Ian M.

This site was detected and black listed for spam activity. Further information can be seen at Joe Wein's site here: http://www.joewein.de/sw/spam-bl-e.htm

I found this after typing in "ViewerFrame? Mode=Motion" into the URL bar. I have found this site to be suspicious and has a high chance of containing malicious software. The site claims to have access to live-security cameras. I clicked on the "Nuclear Lab - High Tech Equipment" one and my Java came up with a security warning asking me to grant access to something. I also received a security-alert from my antivirus program. Some videos seem to work - but they are small, low-quality and overall its hard to confirm the integrity of the site. Thus - I will give it a "meh" rating.

StartPage is an initiative by Ixquick.

StartPage works similar to Google. Go into your URL bar - type "startpage.com" and you can surf the internet like Google does. But - what's the difference between Google and StartPage? What makes StartPage better than other search engines?

Well StartPage.com picks up very similar results as to what Google would pick up. StartPage.com doesn't log your IP address and supports 256 bit SSL. A really cool part about StartPage.com is its proxy tool. For example - lets say you wanted to view the NASA website - enter NASA into the engine, then click "proxy". This will then take you into their site through a secure proxy server. However - bare in mind that it will disable Java.

The Free Software Foundations mission is to secure the future of individuals, schools and businesses around the world. This site provides many free programs that you can install. I haven't come across viruses, or any problems with the site or the downloads.

PayPal announced recently that it has over 100 million active accounts. It is well-designed and secure. It supports AES-256 bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. It will also come up green in the URL bar showing the customer that it supports a very high level of encryption.

To confirm the identity of the page, make sure you type "https://www.paypal.com", then click the green bar and confirm it says "PayPal, Inc. Sane Jose, California, US".

PayPal is basically a digital wallet. PayPal believes that customers are giving up traditional payment methods such as cash and checks and turning to a more modern form of payment. In fact, PayPal believes that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the United States.

OpenVPN is a fantastic, easy-to-use proxy tool.

100MB free data each 24hrs. There is also a paid version for those who want more data. Proxies are for those who are really concerned about privacy. It hides your IP address, along with physical location and other details that most websites collect from users.

Proxies can prevent people from tracking down your location. It will also stop your Internet Provider from tracking you. The paid version has cheap deals, not too bad. It does work, and well.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Google has made some significant improvements in regards to user privacy and security.

Gmail and Google Beta (SSL) now support secured connections. Gmail also has a second password that can be set up and sent to the phone. Google Privacy
Center lets you opt-out of history logging and even a Google Analystics opt-out plugin can be set-up.

In addition to this - Gmail lets you set up usernames and you don't have to use your real one in public forums. Photos and documents can be stored and locked from public view. Google search lets you block up to 500 sites, and Google search also lets you set up a "safe-browsing" mode.

I could go on forever - but Google has improved over the last few months and is more reliable than before. It even monitors the web for your personal information (e.g. Your name, address, numbers, etc) once set up.

This site will flood your inbox with spam. I have a family member, whom has never even visited the site who keeps receiving mail from them saying she's won $90 million dollars. In addition to this - they somehow figured out her full name and address. I recommend that no one signs up and keeps away from this site.

Asics are the best shoe brand around. It helped support my knee pain during my runs. It reduces the shock to the knee. I also had a friend with Achilles Tendon and he said that Asics was a fantastic shoe. It gave him extra padding and support, thus he was able to keep running and it recovered within a couple months.

According to a review from McAfee SiteAdvisor "Scam from China selling copyright infringing items. Either you get some low quality junk, or they just steal your money". I pretty much agree. This is not the official Asics shoe store. It's a scam.

Do you like experimenting with computers? Do you often install programs from the internet that you're not sure is safe? Then I would like to recommend this.

This software installs a virtual Operating System (OS) within your computer. It is often used to experiment with new programs, or to learn how to set something up. For example - you have W7 and want to install TrueCrypt, but first you want to install it in a virtual OS to make sure you get it right before installing it on your actual computer. This prevents you from making mistakes on your actual computer - so its a really handy tool to have.

The Gold Coast Marathon is the best running event I've ever competed in. Each year on the first weekend (both Saturday & Sunday) the GC Marathon & HM is on. It is highly organised with both local and international competitors along with world-class athletes. It is a tough race, but with the music along the way, the beautiful beach view during dawn and the loud roar of thousands of spectators at the finish line makes it all worth it! I recommend this event to anyone who loves running.

P.S. As the 2011 GCM is on now you can go onto the site and watch their live webcam.

A game scientifically shown to make you smarter

I have given this game a go and found it really interesting. Might be something others might like to give a go. The quotes below are referenced to this page: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/brain-workshop-game-scientifically-shown-smarter/
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"Improve your working memory and fluid intelligence by playing a game. This isn't some vapid marketing claim; it's the result of various scientific tests.

"Brain Workshop, a free game you can install on Linux, Window and Mac machines, creates the exact circumstances of an activity shown in three different academic studies to improve one's short-term memory and problem solving skills.

"Fluid intelligence measures how people adapt to new situations and solve problems they've never seen before. Fluid intelligence differs from crystallized intelligence, which takes into account skills and knowledge that have been acquired — like vocabulary, grammar and math".

Real-time HTML Editor is another great source for programmers. Create your HTML code and see how it turns out real-time. It saves valuable time, it makes coding easier and brings out the best for your customers web-experience.

Enter at own risk. According to Norton Safe-web, McAfee SiteAdvisor & WOT the site is unsafe. The site has many ethical issues (illegal copyright content), malware and it does spam. I have also had my own problems with this site, thus I don't recommend it.

For the people that have friends on various IM networks, this is a great tool for you. Meebo.com puts all the big instant messenger networks into one site so that you can communicate to all your friends and family at once without the need to download several IMs onto your computer.

The best part about Meebo is that it encrypts all your messages, thus it cannot be read through transit. This is the only service to encrypt your messages other than Skype. Meebo.com supports AES-256 bit encryption. This is the strongest form of encryption possible. Its a good site overall.

Excellent online educational source. This site has over 2 400 videos covering topics from arithmetic to physics, finance and history. It is beneficial to people of all ages. It could be used for high-school students or even adults that want to improve their skills, or for those oldies that want to refresh their memory. This site is highly recommended.

Do not enter this site! Its covered in malicious content and viruses. It will also install a key-logger into your computer that is well hidden and hard to remove. I suggest blocking this site on Google.

I want to put forward my suggestion to the SiteJabber Team to remove some comments. It looks as though the website owners are abusing the SiteJabber's system to gain reputation. I also noticed a SiteJabber Logo on their site, has this been approved?

I recommend that no one buys products from them. The saying goes - when something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. I think that applies to this website. I haven't seen cigarettes sold for $27.00 in a long time. Not in Australia at least. But here is a security concern. The payment page is "http://secure.2000cigs.com/cart.aspx". This is what scammers use to trick their potential customers. As you can see - the page is NOT secure. A secure page would begin with HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) instead of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).

The site seemed interesting. It seemed to be a quick and easy way to manage all your favorite bookmarks in one page. However - not even 24hrs after, I've deleted my account. It isn't as good as it looks, unfortunately. Its hard searching for sites to add to the bookmarks bar and when you want to create your own bookmark, it takes ages.