Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 12, 2011

10 essential items for onsite tech jobs – Save yourself the aggravation of discovering you don’t have the tools you need when you arrive at a job site. With these items, you’ll be ready for almost anything.

Tired Of Doing Barrel Rolls? 22 Google Easter Eggs You HAVEN’T Heard About – Ranging from Google search fun to dragon slaying and talking Martians, all of these Easter eggs are still around and fully functional, unlike some other hidden Google gems that have disappeared into the gaping Internet abyss (we’re looking at you, Google Maps). Fire up your favorite browser and go check them out for yourself!

What You Should Do to Protect Yourself in the Wake of the Steam Hack – If you’re a user of the popular Steam gaming platform, you’ve likely heard about the hack that potentially compromised passwords and credit card information. Although much of the damage has been done, but there are still things you can do to protect yourself. Here’s a look at your options moving forward.

Firefox 8 cracks down on add-ons – The new browser won’t let new third-party add-ons run until users give the say-so, and it suggests old ones be disabled.

Adobe Fixes 12 Critical Flaws in Flash – Adobe has released patches for a string of critical vulnerabilities in Flash on all of the major supported platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X and Android. The company is recommending that customers update their machines immediately.

Installing Windows 7 from USB – As netbooks get more popular and optical drives become less and less of an assumption, there are many times when a USB install of an operating system is a far better choice than the old DVD/CD we know and love.

Should I Leave My Computer Turned On 24 Hours A Day? – There has been a lot of debate over the years whether you should power down your computer daily or just leave it “on” all of the time. I’ve always been a firm believer of powering the computer “off” when finished using it at the end of the day. When I was managing a computer network, the standard I had in place required all users to power down their PC’s prior to going home. If I found a PC “on”, then I remotely powered it “off”.

Five effective mobile fitness apps – If you need a little help getting in shape or sticking to a fitness regime, smartphone apps offer a fun, handy, and efficient way to stay on track.

Disable AutoRun to Stop 50% of Windows Malware Threats – According to a biannual Security Intelligence Report from Microsoft, AutoRun—the feature in Windows that automatically executes files when you plug in a USB or connect to a network—accounts for almost half of all malware infections. That’s really damn high.

Financial Records of Millions At Risk After Computershare Insider Copies Data To USB… Then Loses The USB – Computershare, the investor services firm, has filed suit against a former employee it charges with making off with thousands of pages of proprietary company documents, including information on shareholder names, account numbers and financial holdings.

NASA images: Desktop wallpaper from outer space – Some of the best desktop wallpaper available comes from the final frontier, where no one has gone before.

Duqu Attackers Using Word Docs As Attack Vector – As the analysis of the Duqu malware continues to evolve, the picture that’s emerging is becoming more and more intriguing. The latest bits of evidence uncovered show that not only do the attackers create custom files for each individual attack, there is evidence indicating that they might have been working on Duqu in some form since 2007.

Company News:

Apple, Lenovo set for head-on collision in China – Apple appears to be poised to make huge gains in the largest PC market in the world—China—but Chinese personal income as well as Lenovo’s strategy stand in the way.

Facebook on EU data protection laws: we’re already compliant – The European Commission says companies like Facebook need to be subject to European data protection laws. Facebook says it is not worried because it is already compliant with said regulations.

PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM’s worst decision to date? – Now that Flash has had its day in the sun, the PlayBook may now have a chance to quietly sail off into the deathly sunset.

Poor sales of Chromebooks won’t stop Google from promoting Chrome OS – If it weren’t for Android, Google would have a pretty lousy record when it comes to working with hardware manufacturers.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Everything should be open source, says WordPress founder – Can relying on open source technology as the backbone for an entire company really be feasible? WordPress.com’s founder Matt Mullenweg certainly seems to think so. “I believe morally and philosophically that not just software, but everything should be open source,” asserted Mullenweg, while speaking at the GigaOM RoadMap 2011 summit on Thursday evening.

Lifehacker: How to Calibrate Your HDTV and Boost Your Video Quality in 30 Minutes or Less – Most HDTVs ship with default settings that are meant to look good in store showrooms, but more often than not, the default presets don’t take into account how the TV will look in your home, how far away from it you’ll sit, or what the normal lighting in your room will be like when you fire up a new movie or watch the big game. The result: A less-than-perfect picture from the device you spent hundreds of dollars on and spend hours in front of. Thankfully, with the right tools calibrating an HDTV to your viewing style is easy, and you can do it in less than a half-hour.

The FCC’s plan to bring the Internet to the poor – The FCC’s “Connect to Compete” plans on bringing the Internet to the U.S.’s poor.

Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you’ll be fired – Social-gaming company reportedly offered employees stock rather than higher salaries. But Zynga has apparently had second thoughts about that strategy.

Today’s Quote:

“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.”

–     Mark Twain

Today’s Free Downloads:

Right Click Enhancer 2.2.2 – Right Click Enhancer gives you power to control the ultimate right click menu everyone use every day. Right Click Enhancer allows you to edit your right click menu in the way you want. Now with help of this wonderful tool you can add some good stuffs to your right click context menu.

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Remembrance Day 2011 – Lest We Forget

Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada, Australia, the UK, and elsewhere across the globe. Coinciding with Remembrance Day, our American cousins mark this day as Veterans Day.

Remembrance Day brings with it a sober opportunity to reflect on the courage and nobility of those who have served, in the past, or who do so presently, to protect the foundations of our democracies. We know only too well the high price those that we remember today paid in order to protect the freedoms we cherish.

I’m forever grateful for their selflessness, and their generosity of spirit.

Freedom isn’t free.

Canadians – homeward bound from Afghanistan.

Sadly though, as a society we seem to lack the observation and analytical skills necessary to establish a critical perspective on the true horrors, and the real outcome, of war.

Mark Twain, who was fiercely critical not only of racism and injustice, addressed  the horrors of war in his short story, The War Prayer, written at the time of the Philippine-American War.

