Now doesn't that just have a ring to it? The last time I put up a video here on web spam, (from the IR community) it was a less than complimentary view. In the post; SEOs are not Criminals we looked at how many in the search world consider a large portion of SEO to be 'spam' or even 'black hat'.

Today, as I was wandering around my reader I came across this one;

You can access the video and some graphics below, but I am pleased to announce that this one was really about the more melodious attack type of tactics, not really the more relaxed terms we use for them. This ain't your mommy's MFA or affiliate monetized black hat SEO. These are the more insidious brands.

NOTE; while this is a 'Google Tech Talk' it should not be construed to be FROM Googlers. In this case the presentation was by Julien Obrier (on LinkedIn) the QA Engineer at Zscaler (website – research - Facebook). This is simply the results of some research he did into the topic over Google, Yahoo and Bing.

The Video

All in all it was some interesting stuff and the data sets on the sheer amount of crap out there, equally impressive. I thought I'd also post some visuals of interest from the video;

Enjoy...

As you may have caught at the end there, you did listen to the whole thing right? They were finding evidence that Bing was much better and Yahoo somewhat better at chatching these. Is that because spammers don't give a rat's ass about them? Or possible as noted, that Google fast indexing actually works against it when it comes to spam?

All in all... some interesting geeking!

Are you a lonely search geek?

]]> http://russellchang.com/2010/09/google-tech-talks-black-hat-spam-seo/feed/ 0 http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/07/talktalk-reprimanded-over-malware-trial/ http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/07/talktalk-reprimanded-over-malware-trial/#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:23:47 +0000 Mike Halsey http://www.ghacks.net/?p=34046 UK-based ISP TalkTalk, owned by the Carphone warehouse (Phone Warehouse in the EU) has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office for failing to disclose enough information about a malware system it was launching, according to the BBC.

The controversial system collected the URLs of websites visited by its customers and the ISP failed to inform either its customers or the ICO before its launch.

MArk Schmid, TalkTalk’s Director of Communication said in a statement “We were simply looking at the urls accessed from our network, we weren’t looking at customer behaviour so we didn’t feel we were obliged to inform customers.  This is all about protecting customers. It is not designed to provide us with data for any other purpose.”

The system scanned the websites visited by TalkTalk customers to aid the company in detailing websites that could contain malware or viruses.

British Telecom had proposed a similar service called Webwise which was heavily criticised by the British public.  BT also conducted trials without informing customers which led to accusations of intercepting private data.

Online privacy is an issue of which the public is becoming increasingly aware, which can only be a positive thing.

© Mike Halsey for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: british telecom, bt, isp, malware, talktalk, trial, virus

So what’s new in the latest Firefox 4 beta? The add-on manager has been redesigned with a new color scheme. The functionality on the other hand seems to have remained the same. Still no option to search for and install add-ons from the manager.

add-on manager

Hardware acceleration should be enabled by now by default, at least on Windows. A new setting has been added to the browser’s options to disable hardware acceleration. you find it in Tools > Options > Advanced > Use Hardware Acceleration When Available.

hardware acceleration

Finally, the new single menu at the top has been revamped. It opens additional menus when the user hovers with the mouse over an arrow at the end a particular menu item.

firefox 4 menu

The menu is actually not as intuitive as it looks like on first glance, as it happens that submenus pop up accidentally whenever the mouse cursor moves over an arrow icon. Keep in mind though that you can return to the old menu structure, or display it temporarily by pressing Alt.

Firefox 4 Beta 5 will be available later today. Users who do not want to wait that long can download it from the Mozilla ftp server, or wait until the download portals have uploaded the new version to their servers.

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: firefox, firefox 4, firefox 4 beta, firefox release

So why bother with it now? When machines are large and fast enough to not have to worry about such issues as extra kernel modules or space? There are still plenty of reasons for wanting to compile your own kernel. One of those reasons is the experience. Nothing says “Linux” like compiling ones own kernel. But beyond that – gaining as much performance out of your server or eking out a bit more security are two fine examples as to why one should learn how to compile their own kernel.

In this article, I am going to show you how to do just that – compile your own Linux kernel.

A word of warning

Before you attempt this task, it’s best that you read through this document in its entirety, instead of just marching through, step by step. You will also want to make sure you keep a working kernel on your system. That way, if the kernel you build doesn’t work, you will have one to fall back on.

