Spalding Computer Services

BBC News – Smartphone security put on test: “BBC News has shown how straightforward it is to create a malicious application for a smartphone.

Over a few weeks, the BBC put together a crude game for a smartphone that also spied on the owner of the handset.

The application was built using standard parts from the software toolkits that developers use to create programs for handsets.”

Generally speaking apps from the official distribution channels should be safe. Be careful if you habitually go for pirated versions, the bad guys can easily modify someone else’s code to sniff out your personal data.
Jailbreakers should be similarly careful.

If you have a Google profile, depending on how much information you have filled in and how active you are on the internet, Google knows who you know.
Click here to find out.

[It] is the network of connections Google uses to identify relevant social search results. It is based on a combination of the following:

• Direct connections from your Google chat buddies and contacts
• Direct connections from links that appear on your Google profile

• Secondary connections that are publicly associated with your direct connections

In addition to web pages from your social circle, posts from your Google Reader subscriptions may also appear in your social search results.

via boingboing.net

Apple iPhone users warned of JailbreakMe security risks – Telegraph: “”

Although the jailbreakMe operation is completely benign it does make use of a serious loophole in mobile Safari.
The exploit requires the user to click on a PDF link in a website which can then take advantage of the way the PDF viewer loads and displays fonts.

Jailbroken iPhones curiously enough, have access to an app via Cydia that prompts for authorisation every time a program or service tries to open a PDF.

This is a must read, especially for those still using IE, but also for web browsing in general. It should influence the way you use the browser, and which browser you choose to use.

Basically it describes the tussles within Microsoft between the developers of Internet Explorer 8 and other MS executives more interested in what the proposed new privacy settings within IE8 would do to Microsofts advertising revenues. Not to mention the fact they would seriously upset a lot of the online advertisers and tracking companies.
The result is you the user is shafted in favour of Microsoft’s bottom line.

Of special interest to users of IE8 are these 3 paragraphs. Particularly the second one.

“When Microsoft released the browser in its final form in March 2009, the privacy features were a lot different from what its planners had envisioned. Internet Explorer required the consumer to turn on the feature that blocks tracking by websites, called InPrivate Filtering. It wasn’t activated automatically.

What’s more, even if consumers turn the feature on, Microsoft designed the browser so InPrivate Filtering doesn’t stay on permanently. Users must activate the privacy setting every time they start up the browser.

Microsoft dropped another proposed feature, known as InPrivate Subscriptions, that would have let users further conceal their online browsing habits, by automatically blocking Web addresses suspected of consumer tracking if those addresses appeared on “black lists” compiled by privacy groups.”

The Wall Street Journal.

X-Ray Lamp By Sture Pallarp at Street Anatomy: “”

Something different to do with your old X-Ray’s. Created by a Stockholm based design student as part of a school assignment. We think it looks pretty cool and quirky enough for IKEA.

Facebook Testing “Delete Account” Option.: “”

It appears Facebook is rolling out a “Delete Account” option in addition to the “Deactivate Account” option already available. Previous to this deleting a Facebook account was a convoluted affair not for the faint hearted.

According to some reports, this new option, currently only showing for some users, will permanently delete your account and all information you have shared. Although Facebook’s TOC’s allow the site to keep that information once acquired.

By: John C Arkin

We should all do our part in conserving electricity and practicing energy efficiency in our everyday lives. We can do this through simple things that won’t disrupt our lives, such as turning off appliances when no one is using them, installing compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home and office and choosing appliances and equipment that have good energy efficiency ratings.

You can also practice energy efficiency by aiming to decrease the power consumption of your inkjet printers or laser printers. This is one small step that you can easily take to lower your electricity bills, save energy and help Mother Earth. Let’s take a deeper look at the energy consumption of these printers and several tips on how to decrease their electricity usage.

