Discount Computers

Do Right Now To Secure Your Data

Copyright 2006 Olga Farber Becker

Earlier we warned you about a serious security flaw, so-called
“WMF flow.” Several days later nearly one hundred different
instances of exploitation of this newly discovered vulnerability
had been found.

“Desktop users that suffered the effects of the IMF exploit
describe it as a devastating experience to find their desktop
computers completely taken over by an attacker.

“When it hit, the screen suddenly said, ‘Congratulations, you’re
infected!’” said Brad Dinerman, vice president of information
technology at MIS Alliance, a professional services outsourcing
firm in Newton, Mass. It was clear that the computer running XP
was no longer in his control.

“It had root access, it wouldn’t let me log off or do anything,”
Dinerman said. He said he ended up having to re-build the
machine from scratch. He noted that his machine had been
up-to-date in terms of software patches, anti-virus and
anti-spyware software. “

“…exploit has so many variants that anti-virus firms are
having a difficult time keeping up with the exploit’s changes in
attack code.”

http://www.networkingsmallbusiness.com/news/2006/010306-sans-micr
osoft-patch.html

“It enables clueless newcomers to easily craft highly variable
and hard-to-detect variations of image files. Images that take
over computers when viewed. And do this on all common Windows
platforms. Meaning that there are hundreds of millions of
vulnerable computers in the net right now.”

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-012006.html

Current news on the situation, by BlogAutoPublisher support
expert:

1. An official WMF Vulnerability update from Microsoft is now
available. See more info and patches for various flavors of
Windows at:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-001.mspx

Or just go to http://update.microsoft.com/ to pick up the right
update automatically.

The patch requires that the PC be rebooted.

2. Microsoft is not fixing Windows 98/ME.

Microsoft has now “reclassified” the WMF vulnerability in
Windows 95, 98, and ME as non-critical (instead of just fixing
it!). This means that it will probably NOT be updated and
patched to eliminate the WMF handling vulnerability that those
older versions of Windows apparently still have. “Per the
support life cycle of these versions, only vulnerabilities of
critical severity would receive security updates,” the company
said.

We urge you to upgrade, if possible, to WinXP which is much more
secure and stable Windows version.

3. After applying the Microsoft’s patch, go to Start > Run,
paste there the following line:

regsvr32 shimgvw.dll

and press OK. You should see the following message:
“DllRegisterServer in shimgvw.dll succeeded.”

All your Windows “picture viewing” capabilities are back to
normal now.

Wishing you productive and secure 2006, BlogAutoPublisher Team.

About the author:
Olga specializes in internet marketing, blogs, RSS feeds. Find
out 55 ways to use the Marketer’s Blogging Software Olga and her
partner recently released: http://blogautopublisher.com

Multi-media technologies, are a meld of audio, video, and
imaging software, used to capture, edit, store, and search,
retrieve, transfer, distribute, and access information through
multiple means. Hence – the term multimedia.

As these technologies become more advanced and versatile,
they’ve enabled content creators to design and facilitate the
presentation of information to new levels.

What about the audience? Today’s audience is highly
sophisticated, with a bigger appetite for media experiences
where fast motion, brilliant color, energy, textures, powerful
sounds, and richer content are the order of the day, engaging
their senses, and piquing their interest.

The good news is, the use of multi-media technology has gone
mainstream. There are many websites which offer free and cheap
downloads of multimedia programs to give anyone from the budding
filmmaker, teacher, the lawyer, CEO, marketing whiz, and to the
homemaker the ability to communicate their ideas, in vivid
details, from the big picture to the tiniest details.

Indeed, these technologies permeate our daily existence. And
makes it a fair question to ask. “Is there value to be found in
using multimedia technologies?” Yes, and here’s why.

In today’s world, information has become the new currency, with
many countries scrabbling to move heavily into an
information-based society. Technologies such as multi-media
software, give an added advantage to it’s’ users, providing them
the tools to clearly convey ideas and thus, produce valuable
content. That gives them premium importance.

Nevertheless, it may surprise you to know that not only has
multimedia technologies revolutionized the way we live, work,
create, but it has spawned new industries and killed old ones.

