Speccy, which has been updated yesterday, is the latest to receive that treatment. And since the last review dates two years back, I thought it is as good a reason as any to take another look at the latest version of the PC information tool.

The interface looks exactly the same as it did two years ago when the first public beta of the program was released by Piriform. The program displays a summary of some of the most important system components on startup. This includes cpu, ram, motherboard, graphics card, monitor, hard drives, audio devices and the operating system.

The temperature of components with heat sensors is displayed in the interface which is excellent for a quick look if any of the temperatures are critical.

Sidebar links lead to software and hardware groups that are examined in detail by the program. Most of the links lead to hardware related information, from cpu and memory to peripherals and network.

The hard drives are for instance all listed on a single page. Each hrd drive is listed with detailed information about its model and manufacturer, the hard drive partitions and SMART values.

That’s a lot of useful information right there. From transfer modes to raid types, the hard drive’s capacity, real size and features supported by the hard drive.

Especially the operating system listing is interesting, as it lists not only the serial number and basic information about the OS, but also system configuration states. It informs the user about UAC levels, Windows Update, Antivirus, Environment Variables, Power Profiles, System folders, contents of the scheduler, the process list, installed hotfixes and services among other information. That’s excellent troubleshooting information.

Some of the information have been added in the latest version of Speccy. This includes the system folders, hotfix information and uptime information among others.

Snapshots can be saved internally or exported into txt or xml files. Snapshots can furthermore be published online. This creates a unique url on the Internet where the system information report can be accessed.

It is good to see that Piriform continues to add features that make sense to their programs. The new information that Speccy gathers can definitely be helpful for users who troubleshoot a PC system.

Windows users can download the free version of Speccy from the Piriform website. A portable version is available here.

I usually copy and paste the information into a text document, or Word document if I need to copy both text and images.

The Firefox extension Trails offers another option. It supports the creation of so called booklets, local files that contain text and image information that have been created by the Firefox user via copy and paste.

Trails adds several entries to the Firefox context menu that can be used to send information to the active booklet. Before that’s happening though you need to create at least one booklet and select a location for it on one of the local hard drives.

The extension displays a popup window whenever you want to add text or images to a booklet. Here it is possible to edit, delete or add information, include separators or change the text formatting from light to bold. A click on Save saves the information in the booklet.

Trails opens up as a sidebar item, and you will notice the text and images that you have added to the open booklet immediately. The zoom level is tiny, a click on the information opens them in full view on the screen.

Each individual text and image entry in the sidebar is selectable, and a small delete icon is available to remove information directly from that preview window. Booklets can contain multiple pages of information, a click on the Booklet menu opens options to manage that and the creation and saving of booklets.

The Publish menu displays options to create a pdf document out of the selected information or to publish the booklet publicly, which most users probably would not want to do.

The developer has created a video that demonstrates the functionality of the Firefox extension in detail. Keep in mind though that it reviews an earlier version of the add-on.

Privacy conscious users need to keep in mind that the booklet information are stored in a SQLite database which can be accessed by anyone. A solution would be to store the booklets on an encrypted partition or container on a drive.

You find additional information on the Trails page over at the Mozilla Firefox add-on repository. Trails is compatible with all versions of the Firefox web browser from 1.5 to the very latest stable builds of Firefox 4.0

Think of past stories like top secret information in a digital camera that got sold for a few pounds on eBay or the discovery of an USB stick outside a pub containing information about 12 million British citizens.

This time it was mere paper that was responsible for a data leak. Most users would think that pre-computer age politicians would know how to handle at least secure information on paper properly. This is apparently not the case as police chief Bob Quick managed to carry a document marked secret in public which immediately caught the attention of bystanding photographers.

The document, which can be viewed on the Guardian’s website contained information about an anti-terrorist raid. The details were extensive including names, addresses and command structures. The raid had to be conducted in bright daylight because of the security leak.

As Dante, who send me a link to the story points out: “It’s not just electronic security that
counts. It’’s also what happens when a user prints out the data.”

The software can be used to scan multiple partitions at once. It displays a list of all found Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF and zip files on the selected partitions listing both the encrypted files and those that are not encrypted.

Additional information is displayed in the list like the path and name of the document, the size and the date the file was modified. The software program can be used even if the corresponding applications are not installed on the system.

A Risk Evaluation Report On Information Leak is created at the end which provides detailed information about the discovered files and their information leak risk. SolFileFinder is compatible to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 / 2008.

It states on the download page that the download is a trial version but there does not seem to be any restrictions.

It’s one of those applications that will be used by the geeky sort, those who don’t mind a stark exterior with a pretty complicated interface. Tobu is also different because as it describes itself, it is a “freeform information organizer”, and that pretty much holds up. You can use it for task lists, notes, thoughts, ideas, project planning, anything you like, but it will take some time to think it through and apply it.

The basics of it is that you create notes, with a name, a tag and a description. You can then simply list your notes by tag, or tag combination. That’s really all to it, but underneath this simple method lies a pretty complicated system. Tags are the main way of navigating, just enter one or more and items will pop out quickly. You can also see the relation each item has to other tags for cross reference.

What I love about Tobu is that it really lets you do anything. Tag all your tasks with “task” (how original), and when you list items in that tag you will get your task list. You can also use “today”, “tomorrow” and other tags to designate time frames and schedules. Tag all your notes with “note” (I’m really something aren’t I?) and you can list all of them, seeing all the other tags applied, or list ones in the “notes” and “blog” section for notes about your blog.

The power of Tobu, and all other application like it is that they only provide the framework, while you provide the method. This makes these applications the most flexible out there, but you need the best possible composure to use them effectively. If consistency is your cup of tea however, you will love Tobu.

It describes methods to censor websites like blocking url’s via the DNS server that for instance the German government likes to use which can be easily countered by using the IP or an DNS server that does not block the website. So, for every action (censorship) you find the corresponding reaction (bypass). Excellent read for everyone whose country, company or institution has decided to block certain information.

Kinds of censorship described:

• Blocked URL’s via the DNS-server
• Forced proxy server / transparent proxy
• Keyword filter
• Blocked ports
• Software on the client (child protection e.t.c)
• Censorware on the server (inside of networks)
• Whitelist
• IP blocking on the routers

Ways to bypass Censorship:

• Using a different ISP
• Using a not censoring DNS-server
• Using a non censoring proxy server
• Using a Web-2-phone service
• Using a webproxy
• Get Webpages via eMail
• Using steganography
• Using a special proxy like peer-2-peer program
• Special Services

Everything is explained in detail and links are provided where necessary. I have decided to pick out some of the more common methods to censor and bypass information in the coming days – stay tuned.