• itubuilding_large_verge_medium_landscape798337399

    New World Order: is the UN about to take control of the internet?

    Is there a war on for the web? By Adi Robertson on November 29, 2012 02:15 pm Email @thedextriarchy184Comments The future of the web will be decided in a dark room by UN politicians and authoritarian governments — at least according to Google and some other opponents of the International Telecommunication Union’s plan to reform its 25-year-old guidelines. Leaked documents have shown that ITU members are...
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    Study: People don't use or understand digital wallets

    Digital wallets from Square, Visa, MasterCard, and others have a major perception problem, a study from ComScore finds. The digital wallet has been anointed by many as the future of payments. In the present, however, virtual-pay apps remain largely untouched and misunderstood. Only 51 percent of U.S. consumers are even aware of digital payment providers other than PayPal, and a teeny-tiny ...
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Archive for September, 2010

PortableApps.com: Portable Software/USB

Sep 22nd

Posted by Bill Castle in Really Cool Stuff

 PortableApps.com: Portable Software/USB  Updated 2010-09-22

PortableApps.com allows you to carry your favorite computer programs and all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you on a portable device (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, CD, etc) and use them on any Windows computer.

 

SourceForge Software Search

Sep 22nd

Posted by Bill Castle in SSCToday Misc

https://sourceforge.net/search/

PDFCreator: Easy PDFs From Anywhere

Sep 22nd

Posted by Bill Castle in Really Cool Stuff

Posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by elizabethn
Category: Community Showcase, General

I remember when I first used PDFCreator, I was doing some freelance web development work. As it happens sometimes, I had a client that was not very tech savvy. I was fortunate that this client could even check email (and even that was stretching it a bit). The PDF format was the one thing he could read and understand, and figure out how to open. In many cases, PDF seems to be the lowest common denominator; it’s easy, cross-platform, and it ensures that anyone viewing the document is looking at the same thing. PDFCreator allowed me to put *anything* into a nice PDF: screenshots, documents, spreadsheets, reports, whatever. It was a life saver then, and it is now.

While some programs offer the ability to convert into a PDF format, or export into PDF, there are many that do not have this capability. With this software, anything that can be printed can be turned into a PDF. In essence, you install the software, and it installs as a PDF printer, so to create a PDF from anything, you just need to print. Its only limitation is that it is specific to Windows OS.

PDFCreator does more than just create PDFs, in fact. The software now includes many other features such as the ability to:

  • Encrypt and digitally sign PDFs and protect them from being opened or modified
  • Send generated files via email
  • Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS
  • AutoSave files to folders and filenames based on tags like Username, Computername, Date, Time etc.
  • Merge multiple files into one PDF

 

The project began in 2002 when Philip Chinery, one of the core devs, needed a useful tool to make PDFs and nothing out there suited his needs. He wrote the software, and in 2003, Frank Heindörfer joined the team. “Since that time,” Philip tells me, “we have been the first free PDF software with a full installer, the first one with PDF security, PDF/A and PDF/X support, digital signatures and a COM automation interface to control the software.”

Over the years, the team has had to work through many technical obstacles, “like finding all relevant parts to do a proper printer driver installation or getting the permissions right with the new Windows Vista permission structure,” says Philip. “The latter has caused us to take nearly one year to fully support Vista after it has been released. We finally had to tweak the permissions of the SYSTEM account which other printer drivers as the Xerox drivers do as well, but we are not fully happy with that so far.”

Philip and Frank have learned a lot through their work with PDFCreator. They have a great time working on something they believe in, and they enjoy working on the team together, which is very important for any project, but especially crucial in open source.

Wise words of advice for others working in or just starting out in open source: “Take a point where you want to be better than everyone else and try to achieve that. It is better to have a good program with few features than a bad program with many features. And, use a programming language that will be available for some time.”

The team has big plans for PDFCreator, including rewriting the entire app in C# (it is currently written in VB6.) “We are currently having a kind of prototype application and are working on side aspects as a good translation system and Setting Storage. It is quite likely that they will become available separately to help other developers.”

They have also decided to start their own company, pdfforge GbR, to continue to improve PDFCreator, while offering custom development.

PDFCreator is one of the top 10 projects on SourceForge.net of all time, and there is a reason for that. It’s a great tool, it’s super simple to use and install, and the team works very well together. If you are using Windows, this should definitely be in your toolbox.

For more information on PDFCreator: http://pdfforge.org
To download PDFCreator: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
If you would like to donate to this project: http://www.pdfforge.org/donations

Microsoft Exchange directory structure to prevent problems with the Internet Mail Connector (IMC) or Information Store (IS).

Sep 22nd

Posted by Bill Castle in General Microsoft Solutions

Problem

This document discusses how to prevent Symantec Client Security 3.0 and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0 from scanning the Microsoft Exchange directory structure to prevent problems with the Internet Mail Connector (IMC) or Information Store (IS). 

