Avast thinks Hulu is a Malicious Site

I went to Hulu this afternoon to catch up on my HEROES. I didn’t get to see it on Monday, so I knew that I could go up there and watch the show without issue. Or COULD I?

Turns out Avast won’t have it. It is blocking the SWF from playing and saying “Malicious Code”. Tried a few times in Firefox and IE. Every show or movie I try to play comes up with the same thing.

Here’s the kicker – neither Avast nor the Event viewer is showing any more info. In fact, it’s not even logging the event!

Could this be a malicious code? Could it be that Avasts’ database is off? Maybe Hulu changed some stuff to thwart Boxee from going through the RSS backdoor?

Well, there is a way around that. I went to NBC.com and watched the episode. I hope it’s not a real issue on Hulu…

**Update – Avast has posted an update to allow the Hulu SWF through. There was still no Event log on what it blocked**

Today I was working on the site and the delete button jumped up and bit me! OW!

We had a small issue, and I had to restore the backup database. There were a couple tables that were restored from the weekly backup. There should be no data loss, but if you signed up for the site this week, you may have to do it again.

Speaking of signups – Some have been asking about the iPod – Zune Contest info. According to the rules I set up (found on the Giveaway Rules Page) I will be choosing a winner today. I will email that user and they will have 7 days to respond. Once a winner is acknowledged, I will post the results.

NEWay, thanks for being a part of the site and participating in the contest. I have taken your information to heart and will be using it down the road.

 updated 7:45 CST

Today WordPress had released the final version of 2.5. I have successfully installed it into my Sandbox and am playing with it aggressively. I will be adding information as I go, but here is what I had so far:

First of all, for those who don’t know what a “Sandbox” is, this is an area I designated as a test area. In this case, I have a computer at my home in which I installed XAMPP (an acronym for Apache, MySQL, PHP and PERL – the X stands for the “Four”). The Sandbox is a great way to test new plugins, CSS code or anything. One thing to keep in mind in mantaining a Sandbox, though – make sure your Sandbox matches your websites credentials (example – if your Sandbox is running PHP 5 and your website runs on PHP 4, then the test area is pointless).

So Far I have done the following:

- Copied Geekazine SQL to the Sandbox.
- Made changes to the SQL so it will import in the Sandbox correctly without refering to Geekazine.com
- Downloaded 2.5 and installed in the sandbox
- Copied over all themes and Plugins
- Set up WordPress
- Made sure all initial settings matched the site
- Activated all plugins
  – WP-Cache plugin caused problems at first – there are several lines that have a misplaced “%20″ or ASCII code for a “Space”.Corrected the problem and the plugin activated.
  – All other plugins Activated.**(other issues arose though)
- Went to check all settings.
  – RAZ-CAPTCHA would not show a picture. Had to disable the Plugin.
  – Yet Another Photo-Blog is causing issues on the folder – working on issue.

First Update:

The Yet Another Photo Blog error was because I didn’t have all the current pictures imported into the proper folder. Once that change was made, the plugin began to work.

The WP-Cache was a plugin I had installed, but did not implement on WP because of issues. I have disabled it on 2.5

I went through all the settings and matched them up to the site. A lot of plugins had their settings. There were a couple that didn’t remember the settings, so it’s important to have a reference.

There is a Media Manager in WordPress now, but I am continuing to use PodPress. I will be checking out the images gallery option.

TinyMCE had a small hiccup. This is a plugin that extends the use of the Post area. It gives me more buttons and able to customize that area. I had to re-organize the buttons to get it to work again.

The rest of the day I spent getting the blog ready. The theme went over without a hitch. The only 2 issues are RAZ CAPTCHA, which I talked about earlier, and a mobile theme in which I couldn’t get loaded from my smartphone. It may only be because of the sandbox, but I will play with that in the coming weeks.

Summary – 2.5 is easy to install. So easy a cavem…. well, it’s pretty easy. It’s also easy to import your data. I did it the hard way, but then again I like challenges.

I only had minor issues with the CAPTCHA and the mobile theme. There are some other tests and checks I will run before putting it on a mainstream site level.

I like the additions to WP 2.5 – Media, the ability to set up multiple blogs, Update of Plugins right then and there as well as a updated interface. It will be interesting to see what the first few posts are like.

To anyone thinking of updating, my suggestion is one that goes for ALL software. Wait one week before updating. Why? Well sometimes problems might not show up until after the release. A hacker gets their hands on a imperfection and next thing you know your blog (as well as the rest of the site) has been comprimised.

The best thing to do is install XAMPP and run your own sandbox. Understand the program first, then upgrade. You might find a lot of cool things that you may have missed before.

Good luck on Blogging. It’s a lot of fun.

Last week we did a clean install of 2.5 and all went smooth. Today we’ll run 2.5 on an existing database.

The First thing I did was backed up the existing Database. Once that was accomplished, I proceeded to install 2.5 in a clean directory.

Next week we’ll talk about installing plugins and widgets to get 2.5 back to where it was before.

*Updated 03-13 -08. See Below

Snafu.  Freedictionary.com defines it as “A chaotic or confused situation”. The word SNAFU is an acronym, in which most of it I cannot decode here, so I’ll fudge it a bit. Situation Normal All Fouled Up.

If you were to go through a snafu a few years ago with a company, you would most likely grumble to your friends and family and then move on – Little impact on that. However, in this day and age, a Snafu can really come back to hurt. With Social Networking rising 47 percent year to year (according to Nielsen Netratings), this can really give companies a tough time if problems arise. But still, can social networking cause a company hardship because of a single or series of transactions?

