(image courtesy of Lifehacker)

Hmm…so even Notepad needs permission to access the internet?

Okay, well actually this happened when Notepad was opened to view the source of a webpage in IE7, but still!

LifeHacker (which has recently been redesigned, and despite the stodginess of some of the commenters, I like it!) posted a short tour of Windows Vista through screenshots taken through one of the editor’s test installations of the beta operating system. A long but good discussion followed over the benefits and drawbacks as compared to Mac OS X, and even more pertinent, the contsant security nagging of every application that wants to access the internet and whether it’s really a security feature or it’s just over the top. Additionally, a lot of commenters bring to light points as to whether or not Vista is ready for prime time or not.

Either way, Gina Trapani, chief editor at Lifehacker, shows us her system after Vista has been installed, walking us through the now completely redeveloped start menu and file browsers, the new ability to tag and rank files for easier searching and indexing, new security features, including the revamped (and now two-way) windows firewall, and much much more. I would do my own screenshot tour, but I’m still crying over file transfer errors when trying to install Vista on my test machine, so I’ll settle for Lifehacker’s.

[ Lifehacker :: Windows Vista Beta: A Tour in Screenshots ]

Philipp Lenssen, author of the book 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google, is giving away free copies in PDF format as an e-book for those of us who are interested in reading it but can’t afford the cash, wouldn’t be able to pony it up, or would like to break it up, remix it, tweak it, and spread the tips around. The book is designed to show you a bunch of different neat tricks you can do with Google, ways to occupy your time, and ways to get the most out of your use of Google. Other search sites try to claim that Google isn’t better and that’s just more popular, but with people writing books like this with all kinds of time saving (and time wasting) tips and tricks, I sold on the notion that Google is definitely better and the rest are playing catch up.

Some of the ways in the book to have a good time on a Saturday night with you, a drink, and Google; ego-googling, that is googling yourself to see what turns up, the shortest google search that turns up the most results, aliens attacking google, the giant google painting, and much much more.

Check out Lenssen’s book, and if you really enjoy it, support him by buying a physical copy!

[ 55Fun.com :: 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google ]

Leslie Franke brings us the perfect utility for folks who are looking to brush up on some of the hidden and not-so-hidden features in Firefox. Ways to make the browser run more smoothly, easier ways to get to the tools and functions that you need to use, keyboard shortcuts that will help keep your wandering hands off of the mouse while browsing, and more are included in the cheat sheet. The cheat sheet comes in HTML format for handy bookmarking, or PDF format for printing and hanging next to the computer, or stashing in your desk for when you need to remember how to get to cached elements, for example.

Among some of the other tricks in the cheat sheet are how to easily change the text size, how to get to Firefox’s more powerful configuration options, how to change or reset the home page and manage privacy settings, general keyboard shortcuts and navigation shortcuts, and more!

[ Leslie Franke :: The Mozilla Firefox Cheat Sheet ]

Insecure.org [ http://www.insecure.org/ ] has published its 2006 list of its top 100 network security tools, it’s first since 2003. Among the winners are expected high profile (and high powered) tools like Nessus, Snort, TCPdump, and Ettercap, to name a very small few. What many security fans and community members consider the definitive list of tools for anything and everything network security related, the Insecure.org list has tools both commercial and free, open-source and proprietary, and that work in Windows, Mac OS, Linux, BSD (and other variants) and are all labled with where the applications run natively, whether there’s a point-and-click GUI for the tool or whether it runs completely at command line, and whether the tools cost money or are free to download and use.

By the by, NMAP Security Scanner itself wasn’t counted because well, according to Insecure.org, the poll was taking on an NMAP mailing list, so no fair there. Anyway, if you’re looking for tools to help secure your network, whether its your home network and only a few computers, or its a corporate network with 10, 50, or 1000 users that you help keep locked down, this list is a valuable resource.

[ Sectools.org :: Insecure.org's 2006 Top 100 Network Security Tools ]

The website SS64.com [ http://www.ss64.com/ ] contains what’s probably the definitive list of command line commands for Oracle 9i, Windows NT/XP, Unix/Linux BASH commands, and terminal commands for Mac OS X. If you’ve ever been curious about getting under the hood and to the command line for any of those operating systems, this is your reference guide, and definitely a site worth bookmarking, especially for Windows and Mac OS X users who are looking for commands that will give them a little extra power over managing files and applications and gathering information without always having to wade through the GUI in order to get the information that you need.

