Jun 19

Free TaxCut Premium & Deduction Pro Software!

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

TaxCutThis is obviously only important for United States residents who still have to file taxes (which are due April 17, 2007), but it is quite a steal that you should scoop up as soon as you can! H&R Block is currently offering TaxCut Premium and Deduction Pro software at no cost to you!

I finished filling everything out in under a minute so it isn’t time consuming. They do ask for personal information (such as address, name, email, etc…) but you can fill in bogus info like we’re used to doing on these types of forms. Here’s what you have to do:

NOTE: I had to use Internet Explorer because Firefox wouldn’t work after step 4.

  1. Go to the H&R Block site and select either the Mac/Windows version from the drop-down menu. Then click Add to Cart.
  2. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page and click No Thanks.
  3. Click Remove next to the option for Extended Download Protection which normally costs $3.99. Then hit  Continue Checkout.
  4. Enter in your personal information. You have to enter in a valid City/State/Zip combination because it will check that. The email address is not used so you can just make something up for that. Also makeup some kind of password at the bottom. Press Continue Checkout.
  5. Choose your county and hit Submit.
  6. Click Place Order and you are then presented with the download links which looks something like this:

Tax Software

I have downloaded the software, but I have not installed it yet. It doesn’t look like it comes with the state software because the product links to just the Federal version, but I can’t complain since this is free! Now I’m glad I was procrastinating doing my taxes because I thought I was going to have to buy some software. :)

Thanks to the anonymous tipster who sent this in!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 17

Windows Animated Cursor Vulnerability Patch Available Tomorrow

Posted in: Apple, Hacks, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on April 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

HackersMicrosoft will be releasing a critical security update tomorrow (via Windows Update) to patch what is being referred to as the “Windows animated cursor” vulnerability. It almost sounds hard to believe that an exploit can occur from something as simple as a mouse cursor, but as CNet points out it is definitely possible: 

There’s a new Microsoft Windows vulnerability caused by an unspecified error in the way Windows 2000, XP, and Vista handles animated cursors. Animated cursors allow a mouse pointer to appear animated on a Web site. The feature is often designated by the .ani suffix, but attacks for this vulnerability are not constrained by this file type so simply blocking .ani files won’t necessarily protect a PC. Successful exploitation can result in memory corruption when processing cursors, animated cursors, and icons.

Most of you probably won’t have to worry though, because a large percentage of our visitors are using either Opera or Firefox as their browser. This vulnerability only applies to Internet Explorer 6 or 7 on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista. However, if you’re using IE 7 on Vista and you have the User Account Control (UAC) enabled then you are also fine. When you have UAC enabled it will force IE 7 to run in “protected mode” which is helpful at preventing unwanted attacks such as this one.

Microsoft learned about the vulnerability back in December 2006, but the attacks didn’t start appearing until the middle of last week. The severity of this is what prompted Microsoft to push out the patch even sooner:

This update was previously scheduled for release as part of the April monthly release on April 10, 2007. Due to the increased risk to customers from these latest attacks, we were able to expedite our testing to ensure an update is ready for broad distribution sooner than April 10.

While it is unfortunate that this vulnerability even exists, I guess it does demonstrate two things:

  • Internet Explorer should not be used by casual computer users because they are the ones who are most likely to get taken advantage of.
  • The User Account Control in Vista may actually be more beneficial than I thought. I used to keep it disabled, but as of about two-weeks ago I re-enabled it and I’m actually surprised that it hasn’t annoyed me. I’m confident that I can recognize a suspicious website or file when I see one, but the attacks are getting so advanced these days that I don’t want to take any chances.

Read more about the Windows Animated Cursor Vulnerability

Image Source: University of Texas

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 15

Download Vista SP2 Beta via Windows Update

Posted in: blu-ray, Features, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on October 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

vista sp2.jpgIf you like to stay on the bleeding edge of technology (and you’re running Vista) you may want to consider modifying two registry keys on your system so that you can participate in the Vista SP2 Beta program. To join the program all you have to do is download this batch file, and run it on your Vista machine as an administrator. Then just check for available Windows Updates (it may take 30 minutes or so for it to show up in the Windows Updates).

