Handy Backup Server Contest – The Winner is…

I’m happy to announce the winner of the free $599 U.S. license, for Handy Backup Server enterprise network edition, a superior enterprise grade backup application.

Congratulations to the winner: Aaron G. Sword

Aaron has received notification directly. Thank you, to all those who participated.

Just a reminder – we are currently running a contest for 10 free licenses for PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus. Click on the link, and get your entry in for this terrific anti-malware application.

If you are not a winner, you can of course, download a a fully functional 30 day trial, of Handy Backup Server enterprise network edition.

Why Handy Backup Server enterprise network edition, is the right application for those tough backup jobs.

Operating a small/medium sized business has always been a tough job. But, the unstable economy that we are all forced to content with, has made a tough job, even tougher.

The bottom line, always a major consideration, now looms ever larger in the background. But investing in the right technologies can deliver operational, and productivity efficiencies, that can flow straight to the bottom line.

Backup solutions, for example, don’t have to be a cost center. A strong and aggressive backup strategy, effectively implemented, can have a measureable effect on the bottom line by impacting positively on system administrator productivity.

Choosing the right backup solution and service provider then, has taken on a new importance. One in which cost savings can be realized through system administration productivity growth.

Handy Backup Server, from Novosoft, is a complete server-based network backup solution for small business enterprises. This application is designed to allow the user to back up and recover data stored on both central servers and remote computers, on a client-server scheme, and has multiple server-specific functions.

Workstation backup tasks can run as a service under Windows 2008/2003 Server, or Vista/XP/2000 seamlessly, and will not interfere  with employees’ work.

Handy Backup Server allows the enterprise to backup not only individual files and folders, but in addition, creates drive images – backups of the operating system and all applications.

All workstation backup tasks are fully automated, and run with low system priority – making it easy to perform backup tasks during operational hours.

A  Comprehensive user interface provides easy, step-by-step, adjustment of network backup – including compression, encryption and flexible task scheduling options. E-mail notifications, command line interface, and log file generation, makes the system administrator’s  task management easy and efficient.

As well as file, folder and HDD imaging, this application features plug-ins for backing up MS Exchange, MS SQL, DB2 databases and Lotus Notes/Domino data, stored on the central server. Additionally, the user can back up Oracle database and ODBC-compatible databases, which can be located on both a local server, and remote workstations.

Data transferred to the central server can be stored on the widest range of backup media: the user can backup to FTP, SFTP, Network, FireWire and USB hard/flash drives, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, HD DVD and much more. Detailed online help is available.

Centralized workstation backup and fast system recovery ability, distinguish Handy Backup Server from other network backup software. Handy Backup Server carries the “Certified for Windows Vista” and “Works with Windows Server 2008″ logos and is acknowledged as one of the best tools for backup and recovery of the entire office network, or local server.

Fast facts:

Image backup – snapshot of entire hard drive contents including all programs and data files

Hot database backup through ODBC protocol

Backup of Lotus Notes/Domino databases

MS Exchange Server Backup

Client-server network backup – centralized workstation backup managed by one enterprise backup server

Backup of email directly from the server

Support for backup to CD-R/CD-RW, backup to DVD/Blu-ray/HD DVD media; remote FTP backup, secure SFTP backup; local and network drives; ZIP, JAZ, MO; flash drives; HDD and floppy disks, USB drive

Registry Backup

Data Restore

ICQ Backup plug-in

128-bit encryption support

E-mail notification on operation results

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista

You can download a full-featured 30-day trial by clicking on the following link:

Download Handy Backup 30 day trial

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My Cyber – Criminal Resolutions for 2010

I’ve said here, many times, that cybercriminals are some of the craftiest people on the planet.  Cyber-criminals are experts at recognizing opportunity, and we know  cyber-criminals use every conceivable opportunity to spread malware.

The bad guys are strategic in their thinking; they plan ahead – and realize that the timing and implementation of tactics, based on their strategy, is critical to achieving maximum “market” penetration.

