Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 14, 2009

Configuration Mania Tweaks Popular about:config Options in Plain English – If you love tweaking every aspect of Firefox with the browser’s very useful about:config feature, but you get frustrated trying to decipher cryptic configuration strings (what’s a 0 or 2 mean for layout.spellcheckDefault?), Firefox extension Configuration Mania is for you.

YouTube to Support High-Res 1080p Videos – Bigger, clearer videos coming to YouTube as Google continues to tinker with monetization strategies.

Google: Firms can get rid of Office in a year – Dave Girouard, president of Google’s enterprise division, says Google Docs will reach a “point of capability” next year that will serve the “vast majority’s needs.”

New MS Tool ‘Ripley’ Clones Browser, Runs Remotely – Scientists at Microsoft Research have unveiled a new way to secure complex Web applications by effectively cloning the user’s browser and running it remotely. Many of the latest Web applications split their executable code between the server and the client. The problem is detecting whether the code running on the user’s home PC has been compromised in some way.

How to Share Your Wi-Fi Connection – Plus, we discuss traffic monitoring and the difference between WRT and DD-WRT.

New Flash Attack Has No Real ‘Fix’ – Researchers show how Adobe Flash can be exploited in browsers when victim visits sites that accept user-generated content.

Five rules for protecting Windows with antivirus software – The best rules of thumb for virus protection on Microsoft Windows are the same as they have been for years. Chad Perrin lists the five rules of thumb for protecting a Windows computer with antivirus software.

OpenSUSE 11.2 Integrates a Slick KDE Desktop – OpenSUSE 11.2, the latest Linux offering from the Novell-backed project, updates the core components of its GNOME desktop and apps. What’s really intriguing, though, is the integration of KDE 4.3, which looks snazzy and, seemingly, works better than previous versions.

Windows Security Bug Revealed After Microsoft Patch Tuesday – Less than 24 hours after Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, a security researcher revealed a zero-day bug affecting Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 Release 2.

Off Topic:

10 things you should know about bloggers and blogging – Blogging has become a hugely popular trend, thanks to its relevance to readers and its independence. But there are some inner workings of being a blogger that not everyone realizes. Here are some things I’ve learned during my tenure as a professional blogger.

How to end your sugar addiction now (or maybe after one more cookie) – To most people, sugar is an addictive substance. Virtually all creatures, from humans to birds, love sugar, and when it’s readily available, we are compelled by our biochemistry to consume it in large amounts. One of the risks of living in a culturally advanced society is that there’s a lot of food out there, and a lot of people discover the joy of carbohydrates.

‘2012′ Sucks Worse Than the Mayans Could Have Predicted – 2012 is like watching a Special Olympics weightlifting event. The young man grunting and flexing under the lights is showing off. His feats of strength are impressive. There is awe in the eyes of those who witness his skills, his talents. But in the end, regardless of how cut he is, how much he can bench and how awesome it is to see him do it, you’re just watching a powerfully strong person with below average intelligence pick up heavy things and drop them. And that’s all you’re doing.

6 Things Your Body Does Every Day That Science Can’t Explain – The human race has scaled the tallest mountains, charted the deepest oceans and played a quick front nine on the freaking moon, but there’s one frontier that still largely mystifies us: our own bodies. There are everyday phenomenons you’d think must have been explained ages ago, but in reality asking these simple questions of a scientist will net you at best a shrug, and at worst some bullshit he just made up off the top of his head.

Today’s Quote:

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field”.

- Niels Bohr

Today’s Free Downloads:

Print2PDF – Adobe PDF converter (DOC to PDF), creator, writer for Windows Vista/2000/XP/2003/2008. Print2PDF uses print output for conversion into an Adobe Acrobat compatible PDF file.

Flexible Album Studio – Flexible Album Studio is a brain-dead simple, absolutely free and Formula-1 fast creator of professional-looking web galleries for digital photographers. No HTML coding or image processing experience necessary whatsoever.

Express Burn – With Express Burn you create and record MP3/WAV formats to CD in Windows for free. With Express Burn you can record a CD quickly and easily by dragging the files you want onto the Express Burn icon and clicking ‘Burn’. The software then does the rest, including converting the files to .cda

If you enjoyed this article, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.