Warning: Windows virus set to activate on 3rd February

PC users are warned to scan their PCs before the 3rd of February to avoid being caught out by the Nyxem virus.

Nyxem has infiltrated many computers by disguising itself in an email attachment labelled as pornography. The virus is also known as Blackworm, MyWife, and Kama Sutra amongst others.

On the 3rd of February, the virus is set to delete Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Access, Zip, Photoshop and Acrobat files on infected machines. The virus also tries to protect itself by disabling anti-virus software on infected machines, and disabling the keyboard and mouse.

Home users are thought to be most at risk from viruses, as they are less inclined to regularly patch Windows and update anti-virus software than large businesses.

Virus-scan your PC before the 3rd February to make sure you're not at risk.

If you think you're infected and your regular anti-virus software doesn't remove the problem, F-Secure have a disinfection utility available as a download from their site.

Anti-stress ideas for the new year

I don't know about you, but I sometimes find the new year pretty stressful. It's when you realise that you did everything "too much" over Christmas - ate too much, spent too much, sat around too much, and January is always the time for having to bite the bullet and deal with the results. It's the time when you realise that you have to sort out the credit card, get off the settee and do some exercise, stop watching valium TV in the evenings and do something intelligent instead. And all that can of course bring on stress.

I found the other day, in the Co-Op Bank magazine, 10 top tips for beating stress. Not really the first place you'd look for anti stress ideas, but some of these actually sound quite sensible.

1) Have a laugh.

Apparently it's impossible to be amused and stressed at the same time, so give up the anxiety and find something to laugh about instead. Just in case you're already stressed and can't think of anything funny off the top of your head, here's a joke to kick things off: Two vultures were eating a clown, one said to the other, "Does this taste funny to you?" (Joke courtesy of codebrush, not the Co-op bank.)

2) Walk the dog (even if you don't have one)

Hmm, naughty Co-op bank, advising us to nick other people's dogs to walk with. This is a 3-part-combo on the stress beating front though, hitting 3 stress-busting areas at once; exercise, fresh air, and distraction from the things that are causing you to be stressed.

3) Decide whether the thing that's stressing you is within your sphere of influence.

The idea behind this one is that if the thing that's making you stressed isn't in your sphere of influence, there's no point worrying about it because there's absolutely nothing you can do to change it.

For example, if your train is cancelled and it's going to make you late for a meeting, calm down, phone the people you're not going to be able to meet, buy a coffee and a paper, and relax and wait for the next train. Getting stressed about things we can't control is purely a waste of energy.

4) Breathe in some lavender.

Lavender oil relieves stress and eases tension. The bank advise that you keep a hanky in your pocket with some of the oil on it. You'll smell like a summer garden to other people, and will waft around on a little cloud of serenity. Lavender oil does also help you sleep though, so be careful smelling it if you're on the last night train home and you don't want to miss your stop.

Also useful when you end up next to someone with questionable body odour on the tram.

Co-operative bank

Users decide about your site in 50 milliseconds

A Canadian study has shown that internet users make up their mind about whether they like a website or not in a fraction of a second.

The research, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology showed that the brain can make a decision about the quality of a page in just one 20th of a second, less than a 10th of the time that researchers had expected, and these first impressions have a lasting impact.

Volunteers in the study were shown brief glimpses of websites, lasting only 50 milliseconds, and were then asked to rate the websites in terms of how aesthetically pleasing they found them.

Surprisingly, the research team found that these 'quick' conclusions tallied very closely with opinions formed after the users had had much longer to examine the sites.

The researchers believe that a phenomenon known as the 'halo effect' is responsible for these quickly formed impressions lasting. If people have a positive impression of the way a website looks, these positive thoughts will influence the way the user sees the rest of the site, such as the website content.

Since people like to be right, they will carry on using the website that gave them a good first impression, and this will reinforce their belief that the intial decision was a good one.

Dr Gitte Lindgaard, lead researcher of the paper, said that companies should be aware of this.

"Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors," she warned.

Who needs an iPod? My headphones are plugged into my trousers.

Alyce Santoro has created Sonic Fabric. Inspired by the use of small strands of cassette tape used as wind indicators on sailing boats, and by Tibetan prayer flags which are inscribed with blessings activated by the wind, Sonic Fabric is woven from old cassette tapes.

The sounds contained in the weave can be played by passing a tape head over the surface of the material.

Million Dollar Plus Brainwave

For those of you who read the blog last year, you may remember that in October, we mentioned the Million Dollar Homepage, brainchild of 21 year old student Alex Tew (see 'What are you looking at?', October 2005)

The concept behind Million Dollar Homepage is selling pixels on a webpage, as advertising space, at a dollar per pixel. The minimum purchase is $100 for a 10x10 pixel square.
At that time, Alex was roughly at the halfway mark, having sold about $500,000 worth of pixels on his site.

Now however, he's very, very close to reaching his target. His last 1,000 pixels will be auctioned off today on eBay. Bidding is at $140,000 already, so all in all, Alex stands to make much more than his aimed $1,000,000.

Apparently Alex is already working on ideas for what to do after this. I don't know about you, but I'm going to keep a close eye on this guy. He seems to have a talent for spotting what people are going to want next.

Text 'Save' to place your vote for Molly the cow

Town residents of Great Falls, Idaho will decide through a telephone poll whether a cow will remain a resident of Montana, or live the rest of its days in an animal sanctuary in Seattle.

The cow escaped last week from a Montana slaughterhouse, and led workers and police on a six-hour chase, actually crossing the Missouri river on its way.

The heifer has attained celebrity status, with television and news organisations requesting interviews(?!), and calls flooding in not only from the US, but from overseas also.

Del Morris, manager of Mickey's Packing Plant in Great Falls, commented that it was a rare cow that escapes slaughter. "I watched her do things that are just not possible for a cow," he said.

Microsoft Fix for Windows Security Hole

Microsoft have earlier this month rushed out a security patch designed to prevent hackers exploiting a loophole in the way that Windows handles certain types of images.

The problem, called the Windows Meta File (WMF) bug, is potentially very serious: it means that a malicious user can hide code on a webpage or in an email containing files with the wmf extentsion.

Samples of code designed to exploit the hole have been posted on the internet, and can successfully attack even fully-patched Windows XP SP2 systems. Some examples are spyware which tries to trick people into handing over their credit card details, or which installs software to send thousands of spam e-mails.

The potential for exploiting this security hole is even greater. "This one is particularly nasty because is allows people to take control of your computer from over the internet," said Rob Helm, research director at US analysts Directions on Microsoft.

Attention was first drawn to the hole at the end of December last year. Patches are now available for all at-risk versions of Windows, and can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-001.mspx

For more than three years now, Microsoft has been working to improve the security and reliability of its software as more and more malicious software targets weaknesses in Windows and other Microsoft software. More than 90 percent of the world's personal computers run on the Windows operating system. Vulnerable versions of Windows include ME, 2000, XP and Server 2003.

Happy New Year from Codebrush

Happy New Year to everyone out there.

We hope your Christmas was fun (and that your Christmas Holiday was long enough!), and best wishes for 2006 from us all here at Codebrush.