Symantec Hosted Services’, MessageLabs Intelligence, puts an interesting twist on what we can expect from the bad guys in the coming year, and asks the question:

If you were a cybercriminal, what would be your resolution for the New Year?

1. Control the strongest botnet – Botnets ruled the cyber security landscape in 2009, with the 10 major heavyweight spam-sending botnets, including Cutwail, Rustock and Mega-D, now controlling at least 5 million compromised computers. With these compromised computers issuing over 83 percent of the 107 billion spam messages distributed globally, we can expect botnets to get bigger, stronger and more intelligent in the year ahead.

2. Crack the CAPTCHA –  CAPTCHA breaking tools have allowed cybercriminals access to an unprecedented number of webmail, IM and social networking websites. With a new crop of more sophisticated CAPTCHAs on the horizon – some involving images and animation – it will be increasingly difficult for the bad guys to solve these puzzles with an automatic computer program.

3. Brush up on my pop culture – World events, news, and holidays always spark a bad guy’s imagination. In 2009, spammers and malware writers jumped on the news of the H1N1 virus and the death of Michael Jackson. Expect to see more celebrity names in you junk folder next year!

4. Discover the next big social network – The popularity of social networking and micro-blogging sites have led spammers to use short URLs in their spam emails. In 2009, over 90 percent of spam contained a URL and there was an upsurge of short URLs in the 2^nd half of the year. Short URLs hide the true website behind the link, yet are trusted by millions of people who use them to share photos and news online. New social technologies will lead to even more creativity on behalf of the bad guys.

5. Learn a foreign language — Automated translation services allow cyber-criminals to target their attacks in local languages. While spam over 95 percent of spam is in English, the last year has seen significant increases in spam in countries where English was not the primary language. After English, the most common languages for spam (in order) are French, Portuguese, Russian and German. Spam levels in Germany and The Netherlands increased by 13% since the beginning of the year, with spam now accounting for in excess of 95% of all emails.

If you’re interested in additional information on the state of online security, you can also access the MessageLabs Intelligence 2009 Annual Security Report.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – December 18, 2009

McDonald’s to offer free, unlimited Wi-Fi - McDonald’s restaurants may soon be the easiest spot to find free Wi-Fi and browse the Web as long as you like. The restaurant chain is lifting a $2.95 fee for two hours of wireless Internet access starting in mid-January, according to the Wall Street Journal and other reports.

Lifehacker: Most Popular Featured Desktops of 2009 – Our readers have submitted thousands of screenshots of their best desktop configurations, and over the year we’ve featured some truly impressive and unique desktops with you. Here’s a look back at some of the best this year had to offer.

Twitter Hacked – Twitter, one of the Internet’s most popular social networking sites, has been hacked and defaced by a group claiming to be an “Iranian Cyber Army” as of 10:15PM PST today. At this point no statement has been made by Twitter, so it’s unclear as to what vulnerability was used to exploit the site. Oftentimes hacktivism campaigns are fueled by ego-driven script kiddies who use publicly available exploits, but for now we’ll have to wait and see if Twitter decides to publicly announce the details surrounding the attack.

Visa online statement scam warning – Security experts are warning surfers not to be taken in by a scam that claims to be an online statement from credit card issuer Visa. The webpage appears to be on a .co.uk site but is actually hosted in India.

This Week’s Top 10 Spyware Threats – Stay on top of all the real-time threats.

Google launches URL-shortening service – Google has announced a service that will shorten long URLs into manageable links for use in tweets and emails.

How to Buy a Cell Phone – With hundreds of handsets to choose from, it can be tough to find the right one. Here’s what you need to know to dial up the perfect phone.

The Top 100 Free Apps For Your Phone – Get the best free apps for your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or almost any other phone with our hand-picked list.

Privacy groups file complaint with FTC over Facebook settings – A bevy of privacy groups, spearheaded by the Electronic Privacy Information Center EPIC, have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook’s latest privacy settings.

Off Topic:

Take a flight around Google Earth - Martin. uncovers an Easter egg in Google Earth, version 4.2 or later, that allows you to use the keyboard — or even a joystick — for flight simulation. Don’t get caught using this at work!

