While all souls day has come and gone, plenty of spooky cyber-crime and other apparitons abound…
Here’s a map of Online Banking Theft in the USA just so far in November!
MuahhHaaaHaa
Interesting Cyber Security Stories (11/13/2010)
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Many More Windows Updates!!!
About a year ago, I reviewed the update history on my main office PC. It was placed in service in June 2006 and runs XP Pro. I occasionally check the update history just to… Oh I don’t know, boredom, curiosity. A year ago after 40 months in service the answer is 380. If it had been older the number would have been even more since this one was commissioned after the release of SP1!
Today just 1 year later the count is 520 (512 successful, 6 failed, 2 skipped?).
UPDATE (10/18/2010): That was before the most recent “Update Tuesday” October 12th. The count is now up to 536!!!
Nigerian Phishers Getting Lazy
Are Nigerian Phishers just getting lazy or…
*This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(r) Pro*
My name is Nelson Emmanuel I am an FBI foreign agent base in Nigeria, I was assign by the (UN) united nation to send you your long term over due payment the sum of $8.5millon, all you have to now is to provide me the following information.
Name………………….
Address…………………..
Country………………
State…………
Occupation……………
Gender……………..
Phone number……………….
Note your $8.5m will be sending to you by casher check and you have to pay the sum of $90 because it will be send to you by courier service. Up on your respond I will provide you the information for you to send the $90 through the western union money transfer today.
you can call me for more information ( +###-###-###-####)
I had no idea that the FBI was hirihg Illiterates these days.
Emebedded Development: What’s that?
Embedded Development: it’s one of the things I do. Say for example you have an idea for a new product. Perhaps it’s the sort of product that needs to have a level of intelligence.  For example: a gadget that tracks the sun with a solar collector.  Maybe an automatic sprinkler system for your garden? Either of these ideas can, and have been brought to reality with simple mechanical or electromechanical means, but the potential for lower cost and greater functionality exists today by designing such things with “Embedded Control Systems”.
It all starts with an idea. OK so, say I want to create a modern engine management system for the engines on older cars. Why? Well there may be a number of advantages…
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1. Replace the Carburetor with Electronic Fuel Injection for several reasons:
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a. Less routine maintenance is required
b. Greater control over the delivery of fuel
c. Reduced pollutant emissions
d. Improved fuel economy
e. Potential to use a wider variety of fuels
2. Replace the mechanical spark distributor with any of several solutions with fewer moving parts and no High voltage moving parts that require frequent replacement due to arcing erosion/deposition.
3. Add a modern monitoring system with performance and fault reporting and recording capabilities.
4. It’s just a great idea!
So a while back, and inspired by the lure of prizes from a design competition I embarked on just such an adventure. Now it’s just something that I only occasionally get a chance to work on as my paying work keeps me quite busy these days. At this stage the first bench prototype has been in existence for about 19 months, and has been used to develop and test a variety of firmware code features. In the next several months, a second generation prototype will be designed to take the project to the next level.
Music night At the Bookstore (is no more) :(
(update November 9, 2011) The bookstore is gone, and the music plays on…
Tonight Sherry and I are at the Bookstore Cafe’ listening to Jim & Warren, a couple of Journeyman Guitarists with a seemingly endless repertoire of 60s & 70s Folk Rock and semi Acoustic renderings of more rocking stuff from diverse acts like Badfinger, Beatles, Jethro Tull, Nazareth, Neil Young, Pink Floyd just to name a few. Tonight they are jamming out some extended Instrumental Improvs too. Nice!  We’re brainstorming Ideas!  A sweet atmosphere for it at that.
Brainstorming what? Ideas for fun future projects! Stay tuned, more to come…
Trojan infections… People, get a life.
Most of you who know me well are aware that I am what many describe as a “White Hat Hacker” (although I perfer to envision myself as a “Clean and Green Tech Wizard” maybe I should get one of those White Wizard hats). The White Hat speaks to the fact that I do not tolerate evil in computing, and will crush it when given the opportunity.
One of the organizations for which I manage IT has had a couple of run-ins with recent variants of the Vundo worm/Trojan.FakeAV/Fraudware blended threat. Where do people find the time to cook up this elaborate crimeware? These crooks suck!
