Major Changes at Facebook, Be Prepared!

There are some major changes brewing behind the doors at Facebook, wherein the designers have planned to mesh together all the various forms of internet-based communication in order to solidify the trend of "all-in-one-social-network-computing". One main portion is there will be new Facebook email accounts. You may wish to read the pros and cons of such a move, because it will affect you or someone you know, and it's best to be aware of both the threats and the benefits before it becomes widely implemented.

Unfortunately, there is a general misunderstanding of the proper use of privacy settings and overall social-network security. Even if you have your account locked down with privacy settings you feel safe with, those in your networks often do not, and these people have access to your page.

To read more detail about the upcoming changes, please check out the article written at Sophos below.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/15/faq-security-and-facebooks-new-messages-system/

Outbreak: United Parcel Service notification malware attack

Be careful about any notifications from UPS via email about a delivery they are trying to make to you. The bad guys are an image this time which tricks you to click on a link. Be safe and read the details on the excellent security site from Sophos.

- John

That's Not Pizza In The Oven! - Interesting Approach to a Printer Fix

Ever have an epic failure in an electronic device which you simply couldn't resolve and knew it would cost more to get it fixed than to have the device repaired?

Even as an IT professional, this will occur once in a while. Sometimes you're given a 'bricked' device to dispose of or fix.

One client of ours had a failed printer, and after much poking, prodding and analyzing we simply couldn't get a response from the printer which was recognizable in the support documentation. The light status was completely wonky and in order to get further support assistance, we'd have had to spend money. However, John got online and did further due-diligence and discovered that this particular printer has a very interesting resolution for the symptoms we were seeing.

The printer is a HP Laserjet P2015dn. Apparently the formatter board on this model often fails as the lifetime of the machine progresses. We found some suggestions that you can remove the circuit board from this thing, and bake it in the oven for 8 minutes at 350 degrees, it would fix the problem. The heat softens the soldering so that it flows just enough to improve the connection of the circuitry. John rolled up some aluminum foil and placed it on the four points of the board to keep it off of the cookie sheet itself.

Yesterday we were laughing about this solution he found online. I thought to myself: "No way: this sort of thing has got to be a prank." I was wrong! Today I re-attached the formatting board he baked last night, and the printer is now functioning as expected. Go figure.