April 2011 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

malwarebytes
by daniel turner 23 Apr '11

23 Apr '11

Some one hijakced my brother's gmail account. I received an email from him saying "Hi you should check out this website. My brother's emails are always signed with a string of text containing his name, job title and other info that made me think it was really from him so I clicked on the link like a fool. Malwarebytes blocked the site and gave me a message saying the site was a bad one. I called my brother and he said his gmail account had been hijacked and he has since changed his passwword. Since the email had his signature text, I'm convinced that the attackers had cracked his password and used his gmail account to send the email. My brother has about the most boring personal life and I doubt he has visited any questionable sites so it can happen to anyone. Malwarebytes came preloaded on my PClaptops computer that I bought 2 years ago. It came with a licencing agrement so I'm sure it's not the "free" version. I have been downloading updates every week just before running a full system scan. I had been wondering if it was a waste of my time. The scan takes a half hour and has never found anything on my machine but now I'm a firm believer. The machine also came with MacAfee which I've also used weekly after downloading updates and running a full system scan that takes another half our. It has also never found anything beyond a few tracking cookies more than a year ago. Check you passwords. I use ten letters with no repeating letters and they are goofy nonsense words that no one would think to use. So activate your cloaking device, put your shields up and phasers on stun. The bad guys are out there. DT

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OT-Earth Science Picture of the Day
by Joe Bauman 23 Apr '11

23 Apr '11

Hi Gang, Check this out!!! http://epod.usra.edu/ Best wishes, Joe

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Star Party Wheeler Farm Fri 4-22 Notes Saturn
by Canopus56 23 Apr '11

23 Apr '11

Consistent with the satellite weather image last night, a useable hole briefly opened between 9:30pm and 1:30am 4-22 to 23 at Wheeler Farm. Despite the high atmospheric humidity, I was treated to some good views of Saturn through Rodger Fry's Meade LX200 and another gentleman's Celestron SCT. Cassini's Division was not visible, but the north tropical band caused by the December 2010 storm eruption on Saturn was seen as a distinct band. Clear Skies - Kurt http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110317.html Mar 2011 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110119.html Jan 2011 http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/112507364.html http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002946/ http://astrosurf.com/planetessaf/saturne/saturn_2010-NTrZ-storm.html

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Milky Way from the Australia Outback
by Jay Eads 23 Apr '11

23 Apr '11

Looking at Bad Astronomy I saw this link: http://vimeo.com/21662048 Check out this movie of the Milky Way. Truly amazing in the naked eye detail. Love The Southern Cross. Enjoy. How was Wheeler Farm? Lessoned learned tonight. If I want to observe or go to a star party and it looks iffy, just go. More often than not it will clear. Sent from my iPad

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Mosquito in Tooele Co. May be Worse
by Jay Eads 23 Apr '11

23 Apr '11

>From the Trib: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51678180-78/lake-mosquitoes-salt-county.h… Make sure at SPOC you have good bug juice this year it looks like. -- Jay Eads

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Will the cost of gas change your dark site visits or your attendance at outreach events?
by Debbie 23 Apr '11

23 Apr '11

Is this a good reason to get into CCD imaging? Get a light pollution filter and stay at home? Or will a dark site always be better as far as imaging is concerned? Debbie On Sat, Apr 23, 2011 at 12:37 AM, Rob Ratkowski Photography < ratkwski(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote: > This fall when I went south, on Rarotonga, Cook Is. gas was (in October) > $13/gal. Gas here on Maui is $4.90/gal so enjoy what you have in Utah > I'll be heading to French Polynesia this summer and I suspect gas will be > fairly costly there too c'est la vive > > > > Aloha > Rob > > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php >

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star party
by Mark Shelton 22 Apr '11

22 Apr '11

Hi, Does anyone know where people attending the star party at wheeler farm............ set up there telescopes? Thanks for the info. Mark

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Firefox and Windows Explorer help
by stormcrow60＠xmission.com 22 Apr '11

