Beware: Never Download “Codecs” or “Players” To Watch Videos Online

If a website asks you to download a “codec,” “player,” or “browser update” to play a video, run the other way. You don’t actually need to download this sort of thing — the website is trying to infect your computer with malware.

Whether you’re browsing social media or clicking through some sort of low-quality video-streaming website, you should never download any sort of “codec pack,” “player,” or “update.” Tell your friends and family!

How Fake Codec Scams Work

You could come across this sort of scam via a link on social media or on a video-streaming website. You won’t find these ads on legitimate sites like Netflix and YouTube, but on lower-quality sites — the kind of sites where you can stream pirated videos, for example. You’ll see some sort of advertisement, pop-up window, or full-page ad trying to get you to download some kind of malware disgused as a codec, video player, or software update.

If you ever see a message like this one, don’t click it. This particular scam is easy to understand — if you download and run the software, your computer will be infected with something nasty. It could be a Trojan or other serious case of malware — or just spyware and adware. Either way, you don’t want that garbage on your system. Never agree to download this junk — better yet, if you see a message like this one, leave the website.

They may masquerade as codecs or updates, but they’re programs. You should be extremely careful about the programs you download and run because they can gain full access to your computer.

You Don’t Need to Download Codecs or Web Players Anymore

It’s not just a matter of avoiding the fake codec scams themselves. Instead, you should be aware that you’ll never need to download a codec anymore to watch videos.

In the past, the video-playing scene was much more fragmented. You had a variety of different video playback plug-ins like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, and RealPlayer. Some sites used Flash or even Java applets for video playback. Some websites used the DivX web player. Microsoft’s Silverlight was a late entry here.

And that was just the in-browser playback part! If you downloaded videos to your computer to watch them locally, you might have to install various different codecs to play them. “Codec packs” existed to combine all the different codecs you’d need into a single pack so you could get them all at once instead of hunting them down individually.

But those bad old days are behind us, and that isn’t the way it works anymore.

The Three Things You Need

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The current situation is better. You don’t need to download various player plug-ins and codecs while browsing the web, whether you’re playing back videos on a web page or playing back video files you download to your computer. Here are the few things you do need:

• Adobe Flash: Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in is still used by many websites for video playback. Always get it from the official site at adobe.com — don’t click strange links on websites if they say you need to download it or install an update. You’ll just need to install this once. if you’re using Chrome, Adobe Flash Player is built-in, so you don’t have to even install it separately.
• A Modern Browser: Modern browsers support HTML5 video playback of H.264 videos and other media content. Modern versions of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera all have this integrated. Just be sure you’re using a modern web browser — noancient versions of Internet Explorer, please. You’ll never need to download a codec to extend your browser’s media playback support — it’s all integrated into the browser itself.
• VLC for Playing Downloaded Files: VLC media player is a single piece of software that can handle nearly any type of video or audio file you throw at it. Always download it from the official site at videolan.org — not via third-party sites that bundle it with junkware. Use it to play back media files you download. You’ll never need to download codecs separately again.

Be sure you always get Flash, your browser, VLC, or any other software from the official site. Many malicious sites also display “you need to update Java” or “you need to update Flash” scams. If you click their download links, they’ll download garbage software onto your computer.

But What About Everything Else?

Other browser playback plug-ins are vanishing. RealPlayer, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, Java applets, and the DivX Web Player have vanished from modern websites. Silverlight is vanishing, too — Netflix just dropped the Silverlight requirement and now uses HTML5 video. At the moment, you’ll only need Silverlight installed if you want to watch Netflix in Firefox — Firefox is working on adding the required “encrypted media extensions” (DRM) code to the browser so it can work. Adobe Flash is still widespread, and more and more sites are supporting HTML5. One day Flash will go the way of the dodo, too.

If you’re downloading media files, VLC can play everything you want. You can still hunt down individual codecs and codec packs, but we don’t recommend it at all. Due to the increased standardization of media formats, you may not even need to install VLC. Even Microsoft’s neglected Windows Media Player can play back .mp4 files, which is now the most common format.

