Security - Manage Privacy with Google

Google is implementing significant changes to its privacy policy from 1 March 2012. Most users would have received notification of this.

Here's a news article discussing it:

If you use Google, you may want to read this
Stephen Hutcheon, February 29, 2012 - 7:33AM
How your web history page should look after you've clicked "remove".
Opinion: Australia absent in Google privacy feud
"Today is your last chance to adjust your Google privacy settings ahead of a major change to the way Google collects and collates data about you, its users.
From March 1, the company will begin to aggregate all the information it acquires about its users who are logged in to Google services into a single, unified pool of data."


Here is a list of tools on Google's page to help address privacy concerns:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/tools.html


Here are a few interesting items:

1. Use Google Search in Encrypted form:   https://encrypted.google.com

2. Block Third party cookies and site Data.
For Chrome Browser:
a. Go to Options - Under the Botnet - click Content Settings - select "Block third-party cookies and site data".
b. On the same page, click on Manage Exceptions, to create a white list of trusted sites where cookies are allowed.
c. On the same page, click All Cookies and Site Data, and check which cookies are stored.

3. Instructions on how to transfer content in and out of Google products such as Google Docs and more:
http://www.dataliberation.org/

Tips: Windows Shortcuts

Windows Shortcut Keys
F2 - rename a file
F3 - Find - opens up a dialog to search for word.
F6 - Go to Address Bar in most browsers
Shift + Right-Click - displays the context menu
Windows + B - select the first app in the task bar
Windows + E - opens Windows Explorer
Windows + F - opens the Windows file search window
Windows + L - locks your Windows immediately 
Windows + M - clears the desktop, ie. minimizes all windows
Windows + R - opens the Run dialog
Windows + F1 - opens help for Windows
Windows + Tab - Switch between programs. Add the Shift key to go backwards
Windows + Pause/Break - Opens the System Properties dialog
Shift + Delete - to delete a file permanently
Ctrl + Drag - copy or moving files
Ctrl + Enter - In a browser, type the name of the website without www and com, then press these keys to go to the website
Alt + Esc - put this window to the back of the list
Alt + Ctrl + Fullstop - turn a fullstop into ellipsis.
Alt + F4 - Exits the current application, or exit Windows if there is no opened application
Alt + PrntScrn - Screen capture just the current window, not the whole desktop



Updated 27 Oct 2012
The following shortcuts are mainly for Windows 8 Metro

B  Move focus to notification tray
C  Show Charms menu
D  Show Windows desktop
E  Launch Windows Explorer
F  Show Metro File Search screen
G  Cycle through desktop Gadgets
H  Show Metro Share panel
I  Show Metro Settings panel
J  Switches focus between snapped Metro applications
K  Show the Devices panel
L  Lock PC
M  Minimise all Windows on the desktop
O  Lock device orientation
P  Choose between available displays (Projector)
Q  Show Metro Search screen
R  Show Run Dialogs
T  Cycle through Taskbar icons
U  Show Ease of Access Centre
V  Cycle through toast notifications
W  Show Metro Settings Search panel
X  Show Power User Commands or Mobility Centre
Z  Show the App Bar

1-9                      Show/Launch Application from Taskbar
Page Up / Down  Moves tiles to the left/right
Tab                     Switch between applications
, (comma)           Aero Peek (desktop)
. (full stop)          Snap Metro style app to right side of the screen
Shift . (full stop)  Snap Metro style app to the left side of the screen
Space                Switch input language and keyboard layout
Enter                 Launch Narrator
Arrow keys       Aero Snap (desktop)


Updated 2 Nov 2012

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/a-windows-8-cheat-sheet/
Here are some instructions on shortcuts and other keys for the new Windows 8 interface.

How to Program

The following section discusses the use of Linux/Unix as a programming environment. Below is a list of some tools. More details are covered in the linked article.

