alarm

I have yet to meet a person who enjoys being woken up by an alarm clock. I know I don't. However, that was before I heard about this.

The Retro TV Game Show Alarm Clock not only looks like a wee retro-styled TV, but it also plays old game show themes and sounds to wake you up.

I didn't see a list, so I'm a little curious as to which four theme songs and sounds are featured. I think the losing sound from The Price is Right would be about the perfect alarm tone. Wakes you up … Read more

Okay so Sleep.fm, the browser based "social alarm clock" won't actually help you sleep, but it's got a brand new way to wake you up that's straight out of a science fiction movie. In this case it's this past summer's blockbuster hit Iron Man, where Tony Stark's journalist friend wakes up to a local weather report spoken by computer butler Jarvis.

Sleep.fm now offers something similar by waking you up to the local weather conditions and temperature with with a computer-generated voice and soft bell sounds. All you need to … Read more

Grisoft, makers of AVG antivirus, on Wednesday released a new update addressing a false positive in another security product.

On Tuesday, AVG users reported desktops warnings that their desktop was infected with something called Trojan Agent r.CX. Some files within zlsSetup_70_483_000_en[1].exe, a compressed file containing dormant set-up files for Check Point's ZoneAlarm, apparently set off the alarm. The ZoneAlarm user forum soon filled with concerned users.

Grisoft did not respond to a request for comment.

Laura Yecies, vice president and general manager … Read more

This simple executable will sound an alarm through your laptop's speakers when certain activities occur, helping to thwart laptop theft. Laptop Alarm's four-check-box interface takes seconds to set. An option pop-up is as easily set to control mouse sensitivity and set a program password.

Operating Laptop Alarm is a snap. Users merely run the executable and set the alarm to sound if the laptop loses power, the system is shut down or logged off, if the USB mouse is unplugged, or if the mouse moved. Testers found the program accurate with no false alarms. There's no method … Read more

On Wednesday, an exploit code allowing someone to attack the domain name system (DNS) became available. No one has yet used the code, but the advice is simple: Patch. Now. While most of the burden is on the Domain Name System servers and the various systems that support them, the nature of the flaw is such that desktop clients also need to patch their software as well.

First, to determine whether your DNS system is vulnerable, use either of these tests:

If the test returns a message similar to "Your name … Read more

Nothing to do with Miami (that we know of). This episode is all about the gadgets that help you indulge your various vices, from smoking to celebrity gossip to porn on your iPhone. (It's about time.)

At least e-cigar is better for your lungs http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9993462-1.html

Playboy to ask female bloggers to pose nude. Sigh. http://www.popgadget.net/2008/07/playboy_asks_fe.php

iRoticNet http://iroticnet.com/

Jamd for iPhone: Stacks of celebrity pics http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13549_7-9991217-30.html

Skymall: Electronic listening device http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=69668336&c=10800&v=501166 … Read more

As I mentioned previously, based on a recommendation from Scot Finnie, I installed the Online Armor firewall on a couple Windows XP machines.* Scot recommended the paid version, I opted to get my feet wet with the free edition (v2.1.0.131). These are my first impressions, not a review. I don't think anyone can base a firewall review on merely a couple days experience, it's the sort of software you have to live with for a while.

My previous firewall was ZoneAlarm, whose best feature was its ease of use. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, … Read more

Finding a new firewall program has been on my to-do list for a long time. I was a long time fan of the free version of ZoneAlarm, but the upgrade from version 6 to 7 was a put-off. The file size increased tremendously (it's now 44.6MB) and the functionality hardly changed at all. That made me suspicious of what all that extra code was there for. Still, old habits die hard and I was used to it like an old pair gloves. But a few days ago, when a bug fix for Windows broke ZoneAlarm, and no other … Read more

On Thursday, Check Point Software Technologies released updated versions of all its ZoneAlarm products, addressing an incompatibility with a patch Microsoft released earlier this week.

The fix requires ZoneAlarm users to download the latest version, 7.0.438.000, from its site. A reboot is required to complete installation.

Since Tuesday, ZoneAlarm customers have complained that access to the Internet was denied after installing MS08-037, a patch designed by Microsoft to correct a vulnerability in both the client and server Domain Name System packages within Windows. Earlier on Tuesday, a security researcher announced a massive, multi-vendor patch release to address … Read more