| Facebook App Devs Can See Your Private Parts Posted: 10 Dec 2009 12:04 PM PST  You may have taken time out from playing "Mafia Wars," "FarmVille" or answering that "Which Muppet Are You?" quiz to update your privacy settings on Facebook this week. However, when you were clicking on your choices for who could see your updates and personal data, did you happen to notice any mention of those third-party applications involving games, quizzes and other outside software linking up to the world's largest social media network? How much access to your personal info do the developers of these apps have? |
| WiGig Alliance Cranks Out Speedy New Data Standard Posted: 10 Dec 2009 11:40 AM PST  Home entertainment systems could soon see much higher wireless transmission speeds -- possibly of up to 7 gigabits per second -- if the plans of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance continue on course. The Alliance, members of which include companies in the chip, mobile phone and telecommunications industries, announced the completion of its unified wireless specification on Wednesday. The spec uses the 60 GHz spectrum and will enable data transfer at rates more than 10 times faster than today's wireless LANs. It will be offered for implementation in the first quarter of 2010. |
| Human Capacity for Information Is Massive but Finite Posted: 10 Dec 2009 08:17 AM PST  The amount of information consumed by Americans in 2008 totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, according to a report released Dec. 9 by researchers at the University of California at San Diego. For an average person on an ordinary day, this represents 34 gigabytes and 100,500 words. "I think the primary finding of this report tells us humans have a finite capacity to receive and process information," said lead researcher Roger Bohn, a professor of management and director of the Global Information Industry Center at UCSD. |
| Winning the Botnet Wars Posted: 10 Dec 2009 04:00 AM PST  Botnets embody the ultimate blended threat. Botnet code carries almost every conceivable form of malware -- from spyware to downloaders, rootkits, spam engines and more. To answer like with like, defenders must employ multiple layers of security. The good news is that time-honored techniques are still surprisingly effective against botnets. Taking the following countermeasures can greatly mitigate the likelihood of a bot infection operating from your network. |
| Could Linux Use Some Bells and Whistles? Posted: 10 Dec 2009 04:00 AM PST  With the Season of Giving hard upon us once again, it's a safe bet that many of us are thinking about glitter. Not just glitter, but glitz, sparkle and shine, jingle, bells and whistles. Such, after all, are the qualities gifts -- and the holidays in general -- are often expected to have, and manufacturers of everything from ornaments to iPods do their best to make it happen. What, one might ask, about operating systems? Should they, too, have shiny, splashy, gotta-have features to make them sparkle in users' eyes? |
| Chrome for Mac Needs a Bit More Shine Posted: 10 Dec 2009 04:00 AM PST  There's nothing really wrong with Google's new beta of its Chrome browser for Mac. There are a couple of interesting features, but there's just nothing really fantastic about it either. Google's a big company with plenty of money, and they play with big-boy toys, so they can take the honest truth: Seriously, I was expecting more. Chrome for Windows has been available for more than a year, and the beta for Mac users isn't close to parity with Windows yet. Chrome for Mac does, however, show promise in a few areas, so I'll banish the negativity and focus on the the good. |
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