The War Prayer – Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.

It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came — next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams — visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender!

Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

“God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!”

Then came the “long” prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory —

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside — which the startled minister did — and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

“I come from the Throne — bearing a message from Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import — that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of — except he pause and think.

“God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two — one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this — keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

“You have heard your servant’s prayer — the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it — that part which the pastor — and also you in your hearts — fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory–*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!”

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 11, 2011

Maximum PC: How To Erase Your Digital Footprint – Like stepping in wet concrete, these trails we unwittingly leave behind can be tough to erase. With the rise of identity theft, corporate tracking, and the ability of “Big Brother” to access our private data, it is more important than ever for Internet users to be aware of how past and future data can be erased and controlled more effectively.

Hotspot Shield now protects iPhones – Anonymising and VPN-protected Wi-Fi program Hotspot Shield takes its brand of shielding and bandwidth compression to iOS devices and throws in some free Skype hours to sweeten the deal.

Steam has been hacked, user accounts database accessed – Valve has taken the Steam Forums offline and Gabe Newell has posted a message explaining that Steam has been hacked. On Sunday, the Steam Forums were defaced, but remained online. However, further investigation found the hack was more than just for the forum software, the intruder had also gained access to a Steam user database. If you are one of the millions of Steam account holders out there, then be cautious and watch your credit card activity. If you shared your Steam Forum password with other services you use, then go change the password on those services immediately.

Adidas Takes Websites Offline Following Security Breach – Hackers claim to have acquired and posted 500,000 email addresses and clear-text passwords.

Change the Processor Affinity setting in Windows 7 to gain a performance edge – Under specific circumstances and with careful tweaking, you can increase Windows 7 performance using the Processor Affinity setting.

The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet Will Spark a Revolution – Despite the best efforts of Android tablet vendors like Samsung, the tablet market has been totally dominated by Apple for the last year and, frankly, kind of boring. That is going to change next week. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble will release 7-inch tablets that are tightly connected to their media ecosystems. Geek.com’s Will Shanklin thinks it will be a revolution.

Roundup of Software Uninstallers – Reviewing IObit vs Ashampoo vs Revo – Today you can find lots of software which helps remove programs and clean up leftover files, folders and registry settings. In theory this is a good thing, as it helps eliminate some of the bloat on your Windows computer. But are these solutions really effective at removing all traces? To find out, I tested some of the most popular applications in this niche, both free and commercial. Let’s see what I discovered. (submitted by Michael F.)

Cloud Services Credentials Easily Stolen Via Google Code Search – The access codes and secret keys of thousands of public cloud services users can be easily found with a simple Google code search, a team of security researchers says.

No Flash Forwarding to HTML5 – The reports this week stating that Flash is dead may be a tad premature. Although Adobe is undoubtedly splitting its bets and putting more emphasis on HTML5, Flash isn’t going away any time soon.

Apple Releases iOS 5.0.1 With Battery Fix – According to Apple’s release notes, iOS 5.0.1 resolves four main issues: fixes bugs affecting battery life; adds multitasking gestures for original iPad; resolves bugs with documents in the cloud; and improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation.

Preparing a business laptop for overseas travel – With threats of cyber warfare heating up, traveling overseas poses security risks that go beyond mere carelessness and petty thiefs. Here are tips to protect employee laptops and the data they carry.

Company News:

Report: Amazon Boosts Kindle Fire Orders to 5 Million – Just days before the Kindle Fire debuts, Amazon is reportedly ramping up orders for the tablet to more than 5 million due to demand, according to a Digitimes report. This is the second Kindle Fire production increase for Amazon; it upped its order volume from 3.5 million to 4 million in the middle of the third quarter, Digitimes said.

Outpost Security receives 9th consecutive VB100 award – Agnitum, developer of highly-rated PC security solutions since 1999, is pleased to announce that Outpost Security Suite Pro, the company’s flagship Internet security product, has received its ninth VB100 award in a row, demonstrating continuing reliability in threat detection and prevention. In total, 44 anti-virus and security suite products were tested against a clean set of 500,000 files totaling around 140GB, against worms and bots set of around 30,000 samples each, and a trojans set containing over 150,000 unique files.

RIM Pledges Continued Development of Flash Player for PlayBook – Research in Motion this week pledged to continue developing Adobe Flash for its BlackBerry PlayBook despite Adobe’s decision to ditch Flash for the Mobile Web.

At long last, Mozilla Releases Lightning 1.0 Calendar – It has been very long time since the has been a 1.0 calendar from Mozilla, you’d have to go all the way back to the Mozilla/Netscape Suite when there was integrated mail to even come close. The 1.0 number however isn’t really about product quality though, it’s about Mozilla developers drawing a line in the sand and finally declaring the milestone.

Off Topic (Sort of):

NASA Releases Stunning Video of Near-Miss Asteroid – A massive asteroid paid Earth a very close visit Tuesday and astronomers were able to capture stunning imagery of the near-miss rock, including a mini-movie put together by NASA.

20 Pre-Black Friday Deals – Get a head start on holiday shopping while dodging malls and lines, with these great pre-Black Friday deals for laptop computers, smartphones, cameras, headphones, and more.

The 10 Most Epic Tech Fails – Not every tech product launched becomes as iconic as Microsoft Windows or the Apple iPad. Some are downright flops. Most of the items featured here managed to survive longer than celebrity Kim Kardashian’s 72-day marriage to Nets basketball player Kris Humphries. But all of them were ultimately just as doomed.

Lifehacker: The No-BS Guide to Boosting Your Immunity and Avoiding the Common Cold – The runny nose, hacking cough, sore throat, headache—it’s no wonder people resort to all sorts of absurd remedies to cure the all-too-common cold. We talked to experts to get a better idea of the tried-and-true things that actually work, and got a stuffy-nose full of commonly held myths that you should avoid.