Also, my intention with this is to be as generic as possible. There might be tools or tasks that are specific to your distribution. If you find something is lacking for your particular distribution, or a particular step isn’t working for your distribution, please not it in the comments so it can be resolved.

What you will need

You won’t need much more than the latest kernel source (download the latest from kernel.org), you will need to make sure you have gcc installed, and you will need a lot of patience. This process can take a lot of time…so make sure you have plenty of time blocked off.

If you do not have gcc installed you can do so with a command similar to either of these (depending upon your distribution):

sudo apt-get install gcc

yum install gcc

NOTE: The latter command will require you to su to root first.

Much of the kernel building process will require root access.

The compilation process

Figure 1

Now it’s time to do the work. I will list out the steps for compilation:

Unpack the source code into /usr/src/ with the command tar -xjvf linux-2.6.XXX.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src. Where XXX is the release number.

Move into the newly created /usr/src/2.6.XXX directory with the command mv /usr/src/linux-2.6.XXX (Where XXX is the release number).

Issue the command make menuconfig.

At this ncurses based you will need to go through the entire kernel and remove (or add) the modules that you want. This can take some time, so go through this step very carefully.

Once you have finished selecting all modules exit out of that tool and issue the command make. This will compile the kernel.

After the initial make is complete issue the command make modules to compile the modules for your kernel.

Now it’s time to install the kernel modules with the command make modules_install.

Now, install the kernel with the command make install.

The above last command will install the following files into /boot:

• System.map-2.6.XXX
• config-2.6.XXX
• vmlinuz-2.6.XXX

Where XXX is the release number.

Now you have to create the initrd file with the commands:

cd /boot/
mkinitrd -o initrd.img-2.6.XXX 2.6.XXX Where XXX is the release number.

You now have to update Grup to include the new kernel. This will depend upon the distribution you are using. For this we will tackle in a separate article.

Final thoughts

You have just compiled your first Linux kernel. You may not even have a need to do this, but it’s always good to have an understanding of what old school Linux users had to go through. To be honest, I haven’t had to compile my own kernel for quite a while. But knowing how to do is allows you to have complete control over your Linux system.

© Jack Wallen for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: kernel compiling, Linux, linux kernel

It is a well kept secret that Adobe Flash Player can be configured globally. Administrators and users who want to do that need to create the file mms.cfg. This file needs to be stored in the following directories to be accessed by the Flash Player:

• Windows: %Windir%\System32\Macromed\Flash
• Macintosh: /Library/Application Support/Macromedia
• Linux: /etc/adobe/

The following parameters are supported by the configuration file:

Most options can be set to 0 = false or 1 = true. A basic example is the command AVHardwareDisable = 1, which blocks SWF file access to webcams and microphones. A value of 0 allows the user to configure the setting in the Settings Manager.

Privacy Parameters:

AVHardwareDisable = [0,1]
DisableDeviceFontEnumeration = [0,1]

Defines if SWF files can pull the list of installed fonts from the computer system. Setting it to 1 means they cannot do that, while 0 means the information can be returned.

User Interface Parameters:

FullScreenDisable = [0,1]

Defines if a SWF file can be displayed in full screen mode. A value of 1 prevents that, while 0 allows it.

Data loading and storage options:

LocalFileReadDisable = [0,1]

A value of 1 prevents local SWF files from having read access to files on the local hard drive which means local SWF files cannot run. Remote SWF are unable to upload or download files.

FileDownloadDisable = [0,1]

Setting the parameter to 1 disables downloads of files, while 0 allows it.

FileUploadDisable = [0,1]

The same as FileDownloadDisable, with the difference that it blocks or allows file uploads.

LocalStorageLimit = [1,2,3,4,5,6]

This sets the limit of local storage the Flash player can allocate per domain. (1=no storage, 2=10KB, 3=100KB, 4=1MB, 5=10MB, 6=no limit]

ThirdPartyStorage = [0,1]

If this value is set to 1, third-party SWF files (those that originate from a different domain than the current one) can read and write locally persistent shared objects. If this value is set to 0, third-party SWF files cannot read or write locally persistent shared objects.

AssetCacheSize = [ 0, number of Megabytes]

This value specifies a hard limit, in MB, on the amount of local storage that Flash Player uses for the storage of common Flash components. If this option is not included in the mms.cfg file, the Settings Manager lets the user specify whether to permit component storage. However, the user can’t specify how much local storage space to use. The default limit is 20 MB.

