Month: April 2009
Google’s April Fool’s Hoaxes
I find Google’s April Fool’s hoaxes quite funny. They’ve started this tradition of theirs since 2000. I have only come across their hoaxes last year though. Three of these many hoaxes they have had I will share with you.
Okay, have you ever wanted or wished you could go to the moon? Apparently in 2004, Google had an open job opportunity to actually work in the moon! “Google Copernicus Center is hiring.” How cool could that be? Well unfortunately, this turned out to be a hoax.
They did not and are not going to build “a fully integrated research, development and technology facility at which Google will be conducting experiments in entropized information filtering, high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo) and de-oxygenated cubicle dwelling” like they said on the Google Job Opportunities page.
Another one is Virgle. Last year (2008), Google announced a joint project with Virgin Group to establish a permanent settlement on Mars. The announcement included videos of the founders of both Virgin Group and Google.
They had this online application form with some sort of serious questions but with some choices that were a bit funny. After submitting the application, the site notifies the user that he/she is not fit for space, or that the application is fine and “all you have to do is submit your video” [as a response to their video on YouTube].
Third. As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. So Google introduced this year the Gmail Autopilot to help users reply to emails easily.
They said that it could actually match your personal style in writing as it sends autopilot responses. The more Gmail messages Autopilot can sample, the better. That means with fewer than 100 messages, there may not be enough data to calibrate Autopilot effectively. Really quite funny concept, isn’t it? Again, it’s purely another hoax.
So did you fall for any of those pranks by Google? [Laughing]
Conficker.C Activates on Schedule Quietly
Here are some excerpts on the latest about the Conficker Worm from ars technica and PC World:
Conficker.C appears on schedule, but only as a whisper. It’s April 1—do you know where Conficker is? The worm’s reactivation date has passed relatively quietly, but security researchers warn that the worst could still be coming. Keep your scanners updated, and watch your network traffic.
The Conficker worm today has begun to phone home for instructions but has done little else. Conficker was programmed to today begin actively visiting 500 out of 50,000 randomly generated web addresses to receive new instructions on how to behave. Conficker has begun to do this, according to security company F-Secure, but so far no doomsday scenarios have emerged.
April 1, thus far, is pretty clean. Let’s see what happens over the next few weeks before we draw a final judgment on the success or failure of the anti-Conficker associations. Hopefully the new detection scanners (and a comprehensive report just released by Leder and Werner) will turn the tide and begin to shut the worm down.
This will probably be my last post on Conficker for now, unless something major really does happen. On to other topics for the next posts!
Photo Credit: Andrew Scott
Got Conficker Worm? Hopefully, no.
To know if you’re actually infected by the Conficker Worm, a fast way is to try visiting any major security software publisher’s site such as AVG, McAfee, Symantec, Avira, etc. If you cannot load them, then you might be infected because Conficker blocks access to them.
Also, check if your Windows services such as Automatic Updates, the Background Intelligent Transfer Service, Windows Defender, and Error Reporting Services are working, that is, none have been disabled without your consent.
If you have confirmed that you have Conficker on your system, then download one of several free removal clients, such as McAfee’s Stinger, Eset’s Win32/Conficker Worm Removal Tool, Symantec’s W32.Downadup Removal Tool, and Sopho’s Conficker Cleanup Tool.
More details HERE.
Hopefully, all this fuss about it is just a cruel April Fool’s joke.
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Tech-Life in Pink 