Think carefully whether you want to do this or not. There will likely be some bugs that could cause problems with your system, but at the very least it will cause Vista to expire on 4/2/2010 (or around then). Plus it will place the “Evaluation copy” message on your desktop wallpaper. You can always uninstall Vista SP2 to remove the evaluation message and expiration date, but it’s important to know what you’re getting into before you try to install it.

So what’s new in Vista SP2? Here’s a brief rundown that the Vista blog provided last week:

  • Windows Vista SP2 adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
  • Windows Vista SP2 contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
  • Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
  • Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
  • Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

Windows Vista SP2 is expected to be released in final form sometime in the first half of 2009. Judging by the expiration date of Vista SP2 Beta I’d say that sounds about right.

[via WinFuture – English Translation]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 13

Critical Upgrade Available for WordPress 2.1.1 Users!

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on March 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Wordpress LoginI normally don’t post about about WordPress upgrades, but this one is extremely important for anyone running version 2.1.1 that was just released a few days ago. Apparently a hacker got access to the WordPress.org server and inserted some malicious code into the download:

It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. We have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.

This is the kind of thing you pray never happens, but it did and now we’re dealing with it as best we can. Although not all downloads of 2.1.1 were affected, we’re declaring the entire version dangerous and have released a new version 2.1.2 that includes minor updates and entirely verified files.

It’s unfortunate that this happened several days ago because a large number of people have already downloaded it, but I guess we should just be grateful that it was caught now and not weeks from now. I wonder how many people this ended up affecting?

Download the new WordPress 2.1.2

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 13

CyberNotes: Mount ISO Images in XP & Vista

Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on August 05, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
One trend that I’ve noticed as bandwidth and hard drive storage space continues to grow is that sending CD/DVD’s over the Internet is becoming a preferred way for distributing media. These files are typically in an ISO or BIN/CUE format, which most people will then burn to a CD/DVD before using them. The good news is that you can easily save the time and money involved in doing this by using a free virtual drive application.

How do you mount an ISO image? It’s actually really simple if you have the right tools. What they do is take an ISO image, BIN/CUE file, or any other supported format and displays it as a virtual drive on your computer. The drive will look just like any other CD drive in Windows Explorer. One of the huge benefits of doing this is that reading/copying files from the “CD” in this way is much faster than using a physical CD-ROM drive.

There are several free applications floating around the Internet that can do this, but you should be aware that some of them (Daemon Tools, etc..) might install spyware/malware on your machine. Luckily there are three great freeware solutions that you can trust, and that’s what we’re going to cover today.

–Virtual CloneDrive (Homepage)–

If you want a no-frills solution for mounting images Virtual CloneDrive is what you’ll likely want to use. It supports all of the common image formats including ISO, BIN, and CDD, and is capable of mounting the last used image file upon startup. You can have up to 8 virtual drives at any one given time, but the nicest feature would be the fact that you can mount an image simply by double-clicking on the file.

virtual clonedrive.png

–MagicISO (Homepage)–

MagicISO (commonly referred to as MagicDisc) can do everything that Virtual CloneDrive is capable of plus some. It supports up to 15 simultaneous virtual drives, can automatically mount the last used image file, compress ISO images (which really just converts it from an ISO image to UIF), and more. Plus you can create ISO images from a CD/DVD!

Here are some of the filetypes it supports when creating or mounting images:

  • Creating: ISO, BIN/CUE, NRG, or UIF images from a CD/DVD
  • Mounting: Not only does MagicISO support the ISO image format, but it also supports over two dozen other popular formats: UIF, BIN/CUE (CDRWin), IMA/IMG, CIF (Easy CD Creator), NRG (Nero Burning ROM), IMG/CCD (CloneCD), MDF/MDS (Fantom CD), VCD (Farstone Virtual Drive), FCD, LCD, NCD, GCD, VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM), P01/MD1/XA (Gear), VC4/000 (Virtual CD), VDI (Virtuo CD Manager), C2D (WinOnCD), BWI/BWT (BlinkWrite), CDI (DiscJuggler), TAO/DAO (Duplicator), and PDI (Instant Copy)

The only thing this seems to be missing is the easy double-click to mount an image file that Virtual CloneDrive supports. To mount a drive in MagicISO you’ll want to click on the System Tray icon, go to Virtual CD/DVD-ROM, hover over one of the virtual adrives, and then choose the “Mount” option.

magicdisc.png

–StarBurn (Homepage)–

You might recall us writing about StarBurn as a free CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning application, but it’s also capable of mounting an ISO image! Once you have the StarBurn software running you’ll notice that there is a StarPort option located on the toolbar (also in the Action menu), and clicking on that will initiate the StarPort wizard. From there you can mount or unmount an image file on a virtual drive.

