Mail cards no later than Dec 11th.  Details here at http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail.

The PA Turnpike is planning on eliminating Toll Booths and going to a completely automated system.
There is a Questionnaire at http://www.paturnpike.com/aet_public/aet.asp

Under the new system, if you choose to pay by Cash or Check, the system will take a photo of your license plate as you drive past.
Anyone wanting a "Flip Plate" for their license plate, please contact your local Fake ID Card person in your community.

BarryZ
 

Many people have asked "Where do I go to find a real place to donate to help flood & tornado victims in the US?"

Here's a website that lists the various services in those areas.  Choose one.

Here's a neat movie on how to build a Stink Bug Trap.
Have your teenagers make these and sell them at local flea markets & yard sales !!

Design change:  use Duct Tape and tape the LED Light to the BOTTOM of the bottle - so that when the light wears out you don't need to take the whole thing apart in order to change batteries.
Try to use an LED light that uses AAA batteries, not a tiny Watch battery, which won't last long.
BarryZ

This is a reminder that 1USA provides Trend Micro Titanium anti-virus software to 1USA customers for $20 per year.  All you need to do is ask.
TMIS will begin "reminding" you 30 days before your renewal date.  And even if you let TMIS expire, it will still protect the computer - just not retrieve any new updates - until a new Serial Number is inserted.

If your computer has TMIS 2009 or TMIS 2010 on it, it should be updated to the TMIS 2011 version.  There are new features.

BarryZ
 

There are lots of companies out there who are experiencing spam coming into their computers.  There was a question posed, and the answer provided by BarryZ of 1USA below.

The Quesion:
Concerning the Spam Discussion
Call me late to the party, but I have a question that was not answered when I asked it years ago of my ISP. I know that email addresses can be spoofed, but I do not understand why there are not simple mail rules to catch the most obvious ones.

Why would I ever send myself mail? As a test perhaps? I'd be willing to drop that functionality to cut out all the spam that I apparently sent to myself. If a message has my name in the from field, delete it. Why isn't that an option? What about when my name isn't in the To field? How did I get it? Friendly name or not, if either one is wrong, dump it. If the message is from the future by more than a day, delete it. There are many obvious points in the past you should be able to select as well; such as before the internet was invented, before MS Windows, before Y2K, before last year, or before I last checked for mail.

I realize that SMTP is broken, that it was never intended for public use, and that it never had safeguards designed into it, but I don't know why the email programs on the user computers are not any more adaptable to these oddities. Outlook? Hello?

To be fair, since I moved to my new ISP, I get no spam at all. Nor do I get much from work. It could be that I surf more safely now, and keep my email fairly secure. -- CR

The Answer by BarryZ:
Yes It Can Be Done
.. And we've been doing it since 2001. 1USA.Com (national ISP like AOL, MSN) has a way to prevent emails with faked headers. If your email address is feedback@SunbeltSecurityNews.com and someone tried to send you an email using your own email address, there are SPF protocols available as well as server programming. Server programming can be set to either challenge, redirect, deny or drop such emails.

For instances where email may have an email address of feedback@hotmail.com, if the email is not received here at 1USA from an authentic Hotmail server, likewise there is a choice to challenge, redirect, deny or drop.

In addition, the mail servers at 1USA.Com run FOUR different anti-virus programs, protecting the customers better than any other ISP or any other email service. 1USA.Com hosts email for many domains, and there are additional generic domains available if a new customer doesn't want to use TheirName @ 1USA.Com.  In fact, you don't even need to change your current email address in order to get email filtering by 1USA.
For more details contact webmaster@1usa.com

Several things to be aware of this year...as gangs and robbers are now plotting different ways to get a person to "stop" their vehicle.

There is a gang initiation reported by the local police department that gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in it... waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the baby...
Note that the location of this car seat will usually be beside a wooded or grassy (field) area ...and the person - woman - will be dragged into the woods- beaten and raped- usually left for dead.
DO NOT STOP. DIAL 9-1-1 AND INFORM THEM.....

IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSHIELD.
DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION - SO YOU ARE FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF ROBBERS.

PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES

Somebody e-mailed this to me. It seems a Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. House, for instance, is feminine: la casa; pencil, however, is masculine: el lapiz.

A student asked, "What gender is computer?"

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that computer should definitely be of the feminine gender (la computadora), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine (el computador), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

-- The women won.

Some interesting and useful Announcements for Veterans are at http://veterans.1usa.com

If one of your friends continually sends you useless emails, here's one to send back to them.
BarryZ

The Memory Place has a good article on Memory chips on Windows 7 computers.  Link.

If you get an email titled "Nude photo of Nancy Pelosi," don't open it...

The amount of junk email related to false job offers has increased, probably due to the current economic crisis.  Many arrive from AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo.

Don't mess with professionals.  They will clean out your bank accounts or steal your identity.
1USA customers DO NOT RECEIVE ANY Spams or Scams in their In-Box.
If your Email Service isn't as protected as 1USA, signup for a @1usa.com email address today.

The 1USA Dialer and 1USA Email Setup software has been revised, specifically for Windows7, however now is a good time to grab a copy, whether you need it or not right now, and put it into the /My Documents / _Downloads folder - and save it for a rainy day.

1USA Dialup Connection installer is here.
1USA Email Account Setup software is here.

Both programs are real small.
The 1USA Dialer is better than the Windows Dialer because the 1USA dialer is not hackable like the Windows Dialer is.

If you can, say "Thank You for serving" to the military personnel you meet.
If it would be inconvenient to talk at the time, here is an easy way to say thanks - using Sign Language.  Website is here.  Movie is here.

Being careful which websites you surf, i.e. FaceBook, MySpace, MyLife, etc. no longer applies.  "Being Careful" simply is not good enough.  Even "clean" websites may display "infected" advertisements.

An estimated 5.8 million pages belonging to 640,000 websites were infected with code designed to launch malware attacks on visitors, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Malware is mostly software that wants you to divulge credit card information or would lead to cleaning out your bank accounts.
Some will say "your computer is infected, buy this"... while other types are invisible and run in the background.
The numbers, compiled over the third quarter by security firm Dasient, represent a significant jump in number of legitimate websites that have been compromised.
Story here...

There is a simple solution!  How to protect your computer from all these malwares.

Other news stories are on http://members.1usa.com website....
particularly under the News category.

In the 1USA Newsletter email sent to 1USA customers on 9/29/2009, BarryZ was "right on" with the recommendation to install software that would isolate web surfing in 'sandbox memory' and prevent changes to your computer.

The latest figures from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) have hinted that Fake antivirus programs are multiplying at such a rate they could start to overwhelm the detection capabilities of signature-based scanners.

Rogue or bogus programs passing themselves off as real antivirus software have been one of the malware themes of 2009, but the APWG's numbers for the first half of the year show that the organization's members detected 485,000 samples, more than five times the total for the whole of 2008.
Full story at NetworkWorld.

Google results flog millions of compromised webpages
Top billing
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/mass_compromise_google_results/

Automated attacks push malware on Facebook
More captcha busting suspected
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/facebook_automated_attacks/

Malware ecosystem thrives thanks to pay-per-install fees
Booming economy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/30/thriving_malware_affiliate_biz/

Banking Trojans double as scareware runs wild
Interwebs clogged up with crimeware
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/crimeware_plague/

Google Wave search poisoned by scareware scammers
Security Essentials results also rigged
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/google_wave_scareware/

Next-gen Trojan rewrites bank statements
Crooks loot $440K using uber-subtle stealth malware
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/next_gen_bank_trojan/

Botnet buries commands in image files
Stego backdoor hub
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/stego_botnet_control/

If you have not yet installed SafeSpace software on your computer, be prepared for a visit to the Computer Repair Shop.

Emails are arriving from other ISPs pretending to be from CareerBuilder.com
The emails try to get you to click on a link in the email... thereby infecting your computer.
1USA has had to put a filter on emails arriving from CareerBuilder.Com... so that emails arriving from only their authorized mail servers will be accepted.
If you have any questions, please contact the 1USA Webmasters.

