Week in Geek: The Zombie Cookie Edition
This week we learned how to automatically lock a computer when away from it, use an iPhone or iPod Touch to remotely control a PC, customize the title bar and other system fonts in Windows 7, using Internet Explorer 9 with Windows Vista, calculate simple math quickly in OneNote, and more.
Photo by Don Solo.
Weekly Feature
Do you love all things Chrome OS? Now you can add the Arimo, Cousine, and Tinos Chrome OS fonts to your Ubuntu and Windows systems. Click on the matching link for your OS below.
Photo by OMG! Ubuntu!.
- Download and use the new Chrome OS fonts in Ubuntu
- How to Get Chrome OS Fonts on Windows and Google Chrome
- Original Google Buzz post by Francois Beaufort
Random Geek Links
Photo by katiew.
- The zombie cookie
Samy Kamkar presents a JavaScript API which combines a number of mechanisms to create an extremely persistent zombie cookie the developer calls the evercookie. - Expert: Stuxnet was built to sabotage Iran nuclear plant
An industrial control security researcher in Germany who has analyzed the Stuxnet computer worm is speculating that it may have been created to sabotage a nuclear plant in Iran. - Vulnerability exploited by Stuxnet discovered more than a year ago.
One of the vulnerabilities exploited by the Stuxnet worm was apparently not all that new. The printer spooler vulnerability was described in an article in the April 2009 edition of hakin9, a Polish publication that is fairly well known in hacking circles. - ZoneAlarm scares users with “virus alert”
Users of the free version of the ZoneAlarm firewall have been presented with a pop-up notification that looks like a virus warning and a prompt to buy the Internet Security Suite. - Report: Half of apps have security problems
More than half of software used in enterprises has security problems, according to a new report to be released by Veracode. - Attacks launched using ASP.Net zero-day flaw
Attackers are taking advantage of a zero-day flaw in Microsoft’s ASP.Net web application framework — a vulnerability that also affects SharePoint software. - Free Microsoft Security Essentials now for small business, too
From early October, small businesses—defined as those with ten PCs or fewer—can use MSE too. - Mozilla becomes Open Invention Network licensee
Mozilla has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) as a licensee. The unsurprising move reflects Mozilla’s long-standing commitment to open source software and support for the Linux platform. - Disgruntled Former Mandriva Employees Launch Mageia Fork
While the company’s fate is still uncertain, a large number of its developers have been let go and the project seems in disarray. This prompted a number of former employees to get together and start the Mageia project, a Mandriva fork. - Will Google defend Android and its good name?
Google is risking nothing less than its brand through its passivity over Android. Carriers have hijacked the mobile Linux distro and turned it decidedly evil, sometimes even preventing buyers from accessing Google without jailbreaking their phones.
Geek Video of the Week
Batman faces his toughest adversary yet: real super powers.
Photo by CollegeHumor.
The Dark Knight Meets Superman
The Geek on Lifehacker
You may have lots of software installed on your PC, but you don’t need it running all the time. If you want to save some system resources, or just create a distraction-free environment in one click, a simple batch file can help.
Create Service-Stopping Batch Files to Optimize Your PC for Specific Tasks
Random TinyHacker Links
- JotOnce Lets You Quickly Create and Share Secure Notes
A nice and simple webapp to create and share password protected notes online. - Do you know what Character Map does?
Character Map is one of those tiny Windows apps everyone ignores. This tutorial actually takes the time to explain this tool in detail, tell you what it does and how to use it. Really interesting! - 102 year old lens on a Canon DSLR
Even wondered what results you would get by mixing a 102 year old lens with a modern DSLR camera? Check out this photographic experiment. Really awesome results. - If Facebook existed years ago…
A humorous look at how some historical figures may have interacted on Facebook. - Just How Massive is Google, anyway?
An interesting infographic with information about Google past and present.
Super User Questions
Look through the hottest and/or most interesting questions from Super User this week.
- Why does my computer power off suddenly and without warning?
- Has my Google Chrome gone scareware?
- My Spam Trap Caught A Company – How Legitimate Is Their Response?
- There appears to be a poltergeist in my speakers (no, really)
- Why does chromium open 5 different chrome.exe processes when starting ?
Latest Reviews at How-To Geek
Enjoy reading through our latest review.
- TuneUp Media Gold
TuneUp is a plugin for iTunes and Windows Media Player that cleans up your messy music collection automatically and is available for PC and Macs. It will quickly fix cover art, metadata, and more.
How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap
Had a busy week and missed catching our best articles? Here are the five hottest articles for this past week.
- Add Tabbed Browsing to Explorer in Windows 7
- Record Videos of Your Desktop on Any OS for Free
- Here’s Five Alternatives to iTunes 10 for Easily Managing Your iPod
- How To Save Fillable Form Data in PDFs
- How to Make Flash Work in the 64-bit Version of Internet Explorer
One Year Ago on How-To Geek
Here are more great articles from last year chock-full of helpful goodness.
- Protect Your E-mail Accounts from Spam with Spamavert
- Disable Program Compatibility Assistant in Windows 7 and Vista
- Scribus is an Art Desktop Publishing Tool for Linux
- Fixing When All Thumbnail Icons Show the Same or Wrong Image
- Print Only What You Need in Internet Explorer with Printee
The Geek Note
That is all for this week’s batch of geeky goodness, so take some time to get outside and have fun today if you can! Have a YouTube account? Then make sure to subscribe to the official How-To Geek YouTube Channel here. And if you know about a great new app or hack send it in to us at tips@howtogeek.com.
Photo by Terence Kearns.
