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Filed under: Internet, Security, Utilities, Features

Keeping it private (and safe!) on public computers

libraryEven if you have a computer at home, on occasion you'll find you need to use the public computers at a library, internet café, or your local copy shop. Traveling, technical glitches at home, or the sheer convenience of checking on something right now brings almost everyone to a public computer once in a while. It brings a few people -- whether they own computers or not -- to public computers daily.

I have a confession to make. In a former life, I was a systems librarian. I know what's on public computers. No, I don't have your personal information. I removed that from the public computers, along with a lot of keylogging software, viruses, and spyware. What I do have is a few little tricks to keep your private information private.

The cardinal rule of public computing is the most obvious. It's also the one most often broken. Sometimes there's no avoiding breaking it. Sometimes, though, it seems there is a digital variety of the "belief in immortality" that's usually attributed to young adults. This digital immortality seems to affect people of all ages.

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Filed under: Games, Internet

Three days into video game session, Chinese man dies

Run, Luke, Run!We've all heard the horror stories, often emanating from the neighborhood of the far east, of people who take their online gaming a little too seriously. These are folks that get real-life revenge for in-game defeats, like the guy who murdered (in real life) an online opponent for stealing his in-game weapon. There have even been cases, reportedly, where folks who were otherwise healthy just up and died while playing online games.

Apparently, the trend continues. Today, CIO Insight reported that a Chinese man died after playing Internet games in a Net Cafe for three straight days, ostensibly one that stays open 24 hours a day. If the case was like the previously mentioned Korean case, the one must wonder why, if starvation and dehydration were the culprits, the proprietors of the cafe didn't kick him out for being a bum and not ordering something to drink. Exhaustion was the stated reason for death, but even then--don't you think you'd fall asleep before allowing an Internet game to exhaust you? Perhaps not if you play with this level of intensity.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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