Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Secure and safe Web browsing is undoubtedly hard to come by these days. We’ve introduced two great pieces of software that will help keep your browsing safe, and we have yet another. About two-weeks ago Ashley wrote about a nifty little program called BufferZone that prevented things you downloaded from leaving the “buffer zone.” We have also done another post about using Tor-enabled browsers to ensure your anonymity while on the Internet. Both of those solutions are really great…and now we have one that is kinda a cross between the two!

Meet LivePC by moka5! It is a great concept that I am sure will continue to become more popular. LivePC utilizes VMware Player so that you can run a virtual PC on your existing operating system without needing to find, download, and configure a bunch of things. This means you can do a lot more with your Windows machine in just a few clicks!

There is a “Garage” for the LivePC’s that people have uploaded and already configured for you. There is everything from a Kid Safe Desktop all the way to a Fearless Browser. Heck, you can even try out the OS that is shipping on the computers for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

What we want to focus on today is the Fearless Browser LivePC. It has several great features to make your Web browsing safer, more secure, and anonymous:

• Completely anonymized browsing using Tor
• Key storage inside the virtualized disk
• Linux-based environment for security
• Firefox web browser
• Thunderbird email client with Enigmail
• GAIM Instant Messenger with Encryption
• Automatic use of OpenDNS for phishing protection and fast DNS lookups
• Flash player 9 support

The Fearless Browser is not restricted to just a Web browser, but also includes a mail client and an instant messenger. So how long will it take you to download this? Well, the download for the actual application is 30MB and then if you’re wanting to download the Fearless Browser, that will be an additional 100MB. However, the initial download for Fearless Browser is only about 4KB because the LivePC will download it when you actually want to use it. This is all done from the application’s main control panel:

Once it finishes downloading you’ll be able to start doing all of the things you love to do the most on the Internet, but a lot safer! Here is a screenshot of what it looked like after I had it up and running:

Even though this is running Linux you can’t actually access any of the Control Panel options or anything that you might be used to. They have really locked it down so that it is both secure and small. I had no problems getting this running since VMware does a great job of integrating the virtual PC with your current operating system, so my experience with using the Fearless Browser was remarkable.

There is also another instance where this could be extremely useful. Think about those people who aren’t very familiar with PC’s and all they want to do is browse the Internet and chat with friends. This is perfect for them because it has everything built-in that they would be using on the Internet…and you won’t have to worry about them getting infected with a virus or spyware.

My only complaint with it is that it still has Firefox 1.5.0.7 installed, and I think Firefox 2 would be much better and even more secure. Since it is so locked down I haven’t found a way to be able to update it, but from the looks of it they do a good job of keeping it updated.

Live PC Homepage
Fearless Browser Homepage

Thanks for the tip Pasch!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on November 13, 2006 by CyberNet.

I hope everyone isn’t getting sick of me posting some cool Flash games to kill some time but there are two more that you should try out that were both submitted by users. The first game was submitted by MetaMan and is just called “N.” It is unbelievably addicting and believe me when I say that it gets hard pretty quick. You can play it online and if you really like it download the free full version that has more levels.

The other game that was anonymously submitted is called “Run Run.” When you first start out you receive 25 lives which seems ridiculous because all you have to do is jump over a few boxes. I think you’ll be a little surprised at how quick those 25 lives can run out as you get higher up into the levels. Just remember, you’ll have enough lives to go through one per level…so when you drop two lives on one level you’re gonna have a tough time finishing.

It is amazing how long you can sit down and play such simple games. I have seen hours go by after stumbling upon playing some of these things. I don’t even think I want to know how long I have spent playing the two games above…but I don’t mind hearing about some more!

Thanks to MetaMan & the Anonymous person for the tips!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberKidz: Online Educational Games for KidsWii will soon get Multiplayer Online GamesNo More Digg Submissions From CyberNetWant Another Online Game? Motherload Is The Bomb!New Game for your iPod! Get Ms. Pac-Man…

Downloads have barely been active for half a day, but for the night-owls who burned the midnight oil in order to take the developer preview of Windows 8 for a spin, this is for you. If you’re claiming to be one of the earliest of adopters of Windows 8, how have things gone? Are you waiting a few days to see the obvious issues crop up? Are you taking your remaining vacation days to have yourself slapped silly with “Metro-style” goodness? Let us know how the installation process went in comments below, and if you’ve got a newfound mancrush (or womancrush!) on Microsoft, here’s your opportunity to shamelessly gloat.