Unix as IDE: Introduction
http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/series/unix-as-ide/

File and project management   — ls, find, grep/ack, bash
Text editor and editing tools — vim, awk, sort, column
Compiler and/or interpreter   — gcc, perl
Build tools                   — make
Debugger                      — gdb, valgrind, ltrace, lsof, pmap
Version control               — diff, patch, svn, git


Some highly recognized books on programming:

The Little Schemer - Daniel P. Friedman
Mastering Algorithms with C - Kyle Loudon
C Programming Language (2nd Edition) - Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie

How To Recover Missing Systray Icons

This is still Work In Progress, but here are a few sites about how to solve the Missing Icon In Systray Bug.

https://www.google.com.au/search?ix=hca&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22missing+icons%22+in+taskbar&oei=iCIzT4LLKsybiQey9vTrAQ

Google: "missing icons" in taskbar

http://winhlp.com/node/16

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic123221.html

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic42925.html

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-31257-how-to-recover-lost-missing-system-tray-icon

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-23085-restore-missing-icons-start-menu

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1034225301

Privacy - How To Cover Your Web Surfing Tracks and Internet Presence

When we go Web Surfing or Browsing the Internet with a web browser, we may think it looks like:

                Me  ->  Website

but in fact it is more like

               Me  ->  My Internet Service Provider (ISP)  ->  Website

When a web page appears on your computer, there is no magic - information is passed to and from Me, ISP and Website. Basically, anything about you that can be known, your IP (internet address), location, name you  sign up with, etc, can be obtained by ISP and Website and by others.


There are many valid and legal reasons why people would like to keep their privacy from their ISP and the Websites they visit. So there are ways to Not Reveal to your ISP which websites you visit, and Not Reveal to the Websites where your real location is.

Using VPN

Hotspot Shield - This software connects your computer via a VPN to the servers of HotSpot Shield which then visits the Websites. It looks like this:

               Me  --->           My  ISP              HotSpot Shield Servers -> Website
                              ----> VPN Tunnel ---->

So the Website thinks the visitor came from HotSpot Shield servers, instead of coming from you.
The ISP sees encrypted data and does not know which Website you are requesting to see.

Drawback: Theoretically your information is still known by HotSpot Shield servers. Well you have to trust someone in the end......

Here is a guide to set up VPN in Windows 7
http://www.pcworld.com/article/210562/how_set_up_vpn_in_windows_7.html

VPN Gate - An experimental VPN setup in Japan. Free to join.
http://www.vpngate.net/en/



Using Proxies

From a very high level, proxies work in a similar way to VPN. The key difference is that the traffics is not necessarily encrypted. However, the request to a website is send via another server in the middle, so that the destination website does not know it came from you. Since our information passes through a web proxies, we must trust those web-proxies that we use.

Here are some web-based proxies:
- Proxify - proxify.com

- Anonymouse - anonymouse.org
- Hide My Ass - www.hidemyass.com


There are manual proxy servers which require your browser to be configured to make use of the web proxy. The following sites maintain a list of proxy servers:
- Proxynova - www.proxynova.com
- Hide My Ass - www.hidemyass.com


Other Ways

There are many other ways to cover your tracks. This site http://www.how-to-hide-ip.info/hide-ip-tools/ has a collection of tools that cover a variety of ways, such as:

• Tools on your PC for hiding IP
• Using Proxy in your Web Browser
• Proxy Sites
• Proxy Lists
• IP checking sites
• VPN services

Covering Web Browsing activities: using Tor www.torproject.org

In fact TOR (The Onion Router) is an ongoing and mature project with a lot of features that enable anonymity on the internet. TOR comes with a Bundled Browser with TOR preconfigured. TOR also has something for smart phones (see below).

For Smartphone, Mobile, Android systems: 

• Orbot - this is based on the Tor technology but available to Android on smartphones.

Email Anonymity
Use the following to protect mask your identity when sending emails:
- Anonymouse - anonymouse.org
- Hide My Ass - www.hidemyass.com

When you go to any these sites, your browser security may flag some of these sites to be suspicious. This could be due to their nature to hide identities or the fact that they are suspicious. In any case, make your own decision before visiting these sites.