Friday, March 04, 2005

VoIP's troubling flaw Lack of simple 911 access can have dire results. 10:42:45 PM    comment []

Increasing variety of form factors for USB flash drives  Not only are they available in inch-long versions that are easy to conceal in any pocket, purse or wallet, but also there are forms that are not even recognizable as storage devices unless one knows what to look for.  Consider for example the “USB MP3 Player Watch” with 256M bytes of storage. This device looks like an analog watch.  Then there is the SwissMemory USB Memory & Knife. This gadget, includes a blade, scissors, file with screwdriver tip, pen and USB memory, in 64M, 128M, 256M, or 512M-byte capacities.  The USB Pen (not a “PenDrive”) is a pen that uses standard ink refills but also includes 128M bytes of USB flash memory. 2:34:40 PM    comment []

Tax time tips Skip the [tax prep] software; it pays to have your taxes prepared by a pro. [The author depended heavily on data she maintained in Quickbooks.] 2:22:22 PM    comment []

Microsoft promises free anti-spyware, new version of IE  The company, by midyear, plans to release a test version of a new Internet Explorer browser that better protects users from scams and malicious code while surfing the Web, Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 in San Francisco.  Microsoft bought anti-spyware software maker Giant Company Software in December and released a beta of Windows AntiSpyware in January. In addition to its free consumer product, Microsoft will offer a for-pay anti-spyware product for corporate users that will support enterprise needs for management and deployment, said Amy Roberts, a director in Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit. Roberts would not say when the enterprise anti-spyware product will be available. 2:10:28 PM    comment []