The Power Consumption of Laser and Inkjet Printers

The advent of the computer age has caused us to increase our energy consumption (and our carbon footprint) exponentially through the years. While monitors and CPUs are still at the top of the energy charts when it comes to consumption, inkjet and laser printers also contribute to operating and energy costs.

Laser printers can consume as much as 100 watts (or more) when in use, while inkjet printers use much less energy, at about 12 watts when printing. This fact has sparked some debate over which printer is more eco-friendly. Since the laser printer can give your more pages per printer ink cartridge, it sounds like the greener option over an inkjet, which can only give you a few hundred pages.

But laser printers consume much more energy than inkjet printers, even when idle. Tests done by the website Techlogg.com report that a Lexmark E230 laser printer ate up about 5.9 watts when idle, but this number quickly rose to 700 watts per printed page. The test revealed that a Canon S800 inkjet printer, on the other hand, only consumed between 13 to 19 watts when printing. When idle, inkjet printers used only 5 watts of power. But just because they use up less energy when idle doesn’t mean that it’s okay to leave your printers on standby mode all the time. Imagine how much this seemingly insignificant amount of power would add up to if you leave your printers on idle most of the day, 7 days a week for a whole year.

How to Conserve Energy with Your Printers

You can still, however, minimize your use of power and practice energy efficiency while using your laser or inkjet printers by following these simple tips.

1. Choose a printer with an Energy Star stamp. Energy Star is a program created by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy. They give approval or special seals for appliances and equipment that have been proven to be energy efficient. Inkjet and laser printers with this seal either consume a low energy level per week or automatically go into sleep or low power mode during idle mode, among other criteria.

2. Use the power saving mode of your printers. According to Energy Star, you should set your printer’s low power mode depending on the print speeds of your inkjet or laser printer. Those with speeds of 0 to 10 ipm, should be set to turn off automatically after 30 minutes, while this time should be set to 60 minutes for printers with 11 to 20ipm. Laser and inkjet printers with speeds of 55ipm and above should be set to turn off after 90 minutes.

3. Make sure to turn off your printer when no one is using it. It’s advisable to appoint someone in your office to turn off your printer at the end of the day. At home, make sure that you switch off your printer after using it.

4. Use the Duplex feature of your printer. This is one easy way to practice energy efficiency in the office or at home. Duplex copying uses up less energy than single-sided copying; so it’s strongly suggested that you set your printer to duplex mode, so that you save on energy and paper as well.

Reduce waste and energy consumption by making sure that all your appliances and equipment at the home and in your office have an Energy Star seal. You can also practice energy efficiency by following the four tips above.

About the Author

This Article is written by John C Arkin from news.printcountry.com the contributor of Printer & Printer Ink Cartridges News. More information on the subject is at 4 Tips to Decrease the Power Consumption of Inkjet and Laser Printers, and related resources can be found at Brother Ink Cartridges.

(ArticlesBase SC #2776856)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – 4 Tips to Decrease the Power Consumption of Inkjet and Laser Printers

Google’s recent announcement of it’s, typically beta for now, encrypted search facility could have some undesirable implications for web site owners.

Initially available as an option to the normal un-encrypted search, you can opt in by simply replacing http://www.google com with https://www.google.com. Note the additional ‘s’. By doing this your web browser does not pass on any referral data to an un-encrypted web site.

The webmaster of that site will not know you came from Google, or any of the search terms used to find his site. He won’t even know if you came from a search engine or just typed the site url into your browser address bar.

This does not play nice with web analytics used by webmasters to fine tune site text and keywords to improve visibility in search engine results. Including Google’s own web analytics, used by the majority of webmasters to keep an eye on who finds their site and how. Without this information webmasters will have little idea what people were searching for to get to their site. A reasonable guess can be made from the landing page, but that is all.

Google of course will still have access to the search terms, and it’s not entirely clear how this protects the privacy of the web user.

All of this just makes the webmasters job that little bit more difficult.
It’s hoped Google do not make encrypted search the default option on the worlds most used search engine.

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