Facebook Revamps News Feed, Annoying Users

Facebook's F8 Developer Conference just days away but the social network has already debuted a new "smarter" News Feed.

For a couple of years now, Facebook has had a two-tabbed News Feed, one with "Top Stories," or updates Facebook thought you'd be interested in (based on your browsing history), while the other tab had the "Most Recent" updates. Facebook has apparently decided to get rid of this two-tabbed interface and integrate users' Top Stories and Most Recent Stories in one big, smart, News Feed.

Now when you log in to Facebook, you'll see a smart News Feed with all of your updates -- both the "important" and recent ones -- in one place. Facebook will still try to determine which stories will most interest you, and will highlight these "top stories" with a pale blue corner.

Facebook says that the top stories will depend on how long it's been since you've logged into Facebook. In other words, if you haven't visited the site in awhile, your top stories may not be extremely recent (rather, Facebook will try to give you an overview of the important stuff that happened when you were gone). But if you just logged in five minutes ago, your top stories will probably all have happened within the last five minutes.

According to Facebook's Updates to News Feed FAQ page, top stories are determined based on a number of factors. These factors include your relationship to the person posting the update, how many comments and likes the update receives, and what type of update it is. You can still hide updates if you think they're boring or spammy (even if they are from your best friend) by hovering over them and clicking the drop-down menu. This menu gives you the option of hiding the story, hiding all posts by that person, and reporting the story as (real) spam.

Facebook's new News Feed has only been live for a few hours, but people are already voicing their annoyance on PCWorld's Facebook page.

"I don't like this update because now it's a bit more confusing to find recent updates," says PCWorld reader Devon Tourond. "I do like the new update they added to the top of the page, now I can scroll through the page and the header follows me."

"FB should have a simple toggle function between 'recent stories' and 'top stories,' " says PCWorld reader Anthony Nozzi. "Better yet, they should enable a user to prioritize their news feeds by assigning a ranking score to each particular page that provides the news feeds. That way, a user can control which pages get the highest priority in providing news feeds."

Facebook's also added a real-time feed in the upper-right corner of the page. Some readers are concerned that this will adversely affect their privacy, but as far as I can see the updates in the box will not share more than can normally be found on a person's private profile page.

Skype iPhone, iPod Touch App Has Security Hole

Skype is working to fix a security hole in its iOS app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows a hacker to steal a person’s entire address book. The vulnerability, located in the app’s chat message window, can be exploited with JavaScript code. It was pointed out by security researcher Phil Purviance of AppSec.

"Skype uses a locally stored HTML file to display chat messages from other Skype users, but it fails to properly encode the incoming user’s ‘Full Name,’ allowing an attacker to craft malicious JavaScript code that runs when the victim views the message," Purviance wrote on his blog.

The heart of the problem, according to Purviance, is an improper definition within the Skype app that allows access to a user's local file system. He says the threat is partially mitigated by protections within iOS itself, but the address book remains vulnerable.

Skype appears to be in no hurry to fix the problem. In a tweet, Purviance said he notified Skype of the vulnerability on August 24, and was told that an update addressing the issue would be released in early September.

A statement from Skype confirms that the company is aware of the issue and will fix it "in our next planned release, which we hope to roll out imminently."

You can watch a demonstration of exactly how the exploit works in this video, created by Purviance:

Facial Recognition Technology: Facebook Photo Matching Is Just the Start

As facial recognition tech moves into law enforcement, military use, and targeted advertising, and onto the streets of your town, will your privacy be a casualty?

The Internet was in an uproar earlier this year following Facebook's launch of facial recognition software for its photo services, enabling users to identify their friends in photos automatically--and without their permission. Though critics described that move as creepy, the controversial technology may now be on the verge of widespread use.

For instance, this month a Massachusetts company called BI² Technologies will roll out a handheld facial recognition add-on for the iPhone to 40 law enforcement agencies. The device will allow police to conduct a quick check to see whether a suspect has a criminal record--either by scanning the suspect's iris or taking a photo of the individual's face.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the military and Georgia Tech Research Institute had started testing on autonomous aerial drones that could use facial recognition software to identify and attack human targets--in effect, the software performs the assessment that determines who gets killed.

And in yet another development, the Federal Trade Commission announced earlier this week that it will hold a free public workshop on December 8, 2011, to examine various issues related to personal privacy, consumer protection, and facial recognition technology.

[Read: "Facebook Photo Tagging: A Privacy Guide"]

Of course, the government and large private companies have had access to facial recognition software for years. The pressing question today is what happens to privacy when everyone has access to the technology? Already smaller businesses--and even private individuals--are developing sometimes amazing, sometimes very creepy uses for security-focused software.