The latest one that I had to kill came up with this “Windows Police Pro” fraudware…
Even if you dont fall for this crap, it still costs individuals and businesses huge. This example took over 4 hours to completely remove working remotely. That’s $$$
The annoyance keeps getting more tenacious as it evolves. This time I had to halt “PolicePro” and remove it from the startup list to gain the abilty to install the MalwareBytes rootkit removal tool (an excellent product). The next restart triggered a more obnoxious version calling itself “Security Tool” which attempted to disable the system tools. Yawn, all that did was cost my client more money for another 30 minutes of my work. Well at least part of the name describes the perpetrators. TOOL!
In case you didn’t know. The fraudware attempts to convince the user to proceed with the promise of removing a number of malware threats that it allegedly discovers. The unsuspecting user will then be prompted to spend money to “purchase” the functional version. In reality the “purchase” does nothing except transfer funds to the criminals, who also sell your stolen identity information for more money.
In the meantime, and until the ROOTKIT that prevents removal is exorcised from your computer you will be plagued by this menace indefinitely while it renders your computer useless.
Message to the perpetrator(s) : TOOL!
Wow! 380 Updates!!!
I just reviewed the update history on my main office PC. It was placed in service in June 2006 and runs XP Pro. I wanted to check the update history after the most recent flurry of “security” updates. So I got curious to see how many it has had in total in the 3+ years it has been in service. There’s the answer 380. If it had been older the number would have been even more since this one was commissioned after the release of SP1!
From the Microsoft Windows 7 “Loadfest”…
Today I am writing from Microsoft’s Irvine office. It’s the windows 7 “Loadfest”, a Partner presentation on installing, selling and some of the cool new features in Windows 7.  The presentation is hosted by Woody Walton. I have been using W7 for a while now, and just installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on my Toshiba Notebook (from which I am authoring this post). I am pleased with the product so far. I first loaded it onto one of my development systems in February 2009 when it was in beta test. I really didn’t use the beta a lot, but began using it a bit more after updating to the RC a couple months later. As soon as the MSDN RTM came out, I began using the x64 Ultimate version on a regular basis, and have now abandoned (for the most part) the Vista32 Ultimate installation on the same development box. Being a Software/Firmware Developer, my experience includes installing an alternative driver for Microchip’s MPLAB ICD2 Programmer/Debugger device not written for Windows 7 (with favorable results)!  There are some cool new features we are learning of. Something particularly interesting is the attention they have given to making attached devices like cameras and media players show up with a more intuitive Icon. For example: your camera is more likely to show up as a camera instead of just another drive. Right now we are learning about the enhanced security for “Homegroup” environments (an updated version of Workgroup level networks). Vista computers can join a Homegroup while XP or downlevel OS versions can not.
The infamous UAC (universally hated in Vista) has been changed to allow users to choose from 4 different levels, and a new feature called AppLocker can allow more selective Execution prevention measures.
Here’s a screen capture of my Notebook’s Properties page…
Now before you go calling me a M$ $ellout, be advised that the Notebook also dual boots into Ubuntu 9.04 for the gratification of all the Open Source fans out there too!
Developments in Battery Technology
There have been some exciting developments in battery technology over the past several years. I am currently working on a project that uses one of the latest battery chemistries (Lithium Ferro-Phosphate). These batteries have one of the highest power densities, can be fast charged without degradation, and have a safe pulse discharge rate greater than 100C. This means that the “EXCITING” can be just that in the development environment if not handled safely!
The system I am working on is designed to replace a Lead/Acid system used in Hospital environments. It represents a Quantum Leap in functionality in this application, and eliminates hazardous materials found in the Lead/Acid unit it replaces. It has excellent hardware safety designed in by Cliff Gerhard. My contribution is the firmware for several elements of the system, the Battery Safety/Controller, The Charge Controller, and the Main Controller which contains several adjustable high current DC outputs and communicates via USB to a host computer for monitoring and administration. I have also designed the monitoring and administration applications for the Host using C# 2008 and the .NET Framework v2.0 (.NET Framework v2.0 was chosen for down level compatibility to Windows 2000).
Altogether a fun project…
Windows 7 in action with Microchip MPLAB/C32/RealICE debugging my REMS PIC32 Prototype
Here’s a video I did of Windows 7 running the Microchip PIC32 development suite way back in February when it was just W7 Beta…