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 ...
Just saw this about a worker’s life at Foxconn: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/china-apple-foxconn-worker/index.html?hpt=hp_c2 You should see it if you get the opportunity sometime today [sorry, you’ll have to see the stupid Verizon ad in order to do so, though]. It reiterates what we’ve been saying. Right now, she earns less than $1 per hour. Good thing she works more than 60 hrs. a week, eh? She’s never even seen an iPad, though… not the finished product, anyway...
I didn’t do the comparison, and the one that was done on The Windows Club isn’t at all wordy, but the chart rocks. A lot of work went into that, and I thought it was really good enough to bring to you to see (if you need a word processor). Also, three of them are full office suites. I use OpenOffice, but am trying LibreOffice because of the number of devs actively working on the (open source) code. I looked for the source on that, but couldn’t find it. I think i...
When I saw this one on gHacks.net, I had to get it. Makes my job easier…. but also, last time I saw it was on Windows Me. O.K. – I’m old… and just like me, works just fine. The program basically expands the basic clipboard’s Cntrl-C and Cntrl-V to allow multiple entries while the app is running. And it can be run from the systray. It can be easily configured: Photocredit gHacks.net It looks like this when working on my desktop: I’d really recomm...
Neowin has posted some screenshots of Windows 8 build 8220. Turns out MS has stolen my idea! lol. Well… I did put up screenies of Noir without a start button (Desktop Screenshot of the Month thread) and now, in W8 8220 (6.2.8220.0) the famous orb seems to be missing. Also, the super bar (or Dock Bar… the task bar) is remaining and you’ll need it (if you’re getting W8) as a place to pin your most used (non-tiled) apps in order to have rapid access to them. I have a bett...
Well, for a few months we’ve been hearing bad news about the degree of penetration of Android apps with malware primarily designed to steal personal information. That occurred because Google chose not to be the “gatekeeper” and have very strict control over the apps being uploaded like Apple. "We've chosen not to be the gatekeeper," Alan Davidson, now former director of public policy at Google, said during a May, 2011 hearing on location tracking. "We don't ge...
No doubt with the flood of info we’re exposed to every day this has faded a bit, but CarrierIQ’s software was on many cell phones and was being used (supposedly) only to monitor network quality/droppage issues. Well, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) who wanted an investigation of CarrierIQ back then has drafted a bill designed to force carriers or those selling the phones into disclosing the capabilities of software to monitor (“and for any other purpose”) the consumer. Nathan Tsu...
I kept thinking about all the mods one of the game site members wrote that he lost in the Megaupload take down. I kept thinking about “How would I feel if all my ‘shops’ got lost or if this happened to all of a friend’s stuff?” I’d feel pretty badly. Work and creative effort are what they are. So when I saw an article about this at ars, I knew I had to write this in the hopes it’ll help one of the folks I know (or don’t know) retrieve his or her valuable property… or anything im...
Good old WinPatrol (has been around for 14 years and how many times do you see 24.1.2012.0 on a piece of software?) has been updated. This is good news since some had reported that “delayed start” wasn’t working and that the x64 bit version wasn’t displaying ‘hidden’ files. These have been fixed. WinPatrol has lots of features. Most importantly, it learns your setup and when any program tries to change that, it barks and lets you know. He...
MS, Google, PayPal, Facebook, AOL and LinkedIn along with several other net heavyweights and Bank of America as well as Fidelity Investments are getting together to put an end to phishing. No new technology, just a new framework for email using SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). DMARC.org published its guidelines and specification for this new framework. “What DMARC adds is a policy-based framework of actions and reporting that email pr...
Well, bad news first: No photos as a background in the Metro style touchscreen. Photos apparently would be hidden by the tiles, and wouldn’t stretch/scale as you add more tiles. Good news? You have (presently) 8 different styles from curlicues to rectangles and squares. and a shade picker from a scrollbar color picker. Not all tiles will conform to the shading of certain color picks, though. You can use your scrollwheel to swipe sideways, and there’s a “semantic zoom” (pinc...
Whitson Gordon has reviewed “Tiles” on Lifehacker ( http://lifehacker.com/5879727/tiles-keeps-your-open-windows-and-shortcuts-organized-to-reduce-screen-clutter)and has this to say: “Tiles is a new application from Stardock, makers of our favorite desktop organizer , Fences , that keeps your open windows organized in a Metro-style thumbnail view in your sidebar, so you can focus on just the windows you need….It also comes with a nice theme engine, built ...