Acer Recalls Notebook Computers Due to Burn Hazard

Posted on January 10, 2010 by wjimenez275

Acer Recalls Notebook Computers Due to Burn Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following products. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Certain Acer Aspire-series Notebook Computers

Units: About 22,000

Manufacturer: Acer America Corporation, of San Jose, Calif.

Hazard: An internal microphone wire under the palm rest can short circuit and overheat. This poses a potential burn hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Acer has received three reports of computers short circuiting, resulting in slight melting of the external casing. No incidents occurred in the United States. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The recalled notebook computer models are the Acer AS3410, AS3410T, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG. The computer’s screen size is about 13.3 inches measured diagonally. Not all units are affected. Consumers should contact Acer to determine if their unit is included in the recall.

Sold at: ABS Computer Technologies, D&H Distributing, Fry’s Electronics, Ingram Micro, Radio Shack, SED/American Express, Synnex Corporation, SYX Distribution, Tech Data Corporation and other retailers nationwide and Amazon.com from June 2009 through October 2009 for between $650 and $1,150.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled notebook computers immediately and contact Acer to determine if their notebook is affected and to receive a free repair.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Acer toll-free at (866) 695-2237 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.acer.com

via Acer Recalls Notebook Computers Due to Burn Hazard.

Filed under: Instructional, PC Security, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Those Green Doublelined Words on a Web Page

Posted on January 4, 2010 by wjimenez275

When you surf, do you see random words or phrases with double underlines? When you move your mouse over them, they display an advertisement related to the underlined words.

This feature, called in-text advertising, turns appropriate words in the browser window into links to the advertiser’s website. These sites work with various companies to link to its advertisers. The browsers support these types of ads and they are created in such a way that most ad-blockers won’t block them. You can try to ignore them by not moving your mouse over them and if you happen to click on one, it will take you away from the current page. Some advertisors will allow you to disable the ads but you’ll have to go company-by-company.  To do so, follow these steps.

Step 1

Point to the double-underlined words, but **don’t click**! You’ll see an advertisement open in a small window near your cursor.

Step 2

If the advertisement is from Vibrant, in the upper right corner of the box, click the question mark button. A new browser window will open pointing to the Vibrant in-text advertising page. If you’re using WOT (Web Of Trust), you’ll get a warning about the site. Continue anyway.

Step 3

Point to the Disable tab. Click “Click here to disable.” It will let you know that to disable, you’ll need to have cookies activated and if you ever clean out your browser cookies, you’ll have to redo these steps.

Step 4

The page should update to now say “Click here to enable.”

Step 5

Close the browser window.

I’ve looked at other advertisors to see how to disable their ads and haven’t found any thing yet. I’ll continue to search though, short of installing a 3rd party program to block these ads.

Filed under: Instructional, Internet Items, PC Tips and Tools | 4 Comments »

Dragon Naturally Speaking

Posted on December 27, 2009 by wjimenez275

I picked up Dragon Naturally Speaking over the summer through CircuitCity.com and have been playing around with it. If you don’t know what this is, it’s a program that allows you to speak through an included microphone and watch your spoken words instantly appear in documents, email and instant messages. You can even surf the Web just by speaking! The Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard turns your voice into text three times faster than most people type — with up to 99% accuracy. It learns to recognize your voice instantly, and continually improves the more you use it! Just use your voice to dictate and edit in virtually any Windows application, including Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and AOL.

Key Features:

  • Easy to Use
  • Use with Many Windows Programs

Key Benefits:

  • Create documents and emails about three times faster
  • Dictate, edit and control applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and AOL

Right now, through December 31, you can order the program through Circuit City Online for a final cost of $29.99 after a $45 instant savings and a $25 rebate that you can print from the site. I know a lot of people don’t like rebates, but when I ordered last summer, I got the rebate with no problem, and my final cost was $49.99 so the extra savings is pretty cool. I recommmend the program, especially for those who do a lot of writing. It’s not perfect, and it takes a little while to “learn” your voice and way of speaking, but it’s pretty nice.

http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=EdpNo=4897583&sku=S30-2011&SRCCODE=CCEM202CN&cm_mmc=EML-_-Main-_-CCEM202-_-circuit202

Filed under: Instructional, PC Tips and Tools, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Microsoft loses Word appeal, will adjust program – Yahoo! News

Posted on December 22, 2009 by wjimenez275

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will tweak its Word application to remove a feature judged to be a breach of patent, ensuring that it will be able to continue selling one of its most widely used programs.

