Dress Up Your Computer for the Holidays

There are some fun ways to get you in the holiday spirit this season by dressing up your computer. Although many of us hoped that the iGoogle holiday themes would arrive, so far they have yet to materialize (the photo album of images was discovered here). But you can still dress up your Firefox browser with the Tinseltown Firefox theme. This theme includes imagery like Christmas lights, reindeer, presents, and snow. Another Firefox theme, X-Mas, brings animated snowfall to the Firefox toolbar, fairy lights that become scrollbars, and animated toolbar icons like a smoking chimney, a present, and a fir Tree. Since the animated snowfall can eat up CPU usage, a light version without the snow is also available here. For desktop wallpaper, a quick search on flickr brings back tons of results for holiday-themed wallpaper. Another old favorite of mine is Kate.net’s pages of holiday wallpapers and screensavers. Microsoft offers free “Winter Fun” screensavers and a Christmas Theme for Windows XP. Users of Stardock’s WindowBlinds software can even go all-out and download holiday Windows themes like White Christmas and Candy Cane Lane. (WindowBlinds isn’t free, but a free trial is available, which is long enough to get you through the season). Finally, if you like the picture in this post, click here for a larger version of this adorable Christmas wallpaper, which you can set as your desktop background.

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Online invitation service, eVite, has just released a cross-platform mobile service that lets you send & respond to invitations from your mobile device. The platform consists of 4 mobile products that work together to bring the eVite service with you on the go. The QuickVite feature lets you “quickly” create and send invites called “QuickVites” from either your computer or phone. Guests who receive QuickVites, get them as either an email or a text message, and then they can reply in 3 different ways: they can reply “yes” or “no” by clicking a button in the email, they can reply “yes” or “no” to the text message, or they can click a link to see who’s coming, and add a message before replying. Using the eVite send-to-phone feature, you can send an event’s details like the date, address, and who’s replying, to your phone. You can have the service notify you when you receive a new invitation, (as a host) when a guest replies, have it send you event details within 24 hours of the event, and notify you if there are changes to an event you’re attending. With the eVite mobile page, available at http://m.evite.com, you can view your upcoming events, get event details and see who’s coming, send QuickVites to friends, and reply to QuickVites you’ve received. The fourth feature, “evite on-the-go,” will be a custom downloadable application for your mobile phone, but it has not yet been released.

To begin with, the Google Calendar service has just released an interesting update - now users of Google Calendar can sync their calendar with their Blackberry mobile phones. Using a new application called Google Sync, you can see your appointments and daily schedule in your Blackberry’s native calendar, even when you don’t have any network coverage. You can be alerted to upcoming appointments with sound or vibration as you choose, and you can add appointments on your Blackberry and have them sync back to your Google online calendar. You can get Google Sync by pointing your Blackberry phone’s browser to http://m.google.com/sync.

Google also released a suite of mobile applications for Blackberry phones, which can be accessed by downloading the Google Mobile Updater application. The Mobile Updater app lets you get the latest Google mobile apps, including Google Maps for Mobile with My Location, Picasa Web Albums, Google Docs, Gmail, News, as well as the Mobile Updater app itself, which makes sure all the Google apps stay up-to-date. You can download the suite to your Blackberry by going to mobile.google.com from your phone. You can either pick and choose which applications you want to install, or you can download them all. Although the Mobile Updater adds new shortcuts to your Blackberry’s desktop, some icons, like Google Docs and Picasa, are just links to a mobile webpage, where you can sign into the Google service you want. The links on this mobile webpage include links to services not included in this “Mobile Google Pack,” like Calendar, SMS, Goog-411, Reader, Blogger, and Notebook.

Since I already use Gmail and Google Maps, a suite like this that adds more value with additional apps and keeps them up-to-date for me is a really useful service. I only wish that the suite had included a “real” mobile version of Google Reader. Reading feeds using a mobile browser is not the best experience. Until something better comes along, I’m sticking with Newsclip, a handy mobile feed reader I downloaded ages ago. I don’t know what happened to it, but, by the looks of it, it got rebranded as Viigo for Blackberry. At least it’s still free.

Lately, I’ve been reading about some new ways to work with your documents offline and then sync them back to an online service. While initially this seems to go against the idea of an online office suite, working offline in this way has some benefits. For one thing, the internet is not everywhere yet. Although wi-fi is now being slowly introduced on some airlines, many business travelers still need to be able to work on their files on the go and this still is not an option on all airlines yet. Then there are other jobs that take people “into the field” that also often involve working on documents when no internet connection is present. Without offline capabilities, a lot of work could come to a stop.

