Weekly Newsletter

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  • Tip of the Week: Easy Private File Sharing
  • Headwhack of the Week: Spotting Twitter Spammers
  • Geek Speak of the Week: Neighbornet
  • Security: 'Golden Cash' botnet-leasing network uncovered
  • News: Crowdsourcing duo close to winning $1 Million Netflix Prize 
  • News: PC Makers aare Lying to you About Battery Life
  • Data Doctors Video on Cnn.com: Getting Info off of 'People Search' Sites
  • Opinion: Learning from Iran's Twitter Revolution 
  • Weekly Advice Column: Free Online Fax Services
  • This Week's Show:  The In's and Out's of Home Theater PC's
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Tip of the Week: Free but powerful image editing

E-mail is a horrible way to send and receive large file or a large quantity of files, so the next time you need to share either with one or many users, check out the free and easy service from Drop.io. You can control how long and who can access the data as well as track usage...it's pretty cool!

Headwhack of the Week: Spotting Twitter spammers

Whenever something becomes popular on the Internet, the spammers are soon to follow and Twitter is no exception.  Twitter spammers count on users that auto follow anyone that follows them (we don't recommend this practice for many reasons, including this one) so their spam or sometimes malware laced links will be read and clicked on by unsuspecting Twitter users.

 

These rogue users are easy to spot: They typically use pictures of attractive young ladies, they are following a large number of people, but have very few followers and all their tweets are about the same topic and generally links to the same spam site.  When you see these followers, click on the 'block' option so you don't have to ever be tricked by them (and don't auto follow!)

Geek Speak of the Week: Neighbornet

What you get when you connect to your neighbor's wireless (or wired, for that matter) Internet, with or without his or her knowledge.

Security: 'Golden Cash' botnet-leasing Network Uncovered

Researchers at security firm Finjan said on Wednesday that they have uncovered an underground botnet-leasing network where cyber criminals can pay $5 to $100 to install malware on 1,000 PCs for things like stealing data and sending spam. Get all the info on botnet-leasing here.

News: Crowdsourcing Duo Close to Winning $1 Million Netflix Prize

Electrical engineer Martin Piotte and software engineer Martin Chabbert of Montreal decided to enter a million-dollar contest to improve Netflix's recommendation engine after they read about it in a 2008 Wired magazine article. Now, the duo is in the lead, having nearly achieved the contest's objective of creating a recommendation engine 10 percent more accurate at predicting user ratings than the company's own Cinematch system.

Read all about the million-dollar contest at Wired.com

 

News: PC Makers are Lying to you About Battery Life

...well not exactly, but they're certainly not giving you an accurate picture of how long it will take for your laptop battery to run down next time you're using it.


Data Doctors Video on Cnn.com: Getting Info off of 'People Search' Sites

The new social or people search sites are gathering a lot of data about you into profiles that anyone can access.  Is this legal? Are the companies that claim they can get you off legit?  Get the scoop on this week's segment!

Watch the video and help our rankings on CNN.com!  You can watch us live AT OUR NEW TIME every Wednesday afternoon at 2:30PM Pacific, 5:30PM Eastern or watch the archived versions of our segments whenever you want at  CNN.com/video.

Opinion: Learning from Iran's Twitter Revolution 

PCMag.com's Sashca Segan asks "How did we have revolutions before Twitter? It seems like democracy is an inevitable result of Internet access, something that officials in Iran and China are now both fumbling with at their peril." Read all about the Twitter Revolution abroad.

Weekly Advice Column: Free Online Fax Services

Q. "I no longer have a fax machine and only need to send and receive faxes on occasion. Any suggestions on the cheapest way to send and receive faxes once in a while from home"?  Get our advice in this week's column!


 

This Week's Show: The In's & Out's of Home Theater PC's

When movies, TV, music and PC's combine, you've got all the makings for a HTPC! Home Theater (HTPC) or media PC is a convergence device that has all the normal features and functions of a computer with specialized hardware and software that let you watch video, listen to music and record TV, all in one device. This HTPC then connects to your TV (or large monitor) and home theater system to give you the ultimate connected media device. Many of today's computers have all that is required to get started, and you just may be surprised at just how 'cool' all these features can be.

Listen in as the Data Doctors discuss the practical use of HTPCs, and learn if you might just need to venture down a new path in media madness.

Join us Saturdays from 12:00PM-2:00PM (Pacific) on News 92.3 KTAR or listen LIVE via the Internet at KTAR.com  as we discuss your computer questions at: 602.277.5827 or ask your questions during (or before) the broadcast using the ask a question page.

Previous Show: Check out all the links from The Myths & Facts about ID Theft

Questions or Comments? Submit them online at datadoctors.com.