Scan your files for viruses using VirusTotal

By Mark O’Neill

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For the past few years, I’ve been using AVG Anti-Virus to keep my computer safe from viruses, but deep down, I’m a pretty paranoid kind of guy. Even if AVG gives a file the all-clear, I’m often left wondering, what if AVG is wrong?

What if AVG was sleeping on the job and a trojan horse went sauntering by right into my PC? AVG is an excellent app, but I am still left with that niggly uncertain feeling.   I want that second opinion to make me rest easier.

So when a colleague recommended VirusTotal which allows you to run your file past 32 anti-virus checkers simultaneously, all my paranoid fantasies were instantly put to rest. Because let’s face it – if you’re still not convinced after 32 anti-virus engines say a file is OK then you’ve got no business being near a computer!

VirusTotal was described as one of the top 100 best products of 2007 by PC World and it’s easy to see why. The service works brilliantly and some of the top names in the business are involved – Avast, AVG, McAfee, Norton Anti-Virus, Microsoft and BitDefender to name but a few.

There are three ways to use VirusTotal :

Via the website : you can upload the file you wish to check to the VirusTotal website. It will then scan it for you using those 32 anti-virus engines and then let you know on the screen if it is OK.

Via email : you can email the file to VirusTotal and you would get back an email with a detailed analysis of the file. I can’t say I am too thrilled with this option as it is fraught with risks. For a start, if the file is indeed virus-infected, you may end up being blacklisted by your email service for emailing infected attachments.

OK, you were only sending it to a virus checking service but good luck explaining that one to say Yahoo or Gmail. Plus a lot of email services such as Gmail don’t allow you to email certain file types such as “exe”, making emailing impossible.

Right-click in Windows Explorer – by installing a small program into your Windows OS, you can right-click on a file and have it uploaded to the VirusTotal website where it instantly gets checked :

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Obviously it goes without saying that VirusTotal is not a permanent replacement for a real-time virus-scanning service like AVG residing 24/7 on your computer.   I would have heart palpitations if I didn’t have that scanning facility sitting there watching everything that goes on.   But if you want to be extra-careful with a particular file, if you need a second opinion to put your mind at rest then VirusTotal’s 32 anti-virus engines are standing by to receive your file.



Encyclopedia of Life: Cataloguing Earth’s Ecosystem

EOL

The Encyclopedia of life (EOL) is a new project that went online just a few days ago. Its goal is to create a free online database for every one of Earth’s 1.8 million known species. The site currently features 30,000 entries, but as time passes, the rest of our planet living organisms should appear.

On its first day online (February 26), the encyclopedia’s site logged over 11.5 million hits over 5 and a half hours, counting two hours of downtime due to excessive demand. If you thought being dugg could be a webserver’s worst nightmare, think again!

For now, all accepted entries in the Encyclopedia’s database will come from scientists, but in a few months, the site will start accepting submissions from the public, just like Wikipedia. Needless to say, I’m sure that strong moderation measures will be implemented to ensure data integrity.

Just like Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia of Life exists because of private donations. Initial funding was provided by the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation ($10 million) and by the Alfred Sloan Foundation ($2.5 million).

Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope is Amazing

In the following video, science educator Roy Gould and Microsoft’s Curtis Wong give an astonishing sneak preview of Microsoft’s new WorldWide Telescope — a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes all over the world and the heavens, and weaves them together holistically to build a comprehensive view of our universe.




Save the environment, type on a bamboo keyboard

By Mark O’Neill

Are you an environmentally-friendly geek? Then how about discarding your plastic keyboard and having a bamboo one instead?

Judging from a quick Google search, it seems that the concept of the bamboo keyboard came first from Japan, and now, it is gradually making it way across the rest of the world for a very reasonable $60, mouse included.

Just don’t show it to your panda neighbours when they come round to visit.

A Revolution in Nanoelectronics: Nokia Morph Concept

The Nokia Morph is a flexible, two-piece concept device that can adapt its shape according to the task its user wants it to accomplish. Thanks to nanotechnology, Morph can sense its environment, harvest solar energy, and also clean itself automatically.

Featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps being explored by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (United Kingdom) – nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities.

Introducing the Suntory Mermaid II: A wave-powered ship

Suntory Mermaid II

It’s no secret that boats have been used by man since the dawn of time. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that wind can easily be harnessed for locomotion. It does take a genius, however, to create a vessel powered by waves.

In the next few weeks, a well known Japanese adventurer named Kenichi Horie will set sail on his wave-powered boat for a 7000 kilometer journey starting in Hawaii and ending in the Kii Channel in Japan. The 3 ton catamaran is fabricated out of super-thin recycled aluminum and can cruise at up to 5 knots. His trip is estimated to last about 3 months.

The Suntory Mermaid II propulsion system works by harnessing the power of waves via two fins in the front of the boat. Said fins act similarly to a Dolphin’s tail, moving up and down according to the waves, thus propelling the ship. If this little project still isn’t green enough for your taste, all onboard electronics are powered via solar panels.

[Via PopSci]


Back up files to email with just one right-click

By Mark O’Neill

These days, with 6GB+ Gmail accounts and unlimited Yahoo accounts, email addresses are being used for more than just email.   Many people email themselves backups of many things including important documents, music, photos, video files and much more.  This way, they are not screwed if the original copy is destroyed or goes missing.  Plus their files are accessible from any internet-enabled PC.

But it can be a drag.  First you have to open a new email window, then you have to click on the attachment link, find the attachment then fill out the email address… there must be an easier, faster way to email yourself a backup of something right?   Well there is – the rather unoriginally named BackupToEmail.

This nifty little program installs an option in your Windows Explorer right-click menu which enables you to right-click on a file, choose the backup option and have it immediately sent to your designated email account.   It also installs a link in your right-click “send to” options which zips and sends the file to you.

When you first set it up, you need to tweak the program to suit yourself :

The beauty of this is that it is not locked into one email service – whether you use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or a really obscure service, it still works.  It also supports multiple email addresses.Now just right-click on your desired file in Windows Explorer, choose “Backup to email” and it immediately starts sending via a SSL SMTP server :

The file arrives in your email extremely fast, and so far, I’ve seen nothing to give me cause for concern.  It does what it claims to do. If you like, you can also alter the registry settings if you don’t like “Backup to email” in your right-click menu.  You can easily change it to “Gmail This!” or “Yahoo It!” if you’d prefer to give your menu that personal touch. Using this program, you can email backups to yourself in a matter of seconds – and you’ll wonder how you managed to survive without it up to now.

Nine Must-Listen Podcasts For Geeks

By Patrick Biz
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Geeks hate listening to commercial radio on their way to work. Hollywood gossip and local news are not the types of content computer-savvy people are raving about. What if, come Monday morning, you’re in the mood for tech news? Then on Tuesday’s commute, you want home theater reviews, and Wednesday, you want the latest pop news from Steve Jobs? Good luck finding all this on your AM/FM portable tuner.

Well thanks to podcasts, now you can listen to what you want, whenever you want. Podcasting is one of the best things to come out of the Internet . It is an audio or video file syndicated via the Internet that plays on portable media players, such as an iPod. Like radio and television shows, you can find podcasts on any subject you can think of. But for geeks looking for distinctively geeky content, here’s a list of what I consider to be the best technology and computer podcasts.

Continue reading ›

New Mac Book Pro’s tomorrow!

Mac Book ProAfter a few weeks of digging, AppleInsider has allegedly uncovered the details of Apple’s new MacBook Pro line-up. They’ve confirmed this based on new MacBook model numbers which have appeared in Apple’s inventory management systems.

Long story short, they will be available tomorrow sporting the newest Core 2 Duo Penryn chips running at 2.6GHz. They’ll also come packed with the new MacBook Air touch-pad, although we think that could have been taken care of with an update. The current line-up is already somewhat gesture compatible.

The prices will remain unchanged at $1,999, $2,499 and $2,799. Once again, the reputation of one of or favorite sites hangs in the balance. If the infamous yellow post-it shows up in the online store tomorrow, we will continue to love AI. If not, an all out protest will be staged containing much profanity.

Apple Insider: New MBP Model numbers

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