keys

It's not just a bad pun to say that the "key" step in configuring a Wi-Fi network is protecting it with an encryption key that must be entered into each compatible device. Wireless Key Generator is a free tool that generates strong wireless encryption keys and saves them to a text file that you can store on a USB drive or other portable device and use to secure your home or office network.

The program's compact, dialog-based interface has two drop-down menus: Security Type, with two choices, WEP and the stronger WPA/WPA2; and Key Strength, … Read more

According to Zencode's Web site, Zenkey is not a hard-boiled fruitbat. However, to call it a free desktop and system utility hardly seems to do it more justice than the developer's infrequent quirky reminders of what it isn't. Its Keystrokes feature creates versatile hot keys that can access just about anything on your system. Its Infinite Desktop extends your real estate as far as you like, with a handy map and a bunch of other useful features to keep track of it all, including the ability to "iconify" and "rollup" windows, set transparency, … Read more

Google announced today that it is making it easy for organizations using Google Apps to authenticate outgoing mail so that recipients can rest assured that the messages are really from them and aren't spam.

Administrators of all editions of Google Apps can enable the DomainKeys Identified Mail technology for outgoing mail in the "Advanced Tools" tab of the control panel by checking several boxes. Gmail has supported e-mail signing standards since its inception in 2004, but implementation required more configuration and resources than that.

Functionally, this means fewer legitimate e-mail messages will be blocked by spam filters. … Read more

I complain about bad recordings all the time, but there's lots of great-sounding music coming out. Here's a short list of the highlights from the past 12 months.

"Treme: Music From the HBO Original Series, Season 1"

Most soundtrack music is either old tunes or recorded in studios, but "Treme," HBO's series about New Orleans just a few months after Katrina, uses lots of live music recorded on the streets and in the city's clubs. The brass bands swing like crazy, and the funk grooves aren't too shabby. The sound feels … Read more

What do you get when you put solid-state storage, USB 3.0 connectivity, and a thumb-size design together? Well, you'll get LaCie's FastKey.

This is a unique portable storage solution that uses the fastest technology in terms of storage type (solid state) and peripheral connectivity (USB 3.0). On top of that, the device is about the size of a large thumb drive but offers up to 120GB of storage space.

Unfortunately, for the quite obvious reasons stated above (namely is high-end functionality), it isn't cheap; the LaCie FastKey costs $475 for the 120GB version. The drive … Read more

Stars sometimes cause us vast moral dilemmas.

Should we support those stars who gyrate appallingly, but whose music we secretly love? Should we adore those stars whose songs we adore, but whose personal life seems a sewer of broken hearts and severed senses?

Now there is another parameter to this axis of complication.

Lady Gaga, she of the interesting designer fashions and music for gym clothes, is, along with other stars, quitting Facebook and Twitter.

There are those for whom this news might signify disaster on a worldwide scale. Lady Gaga, after all, has more than 7 million Twitter followers, … Read more

If the definition of a thumbdrive is a storage device that's about the size of, well, your thumb, then LaCie has just redefined it in terms of performance.

The company announced today what it calls "the smallest solid-state USB 3.0 drive" on the market, the LaCie FastKey.

About the size of an adult's thumb but much thinner, the FastKey can also be considered one of the first USB 3.0-based thumbdrives. Most, if not all, thumbdrives on the market support the much slower USB 2.0.

LaCie claims that its new FastKey can deliver speeds … Read more

Owners of Ford's upcoming 2012 Mustang Boss 302 will soon be offered a deceptively simple way to boost their vehicle's performance and make the mighty 302 even more bad-ass. The TracKey doesn't just unlock the doors and fire up the engine, it also transforms the production Boss 302 into a competition-ready track car with a turn of a key.

The TracKey package consists of a second key for the Boss Mustang--the TracKey itself--that features a red Boss logo. This key isn't just for show; starting the Mustang using this key unlocks the second part of the … Read more

In rare occurrences, people have found that some keys or keystrokes on their systems do not seem to be working properly. This may happen in certain software situations, indicating a configuration error, but it also may happen because of hardware malfunctions. If you experience problems with a specific character not working on your Mac, try the following set of possible fixes.

Hardware vs. softwareIf you are experiencing input issues with your keyboard, the first thing you should do is determine whether the problem is hardware-based or software-based. To do this, the best tool to use is the keyboard viewer, which … Read more