Hack into Awesomeness through Google Gravity

Google Gravity was launched back in Mar 18, 2009 according to the date posted on the author site. The effect behind the creation of the Google Gravity is actually javascript with the extension box2d-js. It allow you to play with the element from Google homepage where all the thing in the site will simply breaks apart and fall down. And yet you can’t stop searching what you need you know.

“Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that’s down can come up.”

How to Play/ Enable Google Gravity ‘I am Feeling Lucky’?

• Visit Google.
• Turn off the Google Instant Search
• Type in Google Gravity into the search box.
• Click on I’m Feeling Lucky button.
• Move the mouse.
• You can start play with Google Gravity enjoy

OR

• Go to MrDoob.com and you could start play with Google Gravity immediately.

How Google Gravity ‘I am Feeling Lucky’ Works

So you are in the Google Gravity right now? Ok let me explain how that work actually, when you click the ‘I am feeling Lucky’ button you are being redirected to other page which is not Google.com, check out your address bar and you will notice that. But how do you end up with the page when you click the ‘I am feeling lucky’ button? What this button does is that it takes you directly to the topmost result of a search result by bypassing the search result page. Try typing any search word in Google and hitting ‘I am feeling lucky’ button. What do you find? Now try this, type ‘Google Gravity” in Google.com but this time hit the search button instead. What happens? Yes you are taken to the search result page. Not click on the topmost result. Can you see the Google homepage losing its gravity?

Why make the elements in the page to lose their gravity? As mention above it is due to the effect of the JavaScript and box2d-js embedded in the page.

8 Tricks of Google Gravity

Well guys what kind of tricks you could play with the Google Gravity?

Trick 1. Move Them Around

If you thought that once the elements fall down, that’s the end of the magic - you are wrong, its the beginning. Try holding any piece. To hold a piece click and hold the element and drag then around the screen. You can grab and move all the pieces.

Trick 2. Drop Them

In addition to the above one, you will see that once you un-grab the elements (by leaving the mouse button) it falls below. Well its like the real world you see, gravity is acting over here.

Trick 3. Hit Them Hard

Its the fun part. Grab any piece and use it to hil others. Fun. Also the size of the element you are using has effect on the force it generates. Try using the logo or the search-bar.

Trick 4. The Pendulum

Hold the Google logo by one of its sides and hold it up and shake it, It starts to oscillate like a pendulum. Try spinning it around!!!

Trick 5. Shake Effects

Restore the window to a smaller size. Now hold the window and try shaking it around. Didn’t expected the elements to move around that way? Well it does!!!

Trick 6. Enlarge Effect

While the window is still restored to a small size, maximize the window and see the elements jump.

Trick 7. It’s Alive

If you have not realized it already, all the elements in the screen is actually working. All the links, buttons, radio-buttons work exactly in the same way they meant to be. Try typing on the search-bar,,,

Trick 8. Search Still Working

This is the one which very few people actually know. Try typing any query into the search-bar and click the search button (or if you cant find it in the debris hit the enter button). WOW! Right? The results are dumped into the screen as if by some invisible hands. Again these links are actual results and are working.

This is what i found when i tried it for my name, check it out:

Humans had sex with now-extinct relatives

Our species may have bred with a now extinct lineage of humanity before leaving Africa, scientists say.
Although we modern humans are now the only surviving lineage of humanity, others once roamed the Earth, making their way out of Africa before our species did, including the familiar Neanderthals in West Asia and Europe and the newfound Denisovans in East Asia. Genetic analysis of fossils of these extinct lineages has revealed they once interbred with modern humans, unions that may have endowed our lineage with mutations that protected them as we began expanding across the world about 65,000 years ago.

Now researchers analyzing the human genome find evidence that our species hybridized with a hitherto unknown human lineage even before leaving Africa, with approximately 2 percent of contemporary African DNA perhaps coming from this lineage. In comparison, recent estimates suggest that Neanderthal DNA makes up 1 percent to 4 percent of modern Eurasian genomes and Denisovan DNA makes up 4 percent to 6 percent of modern Melanesian genomes.

"We need to modify the standard model of human origins in which a single population transitioned to the anatomically modern state in isolation — a garden of Eden somewhere in Africa — and replaced all other archaic forms both within Africa and outside Africa without interbreeding," researcher Michael Hammer, a population geneticist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, told LiveScience. "We now need to consider models in which gene flow occurred over time."

Haplotype hints
Hammer and his colleagues gathered DNA samples from the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphisms in Paris and sequenced about 60 regions of the human genome that apparently have no function. These genes are less subject than functional DNA to change as a result of recent evolutionary pressures driving the survival of the fittest; in such a way, they can give a clearer view of how populations might have mixed or not in the past.

The investigators focused on three populations that presented a good sample of the geographic and cultural diversity of sub-Saharan Africa — Mandenka farmers in western Africa, Biaka Pygmies in west-central Africa, and San Bushmen of southern Africa — looking for unusual patterns that suggested ancient interbreeding with other lineages. This included a hunt for long haplotypes, or sets of DNA sequences, not seen in other modern human groups, the idea being that while short haplotypes could potentially be explained by a few chance mutations within these modern human populations, comparatively long haplotypes were instead likely inherited from a significantly different lineage.
"If interbreeding occurs, it's going to bring in a whole chromosome," Hammer explained. Although this genetic contribution would have dwindled over time, remnants would still exist as shorter, unusual fragments, and "by looking at how long they are, we can get an estimate of how far back the interbreeding event happened." (The longer these odd haplotypes are, the more recently they occurred, having less time to get diminished by other genetic inputs.)

The researchers discovered especially strong evidence for such genetic mixing in the Biaka and San, in the form of a trio of unusual haplotypes. By comparing these sets of genes with those from comparable modern human ones, the investigators estimated the unusual genes may have come from a lineage that first diverged from the ancestors of modern humans about 700,000 years ago. For context, the Neanderthal lineage diverged from ours within the past 500,000 years, while the first signs of anatomically modern human features appeared only about 200,000 years ago.

