Download Pick of the Week: SequoiaView

Hi All,
Rick Mack of Volante Systems pointed out to me this very cool FREE utility to graphically map your hard disk so that you can see what files are taking up the most disk space. The utility uses a screen of squares that vary in size depending on the file size so that you can instantly find the files on your drive that are taking up the most space. The wow factor aside this would be immensely useful on your users file storage server to weed out which users are abusing your storage per se.

Here is the info:
SequoiaView was developed by the computer science department of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven and can be downloaded for free. It is a very small download, only 500 k in size and scans your disk very quickly!

SequoiaView uses a visualization technique called cushion treemaps to provide you with a single picture of the entire contents of your hard drive. You can use it to locate those large files that you haven't accessed in one year, or to quickly locate the largest picture files on your drive.

Sample screen the larger the box...the larger the file!


More information and Download the file from:

http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

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Microsoft Releases Windows Vista Step by Step guides

See:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=311f4be8-9983-4ab0-9685-f1bfec1e7d62&DisplayLang=en

These step-by-step guides will assist IT Professionals in deploying or migrating to Windows Vista. These guides will also provide step-by-step information on how to monitor performance, manage printing, control how CPU and memory resources are allocated using Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM), control device installation using Device Management and Installation (DMI), and manage ADMX files. There are also step-by-step guides to help you protect data using BitLocker Drive Encryption, to administer the TPM Security Hardware in a computer using Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Services, and to help deploy better-managed desktops and mitigate the impact of malware using User Account Control (UAC).

Deploying Vista Step by Step Guide.doc 213 KB

Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step by Step Guide.doc 150 KB

Migration Step by Step Guide.doc151 KB

Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide.doc209 KB

Print Management Step by Step Guide.doc254 KB

Step by Step Guide to Controlling Device Installation with Group Policy.doc1.1 MB

Trusted Platform Module Services Step by Step Guide.doc 155 KB

User Account Control Step by Step Guide.doc146 KB

Windows System Resource Manager Step by Step Guide.doc432 KB

Windows Vista Beta 2 BitLocker Drive Enryption Step by Step.doc205 KB

Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Shared View Step by Step.doc265 KB

Windows Vista Mobile Device Center Step by Step.doc34 KB

Windows Vista Speech Recognition Step by Step.doc118 KB

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Study Notes Decline in Internet Spyware

Here is an interesting article from LiveScience magazine. OK so the scary statistic is that 1 in 62 websites visited has malware! I wonder what that is a decline from? Sheesh.

~Jim

Study Notes Decline in Internet Spyware
By LiveScience Staff
posted: 03 February 2006
10:49 am ET
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060203_spyware.html
A new study details the extent and seriousness of potentially destructive spyware on the Internet, finding that it is still prevalent but declined significantly.
University of Washington computer scientists sampled more than 20 million Internet sites looking for programs that can covertly enter computers. While most spyware can be a nuisance—generating pop-ups, loading unwanted programs—it can also perform such malicious tasks as gathering personal data or using your modem to dial costly toll numbers.
The study examined popular categories of Web sites including games, news and celebrity sites. Among the findings:

* More 5 percent of executable files contain piggybacked spyware.

* One in 62 Internet domains performs "drive-by download attacks" to force spyware on users who simply visit the site.

* Game and celebrity Web sites appeared to pose the greatest risk for piggybacked spyware, while sites that offer pirated software topped the list for drive-by attacks.

"For unsuspecting users, spyware has become the most 'popular' download on the Internet," said Hank Levy at the university's Department of Computer Science & Engineering.
There is some good news:
The study employed a Web crawler to visit sites and look for spyware. It made two crawls, in May and October last year, and noted a 93 percent reduction in drive-by download attacks. That may be because more people are using anti-spyware tools and employing automated patch programs such as Windows Update. Also, civil lawsuits have been brought against spyware distributors.
Most spyware is relatively benign but can inundate a victim with pop-up advertisements. More malicious programs steal passwords and financial information. In a worst-case scenario, spyware can render a computer useless.
"You should download software only from reputable sources," said University of Washington associate professor Steven Gribble. "And it's a good idea to avoid the more shady areas of the Web."
The research is being presented today at the 13th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego.

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Mozilla Releases Seamonkey 1.0

The Mozilla Foundation has released version 1.0 of the Seamonkey suite of programs. It's basically an off-shoot of Netscape Communicator (that brings back memories). It has a browser, email program, IRC chat program and a web page editor. The browser is essentially a fork of the Netscape code base. If a customer says they are using Seamonkey, they mean this:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

And not this:

http://www.sea-monkeys.com/

or it's even more interesting Japanese counterpart:

http://www.sea-monkeys.jp/

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