July 4 2008 COOLSITES Newsletter #172 by Mark Donaldson

luem42 · Joined: Aug 02, 2003 Posts: 308

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I have published the July 4 2008 COOLSITES Newsletter #172 by Mark Donaldson.

The following is an excerpt from this weeks newsletter. To see the full newsletter with all of the COOLSITES links please click and bookmark this link: http://luem42.googlepages.com/coolsites.html and check it each week. Thank you. Mark.

July 4 2008 COOLSITES Newsletter #172 by Mark Donaldson Happy Birthday USA

Everyone got last week's newsletter.

I still may have problems from time to time so here is what I have done. Subscribers may use a private link to download the newsletter in the text ( .txt ), html (.html ) and the MS Word Doc ( .doc ) format in a zip file. I will upload the zip files to my archive site right after I send out the newsletter on Friday morning. If a subscriber doesn't receive the newsletter, by 8am EDT, they can quickly download it, unzip it and peruse it offline. You can also read it online from there.

If you are a subscriber and don't know the private link you can email me for it. These zip files are less than 40K which is smaller than the 100K or more newsletter email.

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Semper Gratis (forever free) of cost

COOLSITES is a list of safe, fun, useful, informative and just plain cool websites and programs that are FREE, FREE and FREE. All of the programs and websites I list are free. If I list anything that is so good but isn't free I will list the price with it.

My website is Dialup Friendly. All pages except "Just The Links" and "Specialized Search Engines" load up in under 15 seconds.

Wherever you go if you see the user name LUEM42 that's me

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Pirillo's Picks for February 13 2007

"And if you think that's a lot of links, you should see how many http://luem42.com/ collects every day. It's enough to make you wanna never leave the house again as long as you live" Yours Digitally, Chris Pirillo http://chris.pirillo.com/

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Clif Notes Newsletter, Feb 2007 http://freewarewiki.com/ClifNotes

"The COOLSITES Newsletter - find the coolest links here. This fella named Mark Donaldson has been sending out his lists of cool sites since 2003. I'd never heard of him before last week. One day I was Googling myself to see who was posting links to my newsletter, and I found his website. I guess he's mentioned my newsletter at least 3 times. I like the COOLSITES website too, but I think it could use some reformatting to make it a bit easier to read. What I really like is the content there. Mark must really read a lot of stuff on the web and he takes the best links then tells you about them." http://freewarewiki.com/CoolSitesNewsletter

Welcome to Clif Notes Newsletter
June 29, 2008

Hello everyone. I'm sorry, once again I must take some time away from my newsletter. I don't have anything for you this week, but I'll be back soon. This weekend I am hiking in the Old Man's Cave area in Ohio.
http://www.hockinghills.com/parks/p_omc.htm

Last Newsletter http://freewarewiki.com/ClifNotesNewsletter080622

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Security News

Beware of the IRS Stimulus Check scam. Phishers are sending out emails that look like they came from the IRS and calling on the phone claiming they need additional info or for you to click a link to get your check. The IRS says that they do not correspond with anyone via email and that it's a scam. If you should receive this email or other IRS scams please forward to: phishing.DeleteThis@irs.gov.

"Websense® Security LabsT ThreatSeekerT Network has discovered a substantial number of spam messages utilizing a reliable social engineering trick that lures users to download a Microsoft critical security update.

The message uses an open redirect at the legitimate shopping site shopping.***.com; the redirect forwards users to a malicious URL offering to download a malicious executable. The malicious hostname is a lengthy one embedding 62 characters, and uses the sub-domain update.microsoft.com. Users who open this file will have their desktop infected with a Backdoor.

Here is what the redirect looks like inside the spam messages: hXXp://shopping.***.com/go.nhn?url=hXXp%3A%2F%2Fupdate%2Emicrosoft%2Ecom%2E<removed>%2Enet

An interesting trait of this particular attack is that the malicious top level domain is pointing to the government site of the United States Secret Service - The Electronic Crimes Tasks Forces Web site in an apparent attempt to work around IP reputation-based systems.

