Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – February 6, 2012

How to Log In to Your PC Remotely With TeamViewer – TeamViewer is a free app that lets you remotely connect to a PC or Mac. Check out our guide to see how the software works.

Symantec Warns of Android Trojans That Mutate With Every Download – Researchers from security vendor Symantec have identified a new premium-rate SMS Android Trojan horse that modifies its code every time it gets downloaded in order to bypass antivirus detection.

How to Back Up and Restore Data With Windows 7 – Microsoft includes a full backup and restore utility with Windows 7. Follow this guide to see how it works.

Giveaway of the Day: XYplorer – XYplorer is a tabbed file manager for Windows. It features a powerful file search, a versatile preview, a highly customizable interface, optional dual pane, and a large array of unique ways to efficiently automate frequently recurring tasks. It’s fast and light, it’s innovative, and it’s portable.

10 Must-Have Cloud Apps for Small Business – As cloud computing matures, small business stand to reap the benefit as Web apps offer more IT capabilities and less complexity. They’re also very affordable. Our friends at SMBNation run down the benefits you can find in 10 of the newest cloud apps for business.

Five LibreOffice extensions to help you catch grammar problems – If you do a lot of writing using LibreOffice, these handy extensions will help you spot mistakes and polish your work.

10 threats to The Golden Age of the Internet – Have we been taking the Internet for granted? See why we might soon find ourselves reminiscing about the days of unfettered use and free access.

How to Spot Phishing Email in 5 Easy Steps – The five steps in this slideshow will teach you how to identify a phishing attack, protect your business and save yourself a lot of aggravation.

Company News:

Adobe Creative Cloud to Launch This Spring – Adobe says it will deliver its Adobe Creative Cloud offering this spring, featuring Adobe Creative Suite 6, Adobe Touch Apps, Muse 1.0 and a new preview of Adobe Edge, among other things.

Riverbed Debuts Granite for the Edge – Riverbed wants to help enterprises consolidate their operations without duplicating much between the edge of the network and the data center. To that end, the networking vendor is introducing a new architectural approach called, Edge Virtual Server Infrastructure (edge-VSI). Edge-VSI is powered by a new hardware series called Granite, as well as a new set of Steelhead WAN optimization appliances that can run Granite as a virtual service.

Google Privacy Issues Let Microsoft Tout IE9′s Safeguards – Concerns about Google’s revamped privacy policies give Microsoft an opening to promote the tracking protection built into Internet Explorer.

Verizon, Comcast Spectrum Deal Receives FCC Scrutiny – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has once again been asked to protect the rights of smartphone-toting consumers from big-business spectrum deals. Following AT&T’s nine-month process of trying to convince the FCC that allowing it to purchase T-Mobile would benefit Americans, it’s now a Verizon Wireless deal that is the catalyst.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Russian drilling team close to reaching Antarctic lake hidden for 14 million years – There are only about 40 feet of ice between the drill bit and body of water that hasn’t seen the light of day for 14 million years. Very cool. Did I mention there is a chance that a pressure imbalance could set off a geyser capable of spewing enough primordial fluid into the Antarctic atmosphere to alter the weather on the entire continent?

Vampire Power Reality Check: What Tech Gear Sucks the Most? – Vampire power is industry parlance for standby power consumed by electronics– such as DVRs, cable modems, or a subwoofer–while they are switched off or not in use. A typical home has as many as 40 devices constantly drawing such standby power, amounting to 5 to 10 percent of residential electricity use, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Here is a look at the tech world’s worst offenders and their monthly costs (which can be increased by bad habits).

Jokes Of Old: Revisiting 18th century humour – Favourite topics for jokes included hunchbacks, club feet, cleft palates, hairlips, scurvy, jaundice, rickets, epilepsy, syphilis, blindness. But nothing caused mirth like a dwarf. Has much changed?

Women to Facebook: Stop banning our breast-feeding pics – Women around the world, fed up with Facebook’s policy of not allowing breast-feeding pictures, are staging protests at Facebook offices and using Facebook to coordinate those efforts.

Today’s Quote:

“Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.”

-    Robertson Davies

Today’s Free Downloads:

SPAMfighter 7.5.110 – If you are looking for an Outlook or Outlook Express tool to remove spam and phishing emails from your inbox, look no further. SPAMfighter is the tool you are looking for. Simple, reliable and efficient.

Chocolate Heart – Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! What says “romance” better than a big luscious chocolate heart? Load this free Windows 7 theme onto yours or your beloved’s computer and you’ll get just that–well, a picture of one, at least, diving into a pool of milk.

Sandboxie 3.64 Final – Tired of dealing with rogue software, spyware and malware? Worried about clicking unfamiliar Web links? Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.