Battle of the mappers

Microsoft's new (beta) "Local Live" map site includes some "Bird's Eye" views that are astoundingly high quality. Not all areas of even major cities are yet covered by the "Bird's Eye feature, though. Expect the covered areas to get larger as more multi-angle photos are commissioned.

 

Both Microsoft and Google have a map view that shows roads plus satellite.  Between the Google "hybrid" view and Microsoft's "aerial", I prefer Google's.

• Microsoft Live Local aerial view
• Google map view of the same area

Of course, Microsoft Live Local has an added plus -- Traffic maps ( Atlanta traffic , for example) that show speed and construction. Georgia's DOT has such a map, too.

What you type can hurt you

If you mean to type "Google.com" but mistype it in your browser, you could surf to a site that installs a malicious Trojan program on your computer.

• Full story

Homeland security slams RFID use on humans

A draft report from the Department of Homeland Security's Privacy Office condemns use of radio frequency identification devices ( RFID) due to excessive privacy and security risks. RFID can be used to monitor people's behavior, the report states. Things may not be looking so good for the proposed use of RFID on Mexican border crossing cards and similar ones being considered for use by the Departments of State and Homeland Security.

Computer security blogs

If you like to stay on top of protecting your computer from "the bad guys", you would do well to read computer security-related news and tips. With blogs being so popular now, there are some security-related blogs "out there". Here are a few:

• ComputerWorld security blogs
• Microsoft Security Response Center (a Technet blog)
• Security Matters (Windows IT Pro magazine)
  
• Security fix (Washington Post)
  
• Security Awareness for Ma, Pa, and the Corporate Clueless
  
• Security blog (CNET News.com)
  
• Spamroll (about Spam, Phishing, and more)
  
• Threat Chaos (ZDNet)
  
• Technorati's list of blog postings with "security" in them
  

RSI from tech could hurt kids

An article on cNet news today reminds us that kids today spend one whale of a lot of time with technology "things" from game controllers to computers to cell phones.  All that slamming of thumbs on controllers, rapid pushing of tiny keys when text messaging, and slamming fingers and thumbs on keyboards be people that are not touch typists makes today's kid a poster child for Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI). Many medical practioners are concerned.

 

Actually, I have to be careful myself.  I'm not a touch typist and I tend to hit the keys instead of gently pressing them down.  Some days I come home with a wrist tendons that hurt.  Think of the cumulative damage a lidetime of such digit slamming could do.

Evil lurks in search results

McAfee raises a caution flag about the safety of internet search engine results. Their January through April study examined the end results of people using the five major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and AOL Search). The study showed that clicking on links in search results took users to malicious web sites on average 285 million (yes, million) times a month.

The real kicker is that "sponsored" links are nearly three times more likely to link to malicious sites than are regular search results. Search engine companies are taking steps to protect their users, though. These steps include tools for detecting and removing spyware, pop-up blockers, and anti-phishing filters. McAfee, for example, suggests you download and use their "SiteAdvisor" utility to make surfing safer.

• SiteAdvisor for Internet Explorer
• SiteAdvisor for Firefox

Microsoft toobar now fights phishing

The MSN Toolbar, a free download from Microsoft, now includes an anti-phishing filter add-in.  When you try to go to a site that the program recognizes as a possible or known phishing threat, you get one of two levels of warnings. This will be part of Internet Explorer 7, but the MSN Toolbar will let you add it to IE 6 right now.

Shield your sockets for free

The SocketShield software is in a free beta version of a program that checks for malicious activity and works at the socket level. It's actions are based on use of a Blacklist plus checking for suspicious activity. This new software is a zero-day exploit blocker.

The aim is to prevent even opening a web page to a site that tries to do a "drive-by download" of some software. Some drive-bys are commercial ad-related, but some are malicious.
This program is one more to add in your computer defensive array. The total defense consists of:

• Two-way firewall
• Software updates
  
• Antivirus software
  
• AntiSpyware software
  
• AntiSpam software
  
• Socket monitoring software
  

More ways to read these postings

You can always come to this blog's web page to read the posts. That's my personal preference. But if you start subscribing to a "bunch o' blogs", the number of new articles may get large. One way to manage scanning them for what you really want to read is to use a " Feed Reader", which I've mentioned in prior posts.

Blog readers (a.k.a. feed readers or RSS readers) come in two basic forms -- web-based and ones installed on your PC. The web-based variety involves setting up an account at Google, Yahoo! or similar wites, then adding blogs to track. You log onto the Web site to see new headlines from the blogs in your list. The local install method gives you a program. When you run the program, many of which look similar to MS Outlook, you "subscribe" to blogs. The program then pulls down information about the blog postings and you read as you like.

Here are a few recently touted feed readers (blog readers):

• SharpReader (donationware)
• RSS Bandit (donationware)

Yahoo! Tech now online

Yahoo! has added a "Tech" section.  It offers information about products, advice from at least four different people, and gives you the ability to create a "My Tech" page that displays the stuff you're most interested in.  You need a Yahoo! ID, but it's free (ad-supported).