Tech talk:

**bob_stl** · 02-21-2012, 10:51 AM

This is a free suite of tools, one of which allows you to recover deleted files that haven't yet been overwritten from your hard drive or flash drive. It may also be interesting to see what would still be recoverable if you lost your flash drive and someone else found or stole it.

Glary Utilities
http://download.cnet.com/Glary-Utili...=dl&tag=button

If you want to make sure data is erased rather than just deleted, another free tool is Heidi Eraser
http://eraser.heidi.ie/

**bob_stl** · 03-01-2012, 09:34 AM

This is a pretty cool extension for those who use Firefox to see how your browsing is tracked by some internet companies.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...don/collusion/

You can also see the difference made by turning off Third Party cookies.

And I thought this was an interesting talk.

**Bearabull** · 03-02-2012, 04:31 PM

bob, I really enjoy all the info you post. This is beginning to be my favorite thread.

**bob_stl** · 03-04-2012, 05:23 PM

I'm glad you've been enjoying them, Bearabull

Here's a pretty cool app for iPads. They've currently got over 4,100 public webcams around the world indexed. Live Cams Pro:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/live-...428145132?mt=8

**bob_stl** · 03-08-2012, 06:29 AM

Inside the Russian Short Wave Radio Enigma

This is just a story that some might find interesting.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/09/ff_uvb76/all/1

**bob_stl** · 03-16-2012, 09:25 AM

This is a small application for Windows by McAfee that checks websites and indicates with Icons next to your web searches if they appear to be safe or not.

McAfee Site Advisor

http://www.siteadvisor.com/howitworks/index.html

**bob_stl** · 04-24-2012, 11:45 AM

I don't know how much this has been in the news, but last year the FBI shut down a criminal internet ring that had infected 4 million computer world wide with malware that caused the DNS settings on the machine to change. Because there were so many systems affected, when the FBI busted them, they set up DNS servers to replace the malicious ones to allow people to continue using the internet without being blocked. The replacement DNS servers were originally planned to be shut down in March, but the FBI got a court ordered extension to keep them up until July 9th. So basically, if you computer was hit by this DNS changer virus, and you don't get it fixed, you won't be able to browse the internet or get email on your computer starting July 9th.

An easy way to test if you are affected is to go to this site and you will either get a green indication saying that your computer is looking up DNS names correctly or red saying that your DNS settings were changed to one of the malicious DNS servers.
http://www.dns-ok.us/

More information and a PDF showing how to manually see your DNS settings is here:
https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-i...sing-rogue-DNS

If your computer was infected in the past and cleaned up, but the DNS setting remain, you will need to manually change them to obtain a DNS server automatically. If you do and it changes back, you are probably still infected.