Here is how this question came about: On Thursday I purchased a new video card from Tiger Direct. I wanted to upgrade the memory and get a dual video DVI card (my current one is dual VGA). I did a search, but somewhere in the search things got messed up and I mistakenly bought a lower end card. I needed a video card, so I was intending to still purchase through this route. I had collected the correct product number, got my confirmation email and gave them a call.

The first person said the order is not in their database yet. Kind of weird, yet I accepted the answer and decided to call back in about 30 minutes like he suggested. The second call was a little weirder, for the person could cancel the order and fix the order, but he wanted to try and “Talk” me into keeping the miss-ordered card.  I was floored that someone actually was trying to do this. After all, is it really his place? We did get the card ordered and I moved on.

However, I never received a confirmation email. I didn’t have a tracking number. The only way I knew something had changed was because my bank statement said that Paypal took out an additional amount from Tiger Direct.

Now since I never received confirmation, that Monday morning I called to find out if I was getting the card today and what my tracking order number would be. The response floored me even more – the person at the other end said they have been going through some issues and they could not give me a tracking number. When I inquired, I was told that the company had database issues since last Tuesday and orders wouldn’t update in their systems. I got confused, because I ordered the initial video card on the 5^th, and I received confirmation, however the corrected order I placed an hour later never showed up. They then told me the system would be back online on Wed (48 hours from now).

I got off the phone and started thinking how odd that was. They couldn’t give me a tracking number although my order supposedly shipped, but I don’t know when I am going to see it. It could come today, then again, it might not have been shipped yet.

The first thing I said to myself was:

“Wow. If someone had a Social Networking Site and was upset, you would most likely see that story on the net. ”

We’ve heard of people that have been fired over their Social Networking habits. However, has social networking from another source caused a person to lose a job or a company to rethink strategy? In a direct way – not yet, however, in an indirect way – that’s a big yes. Some companies block MySpace and Facebook sites, I’ve even worked at a job where it was detrimental those sites don’t get used, so they had a strict “Surf and get fired” policy. In the area of work it was in, I can not only understand that, I would condone it.

I would guess in the next few years a post is going to make a big impact on a company because the Customer Support agent gave poor support or because the company was not living up to their end of the bargain. And the most interesting part is when an article is written, it can get latched onto and others start blogging about it. The power of one all of a sudden becomes the power of many.

Social Networking will take over the Web if it hasn’t done so already. They say that if you want a successful site, you should have some type of blog. Instead of the Print to Mouth media that we used to have, it will turn to “Six Degrees of Separation” or “SDS reporting”.  As for Tiger Direct, I am not upset with them right now – just a little perturbed.  This Snafu will cost me some time if my order is not here today, but I’ll get over it. I won’t avoid Tiger Direct – I think they have a lot of great deals and I’ve ordered from them in the past with no issues.

I debated whether to use Tiger Direct’s name in this article. I decided to because I think it adds a level of validity to it. Every company should stand behind who they are and what they do – and be able to understand they are the ones identified so they can rebut or correct the action. All I ask of Tiger Direct is to get this Snafu corrected.

*UPDATE – On Wed, when the item didn’t arrive, I called support to find out what happened. The CS said no alternate card was ordered. After talking for a while, they offered a card that was not as powerful as the one I was suppose to be getting, so I decided to cancel the order and go a different route. I found a better video card for a cheaper price somewhere else.

Like I said – I will still do transactions in the future with TD. One bad transaction does not mean to boycott. This time it’s “Shame on you”.

This week we talk about tons of stuff you can give your geek for the holidays. Also, looking for people to help write and link sites.

608-807-4379 – geekazine@gmail.com

Sponsored by Rhapsody.com. Get your 14 day free trial by selecting this link.

Fake Online Friend leads to Girls’ Suicide – CNN
1/2 Million Databases have no Firewall – Network World
Firefox 3.0 leaves in over 700 bugs – AppScout
First Look at Firefox Beta 1 – ars Technica
Vodaphone Gets Restraining Order on TMobile iPhone – CNNMoney

On Geek.com

• PayPal Secure Card
• AT&T Offers First Napster Phone
• Patent Lawsuit for SMS messaging
• 2007 Holiday Gift Guide

Ron Paul Collects $4Million Over Internet – LinuxInsider
The Whole Internet on this Page – Wordtothewise
AMD Spider – Cnet
Commodore XX – Lockergnome
Sony Slashes PS3 Dev Kit Price – Engadget
Don’t want to buy a PS3 for Guitar Hero? Get Frets on Fire – Sourceforge
You Can Have Your Pac-Man and Eat, too. – Engadget
Wal-Mart Giving BluRay Movies with PS3 – Cnet
Dissapearing Gmail? – Network World
Gmail Crashing Browsers – Network World
Google Removes Pay Per Post – Blorge
Amazon Kindle. aka the e-book – Engadget
Digital Orchestra Debuts – Guardian Unlimited

Black Friday Specials:

ThinkGeek.com for your Online Geek

There are a ton of Sales – Check your Local Newspaper for all the ads. However, www.blackfriday.info and blackfriday.gottadeal.com are two places you can go for all the ad info.

10 Year Watch:

Is Google 9 or 10? – Search Engine Land

Of Note:
Spiderweb Bike – ZDNet
Have Burt Reynolds get you a Dell through Spam – MediaPost
4000 dpi mouse? – Extreme Tech
Worlds Tiniest Projector – Engadget
Fireproof and Waterproof Hard Drive – Democrat and Chronicle
MySky – abcnews
Leopard Tweaks – Usingmac.com
See Your Website Through Different Browsers – Browsershots.org
Procrastination Flow Chart – Projectsidewalk