"The populations that interbred in Africa were on a similar scale of divergence as the expanding modern population and Neanderthals were outside of Africa," Hammer said. "They were similar enough biologically so that they were able to produce fertile offspring, thus allowing genes to flow from one population to the other."
The length of the exotic haplotypes from this extinct lineage suggests interbreeding might still have occurred until as recently as 35,000 years ago."We think there were probably thousands of interbreeding events," Hammer said. "It happened relatively extensively and regularly."

Homeland of extinct lineage
A broader survey of where this trio of exotic haplotypes from this extinct lineage might now be found revealed they could be seen in modern human groups across sub-Saharan Africa, but apparently just one central African population of Pygmies, the Mbuti, had all three. Since this group is relatively isolated from other modern human populations, including other Pygmies, the scientists conjecture that central Africa may have been the homeland of this extinct lineage.

In the future, Hammer's team wants to look at the entire genome sequences of several modern human groups in Africa to get a better picture of how interbreeding might have occurred.
"Did it occur in a single burst in a single locale, or was admixture an ongoing process such that genes were flowing over large geographic distances and long periods of time?" Hammer asked. "This has many implications for how modern humans acquired the features that make them unique."

The researchers also want to look for ancient DNA from this extinct lineage that might have conferred some evolutionary advantage to hybrids with modern humans. This process of modern humans interbreeding with other lineages as they expanded across the world "may have accelerated the evolutionary process by allowing genes that are beneficial in one locale to spread to a new population that has not yet had time to adapt to those new conditions," Hammer said. "This may be a major mode of acquiring novel characteristics and one of the ways that we became the species that we are today."
So far no traces of the haplotypes from this newfound lineage have been seen in modern human groups outside of Africa. However, "we can't be sure until we do a better job of searching for them," Hammer said. "Another question for the future."
The scientists detailed their findings online Sept. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
By Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor

Windows attracts Viruses while Ubuntu attracts human beings

"Windows attracts Viruses while Ubuntu attracts human beings".

I have been using windows ever since I saw my first computer. Operating system to a computer is like a soul to a human being. OS is the interpreter between us and the computer hardware. There are a lots of OS in the market that are popularly used like solaris, Linux, windows, mac, etc. I have used almost all kinds of OS available in the market worldwide. There was a time when I wouldn't use anything except windows like any other normal human out there. Then a time came when I would use mac all the time. Now, for the last one year, I have been using Ubuntu, a flavor of Linux. Ubuntu is an open source OS capable of doing anything you make it do. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu ("humanity towards others").

I have tried using each and every version of Ubuntu, every version obviously gets better and less buggy than the earlier. Each version has some flaws and every upcoming version removes the earlier flaws. The basic algorithms behind the screen in Ubuntu always go the same way as they are in windows.  But, if you are into digging the basics, you really should switch to Ubuntu. If you think you can't ever use Linux without knowing the commands, then you are wrong. Ubuntu is almost as user friendly as windows or any other OS. You should definitely give it a try. In comparison to other Linux flavors, there is one thing I like most about Ubuntu, it has a very simple command line interface called BASH, which operates on very simple commands, much simpler than the DOS prompt in windows. You won't believe, when I first started using Linux, it had been just a month and I was already using the basic commands. When you see things happening and giving results in front of your eyes, you really love it.

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software.Yes, exactly, free of cost. You don't have to pay for any version of Ubuntu or its license. It is absolutely free and widely available over the Internet for free downloading. You can download any version officially from the Ubuntu home page, www.ubuntu.com. Now, you must have started thinking about the compatibility of softwares with this OS that you had been using with windows. Almost all softwares being used in windows are readily or alternatively available for Ubuntu through the Ubuntu repositories or other third party repositories. While, some of the softwares which are still unavailable for Ubuntu are under development. The canonical group and other open source societies have been continuously working for making it more and more attractive for every other technical or non technical human being out there. For the unavailable under development softwares, there are applications that provide a cross platform of windows on Ubuntu. Some of these include crossover, playonlinux, citrix client and so on. This is where you stop paying for windows license, and if you are using the pirated copy, you don't need to be against the law anymore. Let me share an incident I came across a few days earlier related to piracy, there is this friend of mine who runs a small IT company. He had some windows running PCs setup in his company. Some of his PCs had pirated windows on them. MS people raided his company and he was charged with a heavy fine for piracy.

The most awesome feature of Ubuntu is “no virus attack at all”. The moment you start using Ubuntu, you get rid of all those PC cracking viruses, malwares and every other wares out there on the net. Your PC becomes as secure as windows can ever be ideally. If you are using windows, and having an Internet connection on your PC, you should have a proper anti-virus installed in order to keep your data safe and prevent your PC from getting hacked. This is where you pay again for the a genuine copy of anti-virus. And if you don't pay for it, you are going against the law using the pirated copy. Now, its time for you to change your OS and rise up with Ubuntu. This is one of the main reasons that defense sectors, IT giants and other government organizations are rapidly migrating from windows to Ubuntu. It has file systems totally different and more secure than windows, i.e. ext3, ext4, that don't offer any kind of security flaws for external anti OS agents.

All these features make this OS so popular. Ubuntu holds an estimated global usage of more than 12 million desktop users, making it the most popular desktop Linux distribution with about 50% of Linux desktop market share. It is fourth most popular on web servers, and its popularity is increasing rapidly. Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu every six months with commitment to support each release for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. It was decided that every fourth release, issued on a two-year basis, would receive long-term support (LTS). LTS releases are supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.

The latest LTS release is Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), released on 29 April 2010, while the latest normal release is Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), released on 4 August 2011.

You must be thinking if Ubuntu is a free OS, where does all the fund for development comes from. Well, Ubuntu is currently funded by Canonical Ltd. On 8 July 2005, Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd. announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an "emergency fund".

I won't go more technical in this article, as I just wanted to provide just an overview of Ubuntu, its basics, and the benefits. So, by just using this OS, you can decrease the expenses you do for your computer.  I am not against Windows but I have just kept my views why I stopped using windows and started using Ubuntu.

This is how it really is.....

Anna Hazare

 Kisan Baburao Hazare is an Indian social activist who is recognised for his participation in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.Hazare also contributed to the development and structuring of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award—by the Government of India in 1992 for his efforts in establishing this village as a model for others.

Anna Hazare started a hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a strict anti-corruption law as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the institution of an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public offices. The fast led to nation-wide protests in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, the day after the government accepted Hazare's demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, constituted of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.

