Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – January 7, 2010

Understanding Windows 7’s ‘God Mode’ – Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden “God Mode” feature that lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

Microsoft on high alert for Windows 7 security holes – Windows 7 has the potential to become a security target in 2010, according to researchers, although it’s held up so far.

Lifehacker: What’s the Best Way to Share Files Across Multiple Home Computers? – The number of homes with multiple computers is rising, so you’ve got a pretty common problem. Fortunately, we’ve got plenty of good solutions.

Adobe Zero-Day Flaw Under Attack – Crooks are once again exploiting the zero-day hole in Adobe Reader and Acrobat to install malware on targeted machines. The attacks start with a malicious PDF file that contains the PoisonIvy Trojan, which allows an attacker to gain remote control over an infected PC.

‘Blitzableiter’ Protects Against Flash Player Exploits – A German security researcher has released an open-source tool that analyses and cleans up Flash code before playback to prevent security holes in Adobe Flash Player from being exploited.

Don’t Lose Everything When You Lose a Laptop: Use FireFound Firefox Add-On – Add location tracking and a remote-wipe feature to Firefox with the Firefox add-on FireFound.

Explore new desktop backgrounds and themes in Windows 7 – Greg Shultz explores the Desktop Backgrounds and Themes features available in Microsoft Windows 7.

IT professionals will not drop Windows XP quietly (if ever) – In a series of poll questions, IT professionals made it quite clear that they were not interested in migrating away from Windows XP. What do the results mean for your organization?

A Small Business Guide to Linux Desktop Software – A Linux operating system is an affordable alternative to Windows and Mac, but the choices can be confusing to the uninitiated. Here’s what you need to know to make an informed decision.

Off Topic:

Mobile phone use may stave off, reverse Alzheimer’s: study – Long suspected of causing brain tumors, mobile phones are now being eyed as key allies in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, US researchers said in a study.

Chilling pen explosive video real or fake? – Could the new crop of revealing body scanners detect an explosive discretely tucked into a ball point pen? Are randomly-used explosive scanners capable of sniffing out such a device?

Study: Americans scrapped more autos than they bought in 2009; Is this a trend? – The United States scrapped 14 million autos while buying only 10 million, according to a study by the Earth Policy Institute.

Dvorak: Microsoft is Ruining Smartphones and Tablets for Everyone – Microsoft has become a lackey to big business, and it’s mucking up the smartphone and tablet game for the rest of us. Dvorak tells you why he thinks the software giant has been a hindrance to technology’s progress for far too long.

Today’s Quote:

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”

–    Kurt Vonnegut

Today’s Free Downloads:

Giveaway of the Day: Streaming Video Recorder 2.0.7 – 3:50 PM – Removed this link (poor reputation as reported by an aware reader)

PDF Converter GDoc Creator Does Its Job For Free – Convert Office files to Adobe’s popular PDF format with free program gDoc Creator.

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