We have detected email lures containing links to this site spreading rapidly through our Websense Hosted Email Security and Websense Email Security products.

It is important to add that Microsoft never sends security update notifications through emails.

Websense Messaging and Websense Web Security customers are protected against this attack."

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Security Links

Some subscribers have indicated that the anti-spyware/adware programs I have listed here recently are "rogues". I get these links from good sources however I do not test the programs myself because I just don't have the time and most new programs won't work on my old 98 system. The definitive source of rogue info is Spyware Warrior and they weren't listed there. Spyware Warrior- Rogue-Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

10 ways to avoid moving scams: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20080627-moving-scams-est...tea1.as

Cellphone security seen as profit frontier. The race is on to get businesses and consumers to pay for security for their cellphone the way they do for their PCs: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080624/tc_usatoday/cellphonesecurit...enaspro

Diary of a deliberately spammed housewife. What happened when 'Penelope Retch' answered her spam e-mail: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasi...mp;arti

How to Block Cellphone Spam: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/how-to-block-cellphone-spam/

How to spot e-mail scams: http://ct.cnet-ssa.cnet.com/clicks?t=63895130-be56918137808c8d29d61779...633af-b

Spot e-mails potentially infected with viruses: http://ct.cnet-ssa.cnet.com/clicks?t=63165528-be56918137808c8d29d61779...633af-b

Spybot Search and Destroy game. with version Spybot 1.4, there's a fun and simple game hidden as an Easter egg: http://ct.cnet-ssa.cnet.com/clicks?t=62967189-be56918137808c8d29d61779...633af-b

The 5 most common business scams. Scambusters.org: http://www.scambusters.org/businessscams.html

Update. CryptoExpert 2008 Lite 7.6.2 Free on the fly hard drives encryption software with Password authentication.: http://www.secureaction.com/cryptoexpert/lite/

Update. Sandboxie 3.28 run programs in a sandbox. Sandbox software for application isolation and secure Web browsing: http://www.sandboxie.com/

Update. Spybot - Search and Destroy 1.60 RC2: http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

Update. Spyware Terminator 2.2.3.444 Free spyware removal and spyware protection - Spyware Terminator: http://www.spywareterminator.com/

Updated June-05-2008 Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Vista. Securing Folders And Files In Vista Part V: http://feed.lockergnome.com/~r/nexus/it/~3/321522444/

Vista. Securing Folders And Files In Vista Part VI: http://feed.lockergnome.com/~r/nexus/it/~3/323538154/

Vista. Securing Folders And Files In Vista Part VII: http://feed.lockergnome.com/~r/nexus/it/~3/324498047/

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Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 159 • 2008-07-03

The following topics appear in our free content

TOP STORY The DIY guide to PC troubleshooting and repair
Do this before you call the repair shop
Strategies and techniques for troubling times
Be persistent, but have an exit strategy

KNOWN ISSUES Outlook corrupts HTML to text for some readers
Get the full-color view of our newsletter
Our antivirus choice doesn't please everyone
A request to tone down the wacky videos

WACKY WEB WEEK A suit you can recycle for spare change

http://WindowsSecrets.com/comp/080703

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What a Freebie

Taco Bell has introducing two refreshing drinks to cool you off this summer. Their Frutista Freeze drinks come in strawberry and mango flavors. Both are topped with real strawberries.

Visit your local participating Taco Bell restaurant from July 8th to July 15th 2008 to ask for your free sample drink

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COOLSITES 124 cool links

I harvest what I believe to be the best links from the best sources that are safe, fun, informative, useful and just plain cool. I categorize them and edit their descriptions for clarity. I may make comments about the links but you will know because I always sign them with "Mark".

To see the full newsletter with all of the COOLSITES links please click and bookmark this link: http://luem42.googlepages.com/coolsites.html and check it each week. Thank you. Mark.