Track down your stolen laptop for free....Use Prey

What is Prey?  It's free software that allows you to remotely monitor your stolen laptop, retrieving screenshots, webcam pictures, and Wi-Fi hotspot information that you (and the police) can use to retrieve your laptop.  There are some steps and advice you will need to catch yourself up on in order to use it properly, for that, check out this article from MaximumPC that gives you step by step instructions on how to effectively use Prey.

Recover your Software Installation Keys for free

Try a free utility called Magic Jelly Bean.  This neat tool will search your registry for the software installation serial numbers you used to install many of the most popular programs on your computer.  Why do you need this?  Well, when you buy a new computer and need those keys to install it on your second computer, so many of you have no idea where you put the paperwork that contains that information.  Additionally, if you decide to reinstall your current computer (ie. because of a virus infection), you will need that information.  Heck, it's free.  One note, it does not recover Windows 7 or Office 2010 keys as of yet.

Say it isn't so, Spam is dying?

True, true, so true.  Great article from Computerworld on the progressive decline of spam on the Internet.  In September 2010, spam was clicking at about 300 billion spams a day.  As of April, that number was down to about 34 billion.  You can thank a number of large profile arrests and the evolution of anti-spam software being used.  As other attacks on the Internet has grown, spam is declining, dramatically.

Internet Explorer keeps crashing? Try getting rid of the toolbars

A common problem that plagues almost every user of Internet Explorer is the dreaded crash.  You are in the middle of something (or nothing) and IE crashes and has to close.  What could it be?  Try uninstalling all those toolbars that somehow got themselves installed.  Toolbars are not necessary.  They can be useful, but they are not at all necessary.  If they were, they would have come with the initial install of the browser.  The problem with toolbars is that the authors of them spend little time making sure that they are not buggy.  With every patch made to IE, inevitably a toolbar is not going to adjust to well to the changes.  Most toolbars are rarely, if ever, updated.  The result shows itself in crashes of your whole browser.  So if you experiences constant crashes inside of IE, go to your control panel, add/remove programs and uninstall every toolbar you can find.  Chances are great that you have fixed the problem.

Why LulzSec most likely stopped the hacking spree

Apparently the long arm of the long is finally catching up to many members of the now infamous international hacking group.  For those not in the know, LulzSec is a loose band of computer hackers that have recently demonstrated their skills in computer hacking by hacking into any and everything that wasn't nailed down around the globe.  The CIA, state governments, foreign governments, banks and more have all been targets.  According to PCWorld, the top law enforcement agencies around the globe have started to narrow the group down and are moving in for arrests.  I didn'r really think they were stopping after 50 days because of boredom, they are in hiding!, lol.  Apparently they did not learn how to quit while they were ahead.

Another Patch Tuesday for Microsoft

Remember to update your Windows operating system this week.  Microsoft issued 16 patches for various issues.  Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, Adobe bites you again.  In addition to Microsoft, Adobe issued 6 fixes for several of their software offerings.  For most people, Adobe Reader, Flash and Shockwave are the programs that will most likely touch your computing lives.  Please update all, if you have them.  In many instances, not patching them is just as dangerous as not patching Windows.