Saturday, August 18, 2007

Tech Pulse 20070809: Netflix Hacked, Uninterruptible Power, Sweet Firefox Add-ons, and more!

Listen to this episode! Subscribe to the MP3 feed via iTunes

Josh talks about Apple's new iMac and other product upgrades, Netflix getting hacked, future huge-capacity notebook drives, the safety of using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), Firefox add-ons to block ads and increase Internet safety, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News
  • Apple's Tuesday event stuff:
    • New iMac, redesigned to look more like the iPhone with a glass screen, and a new, much flatter keyboard
    • iLife '08 with new automatic "Events" in iPhoto, redesigned iMovie, and more
    • iWork '08, now with Numbers (Apple's answer to Microsoft Excel), simpler word processing with Pages, and more
    • .Mac now has 10x the storage and bandwidth (increased to 10 GB storage and 100 GB/month bandwidth)
  • Netflix's streaming movie service (which relies on Microsoft DRM) has been hacked
  • Fujitsu developing 1.2 TB notebook HDs
Tech Tips
Josh's
  • Hacking Safari 3.0.3 Beta to work on Mac OS X 10.3.9
    • Josh couldn't get it to work. =(
  • Consider getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your desktop PC
    • What should you plug into the battery backup outlets? (Anything that might cause data loss if power is lost unexpectedly)
      • Desktop PC
      • External hard drives, NAS
      • Networking equipment (router, modem, and/or switch)
    • What only needs surge protection?
      • Monitor (would suck a lot of power from the UPS, and you can set up your PC to shut down automatically when UPS power is running low)
      • Printer
      • Speakers
      • Laptop (has its own battery backup!)
Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's
  • Favorite Firefox Add-ons (aka extensions):
    • Make the Web enjoyable
  • Add-ons that are useful to install and train people to use after cleaning up spyware infections:
    • McAfee SiteAdvisor
      • *FAR* from foolproof, but can be useful to identify many harmful sites
      • Shows its ratings next to sites in search results
    • Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar
      • The same people who get a lot of spyware are often likely to click on phishing links as well. Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 have anti-phishing features built in, but it doesn't hurt to add another layer of protection
Log Out

No comments: