Brandon Dimmel

Clonezilla You're probably familiar with the popular proprietary commercial package Norton Ghost, and its OpenSource counterpart, Partition Image. The problem with these software packages is that it takes a lot of time to massively clone systems to ... many computers. You've probably also heard of Symantec's solution to this problem, Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition with multicasting. Well, now there is an OpenSource clone system (OCS) solution called Clonezilla with unicasting and multicasting! Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partition Image, ntfsclone, partclone, and udpcast, allows you to do bare ... (view more)

Amidst news that thousands of Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts have been compromised in recent weeks, there's some good news for the good guys: over a hundred phishers have been brought to justice in a multinational investigation spanning half the ... globe. Phishing involves using a fake web page to dupe visitors into entering their sensitive information, including passwords or credit card data. The phisher can then use that information to steal identities and clear out bank accounts. Operation Phish Phry The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday revealed that it had charged ... (view more)

While an increasing number of businesses are encouraging their employees to listen to music in the hopes of making them happier and thus increasing production, most U.S. bosses are taking an opposite approach to social networking sites like Twitter ... or Facebook, with more than half of all companies banning them from the workplace. The finding comes from a recent study by Robert Half Technology, an IT company -- appropriate, since most of the time it's a company's local IT rep who's responsible for setting out which sites are okay and which are not for employees to visit on company time. ... (view more)

Minimem Minimem is a memory optimization tool that helps to free up RAM which is useful for PCs with limited RAM. You just choose which programs to optimize and how to do so, and Minimem takes care of the rest. http://main.kerkia.com Signo Signo is ... a complete hotkey manager that can handle pretty much anything you can think of doing with either hotkeys or textkeys and provides a large range of built-in functionalities to help boost your productivity. http://main.kerkia.com Today's fresh software picks were provided courtesy of Bob Helmer at Shell Extension City. Please note that the below ... (view more)

Offline Maps Offline Maps is an application that provides its users the ability to download tiles from Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. Developers can create layers on top of Google maps to visualize objects. http://www.offlinemaps.codeplex.com ... Idlebackup Idlebackup is a backup solution for Windows that allows you to backup files such as photos, mp3s or other sensitive data. Idlebackup can make a backup to hard-disk, USB drive or network -- and even a compressed to a Zip file. http://idlebackup.nl Today's fresh software picks were provided courtesy of Bob Helmer at Shell Extension City. Please ... (view more)

Details of a Hotmail security breach emerged early yesterday, and it's suggested that approximately 10,000 accounts could have been compromised. While the exact number of accounts has not yet been confirmed, the breach was likely the result of a ... phishing campaign -- a different kind of hack that uses fake web pages in order to acquire all kinds of sensitive information, from login data and passwords (such as in this case) to credit card and social security numbers. (Source: cnet.com ) "We determined that this was not a breach of internal Microsoft data and initiated our standard process of ... (view more)

GSmartControl GSmartControl is a useful open source tool designed for the prevention of hard drive failure. Essentially a S.M.A.R.T. frontend client, GSmartControl will give you a close-up look at your disks, and predict 64% of failures before the ... drive fulfills its destiny as a paper-weight. http://www.freewarepharmacy.com Microsoft Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC and guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Microsoft Security Essentials is always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected ... (view more)

It's not often you hear about smartphones being infiltrated by hackers using phishing schemes, but a recent Research in Motion security fix is designed to prevent just that kind of issue. The Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion, which ... produces the extremely popular BlackBerry smartphone, late last week issued a patch for a reported vulnerability which left many of its users susceptible to attack by phishing hackers. According to reports, the flaw could allow a remote hacker to fool a BlackBerry owner into visiting a malicious website with their handheld multimedia device. A BlackBerry ... (view more)

QuickPaste QuickPaste is a simple program that extends the capability of the Windows clipboard. Anyone who has done a lot of "cut and paste" work has wished that it were possible to store multiple strings in the clipboard. QuickPaste simulates this ... behavior by allowing you to store up to nine strings that can be placed into the clipboard with a click of the mouse. http://users.csc.calpoly.edu Registry Wizard Registry Wizard is a powerful program that allows you to back up your Windows registry. http://users.csc.calpoly.edu Today's fresh software picks were provided courtesy of Bob ... (view more)

Just in case you pay for Microsoft's upcoming operating system (OS) Windows 7 and don't like it, the Redmond-based company is making an optional 'Windows XP Mode' available for download the same day as the new OS' launch, October 22. Microsoft ... yesterday revealed that it had released Windows XP Mode to manufacturing, and that this would make it available for download when Windows 7 hits stores in three weeks. Why Bother with XP Mode? If there's one thing Microsoft appears to have learned from the Vista debacle, it's that people hate change -- especially when change means "upgrading" to an ... (view more)