comprehensive

Doomsday Clock moves 1 minute closer to catastrophe

Tick, tock. The infamous Doomsday Clock, which represents how close mankind supposedly is to its annihilation, has been moved one minute closer to midnight.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), which created and maintains the symbolic clock, announced its decision yesterday.

"It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in … Read more

Report: NSA initiating program to detect cyberattacks

The National Security Agency is reportedly launching a program to monitor for cyberattacks against government agencies and private companies responsible for key services such as electricity, nuclear power, and transportation, according to a story in Thursday's Wall Street Journal.

The program, known as "Perfect Citizen," is already triggering mixed reactions, says the Journal. Some in industry and government see it as an attempt by the NSA to intrude into domestic matters, while others believe it's a much-needed step in fighting the threat of cyberattacks.

Perfect Citizen would establish a series of sensors across various computer networks … Read more

Interesting time monitor

Smart WorkTime Tracker provides a unique twist on the traditional billable hours tracking software. Its simplicity and accuracy make this a great tool for those who need to track the time spent on a project.

The program's interface was surprisingly simple to operate. We were able to easily navigate through its few intuitive commands without having to divert to the Help file's tutorial. This kept our interaction with the program to a minimum so we could focus on work. The program really set itself apart from other time-tracking software because it could be set to automatically track time … Read more

Netgear offers comprehensive parental control

I am not a big fan of parental controls, but that might be just because I'm not a parent.

If you are not like me and have been wondering if paying a yearly fee for the comprehensive parental control feature that accompanies the lackluster iBoss router is worth it, Netgear may have just made your life a lot easier.

Netgear announced Tuesday the release of Live Parental Controls, a comprehensive Web-filtering feature it has developed in collaboration with OpenDNS.

The new feature enables parents and small businesses to restrict Internet access to all the devices that connect via the … Read more

DARPA wants to see through concrete

Hiding and fighting from within civilian structures gives insurgents an edge. The U.S. military wants to negate this home field advantage with technology that would allow soldiers to look through concrete walls and give them a detailed picture of a building's interior--right down to the fixtures.

DARPA has asked companies to propose a suite of multiple sensing technologies that could, upon development, deliver "complete situational awareness" above and below ground that would "reverse the adversaries' advantage of urban familiarity."

The Comprehensive Interior Reconnaissance program sponsored by DARPA describes a scenario in which an area … Read more

Not for the casual user

If you don't know and don't care what Grid Granularity is, this tool isn't for you. Comprehensive System Information offers numerous details for nearly every facet of your computer, but it's not aimed at the casual user.

The interface is simply designed, with a tree list from which to choose a category and a large display on the right that shows selected data. The five main categories are Hardware, Operating System, Installed Applications, WMI Service Management, and Performance Counters. Newer users will probably stop after checking out just one of the lengthy submenus. You have to … Read more