Weather + Google mashup

Weathermole is a great sample of what developers can do when they combine Google maps with other data. Such a merging is called a "mashup".

In this case, the developer merged NOAA weather data to Google maps data. The resulting mashup lets you specify a ZIP code or a major city, then provides forecast text and images below the U.S. map.

Get wired

Wired magazine has some great articles. You can now find the Wired technology news feed in the right column of this blog.

But if you, like me, also have a string interest in science in general, check out "What we don't know" at Wired. The list has 40 questions, from the humorous to some truly "big" ones.

Eudora email becomes Penelope

Qualcomm is going to cease development of its popular email client software, Eudora. Instead, it is giving its code to the Mozilla folks, who also produce Thunderbird.

At first I thought that Eudora would get merged into a slightly changed Thunderbird. But no. The aim by Mozilla, with the help of current Eudora staff, is for the new open-source email client program to maintain the "Eudora user experience". The name for this project is Penelope.

I have been using Eudora Pro, but decided to try out Thunderbird. Caution - the Thunderbird importers for Eudora's mailboxes, folders, messages, and address books are very "rough". I had to heavily edit the imported address book data, though the Eudora 7 messages and "Personalities" did import OK. Thunderbird is a different user experience, but mostly rewarding. I really appreciate the spell check as you type. But I was annoyed that there was no option to change the default message action upon delete -- it pops up the next unread message, which could be malicious. No thank you!

If you want to try Thunderbird, I recommend also installing the "Unselect message" add-on, which changes the default action to one that deletes an open message and then returns to the message list without opening the next unread one. That should have been the Thunderbird default anyway, just for security reasons.

Warning: Mailicious emails, web sites

A malicious bugger named Trojan.Peacomm is making the rounds. This nasty thing can hide its files and processes, making it quite hard to detect. It arrives:

• As a file installed on your computer by other malware (malicious software) or
• As a file you unwittingly download when visiting malicious URLs.

It is also currently arriving in email Spam, with the emails using subject lines related to specific events. A few example subject lines:

A killer at 11, he's free at 21 and kill again!
Naked teens attack home director.
230 dead as storm batters Europe.
Radical Muslim drinking enemies's blood.
Chinese missile shot down Russian satellite
Saddam Hussein alive!
Venezuelan leader: "Let's the War beginning".
Fidel Castro dead.

Be paranoid -- people really are out to get you!

Get more information at Symantec Security Response ...

Get Wired - Science, that is

You remember the film "Weird Science"? Well, PBS airs "Wired Science" tonight. It's from Wired magazine and one of three pilots for one possible series.

Watch, then you can even add your opinion as to whether PBS should make Wired Science a series.

Wireless drivers a major vulnerability

Wireless drivers are under attack by hackers. So far the wireless products affected include ones from Apple, Intel, Broadcom, Cisco, Linksys, Dell, Netgear, D-link.

Tens of millions of desktop and notebook computers plus other wireless devices are vulnerable. If you use a wireless device, check the manufacturer's web site to see if they offer a driver update.

Reference: Wireless security starts with drivers

Manage passwords securely

Over 50 percent of people use the same password for nearly every site they visit and that requires one, says PC World about a Jupiter Research study. That's just asking for trouble.

On the other hand, it's not reasonable to expect people to remember a bazillion usernames and passwords. So what do you do? Some people store the sites and passwords in a file on their PC. Not good. If their PC is hacked, the file is available for the hacker to read, use, and distribute or sell to other hackers. A much better method is to use a secure password manager.

Secure password managers also store the site and password information, but they encrypt it. One such free program is Comodo iVault, which uses 256-bit encryption. Of course, you use a password to open the program. So you need to make that password an exceptionally strong one.

To make a strong password, use at least 8 characters and a mix of UPPER CASE letters, lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. If you want to beef up the strength some more, make the length at least 15 characters long. The, make it even stronger by making sure that no part of it forms a word. The more random the password, the better, though that also makes it harder to remember.

When creating a password, avoid obvious keyboard sequences of adjoining or alternating keys. Also, don't include any information associated with you or your family as part of the password (names, pets' names, birth dates, license plate number, etc.).

To make sure you have the right idea, test a sample strong password with CertainKey Cryptosystems's online password strength analyzer (at the bottom of that web page). Since all the keystrokes you send are "in the clear", use this just for testing and demo purposes, not to check your real password. Note that the randomness of the password (what CertainKey calls entropy) helps too. The online tools estimates how many days it would take to crack the sample password you enter. Microsoft also offers an online password strength checker.

2007 Security outlook

Mark Edwards, "Windows IT Pro" magazine, sees the following threats for 2007:

• Vista exploits.
• Exploits of RSS and Atom syndication feeds ... you know, feeds like this blog! Whoa, Baby!
  
• Exploits of multimedia content, including MySpace and YouTube.
• User education will still be a low priority for businesses.
• Increasing identity theft, Spam, and malware.
• Increasing malicious use of botnets.

The full article is in the latest Windows IT Pro "Security UPDATE" email newsletter. You can sign up for various email newsletters at Windows IT Pro.

You need more than automatic updates

Windows' "Automatic updates" only downloads "critical" updates. Windows Update and Microsoft Update, which has MS Office updates too, both have a ton of security patches plus added features you can download. The optional updates and hardware-related updates do not automatically download.

So periodically manually surf to the Update site (Windows Update or Microsoft Update) and check out the other two categories of updates -- "Software Updates [optional]" and "Hardware updates".

Update your PC clock for new DST

Here's an update listed as optional that I'd prefer to be mandatory -- update the system time to reflect the new dates for Daylight Savings Time (Microsoft Knowledgebase article 928388). In case you didn't recall, the U.S. and several other countries have decided to change the start and stop dates for DST.

Since your PC clock has the "old" rule, you really do need this update so that the system can change the time automatically when DST arrives and departs.