How to destroy the Earth: Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe – You’ve seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You’ve heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world. (submitted by Dar)

Geotagging photos the Google way – Sticking longitude and latitude information into the metadata of your digital photos and mapping them is a fun way to sort and organize. Google’s free Picasa and Earth software make it a breeze to do, too.

Evolution of English plumbing - YouTube (submitted by Dar)

What if you are wrong on climate science? – There is money to be made. But there is a possibility that climate scientists are wrong, and that the skeptics are right. What then?

Best Gift ever – ResQme Keychain Rescue Tool: – Sinking and thinking quickly – how to successfully escape from a submerged vehicle. (submitted by Dar)

Today’s Quote:

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

-     George Bernard Shaw

Today’s Free Downloads:

Googsystray Notifies You of New Activity Across Google Services in One System Tray App – Google has so many different services these days that installing a notification app for each one gets cumbersome quickly. Free system tray utility Googsystray watches Gmail, Google Voice, Calendar, Reader, and Wave so you can set it and forget it.

Paint.NET – When I need drawing tools and other advanced capabilities, nothing beats Paint.NET. Don’t let the Web-oriented name fool you: This is a powerful image-editing program, one stuffed with Photoshop-quality features like layers, special effects, and plug-ins. The just-released 3.5 version an updated user interface, new effects, improved startup performance, and a long list of tweaks and fixes.

Free Christmas Day Screensaver – Enjoy a Christmas slide show on your PC.

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Straight From PandaLabs – Malware to Watch for in 2010

Button up your overcoat and get your rain gear ready; it’s going to get stormy! PandaLabs has released its 2010 forecast of computer threat trends for 2010.

Cybercriminals are increasingly more knowledgeable, quicker to respond to opportunities, and more relentless than ever in their attempts to separate surfers from their money.

Being aware of Internet threats is critical to your security on the Internet, so that you can protect yourself and stay ahead of the curve. Knowledge truly is a critical necessity to ensure your personal safety on the Internet.

The following PandaLabs forecast can help you get ready for the malware threats expected in 2010.

Courtesy of Panda – PandaLabs Forecast: 2010 Computer Threat Trends

• Fake antivirus, bots and banker Trojans will continue to increase
• Cyber-criminals will keep fine-tuning their social engineering skills to trick victims
• More malware will be created for Windows 7 and Mac operating systems
• The term ‘cyber war’ will become more familiar as politically-motivated attacks across the Internet increase

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, has released its forecast of computer threat trends for 2010. PandaLabs predicts that in 2010, the amount of malware in circulation will continue to grow exponentially as it has in 2009.

As anti-malware technologies are able to respond closer to real-time through cloud-based innovations such as Panda’s Collective Intelligence, malware creators will respond by generating even more diverse threats to evade detection and elimination.

Once again malware will be designed almost exclusively for financial gain, and we can expect to see many new fake antivirus (rogueware), bots and banker Trojans.

Social Engineering Continues to Rise
Cyber-criminals will again be focusing on social engineering techniques to infect computers, particularly those targeting search engines (BlackHat SEO) and social networks, along with ‘drive-by-download’ infections from Web pages.

As the football World Cup takes place in South Africa, we can also expect to see significant amounts of malware related to this event: false ticket offers, junk mail, etc.  It is always a good idea to be suspicious any messages related with current affairs and large events such as this.

In the case of social networks, there have already been many examples of worms and Trojans targeting Twitter and Facebook. Malware creators will continue to be drawn to these types of platforms that are used by millions of people.

Watch Out Windows 7
Windows 7 will have a major impact on malware development: where Windows Vista hardly caused a ripple, Windows 7 will make waves. One of the main reasons is the widespread market acceptance of this new operating system, and since practically every new computer comes loaded with Windows 7 64-bit, criminals will be busy adapting malware to the new environment. It may take time, but we expect to see a major shift towards this platform over the next two years.

