutralized much of what the botnet might do, the worm's authors "didn't lose control of their botnet," said Michael La Pilla, manager of the malicious code operations team at VeriSign Inc.'s iDefense division.

The Conficker outbreak illustrates the importance of keeping current with Internet security updates. Conficker moves from PC to PC by exploiting a vulnerability in Windows that Microsoft Corp. fixed in October. But many people haven't applied the patch or are running pirated copies of Windows that don't get the updates.

Unlike other Internet threats that trick people into downloading a malicious program, Conficker is so good at spreading because it finds vulnerable PCs on its own and doesn't need human involvement to infect a machine.

Once inside, it does nasty things. The worm tries to crack administrators' passwords, disables security software, blocks access to antivirus vendors' Web sites to prevent updating, and opens the machines to further infections by Conficker's authors.

Someone whose machine is infected might have to reinstall the operating system.

Oh Noes

[Rome]

Malicious pricks who create that sort of shtein should be given the Zyklon-B treatment.

[rjs246]

farg technology.