Diggnation recently covered a Digg headline about Geek Squad. This has happened before, of course, because the so-called “Geek Squad” is (pretty much) uniformly laughed at by us computer nerds.
I digress though. 
The latest situation is the result of someone being pretty sneaky. The owner of the PC put software onto their computer that would record a video of everything that happened on their PC; mouse movements, folders opening.. every little thing was recorded. After this was installed they then sent the PC to the Geek Squad to have iTunes installed. That was the only “work” that they hired Geek Squad to do.
What happened? The sneaky recording software caught someone at Geek Squad copying all of the porn from the computer onto a thumb drive. Not only that, but the person at Geek Squad was apparently checking the Properties of folders to see if they contained enough data to be worth their time. Sheesh!
This made me think: What if it had been financial data? Work or school documents? Other people’s (friends, family, clients’) personal information?
You can imagine how this made me consider the subjects of security, privacy, and even identity theft. It was a chilling thought!
Once at my computer the majority of my data would be right out in the open. As unlikely as this scenario is, I had to wonder what I could do to prevent that level of intrusion. Read the rest of this entry »
This is not an official update. This is something that I whipped together.
Here is what this “update” does:
- Returns results from within the last 3 months (so no out dated information is returned)
- Search results will (or rather, “should”) all be in English
- PDF files are removed from search results - YAY!
Oh, the Google icon in Firefox’s drop down box is much larger than the others. This is because I was too lazy to resize the PNG image file, but it has the added benefit of making it easier to select “Google” from the list.
Why Did I Do This?
I made this change to Firefox’s built-in Google search box after being annoyed one too many times by sloppy results. Yes, I realize that this may shock many of you: Google can return sloppy search results.
I’ll pause here while you all gasp in horror. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a list of the privacy tools that I regularly use on my computer. The software listed here is free.
Friends say that I go a little overboard with the protection of my privacy, and I suppose that I do. However, there is a key tool here that everyone should use and that’s email privacy. Just like everything else in the computer world, the word “encryption” now refers to something that is so easy to use that you can forget that you’re using it while still reaping all of the benefits.
Technology moves forward, after all.
Note that I hope to be using Freenigma soon but I don’t have it yet so it’s not officially in this list. It’s free, and I should have it soon. If it works as they say it does then this will be my #1 recommended tool to everyone. More on this later.
Out of all of the software that’s listed here I only recommend the first, Ciphire Mail, to the average computer user as long as you use a program like Outlook Express or Thunderbird (it’s not useful if you log into a website to use your email).
From top to bottom the programs decrease in how easy they are to use for the average computer user. Read the rest of this entry »
Just FYI: I’ve updated my PGP keys for both my primary address and my website contact address, and I revoked my older keys.
Notice that both the recipient and subject of the message are anonymized:
This, along with how incredibly easy it is to install and use (not to mention it’s free!), is why I so enjoy Ciphire Mail. Yes, darn it, I’m on a mission! 
More people need to use this.
The blacked out email address is my personal email address.
~Steph
Technorati Tags: privacy, security, encryption, anonymous, anonymity
Credit: This fix was not discovered by me, I found it on the Microsoft discussion forum. The two folks in that discussion who seem to have discovered the fix for the problem are Chad Harris and Kristan Kenney.
When I tried to start Windows “Help And Support” (any help file for any native Windows program or feature) it would generate an error by Internet Explorer saying that it couldn’t download from “/”. This problem began occurring shortly after I installed Vista, so I’ve never really had access to any of Vista’s help files.
Thanks to the above folks it now works! Apparently the root of the problem is that the XML file type needs to be associated with Help And Support. Read the rest of this entry »
OTR stands for “off the record”, and it helps to ensure your privacy while you’re having an instant message conversation. Besides, this is like the big kid’s version of a secret decoder ring, woot! ;-D
To use this you’re going to need a copy of Trillian Pro, so go get it!
What it does “under the hood” is encrypt your messages so that only you & the other person can read them, but unlike other encryption options it doesn’t digitally sign those messages. In fact, it’s specifically designed to provide you plausible deniability, or it does its best to do so. Read the rest of this entry »
The more technically inclined will recognize this idea as being inspired by both email encryption and existing challenge / response systems.
This post may get a bit technical, but once you think about it you’ll realize how very simple, user friendly, and effective this system is.
Please note that this is a VERY LONG post Read the rest of this entry »
What you’ll need:
All of these are free of course!
Read ChuckCaplan’s How To if you do not already have GnuPG installed.
FireGPG gives you button-click support for encryption, decryption, and digital signing from GMail’s web site. Now all of you who use web based email can have the benefits of secure, private email without being tied to a service such as Hushmail. 
Here’s something that I haven’t done in a very long time - I’m tinkering around with Linux.
Quite some time ago I was doing tech reviews on Shadows In Motion. I have since drastically changed that blog’s focus to something more personal, having become burned out on the sheer number of tech-centric blogs.
At the time that it was tech focused I spent a good bit of time reviewing various distros of Linux. One distro in particular done a very nasty number to my HDD and, without the technical know-how to repair the thing, I ended up spending $80 on a new drive. It was then that I called it quits with Linux.
Fast forward to today and here I am, using Ubuntu v7.04. I have to say, it’s still the ugliest Linux distro that I’ve used. 
It’s still frustrating as hell, too. I only just now got the wireless Internet to work, and only then after hours of tinkering with both the router’s and Ubuntu’s settings. “Just works”, my ass! lol Well, finally it’s going and the O/S is now downloading updates as I type this.
My sound doesn’t work, of course. Audio and wireless Internet connectivity have always been the biggest pains in my arse on Linux.
…but it’s working! So I suppose that I’ll continue tinkering with it. It has the entirety of my 80 GB HDD to settle into. My other O/S is Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit and I’m dual booting between the two. Vista currently resides on my 100 GB HDD.
We’ll see how this pans out.
~Steph
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About Moi
Steph is a college student at Pittsburg State University, majoring in psychology. Read my about page for more information.
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