mericans can take advantage of a database/map of nearby Wi-Fi HotSpots. This Web site, WiFiMaps.com, is of course far from ethically acceptable. Perhaps it will force system administrator to finally change the default, out-of-the-box settings on their routers. It is amazing how penetrable Wi-Fi connections have become.

Related links: (external)

• WEPCrack
• How To Crack WEP
• Cracking WPA

The links above are posted as a word of caution. You must ensure that you are not exposed to such hacks, which probably affect old devices the most.

Paul Thurrott, a Windows guru is and well-known Windows advocate, wrote this strong critique of Internet Explorer 7, which he claims punishes both Web developers and users.

Paul closes his write-up with the following words:

My advice is simple: Boycott IE. It’s a cancer on the Web that must be stopped. IE isn’t secure and isn’t standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable both for end users and Web content creators. Because of their user bases, however, Web developers are hamstrung into developing for IE at the expense of established standards that work well in all other browsers. You can turn the tide by demanding more from Microsoft and by using a better alternative Web browser. I recommend and use Mozilla Firefox, but Apple Safari (Macintosh only) and Opera 8 are both worth considering as well.

Related item: Internet Explorer Breaks the Web

The BBC have published interesting statistics according to which a new blog is created every second.

The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati.

…

It suggests, on average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months.

Older related items:

• Blogs Recession (snippet below)

As the number of Web logs continues to rise (nearing exponential growth), an anti-climax is rapidly reached. Attention is spread among more blogs and hence feeds/spiders account for more of the traffic for most blogs…

• Internet and Nature (snippet below)

…in the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program…

ollowing a recent item on imitation at Microsoft and in relation to what has become a trend, surfers spotted a stunning resemblance between an MSN search test-bed (start.com) and Google’s popular personalised pages. The test-bed is supposedly maintained by interns, but it projects badly on claims for innovative thinking over in Washington. To persuade yourself that the pages are inseparable, have a look at the screenshots below and click to enlarge.

Google’s personalised portal on the left and Microsoft’s clone on the right; click images to view them in full size

ave you ever pondered or worried about what search engines know about you? If not, you should. It is no secret that even the most prominent and powerful companies see value in tracking their users. Companies do not have any desire to infringe the user’s right for privacy, but information about their users allows them to improve their services, e.g. by behaviour learning which leads to optimisation and targetted content.

A few clarifications are worth making: If you use Windows and, more particularly, if you use Internet Explorer, your privacy is jeopardised the most. I am not pointing my finger at Microsoft, but spyware is targetted at the most prolific platform and application. It is the most cost-effective spyware development process. Have you heard about Alexa rating? Ranks are most likely based on spyware at some level or another. The watchers know what sites you visit. The watchers might also know what pages you bookmark, how long you ‘sit’ on a SERP, which pages you follow and the list goes on and on.

Google should be able to infer, based on a small statistical sample that is exposed to spying, which page got bookmarked the most after it was reached from one given SERP (e.g. leaving SERP, then hitting “back” and requesting the SERP again). This way, spamfull sites can be distinguished from sites the user actually had interest in and ended up bookmarking. It is a machine learning approach. Results adapt to users’ behaviour. With a cunning Google cookie that precisely identifies users, you can only imagine the tonage of data that is accumulated about individuals. Shall it be needed, let it be taken ‘off the shelf’…

The Google Cookie

On to Microsoft, they already exploit cookies by swapping them across sites, which of course is questionable if not an illegal practice. They have recently bought a spyware company (Claria who make Bonzi and other related ‘goodies’). Consequently, they downgraded Claria’s threat level, which was a cause for controversy, much like a controversy with Firefox. Users reported that Firfox was labelled harmful by Microsoft’s spyware detection application; Firefox removal was recommended too. All in all, it appears as though MSN have similar plans in mind and aggressive behaviour remains one of their innate features.

Disclaimer: I am not entirely sure about each one of the facts above, but spying is nothing unprecedented. What I argued is based on text (and I do not mean science-fiction or conspiracy theory resources), though many speculations were involved and such communication must be taken with a grain of salt.

An article from Techworld proves how ridiculously easy it is to break the Microsoft authenticity check, which is needed to allow users to get software updates such as the common Service Packs. It is yet another story which reflects terribly on Microsoft and their security loopholes. Perhaps they try to make it easy and encourage distribution of illegal copies of Windows, just as they turned a blind eye to piracy in the far east. Some would argue that they simply cannot program a mechanism that is sufficiently secure.

To carry out the hack, users simply needed to insert the following line into Explorer’s address bar before the WGA authentication check was carried out:

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

This revelation is utterly embarrassing for any manufacturer whose annual revenue pushes the high billions. It took only a day since its announcement for WGA to be broken. Ironically, believe it or not, WGA stands for Windows Genuine Advantage. Piracy was definitely an advantage which promoted Microsoft when it was still in its diapers.

Would you believe that a base unit with a monitor can be sold for as little as $225? Although there is no mentioning of the O/S and software that is included, buyers can get it all for a mere pittance in India. There are some amazing offers in westernised countries as well. In the UK, for example, a Linux box can be as cheap as 140 pounds ($247) plus tax, albeit it does not include a monitor. From the article in the BBC:

India’s first low-cost personal computer has been launched in the Tamil Nadu state capital, Madras.

Designed by IT firm HCL Infosystems, it is priced at 9,990 rupees ($225) and includes all the basic features required for a first-time user.

There is no mentioning of which operating system is used; the acronym PC is no indicator either.