For instance, in the work place, these technologies provide
office workers the means to communicate, and collaborate, with
colleagues on the other side of the planet, from different time
zones, through desktop video conferencing, shared workspace, and
multimedia messaging. Companies in fact, purchase multi- media
technologies, to provide the employees the ability to create,
edit graphics audio and video files, and use these to create
presentations, and other work related products. For one’s
entertainment needs, there’s a choice between movies or videos
on demand, and pay-per-view, among others. In this instance,
multi-media technologies give the consumer the freedom to select
what she, or he wants to watch. For audiophiles, there are many
free and cheap software programs, which provide the users the
freedom to select the file format, how it will be recorded, and
where it will be stored. All you’ll need is a high bandwidth,
and the pc equipment to record and capture the audio. For
serious gamer’s multi-media software have created stimulating
new games, better quality special effects, richer playing
environments, betting/gambling software, multiplayer games, and
polling. These technological tools, have accelerated the growth
of the video game industry, and expanded research for better
computer graphics, simulation, modeling, and artificial
intelligence.

Even if you were not a serious gamer, you would greatly
appreciate the ability to download interactive video games,
while you’re in your pajamas, in the privacy of your home.
Advertising has become intuitive, for as the differences between
television and the internet continue to blur, advertisers have
turned to interactive infomercials, to get consumers to buy.
These tools allow advertisers to track the users’ preferences
and create an infomercial especially suited to the users’ needs.
Another nifty product is the virtual catalogue, where the
customer can inspect the products before purchasing them, in the
privacy of their home. The use of multimedia technologies for
home shopping, banking and financial transactions, telephony,
medical advice, restaurant or hotel guides, is a commonplace
activity for consumers. Even the way we learn and package
information from books, magazines, atlases, and newspapers has
improved. One brilliant example is the educational CD Rom. Think
about the fact that an entire 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica
book set can be compressed into two cds.

In retrospect, one can see the world has benefited immensely
with the use of multi-media technologies. It has brought
humanity closer by making distance a non-issue, freedom of
choice a reality and the conveyance of ideas, more precise.

For your own personal multimedia file usage, please visit
http://www.multimedia-downloads.com for all your audio, video
and imaging software needs.

About the author:
This article has been prepared by http://www.articleauthors.net
and is being used exclusively to promote all the multimedia file
utility needs you could possibly want at:
http://www.multimedia-downloads.com

You might wonder what an emulator is. Emulators allow your
computer to act like a console system such as the Apple IIe or
the Atari 2600, which are used to emulate the hardware of a
variety of classic arcade games.

Are all classic arcade games emulated? No, but those games made
before 1992 are. Not all systems are easy to emulate.

Why is there a need to emulate classic arcade games? There are
three major reasons why:

1. Popularity – if the system is popular, even if it is classic,
the more effort is pushed to emulate it.

2. Availability of the Information – if the system contains a
lot of information, it will be easier to emulate. If a game has
never been emulated before, it will require a lot of reverse
engineering, which could at times be frustrating.

3. Technical Hurdles – the hardware limits restrictions that are
hard to avoid. For example, it took quite some time before the
Atari 7800 was emulated, due to the encryption algorithm which
prohibited games from being loaded. In addition, newer systems
may lack the absolute horsepower to have the game run at a
playable, and faster speed.

Although emulators are difficult to run, especially if it is
your first time, you must download an emulator and unzip it. If
you are not familiar with the procedures, you must read the
documentation carefully.

Emulators are compound pieces of software. Most emulators may
not perfectly emulate the capability of the system it is trying
to copy. The imperfections in some emulators may be minor,
sometimes timing problems may occur. Some emulators won’t run
games at all, or worse have some display problems. Some
emulators may be deficient in joystick support, sound, and other
significant features.

In writing an emulator, you will undergo a difficult process
which requires attaining the precise system information, and
figuring out how to emulate it with the software code.

There are two different types of emulators. The first one is the
single-system or the single-game emulator. Examples of these are
an Atari 2600 emulator, NES emulator, and an Apple II emulator.
These emulators can only emulate one kind of game or system. The
second type of emulators is the multi-emulators. The best
example of this is the Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator or the
MAME. MAME can emulate hundreds of arcade games, although not
all arcade games can run on the same kind of system. That is a
huge generalization, but the reason multi-emulators require more
resources compared to single system emulators, in most cases.

The start of emulation has opened a lot of opportunities for
companies to take advantage of their resources. Why spend a lot
of time reprogramming or porting the classic arcade games to a
new console when you can easily write an upright emulator.
Emulation is the solution to these problems, and gives the
gamers an exact replica of the classic games they love and want
to acquire.

About the author:
Simon Oliver has an interest in Arcade Games. To access more
articles on
Arcade Games or for additional information and resources
visit this
Arcade Games related website