New Beagle Variant

There is a new Beagle variant running rampant on P2P networks, and it spreads itself via e-mail. I've received 7 of these things in my e-mail over the past 2 days. All of the subjects have been "Thanks!" and have had an attachment of price.cpl or joke.cpl.

This particular virus will disable your anti-virus software and software firewall if you are infected, so be careful. You can get all the information you need about the virus here.

Posted by Michael at 09:40 AM

JPEG Flaw Code in Circulation

I hope everyone has installed the latest Microsoft Update (if not, what are you waiting for?) Remember that brief article a wrote a week or so ago about how there can be malicious code inserted into JPEG graphics? Well...

Sample code is currently circulating around the web and it is estimated that a viral exploit will hit in about a week.

Hope you're patched.

Posted by Michael at 09:27 AM

Security Tango & BugMeNot.com

I was perusing my usual tech blogs this weekend and found this useful walkthrough, the Security Tango, to having a more secure PC. You have no idea how many people come to me with computer questions that are inevitably caused by spyware or a virus.

Also, have you ever been to a news website (like the New York Times) that requires you to register in order to read their content? This can become a privacy concern because you don't know what they're going to do with your demographic information. So. To counter that, here is a nifty little site, BugMeNot.com, which maintains a database of ficticious logins for a large number of registration-required sites. All you have to do is enter the URL of the site, and it will display the login information for you.

Posted by Michael at 09:16 AM

JPEG Security Threat in Microsoft Products

The latest security threat in Microsoft products has been floating around the news lately, something that, I think, has surprised a lot of people. The simple use of a single jpeg graphic can cause damage to your computer.

JPEG images are very common on the internet -- but not only the internet -- they are also common in your everday applications. JPEG images can hold custom scripting that, when viewed, is automatically launched. Now, what if you went to a website that had such an image on it ... well who knows what it could do.

This is a pretty serious flaw. Mozilla browsers recently went through a similar flaw with the PNG graphic format. That has been corrected in recent updates of the browser.

The good news is that this particular flaw in Microsoft products is fixed with the release of the XP Service Pack 2 (XP SP2). If you have not installed the SP2 yet, visit the Microsoft website and begin the installation.

Posted by Michael at 09:06 AM

APA Documentation for PDA References

A question arose today regarding the citation of information retrieved from the recently distributed PDAs. I consulted with John Bernstein and the UTMB Library. With their input I would like to offer the following example as appropriate APA style for this type of citation. I was not able to locate a specific example in my "Little Brown Book" for this, but will continue to look. (Please note I was not able to indent appropriately and you will need to use the appropriate hanging indent.)

Doenges, M., Moorhouse, M. & Geissler-Murr, A. (2003). Body Image: Definition. Nurse's Pocket Guide: Diagnosis, Interventions, and Rationales (8th ed.). [PDA Software]. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.

Posted by Michael at 04:55 PM

PDA Training on Monday, September 20th

We will be meeting with the Group A BSN students on Monday, September 20th to go over some basic PDA training and to discuss and demonstrate the nursing software that was provided on the 7th.

As a reminder, all the nursing software needs to be registered and installed before this date becuase it will be a hands-on training.

The meeting will be held from 10:30am - 12pm in room 1.404.

If you have any problems or questions with your installation process, please let Michael know.

Posted by Michael at 04:02 PM

Welcome to the New eCamp Website!

The eCamp website has gotten a new look using a new content management system called MovableType. You may recall that we briefly discussed "blogs" and "blogging" in the eCamp training we provided. This is a prime example of what a blog is: a collection of writing and content that is self-organized and archived.

This site will be updated regularly with new content, so check back regularly for virus and security information, announcements, or useful tips for working with your PDA or WebCT.

Posted by Michael at 03:57 PM