Earl's Cyber Steals and deals

EverydaySource has the 2.5" SATA HDD Enclosure (POTHSATA2501) in Black for $10 - $5 off with coupon code S0108IAFZ [1000 uses] = $5 with free shipping. Fits 2.5 inch SATA hard drive disks, supports up to 500GB, and plug & play and hot-swapping

Buy.com has the Kingston HyperX Blu 2GB DDR3 1600MHz 240-pin (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (KHX1600C9AD3B1/2G) for $30 - $10 rebate [Exp 1/11] = $20 with free shipping. Features 1600MHz memory speed.

Yugster.com has the refurbished Dell Optiplex GX620 Dual Core 2.8GHz Desktop for $215 - $5 off with coupon code YUGSAVE5/25 + $10 shipping = $220 shipped. Features Intel Dual Core 2.8GHz, 2GB DDR2, 500GB HDD, CD-RW Drive, and Windows XP Professional

SuperBiiz has the Super Talent 16GB Express Duo USB 3.0 Flash Drive for $29 - $4 off with coupon code HELLO2011 [Exp 1/10] = $25 with free shipping. A fully backwards compatible USB 3.0 flash drive with a single storage partition.

Newegg has the PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory (MN8192KD3-1066) for $95 - $20 rebate [Exp 1/31] = $70 with free shipping. Free Sony movie download included.

Newegg has the SIIG JK-WR0212-S1 USB 104 Normal Keys 2.4GHz Wireless Standard Multimedia Keyboard and Mouse for $40 - $20 rebate [Exp 1/10] = $20 with free shipping. Includes a free SIIG AC-LG0012-S1 USB LED Light with purchase. Features water resistant design, 18 hotkeys for shortcuts to programs and multimedia control, and a detachable palm rest

Newegg has the Samsung SH-S223L 22X SATA DVD Burner SATA for $17 with free shipping. Features SATA 1.5Gbps data transfer rate

$50 price drop. Abes of Maine has the ASUS UL20FT-A1 12.1" Core i3 Notebook (Silver) for $600 - $100 rebate [Exp 1/31] = $500 with free shipping. Intel Core i3-330UM 1.20GHz, 2GB DDR3, 320GB HDD 12.1" (1366x768) LED LCD, Windows 7 HP x64, 6-cell Li-ion

TigerDirect offers the 5.5-lb. HP 620 Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz 15.6" Widescreen Notebook, model no. XT964UT#ABA, for $439.99. Coupon code "CDX16765" knocks it to $409.99. With $4.78 for shipping, Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 2GHz dual-core processor, 15.6" 1366x768 widescreen LCD, 2GB RAM, 250GB 5400 rpm Serial ATA hard drive, dual layer DVD burner with LightScribe, 802.11n wireless, webcam, 6-cell battery, memory card reader, and Windows 7 Professional 32-bit

NYT: Amid WikiLeaks threat, Bank of America Builds Defenses

Bank of America has emerged as the most likely target because a year before the latest threat, Mr. Assange said in an interview that his group had the hard drive of a Bank of America executive containing five gigabytes of data — enough to hold more than 200,000 pages of text — and was evaluating how to present it. It was this connection that set the wheels in motion on Nov. 30

Tablet Wars of 2011 loom

The iPad rules the tablet world right now, but an Android army has begun its attack

Putin to put Russian government on Linux by 2015

But if Putin says: 'make it so,' I suspect that a lot of people will jump pretty fast to make sure that it *is* so," he wrote. "And once that happens, other plans to roll out free software might well suddenly look rather more attractive."
The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing large U.S. software vendors, estimated that 67% of software used in Russia in 2009 was pirated

Skype blames buggy Windows software, swamped servers for outage

The bug in version 5.0.0152 of SKYPE caused old Windows clients to crash when they received a delayed response from "a cluster of support servers responsible for offline instant messaging" that had been overloaded, Rabbe said. About 50% of all Skype users were running the buggy 5.0.0152 version of the Windows client last week.

Calif. woman sues Microsoft over XP downgrades -- again

Prior to permitting the consumer to 'downgrade' to Windows XP Professional, Microsoft first mandates that the consumer 'upgrade' from the Home versions of its operating systems to either Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate -- thereby forcing the consumer to incur an unnecessary expense and creating revenue for Microsoft by virtue of the End User consumer purchasing two operating systems for one PC," Alvarado's complaint alleged

Helpdesk help gets more complicated in 2011

One factor is the variation among consumer devices that run the same operating system,while some Android smartphones can connect to Exchange through ActiveSync, others require third-party software, while still others don't enforce automated security rules such as password policies,

McAfee Labs Predicts Geolocation, Mobile Devices and Apple Will Top the List of Targets for Emerging Threats in 2011

There are significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bulls-eye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most including Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone, foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform

Chinese Trojan discovered in Android games | Security News -

The Trojan is capable of sending personal information to remote servers and exhibits botnet-like behavior, the security company Lookout says.

Data breach affects 4.9 million Honda customers - Security - News

The compromised list contained names, login names, e-mail addresses and 17-character Vehicle Identification Number--an automotive industry standard--which was used to send welcome e-mail messages to customers that had registered for an Owner Link account

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 01-02-11

Happy New Year to you all from the OnComputers crew.

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 01-02-11. You can listen live every Sunday from 11AM to 12PM Pacific that's 2PM to 3PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat.

Links from the Gregg Zone

1) Well it is a new year, and the beginning of a new decade, so why not start off with something that may indicate a rather extreme path to lowering foods world ecological impact. Well maybe, I first noted this subject a year or two back, and now it seems to be coming back. Here is another twist to ink jet printing, how about printing up dinner? Sorry think I will pass, but this looks like it will come sooner or later. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

2) Keeping with the New Year theme here is a link to 95+ predictions for the web to be coming next year, we will have to see. This year has a pretty low bar to top in order to be an improvement over the events of last year. http://mashable.com/

3) This is just one of those sites I am putting up that I have not had time to look into but it looked promising so I thought I would toss it in here, I am always looking for better searching tips. http://lifehacker.com

4) This is another subject that has always fascinated me; the understanding of the human brain has got to be the most important line of research. After all what line of study can be more basic than understanding our method of interfacing with our reality? If that interface is through the human brain it seems to me that everything else starts right here. The savants seem to connect in a much more direct way, even if it is limited in scope. http://www.degreescout.com

5) And for my first geek link of the year, how about 150 of the best Windows App’s from 2010, there should be a tasty tidbit of something here for just about everyone. http://www.addictivetips.com