Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 17, 2011

Facebook Porn Spam Attack: How to Protect Yourself – There are three simple steps to attempt to make your account secure again if you were a victim of the malware attack.

Google Intros Verbatim Search – Google recently announced the demise of the “+” search operator owing to low, and largely incorrect, use. Even though the search giant encouraged users to use double quotes instead, the move displeased a number of users. Now, Google has begun rolling out a new feature called Verbatim search.

Boxee Live TV: Another Way to Stick It to the (Cable) Man - I’m a cable-cutter. Since cancelling my Time Warner Cable subscription last year, I’m no longer spending $1,000-plus a year for a vibrant mix of programming…… Now the folks at Boxee, which teamed up last year with D-Link to launch the Boxee Box media streamer, have unveiled an add-on device for its customers–one that may make cord-cutting even more appealing.

DevilRobber Trojan returns, masquerades as PixelMator – DevilRobber, the latest Trojan to target Mac users, got updated. F-Secure researchers point out that the newly discovered Trojan is the third iteration of the malware (as indicated by its dump.txt file), and that it poses as the popular image-editing app PixelMator.

OpenSUSE’s new Linux distribution is for the clouds – It’s the season for major new Linux releases, and openSUSE is following on the heels of Fedora and Ubuntu with its latest Linux distribution.

Treasury shuts down mortgage scammers who used Google ads – The Treasury Department shut down 85 alleged online mortgage scams that advertised with Google to target struggling homeowners.

Nook Tablet already in stores: Let the cheap tablet war begin! – Some stores are already showing the Nook Tablet ahead of schedule, and the Kindle Fire is shipping early. The cheap tablet war is on!

Kindle Fire source code already available – The homebrew community is anxious to get hacking the two new cheap tablets, the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire. There is a big draw to getting good hardware at a cheap price, and then changing the software to add features missing on the tablet as released by the OEM. Amazon is making this homebrew effort as easy as possible, as it has already released the Kindle Fire source code.

Google to Allow Users to Opt Out of WiFi Location Mapping System – Google, which has faced a pile of criticism over its privacy policies and practices, especially as they relate to wireless and mobile devices, says it is changing the way that it maps people’s wireless access points in its efforts to provide accurate location information.

FBI, Security Vendors Take Down Hackers – Security vendors and federal law enforcement collaborated for five years to rid the world of a cyber-threat that let a criminal consortium collect millions from false advertisements.

Company News:

Intel Shows Off 50-Core MIC Chip, Touts Xeon E5 – Intel unveils the first of its MIC chips, the 50-plus-core Knights Corner, and its Xeon E5 “Sandy Bridge” processor, both of which will help the chip maker in its push toward exascale computing.

Microsoft ready to unveil new public-private cloud-migration tools, strategy – Microsoft is readying new server and management products to help the company shore up its private-to-public cloud-migration story.

Dell Kace launches ‘pay-as-you-grow’ pricing scheme – Summary: Dell Kace targets medium-sized business sector with a new appliance line that features enterprise capabilities.

HP’s Envy laptop lineup hits stores December 7 – HP targets gamers with the new Envy 15, Envy 17 and Envy 17 3D this holiday season. This aptly named laptop series from HP certainly has the potential to make your spec-conscious friends drool, but the base configurations that HP is announcing today for the Envy 15, Envy 17 and Envy 17 3D make these machines seem ho-hum — probably to minimize sticker shock — when they are anything but.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Infograph: How Old is the Earth in Pennies? – Young Earth creationists say the Earth is approximately 6,000 years old. Here are 6,000 pennies. However, scientists say the Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. What does that look like in pennies? Well, each block of pennies is about the size of a school bus. And we will need about 24 school buses of pennies to equal 4.6 billion years. (submitted by Michael F.)

Hearing on draconian new U.S. piracy legislation is under way – The bill, introduced by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a group of 12 other co-sponsors, aims to combat the threat of “foreign rogue sites” that enable and/or facilitate copyright infringement and to strengthen penalties against thieves of intelectual property.

The Glory Days of ‘High-Speed’ Downloads with Windows 95 [Humorous Image] – Plenty of time to enjoy a cup of coffee and then some! (submitted by Michael F.)

Six Signs That Workers Just Don`t Care Anymore – Workers are not so into work these days. After years of layoffs and being told to do more with less, and with few rewards for their efforts beyond hanging on to their jobs, their engagement level is the lowest in 15 years. “A significant number of employees are not motivated enough to provide extra effort beyond the job requirements and many anticipate leaving their employers in the near future,” says Pete Sanborn, talent and organization consulting global practice leader for Aon Hewitt.

Today’s Quote:

“Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.”

-     Ambrose Bierce

Today’s Free Downloads:

VSO Downloader - Download YouTube and many other online videos, automatically detects and download videos as you surf with extra fast downloading.

Kaspersky TDSSKiller – Kaspersky Lab has developed the TDSSKiller utility that allows removing rootkits. A rootkit for Windows systems is a program that penetrates into the system and intercepts the system functions (Windows API).

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