Daily IT news & views

This is a term that was coined around 2004 and it means anything that is installed on your PC that may send information about you to someone else.
So, here's a quick list of things that sometimes do that.

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A NAS (Network Attached Storage) box called Yellow Machine has caused a stir of late in that it is an easy piece of hardware that allows you to backup up to 1000GB (1TB - Terabyte) of storage. (It contains 4 x 250GB disks) It's also a mail server, is VPN capable and has many other features. Allowing for the inevitable loss of space that 1TB would really translate to in real megabites, that's still a huge amount of space for your word documents! It's really designed for the SMB market but is definitely ideal if you want to back up video or audio collections.

AverMedia, a product of there's of which I am happily using on my PC at the moment, has developed a USB 2.0 stick with a TV tuner built-in. Now you can watch TV just about anywhere! Stuck at work with no TV to see the World Cup? Plug in your AverMedia TV tuner USB stick and watch it on your computer. Fantastic!

Trend Micro have developed a system that stops compromised networks or botnets at the network gateway. It filters inappropriate content including various phishing scams that may come from botnets.

Since Seagate bought Maxtor, Maxtor drives have become a little harder to find. Now it will be almost impossible. Seagate is discontinuing the Maxtor lines except for a few things like its 500GB ATA hard drives.

Google have started their fight against Microsoft's Office program by making available an online spreadsheet program - for free. You can even upload your own spreadsheets in csv or xls format and work with them online. All formulas and formatting will stay intact.
You can find out more here

Yes, you read right. If you've just got used to seeing Google text ads all over websites, if you're in the United States, Canada or Japan you'll now be able to see advertising videos. You can find out more information about this on the Google site here

Finally, the waterproof PC. Now we don't have to leave the pool to check our email. Backplane Systems Technology in Australia have released a mobile PC called the Adamant. It meets the military environment standards and is designed for a rugged life. It can handle being in water up to 3 metres deep. Just the thing for those camping trips! Company site here

Hutchison 3G phone network in Australia have released EyeCam, a remote camera device for home use. Set up the camera anywhere in your home then, when you want to check on something while you're out (your pet, your children, your computer) you dial it via video and view what it sees on your mobile.
You can find out more at the Three site here.

SPIT is Spamming IP Telephony or Spam over IP Telephones. It is a new emerging threat.
A few days ago I talked about Zombie Botnets. With ADSL speeds of 1.5MB now common, expect voicemail messages to be the new spam. Instead of reading about some old ladies late husband in Nigeria who's left millions in unclaimed bank accounts you could be hearing her leave a crying and convincing message on your voice mail. It would be very easy

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