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You’ll usually only stumble across these scammy ads on low-quality video-streaming sites. But you may find yourself on such a site after clicking a link on social media or elsewhere — don’t fall for it.

Five apps to help you organize your personal finances (TechRepublic)

Manage income and expenses, pay bills, estimate your taxes, and crunch your mortgage costs, all with the help of these handy apps. 

Mobile devices have made managing personal finances a lot easier. Not only has mobile banking become prevalent, but there are also countless apps that can help you to manage your finances. This article examines five such apps.

Note: This article is also available as an image gallery and a video hosted by TechRepublic columnist Tom Merritt.

1: Toshl Finance

Toshl Finance (Figure A) is a fairly simple app that can help you manage your income and expenses and track your spending over time. The app reports on income vs. expenses for various timeframes: yesterday, last month, etc.

Figure A

A couple of things about this app are really helpful. For starters, you can configure it to remind you to enter your data for the day. For instance, you might choose to be reminded every night at 7:00. Another nice feature is automatic currency conversion based on the latest exchange rates --very handy for those who travel.

Toshl Finance is available for iOS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Phone.

2: Money Lover

Money Lover (Figure B) is similar to Toshl Finance, but has a few key differences. Unlike Toshl Finance, Money Lover doesn't provide reminders or currency conversion. Even so, I actually like Money Lover a little bit better for two reasons.

Figure B

First, Money Lover has an option to be cloud enabled, making it possible to access your data on multiple devices. Second, Money Lover lets you categorize your income and expenses so that you can easily see where you are making the most money and where you are spending the most money. For example, you can categorize an expense as food, entertainment, or travel.

Money Lover is available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

3: Prism (formerly Mobilligy)

Prism (Figure C) is a free bill-paying app for your mobile device. Even though most banks seem to offer online bill pay, there is something to be said for having a dedicated app. For one thing, the app is specifically formatted for mobile devices. My bank's bill pay feature is nearly unusable on a mobile device because of the screen layout. Prism, on the other hand, uses a clean interface that is specifically formatted for mobile device use. I also like the fact that Prism is available on a variety of platforms, thereby ensuring a consistent experience across devices.

Prism is available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Kindle Fire.

4: TaxCaster

Of all of the apps on this list, TaxCaster (Figure D) is probably my favorite. For a lot of people, tax season seems to be a major source of either anticipation (if you are expecting a refund) or anxiety (if you owe money). TaxCaster can help you to better anticipate your refund or tax bill by giving you a ballpark idea of what to expect. This knowledge can be critical for those who are going to owe a large sum of money.

Figure D

The software isn't as comprehensive as a full-blown tax preparation application, but it still does a good job of providing an estimate. The software just asks you a few basic questions and then provides the results. You can also use the software as an easy way of experimenting with various what-if scenarios.

Presently, only the 2013 version of the software is available because the 2014 tax year has not ended yet. Even so, the 2013 software provides an idea of what to expect from the 2014 version.

TaxCaster is available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

5: Bankrate Mortgage App

Lots of mortgage calculators are available on the Internet, but theBankrate Mortgage App (Figure E) is one of the best. There are a couple of really nice things about this app. For starters, most mortgage apps are geared solely toward those who are buying a house (which probably isn't something you do every day). The Bankrate Mortgage App, however, also provides a refinance calculator so that you can tell whether it's in your best interest to refinance your home.

Figure E

The software also retrieves the current mortgage rates and automatically compares rates for various banks. To top things off, the Bankrate Mortgage App provides helpful advice on getting ready for the purchasing or refinancing process.

Bankrate Mortgage App is available for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows Phone.

Florida Chamber of Commerce: Elections 2014

How Does Your Community Rank In Absentee Ballot Returns?

