Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A Wired review of Apple Magic Mouse




It's Magic! The First Apple Mouse That Doesn't Suck

"It's about time. For years, Apple has embraced aesthetic simplicity over practicality with its peripherals. Single-button mice! Yes, we know Apple hasn't made single-button mice for a long time, but why in the world did Steve Jobs ever think that was a good idea? Well, he was wrong until today. Apple's latest Magic Mouse actually does the trick thanks to its multitouch powers.

The Magic Mouse ditches the lozenge-shaped body and gunk-collecting trackball of its predecessor (the Mighty Mouse) in favor of a curvy wedge shape with a fully touch-sensitive housing. The new form factor fits more naturally in your hand than previous Apple mice — enough so to erase the painful memories you have of that atrocious hockey-puck mouse from the '90s.

The mouse detects touch gestures that trigger different functions. Swiping upward or downward with momentum enables scrolling in a browser. In Safari, using two fingers and swiping left or right takes you a page backward or forward, respectively. The same gesture also lets you flip through a photo album with the Mac OS X Preview app.

In an age where a heavy amount of everyday computing can be done in a web browser, the Magic Mouse couldn't be more than welcome."

Read the full story by Brian Chen

Monday, November 23, 2009

iPhone worm can act like botnet say experts

A second worm to hit the iPhone has been unearthed by security company F-Secure.

It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING.
It redirects the bank's customers to a lookalike site with a log-in screen.

The worm attacks "jail-broken" phones - a modification which enables the user to run non-Apple approved software on their handset.

The handsets at risk also have SSH (secure shell) installed.

Read the full story at BBC News

More:
Symantec Spots Worm Targeting Jailbroken Apple iPhone Phones

Family Can't Afford Moving Truck

Friday, November 20, 2009

Report: Countries prepping for cyberwar

"Major countries and nation-states are engaged in a "Cyber Cold War," amassing cyberweapons, conducting espionage, and testing networks in preparation for using the Internet to conduct war, according to a new report to be released on Tuesday by McAfee.

In particular, countries gearing up for cyberoffensives are the U.S., Israel, Russia, China, and France, the says the report, compiled by former White House Homeland Security adviser Paul Kurtz and based on interviews with more than 20 experts in international relations, national security and Internet security.

"We don't believe we've seen cases of cyberwarfare," said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee. "Nations have been reluctant to use those capabilities because of the likelihood that [a big cyberattack] could do harm to their own country. The world is so interconnected these days."

Threats of cyberwarfare have been hyped for decades. There have been unauthorized penetrations into government systems since the early ARPANET days and it has long been known that the U.S. critical infrastructure is vulnerable."

Read the full story at CNET by Elinor Mills

Thursday, November 19, 2009

How not to be a jerk during your next fight

"I can sum up in three "acts" the breakdowns and breakups of most relationships since the beginning of time:

Act 1: You hurt me.
Act 2: Because you hurt me, I now hurt you.
Act 3: Because you hurt me, I now hurt you and so you hurt me again and so I hurt you -- and downward spiraling we shall go.
John Gottman, the famed founder of The Love Lab (a family research laboratory where where couples are studied), says he can consistently predict how long a relationship will last, not based on how well a couple gets along, but by how well a couple doesn't get along.

A relationship is only as strong as how well the two can deal with their weakest moments and how well they handle conflict."

Read the full story at CNN By Karen Salmansohn from Oprah.com


Simple ways to not be a idiot during your next fight:
1. Pick the right time and the right place, in private.
2. Avoid harsh start-ups such as starting out blaming or calling your partner bad names.
3. Always be virtuous. Don't be cold, pridefull, angry or become hysterica.
4. Instead of trying to win arguments, try to have a winning relationship!
5. Put in the "virtue of discipline" to calm yourself before you begin talking. Be calm and reasonable and your mate will be too.
6. Close a difficult conversation by sharing memories of good times and/or your partner's good qualities. You can catch more Bees with honey than with vinegar. A few kind words can go a long way.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Respirator or face mask? Best H1N1 protection still debated


"(Health.com) -- A preliminary report suggesting that N95 respirators -- filtering devices worn over the mouth and nose -- protect against swine flu better than surgical face masks seems to be incorrect, researchers revealed during a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

In fact, surgical face masks, which are cheaper and easier to wear, may be just as good as N95 respirators. At the very least, researchers can't prove that one is better than the other. It's the latest wrinkle in a continuing debate over how to protect health-care workers from the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu."

Read the full story at CNN

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Advisory Windows 7 Security Bug

Microsoft releases an advisory to help users concerned about a new zero-day vulnerability affecting Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The bug was made public last week after Patch Tuesday.

Microsoft released a security advisory to help users mitigate a bug affecting Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 Release 2.

The security vulnerability was reported last week by researcher Laurent Gaffie and can be exploited to remotely trigger a denial-of-service condition in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Gaffie posted proof-of-concept code to the Full Disclosure mailing list and his personal blog last week.

The bug he uncovered lies within the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and affects SMB versions 1 and 2, the advisory states. SMB is the file-sharing protocol used by default on Windows-based computers.

According to Microsoft, users can block TCPports 139 and 445 at the firewall to defend themselves against exploits. Instructions on how to do that are contained within the advisory. Several Windows services use the affected ports, so blocking connectivity to the ports may cause various applications or services to stop functioning, Microsoft warned.

Read the full story

Monday, November 16, 2009

Psystar massacred in court

Mac clone maker Psystar was dealt a significant legal blow on Friday when federal judge William Alsup ruled (PDF) that it violated Apple’s copyright and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Groklaw called the ruling by “a total massacre”!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Ultimate Russian Comfort Food



"The differences between Russian and French cuisine are many, but here’s one of the most important: French food is urbane, it beckons you forward while always managing to stay a few steps ahead, like a mysterious beautiful woman. Russian food is basic, nourishing, domestic. Like mom, it simply smothers you with love. That’s why you can eat French cuisine at home, but still picture it being served in a restaurant, while Russian cuisine will always have something homemade about it, no matter where it is served.

Golubtsy, or stuffed cabbage, is perhaps the homiest of all Russian dishes. For most children of the Soviet Union, golubtsy bring back memories of mom or grandma and long, comforting meals in a warm kitchen."

Continue Reading

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Unlock Any iPhone in Seconds!

Superstar iPhone hacker George Hotz has just released Blacksn0w, an addition to his latest Blackra1n iPhone jailbreaking application. Why would you want it? Because it will take any iPhone or iPod Touch and jailbreak it with one click. It will also unlock any iPhone and allow it to be used on any cell carrier, anywhere in the world. It even restores internet connection tethering for iPhones running the latest 3.1.2 software.

Better still, it does all this in a few seconds flat.

Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses

SophosLabs and loaded a full release copy of Windows 7 on a clean machine. We configured it to follow the system defaults for User Account Control (UAC) and did not load any anti-virus software. Unfortunately, despite Microsoft's claims, Windows 7 disappointed just like earlier versions of Windows.

See the test results