Facebook new groups feature rife with abuse | Naked Security
Facebook new groups feature rife with abuse: “”
The new Groups feature, set up so a small group of friends can have a discussion away from the regular news feed, has a rather nasty sting in the tail.
Keep an eye on your Facebook pages. One of your “Friends” could easily subscribe you to a group without your permission. You wouldn’t even receive an email notification.
You will only be notified if and when you are logged in to Facebook.
From the Facebook Help Centre
“Can I prevent people from adding me to a new group?”.
The functionality of approving a group membership is not available. Similar to being tagged in a photo, you can only be added to a group by one of your friends. When a friend adds you to a group, a story in the group (and in News Feed for Open or Closed groups) will indicate that your friend has added you to a group.
Please keep in mind:
* Only your friends can add you to groups.
* When a friend adds you to a group, you’ll get a notification right away.
* You can leave a group anytime. To do so, just go to the group page and click “Leave Group” in the right-hand column. Once you leave a group, you can’t be added by anyone else unless you explicitly request to be re-added.
Choose your Facebook friends wisely.
Wedding Bales. Posh Hay Bale Seating.
I had a call a couple of days ago from a client who already has a couple of websites. He wanted a quick single page website to promote a new idea that seems to have emerged out of nowhere.
He sells hay bales, usually for animal feed or bedding, but had an enquiry recently to supply some hay bales for seating at a wedding reception.
He suggested that the bales be covered in material in a colour to match the brides dress. This went down well and everyone at the reception was very pleased with the result.
There was born a new business idea.
So here it is, a quick and clean single page brochure site for Wedding Bales, custom covered hay bales for wedding receptions, parties and events.
Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac
Walt Mossberg reviews Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac: “”
And this time Mac users get a useable version of Outlook that for the most part looks and functions like its Windows counterpart.
Ideal for those business types looking to switch sides but still need compatibility with the corporate network.
Chrome 8 Adds Google Instant to the URL Bar | Webmonkey | Wired.com
Chrome 8 Adds Google Instant to the URL Bar | Webmonkey | Wired.com: “Google’s Chrome development team has pushed a pre-release version of Chrome 8 into the dev channel for those that would like an early look at the next version of the Chrome web browser. While far from complete, Chrome 8 adds some welcome new features, including more hardware acceleration and the arrival Google’s new ‘Instant search’ right inside the URL bar of Chrome.”
Also new in Chrome 8 is partial support for Google’s Cloud Printing effort. Designed to let you to print to your home PC from anywhere, Google’s Cloud Printing project is little more than an idea at this point. But we can see the beginnings of Chrome integration in this release with a new sign-in option in Chrome’s settings page (at the bottom of the Under the Hood tab). Unfortunately, signing in is about all you can do at this stage.
This is an early build of Chrome 8 and there may be a few bugs still lurking around.
For the brave and curious only.
mywebcalls.com. Where’s my account?
I was recently looking for an alternative to Skype for making calls from computer to landline phone. Particularly for overseas calls as Skype rates to some destinations are a bit high. I regularly use 18866 from the landline phone here but I wanted something similar to Skype on the Mac so anyone in the room can join in the conversation without passing the handset around.
I found Mywebcalls had some attractive rates and opened an account, paying $30 via Paypal in the process.
Mywebcalls say it can take up to 24 hours to open accounts. So far it’s been 13 days.
I’ve sent 3 emails to support@mywebcalls.com and received 3 auto responses. I’ve also opened a dispute file with PayPal.
Mywebcalls is a PC to phone service run by ISP Fused Group who I have contacted by telephone today.
I’m waiting for a promised response and will update this blog post accordingly.
Update.
I received a call back asking for a copy of my email and PayPal transaction details with a promise to “Look in to the matter”. Email sent.
Update2. 14 Oct.2010
After 2 more emails and no response from Fused, I have escalated this to a dispute on PayPal.
Anti Virus in the cloud. Titanium Internet Security.
Windows PC users have to be constantly vigilant while on the net, and keep their anti virus software up to date.
One of the disadvantages of many anti virus software applications is that they are constantly using system resources while running in the background. This can have a serious impact on the computers performance.
Trend Micro has come up with an interesting solution. Titanium Internet Security. Anti Virus in the cloud. Specifically designed for low powered Netbooks it can be used on any Windows PC using XP Pro, Vista Family or Windows 7 Home,Premium and Starter. They say it will run on an XP machine with a 300MHz processor.
It’s $39.95 with a free trial
BBC News – Vodafone backs down in Android row
BBC News – Vodafone backs down in Android row: “”
One of the reasons people have for not using an iPhone is the strong hold Apple has over the software. All official apps come from the iTunes App store and all software updates come direct from Apple via iTunes.
Because of that, this kind of thing can never happen to an iPhone user.
Not so long ago Etisalat, the major telecom operator in the UAE, tried to install spyware onto the Blackberry smartphones used on it’s network, under the guise of an official software upgrade. Some users got suspicious as these upgrades usually come direct from RIM, and word quickly spread not to accept the upgrade.
These two events show how easy it is for networks to install software on users phones, and why the Apple iPhone model is actually good for you.
Apple’s Cube was ahead of its time
Opinion: Apple’s Cube was ahead of its time – Digital Lifestyle – Macworld UK: “”
“Looking back today, it seems that the Cube was simply ahead of its time.
It was an ingenious and striking design that missed the mark by about five years–and $1,000.
But don’t tell that to the loyal Cube owners out there, from whom you couldn’t pry their Cubes from their cold, dead hands. The G4 Cube’s enduring appeal from Mac fans is a testament to its unique and visionary design that has yet to be duplicated–even in the Mac mini–to this day.”
My Apple Cube sits in my study on top of one of my Warfedale stereo speakers. It’s still a perfectly useable computer, runs OSX Leopard, and until fairly recently served video files over the network to my media server in the lounge. That task is now done by an intel Mac Mini. But the Cube just looks great so I keep it out just to look at and occasionally use.
Facebook’s Places Feature About to Launch
Facebook’s Places Feature About to Launch:
“There are, of course, complications, which leave the geolocation- and local-services start-up community with plenty of questions about how much of their data they will have to share with Facebook if they tap into the new APIs. And additionally, Facebook’s tendency to garner bad press with regard to privacy may make some of them wary of getting involved.”
Facebook needs to understand that it’s users are increasingly concerned about privacy on the web, and what Facebook does with their personal information.
H.264 GPU Decoding in Flash Player on Mac OS X is live
H.264 GPU Decoding in Flash Player on Mac OS X is live [ by Thibault Imbert ] – ByteArray.org: “We just pushed a few minutes ago a new version of the Flash Player 10.1.82.76 containing a nice feature that was in beta until now called ‘Gala’. Yes, H.264 GPU decoding in Mac OSX is now officially enabled in the Flash Player.