Microsoft to Create Zune Phone? – Black Web 2.0
Feb/100
 The Hindu |
Microsoft to Create Zune Phone?
Black Web 2.0 One of the more interesting pieces of information to come out of the event is that Microsoft is contemplating making a phone based on the Zune HD. … MWC 2010: Windows Phone 7 at a glance Windows Phone 7: An In-depth Look at the Features and Interface Ten things we still don't know about Microsoft's next-gen Windows Phones |
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Microsoft to Create Zune Phone? – Black Web 2.0
Mobile World Congress 2010 – day one overview – TechCentral
Feb/100
 MiamiHerald.com |
Mobile World Congress 2010 – day one overview
TechCentral … towards the end of the year, features a radically redesigned user interface, not dissimilar to the interface used on the Microsoft Zune HD music player. … Predictions and Possibilities at MWC 2010 Microsoft's new version for mobile- Windows 7 Windows Mobile 7 to be announced next week at MWC 2010 |
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Mobile World Congress 2010 – day one overview – TechCentral
[MISC GEEKERY] Beware! Two More Firefox Malware Extensions Found, with Full-Blown Trojans This Time
Feb/100
Last July, we pointed out that the Google Reader Notifier extension had turned into crapware, the NoScript add-on was hijacking another extension, and even the Fast Dial extension was spamming you—so it was only a matter of time before an extension came bundled with a full-blown trojan.
Last time, it was as simple as spam links showing up in your browser, and tracking the URLs you were going to—really frustrating and evil, but not necessarily the end of the world, since it wasn’t going to take over your PC.
Yesterday, the Mozilla Add-ons blog reported that two extensions contained nasty trojans that hijacked your PC.
Two experimental add-ons, Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader and all versions of Master Filer were found to contain Trojan code aimed at Windows users. Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader contained Win32.LdPinch.gen, and Master Filer contained Win32.Bifrose.32.Bifrose Trojan. Both add-ons have been disabled on AMO.
If you’ve installed those extensions at any point, you should make sure to run a full virus scan on your PC.
Rant About Firefox Extension Security
Instead of ranting again, let me just quote what I said last time this happened…
What’s to stop yet another Firefox extension from turning into badware, sneaking in tracking codes, or stealing your personal information? It’s already happened with two of the most popular extensions… Somebody at Mozilla needs to do something about this.
The current process over at Mozilla is to run an automated virus scanner against the extensions, and as a result of this issue they have added more scanning tools to the process. This doesn’t solve the real issue, because any virus programmer with some skills can write a customized virus that doesn’t get picked up by any of the commercial virus scanning tools. Sure, some of the tools have heuristics that will probably detect rootkits and some of the nastier techniques, but it’s not going to prevent the issue entirely.
The real problem isn’t even a traditional virus, as far as I’m concerned. How difficult would it be for somebody to write a native Firefox extension that simply takes all your passwords and sends them to a rogue site? There’s no security layer to prevent add-ons from accessing your personal information stored in the browser, and no virus scanner is going to pick up a native Firefox extension since they are written in Javascript.
The Partial Solution
Nobody’s expecting Mozilla to scan through the source code of every single extension—that’s just prone to human error anyway. What would make sense, however, is to have some layers of security that prevent add-ons from accessing any of your personal information stored in the browser unless you specifically allow them to.
What Can You Do to Keep Safe?
You should always make sure to check the reviews on an extension before you install it—don’t just take somebody else’s word when they vouch for an extension… make sure to do your due diligence to check things out first. The same thing applies for any application, of course—if you’re installing applications without doing a virus scan, you’re leaving yourself wide open to having your PC hijacked.
Please read: Security Issue on AMO [Mozilla Add-ons Blog]
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[MISC GEEKERY] Beware! Two More Firefox Malware Extensions Found, with Full-Blown Trojans This Time
Zune 4.2 update points to Zune phone, European support – Ars Technica
Jan/100
 Walyou (blog) |
Zune 4.2 update points to Zune phone, European support
Ars Technica Whether it's a mobile phone that looks like the Zune HD media player or a mobile phone running Windows Mobile 7 that includes premium Zune media services … Zune Update Hints At Phone Microsoft shoots down latest Zune phone rumors Windows Phone 7 similar to Zune HD? |
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Zune 4.2 update points to Zune phone, European support – Ars Technica
Learning Windows 7: Manage Photos with Live Photo Gallery
Jan/100
If you’re moving from Vista to Windows 7, you might be wondering what happened to Windows Photo Gallery, or in XP you might have used another photo manager. Today we take a look at using Windows Live Photo Gallery from the Windows Live Essentials suite.
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Photo Gallery was included in Vista and did an adequate job handling your photo needs. If you’ve moved to Windows 7, or are just looking for a new photo management tool, Windows Live Photo Gallery is certainly worth a look. Download the Live Essentials installer and select Photo Gallery and any other app from the list of you want to use.
Note: Keep in mind you don’t have to install them all…only the ones you want.
In the You’re almost done! screen, make sure to uncheck the boxes to set your search provider and homepage if you don’t want them changed.