For example, need your IP information in Windows XP? Open up a command window and type the command “ipconfig /all” which will give you complete network information for all of your system’s network adapters. Okay, so you probably knew that one already, but isn’t it so much easier than right clicking on My Network Places and choosing properties, then right clicking on your active internet connection and choosing properties, and so on and so forth? Yeah-I thought so too.

Similar commands are in the list for Mac OS X, whose commands are similar to Linux (since Mac OS X is FreeBSD under the hood) in more ways than one. Kill processes, list active jobs, completely manage your system from the command line, whether it’s a Linux box, a Windows machine, you’re running Oracle 9i, or it’s a Mac. The command line is your friend; believe it.

[ SS64 ]

(image courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Wow. Not only did AT&T (now the megacompany that includes SBC and Bell South and what was AT&T) collaborate freely and without court order with the NSA’s spying program of eavesdropping on both the phone calls and possibly the internet traffic and activity of American citizens, but now they’ve changed their own privacy rules to get around that whole “confidential information” and “personal privacy” thing. I know, I know, it’s pretty pesky from AT&T’s standpoint, so why not just get around it entirely by saying that AT&T owns your personal and confidential data, not you, and they can use it for whatever they choose?

No, I’m not kidding. From today’s SFGate:

AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers’ personal data with government officials.

The new policy says that AT&T — not customers — owns customers’ confidential info and can use it “to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.”

The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service — something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service — a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers’ recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

Amazing. I’m sure the lawsuits will flow over this one, but in the time it takes for them to run their course, AT&T is essentially being allowed to do whatever it chooses with whatever data they can get from their customers, without any promise of privacy, security, or confidentiality-a new low for any American company, much less a company as large and massive at AT&T.

[ SFGate :: AT&T Rewrites Rules: Your Data Isn't Yours ]

(image courtesy of CNN)

A 14 year old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 19 year old who lied in his MySpace profile to gain her trust, has filed a lawsuit against MySpace for failing to take sufficient steps to protect its underage members from sexual predators and those who shop around MySpace profiles looking for someone to con, kidnap, or assault. The article itself is pretty short, essentially a statement from the girl’s lawyer and the subsequent response statement from MySpace, but this is one of those situations where both of them are absolutely right.

MySpace doesn’t do nearly enough to protect its members, especially its underage members who likely don’t know any better, but at the same time, MySpace is right in that safety online is a shared responsibility, and MySpace can’t be expected to police the profiles of its members in the stead of parents who should talk to their children about the people they speak to on the internet, talk to them about being safe online and who they speak to online, and taking steps to be a part of and monitor their child’s internet usage and habits, including putting the family or kids’ computer in an open area like a living room or den, or an office where the parent can supervise them, and teaching kids limits on internet usage and access, and for crying out loud, not buying them a webcam.

MySpace claims that no one under 13 is allowed to join their site, something easily falsified with a click of a drop-down menu (I mean honestly, people can just lie about their age) but beyond that, I’ve seen very little protections and warnings to children and teens and well, anyone else for that matter, about the dangers of mingling with questionable folks on the internet, and how to be responsible when talking to someone you don’t know, or even how to be responsible if you’d like to meet them.

At the same time, while I think that in most cases safety on the net is the responsibility of the user to stay informed and develop and practice safe online habits, I think this lawsuit has legs; it’s about time MySpace took this seriously, before someone else is killed or sexually assaulted by someone they met on MySpace. MySpace is obviously the shopping ground of choice for all manner of deranged and sick criminal and sexual predator, and it’s about time MySpace did something about it. If it takes a lawsuit to help MySpace urge its users into getting better informed and practicing safe habits, then so be it-AOL had to go through the same growing pains.

[ CNN :: Teen Sues MySpace Alleging Sexual Assault ]

In better news however, the New York Times reports that MySpace is planning such security enhancements, and will be adding them soon.

[ New York Times :: MySpace to Add Restrictions to Protect Younger Teenagers ]

Adding more logs to the “Why I’ll never subscribe to AOL” fire:

(okay, full disclosure: I actually used to be an AOL member, way way way back in the day when I didn’t know what broadband was, and it was incredibly expensive to get. Before I knew that the high speed connections that were available in my dorm room in college were available to my house, I thought AOL was the best people at home could do. When I found out about cable broadband, I was all over it. And when I cancelled AOL, they didn’t give me any hassle at all. Mind you, that was probably somewhere near 8 years ago. So things have admittedly changed.)

