Fake celeb LinkedIn profiles lead to malware

Posted on January 6th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A security researcher has discovered fake profiles for celebrities on LinkedIn that have links to malicious code, according to a blog posting on Trend Micro’s site.

The celebrity profiles that are not to be trusted include ones created using the names: Beyonce Knowles, Victoria Beckham, Christina Ricci, Kirsten Dunst, Salma Hayek and Kate Hudson. They were uncovered by Trend Micro Advanced Threats Researcher Ivan Macalintal.

In its blog posting late on Monday, Trend Micro said it was continuing its investigation. The links on the professional networking site attempt to lure viewers by purporting to be nude shots of the celebrities.

McAfee’s Avert Labs Blog has more details and screenshots.

“So when an unsuspecting user gets tricked to follow the lure, he will end up on different malicious websites trying the classical social-engineering tricks of either the ‘missing video codec’ or of showing a fake AV scan and telling that the user his computer was infected with malware and offering a ‘free’ AV scanner software, which in fact is the real threat,” the McAfee blog says.

Graham Cluley of Sophos also found many other fake celeb profiles and says that as recently as Thursday the Troj/Decdec-A malicious Javascript code was being found on them.

“It’s a shame that LinkedIn aren’t keeping a closer eye on obviously bogus profiles being created on their site,” Cluley writes. “Undoubtedly spammers, malware authors and other cybercriminals may be abusing the system to link to their webpages in the hope that it will generate a higher ranking in search engines like Google.”

Representatives from LinkedIn did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday.

Fake Beyonce LinkedIn profile that contains links to malware.

(Credit: Trend Micro)

Google to release Picasa beta for Mac

Posted on January 6th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Picasa for the Mac includes the ability to make collages and other core features.

(Credit: Google)

Google plans to release on Monday a beta version of Picasa for Mac OS X, helping Apple fans catch up to Windows and Linux users already employing the free tool for editing, cataloging, and uploading photos.

The Mac version largely matches the features in Picasa 3 for Windows, said Jason Cook, Picasa’s marketing manager. Though the company has been scrambling to include some secondary features such as geotagging and the ability to get photos printed, the core abilities of Picasa are present, he said.

Picasa lets people edit and print photos, create collages and movies, and add labels, star ratings, and tags. More significantly, given Google’s cloud-computing focus, it also lets people upload their images to the company’s online Picasa Web Albums site where images can be shared. Google acquired Picasa in 2004.

“We have many Mac users,” Cook said, though declining to offer any estimates, “and we think they’ll be excited about this. It makes the Picasa Web Albums experience better.”

Online photo sites are great for several reasons, but problems can arise when people manage separate and different set of images. They often upload only a selection of photos on a PC, for example. Sometimes people upload images to an online site that never make it to the PC. And sometimes people add tags, captions, and titles online but not to the versions on their computers.

Picasa takes one important step in dealing with this potential rat’s nest: when a person edits a photo on the PC, Picasa updates the version stored online. The reverse isn’t true, though, but bidirectional synchronization is “something we’re thinking about,” Cook said. “We want to make sync as useful as possible.”

Synchronization with the Mac’s bundled iPhoto software is another area where people should tread carefully, though Picasa offers cautionary alerts to try to avert any trouble, Cook said. Picasa for the Mac doesn’t interfere with iPhoto, he said, but for example when a person uses Picasa to edit a photo, iPhoto still shows the original, which Picasa preserves. And Picasa will read ratings and tags from iPhoto, but not vice-versa.

“We play nice. We take a hands-off, read-only approach with the iPhoto library,” Cook said. “You can experiment with Picasa, and it won’t screw up the images in the iPhoto library.”

Before the Picasa for Mac was released, Google offered Mac users two other options for getting photos to Picasa Web Albums: an iPhoto plug-in and standalone upload tool.

CES 2009 Preview: What’s new in Car Tech?

Posted on January 6th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

CES 2009 is finally here and with it comes a torrent of new car-related electronics, as well as updates of old favorites. From car audio to fuel savers to driver safety, the range of products at CES will cover the full gamut.

Here’s a sample of what you can expect to see over the next week.

View the full Car Tech CES 2009 preview.

Vegawatt plugs in grease-fired restaurant generator

Posted on January 5th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

In a sign that waste may be a favored energy source this year, a small company on Monday said it has successfully plugged a vegetable oil generator into the electricity grid at a Boston-area restaurant.

The Vegawatt system, developed by Owl Power Systems, burns used-up vegetable oil from restaurant fryers to make electricity.

The Vegwatt generator burns vegetable oil from restaurant fryers to make electricity on-site.

(Credit: Owl Power Systems)

The company, which has been self-funded until now, expects to close a series A venture funding round later this week, according to Owl Power Systems CEO James Peret.

