What they call Behavioral Virus and spyware protection, I call proactive. Instead of being reactionary and delayed behind viruses and spyware, ThreatFire is able to analyze the behavioral habits of programs to determine if it is a virus before a definition (thumbprint identifying the virus) even exists. Chances are if it sounds like a virus and quacks like a virus, it's … [Read more...]
Google: “The Internet is dangerous.”
Apparently one of the services associated with Google's search is not working properly this morning. Google offers a blanket statement for all sites: "This site may harm your computer" It's a great function. When particular sites are infected with an exploit or malicious sites are returned, this warning is perfectly apt. The problem this morning is that Google is labeling … [Read more...]
A Smorgasbord of SysInternals Tools
SysInternals offers a lot of useful tools for Windows computers. These can either add more functionality, work-around different quirks, or gather more information for debugging. This article is divided into two sections. I tried to separate the utilities into General use and IT use. Those in the General use category might have a larger interested audience and those in the IT … [Read more...]
M-Lab – ISPs, Finally with Metrics
Regardless of whether you're for net neutrality, against it, don't care about it, or don't know what it is, M-Lab should still be of interest. Why? Because if you're like most consumers, you want: A) To know what you're paying for and B) To get what you're paying for Tools M-Lab was founded by New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google … [Read more...]
Cardreaderlookupwindow crashes at log out
I had a problem of every time I wanted to log off, restart, or shut down a particular computer, it was hanging for a long time and would eventually proceed after crashing a process. The pesky process that was holding it up was called: Cardreaderlookupwindow. As if that wasn't cryptic enough, the blame actually comes to Adobe Photo Downloader. You might have noticed a little … [Read more...]