24 Jan 2011
Unless you are stashing your savings in mason jars in the backyard you should worry about online security. If mason jars are your choice you should consider investing in a decent varmint gun and watch out for ground hogs.
Last week I received an email from my bank. The email was mostly marketing with notes about how much they care about their customers. There along the bottom of the message were those familiar, colorful icons with the ‘f‘ and ‘t‘ and a few others. The icons were all linked to various social networking web sites. By clicking these links I’d be telling my ‘friends’ that I like my bank. That seems harmless enough.
There’s a problem with saying you like your bank on Facebook. While you would obviously not post your bank password on Facebook there is a lot of personal information posted there. Identity thieves mine personal data from social networks like Facebook and Twitter looking for answers to the secret questions that banks ask when you forget your password. If identity thieves are sifting through your personal data are you helping them by telling what bank to focus their efforts on?
Be careful what you share on the Internet. Because of the increased connectedness that the Internet brings there are more ways to cause mischief.
19 Dec 2010
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) version 2.0 is out of Beta after about 4 months. It is a big upgrade and it is free to folks with a legitimate copy of Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP. Microsoft improved the heuristic scanning engine and there is integration with the Windows Firewall. For Windows 7 and Vista there is network traffic inspection.
Some of MSE’s popularity is due to the unobtrusive way that it protects your PC. It quietly and effectively does its job while many other antivirus products constantly interrupt with warnings and unnecessary notifications. MSE doesn’t bog your PC down like other bloated security products (Norton, McAfee, etc.). Now MSE is more effective.
The network inspection feature inspects traffic as you browse using features built into Windows 7 and Vista. Windows XP doesn’t have this so that feature is not available in MSE for XP. Previously MSE detected malicious web scripts after they downloaded — probably too late.
So if you get a new PC for Christmas, get MSE. Uninstall whatever antivirus software that comes with the PC (most of the time it is only a trial version anyway).
MSE is free for home users. It is also free for small businesses (10 PC’s or less). Microsoft has the Forefront Suite for larger companies.
03 Dec 2010
LastPass Acquires Xmarks, Keeping Free Bookmark-Syncing Plans Available. from Lifehacker
I have used Xmarks since the Foxmarks days. This is great news. I’ve been worried since Xmarks announced they were closing early next year.
Xmarks syncs the bookmarks between the different web browsers and Xmarks syncs between my different computers.
One of the first things I do when moving into a new computer is install Xmarks.
I’ve just started using LastPass. LastPass is pretty easy to use and it looks sound as far as I can tell. I worry about entrusting my passwords to the cloud though. I still depend on KeePass for now.
03 Dec 2010
Ben the Bodyguard. Coming soon to iPhone® and iPod touch®.
I’ll have to check this out when it’s released. The web site is really cool.
21 Nov 2010
I’ve had the iPhone 4 for a few weeks now. This weekend I found myself waiting to drop off books at the library. From the parking lot of the Chester Country Library is a nice view of a wooded stream. It was a good chance to test the HDR feature in the iPhone camera.
The image is split with the left side showing without HDR and the right with HDR. The washed out sky on the left looses details. There is a lot more detail on the right. The bare branches are clear in HDR and the tree bark texture looks better. The original with HDR on Flickr shows cloud textures that were lost in the image without HDR.
The original images are on Flickr.