Anna has been featured as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper.He has faced criticism by political commentators for his authoritarian views on justice, including death as punishment for corrupt public officials and support for forced vasectomies as a method of family planning.

Early Life

Kisan Hazare was born on 15 June 1937 in Bhingar, a small village near the city of Hinganghat, in Bombay Province (present-day Maharashtra). Kisan's father, Baburao Hazare, worked as an unskilled labourer in Ayurveda Ashram Pharmacy. Kisan's grandfather was working for the army in Bhingar, when he was born. The grandfather died in 1945, but Baburao continued to stay at Bhingar. In 1952, Baburao resigned from his job and returned to his own village, Ralegan Siddhi. Kisan had six younger siblings and the family faced significant hardships. Kisan's childless aunt offered to look after him and his education, and took him to Mumbai. Kisan studied up to the seventh standard in Mumbai and then sought employment, due to the economic situation in his household. He started selling flowers at Dadar to support his family. He soon started his own shop and brought two of his brothers to Bombay.

Military Service

In 1962, events in South Asia meant that large-scale army recruitments were being undertaken. Despite not meeting the physical requirements, 25-year-old Hazare was selected, as emergency recruitment was taking place in the Indian Army.After training at Aurangabad in Maharashtra he started his career in the Indian Army as a driver in 1963.During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Hazare was posted at the border in the Khem Karan sector. On 12 November 1965, Pakistan launched air attacks on Indian bases, and all of Hazare's comrades were killed; he was the only survivor of that convoy. It was a close shave for Hazare as one bullet had passed by his head.He was driving a truck.This led him to dwell on the purpose and meaning of life and death. He came across a small booklet titled "Call to the youth for nation building" by Swami Vivekananda in a book stall at the New Delhi railway station.He realized that saints sacrificed their own happiness for that of others, and that he needed to work towards ameliorating the sufferings of the poor. He started to spend his spare time reading the works of Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave.During the mid-1970s, he again survived a road accident while driving.It was at that particular moment that Hazare took an oath to dedicate his life to the service of humanity, at the age of 38.He took voluntary retirement from the army in 1978.


In 1978 after a voluntary retirement from the Indian army, Hazare went to his native village Ralegan Siddhi, a village located in the acute drought-prone and rain-shadow zone of Parner Tehsil of Ahmadnagar district, in central Maharashtra.It was one of the many villages of India plagued by acute poverty, deprivation, a fragile ecosystem, neglect and hopelessness. Hazare made remarkable economic, social and community regeneration in Ralegan Siddhi. He reinforced the normative principles of human development – equity, efficiency, sustainability and people's participation and made Ralegan Siddhi an oasis of human-made regeneration in a human-made desert without any inputs of industrialisation and technology-oriented agriculture.




Activism

Right to Information movement

In the early 2000s Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the state government to pass a stronger Maharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI), enacted by the Union Government. It also ensured that the President of India assented to this new Act.Law professor Alasdair Scott Roberts said:

The state of Maharashtra – home to one of the world's largest cities, Mumbai, adopted a Right to Information Act in 2003, prodded by the hunger strike of prominent activist, Anna Hazare. ("All corruption can end only if there is freedom of information," said Hazare, who resumed his strike in February 2004 to push for better enforcement of the Act).

On 20 July 2006 the Union Cabinet amended the Right to Information Act 2005 to exclude the file noting by the government officials from its purview. Hazare began his fast unto death on 9 August 2006 in Alandi against the proposed amendment. He ended his fast on 19 August 2006, after the government agreed to change its earlier decision.

 Lokpal Bill movement

In 2011, Hazare initiated a Satyagraha movement for passing a stronger anti-corruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the Indian Parliament as conceived in the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Ombudsman Bill). The Jan Lokpal Bill was drafted earlier by N. Santosh Hegde, former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court and Arvind Kejriwal, a social activist along with members of the India Against Corruption movement. This draft bill incorporated more stringent provisions and wider power to the Lokpal (Ombudsman) than the draft Lokpal bill prepared by the government in 2010.

Red Sox walk off on top

Reddick’s hit in 10th beats NY, wins series.

The Red Sox and Yankees are virtually equal in every possible way except one: when they actually play each other.

Last night the Sox completed a taxing weekend series against their rivals with a walkoff 3-2 victory in 10 innings at Fenway Park. Josh Reddick did the honors with a line-drive single to left field off Phil Hughes.
The winning run was only made possible because the Sox did what they’ve done more than any team in history — get to Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who blew his 14th save against them by allowing Marco Scutaro’s leadoff double and Dustin Pedroia’s tying sacrifice fly.

The victory means the Red Sox are now 10-2 against the Yankees and gave them a one-game lead atop the AL East.

“Sometimes you just don’t have explanations,” manager Terry Francona said. “Right now we’ve beaten them more than they’ve beaten us. That’s all I know. Other teams have done it to us. It’s kind of a crazy game.”
While Scutaro (4-for-4) and Reddick were obvious heroes, the game ultimately came down to the respective bullpens, the one area where the Yankees were supposed to hold a clear, albeit slight, advantage. Their 3.07 bullpen ERA entering the game led the AL, four spots ahead of the Red Sox (3.50).
After Matt Albers surrendered the go-ahead homer to light-hitting Brett Gardner in the seventh, the quartet of Franklin Morales, Dan Wheeler, Jonathan Papelbon, and Daniel Bard held the Yankees scoreless.
“I’d put us up against anybody,” Bard said. “Not just the numbers, but the depth. Everyone wants to pitch. I’ve been in bullpens where guys didn’t want the ball. We’ve got guys that’ll take the ball in any situation — seven of them out there. Eight of them, actually. When it’s all said and done, I think we’ll be saying this is one of the better ’pens in the league and maybe that we’ve had in a while.”
The Sox had more depth last night, winning it against former starter Hughes, who allowed a one-out double to David Ortiz, an intentional walk to Carl Crawford (three hits) and a walkoff single by Reddick that scored pinch-runner Darnell McDonald.
“He’s not intimidated by anyone,” starter Josh Becket said of Reddick.
That the game would stretch into a second day and take 4 hours, 15 minutes to play was fitting. The Red Sox guaranteed themselves a winning record in the season series for the first time since 2004.
The Yankees were hoping for a drama-free finish, but it didn’t happen.
After Rafael Soriano and David Robertson pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth, respectively, Rivera got ahead of Scutaro 0-2 before the shortstop ripped a double high off The Wall.
Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a sacrifice bunt, and Yankees manager Joe Girardi left himself open to some second-guessing by electing to pitch to Pedroia with first base open rather than intentionally walk him and set up the double play for the slow-footed Adrian Gonzalez.
Neither option was palatable, to be sure, but Pedroia made the Yankees pay when he ripped the game-tying sacrifice fly to left field.
Up until that point, the pace was such that commisioner Bud Selig probably considered firing off an angry memo. Both Beckett and Yankees counterpart Freddy Garcia were deliberate, to say the least, perhaps sensing the game would be decided by a mistake.
Offense was hard to come by on both sides.

