Tropical PC Solutions

Can tablets give you a pain in the neck?
2012-01-26 09:33:00
Users of tablet computers should place their device on the table and tilt its screen, rather than have it flat on their lap, to avoid potentially painful hunching of the neck, a study suggested Wednesday."Tablet users may be at high risk to develop neck discomfort based on current behaviours and tablet designs," it warned.A team led by environmental health researcher Jack Dennerlein of the Harvard School of Public Health asked seven men and eight women who were experienced tablet users to carry out tasks on an iPad2 and a Motorola Xoom.Using a motion-analysis system, the team filmed the 15 volunteers as they worked on the tablet in four common configurations.In the first position the tablet was not placed in its proprietary case but held on the lap in one hand while the other was used to touch the screen.In the second the tablet was placed on the lap, but stayed in its case. The user worked with both hands on the screen.In the third, the tablet was set up in its case on a table, with

How to Disappear Completely (From the Internet)
2012-01-13 19:56:00
If you’ve ever used the Internet, you have an online identity. Maybe it’s slight: a Hotmail account here, a comment on a news story there. Or maybe you’ve been more prolific, leaving a trail of usernames, accounts, messages, and profiles across the digital landscape.In any case, an active internet user owes it to himself to do a bit of self-Googling. What you’ll find will be both enlightening and humbling—even worrying.Unease about your online identity shouldn’t be limited to how much information is publicly available. Online advertising is the engine that drives the Internet’s largest sites, including Google and Facebook, and it depends on your personal—and allegedly private—data for fuel. "The government, companies, and marketers all want us to share as much information as possible because that’s what’s good for them," says Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "and it’s time to think of what’s good for us."While most Internet users seem fi

Addicted! Scientists show how internet dependency alters the human brain
2012-01-12 10:03:00
Internet addiction has for the first time been linked with changes in the brain similar to those seen in people addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cannabis. In a groundbreaking study, researchers used MRI scanners to reveal abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who spent many hours on the internet, to the detriment of their social and personal lives. The finding could throw light on other behavioural problems and lead to the development of new approaches to treatment, researchers said.An estimated 5 to 10 per cent of internet users are thought to be addicted – meaning they are unable to control their use. The majority are games players who become so absorbed in the activity they go without food or drink for long periods and their education, work and relationships suffer.Henrietta Bowden Jones, consultant psychiatrist at Imperial College, London, who runs Britain's only NHS clinic for internet addicts and problem gamblers, said: "The majority of people we see with serious internet

Hundreds Threaten Suicide At Microsoft Supplier Plant In China
2012-01-11 12:12:00
Some 300 Chinese Foxconn employees who manufacture X-box 360 machines said they would throw themselves from their Wuhan, China, plant if demands for lost wages were not met.China Jasmine Revolution, an activist revolutionary organization with a name borrowed from the Tunisian revolt that set off the Middle East unrest, reported that employees made their demands for a wage increase for 100 employees on Jan. 2.Management at Foxconn — the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and a crucial link in the supply chains of Apple, Dell, Nintendo and Song — responded with an ultimatum. Employees could quit with one month’s compensation awarded for each year with the plant or go back to working.Many employees quit, but Foxconn allegedly dishonored the agreement and awarded former employees nothing.Around 300 workers returned to the plant in an uproar, and staged their protest on the plant’s roof on Jan. 4.Read the entire article:http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2012/01/10/hundre

New virus raids your bank account - but you won't notice
2012-01-06 14:25:00
The best way to protect yourself from an online financial scam is to diligently check your bank accounts. At least, until now. Security firm Trusteer has found an elaborate new computer virus that not only helps fraudsters steal money from bank accounts, it also covers its tracks.Think of a crime plot involving a spy who plans to break into a high-security building and begins by swapping out security camera video so guards don't notice anything is amiss. Known as a surveillance camera hack, the technique has been used in dozens of movies.A new version of the widely prevalent SpyEye Trojan horse works much the same way, only it swaps out banking Web pages rather than video, preventing account holders from noticing that their money is gone.advertisementThe Trojan horse employs a powerful two-step process to commit the electronic crime. First, the virus lies in wait until a customer with an infected computer visits an online banking site, steals their login credentials and tricks the vic

We have updated our Android apps
2011-12-30 09:52:00
We recently updated all of our Android apps and compiled them with the latest 3.2 API!Our newer apps can be found here:https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Tropical+PC+SolutionsThis new 3.2 API ads a nifty zoom feature that allows the app to adjust its size to your various screen sizes. If you had the old app compiled under the old 1.5 API and you need to re-install the older version, please contact me and I will make it available for you.Thanks,Dave

SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers
2011-12-29 10:42:00
The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes.“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist,” wrote a blogger at Red Mass Group.Some have asserted that the controversial measures would criminalize pages and blogs that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. In particular, this has concerned search engines like Google, which could face massive liability if some form of the bill passes, some say.“Of course, restrictions of results provided by Internet search engines amount to just that: prior restraint of their free expression of future results. Google and others, under SOPA, are told what they can or can’t publish before they

Startup Turns Your Cell-Phone Number into a Location Fix
2011-12-16 12:52:00
Your phone number's area code gives other people a clue to where you live, or have lived in the past. Startup company Loc-Aid can use your full phone number to figure out exactly where you are right now. The service has caught the eye of banks and card issuers interested in checking where their customers are—as a way to reduce fraud—and of retailers interested in sending deals to people nearby."We can locate any one of the more than 350 million devices on the major U.S. and Canadian carriers in real time," says Rip Gerber, founder and CEO of Loc-Aid, based in San Francisco.You can test Loc-Aid's ability to find your phone using this Web demo. It takes from five to 20 seconds to get a location fix for the device associated with a phone number. "The companies using our service already know their customer's phone number and just need to get permission from them to use that to find their location—that's usually done by SMS," says Gerber.AdvertisementA person might be prompted to all

Are we facing the death of email?
2011-12-08 13:51:00
Imagine it: a life freed from the drudgery of deleting an inbox full of "unbeatable offers" and the latest missive on paper clips from head office. Email could follow the telex into the dustbin of communication tools we have loved and discardedBreton is to ban his staff from sending each other emails, complaining that they waste time and are outmoded. Only 10 per cent of the 200 electronic messages his employees receive per day turn out to be useful, Breton claims. "The deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face [in the future]. It is time to think differently," he claimed.Internal email will be phased out inside 18 months at Atos. The 75,000 staff will instead use instant messaging and chat-style collaborative services inspired by social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Atos staff used to spend between five and 20 hours a day dealing with email, but use of Breton's replacements has cut its use by up to 20 per cent, the fi

Apple iTunes flaw 'allowed government spying for 3 years'
2011-11-30 14:00:00
An unpatched security flaw in Apple’s iTunes software allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users’ computers for more than three years, it’s claimed. A British company called Gamma International marketed hacking software to governments that exploited the vulnerability via a bogus update to iTunes, Apple's media player, which is installed on more than 250 million machines worldwide.The hacking software, FinFisher, is used to spy on intelligence targets’ computers. It is known to be used by British agencies and earlier this year records were discovered in abandoned offices of that showed it had been offered to Egypt’s feared secret police.Apple was informed about the relevant flaw in iTunes in 2008, according to Brian Krebs, a security writer, but did not patch the software until earlier this month, a delay of more than three years. Read the entire story here:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8912714/Apple-iTunes-flaw-allowed-government-spying-for-3-y