We are all familiar with close-circuit televisions (CCTVs) in banks and at the cashiers. How about having CCTVs nationwide?

That’s exactly what Malaysia may do. Its capital, Kuala Lumpur, currently has 255 CCTVs in seemingly innocuous spots to keep a close watch on the traffic situation in there. Local police have found these CCTVs to be also helpful in solving vehicle thefts, robberies, kidnappings and even murders.

Speaking to reporters after a recent community event, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said: “We want to try out these electronic eyes. Our policemen are insufficient… If CCTVs prove effective and practical, what’s wrong if we use them throughout the country?”

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique said: “The 14 cameras placed by the police at the Golden Triangle area have helped reduce crime rate in the area by 20 per cent and we feel that the reach of the cameras should be expanded.”

Officials intend to fully integrate these traffic cameras into a full-fledged crime-monitoring system to reduce crime in the Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

If this pilot project proves successful, officials will implement CCTVs across the whole nation of Malaysia.

If this proves to be successful for Malaysia, should other countries follow? Would you be supportive if you have CCTVs all over your neighborhood in the name of reducing crime?

Is your PC protected with the latest anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and firewall?

A study released last December by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance found that 81% of home PCs lack at least one of the three critical protections — updated computer virus software, spyware protection, and a secure firewall — necessary to help guard against viruses, spyware, hackers, and other threats. More than half (56%) of the participants either had no anti-virus protection or had not updated it within the last week, almost half (44%) did not have a properly-configured firewall, and four in ten (38%) lacked spyware protection.

Yet, despite these findings, the large majority of users (83%) falsely believed that they were safe from online threats. 

We believe having to pay subscriptions for security software contributed greatly to these statistics. Now, thanks to AOL, PC users worldwide can protect themselves with the latest industry-strength anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and firewall at no cost, no obligation, and no AOL membership required.

AOL is giving away two security software for free: Read the rest of this entry »

Do you know anyone using McAfee security programs?

They must apply an official update to avoid passwords and other sensitive data from being exploited by hackers.

Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer at eEye Digital Security Inc., a competing maker of security products, has found a way to access PCs running the flawed McAfee software over the Internet and make them run his code. If exploited, this flaw can allow hackers to track bank account numbers, and access, change and delete sensitive files and do other damage to those PCs.

McAfee spokeswoman Siobhan MacDermott confirmed the vulnerability and said their software engineers were expected to release the fix on Wednesday for its Internet Security Suite, SpamKiller, Privacy Service and Virus Scan Plus titles.

According to experts, McAfee and top security solution providers like Symantec and Trend Micro are always very open targets to hackers.

Some experts recommend running two or more security software at the same time. Any reason why you wouldn’t do it?

Generally speaking, your email privacy is safe with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. Unless you send undesirable emails and the government gets involved, then Google and Yahoo will comply with all lawful requests for information with proper process.

Here’s a recent case:

The US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) received a threatening e-mail on 22 May 2006 and notified the FBI.

The FBI then requested information from Google via a federal grand jury subpoena to release the records of the incident including the offending email, registration information, session timestamps, and originating IP addresses for *[removed]@gmail.com. Google also informed the FBI that the user applied for the Gmail account using the name “*[removed]” and gave a secondary email account as *[removed]@yahoo.com.

After examining the registration records from Yahoo, the FBI confirmed that the owner of both accounts was *[removed], a resident in the New York state. With the IP addresses and timestamps from Google and Yahoo, the FBI further confirmed that both accounts were accessed on the same day and at the same location: a law office in Weston, West Virginia.

The FBI learned that the law office maintained an annex office across the parking lot which had a computer that was not password-protected and had Internet access. That office was accessible via an adjacent apartment which *[name] rented from 20 May 2006 to June 2006. Also, he left a forwarding address as Dover, Delaware, and the FBI caught up with him there.

He admitted to accessing *[removed]@yahoo.com.

Bottomline 1: One must not send undesirable emails, coz one will never know who might be knocking on one’s door.

Bottomline 2: There’s no such thing as email privacy.

Do you send emails with private and sensitive content? How do you protect your emails’ privacy? Anyone sending encrypted emails?

* Updated: real email addresses and name removed. At this point, while he has been investigated by the FBI, no charges have been pressed against him.

Many would be jaded when yet another reason why Microsoft sucks is mentioned. Rarely do we hear anything bad about Apple.

Everything about Apple is cool, their ads, their gadgets, their brand. Even the mere mention that one is a Mac-user often elicits a ‘Wow!’ and sets one apart from the rest.

Unfortunately, what lies beneath all these coolness has made longtime Mac die-hards, Bryan and Chris, who are also editors of a popular Macintosh Web site, ResExcellence.com, make the painful decision to ditched Apple for Linux, specifically for Ubuntu Linux. Reasons cited include:

1. Negative Mac community who expect much more than they deserve
2. Apple’s long track record of developing their own software which are ‘clones’ of popular 3rd parties ones
3. Deteriorated software quality from Apple that crash often

It might have crossed the minds of countless Microsoft Windows users to consider switching to Mac. Perhaps after reading Bryan’s essay on why he ditched Mac for Linux would make them consider switching to Ubuntu Linux instead.