The Red Sox struck first in the second inning, with Scutaro driving home Kevin Youkilis with a single.
New York tied the game in the fifth on Eduardo Nunez’ solo homer into the Monster seats.

Neither starter lasted more than six innings. Garcia threw 96 pitches in five innings, while Beckett tossed 101 in six.

Red Sox Monday:

• + Four-sighted Scutaro
• + Crawford takes right turn on left
• + Francona eager to get Lowrie’s bat in mix

-— jtomase@bostonherald.com

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Four-sighted Marco Scutaro

Adam Scott bags Bridgestone victory

The chants and cheers began as Adam Scott walked toward the 18th green to complete a command performance yesterday in the Bridgestone Invitational at Akron, Ohio, and win his first World Golf Championship.

But in a surreal scene at Firestone, they weren’t for him.

They were for his caddie.

“Stev-ie Will-iams,’’ they shouted as Scott’s new partner broke into a big smile.

The celebration made it clear that Steve Williams felt vindicated after being fired last month by Tiger Woods. The interview after it was over - yes, he gave interviews - made it sound as if it was Williams who shot the 5-under-par 65. At one point, Williams described himself as a “good front-runner when I’m caddying.’’

“I’ve caddied for 33 years - 145 wins now - and that’s the best win I’ve ever had,’’ Williams said on the 18th green. This from a guy whose 12 years working for Woods featured 13 majors and 16 world titles among 72 wins worldwide. That includes the 2001 Masters, when Woods won an unprecedented fourth straight major.

Clearly, Williams is still angry over how - and when - Woods cut him loose. He disputed Woods’s version of how it happened, saying Woods told him over the phone, not in person.

Scott didn’t seem to mind that his caddie was getting most of the attention.

“I can talk about Steve now and not Tiger,’’ Scott said to laughter, alluding to the countless times he and other players have been asked about Woods. “I’m sure there are a lot of other golfers who wouldn’t mind that, either.’’

The latest chapter in the endless saga involving Woods took away from a premier performance by Scott, who didn’t make a bogey over his last 26 holes and couldn’t afford to with 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa giving him all he could handle.

They were never separated by more than a shot until Scott chipped in from the side of the 12th green, then rolled in a birdie putt from just inside 30 feet on the 14th to build a three-shot lead. Ishikawa three-putted the 15th, and Scott had no trouble closing this one out.

He wound up winning by four shots over world No. 1 Luke Donald (66) and Rickie Fowler, who played a final round worthy of a winner with a bogey-free 66.

Ishikawa made a bogey on the last hole to tie for fourth with Jason Day. They both shot 69. For the Japanese star, it was his highest finish in America.

Scott finished at 17-under 263, the lowest score to win at Firestone since Woods had 259 in 2000 in an 11-shot win.

Former Hopkinton High School star Keegan Bradley, who entered the round tied for third just two strokes back, shot a 74 and finished T15.

With a three-shot lead, Scott thought about playing it safe on the 18th. Williams told him to take 6-iron at the flag, and Scott obliged with a shot that rolled past the cup and settled 5 feet away. When they got to the green, one fan shouted out, “How do you like him now, Tiger?’’

By then, Woods was long gone.

After missing three months with a leg injury, he finished a tournament for the first time since the Masters on April 10 and closed with a 70 to tie for 37th, 18 shots behind.

“I had it in spurts this week,’’ Woods said.

PGA - Scott Piercy squandered a three-stroke lead, dodged more trouble down the stretch, then made a 7-foot par putt on the final hole to win the Reno-Tahoe Open by one stroke in Reno.

Piercy shot a 2-under 70 to finish at 15-under 273, beating Pat Perez (68) by one stroke.

A day after setting the course record with a 61, Piercy had to scramble his way around Montreux Golf & Country Club to claim the $540,000 winner’s check.

Champions - Jay Haas birdied the final hole for a 2-under 68 to capture the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn., by one shot over Tom Lehman (68), Kenny Perry (66), and Peter Senior (70).

Haas, who earned his first tour victory in two years, finished at 15-under 201, the highest winning score at the tournament since 2006.

Nationwide - J.J. Killeen shot a 3-under 69 to win for the second straight week, two-putting from 90 feet on the final hole to avoid a five-way playoff at the Cox Classic in Omaha.

Ex-Jet Shaun Ellis crosses over to Patriots

The trades for Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco were, as it turns out, just the beginning of a busy preseason for the Patriots’ personnel department.

According to reports, the Patriots yesterday signed former Jets veteran defensive end Shaun Ellis to a one-year deal, pending a physical.

The 34-year-old Ellis, who had 36 tackles and 4.5 sacks last season, should bolster the Pats’ pass rush. Last week, the Patriots signed veteran Mark Anderson to also help in that area.

The 6-foot-5, 290-pound Ellis is a two-time Pro Bowl selection and has experience in both the 3-4 and 4-3 defense.

The Patriots had Ellis in for a workout last Thursday. Earlier last week, the Jets offered the unrestricted free agent a one-year contract at the veteran’s minimum.

Ellis, who’ll enter his 12th NFL season, had a huge game against the Patriots in the Jets’ 28-21 playoff win last year, coming up with five tackles and sacking quarterback Tom Brady twice.