Walmart Black Friday Deals: HDTVs, Laptops, Consoles – Walmart’s Black Friday circular has bee posted online and for ambitious shoppers who venture out at midnight, the store will have a number of deals on TVs, PCs, and gaming consoles.

Today’s Quote:

“If failure doesn’t make you a loser, then success doesn’t really make you a winner”

–      Michael Arrington

Today’s Free Downloads:

Little Voice Commander – Little Voice Commander encourages toddlers to speak and experiment by showing pictures of words they are likely to know, such as “dog,” “apple,” or, well, “baby,” whenever a word is spoken or when a key on the keyboard is pressed. A sound file also speaks the word out loud.

Protector Plus – Windows Vulnerability Scanner – Protector Plus – Windows Vulnerability Scanner checks your system for Windows Vulnerabilities. It guides you to update with the right patch to make your system secure.

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Tom Sanders SEO – A Bottom Feeding Specialist

Over the last 60 days or so, comment spam here has taken a huge jump. Not a big deal you might suppose – after all, with one or two clicks the damn stuff can be deleted. With 400 or more spam comments every day, I find that deletion is the only sane solution. Taking as little as 10 seconds to peruse each spam comment, would add roughly one hour of unproductive activity to an already full day.

So, the solution to this aggravation is simple enough (or, so it seems) – but, the downside to hitting the “Empty Spam” button is an increased risk of seemingly ignoring a reader’s comment which has been spam trapped. In terms of “blogging sins” – ignoring a reader’s comment, ranks well up on the list of grievous offenses.

The screen capture shown below (taken from my blog’s Dashboard several weeks ago), shows 259 spam comments awaiting moderation.

I have little doubt, that trapped within these fake comments (such as the one shown below), were bona fide readers’ comments which (as they normally do), would have expanded the scope of the relevant article. The power of reader comments to enhance, and round out an article, is a key feature of blogging in my estimation.

Which brings me to Tom Sanders (if that’s his real name). Tom is in the business of pissing people off. Tom, like so many of his competitors in the search engine optimization (SEO) business, is an unethical twit – a parasitic ignoramus who is content to feed off, and potentially damage, the works of others.

Sanders, and others like him, ignore the impact their SEO schemes (as illustrated in the following email dated October 13), are likely to have on web content providers. Slimy, sleazy practices, such as this, inevitably lead to an onslaught of spam email which the content provider is then forced to deal with.

Tom Sanders tom193@seo-service.com to me (show details 6:32 AM (47 minutes ago)

Hi,

My name is Tom and I am a link builder. I sell blog comment links for website owners at low price.

Blog comment links can help you in a number of ways. Here are three major advantages:

– Increase link and IP popularity
– Direct traffic to your site
– Higher rankings in search engines

I can do thousands of blog comment links for your site in a couple of days, and they get indexed very fast. If you would like more details about my offer, or would like to ask me anything you’d like regarding this matter, then feel free to reply with a YES.

Best regards,
Tom

Normally, I wouldn’t bother writing an article on what might be perceived to be a “so what” internal issue. Except, my good buddy Michael F., questioned me this morning as to whether I was knowingly rejecting his comments. Which, immediately raised the question – “how many other readers have encountered the same ‘rejection’ issue?”

If you have commented here, and then failed to receive an acknowledgement from me, please accept my apology. Tom Sanders (in reality, just another cyber criminal), and his leech-like SEO industry operatives, have created a bottleneck in the free flow of reader comments. Another obstacle to overcome – created by the marginal morons who slither through the Internet.

Just a passing note – There are bloggers (known to me), who regularly post “edited” spam comments passed off as legitimate comments. Sleeping with the enemy just about covers that. You (and you know who you are), need to give your head a shake.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 10, 2011

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Web Tracking (But Were Too Paranoid to Ask) – Think Web trackers aren’t following you? Think again. Just by visiting this Web site, roughly half a dozen ad networks and Web analytics companies have deposited tracking cookies on your machine. Don’t freak out, it’s not as bad as it seems. In fact, there’s an awful lot of hype, fear, and misinformation surrounding Web tracking — and both sides are guilty of overstating the dangers of tracking, as well as the benefits.

To SSD or not to SSD? – I frequently find myself building — or at least plotting out — computers at various pricing levels. Sooner or later, two questions always arise: At what price should you institute a solid-state drive (SSD)? And when you do, what should its capacity be?

Microsoft Leaves Duqu Worm Exploit Unpatched – Microsoft released only four new security bulletins for November’s Patch Tuesday, but the main concern is that the zero day flaw exploited by the Duqu worm is not addressed by any of them.

Microsoft Posts a Fix for Duqu Zero-Day Trojan – Microsoft has released a Fix-it tool to allow Windows users to manually patch their systems to thwart the Duqu Trojan: Microsoft Security Advisory (2639658).

Beginner’s Guide to Managing Mobile Movies – Are you wondering how to put your movie collection on your brand-new smartphone or tablet for some on-the-go video goodness? Read this collection of how-tos to find out how to rip your DVDs and Blu-ray movies, convert them in HandBrake, and sync your iTunes purchases.

Xubuntu, so close, but not quite there – Jack Wallen jumps the generic Ubuntu ship for the faster, cleaner waters of Xubuntu. But is Xubuntu everything it could (and should be)? Check out Jack’s opinion on this distribution “that could”.

RIP Adobe Mobile Flash: Will Anyone Miss You? – Adobe is killing its mobile Flash Player, according to reports, paving the way for HTML5 and a plugin free mobile multimedia experience.

The 12 scams of Christmas – ‘Tis the season for consumers to spend more time online – shopping for gifts, looking for great holiday deals on new digital gadgets, e-planning family get-togethers and of course, using online or mobile banking to make sure they can afford it all. But before logging on from a PC, Mac, or mobile device, consumers should look out for the 12 Scams of Christmas by McAfee.