Another useful aspect of working offline is that you have the ability to work in your traditional “offline” office software, which is, at the moment, much more robust and feature-rich than its online counterparts. Suites like Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, StarOffice, and others let you to do a lot more than a free online service like Google Docs, though this may change in the future.

Until recently, the choice between web office suites and offline suites was an “either/or” choice; however, now, there are options available that give you the best of both worlds. Here are a few services and tools I’ve found, some of which are now just on the verge of launching, that promise to bring you the new “blended office suite”:

• DocSyncer: DocSyncer is a yet-to-launch service that syncs up your Microsoft Office documents with Google Docs. The screenshots look nice, so it’s worth signing up to see how it works out.
• OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs: This OpenOffice extension exports & imports your docs in and out of Google Docs. With this, you can upload OpenDocument Text (.odt), StarOffice (.sxw), Microsoft Word (.doc, but not MS XML), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods), Microsoft Excel (.xls), Comma Separated Value (.csv), & Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps) files into and out of Open Office.
• Microsoft Office Live: (Private beta) Your documents are online in the Microsoft Office Live workspace, but when you go to edit them, the editing is done in Microsoft Office software, which you have on your PC. Those edits are immediately reflected in the version on Office Live. Documents can also be shared with others who can comment on them or edit them and the different versions are tracked in the Office Live workspace.
• Zoho Writer + Google Gears: Zoho Writer lets you click a button to go offline. The first time you use the feature, you will be prompted to install Google Gears. After installation & a browser restart, click “Go Offline” again to make your documents (15 docs by default) available offline. When you’re offline, you can go to http://writer.zoho.com/offline to access and edit your files.
• ThinkFree, Premium Version: ThinkFree just announced that they will begin offering a premium version of their online office suite that offer users the ability to work offline. The premium edition will be $5-10/month and the free version will be rebranded as ThinkFree Online Basic Edition and supported by advertising. The private beta will begin in January, 2008 and the wider beta in February.

Do you need to work offline? If so, what software or services are you going use?

There are several different ways your security can be comprised when you are using a Bluetooth mobile device, like a smartphone. But you can stay safe by following the tips listed below.

3 Types of Bluetooth Security Threats:

1. Bluejacking, also known as “bluespamming”, is a technique used to send anonymous text messages to mobile users via Bluetooth. Although the name sounds like “hijacking”, information is not retrieved from the phone nor is the phone itself hijacked. Bluejacking is the equivalent of spam.
2. Bluesnarfing is more dangerous. It is a technique where a malicious hacker gains access to information stored on your mobile device without your knowledge.
3. Bluebugging is the most serious threat. Attackers access mobile phone commands using Bluetooth technology in order to initiate phone calls, send and receive text message, read and write phonebook contacts, eavesdrop on phone conversations and connect to the
   Internet. Essentially, the hacker has taken control of the device without the knowledge of the phone’s owner.

In order for any of these attacks to work, the hacker must be within 10 meters of the phone. Symantec senior security consultant Ooi Szu-Khiam offers some easy tips to keep you safe (as previously posted on ZDNet).

4 Ways to Stay Safe:

1. Stay offline: If you have a Bluetooth-equipped device and aren’t using Bluetooth, then don’t turn it on.
2. Stay invisible: If you don’t need your device ID to be visible to others, make sure the device’s visibility setting is set to “hidden” so malicious hackers will not be able to scan and search for it.
3. Verify incoming transmissions: Do not accept and run attachments from unknown sources unless you are expecting them. For example, if you receive a message to install an application and you don’t know its origin, don’t run it.
4. Use passwords: Ideally, use passwords with a large number of digits. A four-digit PIN or password can be broken in less than a second, and a six-digit PIN in about 10 seconds, while a 10-digit PIN is likely to take weeks to crack.

Bluetooth Hacking Tools

If you’re getting serious about Bluetooth security, then you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the following tools for Bluetooth hacking: for a complete list of tools, click here. You’ll learn about the vulnerabilities in Bluetooth-enabled devices and see how an attacker might exploit them.