Mobile Phone Attacks – Not Yet!
Several security companies have been warning for some time that malware is soon to affect cell phones in much the same way as it affects PCs. Well, we hate to rain on their parade, but 2010 will not be the year of malware for cell phones.

The PC is a homogenous platform, with 90 percent of the world’s computers running Windows on Intel, meaning that any new Trojan, or worm has a potential victim pool of 90 percent of the world’s computers. The mobile phone environment is much more heterogeneous, with numerous vendors using different hardware and different operating systems.

Applications continue to be incompatible from one operating system to another. Therefore it is unlikely that 2010 will see widespread targeting of cell phones by malware. In any event, this year will witness many changes in the world of mobile telephony with more smartphones offering practically the same features as a PC; the emergence of Google Phone – the first phone sold directly by Google without tying users to specific operators; the increasing popularity of Android, and of course the iPhone. If in the next couple of years there are only two or three popular platforms, and if people make significantly more financial transactions from their phones, then the potential breeding ground for cyber-crime will be significant enough to be concerned.

Mac Becoming Increasingly Attractive to Cyber-Criminals
Mac’s market share has increased in recent years. Although the number of users has yet to reach the critical mass required to make it as profitable as PCs for cyber-criminals, it is nevertheless becoming more attractive.

Mac is used just as PCs are to access social networks, email, and the Internet: the main malware distribution systems used by cyber-criminals. Consequently, Mac is no longer a safe haven against malware.

These criminals can easily distinguish whether a system is Mac, and they are creating malware designed especially to target this OS. In 2009 we have already seen some attacks, and predict there are more to come in 2010.

Cyber war
Throughout 2009, governments around the world including the United States, the UK and Spain, have expressed concern about the potential for cyber-attacks to affect economies or critical infrastructure. We also saw this year how several Web pages in the United States and South Korea were the subject of attacks, with suspicion –as yet unapproved- pointing at North Korea. In 2010 we can expect to see similar politically-motivated attacks.

Securing the Cloud
Cloud-based services will continue to grow in popularity among consumers and business users alike. As this happens, the security industry must be acutely aware of cybercriminals’ moves to take advantage of this new platform.

Cloud Antivirus Technology on the Rise
2010 will be the year in which all anti-malware companies will innovate to remain competitive as cloud-based security becomes the most effective way to fight today’s malware.

In 2007, Panda Security launched its first product which took advantage of the cloud. Now in 2009, all the company’s products use it and we have launched the first 100 percent cloud-based free antivirus: Panda Cloud Antivirus (www.cloudantivirus.com), and Panda has noticed that the rest of the marketplace is beginning to follow suit.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – December 17, 2009

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones – Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Mozilla Patches 7 Firefox Flaws, Bugs – The Mozilla developers have released version 3.5.6 of their open source Firefox web browser to address a total of seven vulnerabilities, three of them critical.

Sprint Makes Government Tracking of GPS Data Easy – Sprint turned over customers’ GPS whereabouts to law enforcement 8 million times over the last year. But today, very few people seem concerned about the revelation.

Facebook Still a Hotbed of Identity Theft, Study Claims – IT security firm Sophos has announced its latest probe into how easy it is to steal identities via Facebook and found that user negligence is worst in 2009.

Lifehacker: Most Popular Linux Posts of 2009 – A new browser, two new Ubuntu releases, and more than one new netbook OS—2009 was a big year for open-source software. Here are the Linux-related posts that caught our readers’ attention in 2009.

Downloadable Games of 2009 – 2009 just might have been the year that turned the corner on games going disc and cartridge free. Here are the most notable ones on all platforms.

Hackers Using XSS to Insert iFrames in New Attack – In a new twist on a couple of old attack techniques, hackers have begun using cross-site scripting to inject malicious iFrames onto some Web sites, redirecting users to malicious sites designed to install unwanted software.

FTC sues Intel, alleges ‘tactics have stifled innovation,’ eyes GPUs – The Federal Trade Commission is suing Intel, alleging that the chip maker has “waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips.”

