May 2009

ProAm Phishing Event Held at…

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Thursday May 15th, 2009, Facebook was again hit by a phishing attack. Facebook says it responded quickly to block fake links being shared on the site. Attacks came in the form of “Wall Posts” and inbox messages. The above link to their recent blog gives more information on the steps they have taken.

From what I gather you might also receive an email with the subject “Hello”. If you open it and click on the link, you’ll be taken to a Facebook Look-a -Like page. You might see a name containing 151.im or 121.im. Don’t open it, don’t click on it, don’t put in your name and password.

Maybe Facebook doesn’t hold the most sensitive of information around, but it’s obviously important to someone. I’m sure all the regular methods will be used to make money form our forever lost and probably now well worn information.

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‘Flames & Fire’ Prompt New HP & Compaq Battery Recall

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HP has announced the recall of 70,000 lithium ion notebook batteries. Is your model on this list?

According to yesterday’s release from the Consumer Product Safety Commision, the recall was driven by “two reports of batteries that overheated and ruptured, resulting in flames/fire”

Check out our world famous video of what happens when a laptop catches fire.

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PC Pitstop Newsletter – May 2009

  • 5 Requirements for Windows 7
  • Windows 7 RC1 for Download
  • Windows 7 RC1 Here Goes!
  • Ask the Pros: Laptop Drivers
  • Netbooks – Who’s Using Them?
  • Bits from Bill: Windows 7 Good Bad and Ugly
  • TechBite: 5 Cool Web Services
  • Technologizer: Windows 7 FAQ
  • Chris Pirillo Video: Save Your Digital Assets
  • Tip #1: FREE Old App’s Downloads
  • Tip #2: Desktop Slideshow Alternative
  • Tip #3: Tidy Up Your Desktop
  • Tip #4: Blog with Word 2007
  • PC Pitstop Driver Library
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    Netbooks – Who’s Using Them?

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    Netbooks – those ultra small portable PCs – are they a niche product, a passing fad or an up and coming product just in its infancy? PC Pitstop analyzed the prevalence of netbooks that ran our on-line diagnostic scans during Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. For the purpose of our analysis, we looked at processor descriptions as well as the display size for portables. For the most part, we found that the netbooks usually contained the Intel® Atomâ„¢ processor. We also set a filter for portable display size of less than 11 inches for the purpose of our analysis.

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    Windows 7 – The Good, Bad & Ugly

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    By Bill Pytlovany

    Have you heard about Windows 7?

    This week Microsoft is distributing the “Release Candidate” of Windows version 7. I’m sure you’ll be reading about it all over the place. Blogs like Ed Bott Windows Expertise and Paul Thurotts Supersite provide information on all the new features complete with screen shots and setup advice. Naturally, I like to focus on the unusual and this week I picked out some of my favorite and not-so favorite features.

    There is plenty of good new stuff in Windows 7. New desktop backgrounds, screen savers and animation effects really make Windows 7 a graphical experience. I tend to look for the not to obvious new features. Here’s one that really makes sense.

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    Technologizer: Windows 7 RC – FAQs

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    By Harry McCracken

    Sixteen questions (and answers!) on the new, almost-finished version of Microsoft’s next OS.

    Windows 7 is here–sort of. Yes, Microsoft still isn’t talking about when it’ll ship the final version–all evidence suggests it’ll be sometime this Fall–but the company is unleashing the Windows 7 Release Candidate today. It’s a free, all-but-final version of the operating system, and it’ll work until March 1st, 2010 before Microsoft forces you to uninstall it or overwrite it with a paid-for copy of the final edition. In short, if you’re itching to give Windows 7 a try, you can.

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    ASK THE PROS 2009 Laptop Drives

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    Things have picked up in Ask The Pros this month. It makes me think that many of us are upgrading our systems as opposed to passing them along and replacing. I know I’m using the same system I had two years ago and for me that’s a long time.

    That brings us to a question from Mary. She’s beating all around the edges of a problem I ran into last year. All I wanted was to upgrade to a newer, faster laptop drive. As usual, it didin’t turn out to be that easy.

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