The world’s largest software company made the announcement shortly after a U.S. court of appeals upheld a $290 million jury verdict against it for infringing a patent held by a small Canadian software firm.

The court also affirmed an injunction that prevents Microsoft from selling versions of its Word program which contain the offending software, set to take effect January 11, 2010. Older versions of Word are not affected.

Microsoft said it is taking steps to remove the feature from Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 put on sale from that date.

The disputed patent feature relates to the use of XML, or extensible markup language, used for manipulating text, in the 2007 versions of Word. Microsoft described it on Tuesday as a “little-used feature”.

However, Microsoft did not rule out further appeals.

via Microsoft loses Word appeal, will adjust program – Yahoo! News.

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Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks. Disable JavaScript now | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Posted on December 16, 2009 by wjimenez275

Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks. Disable JavaScript now | Zero Day | ZDNet.com.

[UPDATE:  Adobe plans to patch this issue on January 12, 2010 ]

Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day (unpatched) vulnerability in Adobe’s ever-present PDF Reader/Acrobat software to hijack data from compromised computers. According to an advisory from Adobe, the critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions.  It is being exploited in the wild.

We can tell you that this exploit is in the wild and is actively being used by attackers and has been in the wild since at least December 11, 2009. However, the number of attacks are limited and most likely targeted in nature. Expect the exploit to become more wide spread in the next few weeks and unfortunately potentially become fully public within the same timeframe. We are fully aware of all the details related to the exploit but do not plan to publish them for a few reasons:

  1. There currently is no patch or update available that completely protects against this exploit.
  2. There is little to no detection of these malicious PDF files from most of the major Antivirus vendors.

With that said we can tell you that this vulnerability is actually in a JavaScript function within Adobe Acrobat [Reader] itself. Furthermore the vulnerable JavaScript is obfuscated inside a zlib stream making universal detection and intrusion detection signatures much more difficult.

In the interim, Adobe PDF Reader/Acrobat users are urged to immediately disable JavaScript:

Click: Edit -> Preferences -> JavaScript and uncheck Enable Acrobat JavaScript

Or, better yet, use an alternative PDF Reader software program.

Filed under: Instructional, PC Security | Leave a comment »

HUGE VIRUS COMING ! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !

Posted on December 15, 2009 by wjimenez275

Just a note – I posted this in 2009 at this time and I see it’s going around this year again. The e-mail that touts this virus is a hoax.

With a subject line like that, how could I ignore it? I received an e-mail from a friend who asked if this was real? According to the message, Norton, Snopes, CNN, Microsoft and McAfee are all legitimizing this so it must be true, right? Well, in this case, it’s partially right in that it’s a warning to be careful. However, there are a lot of scare tactics used which should tell you that the content isn’t true. Read the e-mail message below and I’ll explain myself afterwards.

Hi,

A check made with Norton Anti-Virus indicates that they are gearing up for this virus!

Snopes was checked as well, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to all your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’ regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C drive of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it!

If you receive a mail called’ POSTCARD,’ even if it is sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

In this case, it says the virus will be delivered via an electronic card.  One of the ways that malware can get onto a computer is by clicking on a link or opening an attachment in an e-mail that will then download and try to install the payload. One way that the malware writers try to get you to click on the link is by making it look like it’s an e-card from a friend or family member. That’s been going on for sometime. So, that being said, you need to be careful anytime/everytime you think about clicking on a link in an e-mail, especially if it’s an e-card greeting. Legitimate greetings will tell you to go to a website and enter a code to see the greeting so you won’t have to click on a link.

