Identity theft is quickly becoming the number one concern for Americans, topping life-threatening terrorist attacks and deadly fast foods. With the number of software and hardware security exploits rising at an almost exponential rate, more and more people are becoming vulnerable to losing the privacy of their personal information to thieves. Further adding to this problem is an increasing number of new hardware and software applications that are enticing users to reveal personal information online.
Credit cards, bank accounts, and personal identification information can not only be stolen from a person’s own computers and devices, but also from remote servers entrusted with safeguarding their personal, banking, and health related information.
Read on to see several steps you can do to reduce the risk of your information being stolen by thieves…
I have heard many people complain that technology is dumbing down our society. Calculators make us bad at math, microwave ovens make us bad cooks, digital clocks make us forget how to use sundials… you get the gist. The question remains: does the very technology that we have become dependent on to live our daily lives enable us to have more free time to expand our knowledge of the world around us, or is it causing us to become slaves who are incapable of providing for ourselves? Or even worse, is technology allowing us to easily arrive at answers and conclusions by spoon-feeding us answers to questions that we haven’t even thought to ask yet, let alone do the critical thinking required to reach conclusions that make sense to us?
Are we becoming meme spewing robots who no longer need to think about the things we know or believe to be true?
The folks at DMLcentral have asked some of these questions, and share some interesting insight as to the effect that technology has on our children and how they are learning in this digital age.
No sooner has an unlock for the iPhone 4 been released by Dev-Team called ultrasn0w than Apple has announced that it is looking into the security flaw that allows this unlock to work.
The unlock is a simple executable that appears to exploit a weakness (bug) in the Adobe software that handles PDF files. Yes, the same sort of secutiry flaw in Adobe’s PDF reading software that has been plaguing PC and Mac users for years. By running this executable on the appropriate iPhone, the phone will become unlocked and no longer under the strict control of Apple.
Apple appears primarily concerned that after running this unlocker, users will be able to add applications to their iPhone that do not come from the approving hands of it’s own iTunes store. Apple is very concerned about preserving the reven ecosystem of the iTunes store for applications for all of it’s devices. Perhaps even more concerning for AT&T than Apple is the fact that unlocked phones are no longer tied to AT&T; they are free to be used with any GSM carrier. It is exactly this type of freedom that every flag waving American should fight against, because we all know that freedom isn’t free! It costs $89.95 a month.
Expect Apple to patch the security flaw that allowed this unlock to work soon. Then expect the next flaw to be exploited. And that to be patched. and so on, and so on, and…
I really wasn’t expecting to be reporting on this anytime soon, but it looks like the Library of Congress has added DMCA exceptions for anti-circumvention for personal phones. What this means is that you are no longer breaking the law by installing software that *you* choose onto your cell phone. As opposed to only being legally allowed to install applications or operating systems that a company (pick your favorite) approves of. This change is similar to walking into a library or bookstore and being “allowed” to check out or purchase any book you’d like, instead of being restricted to only checking out or purchasing books listed on someone’s “approved reading” list.
The act of installing another operating system on a phone that has measures in place to prevent you from doing so is called “jailbreaking”… you’re freeing your phone from being limited to a narrower range of modifications or software/app choices. I always thought the term “jailbreaking” was stupid, as it implied that you’re freeing a “bad thing” from punishment or confinement. Personally, I’d call it “doing what I want with something that I own”. No confusion there.
I’m confused. In the technology world, is smaller still better, or is bigger better now? I suppose “better” is a very subjective measurement… is small cooler or is larger cooler? I think if every electronic device was the size of a postage stamp and boasted a 70″ display, everyone would be happy. Until then, the marketing drones will continue to push for devices that become so small that they are no longer useful, and displays so large that they are no longer practical for their intended use.
This topic brings us to the Modu, billed as the “World’s Smallest Cellphone“. Oops, the “World’s Smallest Cellphone“. At some point, a phone becomes too small to be useful as a hand-held phone. It becomes too hard to hold, the battery life is too small, the display is too hard to read, and the whole phone becomes too easy to drop… or lose in the crease of your clothes. It becomes hard to brag about a phone so small that nobody can see you holding it. It’s not even fun for magic tricks, because it looks like it could be hidden or palmed with ease.
Read the full story, and you can make up your mind for yourself… is it marketing gone bad or is it a cool phone?
While I find a National Broadband Plan to be a reasonable and positive national priority, I’m a little concerned about it’s weak modest goals. The aim is to have 4Mbps Internet service in every home (including the often daunting last mile) by 2020. Many other nations have already rolled out 100Mbps fiber to their national residents, and are aiming for 1Gbps soon. If we are to put that last mile of cable into every U.S. residence, it would seem to me that a more lofty goal should be set, beyond the targeted 4Mbps that is considered slow by today’s standards, and useless in 10 years. Think about it… 10 years ago, 56K modems were far more common in homes than cable, ISDN, or DSL connections were. Imagine if today we finally realized the goal of a 56k modem and phone line in every home! How utterly useless that would be to most of us, and such a waste of resources to accomplish a goal that is archaic far before it is realized.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski received written questions today regarding the level of aggressiveness this goal represents. We will have to wait and see if the bar is set higher on the capacity that this plan will seek to achieve.
