Both Google and Facebook are known to be pretty cool places to work, and this slideshow from the Washington Post gives a little insight.

Maybe we need a beanbag here after all?

Find the slideshow here.

Sorry – but there’s a 30-second ad that comes up first.

Google Earth/Maps photos of the earthquake and tsumani – from eWeek

These are really something, bless those poor folks over there.

Link here

We’re big fans of Vipre anti-virus/anti-spyware software here. The following is from a newsletter they sent out recently, and it has some great information on protecting yourself from spam.

For more information on Vipre, see their site here.
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Spammers are constantly collecting and even verifying email addresses to make sure they are valid. Here are a few pointers that can help you prevent spam. Key to the effort is of course protecting your email account and your computer.

** Don’t be so easy on giving out your personal info including your email address. I have set up disposable email addresses that I can give out to anyone and shutdown should they get overly spammed.

** Check out privacy policies of sites or companies before you disclose who you are. This applies to reg forms, surveys, etc. Especially look in to their opt-in or opt-out policies.

** Unless you want to receive unwanted email, don’t put your email address on public websites, contact directories, membership directories, or chat rooms. Use a disposable email address (hotmail) if you must.

** Remember not to click on links, respond or download attachments from unknown sources in your emails. Spammers will try and trick you to respond to them so they know your address is valid. Make sure you really do know the sender prior to responding.

** Delete emails from unknown senders or dubious sources because your reply or click on any link in the email message from an unknown source, you are confirming to the unknown sender that your email address is valid.

** Check the “sent” folder or outgoing mailbox of your email program or webmail account to see if there are any outgoing messages that were not sent by you. If there are such messages, your computer may have been hacked and used by spammers to send emails from your computer. You should scan your computer with anti-virus or anti-spyware software (make sure the software’s signatures are up-to-date). VIPRE is here to protect your computer

** As stated before make sure your computer is fully protected with antimalware and a firewall. Make sure you are scanning on a regular basis.

** Apply the latest security patches/hot-fixes released by product vendors to the operating systems and/or applications installed in your computer.

** Make good use of any anti-spam solutions provided by your ISP, your email provider or install a filter.

** Just to reiterate: Never reply to spam emails, just delete them. You will save yourself a lot of heartache and work. You can report them to your ISP.

Check out: http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/3Y9W06/110308-Spam

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End of an era – one that will stand very tall in space exploration for the USA.

Discovery has embarked on its last mission – STS-133 – and what a ride it has been for the USA and the world. Here’s hoping that we don’t simply punt on space exploration as the shuttle missions wind down. The shuttle series had been invaluable to science in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Photos below from National Geographic

Here is Discovery on the launch pad:

Here is the crew:

Here is the final launch:

Space.com has full mission coverage here

See live coverage on NASA.tv here

National Geographic articles and blog posts here

Microsoft has released Windows 7 Service Pack 1. We are finding no issues with this update, and my recommendation would be to go ahead and install it without worry.

It’s not a very “big” SP at all, and there’s no real new features, so that makes the entire process easier. Being as some SPs have lots of new stuff, and sometimes that new stuff breaks other existing stuff, this is all good news.

PC World has some comments here.

The Hewlett-Packard TouchPad is a new offering by HP that will compete with the Apple iPad and the newest Android 3 tablets. It uses the WebOS operating system that HP got from their purchase of Palm last year.

HP is releasing several new devices using the WebOS, and eWeek has posted a helpful slide show that shows some of the features.

When will the TouchPad be released? The InfoSync tech blog posted this the other day where they claim an early June 2011 release date, along with a ~ $700 cost.

I am looking forward to checking out the new TouchPad – been hearing great things about the WebOS. I’ll keep you informed as I learn more.

CIO.com is an excellent CIO / CTO website and a favorite of mine; it’s the web site for CIO magazine.

They have a very useful article on some good Facebook settings to check out so help with privacy issues. I recommend checking this out and comparing your Facebook settings against this list.

See the article here