Symptoms
Preventing Symantec AntiVirus 10.0 from scanning the Microsoft Exchange directory structure This document discusses how to prevent Symantec Client Security 3.0 and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0 from scanning the Microsoft Exchange directory structure to prevent problems with the Internet Mail Connector (IMC) or Information Store (IS). 

Solution

Note: This article applies to Symantec AntiVirus 10.0. If the version installed on your server is SAV 10.1 or above, please see About automatic exclusions of Microsoft Exchange server files and folders in Symantec AntiVirus 10.1 and Symantec Client Security 3.1
 

Symantec AntiVirus protects only the file system on an Exchange server and not the Exchange server itself. 

Protection of the Exchange server is the role of a product like Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange. Certain folders must be excluded from scanning by Symantec AntiVirus. If Auto-Protect scans the Exchange directory structure or the Symantec Mail Security processing folder, it can cause false-positive virus detections, unexpected behavior on the Exchange server, or damage to the Exchange databases. This is true of all antivirus programs that run on Exchange servers. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article XGEN: Recommendations for Troubleshooting an Exchange Computer with Antivirus Software Installed – ID Q245822.

The details in the following sections cover the folders that can be safely scanned or that need to be excluded when Symantec AntiVirus or other Symantec products are installed. 

Folders that file-system antivirus software can safely scan

  • Exchsrvr\Address
  • Exchsrvr\Bin
  • Exchsrvr\Conndata
  • Exchsrvr\Exchweb
  • Exchsrvr\Res
  • Exchsrvr\Schema
  • Any additional folders that are not a part of a standard Exchange installation, and which are not included in the list of directories (shown below) that are unsafe to scan

Folders to exclude when using file-system antivirus software
The following folders should be excluded from scanning by Auto-Protect, scheduled scans, and manual scans.

 

WARNING:

  • A common mistake is to configure exclusions for Auto-Protect, but to forget to exclude scheduled scans and manual scans. All types of scans that run on the on the server must be excluded, or there is a risk of data loss on the server.
  • Another common mistake is to omit the paths to the folders that you want to exclude. For example, to exclude the Exchsrvr\Mdbdata folder, you would most likely exclude C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mdbdata. Because Exchange folder locations can be configured differently, the paths here are given starting from the Exchsrvr folder.

Exchange 5.5

  • Exchange databases (default location: Exchsrvr\Mdbdata)
  • Exchange MTA files (default location: Exchsrvr\Mtadata)
  • Exchange temporary files: Tmp.edb
  • Additional log files (default location/name: Exchsrvr\server_name.log)
  • Site Replication Service (SRS) files (default location: Exchsrvr\Srsdata)
  • Inbox and Outbox for Internet Mail Connector (Exchsrvr\IMCDATA folder)
  • Internet Information Service (IIS) system files (<drive>:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv)
  • All of the appropriate folders listed in the next section, “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders”

Exchange 2000

  • The Installable File System (IFS) (default location: drive M)
  • Exchange databases (default location: Exchsrvr\Mdbdata)
  • Exchange MTA files (default location: Exchsrvr\Mtadata)
  • Exchange temporary files: Tmp.edb
  • Additional log files (default location: Exchsrvr\server_name .log)
  • Virtual server folder (default location: Exchsrvr\Mailroot)
  • Site Replication Service (SRS) files (default location: Exchsrvr\Srsdata)
  • Internet Information Service (IIS) system files (<drive>:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv)
  • Site Server Gatherer temporary directory (<drive>:\Winnt\Temp\Gthrsvc), if it exists.
  • All of the appropriate folders listed in the next section, “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders”

Exchange 2003

  • Exchange databases (default location: Exchsrvr\Mdbdata)
  • Exchange MTA files (default location: Exchsrvr\Mtadata)
  • Exchange temporary files: Tmp.edb
  • Additional log files (default location: Exchsrvr\server_name .log)
  • Virtual server folder (default location: Exchsrvr\Mailroot)
  • Site Replication Service (SRS) files (default location: Exchsrvr\Srsdata)
  • Internet Information Service (IIS) system files (<drive>:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv or :\Windows\System32\Inetsrv)
  • Working folder for message conversion .tmp files. (default location: Exchsrvr\Mdbdata)
    The location of this folder is configurable. For additional information, read the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 822936 – Message Flow to the Local Delivery Queue Is Very Slow.
  • The temporary folder that is used in conjunction with offline maintenance utilities such as Eeseutil.exe. 
    By default, this folder is the location from which you run the executable, but you can configure where you run the file from when you run the utility.
  • The folder that contains the checkpoint (.chk) file. 
    For information on the location of this file, read the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Overview of Exchange Server 2003 and Antivirus Software.
  • Site Server Gatherer temporary directory (<drive>:\Windows\Temp\Gthrsvc), if it exists.
  • All of the appropriate folders listed in the next section, “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders”

Exchange 2007

Exchange 2007 can be installed with several different roles. As each role should have different exclusions, exclusions should be based on the 
roles you have installed.
For a list of recommended exclusions for Exchange 2007, read the Microsoft TechNet article File-Level Antivirus Scanning on Exchange 2007.

