Archive for January, 2009
Google taking security a little too seriously?
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
An apparent problem with Google’s malware detector leads to mayhem on a Saturday morning.
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BART signs up for 20 years of Wi-Fi
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
The San Francisco Bay Area’s railway system plans to offer high-speed wireless access on all trains and at all stations by 2011.
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Former Microsoft exec returning after Yahoo stint
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
Scott Moore, who left Microsoft four years ago for Yahoo, is re-embracing Redmond, according to AllThingsD.
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Defense Department sets up its own SourceForge
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
Forge.mil enables Defense Department employees to collaborate on open-source software, a major shift in government adoption of open source.
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Too much Facebook makes teenage girls depressed
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
Research from Stony Brook University suggests that talking too much about your problems on social-networking sites causes depression.
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Motorola Krave ZN4’s successor named Inferno, now moving to field trials?
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
That Motorola Inferno is looking more real than ever for a couple reasons: first, we’ve been able to confirm it with a trusted source of ours, and two, Boy Genius Report has it on good authority that it’s about to start field trials this coming week. In keeping with the pyrotechnic theme pioneered by the Krave ZN4’s “Blaze” codename, it seems the production device may now be called “Torch” — and, somewhere along the course of its R&D evolution, may have lost the translucent cover. Ironically, we really liked the cover on the ZN4 — the touch sensitivity is one of the more trick features we’ve seen on a handset in recent memory — but, you know, we wouldn’t want to question Moto’s infinite wisdom.
Filed under: Cellphones
Motorola Krave ZN4’s successor named Inferno, now moving to field trials? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Netbook in a suitcase: all the shortcomings of a subnote in a large, inconvenient package
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
This is true art, friend. The amazing “brotato” (rhymes with potato, in a perfect world) has hacked together netbook components, an ancient keyboard and a 14.2-inch LCD into this classy case, dubbing the project “The Poor Man’s Netbook.” The box is running Windows XP, but he tested it out with Windows 7 and Mac OS X and it performed beautifully, except for the Bluetooth 2.1 module. The box is based on a Mini-ITX Intel D945GCLF2 Dual Core 1.6Ghz Atom motherboard, with 2GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD and 802.11n WiFi — though you’ll have to hunt down an outlet, there’s no battery power here. The best news is that he’s selling the whole conglomeration on eBay, perfect for completing that piece of horrible cyberpunk fiction you’ve been slaving over on your boringtop.
[Thanks, Ryan]
Filed under: Desktops
Netbook in a suitcase: all the shortcomings of a subnote in a large, inconvenient package originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Novell lays off just under 100 workers
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
Open-source company joins the pained tech industry and lays off less than 3 percent of its staff.
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Huge Security Flaw in Windows 7 User Account Control [Windows 7]
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
User Account Controlled annoyed a lot of people in Vista, so Microsoft turned down the volume in Windows 7. But they’ve also opened up a massive security hole that leaves PCs totally exposed to nastywares.
By default now, UAC no longer bugs you when you make changes to Windows settings, just when programs try to makes changes on your computer. Which, admittedly, results in a smoother overall experience. But if you tried to turn off UAC in Vista, it required several confirmation screens. That’s no longer so with the new settings, since modifying UAC is considered a Windows settings. So, a script can turn off User Account Control entirely, leaving your computer totally exposed whatever dirty stuff malicious software wants to make your computer do.
Long Zheng’s proof-of-concept script turns off UAC entirely, without prompting, by emulating a keyboard inputs. So all an attacker would have to do is turn off UAC with a similar script, force a reboot and have a program launch at startup with full admin access to do whatever unseemly things it wants.
The fix, as he points out, is simple: Just make UAC modifications always require a prompt. In the meantime, you might wanna slide your settings up a notch, if you’re feeling paranoid. [I Started Something]
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How Hot Is Your Laptop? [Hot Laptops]
Posted by in Cool Gadgets on January 31, 2009
Does it get this hot? Hotter? Nice work as usual,