This week we learned how to get spelling autocorrect across all applications on a Windows system, “diagnose DSL hang ups, extract media files from PowerPoint presentations, & restrict IE to a single website”, customize the Ubuntu bootloader screen, get smartphone-style word suggestion on Windows systems, learned what character encodings are and how they differ, and more.
Photo by Profound Whatever.
Weekly News Links
Photo by Dasient Blog.
- Report: Malware-laden sites double from a year ago
More than 1 million Web sites were believed to be infected with malware in the fourth quarter of last year, nearly double from the previous year, according to figures released by Dasient. - ‘Trojanized’ Google Android security tool found in China
Suspicious code is lurking in a repackaged Chinese version of a tool Google released last weekend to remotely clean malicious apps off Android phones, Symantec said Thursday. - USB driver bug exposed as “Linux plug&pwn”
Rafael Dominguez Vega of MRW InfoSecurity has reported a bug in the Caiaq USB driver which could be used to gain control of a Linux system via a USB device. - China-related DoS attack takes down Codero-hosted Web sites
A distributed denial-of-service attack that affected thousands of customers at Codero and other hosting providers appeared to come from within China and to be launched at a Chinese site that is critical of communism or its Domain Name System provider. - France hit by cyberattack with G20 focus
The French finance ministry revealed that it has been the victim of a major and sustained cyberattack. The attack, which has been ongoing since December, seems to be the work of hackers looking for documents related to the G20 political group. - Android Market: XSS hole allows unauthorised installation of apps
Google has closed a cross-site scripting (XSS) hole in the Android Market that allowed attackers to install apps on Android devices without the user’s consent – and without requiring physical access to the device. - BMI site latest target of Anonymous DDoS attacks
The Web site of Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) was down this past Wednesday after being targeted by a distributed denial-of-service attack launched by the Anonymous hacker group as part of what it calls its “war on copyright.” - Study: Negligence cause of most data breaches
Negligence is the biggest cause of data breaches at corporations, but criminal attacks are growing fastest, a study released concludes. - Twitter, Facebook vital as Japan cell networks jam
Japanese are using social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Mixi as cell phone networks are jammed following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck northern Japan on Friday. - Twitter tells third-party devs to stop making Twitter client apps
In a statement issued by Twitter on its official developer mailing list, the company informed third-party developers that they should no longer attempt to build conventional Twitter client applications. - Mozilla prepares to push Firefox 4
Mozilla has updated Firefox 4 to release candidate status, meaning that the features are locked, and barring the discovery of any major bugs, this version is likely to become the browser’s official release. - HP CEO: WebOS on all our PCs in 2012
Starting next year, Hewlett-Packard will include its mobile operating system, WebOS, on every PC it ships, according to a story quoting new CEO Leo Apotheker. WebOS will be offered in addition to Microsoft’s Windows, not as a replacement. - US bill seeks to block employer access to social accounts
A United States senator has introduced a bill that will prevent employers from asking their staff or job applicants to disclose their usernames and passwords for access to social networking sites. - Family trades temper tantrums for iPad
When a school therapist suggested that a family buy their autistic 3-year-old son Hudson an iPad, the Holmquists were willing to give it a try, and turned to ChipIn to raise money for a tablet for their child. Now the family is telling news media the device is a miracle. - Amazon ends affiliate program in Illinois
Amazon.com is ending another affiliates program over states’ efforts to collect sales tax. Amazon, which has opposed similar efforts in other states, informed its some 9,000 Illinois affiliates in a letter that it would terminate the program on April 15.
Random TinyHacker Links
- Take a spare 3D graphics card and hook it up to your laptop
This is one great tutorial for the hardware geeks among our readers. - Learn How to Run Windows 7 On Your Mac
Check out this detailed guide on running Windows 7 on a Mac using VirtualBox. - Network Your Computers & Devices Using This Book as a Reference
If you want to learn more about how to create and manage your own home network so that all operating systems play nice together: Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, check out this useful book. - Industrial Espionage and the Stuxnet Worm
The brief but fascinating clandestine history of Stuxnet, an industrial strength virus. - 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Outlook Calendar
Free and simple to install, download the MS March Madness and follow the schedule and results of all 67 games.
Super User Questions
If you have questions, then the good folks at Super User have the answers. Here are some of this past week’s most popular questions.
- What is my vulnerability if an enemy has obtained my IP address?
- Why are USB flash drives so much slower than Solid State Drives?
- How to copy lots of files between two computers, without network?
- What is the difference between Symbolic Link and Shortcut?
- What software works well for viewing massive TIFF images on Windows 7?
How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap
Had a busy week and need to get caught up on your HTG reading? Then start with our five hottest articles from this past week.
- Macs Don’t Make You Creative! So Why Do Artists Really Love Apple?
- HTG Explains: What’s a Solid State Drive and What Do I Need to Know?
- How to Get Amazing Color from Photos in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET
- How To Make Disposable Sleeves for Your In-Ear Monitors
- Ask the Readers: What Tools Do You Use to Score Great Deals Online?
Geeky Goodness from the ETC Side
Check out our most popular ETC posts from this past week.
- Trace Your Browser’s Roots on the Browser Family Tree [Infographic]
- Minty Bug: Build an FM Bug Inside a Mint Container
- Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Hacker Proofing Your PC
- Save Files Directly from Your Browser to the Cloud in Chrome and Iron
- Google Chrome Updates; Faster, Cleaner Menus, Encrypted Password Syncing, and More
- The Journey to the Mystical Forest [Wallpaper]
- Peaceful Alpine River on a Sunny Day [Wallpaper]
- Etch a Circuit Board using a Simple Homemade Mixture
- Bring the Grid to Your Desktop with the TRON Legacy Theme for Windows 7
- Super Secret Door Top Stash Hides Your Flash Drive and Cash [DIY]
One Year Ago on How-To Geek
Enjoy an afternoon of relaxed reading with these great articles from one year ago.
- Customize Your Icons in Windows 7 and Vista
- Add “My Dropbox” to Your Windows 7 Start Menu
- Recover Deleted Files on an NTFS Hard Drive from a Ubuntu Live CD
- Map a Network Drive from XP to Windows 7
- Remove a Network Computer from Windows Home Server
How-To Geek Comics Weekly Roundup
- Yeah, You Wish
- But Adobe Flash Won’t Stop Crashing On Me!
- Should Have Invented an App for That
- Now That’s Telecommuting
- Smokers and Computers