Bitdefender prevents scams on Twitter – Bitdefender is adding a tool to its arsenal to prevent scams on Twitter. Safego has emerged successful from beta testing by Twitter users and will be incorporated into Bitdefender 2012 products.

Company News:

Oracle Solaris 11: The first cloud OS – Oracle Solaris 11 is designed to meet the security, performance and scalability requirements of cloud-based deployments allowing customers to run their most demanding enterprise applications in private, hybrid, or public clouds.

Norman releases endpoint protection system – Norman released Endpoint Protection 9, which stops all kinds of malware threats including viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, bots, zero-day threats and rootkits.

Motorola attempted to crush competitor via “Chinese spy ring” allegations – Four years ago a software engineer that worked for Motorola was arrested by U.S. Customs agents as she was trying to board a plane heading for China.

Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL Keep Display Ads From Google – Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL band together to sell each other’s available ad space, keeping each other’s customers from Google in a classic cooperation/competition play.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Modern Warfare 3 Thieves Crash Into Van Carrying 6,000 Copies – Remember when a pair of robbers with semi-automatic handguns stole over 100 copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops at gunpoint? Here we go again, only extreme style: Up to 6,000 copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s were reportedly stolen by thieves in France on Saturday morning. I say “stolen” and you’re probably thinking some guys walked into a warehouse, then walked out with a few palette’s worth of product. Think again: These thieves targeted and then crashed a car into a van loaded with thousands of copies of the game, driving in southern Paris.

Is Google Your Next Cable TV Provider? – The search giant reportedly is in talks to provide cable TV service to parts of Kansas. Is this Google’s first step on the road to replacing cable service in the United States?

Online Privacy Tools Don’t Work Well, CMU Researchers Find – There’s some bad news out of Carnegie Mellon University for Internet users concerned about effectively managing their online privacy. The online privacy management tools don’t appear to work all that well, researchers found.

Fools and Their Data Are Soon Parted – What would you give up to retrieve lost computer files? Pretty much anything, according to a survey from Wakefield Research and Carbonite Inc. People say they’d shell out big bucks or abstain from beer, wine and coffee rather than lose critical data. Yet a significant percentage of survey respondents say they don’t back up these precious computer files, even though they’ve experienced computer crashes and realize that data goes missing.

Zuckerberg: Google, Microsoft collect data “behind your back” – In a recent interview, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained how Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft collect data on users “behind their back” while the social network is more transparent.

Today’s Quote:

“Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.”

–     Doug Larson

Today’s Free Downloads:

Freemake Video Converter – Freemake Video Converter converts videos from one format to another quickly and easily–including AVI, MKV, and mobile formats like 3GP and MP4. The fact that it’s free doesn’t hurt, either. There aren t even any ads, popups or watermarks.

DAEMON Tools Lite 4.45 – With DAEMON Tools you can back up your physical CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray discs into “virtual discs” or so called “disc image” files, which run directly on your hard drive.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 9, 2011

How to Use Your PC Webcam to Monitor Your Home – You don’t need a fancy wireless network camera or a spare Android/iOS gadget to set up your own home monitoring system. Here’s how to use a USB-connected or built-in PC webcam to watch your home or office space when you’re not around.

30 Sites You Should Be Using Right Now – From money managers to travel assistants to exercise coaches, here are our expert picks for the most practical online services.

McAfee 2012 a disappointment? – Big news in Windows downloads this week, as McAfee Total Protection 2012 hit the streets. Sure, it’s marketed like a high-end security suite, but according to CNET’s Seth Rosenblatt, it doesn’t quite fit the bill. Its interface is nice, but its feature set is merely average. And don’t even get us started on its disappointing performance.

Make Your Tech Life Easier: Load Apps and Docs at Startup, Chrome Tips – Here’s how to set up Windows 7 and Vista to load specific applications and documents at startup, and how to troubleshoot Google Chrome’s bookmark syncing.

Why Do Metacritic Users Hate Modern Warfare 3? – The latest salvo in Activision’s money-printing Call of Duty franchise has launched, so why do so many users claim to despise it?

After latest iPhone hack, Charlie Miller kicked out of iOS dev program – Charlie Miller defeats a major iOS security mechanism, a move that ruffles feathers in Cupertino.

Firefox 8.0 brings security and stability fixes – Mozilla released Firefox 8.0 that fixes several security and stability issues. Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default, as if add-on management hasn’t been enough of a nightmare already.

Thunderbird Updates with Improved Add-Ons Security and Management – Just as they’ve recently updated Firefox to Firefox 8, the Mozilla team released today an update to their email client, Thunderbird. The major new feature in Thunderbird 8 is its blocking of automatic add-on installations from third parties.

Angry Birds know where you live – According to the AdaptiveMobile survey, one in four consumers (25%) are still blasé about their personal data, admitting that they would be willing to exchange their details for a free app download. However, 75% are more cautious, saying that they would pay more for apps if they could be assured of good privacy.

Unknown malware rampant in enterprise networks – New research from Palo Alto Networks shows that targeted and unknown malware are a reality in enterprise networks today, finding hundreds of unique, previously-unknown malware samples on live networks.

Spammers’ URL shortening sites highlight weakness of old security – A recent Web threat report warned that spammers are now using their own URL shortening servicesto lure spam recipients into clicking on malicious web links. These use the “.info” top level domain and are open to the public to use for shortening Web links. Eighty seven URL shortening sites have been identified.

Company News:

Republic Wireless Rolls Out $19 Unlimited Voice, Data, Text Service – Republic Wireless will charge users $19 a month. Its unlimited offerings are accessible on the WiFi portion of its network.

CompTIA and ITpreneurs are collaborating on a new cloud computing skills credential – The Cloud Essentials exam, scheduled for availability in December 2011, will validate knowledge and understanding of cloud computing principles and concepts, including what cloud computing means from a business and technical perspective and what’s involved in moving to and governing the cloud.