Update Options:

AutoUpdateDisable = [0,1]

If set to 1, Flash Player disables auto-update. This prevents Flash Player from checking periodically for updated versions. If set to 1, the following parameters are ignored.

AutoUpdateInterval = [number of days]

Defines the interval in which Flash Player checks for new versions. The default value is 30 days.

DisableProductDownload = [0,1]

If this value is set to 0 (the default), Flash Player can install native code applications that are digitally signed and delivered by Adobe. Adobe uses this capability to deliver Flash Player updates through the developer-initiated Express Install process, and to deliver the Adobe Acrobat Connect screen-sharing functionality. If this value is set to 1, these capabilities are disabled.

ProductDisabled = application name

TThis option is effective only when DisableProductDownload has a value of 0 or is not present in the mms.cfg file; it creates a list of ProductManager applications that users are not permitted to install or launch.

Security Options:

LegacyDomainMatching = [0,1]

This setting controls whether to allow a SWF file produced for Flash Player 6 and earlier to execute an operation that has been restricted in a newer version of Flash Player.

LocalFileLegacyAction = [0,1]

This setting controls how Flash Player determines whether to execute certain local SWF files that were originally produced for Flash Player 7 and earlier.

AllowUserLocalTrust = [0,1]

This setting lets you prevent users from designating any files on local file systems as trusted (that is, placing them into the local-trusted sandbox). This setting applies to SWF files published for any version of Flash.

EnforceLocalSecurityInActiveXHostApp = executable filename

By default, local security is disabled whenever the ActiveX control is running in a non-browser host application. In rare cases when this causes a problem, you can use this setting to enforce local security rules for the specified application. You can enforce local security for multiple applications by entering a separate EnforceLocalSecurityInActiveXHostApp entry for each application.

DisableNetworkAndFilesystemInHostApp = executable filename

This option is similar to EnforceLocalSecurityInActiveXHostApp, but applies to plug-ins as well as the ActiveX control, and imposes stricter security controls. When a plug-in or ActiveX control is running within an application specified, it will be as though the HTML parameter allowNetworking=”none” had been specified. That is, no networking or file system access of any kind will be permitted, and the SWF running in the Flash Player will run without the ability to load any additional media or communicate with any servers. You can enforce local security for multiple applications by entering a separate

Socket connection options

DisableSockets = [0,1]

This option enables or disables the use of the Socket.connect() and
XMLSocket.connect() methods. If you don’t include this option in the mms.cfg file, or if its value is set to 0, socket connections are permitted to any server. If this value is set to 1, no socket connections are allowed. However, if you want to disable some but not all socket connections, set this value to 1 and then use EnableSocketsTo to specify one or more servers to which socket connections can be made.

EnableSocketsto = [host name, IP address]

This option is effective only when DisableSockets has a value of 1; it creates a whitelist of servers to which socket connections are allowed. Unlike most other mms.cfg options, you can use this option as many times as is appropriate for your environment. Note that the servers specified are target servers, to which socket connections are made; they are not origin servers, from which the connecting SWF files are served.

GPU Compositing:

OverrideGPUValidation = [ 0, 1 ]

The GPU compositing feature is gated by the driver version for video cards. If a card and driver combination does not match the requirements needed to implement compositing, set OverrideGPUValidation to 1 to override validation of the driver requirements. For example, you might want GPU compositing enabled during a specific test suite, even if the video driver in the test machine doesn’t meet compositing requirements. This setting overrides driver version gating but still checks for VRAM requirements.

RTMFP options:

RTMFPP2PDisable = [ 0, 1 ]

This option specifies how the NetStream constructor connects to a server when a value is specified for peerID, the second parameter passed to the constructor. If RTMFPP2PDisable has a value of 0 or is not present in the mms.cfg file, a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection can be used. If this value is 1, any value specified for peerID is ignored and P2P connections are d

RTMFPTURNProxy = URL of TURN proxy server

If this option is present, Flash Player attempts to make RTMFP connections through the specified TURN server in addition to normal UDP sockets. TURN Servers are useful for conveying RTMFP network traffic through firewalls that otherwise block UDP packets.

Additional information:

flash player 10.0 admin guide
Adobe Flash Player 10 Admin Guide website.
mms Config Example
Recent Man in the middle Vulnerability [German]

The config is a basic example file, which disables update checks, hardware and font enumeration. (thanks go to Hubert for sending in the tip).