A 6-kilowatt machine has been online for about a month at Finz Seafood & Grill in Dedham, Mass. It’s about half the size of the normal vegetable oil dumpster, at 6 feet high, 6 feet wide, and 2 feet deep.

The Vegawatt doesn’t produce nearly as much electricity as the restaurant consumes, but that’s by design. Built with a relatively small diesel engine, it’s sized to consume all the vegetable oil that a typical restaurant produces.

“Our philosophy is to make the maximum use of the oil available. We could go to a bigger system, but once you start talking about trucking oil to fuel this generator, the economics go out the window,” Peret said on Monday. “Why burn more dinosaurs to move oil when you can install one machine outside your back door, and burn it there?”

The test at the seafood restaurant found that the Vegawatt burned all the fryer oil it produced and cut the electricity cost by about $800 a month, or about 15 percent of its total electricity bill. The machine can also be used to make hot water.

Customers lease the product through a third-party leasing company for $435 a month, which includes two years of maintenance. That means that the unit generates thousands of dollars a year for restaurants, said Peret.

Rather than dump oil into a waste bin, restaurant workers put it into the Vegawatt machine. Normally, a restaurant needs to pay to have the oil hauled.

Since it’s burning oil, the generator creates carbon dioxide emissions and other air pollutants. But because of the smaller engine, and because it’s burning vegetable oil rather that petroleum-based oil, it pollutes less than traditional diesel generators do.

Noise has not been a big concern, Peret said. “I’ve seen people take cell phone calls next to this machine when it was running at full power,” he said.

After securing financing, the company plans to set up a manufacturing facility in Massachusetts and have about 150 units installed by next year.

Apple’s last Macworld beginning of new era

Posted on January 5th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

RIAA dumps evidence-gathering firm

Posted on January 5th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Have yourself a merry Facebook Christmas?

Posted on January 4th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Ford offers Lincoln ‘Park Assist’

Posted on January 4th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

(Credit: Ford Motor)

A new feature from Ford Motor will allow drivers to let their car do the steering when faced with a parallel parking space, the company announced Tuesday.

This latest car gadget, which Ford calls Active Park Assist, works slightly differently than the park assist feature on Toyota’s self-parking Lexus.

On the self-parking Lexus, the driver can use an interface to adjust the space the car aims for, and only maintains control over the brake while it’s maneuvering.

In Ford’s version the driver pulls up alongside a space and pushes a button. The car then applies ultrasonic-based sensors at the four corners of the car to detect its position and that of other street obstacles near the space. It then calculates the optimal steering angles for maneuvering into the space and prompts the driver to give the OK. After the driver pushes the OK button, the EPAS (Electronic Power Assisted Steering) then uses those calculations to automatically steer the car into the spot while the driver maintains control over the shifting, gas, and brake.

The feature will be available as an option on the Lincoln MKS sedan and MKT crossover models starting in mid-2009, according to Ford.

I’m curious to know exactly how tight of a space it’s willing to maneuver a roomy Lincoln into.

We’ll probably know soon at CNET, as I’m sure the gals and guys in our car review department are already making plans to test out a Lincoln with this latest piece of tech magic.

(Anyone else think it would be funny if Linkin Park sings in the commercial for this Lincoln “Park Assist”?)

Air New Zealand tests biofuel Boeing

Posted on January 4th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The inedible nuts of the jatropha plant consist of 30 percent to 40 percent oil that can be converted into biofuel.

(Credit: Air New Zealand)

Air New Zealand, along with Boeing, Rolls-Royce, and Honeywell, retooled one of the four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines on a Boeing 747-400 to run on an unusually fruity blend of half Jet A1 fuel and half jatropha oil, according to Air New Zealand.

Jatropha is a succulent plant commonly grown in the semi-arid areas of India that produces seeds containing an oil that can be harvested and processed into a biofuel.

Jatropha has been used in making biodiesel for cars and trucks, but this is one of the first known attempts to use it as a biofuel in a commercial-size airplane.

Air New Zealand is not, however, the first commercial airline to try flying on a mixture containing biofuels. Several airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, have been testing out the sustainable idea of bio jet fuel mixed with jet fuel.

The jatropha bio jet fuel was supplied by Terasol Energy, which certified that the fuel supply met sustainability criteria.

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The fuel stock in no way affected the environment or displaced other crops, David Morgan, chief pilot at Air New Zealand, explained in a video press release (below).

The two-hour test flight took off and landed from an Auckland, New Zealand, airport on Tuesday.

The test run was part of a program to research better sustainable air travel.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) lists jatropha as a promising next-generation bio-jet fuel for the airline industry because the hardy plant can be grown in poor quality soil needing little water.

Android Netbooks: Fact or fiction?

Posted on January 3rd, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

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