The really nasty DRM protection that Bioware and EA is planning to institute on Mass Effect and Spore has been reversed because of the overwhelming negative reaction from gamers.
The controversial DRM protection will basically re-aunthenticate the games every ten days over the internet. Gamers are outraged because it basically asks them to jump through to […]

Video game pirates and torrent freaks should take note. Both Bioware and  Electronic Arts will be releasing two of the biggest PC game titles of the year  — Mass Effect and Spore — with one of the tightest, strictest anti-piracy measures yet. The two titles will require a validation every ten days.
The new copy protection […]

Is your yard plagued with birds? From pigeons to sparrows, woodpeckers to crows, the programmable BirdXPeller promises to have your fine-feathered friends enemies packing up their things and heading to any yard but yours.
Much of the work is done sonically (within a 1 acre radius), but if you’re bored during a backyard BBQ, you […]

A recent report has suggested that there may be as many as five times more variants of malware on the Internet in 2007 (and into 2008) than there was in 2006.  Extremely worrying I’ve no doubt that you agree.  Panda Software is reporting more than 3,000 unique i.d. negative impact software per day.
Another company, AV […]

If you want to save up on some money then try to take advantage of the special offer ZoneAlarm is offering consumers. The company is now offering its ZoneAlarm Anti Spyware totally for free. That’s a savings of $29.95 (the software’s retail price). Here’s the catch though — the offer is only available this Tuesday […]

Computerworld reports that a flaw in Firefox’s password management software can allow malicious sites to retrieve password information from users.
For this attack to work, attackers need to be able to create HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) forms on the Web site, something that is allowed on blogging and social networking sites.
The attack was used in […]

If you’re a smart user, you would know better than to blindly click on links and open attachments in emails or websites. No matter how attractive an offer, or how funny a joke is supposed to be, or how many millions of dollars you were supposed to have just won in a lottery somewhere, smart […]

Torrentspy.com is one of my favorite destinations for checking out if the latest episodes of my favorite shows, such as Smallville, have been seeded (cable operators here in my place air episodes months–even a full year–after they are shown on their home networks). Imagine my surprise when I tried to access the site and was […]

If you play Second Life Online, then your online identity may have just been compromised. A report from Contractor UK says a hacker was able to gain access certain parts of Linden Labs’ database of Second Life players, and this includes password information. Liden Labs is therefore advising residents to change passwords and to make […]

Jeremy Wagstaff comments on the various ways that different companies or websites help you recover forgotten passwords. And while password reminder systems can involve things ranging from the forgettable (favorite places, colors, things) to the unsecure (mother’s maiden name, social security number), here’s one memory cue we oft overlook: the tactile ones.
Four digits I’ve used […]

Windows Vista will inherit a Windows Server 2003 feature that ensures the integrity of files by making “shadow copies” on a daily basis. This means important files are backed up regularly so Windows always has a good copy on hand in case something goes wrong with the present setup of the system. In Vista, this […]

Companies are ever-vigilant about sensitive and/or proprietary information getting into the wrong hands. Technology gives them more reason to worry, as dwindling sizes and increasing capacities of portable storage devices have made it increasingly easier to smuggle data outside of company premises. Take the thumbdrive, for instance. Nothing’s stopping an employee from plugging in a […]

It can’t get any better than this. Remember when I previously blogged that the CIA was reading up on the blogosphere looking for possible leads? Here’s the real deal–a spy gone into the business of blogging.
I recently stumbled upon this blog by Richard Tomlinson, formerly a covert operative of the MI6 (the British equivalent […]

A guy comes into the office at nine in the morning. He powers up his computer and prepares coffee while waiting for the machine to boot up (yes, it’s on Windows). Once logged in, he fires up Firefox and opens several bookmarked tabs, which include Bloglines, Google Blogsearch, Technorati and Icerocket. And he reads a […]

According to research, China will soon overtake the US as a top sender of unsolicited mass email (yes, that’s spam).
Statistics from security firm Sophos show that China is fast catching up the US as a source of junk e-mail. According to Sophos, 23.1% of spam comes from computers in the US and 21.9% comes from […]

Here’s a lesson to would-be crime overlords: use stronger encryption (not that we’d encourage anyone to do bad stuff–just expressing a point on security). Poorly-encrypted notes exchanged for years within Bernardo Provenzano’s organization led to the arrest of the Sicilian Mafia Boss, with the police quite easily decoding the messages. So much for security!
The recently […]