At some point, you finally convinced your mom and dad to ditch their AOL dial-up connection and their Windows 98 PC and join the rest of the world. Now they have a modern PC and a fast broadband connection. Yet somehow, they still miss their AOL browser and the whole “you’ve got mail” internet experience. (I know, I don’t understand it either…well, maybe it’s not for us to judge…) Now, you can give them back that old-school AOL experience they crave with this new download from AOL: AOL Desktop.

The AOL Desktop program is a free download that organizes web content on the desktop. Without even having to sign in, AOL Desktop users can browse the web, watch videos, check the latest news, and more, right from this desktop software program. Like old AOL software, AIM and email are built-in. However, now, you have the ability to check multiple email accounts, like Gmail, Verizon, and others, right in the same window. So yep, you can move your parents’ new broadband ISP email address right back into AOL software. (They never figured out Thunderbird anyway). The Desktop software also has Quick Access Panels, which are buttons that take you to quick links for things like movies, sports, music, and more. Be sure to show mom & dad how to use the new tabbed browsing, but you may or may not want to delve into the Custom Toolbar training session - they’re probably overwhelmed at this point, so just let them use the default settings.

The technorati may scoff at this anti-web 2.0 application, but there are a lot of people who would welcome back AOL with open arms (if only they knew how to download and install programs.) So now, it’s decision time: we can either insist our parents remain progressive yet confused, or we can set them back up with the internet experience they grew comfortable with over the years. What would you do?

(Note: I know some mom’s and dad’s are perfectly capable online, but “mom” & “dad” in this blog post refer to the older generation that didn’t grow up on computers and still has a hard time, to this day, acclimating to their use.)

FilesTube is a speciality search engine that scours many different file sharing and uploading sites like RapidShare and MegaUpload. The FilesTube search spider records the recent uploads to these sites in a database which you can then search from the FilesTube search box. Doing search on FilesTube website will provide you with a links to files, but FilesTube.com itself doesn’t actually host any files on their site. This makes FilesTube one of the easiest and quickest ways to find files online, whether video, music, software, documents, or anything else. FilesTube even offers an mp3 player which will play mp3s directly from FilesTube. The player can also be embedded or linked to on any website, bringing your favorite music to your website, blog, or social network profile page. Although I’m sure there are some legitimate uses for this service, it’s clearly designed to bring the underground file-sharing community’s stash of files to the masses via an easy-to-use search box. Hmmm….easy. I’m OK with that.

TuneSquare is an online community where unsigned artists and bands are making money while listeners download their songs for free. The artists are paid via the site’s “carefully selected” on-site advertising and flash advertisements that are shown while a song is played. So maybe it’s a lot of ads, but if it means free tunes and artists making money, I suppose that is OK. You can browse through different genres like pop rock, hard rock/metal, Soul/R&B, Singer/Songwriter, Hip-Hop/Rap, Techno/Electro, World, Club/Dance, and Other. For more detailed browsing, and even more genres, you can click on “Browse,” which is where you will find options like Alternative (hello!), as well as more obscure genres like “Screamo,” “Shoegaze,” “Breakbeat,” and “Zouk.” (I had no idea the extent of musical ignorance until reading through the full genre list!) You can listen to the songs online, and then, if you like them, click “Download this song,” to snag a DRM-free mp3. You can also recommend the song to other users or share the song on Facebook.

After much debate, the OpenID 2.0 standard was announced today. In case you are not familiar, OpenID is a new service that lets you log in to multiple websites with one account: your OpenID. The number of websites that support OpenID is growing every day. Currently, there are over 8,000 participating sites including big names like Blogger, digg (plans to support version 2.0), AOL, Technorati, Bloglines, WordPress, Vox, LiveJournal, and many more. The benefit of this technology is that it gives you the ability to just use one username and password in order to login to many different accounts. Sometimes, you can even “sign up” for a new account with a website just by authenticating with your OpenID. If you don’t already have an OpenID, go get one here. You’ll be surprised how many places you can use it!

If you have ever used online photo editor, Picnik, then you know that it’s one of the better free tools out there. Now, that easy-to-use functionality has come to Flickr! Flickr has teamed up with Picnik to offer this service right from Flickr. To use Picnik, you need to first give the Picnik service permission to edit and save your photos, like other 3rd party services, but then it’s integrated right within your Flickr account. With Picnik, you can fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, add text, shapes, or apply effects to your photos. To get started, just browse to one of your photos on Flickr and click “edit” from the menu above the picture.