Solid returns
Julian Edelman’s role on offense diminished last season — he had just seven receptions for 86 yards — but he blossomed into the Patriots’ top punt returner, leading the AFC with a franchise-record 15.3-yard average.

“He’s just growing into it,” Patriots special teams coach Scott O’Brien said. “Every year he has more confidence because he feels better about playing situations that he gets on the field, and then he feels like he’s in better control like all of the good ones.

“We’re looking for big things from Julian,” O’Brien said, “and giving him the opportunities to do it and again, he has come a long way. We’ve got a lot of work to do, obviously, but I think he’s starting to see the confidence that comes from the maturity and experience of doing it.”

Edelman, a quarterback at Kent State, had little experience in the return game in college. His rookie year with the Patriots, when he had 37 catches for 359 yards, he returned a handful of kickoffs and punts.

In the 2010 regular-season finale against Miami, Edelman set another franchise record with a 94-yard punt return for a touchdown. Three weeks earlier, in Chicago, Edelman had a 71-yard return to the end zone negated by a holding penalty.

While Edelman finished the year strong, Brandon Tate, the team’s leading kickoff returner, started it that way but fizzled to the finish.

Tate, who missed just about all of 2009, his rookie season, with a knee injury, was electrifying over the first few games of 2010. In the opener against the Bengals, Tate returned a squib kick 97 yards for a TD. Three weeks later in Miami, Tate returned the second-half kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown.

In the Patriots’ first four games, Tate averaged 33.4 yards on 18 returns. In the last 12, he dipped to 19.8 yards on 23 returns.

“When you have success early, it becomes harder,” O’Brien said. “It doesn’t become easier because now everybody is looking for you. In Brandon’s case last year, he was really like a rookie. He really never had that chance.

“He came a long way, but you never know enough about being a returner and a specialist relative to the experience that you can gain right away. You have to do it enough times to get put in the situations because they’re scheming you now relative to just giving you the deep ball and letting you run like you normally do.”

Tate finished sixth in the league with a 25.8-yard average. As a kickoff return unit, the Pats ranked 18th.

“Do we need to do a better job there? Yes, overall, collectively we sure do,” O’Brien said. “I think (Tate) will be better for experiencing it and learning from it, which is part of the evaluation.”

Flying Tiger
Running back Stevan Ridley was a workhorse for LSU last season, carrying the ball 249 times for more than 1,100 yards and 15 touchdowns.

With BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Sammy Morris and Kevin Faulk not eligible to practice until last Thursday, it was a busy beginning to Ridley’s first NFL training camp, too.

“The only way you’re ever going to get onto the field is to take advantage of the opportunities you’re given,” Ridley said. “You have to come out here and make the best out of each and every opportunity, and that’s all I’m trying to do.”

The Patriots selected Ridley in the third round of the draft. New England took former Cal running back Shane Vereen in the second round. Vereen has missed the last few practices.

Fellow LSU product Faulk, who is on the physically unable to perform list, has spoken highly of Ridley, calling him a “smart player” and a “quick learner.” Sounds like Bill Belichick’s kind of guy.

“Whoever comes in here and works the hardest is who gets the reps in the game,” Ridley said, “so it’s all about hard work and dedication. And you’ll learn that around this team. That’s what I’ve picked up on pretty quick. We have a lot of team guys around here. I’m just following in their direction.

“I’ve been a team player, and I’m going to continue to be a team player. Any time you play together, you get a lot more accomplished than trying to do something by yourself.”

Ridley started camp with uniform No. 37, but when Thomas Clayton was cut, he switched to No. 22, his high school uniform number and ode to Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith.

“I still have a lot to do, a lot to do,” Ridley said. “And I’m not satisfied. This team’s not satisfied, and Coach Belichick is not satisfied. I haven’t played a down of NFL football. I’m just going to come out here, and I’m going to work hard every day.”

Day of rest
New league rules require that players are given one day off every seven days of training camp. That day off was yesterday for the Patriots.

They return to the practice field from 1:30-4 p.m. today.

The Pats play their first preseason game Thursday night against the Jaguars at Gillette Stadium.     

Gold price jumps above $1,700

Gold jumped to new nominal record levels, rising above $1,700 as investors piled in following the S&P downgrade of US debt.

The bullion hit a new record of $1,714 a troy ounce in late Asian trading, although it fell back in Europe amid buying by the European Central Bank of Spanish and Italian bonds, trading up 2.3 per cent $1,700.65 an ounce.

Gold prices have been fuelled by increasing fears of sovereign debt defaults and expectations of further monetary easing in the US. 

Meanwhile, a further boost has been seen from investors deterred from putting funds into other haven favourites, the Swiss franc and Japanese yen, after recent government interventions to weaken the currencies.

Goldman Sachs backed that view on Monday, raising its 12 month target for bullion from $1,730 per ounce to $1,880 an ounce. The bank said it expected prices to continue to climb in 2011 and 2012 given the current low level of US real interest rates and the rise in debt worries. Although it had expected prices to peak in 2012, it now expected bullion to rise through 2012.
On commodity markets as a whole, Goldman said it was keeping its “constructive outlook” in spite of recent worries about global growth, as it expected continued strength in emerging markets and supply disappointments. It maintained its recommendation of long positions in commodities including Brent crude, copper and soyabeans.
Silver was also helped by haven buying, rising 4 per cent to $39.85 a troy ounce, but base metals were hit by increased risk aversion among investors. Tin for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange fell to an 11-month low, losing 5.9 per cent to $2,345 a tonne, and copper fell below $9,000 a tonne for the first time in over a month, falling 1.7 per cent to $8,960.50.
Oil was trading lower with ICE Brent, which hit a high of over $127 a barrel in April, easing $2.61 to $106.76 a barrel.

Meet the 99-year-old video game master

Umeji Narisawa (Japanprobe)

According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average gamer is 37 years old. Kids born the day the original Nintendo was released are entering their late 20s, while geeks who whiled away the days with a Pong machine are storming past 40.

