Internet SPAM, Scams, Viruses and Phishing attacks are on the rise

This is just a heads up to everyone out there to be extra careful when handling email.  We have seen an explosive increase in the number of attacks brought about to every day citizens through email.  From SPAM with fake links, to Internet Scams that these fraudsters want you to invest your time and money in, to Viruses/Trojans/Back doors, and of course Phishing attacks where someone pretends to be from some place familiar to you like your bank, eBay or PayPal in an attempt to get your account information.

There are some basic steps to take like using good anti-virus software, and making sure it is kept up to date, that can help you stay safe.  We posted an article a while back with these explained, and I believe we should take a look at updating it since it’s been a year or two.  The basic principals stay the same, and there is still lots of good info there, we will most likely just be adding more stuff to deal with new threats.  Take a look at it here, it’s called Web Surfing Safety, and we hope you find it useful.  In addition to that, be sure to check out the Library, since we have lots of other good information and tidbits in there too!  Thanks.

Portal 2 has officially been announced!

Portal LogoThat means we can stop the speculation and start the salivation over what Valve has in store for us this time. The original Portal is a single player first person puzzle game with some action elements as well, developed by Valve Corporation, the same folks that brought us other greats like Half-Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, Day Of Defeat, Left 4 Dead and more. The game came out in 2007 as part of the Orange Box, or was available seperately from Steam (for the PC that is).  Portal is all about puzzles, and consists mainly of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the main character and simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (ASHPD for short, but was also called simply, the portal gun), a device that can create open portals between flat planes.  The game is all about the physics attained and manipulated by the portal gun.  Portal has been acclaimed as one of the most original games of 2007, and went on to win 70 industry achievement awards. Portal 2, the sequel, is set for release during the 2010 holiday season.

One note of trivia, the final credits song “Still Alive” was written by Jonathan Coulton for the game. Coulton is a wonderful musician who has garnered quite a bit of Internet fame.

Check out the Portal 2 announcement here

IDE/SATA/Notebook hard drive to USB

Oh yeah, this tool is awesome.  It works wonders for connecting drives to your computers USB port, it even provides power to them as well separate from the USB connection, so you  don’t have to worry about it.  All in all this is a great too, and it works even better than I expected.  It’s been so useful to me I thought I would be remiss if I didn’t share it with everyone else.  I got mine from Amazon, check it out …

FREE software from SafelyRemove.com

Here you go folks!  There is an interesting program called USB Safely Remove, a self proclaimed must have if you frequently use such hotplug devices as: flash drives, USB\SATA drives, card readers and the like. Read more about it at:

http://safelyremove.com/

Download the program here:

http://safelyremove.com/usbsafelyremovesetup.exe

If you hurry, you can get a free license for version 4.1 of this software. Go to:

http://safelyremove.com/giveaway10K.htm

They are giving away 10,000 license keys and as of 10/2/2009 at 1740 hours, they still had some to give away, so get on over there and check it out.  I haven’t use it yet, but I just now downloaded it and got my key.  I’ll put up a review when I have played with it some.  Enjoy!

Burger King Continues Trend Of Stupid Commercials

I have been watching Burger King commercials and shaking my head for years now as they make some of the dumbest commercials I have ever seen.  From the “Coq Rock” chicken commercials, to now the plastic King figure acting like a drunken frat boy in perpetual party mode (“don’t fall asleep before the king”).  This is just sad that someone actually thinks these are good commercials.  I like the food at BK, but their commercials make me not want to even go there.  And to think, they are paying someone to consult with them and design these commercials LOL  Wow.