Skyjack Plugin for magicJack – The Skyjack Plugin converts your ordinary magicJack into a powerful dual mode magicJack and Skype calling product. Just dial * followed by the number you wish to call. For magicJack calls, dial you calls as normal. To call other Skype users, dial the Speed Dial number *1 to *50 you have associated with their Skype name in the built in Speed Dial table. For incoming calls, just answer your phone when it rings.

IBM Brings Windows to the Mainframe – IBM announces that its much-anticipated capability to support Windows integration on the System zEnterprise mainframe will be available on Dec. 16.

Off Topic (Sort of):

SCADA systems flaws exploited to open prison doors – With no previous experience regarding the programming of these systems, the researchers have relatively easily succeeded in their attempt and have developed attacks that would allow prison doors to be opened (temporarily or permanently) without alerting the guards in the control room about it and that would shut down internal communications and closed-circuit television systems.

Software Catches (And Also Helps) Young Plagiarists – 60% of undergraduates admit to cheating on written work. Yes, teachers use software to spot plagiarism. But it doesn’t work. As cheating students use their own tech to avoid detection. It’s a bizarre arms race. What should be done?

Facebook Vs Google: The Battle For The Future Of The Web – “In the long history of tech rivalries, rarely has there been a battle as competitive as the raging war between the web’s wonder twins.” Enjoyable overview of struggle to become superpower of the social web.

150 Years Ago, A Primitive Internet United The USA – “Long before there was an Internet or an iPad, before people were social networking and instant messaging, Americans had already gotten wired.” This is the story of the transcontinental telegraph and how it changed the US forever.

Google-backed robot overlords take over supervision of human workers – We think robots will work for us? Think again. Among all the job takeovers robots will make in the next 15 years get ready to have them as our supervisors. Because it’s already begun.

Today’s Quote:

“A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.”

–     John Barrymore

Today’s Free Downloads:

FastStone Image Viewer – If all FastStone Image Viewer did was display images, it would be well worth the download. But it does much more than that. You can crop, rotate, and resize pictures, as well as send them via e-mail. You can also create slide shows. And the program will also let you convert between file formats.

f.lux – Have you ever gone by a house where the TV was on at night, and noticed the bluish glow emanating from the screen? Or woken up early and switched on your monitor (or smartphone) to be blinded by a burst of bright white light? With f.lux, this doesn’t have to happen. F.lux takes your location and the current date into account, and can tell when the sun is going to set every day. Right around that time, with F.lux running in the background, you will notice a “virtual sunset” happening on your monitor. Everything seems to mellow down a little bit, every shade of color growing slightly warmer and cozier than it was during the day.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 8, 2011

The 40 Best Free Android Apps for 2011 – Smartphone owners who fancy Google’s mobile operating don’t have to shell out any cash for excellent apps. Amongst this crop of free apps are several productivity and organizational apps that will let you take notes, sync files, and more.

10 Linux Distros Every IT Pro Should Know – The ability to customize Linux to run on various types of hardware and to suit specific user needs means there are more flavors of Linux-based operating systems available than Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. While administrators generally stick with the well-known ones for their servers and desktops, they are beginning to see other flavors sneaking into the enterprise. We take a look at some of the Linux-based OSes and distributions that every IT professional should be familiar with.

Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire: Media Tablet Spec Showdown – Use our spec comparison chart to quickly see how the new Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet compares to Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet.

Access Windows using your iPad and iPhone – Leostream Connect enables users to access secure and reliable Windows desktops and applications directly from their iOS device.

Want Siri on Your Android Phone? Try These Apps – The Android Market has lots of Siri-like voice-activated assistant apps (most of them free) that use Google s excellent voice recognition system. They re not as slick as Apple s virtual flunky, but some are worth trying.

25 Apps That Can Make You More Productive – You can be more efficient and boost your productivity with the help of some software designed to help you get your job done on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

One in nine Internet users surfing without protection – The number of new malware strains continues to rise. G Data Security Labs counted over 1.2 million new computer malware strains in the first half of the year alone. Despite this, one in nine Internet users globally do not use a comprehensive security solution.

How to Use Photoshop to Pop Pimples, Change Facial Expressions, and Alter Reality As We Know It – Photoshop is an amazing tool that can take any photo and change it into anything you can imagine. While it can take years of practice to alter reality like a pro, there are a few simple tricks you can employ to reshape the world captured in your photos. Here are five of our favorite techniques and how to use them effectively.

Brazilian ISPs hit with massive DNS cache poisoning attacks – A massive DNS cache poisoning attack attempting to infect users trying to access popular websites is currently under way in Brazil, warns Kaspersky Lab expert Fabio Assolini. “Brazil has some big ISPs. Official statistics suggest the country has 73 million computers connected to the Internet, and the major ISPs average 3 or 4 million customers each. If a cybercriminal can change the DNS cache in just one server, the number of potential victims is huge,” he points out.

DIY: See why Macpup is a real treat – Jack Wallen details why Macpup, a Mac-like twist on Puppy Linux, might be a good choice for cash-strapped shops.

Company News:

Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet Takes on Amazon’s Kindle Fire – Barnes & Noble announced a $249 Nook Tablet Monday that will compete with Amazon’s not-yet-launched Kindle Fire tablet; the Nook Tablet sports a customized version of the Android OS, runs Android apps, streams video from content partners such as Hulu, and (of course) can be used as an e-book reader.

McAfee updates its Cloud Security Platform – McAfee announced the latest enhancements to its Cloud Security Platform which secures all primary channels of traffic – email, web and authentication – moving between an organisation and the cloud to help organisations safely and efficiently take advantage of cloud-based services and solutions. The Platform can be deployed as an on-premise appliance, SaaS or a hybrid combination.

New launch: Google+ for businesses and brands – The long-awaited Google+ Pages for businesses and brands have officially launched. See who has Pages already and when you can get one.

Warning: T-Mobile adding pay per use data without your permission – I thought T-Mobile was a friendly carrier, but now they are sneaking in services without my permission and looking to steal my money behind my back. They must have forgot I track this stuff closely and won’t let them get away with it.

