Archive for March, 2009
Beware of fake Conficker security software
The scam artists are ever on the lookout for new ways to lighten your wallet. The Conficker hullabaloo is another business opportunity for these types. Don’t fall for fake claims about software to clean your system of Conficker. InfoWorld reports:
Google’s search rankings are being stuffed with links to fake security software that purports to [...]
Another review of netbooks
Here’s some more about netbooks. Consumer electronics writer David Pogue looks at four of these popular little computers in a New York Times article.
For computing history buffs
If you are like me and occasionally have nostalgic moments thinking about operating systems of days past, Computerworld has an article, Gone but not forgotten: 10 operating systems the world left behind. There is also a photo gallery accompanying the article.
Unix, which is still going strong, is approaching its 40th birthday and so Computerworld has [...]
Internet history at the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is an archive of old Web pages. (The name comes from a time-travel machine in the 1960’s TV cartoon series, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, specifically the segment, Peabody’s Improbable History.) The archive is a place to go if you want to see what Google looked like ten years ago. It has [...]
Service for the forgetful
If you have trouble keeping track of all the things you’re supposed to do, Mike Elgan has a recommendation. In two columns at Computerworld, he describes a free service called reQall and its additional paid service reQall Pro. Elgan writes:
I use the voice-recognition feature mainly. I just launch the reQall app on my iPhone, press [...]
Social networks keep growing and growing
The role of the Internet in today’s society keeps expanding. The recent phenomenon of social networks is another demonstration of the effect of the Internet on the lives of hundreds of millions of people all over the globe. This explosion of connectedness will provide material for sociology students for years to come.
Sometimes you can [...]
Conficker worm advice
Anyone who has read about the Conficker/Downadup worm in my previous posts (search Conficker) should know what to do but there is so much talk about the predicted April 1 outbreak that I bring it up again. There is a lot of scare talk, with the worm even getting a 60 Minutes TV segment. Home [...]
Big computer spy system found
An investigation into who was hacking the Dalai Lama’s computers has led to the discovery of a world-wide spy effort. The New York Times reports:
A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have [...]
Get latest security update for Firefox
A possibly serious security hole was recently found in the Firefox browser and Mozilla has rushed to patch it. The updated version 3.08 is available here (English only at this time).
Windows Vista tweaking utility
Prior to Vista, Microsoft provided an unofficial utility called Tweakui that allowed for conveniently customizing a number of system settings. There is no Vista version of Tweakui but Ramesh Kumar has written a similar free utility called Ultimate Windows Tweaker that is available at The WinVista Club. I briefly mentioned this utility back in November [...]
Comparing Web browsers
At the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo has a piece comparing four different browsers:
If you’re looking for a good old-fashioned product war, you’re in luck: The browser wars are back on. Last week, Microsoft released the long-awaited update to its Internet Explorer browser. Apple, Mozilla and Google, meanwhile, have lately issued prerelease versions of their [...]