If you’ve been wanting a nice freeware application for burning CD’s and DVD’s I highly recommend picking this up. The fact that it doubles as a virtual drive manager makes it extremely worthwhile.

Note: This software tries to change your browser’s homepage during the setup process, but getting around it is as simple as unchecking a box.

starport-1.png

–Overview–

It’s good to know that you’ve got options available to you should you decide that you need a virtual drive management application. Each one of the free solutions I’ve mentioned above caters to a different type of need: Virtual CloneDrive is simple and intuitive, MagicISO is powerful and lets you create images from CD’s, and StarBurn doubles as a CD burning application. Pick the one that benefits you the most, but it’s not like you can’t easily download one of the other free alternatives if you don’t like how one of them handles.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 12

Windows 7 Recovery Disc

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7

This article was written on October 19, 2009 by CyberNet.

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
I received a tip from Mark over the weekend that NeoSmart had posted their Windows 7 recovery disc ISO images just like they did when Vista was released. These discs are extremely handy to have especially if you didn’t receive any installation media with your new computer, which is a common occurrence when purchasing from a majority of manufacturers including Dell and HP.

Why are these recovery discs useful? They include the most important part of what you can find on the Windows 7 installation disc if you purchase a retail copy of the OS. These recovery discs strip away everything except for the recovery portion, which brings the size down to about 5% of what the normal disc weighs in at. With it you’ll able to do things like restore your computer from a backup, repair the startup, roll back to a System Restore point, run diagnostics, open the command prompt, and more.

I’ve used the Vista Recovery Disc numerous times to fix my own machine when the startup has become corrupt (namely because of installing and uninstalling several different Linux distributions). All I have to do is throw in the CD/DVD, run the Startup Repair, and Windows always manages to diagnose and fix the problem within minutes (example). This is something Microsoft got right in Vista… it’s a recovery tool that shockingly works, and the same functionality has been carried over into Windows 7.

windows 7 recovery disc-1.png

So what do you have to do? Well, you simply download the ISO image below, burn it to a disc, boot your computer with it, and begin the recovery process. Here’s the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions of the recovery tool that I’ve uploaded to MultiUpload so that you don’t have to download them through a torrent:

If you want to download it through a torrent jump on over to NeoSmart where you’ll find the links you need. Thanks again to Mark for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 11

Weather Updates in the Mac Dock

Posted in: Freeware, Mac, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on May 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

weatherdock.png

arrow Mac Mac only arrow
Last week we covered an amazing free application called Weather Watcher, and it’s hands down my favorite way to keep up with weather developments on my Windows computer. When it comes to Mac’s I think most people stick with widgets to do the weather watching, but a free app called WeatherDock might be just what the doctor ordered.

Once you breeze through the download and get it added to your Applications folder you’ll be all set to get it running. The first thing you’ll notice is an icon that will immediately appear in your dock showing off the current weather conditions. Don’t be deceived though… there are a lot of preferences you can configure by right-clicking on the Dock icon.

WeatherDock is capable of displaying not only in your Dock, but also in the Menu bar across the top of the screen. The information shown in both locations can of course be configured to your liking. As you can see from the screenshot above the Dock icon lets you add or remove as many badges as you would like, and choose where they are positioned on the icon. Badges for things such as the wind speed, future conditions/temperatures, and more are all available. Cool, huh?

Don’t worry, there’s no need to try and cram all kinds of detailed stats into the small Dock icon. If you want to see things like a 10-day forecast, humidity, sky conditions, and more you’ll just need to open up the main window. There you’ll have all the weather info you’re little heart could desire!