Off Topic (Sort of):

20 worst-named tech products, ever – Companies agonize over what to name a product, and we certainly recognize how difficult a process it is to come up with a good name. Over the years, we’ve seen lots of good ones; the Palm Pilot, the Motorola Razr, TiVo, the Flip cam, are just a few. But today we’re not here to celebrate success. No, let us to rejoice in failure and admire some of the truly bad–and, in some cases, truly awful–names that have come along in the last 10 years or so.

Rooting your Android phone: Balancing risk with freedom – Ask about rooting Android phones and opinions abound. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that this Android Investigative Team has a few of their own.

10 tips for dealing with armchair IT experts – When you run into people who are trying to show off their tech expertise (and show you up), these tactics may come in handy.

What 3D Means for the Future of Gaming – On your computer, 3D gaming works a lot like any current form of 3D content: You don a special pair of glasses that sync up to the display (be it laptop or TV). When 3D content kicks in — sometimes a special button on the laptop must be pressed; sometimes it’s automatic — you’re instantly immersed into the 3D universe.

Today’s Quote:

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”

–     Oscar Wilde

Today’s Free Downloads:

FreePrintable.net: Printable Birthday Cards and Holiday Invitations – FreePrintable.net provides beautiful printable files that you can customize and print on your inkjet or laser printer. There are 80 sites in the Free Printable network.

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Advanced Edition – Paragon Backup & Recovery 2010 Free Advanced Edition is a very competent imaging/backup program with useful features not commonly found in freebies. The program will create a full image of your operating system partition, but also lets you set filters to skip backing up nonessential files to save space in your images.

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 7, 2011

How to know who is tracking your Web activities – If there’s one important feature missing from all the major browsers, it’s the ability to know at a glance when you’re being tracked, and with a single click by whom. That would make the free Ghostery program the one extension you need whether you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, or Opera.

20 Best Browser Apps of 2011 – Whether you want to stay on top of your to-do list, find out who is tracking you online, or sling a few birds at pesky pigs, here are 20 apps that are well worth your time.

6 Great Apps to Help You Manage Your Household – Can’t remember what items your family needs from the grocery store or what days the kids’ dental appointments fall on? These apps can help you keep everyone in your life on the same page.

How to Set Up RAID on Your PC – Configuring two or more hard drives in a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) setup can increase performance and/or provide automatic protection against data loss from drive failure. RAID used to be expensive, hard to implement, and limited to businesses with dedicated IT departments. Now, motherboards in most desktop PCs support RAID, and Windows 7 provides software RAID that requires no special hardware at all. The technology is easily within the reach of the wallet and skills of any reasonably tech-savvy PC user.

Printer Buying Guide: Major Printer Types Explained – In this article, we’ll describe the major types of printers available, so you know what your options are. In another portion of this printer buying guide, we’ll explain important printer specs to help you figure out which models would best fit your needs. And when you hit a brick-and-mortar store or a Website, our printer shopping tips will make your purchase easier.

Use System Information to create configuration data sets for quicker troubleshooting – System Information is a utility that collects and displays detailed configuration information about your computer. This includes information about the main components, hardware resources, and system software. Just being able to see all this information in one place at one time can be extremely handy when troubleshooting problems related to your system configuration.

Thailand Flooding Could Impact Global HDD Production Until Spring 2012 – Mother Nature is putting some cruel pressures on the hard disk drive industry, not to mention the overall IT business and most of Southeast Asia, with record rainstorms and flooding in Thailand—a region that assembles about 70 percent of the world’s HDDs.

Amazon’s Prime Lending Library Collection Now Viewable Online – The Internet retailer’s complete collection of Prime Lending Library books for Kindle devices is online and accessible from any Web browser.

Android Devices Slated to Be Served ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ – With Gingerbread getting a little stale, Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich,” or ICS for short, will be a refreshing upgrade. ICS borrows the nifty holographic UI scheme from Honeycomb tablets and adds near field communications, facial recognition and other cool tools. See which devices are likely to receive ICS when it’s available.

How Apple Got the iPhone’s Battery Problems Right, And Siri Problems Wrong – Apple’s new iPhones are having some stumbles out of the gate: recently the new iOS 5 was revealed to suck down more battery than anyone predicted, and the voice-command feature, Siri, became so popular it seems to have stunned Apple’s servers. Apple’s response to one problem, but not the other, is typical of the company.

Company News:

Yahoo Delivers ‘Cocktails` for Web Developers – Yahoo has delivered a new set of tools and tricks to help web developers create applications using standard Web technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript and CSS.

Canon Tackles Pro Filmmaking With $20,000 EOS C300 – It was only a matter of time before the company made a move like this—it has long been a major player in the consumer and prosumer video camera markets, but also found success in independent filmmaking circles with the 5D Mark II and 7D D-SLR cameras.

Toshiba in Talks to Buy Fujitsu’s Hard Disk Drive Business – Toshiba is officially in talks to buy Fujitsu’s hard disk drive business, which would make Toshiba one of the world’s largest producers of data storage. The deal is worth approximately $340 million to $450 million. In addition to HDDs, Toshiba is also the world’s second biggest maker of solid state drives after Samsung.

IBM Brings Message Queuing Telemetry Transport to Eclipse – The Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) has been used by IBM as a messaging protocol for a number of years. In 2010, IBM announced that MQTT would be freely available under a royalty-free license. Today IBM has expanded the openness by contributing an open source MQTT client for Java and C to Eclipse.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Android Smartphones, iPhones Popular for Users Under 44 – Google retained its 43 percent U.S. smartphone operating system market share for the third quarter just as Apple kept its 28 percent plot. The age demographics point to smartphones for 20-something to middle-aged adults, Nielsen said.

A Smart Pedometer – Fitbit Ultra is a sleek, sturdy, and affordable device that can help you monitor your general physical activity level. It’s meant for casual users, not serious athletes.

