Category: The Geeks

Protect Your Computer and Mobile Devices With ‘Prey’

Today’s computing devices (mobile/smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) are very valuable to us.  It is not only the cost of acquiring it, but the addition of all the personal information we have on it.

What if it was stolen?  How would you recover it?  Or wipe it clean of your personal information remotely?

That is why I am using ‘Prey‘.  Prey has many features, but all are designed for you to be able to track, monitor, wipe, and/or possible help you recover your stolen/lost computing device.  Check out the ‘how it works’ video on the site.  It is not the only software of that type, but it is one of the best and easiest I have found so far.

Gotta See – Model Airport of Hamburg Germany to the Finest Details, at a Cost of Over $4 Mil.

I saw this story at Gizmodo and you have to check out the video on YouTube (link in the story) at least.  If you want to know how they did, then you can read the story.  But trust me, this is very very impressive.  I can’t say anything more than go check it out for sure.

As you watch the video, at first, it is hard to believe that is a model with working lights and so on.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention.   There are also some other things that are possible with this model that are not shown in the video.  You get those juicy bits from reading the article.

Microsoft Buys Skype for 8.5 Billion

There was talk last week of FaceBook and Skype being in talks, whereby, FB would buy Skype.  That would make sense for FB.  However, I was thinking that Google would try to get in the bidding for Skype too.  That certainly makes sense for Google consider they have Google Talk, which is like Skype, offers free calling to the USA and Canada.  So merging their Google Talk features and Skype, would have been awesome and would have given an even bigger user base.

I use Linux exclusively and Skype for Linux was always lagging behind the Windows and Mac versions, but they were trying.  If Microsoft do acquire Skype, that would pretty much be the end of Skype on Linux.  There are very few products Microsoft does well for any platform other than it own.  I like Skype, my buddies and I use it for our conference calls.  But I don’t know about Microsoft owning it.  I will have wait to see what happens and how they maintain the Linux version and run the service.

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 10th May 2011 08:19 UTC, submitted by porcel
Microsoft So, the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. The Wall Street Journal reports – and it has been confirmed – that Microsoft and Skype will announce today that Redmond will buy Skype for $8.5 billion. That’s a lot of money for a company that hasn’t ever actually made any profits.

Robot Overlords – One Step Closer

This college student developed a piece of software he is calling Predator.  Yes, predator.  Predator is a video tracking software that leans about the subject it is tracking.  Even if the subject leaves the screen or the camera changes angle about the subject.

I say, Predator and software like is are just taking us ever so close to the day when we put all of this stuff into a fairly competent machine and we may not like the result.

US Army Soldiers to Program for Android

From this story over at Gizmodo, looks like the US Army will be releasing their Android SDK in soon and Soldiers will be taking Android devices to the field in 2013.

Nice, just what you want.  A dude who can write code to fight you.  I can see it now, some years into the future.  Two soldiers are out on the field trying to write code to out smart each other.

Apple Can Track Every iPhone User

If I had an iPhone, I would be mad as hell and would probably try to get rid of it soon.  I am an Android user and it is not as smooth now, as the iPhone.  But man do I love it openness.

Saw this on Slashdot:

Apple Logging Locations of All iPhone Users

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 20, @10:16AM
from the are-you-scared-yet dept.
An anonymous reader writes “The Guardian reports that researchers have found a hidden file on all iPhones, iPads and any computers to which they synchronize, logging timestamped latitude and longitude coordinates of the user since June 2010. A tool is available on their website to check on your own.”

Carbon : Very Strong Atom

So Earth day is coming up and Robert Krulwich over at Krulwich Wonders have this mini-series of video on the good old Carbon atom.  Trust me, these isn’t any there about the pros vs cons of Global Warming.  Just some short entertaining and educational videos about the Carbon atom.  Highly recommended, go check it out.  I think it will eventually about four(4) videos, as of today, there are there (3).