Any time you get an e-mail message telling you to pass it on to everyone you know, especially since everyone is preparing for it and Snopes says it’s true (even though in this case Snopes really doesn’t even discuss it), question it. Go to an antivirus website and check their “hot” virus list. Mcafee’s Threat Center, Symantec Threat Explorer, US Government Threat Center will let you know what’s the current threats are. Then, you can decide whether to pass it on to everyone in your contacts or not.

Consider this with any message that you get “to pass on”. There was a warning from people about Facebook letting Google index everything about you starting that day. I saw the warning in several e-mails, a couple of groups and on Facebook.  I little detective work showed that Facebook had actually been doing that for the past 2 years, but not with “everything”, only with what the user has designated to be shared to everyone. What is set to be seen by only friends doesn’t and won’t be indexed.

So, if you receive a warning, take it as such and check the validity. Feel free to e-mail me and I’ll let you know if it’s legitimate or not and if so, what you need to do to protect yourself. Comments?

Filed under: Instructional, PC Security, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Is It Disk or Disc?

Posted on December 6, 2009 by wjimenez275

This has been something that has confused me for some time. Come to find out that I’ve been using the right word all along.

Maybe you’ve assumed that discs and disks are just two different ways to spell the same thing. In a new support article, Apple Computer explains that disc refers to optical media – CDs, DVDs, etc where as disk is your computer’s hard disk or floppy disk.

So, there you go. When you need to use one of these words while writing, you’ll now know which is which.

Filed under: Instructional, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Never forget to back up your files ever again. Now it’s easy and automatic.

Posted on November 25, 2009 by wjimenez275

Seagate® Replica™

* Back up your entire computer automatically.
* Take the work and maintenance out of backup.
* Have easy, instant access to accidentally deleted files.
* Effortless, automatic backup for everything on your PC, including the operating system, programs, and settings.
* No tedious installation, nothing to configure.
* Up to 250GB capacity for single PC and 500 GB for multiple PCs.
* USB 2.0.

Every file is perfectly safe.

From a little mistake to a major catastrophe, your files will always come back.

* Easily retrieve accidentally deleted files.
* Restore your entire system in the event of a PC crash.

No maintenance. No hassle.

There’s nothing to forget to do. So everything is always safe.

* Password protection ensures that only you have access to your computer’s backed up files.
* Replica automatically removes the oldest versions of files to free space.
* Five-year limited warranty.
* Multi-PC version includes a convenient vertically standing dock.

Weighing in at less than a pound and only slightly larger than a pack of cards, this featherweight device manages to pack quite a punch.

The Replica comes with bare-bones software and strikes a good balance between peace of mind and individual-user control. Seagate provides a USB 2.0 cable, recovery guide and recovery CD.

After the hard drive is plugged in, it checks for updates to the Replica software, downloads the most current version and starts mirroring your computer’s content. The startup process is short, taking only a couple of minutes, though the actual backup is a time-gobbling endeavor taking about 4 hours to transfer 130 GB of data. A blue light on the top of the Replica’s case blinks continuously while data is being transferred, making it easy for you to go about your other business while it works in the background. It’s also stealthy for a hard drive, emitting only a quiet whir when working at full speed.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/replica/

replica_right_01_320x340.png

Filed under: Court Reporter Specific, Instructional, PC Maintenance, PC Tips and Tools, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Shop online? You may have been ripped off – OC Watchdog : The Orange County Register

Posted on November 23, 2009 by wjimenez275

Shop online? You may have been ripped off

November 18th, 2009, 12:06 pm · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

So you’re booking your flight, or ordering your movie tickets, or paying for your pizza online. It’s a mainstream web site. No worries.

You type in your credit card information, click the “purchase” button, and enjoy your flight/movie/pizza. But a few months later, mystery charges of $10 to $20 a month appear on your bank statement, for membership in a club you have no memory of joining.

