directory

If a Web directory lists your telephone number, address, and other personal information, you can often ask that the data be removed, but the public databases the directory scanned to find your private data are probably still offering the information to anyone who wants it.

Likewise, when someone makes a negative comment about you on a site, you may be allowed to request that the comment be removed only to have the remark reappear there or elsewhere. Several services offer to monitor your online reputation and remove inaccurate, unflattering, or other private information.

I tried out one of the leading … Read more

Much of the recent concern about the Web's lack of privacy protections has focused on Facebook--rightly or wrongly. Just a few days ago, Chris Matyszczyk described in his Technically Incorrect blog how a man blackmailed women into providing him with revealing photos by breaking into their e-mail accounts using data he collected from their public Facebook profiles and searching for racy image attachments, which he threatened to make public.

(In August 2009 I described how to keep your Facebook profile private, and while some of the settings have changed since that time, the steps are about the same.)

The … Read more

On the Web, your life is an open book. Typing a name or telephone number into one of the many free online directories may disclose a person's age, previous cities of residence, and the names of close relatives.

If you're willing to pay a few dollars, you may be able to find the person's date of birth, current and past addresses, photos, videos, estimated annual income, the value of their residence, and social network profiles (although much of this information is available for free as well). Fee-based services also check public records for the person's criminal … Read more

Anyone who's spent much time downloading software knows that search tools--bars, boxes, enhancers, filters, whatever--are among the most ubiquitous freeware on the Internet, and they vary widely in usefulness. GGSearch is a Google-based search tool that's actually useful in a lot of ways. It lets you quickly filter searches for everything from the whole Web to blogs, pictures, Linux, maps, stocks, Webquotes, and YouTube. It offers a plethora of options, including the ability to translate results into and from dozens of languages. GGSearch uses Google's search engine and some other Google components, but it's not affiliated … Read more

Windows indexes your computer's files, folders, and drives to speed up searches, but to really exploit the power of indexing, you need a dedicated indexing and search tool, preferably one that's fast, powerful, and easy to use. Free would be nice, too. Index Your Files fits the job description. It searches by date, size, Boolean operators, file extension, and more. It finds stuff fast not only by filtering searches but also by searching only those indexed databases you specify. You can create and search as many databases as you need.

Index Your Files is easy to use, but … Read more

If you are a Terminal user and like to explore and manage aspects of OS X using the command line, one convenient function is to be able to quickly access the current folder either in the Finder or in the Terminal. Sometimes navigating through folders can be easier in the Terminal, and at other times it can be easier in the Finder, but the problem comes when you try to combine the use of the two environments in the same task.

Finder to Terminal

Unfortunately the Finder does not have any built-in means to open the current location in the … Read more

Binding to an Active Directory or Open Directory domain is done in many work environments to centralize computing usage policies and increase network security. One of the common policies that may be enforced by Active or Open Directory domains is that passwords will need to be changed every so often.

When this happens, the system will warn you in advance of when the password is going to expire, and in some cases you might be bugged continually if the password expiration warning is set at an interval that is close to the domain's requirement for password changes.

For instance, … Read more

There aren't many of us left who remember using PCs before Windows arrived. While I don't pine for the good old days of DOS, I was comfortable operating those old machines from the command line.

Back then, I frequently had to print a list of the files in a folder. Doing so was as easy as copying the list to a text file that I opened in my text editor and printed from there. This trick still works via the command prompt built into Windows.

Instructions for using commands to print the contents of a folder--including various command … Read more

Sometimes the best programs are those that don't contain a lot of bells and whistles, but that simply do a specific task easily and efficiently. Directory List and Print is one such program. This basic utility lets users create, save, and print lists of the files on their computers. It's not fancy, but that's the point; it's made to do one thing well with as little fuss as possible.

The program's interface is plain and easy to navigate, with panes displaying the user's directories and the program's output. Check boxes allow users to … Read more