January 2008 - Posts
Working from home much or on another person's computer? Or maybe you're just nostalgic and like working from Internet cafe's. Remember those?
Pendriveapps.com is a nice directory that has many portable USB software resources that you can download onto a flash drive, iPod or other portable device, bring it with you and run the application on another machine. You can bring along office applications, email, browsers, antivirus software, graphical editors and ever-important games, plus much more. And if you know of some other ones that are not listed, send them an email. They will review it and post it for others to use.
Who you gonna call?
Scambusters! They have come out with their top ten list of Internet scams for 2008.
"Identity theft continues to hold the top position, and we predict phishing
scams will be the number two scam for 2008," states Dr. Audri Lanford,
Co-Director of Scambusters.org. "We believe there will be a new category of scams that makes the 2008 Top 10
List, most likely related social networking sites."
Without further ado:
10. New category of scams.
9. Pump and dump scams.
8. Online dating
scams.
7. Spyware threats.
6. Overpayment scams.
5. Viruses, worms and
Trojans.
4. Nigerian scams - with many new twists.
3. Lottery
scams.
2. Phishing scams.
1. Identity theft scams.
My favorite is number 10 - "New category of scams." I suppose this is the "most likely related social networking sites" bit, but it's a little vague, no? The anticipation is killing me.
So if you're involved in online dating sites, social networking or e-commerce, be aware of the risks and perceived risks. If you're a legitimate Nigerian business person, you may want to consider moving to another country.
Have you seen a seven-year-old work a computer lately? It's kind of stunning how advaned they are ... and kind of scary. It's only a matter of time before your child realizes the full potential of the Web and wants to join the social networking craze.
Club Penguin is already wildly successful, as is
Webkinz. But one concern reigns supreme - how safe is a child online?
Created by a public school teacher,
Kiddzchat.com wants to help ease parents' concerns over the inevitable and offer a safe social networking opportunity for the little ones. Kiddzchat provides all of the normal functionality of a social networking site - profiles, IM, blogs, messaging, photos, video and games. To make the network safe, there are five steps taken:
- Parents must sign up their kids with a valid credit card to confirm identity.
- Parents' identities are checked with a national criminal database for child predators and sex offenders.
- Membership is approved after checking with the database - if not approved, the individual is reported to the proper authorities.
- The new adult member sets up administrative capabilities (ID and password) then sets up their child's profile.
- Parents must approve requests to befriend your child - if not, the member will no longer be able to contact your child or see their profile. Once approved, those friends are able to freely communicate.
It's nice to see that people out there are responding to concerns over kids and the dangers of technology. But there are always ways to beat the system. And threats don't come only from predators - cyberbullying is real and can be a major problem. Kiddzchat could be a nice thing for kids, but like most things kids do, this should be closely monitored. Most online child safety groups recommend Internet activity for kids only when a parent or guardian is present.
Information for online child safety is widely available. Here are a few resources:
SafeKids.comWiredKids.orgFBI Publications
It's a typical scenario: You know the name of the place you want to go, but not the address. So, you search for the business online, spend a few minutes tracking down the address, then copy and paste the information into a mapping program to get your driving directions. While effective, it's kind of a hassle.
With a new feature in
Google maps, you can enter your starting point, then simply enter the business name, or even category of what you're looking for and get detailed maps of results. For example, enter your address and then in the "End address" field, enter pizza. You'll get a map and listing of indexed pizza joints near your starting address. Click on the desired result and you'll get your directions. Pretty neat, and a great time-saver.
A few early tests show very positive results. In some random categories I found very relevant businesses, most of the time results were very close to my starting address. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find some pretty obscure business listed accurately in my results when searching for their specific names.
So, tired of the "same old, same old" of Google's search page ... or even search results?
Take a spin at Ask.com - not only is the search engine results page (SERP) just plain more attractive and interesting, but now you can upload your own skin (background) to the search page. Or at least you can try. I've already tried five times and received the same message each time:
Your image must be landscape oriented and 6400x480 or larger.
That's disappointing. And probably a typo. But anyway, I've tried to upload several images and I just can't seem to find one that meets the size requirements. If you Ask me, it's a bit finicky.
Can't get enough YouTube at the office? Now you can get almost all YouTube videos during your commute too, following an announcement to expand the
mobile offering (
http://m.youtube.com) of the UGC video-sharing site. That is, if you have one of the latest generations of handsets with a 3G operator - approximately 100 million devices worldwide.
Some other features that are included in the expanded mobile offering include the ability to rate videos and share clips with friends. There are also efforts to make it easier to upload videos directly from mobile devices to YouTube - that's going to start with limited devices, including some Sony Ericsson and Nokia models.
For now, Google and YouTube hope to get users accustomed to viewing video on their mobile devices. There are no
immediate plans to monetize the service by showing ads ... but stay tuned for that.
Digital photo frames have soared in popularity and were a big hit over the holidays. But, like anything digital they run a risk of infection, and it turns out Best Buy was inadvertantly responsible for selling the virus-laden frames to a number of consumers, although exact numbers are not yet available.
The affected frames are apparently limited to the 10.4-inch version of Insignia frames, with a model number of Number
NS-DPF10A.
"While this is an older virus which is easily identified and removed by current
anti -virus software, we are taking this situation seriously," the statement on
the Insignia Web site read. "This situation is not characteristic of Insignia
products. We have launched an investigation and will take the actions necessary
to help ensure that a situation like this is not repeated."
In 2007, about 5.6 million digital photo frames were sold, and that number is expected to reach nearly 10 million in 2008, according to research firm IDC.