This podcast followed me home. Can I keep it?

I'd hoped to have a podcast ready to go last week, but didn't quite manage to get it done. This week, I'm ready. In fact, I had a podcast ready to go by about noon on Saturday last week, but it took quite a bit longer to document the process of installing an RSS feed aggregator (think of it as a tuner for your computer). The process is easy, but it involves several steps. (Pod20060528a)

There are lots of different podcast managers, but I'm going to describe just one, the open-source Juice podcast receiver. Besides being free, it also works with both Windows on PCs and OS X on Macs. It will be available soon for Unix and Linux machines. Juice is just a receiver, not a player, so you'll be able to use whatever audio application you prefer.

If you already listen to podcasts and have a favorite receiver, continue to use it. I'll give you the information you'll need to connect to the Technology Corner podcast. But if you don't already have a podcast receiver, here are the instructions you need to install Juice. The description is for a Windows-based computer, but Mac users will do similar things.

Click any of the images shown below for a larger view.

		Start by scrolling back to the top of the page and clicking on the Get Juice icon. This will take you to the project page at Sourceforge.net.
		Once you're on the Juice project page, choose either the Windows or Mac version. A Linux version wasn't ready in mid May 2006. Click the appropriate icon.
		You'll be presented with a screen full of Sourceforge mirror sites. Each of the "download" links will download the same file, but from a different location. Closer sites are usually faster, so I try to find a site in the eastern or midwest United States.
		I keep a special directory on drive D for downloads, but you may prefer to save the downloaded file to your desktop and then delete it once you've completed the installation process.
		Click Save.
		Navigate to the directory where you saved the download file and double-click the file to start the installation process.
		The installer will display several screens that ask you to approve the agreement and will then ask where you want to install the file. The suggested location is fine. On the final screen, press the Install icon. When the process is complete, you'll see a screen with 2 boxes checked: One to start Juice and the other to display the "read me" file. Skip the read-me by deselecting the box. Click Finish and Juice will open.
		These screen captures were made from a second application install and part of the previous installation remained on the computer. You may see things in a slight different order than what I'm showing here. The preferences panel has 7 tabs. Let's start with General: There's not a lot to change here. You can leave the Threading tab alone and, unless you have a proxy server, leave the Network Settings tab alone, too.
		Select your preferred audio player on the Player tab. Apple's Itunes is free. So is the Windows Media Player. Winamp may still have a free version, but even the paid version is reasonably priced.
		On the File Types tab, make sure all 4 file types are selected. There is nothing you'll need to change on either the Feed Manager or Advanced tabs. Click Save to record all of the changes you've made.
		Click the green Add button to open a dialog box. In the URL field, enter http://www.610tech.net/rss/tc.rss and then press Save. You have now added the Technology Corner RSS feed. Alternatively, if you prefer the new site name, you may use http://www.techbyter.com/rss/tc.rss.
		Make sure the podcasts you want to download are checked.
		Then click the blue Download button.
		The downloads will start immediately.
		When the download is complete, click the green Play button at the left of the episode name. This confused me when I started using the application. The green play button is in the far left column.
		Your media player will open and begin playing the podcast. I'm showing Winamp here. If you selected Itunes or the Windows Media Player as your default application, that's what will open.
		The only remaining feature you might want to explore in Juice is the scheduling mechanism. You can have Juice check on a regular basis for new podcasts and download them so that they're available without delay.
		If you want to be certain that you always have the most current audio from all of your sources, set Juice to check for new material every 30 minutes.

Fraud is easy

The other day I received a message from a greeting card site, or so it said. The message said "a family member" had sent me a card. "How does it know that?" was my first thought. If the sending site collected information, it would tell me the sender's name. If it collected no information, how could it know that the sender was a family member? Alarms were ringing. (Pod20060528b)

The problem is Postcards.org is a legitimate website. It looks safe enough, doesn't it? But that "family member" thing bothered me. Most card services tell you who the card is from. I won't follow a link in one of these messages if it doesn't tell me who sent it. Telling me it's a "family member" immediately raises my alert level.

I examined the file to see what was lurking behind the link for the "Sea Sunset" card and here's what I found:

The link is to an executable file! And instead of a URL there's an IP address. I have no idea what "scan.exe" would try to do to my computer and I don't want to find out. But I was interested in who owns the IP address.

It belongs to "Greater Sudbury Telecommunications Inc." I presume this is an Ontario Internet service provider. So I reported the incident to their support desk. And if you think that the company was grateful for the information and thanked me profusely for providing it, you would be absolutely wrong.

More than a week later, the company had not even bothered to respond.

Symantec: Oops!

Symantec has confirmed a vulnerability in its Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.x software. Although this flaw can give remote users system-level access to computers, it's not something most of us need to worry about.

Eeye Digital Security says the flaw affects the Symantec products Antivirus 10.x and Symantec Client Security 3.x and that it requires no end user interaction for exploitation. The flaw, says Eeye, can "compromise affected systems, allowing for the execution of malicious code with system level access."

About 24 hours later, Symantec confirmed that it had received the report. Later, the company said that "none of the Norton products are affected by this issue."

Eeye says the threat is critical because an exploit could provide a malicious user complete access to a machine.

On the other hand, RescueCom says the risk that a specific business or a home computer will be hacked may be slight. Even so, said RescueCom's CEO, David A. Milman, all computer users should be alerted to the
situation.

"This serves as a reminder that every business and every home computer user must take each and every possible precaution to protect themselves. Purchasing or downloading an anti-virus program is just one item on a menu of precautions we should all take to ward off the hackers and evil-doers," he said.

RescueCom tells its customers that backup is essential -- and off-site backup is best.

Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/
RescueCom: http://www.rescuecom.com/

Annoying legal disclaimer

My attorney says I really need to say this: The TechByter website is for informational purposes only. I assume no responsibility for its accuracy, although I do my best. The information is subject to change without notice. Any actions you take based on information from the radio program, the podcast, or from this website are entirely at your own risk. Products and services are mentioned for informational purposes only and their various trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. TechByter cannot provide technical support for products or services mentioned.