Notes:

  • The Tmp.edb file may be found in more than one location. Search for the file, and exclude it in any of the locations where it is found.
  • You can exclude single files from within Symantec AntiVirus, but not from within the Symantec System Center. This means that you must exclude Tmp.edb from within Symantec AntiVirus on the Exchange server.

When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders
The following folders should be excluded from Auto-Protect, scheduled scans, and manual scans.

WARNING: The exclusion of these folders is critical to the operation of the products. Each product uses its temp folder as a processing folder. If the temp folders are not excluded from file system scanning, the antivirus programs may conflict and cause unexpected behavior, including potential data loss.
 

 

  • Symantec Mail Security Information Foundation 6.0 for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\6.0\Server\Temp
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\6.0\Server\Quarantine
  • Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\5.0\Server\Temp
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\5.0\Server\Quarantine
  • Symantec Mail Security 4.6 for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\4.6\Server\Temp
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\4.6\Server\Quarantine
  • Symantec Mail Security 4.5 for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\4.5\Server\Temp\
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\4.5\Server\Quarantine
  • Symantec Mail Security 4.0 for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SMSMSE\4.0\Server\Temp\
  • Symantec AntiVirus/Filtering 3.0 for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\Symantec\SAVFMSE\Temp
  • Norton AntiVirus 2.x for Microsoft Exchange
    <drive>:\Program Files\NAVMSE\Temp

Creating the exclusions
The procedure for creating the exclusions depends on whether your Exchange servers are configured as servers, unmanaged clients, or managed clients. Go to the section that represents your installation.

Servers
When Symantec AntiVirus 10.0 is on a Microsoft Exchange server, configure exclusions for Auto-Protect through the Symantec System Center. Manual scans should still be run from within Symantec AntiVirus, so that the exclusions can be created.

To configure exclusions for Auto-Protect from Symantec System Center

  1. Start Symantec System Center, and unlock the server group.
  2. Right-click the Exchange server, and then click All Tasks > Symantec AntiVirus > Server Auto-Protect Options.
  3. check Exclude selected files and folders.
  4. Click Exclusions.
  5. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  6. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  7. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

To configure exclusions for a scheduled scan from Symantec System Center

  1. Start Symantec System Center, and unlock the server group.
  2. Right-click the server group, and then click All Tasks > Symantec AntiVirus > Scheduled Scans.
  3. Create a scheduled scan, or edit an existing one.
  4. Click Scan Settings.
  5. Select the drives, folders, or files to scan.
  6. Click Options.
  7. Check Exclude files and folders, and then click Exclusions.
  8. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  9. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  10. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

To start a manual scan with the appropriate exclusions from within Symantec AntiVirus

  1. Start Symantec AntiVirus.
  2. Click Scan, and then click Scan Computer.
  3. Select the drives, folders, or files to scan.
  4. In the lower-right corner, click Options.
  5. Check Exclude files and folders.
  6. Click Exclusions.
  7. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  8. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  9. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

Unmanaged clients
If the Exchange server is configured as an unmanaged client, you must configure all exclusions from within Symantec AntiVirus, and you must not install the Email Tools.

To configure exclusions for Auto-Protect from within Symantec AntiVirus

  1. Start Symantec AntiVirus.
  2. Click Configure, and then click File System Auto-Protect.
  3. Click Exclude selected files and folders.
  4. Click Exclusions.
  5. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  6. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  7. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

To configure exclusions for a scheduled scan from within Symantec AntiVirus

  1. Start Symantec AntiVirus.
  2. Click Scheduled Scans.
  3. Create a new scan, or select the scan you wish to configure, and click Next twice.
  4. Select the drives, folders, or files to scan.
  5. In the lower-right corner, click Options.
  6. Click Exclude files and folders.
  7. Click Exclusions.
  8. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  9. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  10. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

To start a manual scan with the appropriate exclusions from within Symantec AntiVirus

  1. Start Symantec AntiVirus.
  2. Click Scan, and then click Scan Computer.
  3. Select the drives, folders, or files to scan.
  4. In the lower-right corner, click Options.
  5. Click Exclude files and folders.
  6. Click Exclusions.
  7. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  8. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  9. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

Managed clients
If the Exchange server is configured as a managed client in a client group that you have created specifically for Exchange servers, configure the exclusions through the Symantec System Center. Manual scans should be run from within Symantec AntiVirus, and should be configured there.