Off Topic:

The five worst companies to work for - Is it a coincidence that four out of five of the companies that made Edugree’s list of the worst companies to work for are also, at least in my opinion, the worst companies to do business with? Decide for yourself-here are the companies that made the top five.

Counterfeit credit/debit card fraud: Let’s stop it now – Counterfeit credit/debit card fraud accounts for billions of dollars and experts agree it is the number-one way terrorists fund themselves.

Nearsightedness on the rise in United States; are computers to blame? – Exactly 25 percent of people examined in the 1970s were considered nearsighted, while 42 percent of those examined in the late 1990s and 2000s were. That’s a 66 percent increase.

Vibroacoustic Syndrome:”Killing me loudly with his song” – Long term exposure to excessive levels of High Intensity Low Frequency (HI/LF) sound, such as that produced by highly amplified bass music, airplanes, racing cars, battle field noise, etc. can not only be physically harmful, but can cause complications that can lead to death. (Submitted by Dar)

Today’s Quote:

“When everyone is thinking the same, no one is thinking.”

-    John Wooden

Today’s Free Downloads:

Multifox Makes Using Multiple Accounts Simple – It’s easy to accumulate multiple profiles on various services. If it’s always annoyed you to have to perform browser-acrobatics to use your two Gmail accounts or other services, check out Multifox and never be hassled by multiple logins again.

Ad-Aware Free – Ad-Aware Free has long been one of the most popular spyware killers, and with good reason. It’s simple to use, does an excellent job of detecting and killing spyware, and stays out of your way. The newest version of Ad-Aware Free improves on an already solid product, notably by expanding its protection.

KeePass Password Safe – This program offers a simple way to keep track of all your passwords while keeping them safe. It lets you store all of your passwords in a lightweight, simple-to-use database, and encrypts the database so that only you can access it. You can either lock it with a master password or file key.

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Update FireFox – FireFox 3.5.6 Released – Fixes 11 Security Issues

Firefox 3.5.6 has just been released which addresses 11 documented security issues, as well as a number of stability issue. Since Browser vulnerabilities operate as a prime gateway for malware, immediate updating is strongly recommended.

From Mozilla:

MFSA 2009-67 (Critical) — An integer overflow in the Theora video library. A video’s dimensions were being multiplied together and used in particular memory allocations. When the video dimensions were sufficiently large, the multiplication could overflow a 32-bit integer resulting in too small a memory buffer being allocated for the video. An attacker could use a specially crafted video to write data past the bounds of this buffer, causing a crash and potentially running arbitrary code on a victim’s computer.

MFSA 2009-66 (Critical) — Several bugs in liboggplay which posed potential memory safety issues. The bugs which were fixed could potentially be used by an attacker to crash a victim’s browser and execute arbitrary code on their computer.

MFSA 2009-65 (Critical) — Mozilla developers and community members identified and fixed several stability bugs in the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based products. Some of these crashes  — four documented vulnerabilities — showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code.

MFSA 2009-68 (High Risk) — Mozilla’s NTLM implementation was vulnerable to reflection attacks in which NTLM credentials from one application could be forwarded to another arbitary application via the browser. If an attacker could get a user to visit a web page he controlled he could force NTLM authenticated requests to be forwarded to another application on behalf of the user.

MFSA 2009-70 (Moderate) — A content window which is opened by a chrome window retains a reference to the chrome window via the window.opener property. Using this reference, content in the new window can access functions inside the chrome window, such as eval, and use these functions to run arbitrary JavaScript code with chrome privileges. In a stock Mozilla browser a remote attacker can not cause these application dialogs to appear nor to automatically load the attack code that takes advantage of this flaw in window.opener. There may be add-ons which open potentially hostile web-content in this way, and combined with such an add-on the severity of this flaw could be upgraded to Critical.

MFSA 2009-69 (Moderate) — When a page loaded over an insecure protocol, such as http: or file:, sets its document.location to a https: URL which responds with a 204 status and empty response body, the insecure page will receive SSL indicators near the location bar, but will not have its page content modified in any way. This could lead to a user believing they were on a secure page when in fact they were not.  Separately,  a web page can set document.location to a URL that can’t be displayed properly and then inject content into the resulting blank page. An attacker could use this vulnerability to place a legitimate-looking but invalid URL in the location bar and inject HTML and JavaScript into the body of the page, resulting in a spoofing attack.

