Almost everyone uses Google, but most people are not aware of all the advanced search options that Google has to offer. In order to use the advanced search capabilities, you’ll need to know a whole list of tags to utilize Google power.

Fortunately there is a very nice web site called Soople that can help you with these tasks.

Soople is a proxy to Google. It has a simple interface to many of Google’s advanced search option. All you need is to find the appropriate action you want to invoke and type in your query. Soople will do the rest. It’ll invoke Google with the right tags , from normal search with Google thru Phonebook search to search for filetype. At the end you’ll get your Google results.

Check it out at www.soople.com

Microsoft Corp.’s Windows AntiSpyware technology has been renamed “Windows Defender” and has been expanded to detect and remove rootkits, keystroke loggers and other forms of malware.

The revamped application will be bundled into the Windows Vista operating system, but users will be free to choose a competing spyware protection product from a redesigned Windows Security Center.

Jason Garms, group program manager for Microsoft’s anti-malware technology team, made the announcement in a blog entry that also included confirmation that rootkit detection will be fitted into the product.

Source: eWeek

Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, who developed the TCP/IP protocols used to transmit traffic across the Internet, next week will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award.

President George W. Bush announced the recipients on Thursday. The Net’s founders are two of several recipients of the award including such prominent figures as Muhammad Ali, the three-time heavyweight-boxing champion and gold medalist at the 1960 Olympic Games, Carol Burnett, actress and comedian, and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve for the past 18 years.

Cerf and Kahn developed the TCP or transmission control protocol in 1973 for the US military while working for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA.

Source: News.com

One of the justifications for an increase in the number of days a terrorist suspect can be held in the UK without charge, from 14 to 90, is the time it takes to decipher what is on a suspect’s computer hard drive.

Assistant commissioner at the Met Police, Andy Hayman, has claimed the extra time is needed in order to make sure that all the evidence from a seized PC is located before someone is released. The question is: why does it take so long?

The Met Police has a high-tech crime unit and also has access to the Forensic Science Service. Both units employ Forensic Computer Analysts who crack hard drive contents.

Dr Mirza said: “There was a massive backlog of computers to analyse. Some of them couldn’t be looked at for over 90 days.” It could be just as likely that the police are looking at the controversial extension measures simply because the lack of resources mean terrorist hard drives could be part of a wider queuing system.

Source: Techworld.com (via slashdot)