Notes:

To configure exclusions for Auto-Protect from Symantec System Center

  1. Start Symantec System Center, and unlock the server group.
  2. Under Groups, right-click the client group, and then click All Tasks > Symantec AntiVirus > Client Auto-Protect Options.
  3. Check Exclude selected files and folders, and click the lock icon so that it appears as locked.
  4. Click Exclusions.
  5. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  6. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by entering the full paths of each folder, one on each line. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  7. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

To configure exclusions for a scheduled scan from Symantec System Center

  1. Start Symantec System Center, and unlock the server group.
  2. Under Groups, right-click the client group, and then click All Tasks > Symantec AntiVirus > Scheduled Scans.
  3. Create a scheduled scan, or edit an existing one.
  4. Click Scan Settings.
  5. Click Options.
  6. Check Exclude files and folders, and then click Exclusions.
  7. Click Folders to create the exclusions.
  8. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by entering the full paths of each folder, one on each line. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  9. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

To start a manual scan with the appropriate exclusions from within Symantec AntiVirus

  1. Start Symantec AntiVirus.
  2. Click Scan, and then click Scan Computer.
  3. Select the drives, folders, or files to scan.
  4. In the lower-right corner, click Options.
  5. Click Exclude files and folders.
  6. Click Exclusions.
  7. Click Files/Folders to create the exclusions.
  8. Exclude all necessary Exchange folders by clicking once in the empty box to the left of each directory. 
    If Exchange is installed on more than one drive, then be sure to exclude Exchange on the other drives.
  9. If a Symantec antivirus product for Exchange is installed, exclude the correct folders for the version that you are using.
    For details, read the “When the following Symantec products are installed, exclude the following folders” section of this document.

 

This issue may occur when the working folder that the information store uses for e-mail message conversion is located on a drive that is slow or busy.

Sep 22nd

Posted by Bill Castle in General Microsoft Solutions

E-mail messages back up in the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) queue that is bound for local delivery. Additionally, the server experiences high disk queue lengths on the Exchange Server 2003 computer installation drive. Typically, this installation drive is in the following location:

drive:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\

CAUSE

This issue may occur when the working folder that the information store uses for e-mail message conversion is located on a drive that is slow or busy.

RESOLUTION

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756  How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

To resolve this behavior, change the working folder that the information store uses for e-mail message conversion to point to a faster drive. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Start Registry Editor.
  2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem
  3. In the right-side pane, double-click Working Directory:REG_SZ:Folder_Path.
  4. In the String Editor box, type the path of a folder on a faster drive, and then click OK.
  5. Close Registry Editor.

MOUSEOVER EXPLOIT SPREADS PORN ON TWITTER

Sep 21st

Posted by Bill Castle in SSCToday Misc

Twitter users who read and write using the twitter.com website got a nasty surprise this morning: a JavaScript exploit was causing their accounts to retweet spam and porn, just by dragging their cursor over a link (or in some cases, anywhere on the Twitter.com screen).

The security flaw allowed popups and websites (like porn) to load in your browser just by mousing over infected tweets. Some tweets were even coded in colorful blocks of text to entice users, according to Sophos, a security vendor who discovered the exploit. The problem was confined to Twitter.com’s old interface – not the new Twitter website that launched last week.

Update: Twitter says it has patched the exploit.

It seems as though at least most users who read and post with clients using the Twitter API were unaffected – that is, apart from reading a bunch of garbage, linky tweets and retweets from their friends. The mobile version of the website appears to be okay, too.

This reinforces my longstanding belief that web browsers’ only legitimate use on the desktop is for viewing and watching porn (including, naturally, technology-and-gadget porn, like what you find here at Wired.com -TC); client applications, whether on a personal computer or a mobile device, are ideally suited for consuming and exchanging information.

All I’m saying is, if you’re going to buggy, information-hungry websites called things like “twitter.com,” you deserve what you get. Although, on the other hand, employees who are allowed (or professionally compelled) to read Twitter now have a perfect excuse: “No, I wasn’t tryingto look at porn at work. Must be another Twitter hack.” Let’s hope the next hack redirects users to fantasy football sites.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/twitter-com-mouseover-exploit-or-why-browsers-are-for-porn/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Ftechbiz+%28Wired%3A+Tech+Biz%29#ixzz10ERz0Att

Getting Open file Security Warning ..The publisher could not be verified…

Sep 20th

Posted by Bill Castle in General Microsoft Solutions

Go to Internet Options (from Control Panel or from the IE Tools menu)
Click the Security tab
Select Local Intranet
Click the Sites button
Click Advanced
Add “\\server\share” to the list of web sites
Click OK to until Internet Options is gone
Log off and log back on

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