MFSA 2009-71 (Low Risk) — The exception messages generated by Mozilla’s GeckoActiveXObject differ based on whether or not the requested COM object’s ProgID is present in the system registry. A malicious site could use this vulnerability to enumerate a list of COM objects installed on a user’s system and create a profile to track the user across browsing sessions.

Download at: Mozilla

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Free Avira AntiVir Personal Protection – Get the Real Deal!

Avira AntiVir Personal is not just another free AV solution. This application may just be the best free application for monitoring interactions with your operating system, to ensure that if a malicious program is detected it will be stopped dead in its tracks! It’s certainly the most popular in its class, and with good reason.

Avira AntiVir Personal offers effective, on demand scans for viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers and other malicious programs. It’s simple interface provides easy access to a command structure, that makes it easy to repair, delete, block, rename and quarantine programs, or files.

I’ve been testing Avira in one release or another for years, and I continue to be impressed with its performance. I have come to rely on it as my primary anti-virus application on my test platforms.

If you’re a typical, or an average user, you should find that Avira AntiVir Personal will meet, and even exceed, all of your requirements.

As an indication of this programs popularity, Download.com reports almost 70 MILLION downloads, making it the leading antivirus software, offered for download on this site.

Fast facts:

Highly Configurable

Protection from viruses, worms and Trojans

Protection against expensive dialers

Protection from hidden rootkits

Protection from phishing

Extensive malware Recognition

Monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system

Reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected.

Automatic updates of antivirus signatures, engine and software – I have to admit, I love this feature

Now in Version 9.0.0.415

Quick Summary:

Easy to download, easy to install, easy to configure, easy to use, and very effective.

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Win 7, UNIX

Download at: Download.com

Note: Free for home-users only.

If you need more convincing, watch the CNET video review of Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus ( 2:17 mins.)

If you find the nag screen annoying, take a look at “Disable Avira Notifier”, on this site.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – December 16, 2009

10 cool things you can do with TweakUI – The handy TweakUI PowerToy can help you overcome a variety of Windows XP annoyances and limitations and lets you create an environment that suits your working style.

Tips for Searching Google Maps – The Google Maps team has put together 31 tips for better using the popular mapping software. Here is a look at these useful (and some little-known) hints to navigating with the popular mapping software.

Lifehacker: Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2009 – Nothing beats finding just the right application to fill a common need, fix a problem, or boost your productivity. Give yourself an early present this holiday season with 15 of the most popular Mac downloads of 2009.

Facebook and Google: Contrasts in Privacy – Facebook and Google have both been faced with privacy concerns, and the responses have been polar opposite from the two entities.

Zero-Day Malware Drops Payloads Signed with a Forged Microsoft Certificate – Security Websites are buzzing with news that a new zero-day exploit against Adobe Reader and Acrobat is circulating today, causing computers to become infected with malware simply by visiting certain Web pages. While the exploit itself is worthy of note, nobody is talking about the payload it downloads: It installs a trio of files dressed up to look like Windows system files which have been digitally signed with a security certificate supposedly issued by Microsoft.

Use Word to type on a printed form without a typewriter – What do you do when someone hands you an application to fill out or when you need to fill out a printed tax form? If you don’t have a typewriter, you probably fill in the form manually, hoping that the recipient can read your handwriting. Fortunately, you can use Word to “type it in” instead. Follow these steps:

Hackers Brew Self-Destruct Code to Counter Police Forensics – Hackers have released an application designed to thwart a Microsoft-packaged forensic toolkit used by law enforcement agencies to examine a suspect’s hard drive during a raid.

Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks. Disable JavaScript now - Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day (unpatched) vulnerability in Adobe’s ever-present PDF Reader/Acrobat software to hijack data from compromised computers. According to an advisory from Adobe, the critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions. It is being exploited in the wild.

