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This post is in answer to the question, ”What is the ShareThis icon you see at the end of every post?”

To paraphrase the programmer’s Web site, ShareThis is a one-step sharing tool that makes sharing information online hassle free. It is the easiest and most efficient way to share anything you want, where you want, to who you want!

Share with many friends in one step:

ShareThis lets you share content from this site to MySpace, Facebook, AIM, email, and even SMS to mobile devices simultaneously.

ShareThis also allows you to easily share to any of your friends by importing your contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace, AIM, Outlook and more. Try it out, it is very easy to use.

ConsumerReports.org has some very good suggestions for safer computing.

These common mistakes can ruin your computer or invite identity theft

1. Assuming your security software is protecting you. Security software is fully effective only when activated and frequently updated. (Most products can update automatically.) To update most commercial software products, you must pay an annual fee. Last fall, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the software maker McAfee found that nearly half the users polled who thought their software was protecting them hadn’t updated it regularly. Software bundled with a new computer requires special attention because its subscription may expire within weeks. (Read more)

SOURCE: ConsumerReports.org

This report on computer threats and vulnerabilities contains some interesting information that you should be aware of.

The XForce won’t save you from a burning building but, they just might make your surfing safer. The XForce is IBM’s team of Internet Security Systems researchers and they’ve just released the midyear report for 2008, listing all kinds of facts and figures on internet security. If you’re really into data, go read the report for yourself. It might also be good for insomnia. I’ll give you the quick highlights here.
The first part of the report is about computer threats and vulnerabilities. Top five companies with vulnerability disclosures (when they publish information about a security problem) in 2008 so far?

• Apple
• Joomla!
• Microsoft
• IBM
• Sun

(Read more)

SOURCE: downloadsquad.com

You may have noticed my frequent complaints here about the greedy actions of the RIAA. They have all been for good reason. The latest is their treatment of Internet radio.

Musical artists, listeners, and Webcasters, have joined forces in the SaveNetRadio coalition  to help save Internet radio. The members of the coalition believe strongly in compensating artists, but Internet radio as we know it will not survive under the proposed new royalties. You must help. Please take a moment to call your members of Congress to let your representatives know how much Internet radio means to you.

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio’s royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.  (Read more)

This is from the Better Late Than Never Department.

The Federal Communications Commission, following years of criticism and threats of Congressional action, yesterday finally issued an order scrapping its previous definition of “broadband” as any service delivering of at least 200 KB/s. The order, to be implemented by new rules to be issued within 120 days, sets 768 KB/s as the minimum speed for what the FCC is now calling “basic” broadband, which extends up to 1.5 MB/s. Slower speeds, from the old 200 KB/s definition of broadband up to 768 KB/s are redefined as “first generation data.” (Read more)

This tweak is worth hacking Firefox 3’s configuration file for.

Firefox 3 introduced a new coloring scheme and design for secure websites. You might remember that Firefox 2 displayed a yellow URL bar when the user was accessing a https site. This changed drastically in Firefox 3 which is now displaying blue, yellow and green colors in the favicon area on the left side of the URL. (Read more)

SOURCE: ghacks

Firefox 3 was downloaded more than eight million times in a 24-hour period last Tuesday. It is as yet unverified by Guinness, but should be more than enough to secure the all time download record.

Those of us who participated were rewarded with a personalized Download Day certificate.

In case you haven’t noticed, Big Cable is now also Big Internet. If there is any way to squeeze an extra nickel out of your pocket, these are the guys who can do it.

Some people use the Internet simply to check e-mail and look up phone numbers. Others are online all day, downloading big video and music files.

For years, both kinds of Web surfers have paid the same price for access. But now three of the country’s largest Internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity.

One of them, Time Warner Cable, began a trial of “Internet metering” in one Texas city early this month, asking customers to select a monthly plan and pay surcharges when they exceed their bandwidth limit. The idea is that people who use the network more heavily should pay more, the way they do for water, electricity, or, in many cases, cellphone minutes. (Read more)

SOURCE: NYTimes.com

Is your Internet connection really broadband? You can find your actual up and download speed by visiting a Web site and running an online JavaScript. Speedtest.net has become a respected baseline test. The results for my Comcast home connection are posted below. The dirst is from a mid-day Friday test.

The second is from mid-morning on Saturday.

Please, leave comments with your results.

I could tell you horror stories about dealing with Charter’s alleged "Tech Support" for the business account at my wife’s library that would curl your toes. This puts the last nail in their corporate coffin as far as I am concerned.

It’s one thing when Google uses your search for boobs to deliver targeted ads for plastic surgeons in your area. It’s another when your ISP uses deep-packet inspection to snoop on which sites you visit and for how long, and then essentially sells that data to advertisers for super-targeted. That’s exactly what Charter is about to do, calling it an "enhanced online experience." Naturally, the program is opt-out, not opt-in, so you’ve gotta take the initiative to hang on to one last shred of privacy. And no, they’re not passing on the money they’re making off your browsing habits in the form of discounts. (Read more)

SOURCE: gizmodo