After installation, to start using Live Photo Gallery click on Start and go to Windows Live Windows Live Photo Gallery.
The first time you launch it you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Windows Live account.
You might also want to use Live Photo Gallery to open TIF and BMP files.
Now you can start to view and manage your photos. If you hover the pointer over a thumbnail, you’ll get a larger view of it.
On the left side you’re able to browse through your picture directories, sort by date taken, and people or descriptive tags.
Click on an image to tag the photo with your own information or find out other photo data. It allows you to zoom in on an image, rotate them, rate a photo, start a slid show and more.
Another nice built in feature is being able to resize your photos. Right-click on an image in the gallery and select Resize. Now you can select between predefined sizes or your own custom size.
There is the ability to easily import your pictures from a camera or scanner using an easy to follow wizard.
You can include any folder into the gallery and monitors those folders for any new additions.
In Windows Live Photo Gallery Options you can specify different default actions it uses when importing pictures from different devices and media.
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Also, you can determine how images will be tagged, so if you have several images from a few different trips for example, they can be easily found and organized.
Personalize your computer by adding your Photo Gallery in as your Screen Saver.
You can go in and do some basic edits to photos like adjusting color effects, fixing red eye, crop and straighten photos.
You can make blog posts, CDs, DVDs and more with your photos from Live Photo Gallery and other Live or Windows tools.
Live Photo Gallery allows you to publish photos to your SkyDrive, print them out, and share them with others via email.
It also includes the ability to save and share your images on flickr.
You can also find other plug-ins for it that will let you easily share your photos to other social sites like Facebook, Drupal, SmugMug, Picasa, and more.
Conclusion
Windows Live Photo Gallery offers a lot of features and is much enhanced over Photo Gallery included in Vista. This should get you started using Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize, edit and share your photos in Windows 7. Of course Live Photo Gallery is not only for Windows 7 users. It will run on XP (32-bit only), Vista and Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit versions). If you’re looking for an easy to use picture manager that offers several organization and sharing features for Windows 7, Windows Live Photo Gallery does a great job.
Download Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery Plug-ins
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Learning Windows 7: Manage Photos with Live Photo Gallery
Add Weather Forecasts to Google Chrome
Jan/100
Are you looking for a quick and easy way to see your local weather forecast in Google Chrome? Then you will definitely want to take a good look at the AccuWeather Forecast extension.
Installation & Setup
Adding the extension is simple… Once you have started the install process you will see the following confirmation message window. Click “Install” to finish adding the extension to Google Chrome.
Once the installation is complete you will see a new “Toolbar Button” and the following message.
To access weather forecasts for your desired location click on the “Toolbar Button” to display the following window. Notice that you can click to access the options in two places…
The options will open in a new tab where you can add the name for the city you are wanting weather forecasts for, decide whether to use Metric measurements or not, use the available link to find the code for international locations, and set the background color for the drop-down weather window.
We were able to type in Singapore and get the weather forecast location we needed without having to look the code up at “accuweather.com”. Once you have your location added in click the “Save Button” to finish up (if you do not want to make any changes to the background color for the drop-down weather window).
Once you have clicked “Save” you will see this confirmation message window. Click “OK” to close it.
A single click on our “Toolbar Button” displayed the current conditions, forecast for the current day, and the forecast for the next three days. Very nice indeed…
A closer look at the drop-down window. Notice that there are clickable links near the top for “Hourly Info, 15 Day Forecasts, & Videos”. Definitely useful…
Clicking on any of the links will open up a new tab with the information that you were looking for.
Options
If you want to change the location or background color later there are two ways to access the options for the extension. The first is through the “Chrome Extensions Page”…
And the second is using the “Options Link” in the upper right corner of the drop-down weather window.
For those curious about changing the background color for the drop-down window you can do that by clicking on the link in the lower right corner of the “Text Area”. This can be really nice if you are wanting to match the drop-down window to your current browser theme.
A new tab will open up with access to a color code picker…
You may either choose a pre-existing color or use your mouse to set up a custom color on the spectrum chart. Once you have chosen a color you will see a color code displayed in the lower right corner that will need to be copied to your clipboard. For our example we chose a pre-existing color…
Paste the new color code into the background color text area and click “Save” to finish up. You will see the confirmation window shown above after saving your changes.
Here is how our “brightly colored” example turned out…
Conclusion
If you have been wanting a way to access weather forecasts for your location in Google Chrome, then this is an extension worth looking at.
Links
Download the AccuWeather Forecast extension (Google Chrome Extensions)
Download the AccuWeather Forecast extension (ChromeExtensions.org)
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Add Weather Forecasts to Google Chrome
Microsoft shuffles Zune, Media Center units – CNET
Jan/100
 SlashGear (blog) |
Microsoft shuffles Zune, Media Center units
CNET It changes nothing and accomplishes nothing. by macka7887 January 23, 2010 3:39 AM PST The sound of me a 15 year old boy loving my Zune HD and my copy of … Zune Phone Could Fulfill Microsoft's '3 Screens' Wish Microsoft To Unveil Zune Phone? Microsoft merges Zune software, Xbox teams |
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Microsoft shuffles Zune, Media Center units – CNET
Elephant Culling Reflects the Complexity of Managing Wildlife Populations
Dec/090
African Elephant Bull Photographed in Kruger Park on 20 June 2009.