Off Topic:

GM Offering In-Vehicle Hotspot on Select Models – Got a carpool of people who would rather get work done on spreadsheets than talk? Good news for those 1 to 4 passengers with you because GM will officially offer in-vehicle Wi-Fi on select Chevrolet vehicles.

For Your Convenience: “Man”-ly Movies Flow Chart – By our count, there have been at least eight different “Man”-ly movies this year, and at least one more high profile one coming in 2010. How can anyone be expected to tell any of the “men” apart, especially when so many of them wear the glossy sheen of Oscar bait? They can’t, which is why we threw together this diagram to clear up any confusion and help you pick the right “Man” to suit your movie needs. (Submitted by Dar)

Computer Enhancers – Dozens of improvements to, totally meaningless, or humorous (intentional and otherwise), computer messages. (Submitted by Dar)

Ameriquest’s 5 ‘Don’t judge quickly’ Commercials – Hillarious and Cute YouTube videos. (Submitted by Dar)

Today’s Quote:

“One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change.”

-     David Barsamian

Today’s Free Downloads:

Memory Fox 1.04 – Memory Fox keeps an eye on your browser’s memory usage and notices when Firefox starts edging toward user-preset resource limits. When it does, the extension springs into action, automatically flushing your memory to recover space and keep your browser from slowing down.

We Wish You a Mellow Christmas – Feeling stressed during the holiday season? Worn out from all that shopping and gift-wrapping? Take a few minutes to play one of these Christmassy games, or relax with a soothing screensaver. We’ve also got a free Christmas countdown clock, just in case you need reminding.

EASEUS Todo Backup – Although Easeus Todo Backup isn’t the best imaging/backup program out there, it has by far the best price–free. Easeus Todo Backup won’t schedule, overwrite previous jobs, or do incremental backups. But for anyone willing to back up and cull backups manually, this program has a lot to recommend it.

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Google’s CEO’s Privacy Statement – A Freudian Slip?

In a recent interview with CNBC, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, made the following assertion on Internet privacy: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place…………………….” A statement, in my view, that is essentially the equivalent of moralistic claptrap.

Moreover, it’s a statement which translates easily into that foolishly held belief, “If you’ve done nothing wrong – you have nothing to worry about.” The truth is, the realities of the world we now live in continue to emphasize; despite the fact you have done nothing wrong – you have everything to worry about.

Consider this:

Disk wipe utilities, disk cleaning utilities, and file shredding utilities, are among the most popular free downloads on the Internet.

Most web Browsers offer a private browsing mode.

Encryption software is often advertised as a way to protect private, personal, or sensitive files.

Anonymizer applications, such as Hotspot Shield, are advertised as a way to protect a user’s online identity.

While there are multiple uses for the software applications, or application options, described above, a primary use of such software is to ensure a certain level of privacy. Of course, if you’ve done nothing wrong you don’t need to use these applications, right?

You have your own reasons for seeking out privacy of course, in both your private and your online life, and I wouldn’t begin to presume to query, or to comment on those reasons. But, I seriously doubt it’s because you’ve done something “wrong”. Instead, it comes down to a fundamental human need – and the need for privacy is fundamental to who we are.

Noted security guru Bruce Schneier, puts it in a relevant context when he says:

“Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. If we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness.

We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that — either now or in the uncertain future — patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable”.

The Internet is a reasonably true international digital representation of our world. A world with conflicting views on what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s socially acceptable and what’s not, and with varying degrees of both the recognition of, and the need for personal privacy.

For Eric Schmidt to state that he has the answer to this privacy riddle, in a highly complex world, or to assert his moralistic view as to what we should or shouldn’t do, is hardly the perspective one would expect from someone in his position.

He may be a whiz bang when it comes to search engines, but I suggest that he’s a dud when it comes to the psychology of human beings.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – December 15, 2009

Lifehacker: Most Popular Free Windows Downloads of 2009 – We’ve featured hundreds of free Windows applications over the course of 2009 that we hoped might bolster your productivity, workflow, or your PC usefulness in one form or another. Here’s a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of the year.

