E-mail spoofing, more web annoyances

In the past week or so, friends have contacted me about my yahoo account sending out spam to them.  My first reaction is that this must be a mistake, along with a bit of embarrassment.  However, to my great relief, it appears to be a case of email spoofing and not an outright hack.  There is a difference between a hacked email account and one that is being spoofed.  Quite simply, if it's hacked, somebody is actually logging in and using it to send spam.  They have your password.  Spoofing is when somebody sends out email and shows your email address as the return address instead of using their own.  The result is that any response to that email, including if it was undeliverable, would come to you and could make you think you were the sender when in reality you weren’t. Spoofing is often practiced by spammers as a way of misdirecting anyone trying to find the source of the spam.  A ton of "undeliverable" mail that I did not send hit my inbox one day, letting me know that this was spoofing.  Regardless, if you are ever a victim of either, change your email password and scan your system for malware.  Check out this article for more about the difference.

Call a company, get an actual person on the phone

For years, I recommended a site called www.gethuman.com.  The site lists the most popular (and unpopular) companies, but with a catch.  It told you what numbers to push on your phone to get an actual human being on the phone to talk to.  This service alone shaves about 10 minutes off of any call you make to a company about an issue you may be having.  Well another good site has popped up that does the same, www.nophonetrees.com.

First real look at Windows 8

Microsoft this week released the Developer Preview of Windows 8.  Oh, what does this mean?  Well all the geeks and hardcore Windows users get to have some fun.  We finally get to see a real glimpse of the final product.  I downloaded my copy and took one of the extra computers I have sitting around (to my wife's disappointment) and have started the install.  The good news is that Microsoft says that it will run on anything that can run Vista or Windows 7.  The bad news is that it cannot be uninstalled, meaning, you will need a dedicated computer to run it or run it in a virtual machine.

The Consumer Wrath continues....

A lesson Netflix is learning painfully well this month.  After the recent rate hike of upwards to 60%, it was a matter of time before customers started bolting.    The rate hike was announced in July and so far over 1 million customers have left.  It was thought that the departures would be minimum.  Despite the rate hike, Netflix is still the most viable option for streaming.  However, if you anger the average customer, the average customer will leave, no matter how good your product.  Let's see how Netflix responds.  Click here for a CNET article with more information on the fleeing customers

Bitcasa, another cloud backup solution, with more security

Bitcasa, an ambitious start-up, plans to offer unlimited cloud storage space, for $10 a month.  This is slightly different from your current crop of Backup solutions such as, Dropbox, Skydrive and other similar sites.  Bitcasa is offering unlimited backup.  Most others have tiered plans based on capacity.  Bitcasa claims to be using new technology that will bring down costs.  Bitcasa uses "patented de-duplication algorithms, compression techniques, and encryption", the company says.  We will see if it works, but for now, you cannot beat $10 a month.  Another great feature is that the company encrypts your data on their end, which means that even they cannot access your data or more importantly, if the government comes a calling, they cannot either.  It may be worth a try.  It is currently in Beta (free), but once out of beta, it will be $10 a month.

Mouse Without Borders: One Keyboard, One Mouse, Two Computers

New and free from Microsoft is a program called Mouse without Borders.  If you two have computers on your network, sitting next to each other, why can't you control both with one keyboard and mouse?  Well, you always could with a KVM switch, but the hassle with that is that you have to switch between computers to have control.  You could not go seemlessly from one computer to the other, until now.  This program is extraordinary in it's simplicity.  When you get to the edge of your screen with your mouse, instead of stopping the mouse simply hops over to the second computer and is fully functional there.  No more switching the KVM switch, just move your mouse to the edge of the screen and it continues to the next screen, the second computer.  Watch the demo video from CNET to see it in action: