Latest Posts from Switched

High school seniors preparing to go to college next year may be tempted to familiarize themselves with their new schools and classmates on Facebook. But one collegial "welcome group" on the social network may not be what it seems.

Certain Facebook pages advertise themselves as online forums for rising freshmen at various schools, including NYU, Pepperdine, Middlebury, Wesleyan and the University of Texas. The pages for each of these colleges feature essentially the same layout, including official logos and descriptions like, "Welcome SUNY Oswego Class of 2015." According to the New York Times, though, the pages aren't official welcome groups, but are rather part of a clever marketing campaign undertaken by a company called Roomsurf.com.

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The next version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer will come with a new feature that allows users to block third-party companies from tracking their online behavior. The new tool, called Tracking Protection, will be included in Internet Explorer 9, which will be released next year. Users will be able to create their own lists of targeted sites. The browser will then automatically block these sites from collecting information via cookies and other tracking mechanisms. Lists can be manually constructed by individual users, or by consumer advocacy groups, which can then make their own lists available for download.

Microsoft's announcement comes just a few days after the Federal Trade Commission publicly called for an online 'Do Not Track List,' which is essentially what Explorer's new feature allows users to create. In a statement, FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz lauded Microsoft for applying the privacy principles his commission has endorsed. "Microsoft deserves enormous credit for taking a critical step toward providing consumers with more choice about who can track their online browsing," Leibowitz said. "Just as important, this announcement proves that technology is available to let consumers control tracking."

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NASA recently decided to sell off some of its old computers. Unfortunately, though, it forgot to erase some of the sensitive data that many of those computers still held.

The embarrassing oversight came to light in a recent internal investigation (PDF), during which the issue was discovered at four NASA locations: Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, and the Ames and Langley Research Centers. According to investigators, NASA sold computers with highly sensitive information on at least 10 occasions. The report also found an additional four computers that were about to be sold, with similarly secret data still on their hard drives. At the Kennedy Space Center, auditors found dozens of computers that had network information marked on their exteriors. Such information, the report claims, could easily give hackers "unauthorized access to NASA's internal computer network."

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Poor Winklevoss twins. First, Mark Zuckerberg "stole" their idea for Facebook, and turned it into a billion-dollar social networking empire. Then, in 2008, Zuck had the gall to compromise on a $65 million settlement -- which, in these troubled economic times, isn't nearly enough to put bread on Tyler and Cameron's dinner table. That's why the square-jawed twins have relaunched their legal campaign against their former Harvard classmate, and are now demanding that he give them what's rightfully theirs (read: more money).

According to the Daily Mail, toothy Tyler and clean-cut Cameron allege that Zuckerberg deliberately undervalued Facebook when agreeing to the settlement, and that the 26-year-old CEO is guilty of securities fraud. In exchange, all they want is an undisclosed sum of money -- y'know, just to make the bleeding stop. Facebook, meanwhile, claims that the settlement was completely legal, and points out that, per the agreement, the twins even calculated the company's value themselves, based on a previously issued press release.

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It's early December, the holidays are just around the corner, and you haven't even begun thinking about what gifts you're going to buy for your friends and family. Each day seems to bring a new diamond commercial and another blow-out holiday sale, but, for some reason, you can't muster up the energy to get off your couch and face the gauntlet of yuletide shopping. Before you know it, you're on a plane to Grandma's house empty handed.

It's an all-too common holiday scenario -- but, luckily, an all-too avoidable one. Getting an early start, of course, is never a bad idea. But that doesn't mean you have to fend off bloodthirsty shoppers at the mall, and put your cardiac health in jeopardy. In fact, the solution to all of your holiday shopping concerns could be right there on your smartphone. Whether you're trying to avoid the crowds, figure out what to get for your eternally ungrateful teenager, or find the absolute best deal on the planet, there's an app out there that can make your holiday experience a lot less arduous -- and maybe, just maybe, a bit enjoyable. Here are a few worth checking out:

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A group of pro-Wikileaks hackers has claimed responsibility for taking down MasterCard's website this morning, in an apparent retaliation against the company's decision to suspend payment operations to Julian Assange's notorious whistleblowing organization. The MasterCard site reportedly fell prey to a distributed denial of service (DDOS) campaign, which flooded the site with so many requests that it collapsed under the weight. The DDOS attack rendered MasterCard's site inaccessible, but did not affect any of the company's internal operations.

According to the Guardian, the 'hacktivists' behind the attack belong to a group called 'Anonymous.' The same group had already orchestrated a similar attack on the Swiss bank PostFinance, which, like MasterCard, had decided to freeze all accounts belonging to Wikileaks. The series of online take-downs appears to be part of a scheme that Anonymous calls 'Operation Payback.' The MasterCard attack was confirmed early this morning, when Twitter user @Anon_Operation tweeted: "WE ARE GLAD TO TELL YOU THAT http://www.mastercard.com/ is DOWN AND IT'S CONFIRMED! #ddos #wikileaks Operation:Payback(is a bitch!) #PAYBACK".

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The modding and hacking community is simply having a field day with Microsoft's Kinect. It was just a couple of weeks ago that we highlighted a few of the fun and impressive things that people much smarter than us were doing with the latest in motion-controlled gaming peripherals. But those innovations already look simplistic next to the crazy things being cooked up in living rooms and labs across the country. The Kinect has been connected with impressive gesture controls and robots far more advanced than Roombas; even invisibility is possible with the aid of its depth-sensitive cameras and some fancy software. Keep reading after the break for a few recent Kinect hacks that got our attention.

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Have you ever paused, in the middle of your sixth hour of 'World of Warcraft,' or during your nineteenth 'FarmVille' till-and-sow, and thought to yourself, "Why do I spend so much time playing video games?"

According to a recent New York Times report, the average American logs over 10,000 hours playing computer games by the age of 21, and researchers are starting to explore -- and exploit -- that number. Employers are trying to tap into the vast reserves of focus and drive that gaming draws out. Academics are trying to use games to simulate everything from financial bubbles to hurricane fallout.

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OnLive, the on-demand video game service, has addressed many of the issues that initially concerned consumers. With those worries assuaged, and with a physical console on the immediate horizon, OnLive now apparently plans to turn its focus from rectifying problems to diversifying content. According to Reuters, OnLive officially intends to add television shows and movies to its streaming catalog.

The company, which is apparently already engaged in discussions with studio and network executives, reportedly hopes to offer the additional material to subscribers next year. CEO Steve Perlman (who has already assembled an impressive list of investors, including Warner Bros. and AT&T) contends that "streaming technology is available to anybody." He also boldly asserts that "OnLive can deliver any experience Netflix can." Given Perlman's predilection for prescient and unerring declarations, heeding the industry patriarch's assertions -- and continuing to adapt its own streaming model -- would probably be a wise move for Netflix, regardless of its established position.