22 Apr '11

Erik, What you say is true. I am not disputing your point. Bill Gates and Microsoft are notorious with their software design and their integral apps. Just look at the Internet Explorer debacle a few years back. But Apple is just as guilty, if not more so. At least with a PC, I can freely customize my hardware, or move to any open source O/S. I can reformat and delete my Microsoft O/S and free myself from Mr. Gates for life with any flavor of LINUX, which I do run on another of my machines. And the MAC is just another flavor of LINUX. There are numerous open source browsers, office suites, GUI's, security software, firewalls, what have you... for much much cheaper (free) than purchasing a MAC. In fact, I have not purchased a piece of software for probably over fifteen years. With a MAC... once you make that HUGE purchasing decision... you are locked in, hardware and softwarewise. I am not a gamer, nor do I use graphic intensive software... so I have no need for the overhead of the Apple schism. But, from others I know and even from folks on this website who use Windows O/S, it appears to work well for their graphic intensive needs. Windows has come a long way in support of vector graphics, admittingly taking a very, very long time to get there. I have never heard of anyone using a PC, that after deleting a software program, deleted vital code to keep their machine running. Unless of course, it was some kind of malware app or something of that sort, which is what this thread entails. My point is, even though the two corporate computer overlords are two heads of the same dragon, if one stays patched, uses a good firewall and runs weekly scans of their machine, a PC is just as secure as any MAC. Perhaps even more so, since many MAC users think they are not susceptible to any kind of malicious intent from the internet. I suppose we are just talking apples and oranges. You have an Apple and I have an Orange. And speaking of privacy matters, check out the link below: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42717490/ns/technology_and_science-security/ Jon http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42717490/ns/technology_and_science-security/ Jon, Believe me when I say I know about jumping through hoops, my doctor gets very tired of all the redundant documentation I must provide (she must provide). Bureaucrats must justify their jobs I guess, but 12 page documents on a yearly basis is rather extreme. I think this is all a privacy issue, even TV providers install software to track your viewing habits so they can target you for advertising, they are currently capable a targeting individual receivers with custom adds. I always hear nightmares from PC users, like deleting a program to find it also deletes vital code and their PC becomes non functioning. What was intended as innocent tracking has morphed into this huge hacking problem. Internet aside, from day one, I could do things with a Mac that mystified me with PC's. The only problem with Mac is that manufactures of items needing programing often ignore making it Mac compatible. Mac's just make more intuitive sense. My sister in-law, a retired IBM systems analyst, tells me Microsoft is famous for omitting info to other software writers, so only Microsoft products are truly compatible with windows. They only provide info law requires of them and lawmakers seem rather clueless about technology. Both her and my brother are Mac converts. ISP providers have plenty of info on your habits, cookies, etal, are not needed and is not a plus for the consumer. Erik

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Firefox and Windows Explorer help
by stormcrow60＠xmission.com 22 Apr '11

22 Apr '11

Erik, Whether by design or not, if you are running Windows, you should be taking steps to protect yourself. And don't think there are not bugs out there for Apple products. We'll see more in the near future. Besides, just about all external aspects of our lives are designed to make us jump through hoops. Have you seen the prices at the gas station lately? Jon Does anyone really believe this was not by design? Hi Kim, [Hide Quoted Text] I use multiple apps to remove spyware and malware, because no single spyware remover finds all infections. I won't post any links, but you can google each name and find their websites. These are all free. HiJackThis - It finds alot of boot loader, registry and BHO infections. Just be careful what you remove, because it does display many needed processes that should not be removed. Know what you are removing before doing so. Spybot - Great tool for removing spyware and malware. Probably the most comprehensive of all the ones I am listing. MalwareBytes - There is a version you can pay for, but the free version does a stand up job in finding infections other apps won't. ComboFix - It will find and remove rootkits that other system cleaners do not even detect. Remember to always run the updates to these apps before running the scans. Also, I always run my anti-virus scan after running these other scans. I run McAfee. And before I forget... Zone Alarm - free firewall software. Much better than the Windows firewall and it is free, although you can pay for the full version. And last... do not forget to install all Microsoft security patches. Hope this helps, Jon

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Astronomy Programs on Hulu
by Jay Eads 22 Apr '11

22 Apr '11

Well, everyone is in bed but me. So nothing on TV so I decided to check out Hulu and found that there are actually quite a few good programs on Astronomy on there 1. *Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity *narrated by Lian Neeson, great special affects and was put together by Denver Museum of Nature and Science. http://www.hulu.com/watch/14906/black-holes-the-other-side-of-infinity 2. *Mars Dead or Alive* The story of the Mars Rovers http://www.hulu.com/watch/23355/nova-mars-dead-or-alive 3. *The Founders of Modern Astronomy * A look at William and Caroline Herschel in just over 4 minutes http://video.pbs.org/video/1487095635/ 4. *Debunking 2012 Myths with NASA's David Morrison*. David Morrison is the Director, NASA Lunar Science Institute. This is a video lecture by him. Rather fun and informing, lots of power point slides; an example is from the movie 2012 where it says "Ensuring the End is Just a Beginning." Does have a lot of commercials. http://www.hulu.com/watch/157506/foratv-science-debunking-2012-myths-with-n… 5. *Cosmos* with Carl Saagan Type in Cosmos in the search and you'll get the episodes for season 1. 6. http://www.hulu.com/search?query=cosmos&st=0&fs= 7. *Cosmic Journeys: Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy* 2009 http://www.hulu.com/watch/113965/cosmic-journeys-black-hole-at-the-center-o… 8. The Universe: The Milky Way This took me to the History Channel where you can watch 5 episodes (including this one). Does contain ads. http://www.history.com/videos/the-universe-milky-way#the-universe-milky-way That should be enough. Just thought if you have time some of these might be interesting. -- Jay Eads

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