Most people are concerned about their digital privacy. Most people also don’t read the privacy statements for the services they use. Face it, your info is a valuable commodity, and not just to you. OK, so March first was the big day for Google. They changed their privacy policy to unite all your info across all the services of theirs which you use. They aren’t collecting more data. They’ve always collected that data. They’re just using it differently. The a...
Just stumbled across a perfect birthday present for the Wiz! Makeuseof has just put together a page with nine categories of “The Best” portable apps. And at first glance, they appear to be free. That doesn’t mean that if you have something different, it’s no good. Not at all. This is only their editors’ judgment. Cruise over and take a look see… if you really need and will use it, grab it! Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/b...
Stardock has sent out it’s yearly survey. Please take some time to fill it out. It’s all of 14 simple questions and takes a minute of your time. For that minute and your answers, Stardock is offering a discount of 10% on any purchase good through March 31, 2012. edit: By the way, in answer to some of the first responses, the mailing might be done in "successive waves", and do make sure to check your "spam/junk" folders for this email. For those with several email acco...
Privacy is an important concept. We all want it. We all make sacrifices to keep it, yet paradoxically also do things to compromise it. Ok up to here. However, when we make online purchases, join websites and other things, we expect these details to remain guarded and become angered when these sites, and our data are compromised. Well, the Administration has a plan to generate standards for online privacy. This isn’t out of line imo. The Internet stretches across states, c...
Ok, so this is really cool… if you’ve ever hankered to create an animated cartoon, or meld real pictures and drawings but really didn’t want (or have) the big bucks needed for the software, this is for you. Imagine ZubaZ or PoSmedley as cartoon characters. Hmmmm…. (any shots of the software are incidental) This is simple software. It’s 2D, and really just has a set of very good, basic tools to work with. If you have Ps experience, or Gimp the tools won’t seem s...
The great smart phone can’t seem to avoid it’s one fatal downfall (so to speak): The toilet. How many have lost a phone to the throne? OK, put down your hands. That might just become a thing of the past. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, three companies showed off their stuff at CES 2012… HzO, P2i and Liquirepel all are coming to the rescue. Apparently, 82.5 million phones have been damaged by moisture. I’ve seen posts here in forums so thi...
This one caught my eye, and WebGizmo's. He thought it was air freshener. A spray on antenna. Imagine you’re lost in the woods with a phone but zilch bars, Or on the side of a road out where there’s zero reception. Maybe after a hurricane or disaster, and the only antennas are miles away. Or on a battlefield. There’s a plane overhead, but you can’t call for help. Yes you can, now (well, on VHF in the example below, because that’s the band planes use), but i...
Adobe has issued a “Critical” security update addressing 7 vulnerabilities, one of which is currently being exploited. One is a cross scripting vulnerability and six allow infection via crafted web pages. “The cross site scripting attack is basically aimed at Internet Explorer on Windows systems, tricking users to click on malicious links. Adobe says the vulnerability “could be used to take actions on a user’s behalf on any website or webmail provider, if the ...
One of the ways we become ‘commodities’ is by being tracked as we move from website to website. Anywhere you see those facebook and twitter icons you’re being tracked by those two at least. Also, have you ever wondered why ads on websites seem to be uncannily directed at you? Well, it’s by tracking you and identifying you… So, this is hardly news, but “DoNotTrackPlus” (DNT+) might be, for some. I had the extensions on my Chrome and Firef...
The U.S. Department of State and its embassy in Prague are sponsoring the contest to test ways social media and open source data can be used to track terrorists and locate missing children. Didn’t know the State Department looked for missing children… or terrorists, for that matter. I thought that was a local law enforcement function, and Interpol but certainly if an American child goes lost in a foreign country, they would be involved, so it could be a valuable tool&helli...
“Happy Valentine’s Day” from MS, only the theme isn’t ‘hearts and flowers’. It’s ‘remote code execution’. MS states there will be many fixes for IE, and for every version of it’s several OS’s, including XP, so browsing in XP as well as OS XP will be safer as well. There are no .NET updates. There will be nine security bulletins “Critical”: Four, and “Important”": Five. T...
Our wonderful patriots, Anonymous are claiming having taken down the CIA website (probably using malware infested bot computers) most likely with DNS attacks. Worse, they stole the names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and Social Security numbers of some 46,000 people from the State of Alabama website. Well, I suppose it was to be expected. Now Anonymous has made another terroristic threat. This time the would be champion of the downtrodden has issued poorly veil...
According to RT ( http://rt.com/usa/news/senate-sopa-new-internet-847/ ): “After trying to adopt Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), both pieces of legislation turned out to be a disaster, causing outrage among Internet giants and ordinary users alike. Congress had to retreat. However it's determined to get what it wants this time.” More like they’re determined to get what MIAA, RIAA and MPIAA want and what they can give them for it. Amazing that ...
The “Consumer Preview” (a.k.a. “Public Beta”) of Windows 8 is scheduled to launch on 2/29/12 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The roadmap will be: Developer Preview (9/2011), Beta (the Consumer Preview), RC and then RTM. Microsoft declines to give a date for product shipment. They’ve been burned on that one in the past. Also unknown is whether the x86 and ARM versions will go to market at the same time, although it seems likely they would.
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An 83 year old Belgian lady received the world’s first jaw transplant – made on a 3D printer which created it out of Titanium. 3D printing is going to open up a whole new and better world for the people needing such appliances. While it’s slightly heavier than the original, it should provide a ‘perfect’ replacement. It also should significantly reduce surgery time because of that. Today, replacements have to be ‘fitted’ during surgery. For heart and aged patients this is a fantastic ...