R.I.P. Steve Jobs

We will miss the genius, the innovation, the vision! The future would not be the same without him.

Web Trends for 2010

While I usually keep CNN rather low on my list of sources for tech news, they have a very interesting and easily digestible article on upcoming web trends for 2010.
The biggest takeaway from the article in my opinion: your privacy is GONE. We are using portable devices on the go to share our lives every day. Some of them already have GPS built in, and soon all of them will. As soon as the applications are there to take full advantage of this, we will be "tracked" all the time. And we'll do it all voluntarily, just as we've been doing with Facebook, Twitter, and many other applications.
Another trend that's easily spotted is the full convergence of media. Your TV, Internet, personal music and video libraries, news, and many other sources have been slowly mixing up in a single device (XBox and PS3 come to mind). Add some capable mobile devices, and you have all your entertainment in one (or two, if you count mobile separately) place.
If we could only get wireless providers to bundle unlimited, wireless network access with their home offerings for a single price, we would have an ultimate bliss. Verizon is on a good path, with their Fios service, however, paying for 3G network access on top of the home access is too much from my point of view. Let's hope it'll change in coming years.

Cyber Security - Get to Your Bank Safely

Washington Post's Security Fix blog has a very interesting post today, with an excellent idea for better and more secure access to your on-line bank accounts:

The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.

Follow the recommendations!!! I would say, Live CD is the best choice, since there is almost no way to write anything to the local hard drives. It would have to be a very sophisticated virus/malware application to infect live Linux distro on the fly, and go low-level hardware access to write data to some other partition. The most usable solution is probably a memory stick with a hardware "read-only" switch. This way, it can go on your keychain, and be ready for a clean reboot at any time.

October - National Cyber Security Awareness Month

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

In today's world, where we tend to expose most of our lives on the Internet, it is vital to be aware of the dangers and challenges we face in the cyberworld.

There are some really good resources on the site above, to make sure all of us (especially our kids) are safe on line, and our identities are not compromised.