Six Downloads to Improve Microsoft Office – Anyone who uses Microsoft Office will agree on two things: It’s a powerful collection of applications, and it needs improvement. These six programs bring Office a lot closer to what it should be. Three of them work across multiple Office applications, improving the much-loved–and much-hated–ribbon-based interface. The other three are application-specific, giving Outlook, Word, and Excel additional capabilities that Microsoft either didn’t think of or didn’t bother with.
‘Do Not Track’ Coming to Firefox 4 – The Mozilla browser will reportedly join Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in offering an early response to the FTC’s proposed capabilities.
“American guy must be stoned to death” Facebook scam spreads virally – The latest scam spreading virally on Facebook snares people by making them wonder why This American GUY must be Stoned to De@th for doing this to a GIRL: [LINK] or why This American GUY must be Stoned to De@th for doing this to a GIRL on Christmas Eve: [LINK].
8 Great Holiday Downloads – Feeling stressed? Worn out from all that holiday shopping and gift wrapping? Take a few minutes to play one of these Christmassy games. And don’t limit your decorating to the tree–we have classy Windows 7 themes for your desktop.
Google Search warns about compromised websites – In addition to the already existing warning “This site may harm your computer” warnings, Google has added a new warning “This site may be compromised” to search results. Learn what the difference is.
Fake iTunes e-mail leads to drive-by download – At first glance, this seems a typical phishing e-mail. But no – “iTunes will never ask you for your password or any confidential information,” claims the e-mail, and perhaps gains the trust of some users who then proceed to click on the link.
DDoS Attacks Targeting Human Rights Sites Rise as Weapon – It’s no secret denial-of-service attacks have increasingly become a mode of protest in the cyber-world, as well as a way to silence political critics; but a new report from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society underscores just how much.
Web-based stealth attacks on network security will dominate 2011 – Malware is now designed to hide undetected on infected systems, ever more subtly, ever more difficult to detect. Never has it been more important to scan networks for installed malware, and maintain security updates and patches to prevent attacks.
Company News:
Google Asks Partners to Delay Google TV, Report Says – Google has reportedly asked LG, Toshiba, and Sharp to hold off from introducing Google TV-based products during next month’s Consumer Electronics Show. The search giant appears to have caught stage fright as the dates for the annual trade show — January 6-9 — approached. Instead of introducing Google TV as is, the search giant has asked its partners for more time to refine the Web-meets-TV software, according to The New York Times.
Microsoft BPOS Cloud Service Hit With Data Breach – Company data belonging to customers of Microsoft’s hosted business suite BPOS has been accessed and downloaded by other users of the software.
Off Topic (Sort of):
This Dumb Year: The 57 Lamest Tech Moments of 2010 – For high-profile flops, strange decisions, pointless lawsuits, and general weirdness, it’s been a very good year.
The 7 Most Disturbing Santas In Movie History – You can always re-watch Miracle on 34th Street for a little holiday magic, but if you’re tired of the same old sweet Santa Claus, there are plenty of options out there – movies made from sick people who chose to pervert Santa Claus into either something he’s not or something he used to be back when he stole bad little children and cooked them into stew. (submitted by Dar)
What if Google’s Hack Attack Warnings Grab Your Site? – Google search results will spell out if it determines a Website has been hacked, but what can you do if it mistakenly red-flags your legitimate site?
Medieval warfare was just as terrifying as you might imagine – THE soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out. (submitted by Michael F.)
Today’s Quote:
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
– Samuel Johnson
Today’s Free Downloads:
Anonymizer Nevercookie – Evercookies: The latest danger to your privacy online. The usual tools for getting rid of cookies won’t work on evercookies–but the free Firefox add-in Anonymizer Nevercookie is designed to kill them.
LastPass (64-bit version) – This free online password manager automatically fills in saved logins and forms with the click of a button. The handy little browser plug-in also syncs your data to any computer you use regularly.
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