The first story is of a poor guy who actually recorded his call to AOL to terminate his account. All the poor guy wanted to do was cancel, and he said it over and over again. The customer “service” rep on the other line had the audacity to get snippy with him over it, and even lash back a few times and try and call him a liar and get him to keep his account active and open. It was a nightmare, and I understand how both parties on the phone feel; I’ve been in both situations, although to be honest, in all my time working phones for IT companies, I never got that ridiculous with someone; and script or call-times be damned, if someone wanted x and I could deliver x, I’d give them x; no looping through y and q and r on the way around to x, it’s “here you go, x. Have a nice day!” Because in all honesty, I didn’t want to be on the phone any more than the person wanted to be on the phone with me. Let me go back to my game of minesweeper or that awesome viral video I just saw.

But anyway. Vincent’s call to AOL, complete with audio to make you cringe:

[ Consumerist :: The Best Thing We Have Ever Posted: Reader Tries To Cancel AOL ]

But the story doesn’t end there. Vincent recieved numerous apologies from AOL, and a littany of statements that the offending CSR is no longer working at AOL. To be honest, it’s likely that the CSR never worked for AOL and instead for a contract company, so who knows what “no longer with the Company” really means. Regardless, after Vincent’s story made it big and millions of people on the net spread his story, AOL was forced to press the PR response and say that this was an uncommon fluke for them and they’re not in the business of treating people this way. A recent run in with AOL by Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General for New York, says otherwise, however.

So AOL apparently agreed they’d make it easier to cancel accounts. Right.

So why is it, then, that a DEAD WOMAN can’t cancel her account? You read that right-a woman dies, and her daughter calls up to cancel her AOL account. What does the AOL rep do? Blow past the point that she’s DEAD, and insist that the dead woman will have to call and cancel the accounts herself. What does the poor daughter do? Well, nothing, aside from cancel the credit cards to which the AOL account was billed, and let the rest take its course. But still, that’s ridiculous, and indicative that AOL hasn’t changed its stripes-or its policies-one bit:

[ Consumerist :: AOL Wants to Sell "Internet" to the Dead ]

(image courtesy of 43 Folders)

Ejector is a little Mac OS X only application that, when running, sits in the menu bar and provides a kind of one-click point to eject your network drives, attached USB or Firewire drives, essentially all mounted media, all of it in one click of your mouse. Don’t need to eject everything at once? Simply select the item you want to eject. Definitely beats clearing space on your desktop and dragging the items in question to the trash (or using Expose to do it, especially if you have several drives to dismount) and saves a little energy, I think.

Personally, I tend to keep something like three or four network drives, a USB key, and sometimes a firewire drive attached to my MacBook Pro, and then sometimes a CD in the drive-it’s nice to have something right up there in the menu bar that can help me take care of those things, or just eject them all when it’s time to bail from the office at the end of the day. Very nice.

[ 43 Folders :: Ejector: One-click ejects all mounted media ]

Bill Gates, the man himself, announced today that he was tired of working full time with Microsoft as their Chief Software Architect and part time with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-the philanthropic effort that Bill funds with his own money, and wanted to switch the two around and work full time with the Foundation and part time with Microsoft. In 2008 he’ll complete his transition and is planning to step aside at Microsoft and move over to the Foundation to focus on his philanthropic and charity work. Microsoft conspicuously waited until after the close of business (and more importantly, the stock market) to make the announcement, so keep an eye on the stock price tomorrow morning.

That being said, this isn’t a significant surprise, and Microsoft had somewhat been positioning itself for a change like this for a while now. Gates will stay on as Chairman of the Board, but the bulk of his work will be done at the Foundation, and who will fill his roles at Microsoft have already been decided. While he may not be the man on stage doing the demos anymore, he’ll still be closely involved with the company. Still, he’s giving plenty of notice, and we’ll have a whole two years to get used to the idea of Bill not being at the helm of Microsoft anymore, but who knows, maybe this means the era of more entertaining Steve Ballmer videos is just beginning!

[ PC Magazine :: Bill Gates Announces Resignation ]