Get WeatherDock for Mac

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 09

FastStone Image Viewer 3.0 Beta 2

Posted in: Apple, Features, Freeware, Microsoft, Pre-Release, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on February 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

FastStone Image Viewer 3

FastStone Image Viewer 3.0 is moving along quite nicely and just the other day they released Beta 2. I have already raved about their screen capture utility (that is free as well) which we use quite heavily on our site, but the Image Viewer is sure to amaze you just as much.

Basically, with Image Viewer you can manage all of your images located on your PC in one convenient location. It is something that kind of reminds me of Google’s Picasa photo management software, but there is something about Image Viewer that makes it seem powerful yet slim. Maybe it is the fact that you can download a portable version that doesn’t require any sort of installation…I’m not quite sure what it is, but it is quite sleek.

The custom interface really looks nice and gives the application a professional look and feel. It has the tree navigation on the left-side of the Image Viewer so that finding images is as simple as browsing your hard drive. There is no more having to add albums or fuss over why images aren’t showing up, because this just pulls stuff straight from your hard drive.

As you can see in the screenshot I took above, the Edit menu offers an array of effects and customizations that you can choose from which is what makes this so useful for me. There are a lot of really simple operations that I like to do such as resizing images or cropping them, and this lets me do it in just a few operations. Not to mention that you can fix the red eye in photos in a few clicks!

FastStone Image Viewer Full Screen

Those of us that struggle trying to manage and view images on a small monitor will also find their full-screen mode to be quite useful. As seen in the screenshot above you can view an image in full-screen mode and still have access to all of the tools that the Image Viewer offers. The best part is that the menus automatically hide themselves and they pop-out when you hover your mouse towards one side of the screen. In the example above I am hovering over the left-side of the screen so the photo editing menu and each side of the screen will reveal a different tool.

The newest Beta has some nice improvements including saving photos as a PDF or cropping multiple images in a single batch operation. Maybe we’ll see some new features in the next pre-release as well, but since you don’t even have to install anything there should be nothing holding you back from giving this version a shot.

Download FastStone Image Viewer 3.0

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 07

Window Clippings – Free Screenshot Software

Posted in: Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

Window ClippingsIt was a big disappointment when the FastStone screenshot application turned to shareware, but there is another free alternative available that has some really nice features (especially for Vista users). It’s called Window Clippings and it is available for Windows XP, Server 2003, and Vista. Using it is a piece of cake since there is only one executable file (weighing it at only 237KB) that doesn’t require any installation.

There are some benefits that you’ll get by registering the software for $10, but overall most people will be more than satisfied with the free version. The best thing about it is that it’s intuitive, and yet offers several options for customizing the application. Here is a list of my favorite features in Window Clippings:

  • As seen in the screenshot to the right, you can include one window in the screenshot or multiple windows. This is done by holding down the control key after Window Clippings has been activated.
  • One of the coolest things is that Window Clippings has full support for capturing and retaining Vista’s transparency and shadow effects.
  • You can have the resulting screenshot automatically saved to a file or copied to the clipboard. Heck, you can have it do both with every screenshot if you really want to. :)

The only thing I wish you could do with the free version is select a certain region of the screen to capture. Having that would reap the full benefits of the application, but I’m sure that the developer will continue to receive support through registrations and will keep adding new features. I’m pretty sure that this can become an amazing screenshot application with a little more work, and I look forward to seeing some new stuff!

Window Clippings Homepage
Source: I Started Something

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jun 06

Waiting for a taste of the iCloud? Check your iPhone

Posted in: Apple, cloud, ios, ios 5, Ios5, iPhone, itunes, Today's Chili
The waiting, a great man once said, is the hardest part. And while seeing all of today’s WWDC promises come to fruition will certainly take patience, iPhone owners can take some solace in the fact that the updates have already begun. At least a portion of the new functionality is now available by opening up the “Purchased” tab in iOS 4’s App Store, revealing a history of apps that have been downloaded with your account, including those not currently on your device. Those not presently installed will feature a cloud icon, making it possible to re-download them onto the handset. It’s not quite iOS 5, sure, but it’s a start.

[Thanks everyone who sent this in]

Waiting for a taste of the iCloud? Check your iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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