Have you ever wished you could set up a house light schedule on your personal computer? How about turn on your porch light from your car? Did you ever want to turn off all the lights in your house with one switch? Would you like to have an alarm sound if someone opens a door or window in your home? If so, all this is possible through the use of X10 home automation.
X10 is home automation technology 
that anyone can set up easily. X10 works by sending simple communication signals through the electrical lines of your home. You will need the receiver hardware attached to the device you want to control then you will need a transmitter control device. By assigning house (A-P) and unit (1-16) codes to the receiver devices, such as a light switch, you can control it. Because A is the default house code, it is a good idea to change it. You would not want you neighbor to be able to turn all your lights on and off because they are using the same X10 code.
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AceSpy is flagged by many of the spyware removal programs including Spyware Doctor as a keystroke logger. AceSpy monitors the computer by recording screenshots and maintaining log files of keystroke activity including email program, instant messaging and chatroom conversations. This application is sold commercially as “Spy Software” for the use of monitoring another person who could be your spouse or even a child.
Legally, it is a federal and state offense to install monitoring or surveillance software on a PC that you do not own. The reason that many spyware removal programs monitor for this program is just because it is illegal to install it in certain cases, it doesn’t mean that someone won’t do it. Personally I am in full agreeance of doing what it takes to make sure that my children are using the internet in a safe way so in this situation I would highly recommend this type of program. But on the other hand, you need to be careful that you don’t have these types of applications running on your computer without your consent so I am definately a fan of monitoring for this software. Keep in mind that most spyware protection programs give you the ability to flag a program as being safe so you would just update your spyware program for this program.which means that a person would usually purchase the program to monitor the activity of another person using a computer.
The bottom line is AceSpy is the type of application that can be both good or bad. You need to be aware that their are many other types of logging programs that are not sold commercially that can be installed on your computer without you evening knowing it. If you are looking for a safe way to monitor your children, then download a free trial version of AceSpy. Also make sure your are properly protected against having one of these programs installed on your computer without your knowledge by installing Spyware Doctor.
Yesterday, I was helping my brother get his Verizon DSL up and running. We were having a problem with the install cd, so I gave them a call on their 800 number to get him activated. During my conversation as I always do, I asked the phone representative where his call center was located. It really doesn’t matter to me where the support is coming from but the answer that I received was quite humerous. He responded by telling me that “I cannot tell you”. I asked him why and he said “Because it is a matter of security”. I couldn’t help but to burst out laughing. I asked him if he was serious and he was. I have asked other companies such as Direct TV and never had a phone rep tell me that it was a “secret”.
Verizon, what are you afraid of? I just really can’t see people waiting to take out your call center. Or are you afraid of telling the truth???
SimplePie RSS is a very nicely written php program that parses RSS and Atom syndication feeds. Currently you can parse RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0 right up to the RSS 2.0 format, and it supports Atom in version 0.3 and 1.0. Once you have SimplePie installed you will find that the developers built in support for some of the most common feed services including Bloglines, del.icio.us, Digg, Google Reader, Technorati and My Yahoo. SimplePie RSS is developed as open source software and released under the GNU Lesser General Public License, which means you can freely download it and use it on your websites for free. It has been tested on PHP 4.3, 4.4 and PHP 5.0.
SimplePie is great to use if you have a website and would like to have fresh updated content. Just download the program from simplepie and install it on your web server and then add the code to your web page and the program does the rest.
One day all of a sudden I was getting a MySQL ErrNo: 145 on one of my blogs. To correct the problem all you need to do is the following:
- Log into your mysql database either through the command prompt, or if you are using it on a hosting package, just find the database admin tool that your provider has for you. Typically it will be PHPMyAdmin.
- From the command prompt, or if you are using PHPMYAdmin go to the SQL tab and run the following command: REPAIR TABLE yourtablename.
- You will probably see a couple of messages indicating the problems that the repair fixed.
One you have repaired the table, go ahead and try to access the database table again. This should clear up Errno: 145.
WinAd is an adware program that can display pop-up advertisements on your computer. Webroot Spy Sweeper does detect this program and can remove it.
WinAd will typically redirect your searches to windupdates.com and then display advertisements that are related to removing spyware from your computer. It is thought that this adware program has been distributed through the popular online game called “Yo Mama Osama” which promises a free cell phone booster as a prize for winning the game.
You can try to remove WinAd manually by following the below steps (For those who are comfortable modifying their computer files):
- Unregister cd_swf.dll
- Delete the following files: osama.exe, wnad.exe, wnad-update.exe, cd_swf.dll, wnad.dat, wnad_adwarelog.txt, wnad.log, wnad.lgc, wnad
We recommend that you use Webroot Spy Sweeper to remove WinAd and other adware programs like it. Try a free scan for WinAd and other adware programs.
Prior to Windows XP, if you had a version where users needed to logon into the system, the user would need to type both their userid and password. When the XP version came out, windows enhanced the logon feature to allow users to click on an icon and then enter in their password. The logon feature was also added to the xP Home Edition so multiple users in the house could more easily share the same computer.
I love the logon feature in the home edition, but do not like the fact that I am giving out part of the information needed to log into the computer. For example, let’s say that someone was trying to steal some important information off of your computer. You already gave them 50% of the information. Now all they need is your password. Take the situation where your child is off to College and is sharing a room with other students that they do not know. You child may have some information stored on the computer that you would not want any of the students to access.
I don’t want to make it any easier for someone to break into my account which is why I like the classig logon screen. Here is how to turn it on:
- Click on “start” in the lower left hand corner and then click on “Control Panel”.
- Look for the “User Accounts” icon and double click on it.
- After the previous step you will see a window that says “User Accounts” in it upper left hand
side.
- Click the “Change the way users log on or off” button.
- Look for the “Use the Welcome screen” checkbox and un-check it.
- Click the “Apply Options” button.
Now go ahead and reboot your computer. When Windows loads up you will now have the classic xp login screen where you will need to enter in both the user id and password.
I came across this new adware threat today called BraveSentry Fake Alert. My anti-spyware program Spyware Doctor from PC Tools popped up an alert today letting me know that it quarantined this program today. I did a little research into it and found out that sites on the internet are saying that this adware threat is actually coming from a rogue anti-spyware program called BraveSentry. It seems that the program does nothing more than try and trick you to purchase the commercial version of their program by telling you that you have spyware threats on your computer. PC Tools classifies this as an adware program because it seems to have the ability to display advertisements on your computer such as the fake spyware alert.
We always recommend to our clients that they have a trusted anti-spyware program installed on their computer to protect against threats like the “BraveSentry Fake Alert”. We do recommend that they use PC Tools - Spyware Doctor for their anti-spyware protection. Click here to get a free trial scan to see what has been installed on your computer. PC Tools does not use scare tactics to get you to use their program and they will tell you truthfully if your computer has any threats installed on it.