Restore the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7 - Windows 7 offers many improvements over XP and Vista, but the absence of the Quick Launch toolbar isn’t one of them. Here’s how to get it back.

Gaming in Windows 7 – One of the least-talked about parts of Windows 7–an OS we talked about a lot this year–is how it does as a gaming platform. That’s surprising, considering it actually has a lot to offer on that front. More on Windows 7, gaming and DX 11 in this report.

Visa Targeted (Again) by Zbot Phishers – The gang of malware distributors who are currently flooding the Internet with bogus Facebook “Update Tool,” CDC “H1N1 Flu Vaccination Profile,” and IRS “Tax Statement” emails and Web pages are at it again – this time, targeting Visa with a fake email alert that leads to a page hosting not only a Trojan-Backdoor-Zbot installer, but that performs a drive-by download as well.

Globalizing the Fight against a Hostile Internet – Two leading security vendors are calling for the creation of a cyber police force to combat the rising tide of cross-border attacks. How do you feel about being deputized in this international effort?

Understanding the Windows Pagefile and Why You Shouldn’t Disable It – As a tech writer, I regularly cringe at all the bad tweaking advice out there, and disabling the system pagefile is often a source of contention among geeks. Let’s examine some of the pagefile myths and debunk them once and for all.

Google’s Schmidt Roasted for Privacy Comments – An Internet privacy watchdog has blasted Google chief executive Eric Schmidt for his comments on Internet privacy, saying his remarks suggest Google misunderstands basic lessons about why privacy is important.

Mozilla Endorses Bing Over Google Privacy Issues – A Mozilla official last week pointed Firefox users to the extension that adds Microsoft’s Bing search engine to the list of the browser’s search engines after Google’s CEO downplayed consumers’ privacy concerns.

Off Topic:

Bruce Schneier’s essay on the value of privacy – We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a …….

The Learned Helplessness of Windows: Where are the Pliers? – Manufacturers make the sealed compressor of a refrigerator off limits to tinkerers like me. I respect that – it is probably easier, cheaper, and even more efficient to make it a unit rather than an assembly of replaceable parts. But Windows is a somewhat different story. Microsoft does its level best to make the OS a sealed unit, but I suspect their motive in doing so is to assure the system remains fully proprietary. (Submitted by Dar)

Marketing the 787 Dreamliner – Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Gallery to seduce customers is imbued with nature themes and symbols. It’s all part of marketing 787 luxury to airline customers.

How to Buy a Laptop, Period – Shopping for a laptop, but completely baffled by the myriad options available on the market? We clear through the clutter to guide you to your perfect laptop. Check out our full buying guide.

Man Pleads Guilty to Smuggling 44 Rare Lizards in Underpants – According to the court record, the man had altered his underwear with eight hand-sewn compartments in order to carry 24 geckos and 20 skinks. One more lizard, the luckiest of the bunch perhaps, was later found hidden in the man’s suitcase. By the way, the flight from New Zealand to Europe is approximately 26 hours. (Insert ‘drain the lizard’ joke here.) (Submitted by Dar)

Today’s Quote:

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity”.

-     Christopher Morley

Today’s Free Downloads:

FreePrintable.net – If there’s a young child in your life expecting a letter from Santa Claus, you can lend a hand by downloading and printing one from my site, SantaPrintables.com. And speaking of Christmas printables, this issue of the FreePrintable.net newsletter includes a roundup of the gift tags, coloring pages, stationery, certificates and other fine printables.

Hulu Desktop Integration – Hulu Desktop is an experimental, Hulu Labs-devised app that gives you a remote-controllable interface for the TV-streaming service. Just one problem: You have no way to reach that interface from within Windows Media Center. Enter the free Hulu Desktop Integration download, which adds a Hulu Desktop icon to WMC.

LinkExtend – LinkExtend is a Firefox toolbar that displays a wide variety of information about the Web sites you visit. Whether you’re trying to protect your computer from malicious programs or your children from inappropriate content, LinkExtend can help you stay safe on the Web.

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