But compared to Umeji Narisawa, we're all just a bunch of babies.
Japanprobe caught up with the 99-year-old gamer, who got hooked on the hobby at the tender age of 73 when her grandkids brought home a copy of the action/puzzle classic Bomberman for the NES (technically the Famicon, the Japanese version of the system.) Narisawa was intrigued, gave it a shot, and has been playing it for several hours a day since.
So what does playing Bomberman every day for 26 years get you? Other than the ability to beat it with your eyes closed and the undying respect of anyone who's every picked up a gamepad, it gets you a few nifty health benefits. Narisawa credits her daily Bomberman sessions with helping keep her mind sharp and her fingers strong enough to still thread needles.
While Narisawa needn't fear competition from too many other 99 year-olds, she might want to keep an eye on John Bates.  The Wisconsin gamer is the current Guinness World Record holder for the Most Perfect Games of Wii Sports Bowling (2,850), though he's a regular spring chicken at a mere 85.

Muslim Americans are optimistic despite discrimination, new poll says

Muslim Americans are loyal to the US and positive about their future even as they face high levels of discrimination, a Gallup poll finds.

A poll released Tuesday revealed curious contradictions in the Muslim-American community, which is more enthused about its country and president than any other religious group, yet is the least politically active and faces the greatest discrimination.

The Gallup poll on American religious groups offers a counterpoint to the stereotype that Muslims in the US lead isolated lives because they do not feel comfortable fitting in or associating with mainstream American culture. Moreover, it also offers insights into the Muslim-American experience – from how dramatically the election of President Obama affected them to how little they trust the activists who work on their behalf.
In total, the poll paints a picture of a community characterized by optimism but still seeking acceptance among its fellow citizens.

For instance, 93 percent of Muslim Americans say they are loyal to America. They have the highest confidence in the integrity of US elections (57 percent), and they are the most hopeful about their lives over the next five years, compared with other groups.
Yet 48 percent of Muslim Americans report they experienced some kind of racial or religious discrimination, a finding that places them far ahead of Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and atheists/agnostics.
One reason for the optimistic outlook despite discrimination could be that Muslim Americans see their financial fortunes improving. Some 64 percent of Muslim Americans in 2011 reported their standard of living got better, compared with 46 percent in 2008.
But the presidency of Mr. Obama has arguably had an even more powerful affect on Muslim Americans. Muslim Americans give him the highest approval rating – 80 percent – of any religious group. American Jews are a distant second, giving Obama a 65 percent approval rating.
The number is even more striking when compared with Muslim American support for George W. Bush in 2008, which was 7 percent.



The shift in leadership in Washington was “truly transformational” for US Muslims in how they viewed their loyalties to democratic institutions and the nation at large, says Dalia Mogahed, director and senior analyst of the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, based in the United Arab Emirates.

After the 9/11 attacks, Muslim Americans faced intense scrutiny, both individually and from federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Obama is credited with helping smooth tensions through his outreach to the US Muslim community and his effort to end the Iraq war responsibly. The poll shows that 83 percent of Muslim Americans – more than any other religious group – say the war was a “mistake.”

Despite the positive signs, “there are still obstacles” for Muslim Americans, Ms. Mogahed says.
“They embrace American values and democratic principles but aren’t sure if the rest of American embraces them,” she says.
Some 56 percent of Protestants said American Muslims had no sympathy for Al Qaeda, the lowest number of any faith group. By comparison, 63 percent of Catholics and 70 percent of Jews thought Muslim Americans had no sympathies for Al Qaeda.
“That’s certainly a challenge for the [US Muslim] community – to have their loyalty questioned by such a large number of their fellow Americans,” Mogahed says.
Those challenges, however, have not led Muslim Americans to try to affect change at the ballot box. They are the least likely religious group to vote, with just 65 percent of Muslims in America are registered. One reason is age: The average age of a Muslim-American is 35, while the average American Protestant is 55. Younger people tend to be less politically active, Mogahed says.
Another reason is affiliation: Poll findings show that the majority of Muslim Americans say that none of the leading Muslim organizations in the US, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations or the Islamic Society of North America, represents their interests.
With the 2012 election around the corner, Mogahed says political parties that want to reach out to Muslim-American voters might be better off establishing partnerships with local mosques than focusing on winning endorsements from national advocacy organizations. This is especially relevant considering that Muslim Americans who attend a religious service once a week are two times more likely to be politically active than those who attend less frequently, the poll found.
“The mosque should be more the mobilization engine” for get-out-the-vote drives than it has been in the past, she says.
The poll surveyed 2,482 adults, 475 of whom were Muslim. For Muslims, there was a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 7 percentage points. 

Andy Serkis: The Biggest Movie Star You Haven’t Seen

Andy Serkis has had leading roles in mega-blockbusters that have earned over $2.5 billion worldwide.  He's the main character in a major movie opening this weekend, and this winter he'll appear in a new 3D adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg.  And yet, odds are good that if you bumped into him on the street you'd have no idea he was a movie star.  Because usually you never see his face.

Serkis is one of the preeminent actors in the field of "performance capture."  That's the process where an actor's movements are recorded in three dimensions and used to create the animation of a fully digital character.  Serkis broke new ground when he portrayed the computer-generated Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" films, and he is taking the form to another level in the new film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."

A native of London, Andy Serkis started his acting career on the stage.  He appeared on British television throughout the 1990s, and scored the occasional film role like in Mike Leigh's Oscar-winning "Topsy-Turvy."  But his career took off in a new and unexpected direction when Peter Jackson cast him in his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Serkis was originally hired for just a three-week job providing the voice of the animated Gollum.  That turned into a five-year long endeavor, as Serkis actually created the character's movement and expressions.  To make it work, Serkis would be on set in costume to act out every scene with costars Elijah Wood and Sean Astin. Then the other actors would shoot the scene without Serkis to give a clean background where the animation could later be layered.  Later, Serkis would recreate his performance on a separate motion capture stage wearing a suit covered with reflective dots that infrared cameras would turn into a 3D "puppet" in the computer.


By using a talented actor as the basis for a digital creation, "The Lord of the Rings" revolutionized how CG characters could be used on film.  Serkis gave such a layered, moving performance many critics argued that Oscar rules should be amended to allow acting nominations for digital characters.  Serkis's face wasn't entirely absent from the trilogy, though.  He did appear on camera briefly in the opening of the third film as Smeagol, the same character before he was driven mad by the power of the ring.

