Computer Based TV and Movie viewing and how legal is it?
Date: Thursday December 18, 2008Posted in: Computer IT, Money making, Technology, Windows XP, legal stuff
I recently lost cable TV service in my gated community and neighborhood due to a contract issue, which our association did not renew. So now I was only given the option to contract my own satellite TV service. Well after finding prices, I found a slightly better deal with DirectTV, but that was only my opinion because they only had me to sign up for 18 months in order to get the free installation and some sign up perks as opposed to the 24 month obligation that Dish Network offers.
The reason I am against contracts in because I feel that there may be an upcoming event where we can get TV legally from the internet. I know that there are some sites that claim that this exists today, but I am not sure if they are being totally honest. It seems what they do is they host a few servers and have their cable or satellite tv provider signal shared across the internet. Then they try to sell you some software that helps you to cache the steaming video and then play it on your computer.
Well I know I can watch TV on my compter via a few sites like Hulu.com or movies on watch-movies.net. also I can download free software like TVUplayer. But is any of this legal. I also found that I can install a free plug-in in Mozilla called Sothink SWF catcher and this lets me save the movies and TV shows to my Hardrive. Now I still wonder if this is legal, so I have not done this in any major form outside of a simple test. It works good, but I do not want to get a visit from some Fed agents if this illegal. I do not want to be considered a bootleg video producer either. I only want to watch TV in my own house.
So I guess my question is: Is it legal to save these TV shows and movies to my Hard drive just to be able to watch a movie or show without buffering? And then watch them in my own house as long as I don’t make copies on DVD or distribute them. And if I do this is this an alternative to Cable or Satellite?
The one problem with this besides legal concerns is this: Even if it turns out that Comcast, Directv or DishNetwork offer this service legally, like I think Netflix already does, how do we get the Image onto out larger 50 inch Plasma and LCD TV screens.
Yes you can use a long VGA cable, but how good is the Picture and you still will have to have your PC fairly close to your TV and most people do not keep their PC in their living room, or at least not close to the TV. So I hear you can buy a box called Hauppauge Media MVP which let you network your computer with this box that even has a remote control and it gets the media from your computers Harddrive and displays it on your TV. So now you can hide this box under or behind your TV and the only think you need to run is a network patch cable. Oh and now I hear that they make wireless version too. They also make wireless VGA transmitters and receivers too. But who makes an all in one box that is as small as a cable box but with the power of a laptop computer running windows media center? Will this technolgy become an alternative to Satellite and Cable TV in the next 18 months even if I have to pay, I think it will be cheaper.
Please let me know if anyone has had experience with these programs or technology.
New spyware trojans that hi-jacks windows active desktop. Zlob trojan.an
Date: Thursday May 1, 2008Posted in: Computer IT, Windows XP, computer virus removal
If you get this trojan virus, you will notice a small yellow triangle that says System Alert! Your computer is infected. windows has detected a spyware infection. Of course these are not authentic messages coming from windows. They are caused by Spyware or Malware trojan virus called Smitfraud. I think the one I got is called Troj.vlob.an
This virus is so evil that it will disable your task manager, change you wallpaper and send you lots of popup to advertise fake anti-spyware programs. Do not click on these ads or you will keep getting more spyware, trojans and virus. It will eventually slow down your pc so much that you will have to call me.
Yesterday I went to repair another computer for a customer and she had this bad virus. She had the same type of Zlog trojan that I also wrote about last week. That time I decided to reinstall windows, but this time since I had read some articles about it, so I went prepared with a few tools to clean it. First I had the smitfraudfix.exe and I also had a fixtaskmanger.exe as well as a few other basic antispyware and antivirus programs. I thought that the smitfraudfix.exe would be the perfect tool. I went ahead and ran it in safe mode and let it do its things. But even after it was finished and rebooted, this virus kept reappearing. I also noticed that the task manager was still disabled. So now I ran the other tools. I ran the task manager fix tool and it did get me back the access to the taskmanager. I continued to clean using some original methods of regedit and msconfig. This PC had Windows XP home edition. I found a few entries for rundll followed by the name of some strange dlls. So I deleted these from the startup paths and also from the registry Hkey local machine, software, microsoft, windows, run key etc.
I also booted back into safe mode and deleted the strange dll’s which I know are the virus files. But I noticed that even in safe mode, I was still getting the highjacked wall paper and the little yellow triangle that this Zlob trojan causes. it looks like this is a new variant that not even smitfraudfix.exe can get rid off. I also ran Adaware, Spybot and trojanhunter. None of these programs could kill this virus. I was ready to reinstall windows. But I decided to try one more tool. I downloaded a SuperAntiSpyware free version and I tried that too. This program which I once I thought was spyware actually helped clean up many more adware, trojans and spyware programs. It only left the fake wallpaper and I removed that, but I still have a feeling that this virus is still hiding somewhere else.But where can it be hiding? I think it has somehow infected the files that windows uses to display the active wallpaper. I will have to go back this evening and this time I will have to try a self booting antivirus program and see if it find the effected files. If anybody who reads this post knows a better way I will be glad to here from you. I may even offer you a small reward!
I know that I will see this virus again. Next time I want to be even better prepared for it. Please post any helpful comments below. Thanks in advance.
BTW I just found a few more tools and will bring them to the PC tonight:
SmitRemove and Rouge remover. I also will run ccleaner and install the latest antivirus version as I can find.
Another IT adventure: I still can’t find all the XP drivers for a Toshiba A135 Laptop.
Date: Wednesday April 16, 2008Posted in: Computer IT, Uncategorized, Windows, Windows XP
I have this Toshiba Laptop - South American or European Edition.
Model = A135-SP4796
Ever since I downgraded it from Window Vista - Basic Spanish Version, I am having a hard time finding all of the XP drivers. For starters, Toshiba will not help. They have some kind of evil agreement with big Microsoft, not to make it easy for anybody to put XP on it. But I am stuburn, I had Vista. I think Vista is the worst OS that MS has come up with. I do not no many people who like Vista, not even in Big corporate Offices. Everybody is still using Windows XP.
I had started a few weeks ago on this Laptop which belong to my niece. I found some drivers on Hardware Central and Geeks to Go Forums and that helped me to get the Wireless card drivers, The video and eventually the sound to work. Now I am working on it again. I am trying to find the 2 missing drivers:
1) Ethernet Driver - which I can do without as long as I have the wireless working
2) Mass Storage Device - The lack of this prevents me from connecting camera’s USB flash drives or IPODS to it.
Does anybody know who manufactures these 2 parts, The driver has got to be out there somewhere and I will not stop searching until I find it.
Also I hate Toshiba - Curse them for not helping all of us that resist Vista!
I almost put Ubuntu Linux, but thought that my niece who is 12 years old may not know how to use it!
Please post comments below. Thanks!
