TECH411.ORG

By Jon Cohen

Most thief’s steal from people they don’t personally know, and most people who have been robbed don’t find out until it is too late.

This article assumes that you are using the most common OS in the world, Windows.. if you are not a Windows user then some of the points will not apply to you.

Throughout time man has always had enemies. In today’s time our enemies are all around us thanks to the Internet. As over the last 10 years the use of personal computers at home, work, or on the road has grown so have the ways to steal from people. In the early days, hacker created viruses to destroy data or attack the computers OS (operating system) but the value to doing this was low when you compare it to hackers in the last 5 years who see the real goal for hacking your computer is to steal your information. I am not referring to information like files or documents that you have created. (Unless you are working for a high level of government or for a big company) What they are going after can simply be described as… YOU! They want your information. Your credit card numbers, your bank account, your personal information (DOB, SSN, etc.) they want to become you. Both in person and on the Internet. This crime is listed by most police agencies as “Identity theft” and it is one of the most common crimes in the modern society.

One may ask, how do I protect my self against identity theft? How do I stop my computer from being hacked? Why are they going after me?

The answer sadly to the first two questions is you can’t. We try to act smart online and try to be careful of what we open in email and website sites but the fact of the matter is that you can’t spend your life in a bubble and regardless of what you open in emails you will still be exposed to a virus and other malicious attempts to steal your information. As for why? the simple answer is why not. You are a target offer a large profit and your info has great value on the open market.

So we have now mentioned the Why and How but I have left out one emerging method that is becoming more and more popular. This new method is using an application like Twitter to get you to click on a URL (website) and once you go to that website then you have exposed yourself. The issue lies with the basic of two facts. First is the twitter is growing in popularity and the more people are using it the more people follow people they don’t know. [ The idea of following people you don't know is in my opinion one of the nice parts of twitter, this allows you to read the opinions of people who you won't regularly be in touch with]. The Second is the fact that URLs are made tiny to fit in to the twitter 140 character limitation and thus you as a twitter user don’t know what website you are being sent to just by clicking on a link. So the more you follow people you don’t know, or click on links that you are sent via people you follow the more you open your self up for trouble.

Is their a solution?

Yes, their is a solution, and a better solution then sitting and spending the rest of your days in a bubble and not using the web. The solution is to not open tiny URLs directly, instead copy them into google and let the search engine show you what the real URL is.

Lets hope this helps you not get a virus, and helps you protect your identity.

Jon M. Cohen  - Technology Consultant

Haven’t heard of Boxee yet; well get excited! Boxee is an application for both Ubuntu and Mac that offers a fully integrated media player and media manager. The biggest feature that Boxee offers users is a centralized way to watch web based primetime media.

Boxee is a simple and effective media application that allows home users to set up streaming for music, pictures, and movies. As well with its great interface, users can easily grab content from sites like Hulu, Fox, ABC, and CBS, just to name a few. Boxee gives you a nice centralized place to watch all the rich content that the web has to offer instead of going to individual websites of each broadcaster.  It still allows for short web commercials, but adds improved picture and functionality such as pausing and adjusting the volume.

Most people love watching the rich web content and now Boxee has also integrated a full-featured media player, so organizing and sharing your home videos (movies), music, and photos is easy as pie. Just point Boxee to the network with the media and Boxee can do the rest. Sharing your network content is an effective and easy task when Boxee is involved.Screenshot of Boxee Movies

Another great feature that is available to Boxee users is the Boxee OS that can be loaded on the AppleTV. With the combination of Boxee to the AppleTV, we see a huge opportunity for great media viewing on your HDTV. This allows users to sit on the couch and really get involved with all of the content the web has to offer. While loading Boxee on the AppleTV does take a bit of work; a quick web search will lead you to the needed instructions.

You may be asking yourself what the down sides of Boxee are, and to be honest, there are a few. It should be noted Boxee is still an Alpha. The first thing I quickly noticed is that Boxee is slow to load and can be slow as you move through different menus. I have tested the Boxee application on the Mac and Ubuntu,  as well as the AppleTV, and regardless of which platform I tested I always got the same results. The second point has to do with configurations. As I stated earlier, it is very easy to configure, but it falls slightly short in the depth of the security configurations that are able to be setup. The final issue that I found was related to the speed and quality of streaming. I found that I spent a lot of time waiting for the buffering. This was expected due to the upsizing of the video and general speeds of the internet, but it can be assumed that this third issue will quickly disappear as speeds on the internet increase and adopt new formats for web based rich video content.

Screenshot of Boxee TV options

Boxee is the premier application for absorbing your media on a daily basis. It is not perfect, but the innovations found in this application lead me to believe that it will be a very popular application in years to come. I also assume that we will see more hardware devices that Boxee will be able to work with.  As the popularity grows and Boxee moves from Alpha to Beta and on to RC, I am sure that Boxee will be as well known a term as “TiVo”. Boxee really has endless potential; it will be great to see what the final application looks like. Do you want your own copy of Boxee? Click Here.