Reports in that the Koobface virus/trojan than sometimes plagues Facebook is back on the march again. Of course, these reports may not be very reliable, as they are from personal status updates on Facebook! Just spotted this Facebook status update: “Virus spreading like wildfire on Fb and My Space! It is a trojan worm called koobface. It will steal your info,invade your system and shut it down! DO NOT open the link Barack Obama Clinton Scandal! If SmartGirl15 requests you as a friend, don’t accept it ;it is a virus. If somebody on your list adds her, you get the virus too! Please copy and paste to your wall. Confirmed on SNOPES..please pass it on” OK, a quick Google for that phrase brings up some pretty old pages, so maybe just an old status update worming its way around endlessly inside Facebook. Like Chinese whispers, it keeps coming around, but actually always looks the same…… OK. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, some information on Koobface. Koobface Common name Koobface worm Aliases W32/Koobfa-Gen (Sophos) W32.Koobface.A (Symantec) W32/Koobface.worm (McAfee) WORM_KOOBFACE.DC (Trend Micro) Win32/Koobface (CA, Inc.) Worm.KoobFace (Malwarebytes) Classification Unknown Type Computer worm Subtype Computer virus Isolation December 2008 Point of Origin [Unknown] Koobface [...]

The Queen’s Speech on YouTube Dec 23, 2007 The Queen has made the biggest technological leap since she broadcast the 1957 Queen’s Speech on television. This year her speech can be seen, and heard, on YouTube. Her Royal Highness has even set up her own channel on YouTube, The Royal Channel. The Royal Channel also shows several other film reels which show the Royal Family history, such as the The Queen Mother’s wedding, Long to Reign Over Us, Chapter One: The King’s Death and Garden Parties which provides an interesting insight to the four garden parties that the Royal household host each year. It is good to see that the Queen is as tech savvy as the younger generation. Lead by example and all that. The Queen’s Offical Facebook Page Goes Online Nov 7, 2010  HRH Queen Elizabeth II has launched her new Royal Facebook page. The Queen has embraced online opportunities. She has been using email for some time now and also hase Twitter and YouTube channels. The new Facebook page shares information on official royal appearences across the UK as well as news from Buckingham Palace with announcements. Any Facebook user can “like” the page which will mean that they will receive news alerts [...]

What a nightmare. A warning to all here: Do Not Try To Upload Too Many Photos to Facebook At Once I was attempting to upkload about 6 or 7 photos to Facebook from my phone and it just died on me. It got pretty hot, gave some memory warnings, then crashed. I tried rebooting but the keys were not responsive at all. I removed the battery to force a reboot but that did not help. It did not boot, never got beyond the Android logo on the boot up. So I eventually decided that a factory reset was the only option. In case you find yourself in this situation, this is what you do: Remove the battery again, then replace Hold Home Key and End key for 20 to 30 seconds until you see a triangle with an exclamation point and a picture of the G1. Open the keyboard and press Alt+W until and chose factory reset Allow it to boot up. If you have no network then skip Google sign in Go to wireless settings and activate Open Gmail to force back into Google sign in After doing this the Orange 3G seemed to then wake up. Gmail synched. [...]

My Dad called me today to say that he had a problem with his PC. A rogue anti-virus got installed on his PC and has hijacked it. He is running McAfee AV but that failed to stop it, although he did admit that he saw warnings, but really thought at the time that the virus program was a safe one. I have Googled the fix for him and found that Malwarebytes have an automatic removal solution in place already. You can download Malware Bytes from Bleeping Computer (a website devoted to helping people prevent and remove viruses), here is the direct link: Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Now, before you go jumping to any conclusions, let me make it clear that I may be adding to the confusion. As this evening I had a comment posted to my Facebook Wall that was obviously a bit suspect. It said “Jon, this is without doubt the sexiest video ever! ” with what appeared to be an embedded YouTube video of a woman with a large behind dancing. Admittedly I did click on it, rather foolishly. The person that sent it to me really is not the sort of person that generally sends such things, and [...]