Surprise! You’ve been a victim of consumer fraud – thanks to that web site you trusted.

The practice is pervasive, and has cost unsuspecting consumers $1.4 billion, according to “Aggressive Sales Tactics on the Internet and Their Impact on American Consumers,” an investigative report released Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (You can read the full report here: online-ripoffs; and can find supporting documents here.)

Companies named in the report – and apparently profiting on the scam – include 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.; AirTran Holdings, Inc.; Classmates.com, Inc.; Continental Airlines, Inc.; FTD, Inc.; Fandango, Inc.; Hotwire, Inc.; Intelius, Inc.; MovieTickets.com, Inc.; Orbitz Worldwide, Inc.; Pizza Hut, Inc.; Priceline.com, Inc.; Redcats USA, Inc.; Shutterfly, Inc.; US Airways Group, Inc.; and VistaPrint USA, Inc. (But that’s not all of them; there are many, many, many more.)

How does the scam work? Consider the experience of Chris Steffen of Los Angeles, who bought movie tickets through Movietickets.com in April 2007.

“I‘m not sure how or when this happened and I‘m sure part of it is oversight or my own fault,” Steffen wrote in a complaint. ”But somehow through the purchasing of movie tickets through your site I was signed up for Reservation Rewards and charged 10 dollars a month membership for multiple months. This means that when I ordered tickets through your service, the cost to me was not only the price of the tickets, but the inadvertent cost of being enrolled in a service plan I was not aware of.”

Read the rest of the article here –  Shop online? You may have been ripped off – OC Watchdog : The Orange County Register.

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Apple voids warranties over cigarette smoke, users say • The Register

Posted on November 22, 2009 by wjimenez275

Apple voids warranties over cigarette smoke, users say

No repairs for “biohazard” Macs

By Cade Metz in San Francisco

Posted in PCs & Chips, 22nd November 2009 06:13 GMT

A Mac user claims that Apple voided her warranty and refused to repair her machine because it was “contaminated” with cigarette smoke.

The claim mirrors a similar report from last year, when another user complained that the Jobsian cult wouldn't service a system due to the “health risks of secondhand smoke.”

Both complaints arrive by way of The Consumerist, a site obsessed with consumer empowerment. According to the site, the claims come from separate parts of the country and were reported more than a year apart.

In each case, the site says, an Apple service center agreed to repair a machine before telling the owner repairs were not possible because the system contained some sort of smoke residue. “They informed me that his computer can't be worked on because it’s contaminated,” wrote one woman in a complaint about Apple’s treatment of the iMac her son used.

“When I asked for an explanation, she said he’s a smoker and it’s contaminated with cigarette smoke which they consider a bio-hazard! I checked my Applecare warranty and it says nothing about not honoring warranties if the owner is a smoker. The Applecare representative said they defer to the technician and my son’s computer cannot be fixed at any Apple Service Center due to being listed a bio-hazard.”

Indeed, the warranty does not include mention of either secondhand smoke or biohazards. It does say that the plan does not cover “damage to the covered equipment caused by…extreme environment,” but both Consumerist claims indicate systems failures weren’t necessarily related to smoke residue. One user even says that smoke residue was falsely identified.

Both users appealed directly to the office of Steve Jobs. According to one, the office confirmed that the cult would not repair machines showing signs of smoke residue. “[A person from Jobs’ office] did advise me that nicotine is on OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration]’s list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health,” the user said.

Apparently, the Jobsian office worker contacted the Apple Store in question to see about a possible repair – before calling back to say it was out of the question. “[The worker] called me earlier this week to deliver the ‘bad news.’ She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke! She said the hard drive is about to fail, the optical drive has failed and it isn’t feasible to repair the computer under the warranty.

“This computer is less than 2 years old! Only one person in my household smokes – one 21 year old college student. She said that I can get it repaired elsewhere at my expense. I asked why my warranty didn’t cover the repair and was told it’s an OSHA violation.”

via Apple voids warranties over cigarette smoke, users say • The Register.

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