Social Media Trumps Salary in the Workplace – New study from Cisco find some surprising results in how millennials view the need for social media at work.

PC CPU Sales Still Growing in Q3 – As world economies teeter on the brink, the rest of the world appears to keep going — at least that’s one apparent take away from the latest figures for PC CPU sales globally. Analyst firm IDC Thursday reported that worldwide sales of PC microprocessors grew by 16.1 percent in the third quarter from the same period last year. Sales for the quarter were $10.7 billion, a gain of 12.2 percent from the second quarter of 2011.

Today’s Quote:

“The crowd is stupider than the averaging of its component minds”

Will Self, on crowds

Today’s Free Downloads:

WP PaintBrush – WordPress.org offers over 1,400 themes, and premium sites offer themes for a reasonable fee. Many come with customization options, but I have yet to see one that is quite as customizable as WP PaintBrush. If you want to take the WordPress blog layout and make it your own, this is one great tool, at a price that can’t be beat.

Eraser 6.0.9 – Eraser is an advanced security tool, which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.

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Daylight Savings Time Ends – It’s That Semi-Annual “Clean Your Computer” Time Again

To make it easy to remember, I schedule my computer maintenance and cleaning, at the Spring and Fall time changes. Since we’ve adjusted our clocks back one hour today (here in North America), it’s time to rerun a primer on how to do a top to bottom physical cleanup of your computer.

Over the years I’ve noticed that many computer users are not too concerned with keeping the physical components clean; and they need to be concerned.  Computer maintenance involves not only keeping a computer clean of malware; viruses, Trojans, spyware, and adware – but, keeping the physical machine clean as well.

As regular reader TeX pointed out last year, when I ran this article – “Think of a place that hides more dust than the space under your bed.” He’s right – a computer system can collect an an amazing amount of dust.

No, this is not one of my machines.

Physically cleaning your computer is potentially one of the most important cleanup jobs you’re ever likely to do. Here’s why – heat.

Heat is a component killer, and it’s the chief cause of CPU failure in computers. CPU failure, caused by dust clogged vents, which leads to reduced air flow, is a more common occurrence than many realize.

Killer Dirt = Killer Heat

Overheating of the CPU will, at a minimum, cause the system to behave erratically; the computer spontaneously switches off, or restarts; frequent “blue-screen” error messages, and more.

Here’s a comment from my Australian buddy Mal, on last year’s reposting of this article – “Earlier this year, my computer started beeping at me. It was an alarm to say “I’m overheating”. I took off the cover and cleaned out all the dust, which was everywhere.

When I turned it back on, the temp at dropped 30 degrees Celsius. No wonder the machine was screaming at me. So a good timely article on your part.”

Keeping your computer in top shape, with a regularly scheduled cleaning program, will prevent the inconvenience of having your system go down, and in the long run save you money.

Tools you’ll need:

Screwdriver

A can of compressed air

Cotton swabs

Rubbing alcohol (70% is fine)

Paper towels or anti-static cloths

Water

Make sure you disconnect the machine from the wall outlet before you begin maintenance and cleanup, and be gentle when touching the components inside the case.

Open the case:

If required, use the screwdriver to remove the side of the case that’s opposite the motherboard. Blow compresses air over the components and interior of the case, keeping the can upright and nozzle four inches away from components.

Clean the power supply and the case fan with a shot of compressed air. Next, blow compressed air into the CD/DVD drive. Give the inside of the case a wipe with a slightly moistened cloth before replacing the cover.

Clean the exterior:

Wipe the exterior of the case with a slightly moistened cloth; repeat the wipe with a dry cloth or paper towel. Be sure to clean all case openings using this method.

Clean the keyboard:

Since the keyboard gets more physical contact than any other component, if you can, clean it on a monthly basis. Blowout in and around the keys with compressed air monthly and on your scheduled cleanup rub down the keys and case with a clean cloth slightly dampened with rubbing alcohol.

Clean the mouse:

Like the keyboard, the mouse gets substantial physical contact and requires cleaning on a monthly basis. If you have an optical mouse simply wipe it down just as you wiped down the keyboard. If you have a mechanical mouse then you need to remove, wash, and then dry the ball.

Next, clean inside the mouse with a cotton swab moistened with rubbing alcohol. Finally blow compressed air into the opening and then reassemble the mouse.

Clean the monitor:

Never spray liquid directly onto the screen. Instead, moisten the cloth, or the paper towel, with the cleaning solution. Spraying the screen directly runs the risk of liquid penetrating into the monitor components.

Wipe the screen gently to remove dust and fingerprints. For laptop screens, buy a special cleaning solution available at computer stores. Do this weekly.

I know this is a no-brainer, but before you plug the computer back into the wall outlet, be sure all components are thoroughly dry.

Previous postings of this article drew some very valuable comments from regular readers, including the following:

Vhick:

I always clean my PC one a month. In a tropical country like here, dust is everywhere. Clean, turn around, and there’s a dust again. PC cleaning inside and out is must here, because of very hot temperatures.

Georg L:

Cleaning is nice, but when doing so, one should also change the heat sink compound between hot semiconductors and the respective heat sinks. The CPU is most critical in this respect.

Volatile components evaporate over time, turning the compound into an effective heat insulator with a plaster-like texture. I suggest a change every second year in moderate climates, and an annual change in the tropics.

Just to follow up on Georg’s comment – earlier this year, a reader explained that he had rebuilt his machine and replaced all components (other than the CPU), and yet, the machine still locked up after just a few minutes of operation. I passed on Georg’s advice and voila – problem solved!

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Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – November 6, 2011

PC Prescriptions: 21 Free Apps to Keep Your PC Healthy – An ounce of prevention is worth, what, a working version of your operating system? A few hours of a Windows reinstallation? All of your system’s data? When it comes to dealing with issues with your desktop or laptop PC, apps that help you prevent problems before they occur are worth their file size in gold.

