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 »

Are you using antivirus software from Symantec, McAfee or Trend Micro?

According to experts, these best-sellers are far less likely to detect new viruses and Trojans than the least popular ones.

The reason: Malware authors are specifically testing their viruses and Trojans against these best-sellers to make sure they can bypass them before unleashing their malware into the world.

Gartner’s figures for 2005 show that Symantec is the leader with 53.6% of the market. McAfee and Trend Micro own 18.8% and 13.8% of the market respectively.

“If you are running these pieces of software [from Symantec, McAfee, or Trend Micro], 8 out of 10 pieces of malicious code are going to get in[to your computer].” said Graham Ingram, general manager of the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT).

The solution: Use antivirus solutions from vendors with small market share.

One vendor Ingram mentioned was Russian outfit Kaspersky, which in the same tests managed to block around 90% of new malware. According to Gartner, Kaspersky’s market share is a mere 0.7%.

Another solution: Run two or more antivirus applications (which many big firms do), but at most one from the best-sellers list or none at all (hopefully, big firms do this too).

If you’re already using one from Symantec, McAfee or Trend Micro, consider adding another like Kaspersky, Panda Software, AVG by Grisoft, and NOD32 by Eset.

Is your system safe right now? Find out for sure: Use each of their FREE scanners to check your system now. And if need, you can use their FREE removal tools to clean your system too.

Cute boy meets pretty girl. Boy asks for girl’s phone number, but girl was afraid boy may turn out a weirdo. But he IS cute, and she DOES hope to keep in touch.

Tough decision, but not anymore with Private Phone.

Launched by Internet provider NetZero, you can get your very own disposable phone number from Private Phone. The price tag - FREE!

You won’t need an extra phone line, as your disposable number works with your existing number. Simply sign-up online, select the area code and number and you’re done. When people call your disposable number, they’re forwarded to a voicemail automatically, and you’ll get an email or text message notification. You can then retrieve online or by phone.

Need more than one disposable numbers? No problem. Open multiple accounts and close them whenever you like. The best part (did I mention this service is FREE) is that the callers won’t even know they’re not reaching your real number! Each voicemail account can only hold 10 messages, so do keep it clear to keep receiving calls.

Alright, there are other uses of disposable numbers that can come in handy:

1. On classified ads
2. When you sign-up with certain Web sites, in case they share the number you provided
3. Post on your Web site or blog

How will companies like Private Phone change the dating scene? Will it lead to infidelity? Will fraud increase? Would you get one?