Why wait 19 days to cast your General Election ballot? Voters in communities throughout Florida aren’t wasting time, they have already voted by absentee ballot. In America, our right to vote for leaders and issues we believe in is one of our most important responsibilities. And voting by absentee ballot is one of the easiest and quickest ways to make your voice heard. How are voters in your community performing? The TOP 5 COUNTIES with the highest percentage rate of absentee ballots returned are: 1.      Sumter 2.      Lee 3.      Jefferson 4.      Okechobee 5.      Flagler The BOTTOM 5 COUNTIES include: 1.      Miami-Dade 2.      Hillsborough 3.      Palm Beach 4.      Broward 5.      De Soto Incredibly, it’s estimated that most Florida voters won’t even vote this November. It’s unfortunate because we’ve already had an election in Florida this year that was decided by only two votes. Every vote counts. And now is time to encourage your members, and their employees, to return their absentee ballots.

Get Involved:

Encourage your members to visit www.FloridaWins.org for non-partisan news and information about the elections, as well as a complete list of candidates on November’s ballot, and encourage your members and their employees to return their absentee ballots.

Do digital locks keep you from using copyrighted works in ways that are otherwise legal? (Public Knowledge)

Do digital locks keep you from using copyrighted works in ways that are otherwise legal? If so, the Copyright Office wants to hear from you! As we’ve explained in the past, an overreaching copyright law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to bypass digital locks that are placed on copyrighted works. Digital locks like these could interfere with lots of everyday activities that don’t infringe copyright, like unlocking your iPad, fixing your car, or conducting cybersecurity research. But every three years, the Library of Congress grants exemptions to the DMCA so that individuals can break digital locks in limited circumstances. That time is right now, and the Copyright Office is asking you to chime in. If the media you use—movies, music, eBooks, video games or other software—use digital locks that keep you from making lawful uses of those works, you should write in to the Copyright Office. It was this same process that eventually led to a cell phone unlocking law this year, which was a major win for consumers. Now you have the chance to highlight other unreasonable digital locks.   Learn more here, and submit your petition to the Copyright Office by November 3rd.

Five apps to tame your business card chaos (TechRepublic)

By Jack Wallen in Five Apps, October 8, 2014

Buried in business cards? Here are five apps that can help you capture, organize, and access the information you need. 

Ah, the business card. That tiny fragment of paper that is your palm-size resume, ready to reach out and give people your pertinents -- snapshot details that explain who you are, what you do, and how to contact you. In return, you get them by the handfuls. The problem is, the modern world really isn't made for paper business cards. So what do you do every time someone hands you a business card? If it's someone you want to keep in touch with, you scan it into your mobile device and save it in your contacts.

But how do you get the information from the business card into your device without having to manually enter it? You use a business card reader app -- of which there are plenty. I'll highlight some of my favorite such applications, all of them free, so you can begin the process of converting that mountain of business cards into a more useful digital format.

1: CamCard Free

CamCard Free (Figure A) is one of the best-of-breed business card readers for the Android platform. CamCard Free uses your device camera to scan the information on the card and convert it to digital format. You can also sign up for an account on theCamCard website, which allows you to sync all your scanned information across all devices.

Figure A

CamCard Free allows you to save the imported contact information to pretty much any contact listing you have on your phone (phone contacts, Google contacts, etc.). The free version of the app does have restrictions: If you're registered on the site, you can add 100 cards for free and 10 cards per week (after first launch). If you don't register with CamCard, you can add 50 cards for free and two cards per week (after first launch). This app is available for both Android and IOS.

2: CardToContact

CardToContact (Figure B) isn't as accurate as CamCard, but it offers a few more features on the free level (such as the ability to place phone calls or send emails from within the app, add labels and notes to cards, and do a full text search of all cards).

Figure B

CardToContact also has a powerful filtering system. If you have an overwhelming number of cards scanned into the app, you can filter by data, name, and company (both ascending and descending) or list by label and search by criteria. When you tap on a card, you can edit it, share it, add it to a different account, or delete it. CardToContact is free; there is no paid version of the app.

