Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – August 22, 2009

Profile Of A Hacker: How The “Soupnazi” Did It – Man allegedly behind the biggest identity theft ever did it through a fairly simple ploy.

Google Ordered to Reveal Blogger’s Identity – Model sues to find a badmouthing blogger’s identity, with implications for online speech.

Microsoft Working To Eliminate Internet Anonymity – Host Tracker can identify servers with 99 percent accuracy.

Twitter to add location tagging – Twitter is to add geolocation functionality to its micro-blogging network to let users reveal where they’re tweeting from.

Lifehacker: Use The Same Gmail Account for Multiple Online Accounts – If you’ve ever tried to sign up for more than one account somewhere but needed a second email address, the Digital Inspiration blog has the brilliant solution: taking advantage of Gmail ignoring periods in your email address.

Some 40,000 college students studying on a Flat World – Instead of paying $100 for the textbooks you need in a class, Flat World claims its customers pay an average of $18. In addition to the free download students can buy a PDF version, a printed version (black and white or color), even an audio version.

How Much Is A Credit Card Worth? – Price of stolen credit card data varies with timing, geography.

TwitBlock Helps Root Out Spammy Followers – New tool helps Twitter users block followers who misuse their profiles.

Information Security: Why Cybercriminals Are Smiling – Author of new security book discusses why businesses still aren’t protecting their data.

China Jails Four for Microsoft XP Piracy – A Chinese court has jailed four people for spreading their bootleg “Tomato Garden” version of Microsoft’s Windows XP program, in what the Xinhua news agency called the nation’s biggest software piracy case.

Off Topic:

Sell your writing – five freelance niche markets that pay – You can crank out writing for residual income sites and bank pennies for your writing or sell your writing to established markets, print publications, that pay real money. Don’t even consider sending typo-laden crap to these markets. Don’t bother to approach with sophomoric drivel. But if you are willing to gather facts and write polished, mature prose, a niche like any of these could make your nut.

What code DOESN’T do in real life (that it does in the movies) – Matt craps on a bunch of ridiculous ideas about programming and code that Hollywood can’t seem to stay away from.

The 22 most unknown things anyone can have – Conventional wisdom holds that you only get what you pay for, but the real free geek knows that with the right knowledge (and maybe a charming smile) pretty much anything, even the good stuff, can be had for less or in the best case scenarios nothing at all. Despite this, there are a number of things out there that don’t seem to scream “free” majority of the time (MIT being one). Here’s a list of a few free things that might surprise you.

60 Selected Best Famous Quotes II – Wisdom and Inspirational Quotes

Today’s Free Downloads:

TweakNow PowerPack 2009 – is a fully-integrated suite of utilities that let you fine-tune every aspect of your computer’s operating system and Web browser.

MozyHome – Mozy is the simple way to back up all the important files on your computer so in the event of disaster, your data is still retrievable. Simply download Mozy, select the types of files you want to back up, and Mozy does the rest. A copy of your files is safely stored in secure, offsite data centers.

Pantry – Pantry is a cute application that helps you keep track of the food you have on hand, and helps you build shopping lists when supplies get low.

Recipes Ship – Recipes Ship is free software put out by RecipeShip.com, which collects thousands of recipes from across the Web and showcases creations that members upload–and the site is a hoot, by the way. Where else could you find recipes for “Bbq boston butt” or “Pork and Bean Crackers”?

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