Serkis reunited with Peter Jackson in 2005 to play another performance capture role, the 25-foot tall title character in "King Kong."  To prepare, Serkis studied gorillas in captivity at the London zoo, and then also visited Rwanda to see the animals up close in the wild.  For filming scenes between the giant gorilla and Naomi Watts, Serkis stood on scaffolding so that Watts would have eyes to connect with, and his voice was electronically altered so he could create Kong's booming sounds live on set.


Since his success in Peter Jackson's films, Serkis has been seen in several live-action films.  He played Tesla's assistant in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige," and he was nominated for a Golden Globe for the HBO movie "Longford."  But this weekend he's back as the lead -- and entirely CG -- character as Caesar the chimpanzee in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."  Unlike the earlier "Planet of the Apes" movies, all the simians in this were all created in the computer, not with makeup.
With advancements in performance capture technology, Serkis no longer has to redo his performance on a bare soundstage away from the other actors.  For the first time, WETA Digital -- the same effects company that created Gollum, Kong, and the aliens of "Avatar" -- could record Serkis's work on an exterior location outside of a studio.  Serkis was able to film scenes with stars James Franco and Freida Pinto while wearing a suit that tracked his movements, and he wore special headgear with a camera pointed at his face to register every subtle twitch and map it onto the digital chimp.  Then in the computer, Serkis was erased from the shots and Caesar was put in his place.

Andy Serkis performing Caesar and the finished product.

Serkis isn't done with performance capture.  In December, he'll play Captain Haddock in Steven Spielberg's all-CGI film "The Adventures of Tintin," based on the internationally popular comic books.  And his career will come around full circle as he reprises the role of Gollum in Peter Jackson's two-movie adaptation of "The Hobbit," coming in 2012 and '13.

Mexico town's police force quits after attack

An entire 20-man police force resigned in a northern Mexican town after a series of attacks that killed the police chief and five officers over the last three months, state officials said Thursday.

The officers' resignation Thursday left the 13,000 people of Ascension without local police services, Chihuahua state chief prosecutor Carlos Manuel Salas said. State and federal police have moved in to take over police work, he said.

The mass resignation appeared to be connected to a Tuesday attack by gunmen that killed three of the town's officers, Salas said.

But it wasn't the first deadly attack on the police department this year.

In mid-May, police chief Manuel Martinez, who had been in office just seven months, was gunned down with two other officers on a nearby highway. The three had been kidnapped a day before police found their bodies riddled with bullets in the back seat of a sedan.
The town's police force was relatively new.
Angry residents had led authorities to replace the entire force last September after the mob killings of two teenagers who had allegedly kidnapped a girl from a seafood restaurant. People claimed police officers were aiding drug gangs.

Martinez, with his new police force, had said he wanted to end the kidnappings and extortions that have terrorized the town where people grow green chili and cotton.

The new police in Ascension had installed a telescopic camera in the town's plaza that rotated, giving officers at the station the ability to zoom on a site as far as the outskirts of town.

In addition, townspeople helped police dig a broad ditch around the town to prevent criminals from escaping on back roads.

Ascension is southwest of Ciudad Juarez, the border city across from El Paso, Texas, that is one of Mexico's most violent cities. The state of Chihuahua has had the most homicides blamed on organized crime and drug trafficking since the government's anti-drug offensive began in December 2006.

Elsewhere, the Defense Department announced that a 19-day offensive in northern states against the Zetas drug cartel had resulted in the shooting deaths of 30 alleged criminals and a soldier.

The army said that among those killed was Jorge Luis de la Pena, the Zetas boss for Nuevo Laredo, the city across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.
Troops also detained 196 people in different cities during operation "North Lynx."
The Zetas gang, known for its viciousness, has been fighting its former ally, the Gulf cartel, in Mexico's north since early 2010.
Near the northern industrial hub of Monterrey, police found the bodies of two men each hanging by an ankle from a pedestrian bridge. Officers said a witness reported that gunmen strung up the men alive and then shot them.

Such grisly displays at bridges have become common in and around Monterrey as well as in other Mexican cities torn by drug violence.

America's Safest Airports

We did the math to determine America's safest airports, where a smooth landing is practically guaranteed.

It's official: flying is safer than ever.

Sure, you may still encounter air rage and sleepy controllers, but when it comes to accidents on the runway, airplane safety is at an all-time high. Last year's accident rate was 0.61 percent—one for every 1.6 million flights.
                                                                                                                            Chalk those numbers up to improvements the FAA has made over the years. In 2000, U.S. airports recorded 67 serious runway incursions that could have easily led to injuries or fatalities. According to FAA spokesperson Tammy Jones, the total dropped to only six last year, while the number of serious incidents specifically involving commercial aircraft plummeted from 34 a decade ago to three in 2010.

Even so, several major U.S. airports continue to grapple with safety issues, and several medium-size airports still have downright shameful records. So where will you find America's safest airports? We analyzed FAA data and gave each airport a score based on its safety record. Read on to discover which airport has made so much progress that it's now the safest in America.

# 7 San Diego Lindbergh Field International (SAN)

Score: 0.85

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 4

Safety Innovations: Skimming low over Balboa Park and downtown San Diego, the final approach to Lindbergh Field is about as white-knuckle as it gets at major U.S. airports. But this hair-raising landing belies the fact that Lindbergh Field is still very safe. It's one of only four U.S. airports that already have their Runway Status Lights system deployed and undergoing operational evaluation.

Orlando International (MCO)

Courtesy of Orlando International Airport

#6 Orlando International (MCO)

Score: 0.75

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 13

Safety Innovations: Like nearby Disney World, MCO has benefited from a surplus of cheap land in central Florida, allowing for aggressive expansion and parallel runways that greatly enhance safety. MCO is scheduled to have its new Runway Status Lights system deployed in August 2011, giving pilots real-time information on current and anticipated runway occupancy.

Portland International (PDX)

Courtesy of Port of Portland

#5 Portland International (PDX)

Score: 0.73

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 9

Safety Innovations: PDX is nearing the end of a three-year improvement program that includes the expansion of one runway, the complete reconstruction of a second runway, and new taxiways. It's not only one of the safest but one of the most picturesque American airports, along the south bank of the Columbia River in the shadow of snowcapped Mount Hood.

