Category — Tech News

I just received the following phishing email message claiming to be from the Windows Live Team. If you receive this email, do not respond to it. Just delete the message.

Some of the indicators that this email is not legitimate include:

• Email address of the sender is a plain hotmail address
• Poor grammar, capitalization, and spacing.
• Asks for  too much personal information (Windows Live would not ask for your password, secret question, secret answer, and date of birth)

Here is the text of the message that I received:

Subject: Important Message Regarding Your Windows Live Account

From: Windows Live Team [zarjah@hotmail.com]

Dear Account User,
              This Email is from Windows Live Team Customer Care and we are sending it to every Windows Live Team Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of  Windows Live Team accounts so we are shutting down some Windows Live Team accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.We are sending you this email to so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name,password,secret question,secret answer,date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.Due to the congestion in all Windows Live Team users and removal of all unused Accounts, Windows Live Team will be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.
* YOUR NAME:
*USER NAME:
*E-MAIL ID:
*PASSWORD:
*VERIFY PASSWORD:
*ALTERNATE EMAIL ADDRESS:
*DATE OF BIRTH:
*COUNTRY/TERRITORY:
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently. We apologize.
Windows Live Team Account Service
Team Admin….

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Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail. Sign up today.

eWeek, Redmond Magazine (and others) announced this week that Microsoft will be discontinuing support for Windows Live One Care. Although not used in the corporate setting, Live One Care is what I have been using it on my personal laptop for the past 15 months. Live One Care will be sold until June 30, 2009.

Microsoft is not out of the Antivirus business, though. By the end of 2009, Microsoft will release a free antivirus program, code named “Morro.” Yes, that is right, free.

My only concern is that my Live One Care subscription ends on August 2009. Will Morro be available? Will I be a sitting duck for viruses until Morro is released? Or will I have to buy antivirus from another vendor?

Sorry for the gap in posts. The gap got bigger when I took my vacation.

First of all, thank you to all who have purchased CBT Nuggets videos through my web site link. I appreciate your sales very much. I will try to demonstrate my appreciation in the future with regular and useful blog posts.

I have just received access to the CBT Nuggets videos for Windows Vista, tests 70-620 and 70-622. Both videos are taught by one of my favorite CBT Nuggets instructors, James Conrad. I will post a review of these videos hopefully within the next month.

I am also working on two software deployments: Microsoft Forefront Client Security and Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager Workgroup Edition. I am sure I will have some comments to share with you during and after these deployments.

On a personal note, I am starting my Master’s Degrees in Management Information Systems this fall at the University of Central Florida (where I am also employed). I am excited and fearful about this all at the same time. I have wanted to go back for a Master’s Degree for a long time. This degree will also give me academic credentials in the field that I have been working in for so long (my bachelor’s degree is in Industrial Engineering).

My mention of an academic degree may cause some readers to wonder which is more helpful to your career - degree or certification. My suggestion is that if you have the time and resources, go for the degree. My bachelor’s degree that I earned in 1991 still helps me find work 17 years later. I cannot say the same for my certification in Windows 3.1/MS DOS 6.x that I earned in 1995! However, my certifications do show an employer that I am continuing to learn and remaining current in my field (as opposed to just 1991 knowledge).

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions or ideas for articles, please comment or email me at blogmail@itcertpro.com.

I read a news story the other day about a man in South Korea was killed by an exploding cell phone in his shirt pocket. The cell phone had signs of melting. Fears of battery problems that had earlier plagued laptops now seemed to be realized in cell phones. Now your cell phone could be a ticking time bomb!

or . . .maybe not . . .

A follow-up article by the Associate Press reports the real culprit. A co-worker accidentally ran over the man while backing up a drilling vehicle. He moved the vehicle to throw off the police. The exploding cell phone story was made up.