View Poll

Poll: Did you download Windows 8? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on June 16, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

How many of you use a calendar on a regular basis to keep yourself organized? I’m sure many of you do because we all have hectic schedules with people to see and places to go. Everybody has a favorite solution whether it be a standard paper calendar or something like Google Calendar. Both Windows and Leopard come with a calendar for their users to use as well, and for being free, built-in solutions, they aren’t too bad. They actually have many similarities between them. Today we’ll be looking at iCal vs. Windows Calendar as part of our series on comparing Leopard and Vista features.

About Windows Calendar

Windows Calendar comes with Windows Vista and you access it by clicking on the Start menu and typing “Windows Calendar” into the search bar. It’s got a fairly simple interface that allows you to create appointments and manage tasks. For those families who share a computer, they can easily share their calendars as well.

About iCal

iCal is Apple’s version of a calendar that comes with Leopard. Like Windows Calendar, you can ad events (appointments) to the calendar and manage your tasks. It has a search bar in the upper right corner which is great for those times when you’re trying to find something you added to the calendar but you don’t remember where it was added.

Likes/Dislikes about Windows Calendar

Windows Calendar first debuted in Windows Vista. Never before did Microsoft include a calendar with their operating system, so that itself is nice. It’s got a three-paned interface with the typical Windows menu bar at the top where you can click to add a new appointment or task, and then change the view (day, work week, week, and month views).

From that top menu bar you can also click to subscribe to a calendar. Windows Calendar is compatible with the iCalendar format which means that you can import and export calendar information from other sites and applications. You can also publish your Windows Calendar on the Internet very easily as well. If you want to share your calendar via email, that too is an option.

Overall, Windows Calendar is a nice simple solution, however there are a few things that it’s lacking. One thing is that their task system doesn’t offer the ease-of-use that iCal does. It offers you the same features, it’s just not as easy to use. With their task system, you click “new Task” at the top, and then if you have the Details Pane enabled, you’d see the option to enter in the details of the task including the option to prioritize it by clicking a drop-down menu. With iCal, the whole right side of the calendar is dedicated to “to-do” items, and all it takes is a double-click to get a new to-do item to appear. Another double-click will pull up a window where you can select the priority whether it’s low, medium, or high. iCal uses a three bar system to give you a visual idea of which items you have on your list that are high (3 bars), medium (2 bars), or low priority (1 bar).

Likes/Dislikes about iCal

One nice feature about iCal is that it is integrated with .Mac (now MobileMe) so that users can share their calendars over the Internet. iCal is also nice because they use a pop-up window instead of a details pane in Windows Calendar to edit events. As mentioned above, I really like their task system, but they’ve got some other great features as well.

I did mention that Windows Calendar has a fairly simple interface, but iCal is even simpler. It’s clean and the set-up makes it convenient to see what’s going on. When you want to add an event, you simply click on the starting time and drag your mouse to the ending time. You can also edit existing events this way as well. If the event will be starting or ending later than originally planned, just take your mouse and drag it to the new time. Another feature I just discovered that’s nice too is that you can drag and item from your to-do list right to your calendar and it will be an event.

Some of the options available in the preferences are nice as well. For example, you can choose to have your to-do items deleted a certain amount of days after they are completed. You can also delete events after they have passed as well.

Wrapping it up

At the end of the day, both iCal and Windows Calendar generally offer the same types of features. The difference between the two is in the ease-of-use, and in my opinion, iCal is more intuitive and easier to use. Of course Microsoft wants people using Outlook which has a calendar as well, so they may not be putting the effort in to making Windows Calendar perfect.

The fact of the matter is that it’s nice that both operating systems offer their users a basic calendar so that they don’t need to turn to other, perhaps more complex solutions if they don’t want to.

So far we’ve taken a look at the following Leopard vs. Vista Comparisons

• Vista and Leopard Search Features Compared
• Apple Front Row vs. Windows Media Center
• Windows Contacts vs. Address Book
• iPhoto vs. Windows Photo Gallery
• iChat vs. Windows Live Messenger

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Today, Windows Division prexy Steven Sinofsky treated Build 2011 attendees to a walkthrough of the various tweaks, subtle or otherwise, Microsoft’s made to Windows 8. Staying true to its roots, the new OS implements the familiar keyboard commands users have become accustomed to over the years — you know, like CMD and Ctrl+F. And as for its update to Internet Explorer, MS has imbued its tenth iteration with the ability to switch between the much-hyped Metro-style UI and plain old desktop view — all according to your whimsy. Of course, Redmond’s instituted other sweeping changes across the platform, and you can check some of the highlights after the break.

Continue reading Windows 8 details: new features, UI enhancements and everything in between

Windows 8 details: new features, UI enhancements and everything in between originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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