Dennis Faas

In computing, phishing (also known as carding and spoofing) is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for ... such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message, such as an email or an instant message. It is a form of a social engineering attack. The term phishing comes from the fact that Internet scammers are using increasingly sophisticated lures as they "fish" for users' financial information and password data. With the growing ... (view more)

wiredNews.com is reporting that an anti-phishing tool (currently only available in the beta stage of Internet Explorer version 7 ) will be available to all Windows XP Service Pack 2 users before the full release of IE7. Here's the full story: " ... Microsoft Corp. will soon make available to the general public a tool for warning users about 'phishing' scams that could lead to identity theft. Currently, such a tool comes only with the Internet Explorer 7 browser, which is available in tests only to a select group of developers. But within a few weeks, Microsoft will incorporate it into a ... (view more)

Synopsis: Is your system running a little sluggish? Want to squeeze a little more juice out of it -- all the while customize and clean it at the same time? In that case, try BoostXP2! BoostXP2 is a comprehensive and easy-to-use Windows utility suite ... that lets you fine-tune Windows and Internet Explorer and makes your computer run faster. Whether you want to tweak your Windows Registry, clean up your hard drive, erase tracks, or increase your multimedia and game performance, BoostXP2's integrated suite of programs can get your system running at peak performance levels. BoostXP2 gives you ... (view more)

A CD / DVD recorder is a compact disc drive that can be used to produce discs readable in other CD / DVD-ROM drives. A DVD recorder similarly produces DVD discs playable in stand-alone video players or DVD-ROM drives. They are generally used for ... small-scale archival or data exchange, being slower and more materially expensive than the moulding process used to mass-manufacture pressed discs. The recorder encodes (or burns) data onto a recordable CD-R, DVD-R or DVD+R disc (called a blank) by selectively heating parts of an organic dye layer in the disc with a laser in its write head. This ... (view more)

Synopsis: What would you do if your computer crashed and you suddenly lost all of your personal music files, movie files, picture files, email data, or documents? Don't take that chance -- ensure that your most critical files are backed up with ... Avantrix Backup Plus: DVD (and CD) Edition, today! With Avantrix Backup Plus, you can backup to CD and DVD media without the need for pre formatting or packet writing software. Avantrix Backup Plus supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM and Dual Layer DVD media. Avantrix Backup Plus DVD [and CD] Edition: Screenshots Click to view: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows XP and Nero Express CD burning program. I have burned many audio CDs using .WAV, and .MP3 source sound files. The one thing that can't understand, however, is why the track titles never ... get burned onto my audio CD. They always show up as 'Track 1' and 'Track 2', instead of the actual song title. Can you recommend a good burning program that will burn titles also? " My response: Just to recap: the type of CD you are referring to is a standard audio CD -- the kind that you can play in virtually any CD player. In ... (view more)

The Moving Picture Experts Group ( MPEG ) is a working group of ISO/IEC charged with the development of video and audio encoding standards. Since its first meeting in 1988, MPEG has grown to include approximately 350 members from various industries ... and universities. MPEG's official designation is ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11. MPEG (pronounced EM-peg) has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards: MPEG-1: Initial video and audio compression standard. Later used as the standard for Video CD, and includes the popular Layer 3 (MP3) audio compression format. MPEG-2: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Al D. writes: " Dear Dennis, A little while back, I wrote to you about a problem I had not being able to view my thumbnail pictures when browsing my video files. Normally the thumbnail view provides a still photo for each file, so ... that I can preview and identify the proper video. At any rate: I have hundreds of video clips on my computer (mostly in .mpeg video format). Shortly after I installed Nero Vision Express 3 (a CD / DVD burning software program), I lost the ability to preview my thumbnails. Now when I use the thumbnail view, I get a standard Windows Media ... (view more)

Synopsis: What do you get when you mix a cute and fuzzy Hamster, a plastic ball, and a whacky obstacle course? Answser: Hamster Ball -- the 3D puzzle game, of course! Take control of Hammy and his plastic ball of death and go a-rollin' through the ... craziest maze of courses you've ever seen! But be careful, because the clock is ticking and everything is out to stop you! Download Hamster Ball now and see why it was voted the Downloadable Game of the Year by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences! Hamster Ball Gold: Screenshots Click to view: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3. Hamster Ball Gold: ... (view more)

Malware Malware , or "malicious software" is a generic term used to describe various types of malevolent programs. Below are some of the most common forms of malware. Virus Viruses have used many sorts of hosts. When computer viruses first ... originated, common targets were executable files that are part of application programs and the boot sectors of floppy disks. More recently, most viruses have embedded themselves in e-mail as Email attachments, depending on a curious user opening the viral attachment. In the case of executable files, the infection routine of the virus arranges that ... (view more)