The author’s last two posts have shown that culling is often used as a “solution” to limit the growth in animal numbers in a particular situations. At the extremes, some animal rights lobbyists oppose the killing of animals on the basis of principle alone ignoring environmental or wildlife issues while some legislators look for a fast fix without a long term view and justify killing by the need to protect the remaining.
There are always a range of opinions and solutions which can be considered in these cases. There is normally neither enough time nor enough information to allow the development of a solution that is acceptable to all and guarantees a longterm solution to the problem. In this context, it is instructive to look at the elephant as an example of the difficulties in finding solutions even in very well studied cases.
Please note that this is a layman’s understanding based on a quick “reading” of two recent major reports and is clearly open to much discussion. The author is simply trying to get a simple overall understanding of managing elephant populations and to also present some interesting information contained in the two reports.
Controlling an Over Abundance of Elephants
Although many press reports focus on the threats to elephants through capture, poaching and commercial hunting, the African Elephant in South Africa is probably more threatened by their successful adaption to protected ranges than directly by man.
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Elephant Culling Reflects the Complexity of Managing Wildlife Populations
Week in Geek: The What on Earth is that Process Edition
Dec/090
Ever been looking at Task Manager and wondered just what that weird process is? You aren’t alone, we do the same thing over here, and we’ve got a whole list of them that we’ve already deciphered for you.
In no specific order, here’s the list of the processes we’ve covered in-depth. If there’s a specific process that you’re really curious about, leave a comment and let us know.
Be sure and let us know if there’s a process you’d like to understand better, and we’ll do some research on it.
TinyHacker Random Geekery
There’s lots more geek links, and even some non-geeky stuff too. It’s random!
Super User Random Super Stuff
Ahh, questions and answers.
- Simple tree notepad like editor
- Recovering a lost website with no backup?
- What can I do with a large Hard Drive?
- Mysterious cpu usage
- How can I use Google URL Shortener ?
- What’s a good monitor with large pixels?
- Windows: how to downgrade windows explorer 8 to the older versions ?
- How do I plug more than two monitors to my computer?
- Power Supply Too Big?
- Does anyone remember this old cat chasing mouse application?
- Can I remove and put back the heatsink of my processor without reapplying thermal paste
360 IT Advice
I’m now listed as one of the “Experts” over at the Microsoft-sponsored 360 IT Advice site, which is pretty cool. The basic idea is that people can ask their IT questions, and get answers from a panel of experts. Even though it’s sponsored by Microsoft, much of the advice covers non-Microsoft topics.
Anyway, here’s a couple topics submitted by my friends, and if you’ve got your own IT challenge, you can submit it to get feedback from the panel.
Note: NetShelter is the company that handles our advertising here at How-To Geek.
Facebook Fan Page
If you’re a big Facebook user, we’ve got our own page on Facebook and you can become a fan.
We also finally hooked up the articles into the feed, so the page will have updates each time we post a new article here. You can discuss topics with other geeks, and do whatever you Facebook people do.
Fan the How-To Geek on Facebook
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Week in Geek: The What on Earth is that Process Edition
VGA 2009: Cliff Bleszinski teases new projects, more to come ‘when the weather’s warm’
Dec/090
This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. HHere’s what we learned from Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski.
So you segued from Gears into Shadow Complex … what are you working on now?
I can’t tell you that! It’s actually quite agonizing for me right now, because there’s a bunch of awesome shit we’re working on, but I can’t say a damn thing about it no matter how many alcoholic beverages you might try and feed me! Well, maybe if you bribe me with hookers and blow, that might work.
Shadow Complex will be on sale during the holidays. Was that Microsoft’s idea or Epic’s?
Microsoft is doing that promo. They’re doing some other stuff as well to help drive the holiday sales. I mean, in this day and age look how crammed Christmas is, and it’s like March is the new holiday. Everybody’s moved out to March. I think it’s good because the good games will rise, and the bad games will sink, right? I was getting tired of the fact that everyone had to cram everything into the holiday season. Hopefully we’ll get some quality releases in March that will do well, and the gaming industry can sell more than 80% of its games outside of a three month period.
What are you playing right now?
I’m playing the hell out of Modern Warfare 2 and I hate those guys, because those guys are so awesome. Uncharted 2 I beat, which was absolutely stellar. Borderlands co-op is amazing … that’s the only way to play, really. I gush about it not just because it’s our engine but because Randy and those guys are good friends, and it’s the kind of game I really want to play. It’s the perfect blending of the shooter and the RPG.
So when will we hear about this “awesome shit”?
Maybe sometime when the weather’s warm, you’ll be hearing something.
VGA 2009: Cliff Bleszinski teases new projects, more to come ‘when the weather’s warm’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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