Tom Cruise encounters facial-recognition-generated ads in a scene from the film Minority Report.In Las Vegas, advertisers have taken a page from Minority Report, the 2002 Tom Cruise movie. The Vegas advertisers use facial recognition to target ads to passers-by. For instance, if a woman in her mid-twenties walks past the advertising kiosk, its built-in software will identify her likely age and gender and then display ads for products deemed appealing to her specific demographic.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, a startup called SceneTap links facial recognition technology to cameras in bars and clubs so that users can figure out which bars have the most desirable (in their opinion) ratio of women to men--before they even arrive.

If you think the corporate implications are unsettling, wait until the general population gets deeply involved in using facial recognition technology. One recent instance: In the wake of the August London riots, a Google group of private citizens called London Riots Facial Recognition emerged with the aim of using publicly available records and facial recognition software to identify rioters for the police as a form of citizen activism (or vigilante justice, depending on how you feel about it). The group finally abandoned its efforts when its experimental facial recognition app yielded disappointing results.

Though the members of London Riots Facial Recognition undoubtedly believed that they were working for the greater good, what happens when people other than concerned citizens get their hands on the technology? It shouldn't take too long for us to find out.

Present-Day Reality Check

The use of facial recognition software by governments and online social networks continues to provide headline fodder. A Boston-area man had his driver's license revoked because when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ran a facial recognition scan of a database containing the photos of Massachusetts drivers, it flagged the man's license as a possible phony. Afterward it emerged that the system had confused the man's face with someone else's.

Scene from the 2011 London riots.In England, law enforcement officials ran photos of August riot suspects through Scotland Yard's newly updated face-matching program, which is under consideration for use during the 2012 Summer Olympics in the UK. In Canada, an insurance company invited Vancouver police to use its facial recognition software to help identify rioting fans after the Vancouver Canucks hockey team lost the seventh game of the NHL championship series.

And of course Facebook endured a hailstorm of criticism in June when it announced its plans be roll out a facial recognition feature for its members to provide semiautomatic tagging of photos uploaded to the social network.

[Read: "Facebook Facial Recognition: Its Quiet Rise and Dangerous Future"]

One Facebook critic was Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, who said earlier this year that the "surprising accuracy" of existing facial recognition software was "very concerning" to his company and that Google was "unlikely" to build a facial-recognition search system in the future.

Indeed, Google seems to have been so concerned by the technology that Schmidt declined to implement it even though his company already had the know-how to make it. “We built that technology and withheld it,” Schmidt said. “People could use it in a very bad way.”

Turn a PC Off or Leave It On?

Call me a tree-hugger if you must, but I see no reason to keep a computer on when it's not in use. That wastes electricity, which is bad for your pocketbook and bad for the planet. And it's probably bad for the computer.

Yes, I have seen occasional arguments that shutting down a computer, then starting it up cold, cause more wear and tear than leaving it on for 12 hours. I just don't buy them. All computers potentially suffer from heat problems, and one that never gets a chance to cool down will suffer from more of them.

Besides, a computer that's off is a computer that can't be infected with malware or behave under orders from afar if it's already infected.

If you don't like starting your computer fresh every morning, you can hibernate it rather than shutting it down. From the hardware and power-consumption points of view, there's no difference between shutting down a PC and hibernating it. But there is a difference in what happens when you boot it again in the morning. A shutdown PC will give Windows a fresh start, clear of any digital cobwebs it acquired since its last boot. A hibernated PC will wake up where you left it, with the same programs, files, and windows open.

Which you prefer is a matter of personal choice, although you should probably shut it down at least once a week to clear those cobwebs.

10 Network Admin Apps for iOS

Among the hundreds of thousands of apps in the iTunes App Store, there are numerous tools and utilities to help in network administration. They can assistance with monitoring, managing, tracking, troubleshooting, and connecting. Here we’ll look at 10 of these apps.

1. Spiceworks (Free)

This is a client for the Spiceworks IT management solution, which is 100% free ad-based software. It helps with network monitoring, helpdesk and ticketing, UPS power management, and asset inventory. The iOS and Android app lets IT staff view devices, work tickets, access user info, read IT discussions, and more.

The app lets you view your network and PC inventory. You can view, create, edit, close, and re-open trouble tickets. You can lookup contact info for end users and manage user details, with support of Active Directory. Additionally, you can communicate with other IT pros in the Spiceworks community.

2. Rove Mobile Admin Client (Free)

This is a client for the Rove Mobile Admin IT management solution and is designed for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. It helps you manage and track your IT issues, your network and computers, and integrates with a variety of third party systems and services. Though the app is free, you must have separately purchased and installed the Rove Mobile Admin server on your network, for which they offer a 14-day free trial for.

You get real-time alerts from the Rove Monitoring System, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, BMC Performance Manager Portal, Nagios Monitoring, BMC Remedy Service Desk, CA Service Desk, and Symantec Backup Exec. You get also monitoring capabilities for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, BMC Performance Manager Portal, and Nagios Monitoring. Additionally, virtualization control supported for VMware Infrastructure and Microsoft Hyper-V.