3: FullContact Card Reader

FullContact Card Reader (Figure C) requires you to sign in with either Salesforce or FullContact. This app is a bit pickier about how you take the photo. You need to have the card fill the rectangle presented in the photo-taking screen -- otherwise the photo will not take.

Figure C

With FullContact Card Reader, you snap the photo, add notes, and then submit it for transcription. The transcription can take up to about 20 minutes. As a card is being transcribed, you can snap photos of new cards and submit them. FullContact Card Reader allows you to scan cards into more than 250 applications (such as BaseCRM, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MailChimp). With this type of integration, FullContact Card Reader makes a great app for the business sector. FullContact is free for a limited time. It's available for Android and IOS.

4: ScanBizCards Lite

ScanBizCards Lite (Figure D), recently purchased by CircleBack, is another entry that allows you to sync your scanned cards (with SalesForce and SugarCRM). You do have to sign in toScanBizCards; but by doing so, your cards will be backed up and accessible from either your device or any web browser. The one really big pain with ScanBizCards is that you can't lay the business card on a table and take the picture (like every other app). Instead, the card has to be propped up and the edge of the phone upright (you'll see an indicator saying "This Side Up!") You can't take the photo in any other orientation. This will be a deal breaker for some. But if you can get beyond this, the app is pretty good at recognition and offers plenty of features that should please nearly any user.

Figure D

ScanBizCards Lite limits you to adding two contacts per week, limits exporting to a CRM to five, removes clipboard scanning, and allows you to create only one folder. ScanBizCards Lite is available for Android and IOS.

5: Business Card Reader

Business Card Reader (Figure E) is less like an optical character recognition (OCR) tool and more like an image gallery. Even though it has a rough time importing text from cards, it does a great job of displaying your cards in an easy-to-read cover-flow fashion (which allows you to scroll through your cards).

Figure E

The text recognition is pretty bad with this app, so don't expect to import information from the scans. But if you use it as a sort of digital Rolodex that doesn't require you to enter in any information, you'll enjoy the simplicity of this app. (Of course, you could always create a new folder in the Android Gallery and save photos of business cards into that.) Business Card Reader does offer a nice UI, but it's available only for Android.

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com. He’s an avid promoter of open source and the voice of The Android Expert.

Windows 10: You've got questions, I've got answers (ZDNet)

Summary: There's more to Windows 10 than just the revamped Start menu. I've been fielding questions from readers about the new release. Why is it called Windows 10? Does it really contain a keylogger? And what happened to Internet Explorer?
By Ed Bott for The Ed Bott Report |

Last week, Microsoft officially unveiled a preview version of the next Windows release, due in mid-2015.

Since then, I've been fielding questions from readers about the new release and how to deal with it. Here are some answers to those questions.

Read this

Windows 10: Microsoft's last big splash OS, but will a drip, drip of updates suit firms better?

• Read more

Why is it called Windows 10 instead of Windows 9?

Might as well get this question out of the way early.

Microsoft’s official responses to this question have been almost comically vague. It’s reminiscent of the decision to abandon the Metro name, which was also never explained in a satisfactory way.

So we’re left to speculate, and my best guess is that choosing the number 9 would imply that Windows 10 is just around the corner, followed by 11, 12, and so on. That's a recipe for delay, as customers play a "watch and wait" game.

It’s likely that this really is the last big release of Windows, with future updates coming in incremental form. As a brand name to stick with for the long term, Windows 10 is numerologically satisfying.

Or, alternatively, there’s the “dad humor” explanation: Seven ate nine.

Where’s the Enterprise edition?

The Technical Preview version available to the public via the Windows Insider program contains the same features as Windows 8.1 Professional and can be used as an upgrade for that edition. If you want the Windows 10 Technical Preview for Enterprise, go to this download page and register. You'll find a FAQ for IT Pros here.

The Enterprise edition is also available to anyone with a current MSDN subscription.

The MSDN Subscriptions download page is also where you'll find checked and debug versions for use by developers. 

Why does the Windows 10 download include a product key?

