Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – March 25, 2010

Affordable solid state drives: A look at performance and cost – How do consumer-grade solid state drives compare to enterprise-grade solid state drives when it comes to cost, performance, and reliability?

Gmail to Alert Users if Accounts May Be Compromised – Google adds a feature to Gmail intended to warn users of suspicious activity that suggests their accounts may have been hijacked. The feature is being rolled out today and is meant to offer users an additional layer of protection for Gmail users via an automated system that flags suspicious activity and generates a red alert.

The 50 Riskiest Cities for Cybercrime in America – Symantec recently released its list of the 50 US cities most vulnerable to cyber attack. Number One? Seattle, right in Microsoft’s backyard. Don’t laugh, your hometown could be in the top 10.

Securing Your Facebook – Quick and easy steps to secure your Facebook account, including everything from privacy tips and settings to avoiding phishing scams.

Incredible StartPage Customizes Google Chrome’s New Tab Page – Google Chrome extension Incredible StartPage changes the start page to a three-panel view of your your favorite bookmarks, closed tabs, customizable color schemes, and a place to quickly add notes and send them to Gmail.

A PC for Your Home Theater – With a fairly basic PC, Windows Media Center, and a few components, you can turn your living room into a 21st-century high-tech entertainment center.

Unlock your Linksys router’s potential with new firmware – While tinkering with his lab setup, Brad Bird discovered he could replace his Linksys router’s firmware with an open source version and open up powerful new features

Pwn2Own Hackers Try to Take Down Browsers – As if things weren’t tough enough in the Internet security space, Web browser vendors will have a big target painted on their backs this week at the 2010 Pwn2Own competition.

Hacker exploits IE8 on Windows 7 to win Pwn2Own – Jumping through a series of anti-exploit roadblocks, Dutch hacker Peter Vreugdenhil hacked into a fully patched 64-bit Windows 7 machine using a pair of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities.

Off Topic:

10 ways failure leads to success – It may seem like a contradiction, but thinking you’re always right is a sure path to failure, while admitting and learning from failure inevitably leads to success.

Beeps and Bings: Then and now – The beep is an ingenious creation. Like the railroad toot but unlike an old telephone ring, beeps have both a distinct start and finish, marked by the twin plosives “b” and “p,” and an elastic center that can generously expand and contract like an accordion: beeeeeeeep. You can create Morse code in beeps. Beeeep beep beep beep. Beep. Beep. Beep beeeep beeeep beep. (submitted by Dar)

Gaming joins the 3D revolution – When the history of our time is written, one of the biggest tech stories will be the revolution of 3D.

China attack on Google stirs cybersecurity action – While the aim of the proposal will draw wide praise there are problems with making naming, shaming and penalizing other countries automatic.

Today’s Quote:

“Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.”

–     David T. Wolf

Today’s Free Downloads:

Photo Vacuum Packer – Photo Vacuum Packer reduces the size of photos without significantly affecting their quality, freeing up hard disk space. In addition, it hunts down duplicate photos, and deletes them, to save even more space.

AdBlock+ – Google is polishing its Chrome browser with the help of open-source extensions similar to the add-ons that have made Mozilla’s Firefox the Web browser to beat when it comes to versatility and options.

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