It offers incident report editing and searching for BMC Remedy Service Desk and CA Service Desk and Change Orders. It features mail system administration support for Microsoft Exchange and Domino. It provides numerous Windows management capabilities, including Command Prompt, Event Viewer, Local Users and Groups, File Explorer, Printers, Restart, Scheduled Tasks, Shared Folders, Services, System Information, Task Manager, Terminal Services, PowerShell, and Dial-up Connections

It supports the Active Directory and Novell Console directories. Database support includes Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. Also supported is backup system administration of Symantec BackupExec and Symantec NetBackup. Additionally, it features management of the Microsoft IIS web server.

3. Network Utility (Free or $0.99)

This app lets you ping websites or servers using a hostname or IP address, useful during troubleshooting connectivity issues or for occasional checks. Additionally, it can do simple TCP/IP port scans, GeoIP lookups with Google Maps, or Whois queries. It also offers IP address information and can save remote addresses.

The free version includes the same features but the Pro version eliminates the Ads.

4. Scanny ($5.99)

This is a fairly advanced port scanner with additional network tools. It’s great for looking up info on devices, troubleshooting, and network security auditing. It scans the network and displays detailed device information on clients. This includes the IP and MAC address, vendor name, Windows and Bonjour hostnames, device names (UPnP, SSDP, DLNA), and opened ports. It also includes the basic networking utilities: ping, traceroute, Wake-on-LAN (WOL), Whois, and Geo IP. Additionally, it shows information about your active network connection, along with the public IP address.

You can type in a single domain name or IP of a server/device or enter a range to scan specific addresses or the entire network. Scan for devices via ICMP, TCP and UDP located on the local network or out on the Internet. Though all the popular services/ports are predefined, you can add custom entries.

To better analyze the scanning results, you can sort, copy, or email them. You can sort alphabetically by name or by the IP. It can also group the results into multiple histories.

5. AD HelpDesk (Free or $7.99)

This app lets you do Active Directory (AD) user account management. It securely connects directly to the AD server and doesn’t require any server-side software. You can diagnose and fix user account issues, such as disabled, locked, and password expired accounts.

It enables you to reset user passwords, force reset at next login, unlock accounts, enable/disable user or computer accounts, edit user and computer attributes, and manage groups and group membership. You can even send new password reminders to users via text message from your iPhone.

The free version includes all the same features and functionality of the full paid version but doesn’t offer the native iPad interface.

6. ADManger Mobile ($4.99)

This is another Active Directory (AD) management tool, designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can create and modify user accounts, including passwords, unlocking, and force change on next login. In addition to user account management, it offers management of contacts, computers, groups, and organizational units. It also offers search capability of Active Directory by keyword and/or object type.

7. VMware vSphere Client for iPad (Free)

This offers a mobile interface to the VMware vSphere client so you can monitor and manage your vSphere hosts and virtual machines. You have the ability to start, stop and suspend virtual machines, and view and restore their snapshots. You can also reboot vSphere hosts or enable maintenance mode. Additionally, the built-in ping and traceroute tools come in handy when troubleshooting.

This app requires VMware vSphere or VMware vCenter Server 4.x or higher. Additionally, the vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) virtual appliance is required. You must also have a network connection to the vCMA virtual appliance, which you can do via the built-in VPN client.

8. iSSH - SSH / VNC Console ($9.99)

This is a SSH, Telnet, VNC, and RDP client, also with an X server. It’s designed for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. Multiple concurrent connections are supported on standard or custom ports. You can save unlimited connection configurations, organize them into groups, and import/export between devices. Additionally, it can generate RSA and DSA keys and distribute them via email, password-connected SSH or pasteboard.

9. MySQL Mobile Database Client ($7.99)

You can directly connect to MySQL databases (versions 3 – 5), to browse, search, and update data. You can also run queries or use custom SQL, generate charts, and build reports. It features exporting data to Numbers, Mail, CSV files, or saving for offline access. For secure access, it has a built-in SSH client or you can use a third-party VPN client.

10. iRemoteWin (Free or $2.99)

This is a Remote Desktop client for connecting to Windows PCs via the native Microsoft RDP protocol. iRemoteWin is the iPhone and iPod Touch version and iRemoteWin HD is version designed for the iPad. These can be useful to view your files or use your applications, or for troubleshooting other computers. You can save the connection settings for the PCs. It even supports multiple simultaneous sessions and the ability to easily switch between sessions.

It lets you scroll/pan/zoom the screen in both portrait and landscape, operate the mouse, and drag and drop. It also includes a tool bar for copy/cut/paste, the Windows key, Tab key, and other shortcuts.

All the Windows editions that natively support RDP are supported. You can connect to Windows XP Professional or Media Center 2005, Windows Vista Business, Ultimate and Enterprise; and Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise. Windows Server and Windows Small Business Server are also supported.