What’s really cool about Ubuntu, other than the fact that it is free, is that you can use it without installing it and without destroying anything in your existing hard disk. This is the concept of LiveCD, while can be found in many flavors of Linux, certainly makes test driving Linux a lot easier.

Would you ditch your Windows or Mac for Linux? 

Apple’s iconic mighty mouse now gets a cooler and sleeker look without its connecting wire. With its new laser tracking engine, it’s able to track on surfaces 20 times more sensitive than other optical mice, a great news for Mac designers and gamers (although I don’t think many gamers use Mac).

“We cut the cord on our popular Mighty Mouse to give consumers even more flexibility when using a Mac,” said David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing. “A Bluetooth-enabled Mac desktop with an Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse is the ideal cable-free setup at home or in the office, and the wireless Mighty Mouse is the perfect travel companion for the MacBook user on the go.”

Apart from the new bluetooth 2.0 capability, the new wireless might mouse has essentially the same design and customizable side squeeze buttons as its predecessor. I guess Apple knows the rule of “If it ain’t spoilt, don’t fix it”.

The new Apple wireless bluetooth might mouse also boost an advance power management system that switches to low power mode during extended period of inactivity. It uses 1 or 2 AA batteries, and is available for $69 at the Apple Store with free shipping.

Mighty Features of Apple’s New “Tail-less” Mouse

• Bluetooth 2.0 provides wireless connectivity up to 30 feets.
• Laser tracking engine delivers sharp precision.
• True portability with 1 or 2 AA batteries.
• Touch sensitive technology on mouse buttons.
• 360 degrees scolling ball.
• Customizable side squeeze buttons.

Visit the official website for more information on the wireless Mighty Mouse.

With a 3.2 megapixel camera, legendary Carl Zeiss optics, digital music/video player, high-quality 3D games support and built-in Wi-Fi, what more can you ask for in a mobile phone that is only 99cc in size?

Nokia announces today that shipments have begun for the Nokia N73, a stunning multimedia computer with excellent photography features and integrated stereo speakers for optimized audio pleasure. The Nokia N73 includes a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and support for social networks on the Internet like Flickr, the world’s leading online photo sharing community. This is truly a connected camera for the digital shutterbug.

Store up to 1500 songs on your Nokia N93 with a separately available 2 GB miniSD card, and use the digital music player to listen to your favorite tracks wherever you go. You can also create playlists, rip your CDs and transfer your music collection to your Nokia N93 using Nokia Music Manager, provided on the inbox DVD-ROM. Or listen hands-free to your stored music or the stereo FM radio of the Nokia N93 by using the built-in speaker or a compatible stereo headset. And for a complete entertainment experience you can also enjoy high-quality 3D games with the pre-installed N-Gage franchise System Rush: Evolution. Read the rest of this entry »

Simply join IBM’s World Community Grid’s “Help Defeat Cancer” project by donating your computer’s idle processing power and time. Your unused computing power will join 360,000 computers worldwide to form the ultimate virtual supercomputer.

The project will allow researchers to simultaneously analyze high numbers of cancer tissue microarrays (which present tens of thousands of tissue or molecular samples on glass slides or beads). They believe the World Community Grid could enable them to detect and track subtle changes in measurements to uncover prognosis clues.

“World Community Grid makes it possible to analyze in one day the number of specimens that would take approximately 130 years to complete using a traditional computer,” said Dr. David J. Foran, lead researcher, professor and director of the Centre for Biomedical Imaging at the at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 11 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year. WHO estimates that seven million people die of the disease annually and, by 2020, there will be 16 million new cases each year.

Donate your PC’s unused computing power to help fight cancer at World Community Grid!

Do some good. Spread the word. Peace!

Never lose your favourite tunes again with this gigantic music jukebox by Olive. You can store your whole lifetime of music in this digital entertainment gadget without deleting any songs, ever. Moreover, you can save some previous space from those stacks of Music CDs.

Olive Media Products, Inc., a developer of innovative digital audio systems, announced new versions of its award-winning music server line with 750GB storage space that holds up to 2,100 CDs in lossless quality, allowing you to conveniently access all your favorite music.

The new OPUS combines the fidelity of a high-end CD player with the convenience of digital audio technology. The breathtaking audio fidelity is courtesy of a customized audio board with four 24-bit DACs and temperature-compensated crystal oscillator. Read the rest of this entry »

The future of aircrafts may be powered by cell batteries - a cleaner and more convenient source of energy compared to our conventional gasoline.

Tokyo Institute of Technology, known for its experiments with human-powered planes, and Matsushita, who provided the batteries, launched a joint project to develop the battery-powered vehicle in January 2006.

The consumer electronics giant, known for its Panasonic brand, teamed up with the Tokyo Institute of Technology to fly the plane with 160 of its commercially sold Oxyride AA batteries, commonly used in portable CD players and cameras. The Oxyride battery is a long-lasting battery said to be 1.5 times as powerful as a regular alkaline battery. Read the rest of this entry »