Here is an example of why a sender's From-Address might be rejected at 1USA.
Reason:  Because it is arriving from the wrong server.
In this case, the server is a hacked PHP script on some website.
Look at all the different (faked) From-Addresses that are arriving from the server at php.telenet.ge

Since the emails are not legit, they are probably selling something or maybe trying to deliver a virus.
You are protected here with your @1usa.com email account.

BarryZ,1USA

Server time: Sun Dec 28 14:34:51 2008

28 12:30:53[2361646] Changed 212.58.96.230 <

xmikes@pacbell.net> "[php.telenet.ge]
28 12:30:57[2361646] Rejected 212.58.96.230 <xmikes@pacbell.net>
28 12:31:08[2361647] Changed 212.58.96.230 <rednop@cybernet1.com> "[php.telenet.ge]
28 12:31:12[2361647] Rejected 212.58.96.230 <rednop@cybernet1.com>
28 12:31:13[2361648] Changed 212.58.96.230 <yancooper@sbcglobal.net> "[php.telenet.ge]
28 12:31:17[2361648] Rejected 212.58.96.230 <yancooper@sbcglobal.net>
28 12:43:01[2361671] New 212.58.96.230 <ryanmcdowell@hotmail.com> "[php.telenet.ge]
28 12:43:01[2361671] Rcpt 212.58.96.230 <ryanmcdowell@hotmail.com> "smtp thid=2604"
28 12:43:01[2361671] Received 212.58.96.230 <ryanmcdowell@hotmail.com> 1616 <005501c4d34b$b7ae5cb6$611c84bc@lcfz>
28 12:43:03[2361671] Aspam 212.58.96.230 <ryanmcdowell@hotmail.com> 1616 <005501c4d34b$b7ae5cb6$611c84bc@lcfz>
28 12:43:03[2361671] Dropped 212.58.96.230 <ryanmcdowell@hotmail.com> 1616 <005501c4d34b$b7ae5cb6$611c84bc@lcfz>
28 12:43:08[2361672] SPF 212.58.96.230 <smokeblind22@yahoo.com> "domainkeys"
28 12:43:08[2361672] New 212.58.96.230 <smokeblind22@yahoo.com> "[php.telenet.ge]
28 12:43:08[2361672] Rcpt 212.58.96.230 <smokeblind22@yahoo.com> "smtp thid=2448"
28 12:43:08[2361672] Received 212.58.96.230 <smokeblind22@yahoo.com> 1367 <88761671.20081023190440@yahoo.com> smokeblind22@yahoo.com> 1367 <88761671.20081023190440@yahoo.com> "[php.telenet.ge] DomainKeys/SPF failed,
28 12:43:11[2361676] Changed 212.58.96.230 <tingley1@aol.com> "[php.telenet.ge] HARD ip:212.58.96.230 r:domain_spam_block ips:was=hotmail.com dogrey:was=hotmail.com nohard=false noenforce
28 12:43:15[2361676] Rejected 212.58.96.230 <tingley1@aol.com> "550 DID YOU SEND ME AN EMAIL? SPF-Error -- SPF-Error --

========== Log File (rec0812/msg081227.rec) ===========
27 23:41:12[2360281] New 212.58.96.230 <

3:41:12[2360281] Aspam 212.58.96.230 <

27 23:41:17[2360283] Rcpt 212.58.96.230 <

08[2361672] Dropped 212.58.96.230 <

Domains can protect their email addresses using Sender Policy Framework (SPF).  Yahoo Groups doesn't use the SPF worldwide standard, they have their own Domain Keys verification system.

Consequently, when a AOL customer is a member of a Yahoo Group, and the email goes out, Yahoo (in their infinite wisdom) will send out the email using the AOL customer's email address... which violates the AOL trademark and AOL's SPF Policy.  Recipients of such messages are instructed by AOL to REJECT such messages that do not originate from an authorized AOL mail server.

To get around this problem, tell the 1USA Webmasters that you are a member of a  Yahoo Group, and an over-ride can be put in place so that you will receive the emails from that Yahoo Group.

For more info about SPF, visit http://www.1usa.com/spf.html