Are you still Addicted to FarmVille?

How many people in Philippines alone log in to Facebook or FB as we internet dwellers call it. I think almost every time we use the internet, the first thing that we think of is notifications or other may be so eager to check if they have some unread messages in their inboxes. But there are an exceptional portion of the population who log in to FB just to check their Farm.. Oh what farm?


FarmVille, it's the hippest game on Facebook. A lot of teens are hooked up on Farmville, me personally, honestly, I was also hooked up to it for a while until I grew tired of the same routine, and wanted to try some other games on Facebook.

Okay some facts about FarmVille, this game has become the most widely played game this year, second to Cafe World which I also had an account which I forgot to check.

Italian prosecutors seek jail for Google execs

Italian prosecutors sought six-month to a year sentences for four Google executives Wednesday over an Internet video showing the bullying of a teenager with Down's Syndrome, the company said.


Google strongly denounced the case in a statement, calling it "a direct attack on a free, open Internet."

The four executives have been on trial in a Milan court over the video, which prosecutors argue Google had a legal responsibility to prevent being shown.

In the video, uploaded using a Google video site where it remained for nearly two months in late 2006, the teenager was bullied by four students in front of more than a dozen others who did not intervene.

"One year has been requested for three executives," a Google Italy spokeswoman said, adding six months had been urged for the fourth company official on trial.

Defence lawyers will lay out their arguments at a hearing set for December 16, with a date for the verdict expected to be set afterward. Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public.

The maximum sentence for such charges -- complicity in defamation and harm to private life -- is three years in prison.

The Google executives on trial are David Carl Drummond, the head of Google Italy's managing board at the time; George De Los Reyes, a board member who has since quit; Peter Fleitcher, in charge of privacy protection in Europe; and Arvind Desikan, head of videos for Europe.

Prosecutors sought the six-month sentence for Desikan.

Google said in its statement that "we did exactly what is required under European and Italian law."

"We took the video down when notified by the authorities and, thanks to our cooperation, the bullies who recorded and uploaded it have been identified and punished," it said.

The company said the case would be similar to prosecuting postal workers for distributing letters containing "hate speech."

Prosecutors said the trial was "not about Internet freedom, but whether or not a free zone exists where laws do not apply," according to elements of their argument reported by Italian media.

New Attack Fells Internet Explorer

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service - Sun Nov 22, 2009 3:30AM EST

A hacker has posted attack code that could be used to break into a PC running older versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
The code was posted Friday to the Bugtraq mailing list by an unidentified hacker. According to security vendor Symantec, the code does not always work properly, but it could be used to install unauthorized software on a victim's computer.

"Symantec has conducted further tests and confirmed that it affects Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7," the company wrote on its Web site Saturday. "We expect that a fully-functional reliable exploit will be available in the near future."
Security consultancy Vupen Security has also confirmed that the attack works, saying it worked on a Windows XP Service Pack 3 system running IE 6 or IE7. Neither company was able to confirm that the attack worked on Microsoft's latest browser, IE 8.
Symantec did not report that the attack is being used by cyber-criminals, but because Internet Explorer is so popular, this type of code is highly coveted by hackers. If the software does pop up in online attacks, it will put pressure on Microsoft to rush out an emergency patch, ahead of its regularly scheduled Dec. 8 security update. Microsoft could not be reached Saturday for a comment on the issue.
Together, IE 6 and IE 7 command close to 40 percent of the browser market.
The flaw lies in the way Internet Explorer retrieves certain Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) objects, used to create a standardized layout on Web pages. For the attack to work, the hacker would have to lure a victim to a Web page that contained maliciously encoded JavaScript, Symantec said. This technique has emerged as a favorite way for hackers to install their malicious software on computers in recent years.
"To minimize the chances of being affected by this issue, Internet Explorer users should ensure their antivirus definitions are up to date, disable JavaScript and only visit Web sites they trust until fixes are available from Microsoft," Symantec said.

Is it Safe to Download Computer Software from the Internet?

Is it Safe to Download Computer Software from the Internet?

I used to ask myself this question a lot of times before, having a computer at home being so “techie” can somewhat be a problem sometimes.

In my own opinion, there are quite a few things that you have to consider before sticking your USB device and begin downloading files over the Internet. There is only one thing I can tell you, BE CAREFUL!

I have had bad experiences with it before, when I had my laptop, of course I was too eager to put a lot of software in my device that I didn't bother to check if those were malwares or if there is a virus hidden underneath that software. I would get a software that is empty, or there were software that like, said contained malicious contents (malwares) and there were some that were really to obvious, that you'd have to be stupid to download it.

Before you start to download, check the site, look if it is reliable, if it is updated, or if it is a big website like ZDnet, Cnet (download.com), freedownloadcenter. Now, I mentioned this sites because I have tried downloading softwares from these sites before.

What I like about these sites is that they have a concern for the users who download from their site, you can see software reviews, you can see if it is freeware or if they would charge you if you download a particular software.

So, my answer to that question is NO, it is not safe to download computer softwares from the Internet, that is if you yourself is complacent about it, then you would be likely to get computer viruses from the Internet, and believe me, you will be having a hard time getting rid of that virus if it gets into your computer.

I would say it is not SAFE to download stuff from the computer if:

Your computer doesn't have a reliable Antivirus installed on it.

Your antivirus is not set on active, you should put your antivirus on active status all the time.

You download software from an unknown host, or from a malicious server.

You don't check for reviews, always look for comments about the software, there is always a comment, if it is a good software, people will gonna comment on it, if it is not then nobody has tried it downloading it, if it is a virus, then you are most likely to see negative comments about it. SO CHECK!

If you don't see a thumbnail on it, and it is not rated, then it is most likely to be a malware, or a virus for that matter.

(And when you find such, then you found out it is ok, then leave a comment, help other users, let them know that it is a good software, better yet make a review about it.)

So there you go, you might be thinking, so "it isn't that scary to download software from the Internet after all". Of course it is not scary, if you follow certain procedures, it's all up to you if you will not be cautious with it.