The Windows 10 Technical Preview shouldn’t require activation, but it is a preview release, so not everything goes as planned. In my testing, upgrading an installation of Windows 8.1 Enterprise resulted in this prompt:

The solution was to look in the MSDN download area, where a product key is included in the product description (not in the product key field), with the text revealing that it's “for mitigation purposes.” If you’ve installed the Technical Preview from the Windows Insider site, go back to the ISO download page to see the product key.

Enter the new product key on the activation screen and you should be back in business.

Does Windows 10 really include a keylogger?

Here we go again.

With Windows 10, Microsoft has adopted a rapid-update development cycle. Maybe that faster pace is affecting the tech press too, because it took less than a week for the first Windows 10-driven conspiracy theory to burst onto the scene.

It started with a Friday-afternoon article in The Inquirer, a tech tabloid known for its breathless headlines and factually challenged prose. In true Inky fashion, the headline declared that Windows 10 "has permission to watch your every move," adding, ominously: "Its 'privacy' policy includes permission to use a keylogger."

From a legalistic point of view, this headline is cleverly constructed. It doesn’t actually say that Windows 10 contains surveillance software that monitors your keystrokes and sends a log of those keystrokes to Redmond. In fact, the implication that there is an actual keylogger embedded in the Windows 10 code is contradicted by this key graf, buried near the end of the story:

In other words, in effect, you are giving permission for Microsoft to screen your files, and in effect keylog your keyboard input. [emphasis added]

“In effect.” Not in actuality. And in fact there’s little evidence that the author has enough background in computer science or security to tell a keylogger from a key lime pie.

More Windows 10

• Gallery: A closer look
• Windows 10 may be the last piece of Microsoft's cloud puzzle
• Key enterprise features yet to appear
• Windows 10 is 'Windows for the masses'
• I came to love Surface Pro so why does Windows 10 feel like duct taping my fingers together?
• Microsoft's last big splash OS, but will a drip, drip of updates suit firms better?

But the story was picked up by a few other sources and fits neatly into conspiracy theories, so here’s a bucket of cold water to pour on the rumors.

The Windows 10 Technical Preview is an instrumented version. It collects information about your use of the product, including some text and voice input, and returns some of that data to Microsoft for use in tuning performance and improving voice recognition and spell-checking.

That’s a far cry from a keylogger, which is a surveillance tool that indiscriminately collects every keystroke on a PC and transmits it (usually surreptitiously) to a remote location.

The data collected by the Windows 10 telemetry tools is limited, but the process of collecting this information can result in inadvertent information disclosure. This isn’t a new problem: enterprise customers have to be careful to configure Windows Error Reporting properly when setting up released versions of Windows on production machines.

If you’re concerned that files you’re working with contain confidential information, you probably shouldn’t be using Windows 10 to open them.

For the record, Microsoft’s response to these allegations is as follows:

With Windows 10, we’re kicking off the largest ever open collaborative development effort that will change the way we build and deliver Windows. Users who join the Windows Insider Program and opt-in to the Windows 10 Technical Preview are choosing to provide data and feedback that will help shape the best Windows experience for our customers. As always, we remain committed to helping protect our customers’ personal information and ensuring safeguards are in place for the collection and storing of that data. As we get closer to a final product, we will continue to share information through our terms of service and privacy statement about how customer data is collected and used, as well as what choices and controls are available.

What happened to the touch-first, plugin-free Internet Explorer?

In the Windows 10 Technical Preview, there’s only one Internet Explorer. The alternate. Metro-style Internet Explorer version is missing in action.

That code is still buried in the Technical Preview, and if you’re comfortable with PowerShell you candownload a script that re-enables it. That’s a stopgap, though, and definitely not a supported scenario.

It’s likely that there will be significant changes to Internet Explorer in later updates to these preview builds. Patience is probably the best strategy.

What are the keyboard shortcuts for working with Windows 10 virtual desktops?

Try these:

• Create a new desktop: Windows key + Ctrl + D
• Switch to previous desktop: Windows key + Ctrl + Left arrow
• Switch to next desktop: Windows key + Ctrl + Right arrow

For this release, there's no way to save virtual desktop configurations.

