Inmates in Texas jails can now receive emails from outside despite the absence of Internet access. The AP reports that about a dozen jails are using a Dallas-based website that allows jail officials to print emails and deliver them to inmates.

Outsiders can send a message by going to the Securus website to register.

The sender can also request for a reply page wherein the inmate can write. The paper is then scanned and emailed back to the sender.

Originally posted on June 2, 2008 @ 2:24 pm

Hong Kong (.hk) domain has jumped 28 places as the most dangerous place to surf and search on the web according to a new McAfee, Inc. In its report called “Mapping the Mal Web Revisited,” Hong Kong takes the lead from Tokelau, a tiny island of 1,500 inhabitants in the South Pacific.

The second annual McAfee “Mapping the Mal Web” report into the riskiest and safest places on the web reveals that 19.2% of all web sites ending in the “.hk” domain pose a security threat(1) to web users. China (.cn) is second this year with over 11%. After China is Philippines (.ph), Romania (.ro), and Russia (.ru). By contrast Finland (.fi) replaced Ireland (.is) as the safest online destination with 0.05%, followed by Japan (.jp), Norway (.no), Slovenia (.sl), and Colombia (.co).

The most risky generic domain from 2007’s report became more dangerous with 11.8% of all sites ending in .info posing a security threat and is the third most dangerous domain overall while government websites (.gov) remained the safest generic domain. The most popular domain, .com, is the ninth riskiest overall.

McAfee analyzed 9.9 million heavily trafficked web sites found in 265 different country and generic domains. The study compared the ratings of sites found in each of the 265 country and generic domains and ranked them by the number of risky web sites found in each domain that contained adware, spyware, viruses, spam, excessive pop-ups, browser exploits or links to other red-rated sites.

Originally posted on June 4, 2008 @ 7:37 pm

Adobe Systems Incorporated has introduced Acrobat.com, a suite of hosted services available as public beta for free signup, that put communication, productivity, and collaboration tools within a web browser.

Acrobat.com is a set of online services – file sharing and storage, PDF converter, online word processor, and web conferencing – that take advantage of PDF, Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR technologies to deliver engaging online experiences that go well beyond traditional office productivity tools.

With the web touted as the operating software of the future, this development from Adobe is a testament that the web is indeed becoming the OS of the very near future.

Originally posted on June 2, 2008 @ 9:03 am

If you are looking for digital versions of UK’s top magazines, then this service from John Menzies Digital Ltd. is for you.

Live now for downloading are magazines from UK’s biggest publishers, including: IPC, Bauer Consumer Media, Hachette and Future.

The website works in conjunction with free-to-install delivery software and enables users to download the latest issues of magazines at any time as well as viewing, storing and searching digital magazines bought from the site. A key feature of the system is the ability to save magazines to a USB key – which allows customers to read them on any computer, even one without Delivery software installed. This will prove a major benefit to customers who use more than one computer, or are regular travellers.

They do offer discounts if you subscribe to the printed copy. I doubt if people will bite, after having the digital copy and being portable with it.

Originally posted on June 3, 2008 @ 6:58 pm