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: adobe flash, flash, flash player, flash player 10, flash player admin, mms.cfg

The release has not been officially announced yet, which means that the release notes are not available as well at this point in time. The beta release notes however mention several stability and security fixes in Thunderbird 3.1.3.

thunderbird 313

This indicates a mandatory for every user of the Thunderbird 3.1 branch. Bugzilla lists 83 bugs that have been fixed in the beta version of the email client, of which 13 have been rated as critical.

On top of the security and stability fixes, several fixes to the user interface have been made. Don’t expect any noticeable changes though, the release’s aim was to fix bugs, not to add or change features in the email client.

Thunderbird users can download the release once it has been officially announced by the development team. The update checker in the client will pick up the new version at about the same time.

Users who do not want to wait that long can download the English version of the email software from Softpedia.

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: mozilla thunderbird, thunderbird, thunderbird 3.1.3, thunderbird update

Replacing icons one by one is not really something that many users would like to, as it takes lots of time to complete. For starters, each icon needs to be changed in the program properties.

7conifier promises an easier more elegant solution. The free program can automatically change the default icon set of the Windows 7 operating system.

It is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, and has no other requirements than the already installed Microsoft .net Framework 3.5.

icon set windows 7

The software recommends to save the current icon set prior to making changes to it. This backup is highly recommended, as it is the only option to revert the changes and restore the default icon set.

Three icon sets are delivered with the program. Two dark and one light icon set, which only change program icons of support programs. This means that icons of programs like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Excel are changed, while others are not.

7conifier can kill the explorer process after an icon set has been selected. The new icon set would otherwise be visible after the next restart or log on.

The program missed a few icons during operation. It did for instance miss to change the Mozilla Thunderbird icon, even though it is included in the icon set. That was easily fixed by manually changing the icon to the one in the icon package.

It is possible to switch between icon sets easily in the program interface, and to restore the default icon set if a backup has been created on the first run.

The program comes with an editor that can be used to create new icon sets for Windows 7.

create icon package windows 7

A click on Package > Create > From Pinned or Manually creates a new icon package. From Pinned means that the program will automatically add the icons of the pinned taskbar and start menu shortcuts.

New programs can be added, and icons changed for all applications in the editor. That way it is possible to create a new icon set that can be easily applied in the end.

7Conifier is a professional looking program that ships with three good looking icon sets and the option to create custom ones. Users need to make sure that the 7Conifier program stays in the same location after applying one of its icon packages to the system.

The program makes no changes to the Windows Registry and can be deleted when it is no longer needed. Users should however make sure that they restore the default icon set before they delete the program.

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: 7conifier, change-icon, icon sets, portable software, windows 7, windows software

Or is it the new LSI for engineers? Well, possibly both, we're not sure yet. Let's find out. To start we must ask; what in the world has made LDA the flavour of the day in SEO? That part is simple. Because the folks over at 'the Moz' brought out a new bouncing baby search tool that uses LDA modelling. Why am I on about it? Because I love this sh*t and have always said that we need to be more informed in the art of information retrieval if we're to be more complete providers. Thus I am truly vested in this conversation.

Ok, so what exactly are we looking at here? For starters we must actually get back to the world of LSI... yes, I am going there, as it must be done for context, ( I have generally noted SEOs use of the term LSI to be akin to snake-oil).

In the past ten years, the Internet has changed so drastically – so completely – that it’s hard to remember what a vastly different place it was in the 1990’s. The web was new and exciting back then, and everyone from businessmen to high-school tinkerers were compelled to put websites together and become a part of this growing trend. Not surprisingly, the designs they produced were brutally bad by today’s standards, yet despite graphical and technical changes in web design, there are still some businesses operating from remarkably outdated pages. These are sites that time forgot, and as the Internet speeds past them, they stand as a testament to a strange world not-so-long ago – the Internet of the 1990’s.

IdeaAction Media Productions

(source)

In 1999, this all-flash design would have been top notch, but today it just looks painfully dated. Though IdeaAction appears to have something to do with advertising, it is hard to tell exactly what because their descriptive paragraphs fly on and off screen too fast to read. Topping it all off, the entire video loops over mere seconds after their contact information is displayed, forcing anyone who might want to give them a call to watch the terrible production over and over again.