Pittsburgh International (PIT)

Courtesy of Amy Strycula / Alamy

#4 Pittsburgh International (PIT)

Score: 0.70

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 6

Safety Innovations: A state-of-the-art snow- and ice-removal system makes Pittsburgh one of the safest airports in the world during severe winter weather. Among its innovations are front and rear de-icing teams, runway sensors that relay real-time snow and ice conditions, and direct radio communication between the snow-removal crews and the FAA control tower.

George Bush Houston Intercontinental (IAH)

Courtesy of Houston Airport System

#3 George Bush Houston Intercontinental (IAH)

Score: 0.68

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 19

Safety Innovations: The airport master plan calls for the creation of a perimeter taxiway system that will allow arriving or departing aircraft to loop around active runway areas rather than crossing them. And it can't come soon enough. By the end of 2011, IAH will be one of only four airports around the globe with direct flights to all six inhabited continents.

Memphis International (MEM)

Courtesy of Daniel Betts

#2 Memphis International (MEM)

Score: 0.59 (rounded from .588)

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 10

Safety Innovations: The FAA is building a state-of-the-art, $61.5 million control tower and an expanded terminal radar approach control at MEM. Memphis boasts an outstanding safety record, especially considering that it's been the world's busiest cargo airport for most of the last 20 years, and it shares runways with the Tennessee Air National Guard.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)

Courtesy of Bryan Correira

#1 Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)

Score: 0.26

Runway Incidents (2006–2010): 4

Safety Innovations: Major enhancements have included a new underground transportation system and a third north-south runway. The airport's safety record is nothing short of phenomenal. In the last three years (2008–2010), CVG has experienced just one runway incident of any kind, and it had no immediate safety implications.  

Have You Been Hacked This Month? Oh, Yes You Have

Written by Andrew Kemshall

I’m assuming the majority of people are sitting smugly reading this thinking ‘of course I haven’t!’

You do everything you’re supposed to do, right? You’ve installed a firewall, you’ve got some anti-virus software, you never follow links in emails or open attachments from someone you don’t know or trust. Well, that’s all very commendable. But unfortunately it isn’t you that’s been hacked. It’s your information stored by the companies you trust that’s been compromised.

Since the start of this year, globally, there have been 365 data loss incidents involving 126,727,474 records. According to Juniper Research, 90% of organizations have suffered data breaches in one form or another over the past 12 months. Testament to this is the number of household brands that have inadvertently divulged the information of hundreds of individuals:

• Epsilon’s mailing lists were breached which affected, amongst others, a number of U.K. brands including Marks & Spencer and Mothercare.
• Sony Playstation had its systems hacked with the personal information of 77 million gamers accessed.
• Numerous incidents by the U.K.'s National Health Service that holds millions of sensitive personal information records for almost every individual in the country.
• RSA experienced a breach that has jeopardized the security of thousands of users of its physical two-factor authentication tokens.
• Travelodge is still holding its cards very close to its chest but it has confirmed that the email address of some of its customers have been sent spam messages.

I would conservatively estimate that the average family’s personal information has been breached 10 times since June.

Organizations ask you to trust them to store your information. They even provide a box for you to tick to show that you don’t want your details shared with third parties. And, with the best will in the world, they don’t intend to spill their databases into the black market. However, the stark reality is that all too often someone’s lax security controls allow a malicious person to gain entry to your personal records.

Too Little Too Late

Each time an organization is breached we see them desperately trying to reassure customers that it’s all going to be okay. For example, Travelodge was at great pains to inform its customers that it hadn’t made any money by selling its customers email addresses or that their financial information was affected.

What organizations fail to grasp is that, each time your record is breached, organized cyber criminals are piecing together bits of information about you, your habits, and that of your family’s that together creates a complete picture.

There will be some that argue - what can be done with an email address? Well, a criminal could spoof you into responding to a phishing email purported to be from the bank you use or the store you shop at. If they have some further details about you, for example date of birth, children’s names, etc,. they may be able to ‘guess’ your password and access your account. Some of you may even recall, back in 2008, when Jeremy Clarkson (from the BBC show Top Gear) printed his bank account details in his column in The Sun believing there was little criminals could do with the information other than put money into his account.

Take Back Control

You can’t personally go into every organization and ask them how they protect your information. That said, perhaps if more people were willing to challenge organizations about their security strategy before doing business, companies might do more to protect your information.

However, given this isn’t going to happen any time soon, you need to treat your personal information as you would any of your physical possessions in the real world. Here is a list of things you can do to prevent cyber-criminals capitalizing on your personal information :

• Put a lock on the door by installing a firewall and make sure it is properly configured and up to date
• Keep your operating system and browser patched and up to date.
• Install an alarm by using industry standard anti-virus software and make sure you install any updates. Malware infecting your computer can be an avenue for hackers to gain access to your personal data.
• Restrict key holders by not sharing your password with anyone. PCs allow you to create user accounts for a reason!
• Change your password regularly and make it hard to crack – but one you can remember without writing it on a post-it-note and sticking it to the screen!
• If you change your PC make sure you get the hard drive scrubbed. It’s amazing what criminals can pick up on eBay.
• Be careful about the personal information you divulge when filling in registration forms. Ask yourself whether the organization really needs that much information about you and, as importantly, can you trust them to keep it safe? They’ll tell you how they intend to use the information but don’t be afraid to ask how they’re going to protect it to.
• Be careful what you tell strangers on social Web sites and in chat rooms.
• Question the validity of emails you receive and never click on an embedded link or down load attachments if you’re at all suspicious. Most banks will tell you how they will contact you and what they won’t ask you to do. If in doubt call the organization the communication is supposed to have been sent by to allay your fears or confirm your suspicion.
• If you have children, and allow them to use your PC to access the Internet, make sure they know about online safety.
• If you are using your computer for work purposes and store sensitive data on it, get your employers to install 2 factor authentication, that’s something you know (like your own strong and made up password) and something you have like a “one-time” password which can be sent to you via an SMS message on any mobile device you own.

We’ve all got used to locking our front doors and keeping valuables out of sight. Until we can trust organizations to give our virtual possessions the same protection we need to take steps to protect ourselves.

Andy Kemshall is CTO at SecurEnvoy, a provider of tokenless two-factor authentication systems.