What's still missing from Windows 10?

This is a very early release of Windows 10, and many of what should be its eventual signature features are still not enabled. In particular, you can expect Cortana to make an appearance at some point in the future, allowing voice interaction just as with Windows Phone. A notification center, also similar in appearance to Windows Phone, is also likely in future builds.

The most intriguing new feature, though, is one called Next Generation Credentials, which appears in the list of available local services but does not yet have a matching user interface.

The obvious application for this feature is in enterprise configurations, but it’s likely to appear in consumer devices as well. Stay tuned.

More questions? Ask away in the Talkback section, or use the comment form to send me a note.

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.

Scarier Than Ebola: Human Error (BusinessWeek)

By John Tozzi  October 03, 2014

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on Sept. 30

The Dallas hospital treating the first Ebola case diagnosed in the U.S. sent the patient, Thomas Duncan, home the first time he showed up because the doctors who saw him never learned that he’d just come from West Africa. The hospital has blamed a flaw in its electronic health records for keeping information collected by a nurse, including Duncan’s travel history, from being presented to the treating physician, who mistook Duncan’s symptoms for a low-level infection, on Sept. 25. (Update: The hospital has since changed its explanation.)

The apparent mistake meant Duncan was not admitted and isolated until Sept. 28. That increased the risk of infection for those he came in contact with while he was sick, including his family, who are now quarantined in their Dallas apartment. It also widened the circle of contacts that public health officials must trace and monitor for symptoms.

America’s risk of an Ebola epidemic remains vanishingly small. The country has the public health resources and hospital capacity to stop the spread of the infection, which is only transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids after a patient exhibits symptoms. The misstep at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, though, indicates something patients should be spooked about: the very real chance that errors, oversights, or deviations from established procedures could kill them.

STORY: Ebola Comes to the U.S.—and the CDC Is Ready for It

It’s hard to say precisely how often this happens. A 2013 review of studies in theJournal of Patient Safety suggested medical errors cause somewhere between 210,000 and 400,000 deaths each year in the U.S. In a landmark report (PDF) 15 years ago, the Institute of Medicine put the number between 44,000 and 98,000. Even the lower estimate would mean medical errors kill more Americans than car accidents do. The moment when one clinician turns over care of a patient to another is particularly hazardous, says Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon who has written on hospital safety. “The most dangerous procedure in American emergency rooms is a patient handoff,” Makary says. Breakdowns in communication during patient handoffs “are endemic in American health care,” he says.

Electronic health records have sometimes been hailed as a tool to help standardize care. Many doctors complain that they’re a distraction, collecting too much information without prioritizing the most important facts. In this case, the design of the software apparently stopped doctors from seeing crucial information that might have made a difference in their initial diagnosis. According to Texas Health Dallas, nurses and the doctor who initially saw Duncan followed proper procedures when he arrived with a fever, abdominal pain, and a headache.

The intake nurse took a travel history, along with an array of other information, and recorded in an electronic medical record that he had been in Africa within the past four weeks. That important fact never made it to the doctor who saw Duncan, though, because the software has separate workflows for nurses and doctors. “As designed, the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow,” according to an e-mailed statement from Texas Health Dallas. That’s now been corrected. Travel history, including specific references to regions with Ebola outbreaks, has been made more visible “to alert all providers,” the hospital says.

BLOG: Fighting Ebola: The American Argument Against an African Travel Ban

It’s impossible to say whether the same mistake would have happened had the hospital been using paper charts. “Even in traditional paper and verbal communication, the lack of a headline is one of the greatest problems in relaying information that results in patient harm,” Makary says.

Texas Health, to its credit, released details of what went wrong “in the interest of transparency, and because we want other U.S. hospitals and providers to learn from our experience.” Let’s hope they do.

VIDEO: Dallas Hospital First Released Ebola Man With Antibiotic

Tozzi is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek in New York.