ABBC Breeders

(source)

Complete with Pink Floyd midi music playing in the background, the American Beauty Border Collies Breeders website is like taking a time machine back to the Internet of 1998. Simply viewing the tasteless layout and tacky animated GIF images that litter the page will make you remember a time when GeoCities and AngelFire were the primary website building utilities, and everyone who knew how to use copy and paste commands could create a homepage. The only essential 90’s web artifact missing from ABBC Breeders is some old fashioned flaming text.

Utah Ski Rentals

(source)

Animated backgrounds were a big part of the Internet in the 1990’s. Once designers realized they didn’t need to stick to the solid color page that worked so well for so long, it seemed that readability began taking a back-seat to animation and pizzaz. Soon, every website on the net started converting to annoying graphic backgrounds that made reading the actual text on the page a strenuous and tiresome activity. Utah Ski Rentals is unable to move on from this Internet dark age, still boasting a snowing background, randomly placed buttons, and scrolling text banners.

Dokimos

(source)

Speaking of horrendously annoying backgrounds, Dokimos takes the cake as the most unbearable. Featuring a scrolling rainbow of bright colors behind biblical scripture, the religious-themed website is impossible to look at for more than several seconds without being driven away, or even worse, going into an epileptic fit. Further dating the website to the 90’s is the presence of a guestbook, one of the oldest forms of commenting a web page. Not surprisingly, the first comment in the guestbook is from 1999.

Arngren

(source)

Arngren is a gadget sales site with an infuriatingly confusing layout. Looking like something that was thrown together in Microsoft Frontpage ‘98, the site scatters disconnected technology items for sale all across its main page with utter disregard to organization or ease of use. Look closely at the top of the page and you’ll see another component of every website to exist in 1990s, the long retired visual hit counter.

Cobra Strike Trading Solutions

(source)

CobraStrike is an awfully fierce name for such a timid website. Looking more like a pretty Microsoft Word document than a complete site, the trading firm says little about what it does, choosing instead to boast about profits and put a big, clip-art like picture of a cobra up for all to see. Signs of 90’s influence include the lifeless solid background color, the pasted in images that clash with the page, and the single page layout.

Party Tent City

(source)

Here’s a website that would have shamed even Expages designers in the 90’s. Massive text runs into small text, some of it is italicized, some of it is highlighted, and images and videos are randomly pasted in without formatting. The lack of any sort of navigation makes the whole site look like something a middle school web-hobbyist in 98 might have come up with.

DP Graph

(source)

At least the designers at DP Graph were kind enough to place their text inside of a white box and not directly on top of their multi-colored spinning background so that we don’t have to squint and highlight to read it. Still – it’s 2010, can’t we leave the tiled animated background in the 90’s along with the words “phat” and “da bomb?” The bottom of the page says that it was created in 1997, and we can safely assume it hasn’t been touched since.

Smith and Goldsmith Inc

(source)

Still operating off the Homestead web design and hosting suite (another online design suite popular in the late 90’s), Smith and Goldsmith Inc round out our list with a design that features all the tells of a true 90’s page. First of all, the background is a tacky, tiled graphic – a common choice of amateur designers from the 90’s. Scrolling text banners interrupt the flow of the page to scream messages at you, text flows into images, images flow into images, and a visual hit counter proudly boasts the number of visitors. Last but not least, the site makes use of the ultra-popular side button navigation, a fad not seen on the web past the early 2000’s.

Thumbnail image source is here

Bonus:  Oh god, twitter.

The file size in those cases is only displayed after the download has been started. That may not be a huge problem for users with 10 or more MBit and a Internet traffic flatrate, but users who have to pay per Megabyte downloaded may prefer to know how much they are downloading before they start.

The same may be true for users with slow Internet connections. Instead of downloading a file at the limit for some time, they might prefer to postpone the download to times where it can be downloaded without interrupting work.

Show File Size is a basic, but very helpful Firefox extension. The add-on integrates new information into the Save download windows of the browser. Here it displays the file size and type in a new row. This works well for many different file downloads. There may be situations where it cannot display the file size, but we have not encountered any during our tests.

show file size

With the additional information provided, the user can make the decision to download the file, or cancel it completely or for the time being.

Show File size is compatible with Firefox 3.6 to Firefox 4 versions. It is available for download at the official Mozilla Firefox Add-on repository.

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: downloads, file size, firefox, firefox-add on, save as, show files size