EASEUS Todo Backup – A lot has changed in Easeus ToDo Backup Free since I last reviewed it as version 1.1. Then, it was already the most competent free backup program in existence with both file backup and imaging of partitions, but it lacked niceties such as scheduled scans. Version 3.0 has addressed every complaint I had and added tons of functionality. It now schedules and performs incremental and differential backups, images your system partition from within Windows, and no longer splits files unless you want it to.

PCWorld Reviewers’ Favorite Files for October: Utilities and a Dash of Fun – Every month, PCWorld reviewers examine dozens of files. These are some of our favorites from the Downloads section.

How to add multiple user accounts to Chrome – Learn how to get the new beta of Chrome and create user accounts so everyone gets a personalized experience.

Browser Extension of the Week: Web of Trust – Designed for use with Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari (if you must), Web of Trust provides a safer browsing experience by indexing websites based on a number of attributes: Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy and Child Safety. After creating an account or connecting to WOT through your Facebook profile, using the extension couldn’t be easier: Simply browse to a website, click on the extension icon, and you’ll be provided with the site’s WOT rating.

How to make your own personal media cloud using free programs and an old PC – With an old PC and $20, you can create a solid media server in your home that can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection. All it takes is a bit of know-how and some walkthroughs.

Best Buy swipes Nook Color price down to $200 – The move supports speculation that after this coming Monday’s all-but-certain unveiling of a new Nook, B&N may leave the original Nook Color on the market at this reduced price as an added weapon against rival Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet.

Free Service Lets You See If Your Email Address Has Been Compromised – Has your email or username been snatched by hackers and posted to the Internet? You can find the answer to that question at a new online service called Pwnedlist. To see if your email address or username is in the service’s nearly five million name database of pilfered personal data, you simply type in your information, click check, and Pwnedlist will deliver the good or bad news to you.

Ubuntu One cloud storage: Staying for the long haul? – Today’s cloud storage market is flooded with competition, all offering similar services. Dropbox, Box.net, Amazon Cloud Storage, Minus.com, Memopal, Windows SkyDrive, Google Docs (of a sort) and, finally, Ubuntu One. But which is the best service? Is the most storage for free the criteria that makes it the best? Security? Ease of use? Least annoying?

Mozilla puts Firefox on a memory diet – At any one time, SpiderMonkey’s memory footprint can be over 50% of Firefox’s total usage — but hopefully, that’s about to change.

Siri Outages Indicate Apple Still Doesn’t Get the Cloud – The recent downtime for Apple’s virtual assistant show the company still has a lot to learn about web services.

Company News:

Sony patents biometric PS3 controller and handheld computer – A recent patent application by Sony for a PS3 controller and handheld computer includes sensors that will measure muscle movements, your heart rhythm, and how moist your skin is. Sony isn’t the first to put something like this in the works — Nintendo tried something similar with the Wii Vitality Sensor — but hopefully it can do it right.

Diebold Advances Fight Against ATM Card Skimming With Theft-Prevention – While criminals once targeted financial institutions for their currency, today’s advanced technologies have made consumer data a far more desirable payoff. In its continuous effort to remain vigilant in the fight against theft at the automated teller machine (ATM), Diebold, Incorporated is introducing a re-engineered bezel and the Opteva’ BezelSentry(SM) Service to not only detect skimming activity, but to help prevent it.

The steepening slide: AMD is firing 11% of its workforce – AMD has announced that it will lay off approximately 1400 workers out of a total of 12,019 in a bid to cut operating expenses. The company’s decision comes as something of a surprise given its successful Brazos and Llano launches earlier this year and the fairly good Q3 results it reported only a week ago.

Startup To Launch New Brand Of SaaS For Post-Incident Response – Co3 Systems, based in Cambridge, Mass., is headed up by an executive team who hails from key security firms such as Symantec, McAfee, Counterpane, Arbor Networks, Application Security Inc., @stake, and Verdasys. The firm’s new SaaS offering encompasses event preparedness, data event analysis, liability assessment, and incident response workflow.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Tech for Musicians and Music Lovers – The intersection between tech and music is huge. We highlight some of the best computer hardware, consumer electronics, software, and apps to let you rock out.

Happy 10th birthday, iPod: 5 lousy reasons why automakers cling to the 30-year-old CD – As the Apple iPod reaches its 10th birthday, it’s safe to say the iPod and MP3 are technologies that won’t fade like the MiniDisc player. But virtually every one of the 12 million cars sold in the US this year has a CD player standard. On most, a USB jack is optional, unavailable, or only on the higher trim lines. Here are the five most common excuses — sorry, reasons — why it’s so hard to get a USB jack in your car.

Drug Cartel Releases ‘Anonymous’ Hostage, But Battle Continues – Barrett Brown, a sometimes spokesman for the hacker collective Anonymous, said Thursday that the Zeta Mexican cartel had freed a kidnapped member of its group, but that he would continue to battle the violent gang on his own, outside of Anonymous. The issue has divided the hacker community, with some Anonymous members calling for Brown to be stopped lest he get someone killed. Brown was unmoved, arguing in a Thursday Pastebin note that he will not abandon the plan “simply because there is a possibility of retaliation.”

Say what? Google now indexing Facebook comments – Your name might be a little more searchable these days, as Google now indexes comments you publish on Web sites using the Facebook Comments platform.

Today’s Quote:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

–     Alvin Toffler

Today’s Free Downloads:

Driver Magician Lite 3.81 – Driver Magician offers a professional solution for device drivers backup, restoration, update and removal in Windows operating system. It identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a location of your choice. Then when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can restore all the “saved” drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands. After one system reboot, your PC will be loaded and running with the required hardware drivers.

SIW (System Info) – SIW is a system information tool, that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings. It includes detailed specs for CPU, Network, TCP/IP, Memory, Hardware, Users, Network Shares, and more.

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