If you polled every 8 year old Star Wars fan about what they wanted for Christmas, a light saber would easily top the list. Not some cheap plastic light saber that lights up. No… a real one that can cut through anything! They wouldn’t cut off most of their fingers and a leg within the first five minutes, they swear!
I honestly never thought that anything even close to a real light saber would ever be invented in my lifetime, but I was shocked to learn the specs of a hand-held blue laser called the S3 Arctic Spyder III (by a company called Wicked Lasers). This thing is nuts. Stupid nuts! This Class 4 laser boasts 1W of output power, which will instantly blind anyone who’s eyes happen to be in the way.
With that in mind, here is the Wicked Lasers S3 Arctic Spyder III:
This is one weapon hand-held laser pointer Portable Laser that isn’t fucking around. “You could put an eye out with that” isn’t even coming close to describing the ease with which any wielder can blind anyone around them. It wouldn’t even take a stupid person to shatter someone’s life with this beast; all it would take is one second of “oops, did I aim that into the crowd over there?” and anyone wielding the S3 Arctic Spyder III is now a terrorist.
But I still can’t get past the fact that any geek like myself can easily see how insanely cool this thing would be to play with outdoors (miles away from people and shiny things) every now and then. I do think the fun would be slightly lessened due to the fact that I would be paranoid about not aiming it at anything that could even think about reflecting or refracting light the whole time. I’m not looking forward to seeing one of these in the hands of a drunk Star Wars fan lighting up the folks around him, however…
Gamers have long been complaining that even the best mouse pads on the market tend to leave a sticky residue after cooking on them. THe folks over at Rude Gameware have heard this cry and have stepped up to the plate with their newest offering. The Fierce Teflon & Steel Mouse has a durable steel core mounted on top of a non-slip rubberized base, which is coated with Teflon. Teflon, of course, is the material of choice for serious gamers and professional chefs alike, as it offers the least friction and cleans up easily after cooking a tasty meal on it. Rude Gameware promises outrageous mouse speeds and tasty omelets without that nasty, sticky mess after cooking.
This mousing surface is available now for a list price of $29.95. The company says that it will hit electronics and cooking supply stores nationwide soon.
Your shiny new iPhone 4 doesn't have terrible reception; you're just holding it wrong. You put your index finger here, your middle finger there, and your ring finger over there. Oh, and your thumb is supposed to go over here. See? If you hold the device with your fingers in exactly the right places, and the reception is fine.
The phenomenon has since come to be "lovingly" known as the "iPhone 4 death grip." . Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed the problem with the helpful advice, "Just avoid holding it that way." See, bad phone reception is all the user's fault; don't you even know how to hold your iPhone correctly? Since then, rumors have surrounded the possibility of a software fix in the next OS update, but the company has otherwise been fairly quite on the issue.
The "death grip" first started surfacing on Apple message boards on June 23. That same day, Apple listed three openings for iPad/iPhone Antenna Engineers. Not sure if anyone can actually wrap their fingers around the iPad, but the iPhone part of the equation certainly seems like too big a coincidence to ignore.
Technology meets reality. The result isn’t always pretty, but every once in awhile something new simply works well and in a way that becomes a positive addition to our lives.
Of course it’s always fun to slow down by the technological train wrecks that litter the road that led to today, and the road that leads to… further.
Identity theft is quickly becoming the number one concern for Americans, topping life-threatening terrorist attacks and deadly fast foods. With the number of software and hardware security exploits rising at an almost exponential rate, more and more people are becoming vulnerable to losing the privacy of their personal information to thieves. Further adding to this problem is an increasing number of new hardware and software applications that are enticing users to reveal personal information online.
I have heard many people complain that technology is dumbing down our society. Calculators make us bad at math, microwave ovens make us bad cooks, digital clocks make us forget how to use sundials… you get the gist. The question remains: does the very technology that we have become dependent on to live our daily lives enable us to have more free time to expand our knowledge of the world around us, or is it causing us to become slaves who are incapable of providing for ourselves? Or even worse, is technology allowing us to easily arrive at answers and conclusions by spoon-feeding us answers to questions that we haven’t even thought to ask yet, let alone do the critical thinking required to reach conclusions that make sense to us?
I’m confused. In the technology world, is smaller still better, or is bigger better now? I suppose “better” is a very subjective measurement… is small cooler or is larger cooler? I think if every electronic device was the size of a postage stamp and boasted a 70″ display, everyone would be happy. Until then, the marketing drones will continue to push for devices that become so small that they are no longer useful, and displays so large that they are no longer practical for their intended use.
While I find a 