If you are reading this you are a web user and therefore you should be aware of the possible risks associated with Internet use. In the same way that if you visit a city you should be aware of how to behave and which places to keep away from, you need to take a similar approach online. In recent months there have been many reports of user privacy updates and security breaches that could well mean that personal information about you is sitting in the hands of criminals. The most recent change to the way the Internet is managed was implemented by Facebook. They have recently updated their privacy agreements to allow them to use the personal data of its members to help promote its own products. It also passes personal information on to third parties (i.e. people that want to sell you stuff). What does this actually mean? Well, one thing that Facebook now do is create links out of your personal information and link to pages that you do not authorize. OK, so you can ask them not to surely? Yes, you can, but if you do, rather than delete the link, they delete the information. So if [...]

Has Facebook Just Crashed and Burned or is it Just Me? Oct 31, 2011  Trying to open Facebook an getting an error message ion Chrome: Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): The server closed the connection without sending any data. Of course, this could be my PC, Chrome or my ISP that is playing up. All likely contenders really. Anyone else having trouble accessing Facebook? I had just played a move in Wordscraper and then poof! all gone. Strange. Spooky strange. Maybe ghosts in the machine. It is Halloween. Facebook Apps Dead? No Scrabble, No Wordscraper! Jun 10, 2011  Just checked in to Facebook to see if it is my move in Scrabble or Wordscraper, and all apps.facebook.com pages seem to be down right now. The following message is posted in the Chrome broswer: The server at apps.facebook.com can’t be found, because the DNS lookup failed. DNS is the web service that translates a website’s name to its internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Google Chrome from accessing the network. Sure it is nothing serious, well, hope not, I think [...]

Recently at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft unveiled their latest plans to revolutionise the internet and computing. Where Web2.0 brought interactivity to the internet, Windows Asure, will bring all the functions of a personal computer to the internet. The idea is that applications and data can be stored on internet servers, allowing uses to access their “personal computer” from any computer with an internet connection. Microsoft’s chief software architect Ray Ozzie describes this new platform as “Windows for the cloud”. Windows Azure is likely to be available with the next Windows operating system release, Windows 7. This development is exciting for Microsoft, as it shows that Microsoft can still take on the established players Google and Amazon in the online software market. Google is planning greater things with its Android operating system and Chrome browser, but currently this technology still seems to be some way off. Microsoft seem to be one step ahead of Google in this instance. The main obkective of Azure is to provide a platform for developers to build new applications which will run on the internet. This will make collaboration easier, and people will be able to share documents from any pc much [...]

For a long time the internet and technology industries have been dominated by men. In an attempt to encourage more women in to the technology industry, a group of female IT experts have formed an organisation, to help unite and promote women in IT. The group refer to its meetings as Girl Geek Dinners. According the the “Girl Geeks”, Technology conferences are often all-male affairs and women feel excluded. In some countries the technology industry is almost entirely dominated by men. The purpose of the Girl Geek Dinners is simply an attempt to bring more women into the IT industry. According to the Institution of Engineering and Technology, women make up just 7% of the IT workforce in the UK. “Trying to attract and retain females in the IT industry is very difficult.Not because they’re awkward people to employ, but because they’re actually very good – they’re a minority and people are after them. It’s the idea of different people and the mixing of minds that actually entices people to want to employ women as well as men. It started off with just London, we did our first one in August 2005. People started saying I’d like to organise a [...]

Recent studies carried out by Travelsupermarket.com have revealed an unexpected side effect of the Web2.0 internet phenomenon – holiday flings are becoming less common, and the internet is to blame. In the days before social networking and Googling, people felt that they were safe to have some passionate fun while on holiday, in the knowledge that they could easily avoid seeing their lover again if they desired. However, now more and more people are being poked (a Facebook term) and Googled by their fling and tracked down, much to the annoyance of the other party involved. It is estimated that 1 in 5 people that had a holiday romance in 2008 were contacted after the holiday by their lover, via popular social networking sites. This trend is on the increase, as more people are building profiles online. And this is starting to make people think twice (when sober enough to think at all!) about having a fling while on holiday! Suggested Reading:Holiday Website Company Sun4U.com Collapses OvernightSimonSeeks.com – New Travel Website that Rewards Holiday MakersToday Matt Cutts Posted A Photo To Google+ !!!! WOW!!!LinkedIn.com Proves That It Is A Real Tech PlayerBad News For Travel Affiliates