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bots posts

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Web services

Conceal your email address from bots with HideText



Sometimes you want humans to be able to read some information -- like your email address, for example -- while disguising it from bots that might be automatically collecting it. One way to do it is by displaying the info as an image, instead of as text, like Facebook does with email addresses. HideText gives you a quick way to do that.

HideText has two modes for converting text to images. One is a plain text box, with a choice of only two fonts and a few sizes, but you can enter whatever text you want, and it will get the job done. The other is an email-specific mode that includes your provider's logo as part of the image. It works with most major email services, like Gmail, Yahoo, and MSN. Either way you use it, you end up with your text concealed from Googlebots and things that could potentially be more malicious, like spammers.

Filed under: Developer, Fun, Internet, E-mail, Productivity, Web services

Google Talk's translation bots

Google Talk's translation botsChatting with people who speak another language just got a lot easier thanks to Google's translation bots.

The translation bots provide a way to translate between Google Talk contacts in a group chat or as a translation tool. All you have to do is add one of 29 bots as a contact using their two letter language abbreviation. So in order to translate from an English conversation to a French one, you would add "en2fr@bot.talk.google.com" as a Google Talk contact. Now you can enter a group chat with a user who speaks French, bring the chat bot into the conversation, and the bot will translate everything you say into French and everything the other person says into English.

If you have a Blackberry, the Google Talk client will also function as a translator while on the go. It works the same way, by adding the appropriate translation bot to your chat conversation.

Google is also calling all developers to build their own XMPP based bots for such things as weather services and games that can be added into the Google Talk open protocol.

Filed under: Internet, Security, News

FBI finds 1 million bot-infected computers

Security Center XPThe FBI is announcing a crackdown on "botherders," or the unscrupulous folks who send out viruses and trojans to hijack your computer and use it for their own nefarious purposes. Sorry, had to make it sound like something out of an old Western there to fit wit the term "botherder."

Anyway, the FBI says it's identified over a million potentially infected IP addresses as part of an ongoing investigtion.

The feds also used their press release to highlight several recent arrests of people accused of operating botnets for their own financial gain, including spam-king Robert Soloway, Jason Michael Downey of Kentucy, and James C. Brewer of Texas who allegedly infected Chicago area hospitals. Come on, hospitals?

The FBI basically recommends you regularly update your anti-virus software and use a firewall to avoid having your computer taken over. And they say they'll be contacting owners of the infected computers they've identified -- but will not be asking for personal information over email, so don't give out your passwords to anyone who says they're from the FBI.

Filed under: Developer, Fun, Internet, Yahoo!, Social Software

Bots arrive at Yahoo! Answers

BuddahbotBuddhabots have begun making appearances on Yahoo! Answers. Buddhabots' artificial intelligence is being demonstrated according to it's creator. "The Buddhabot is the first and only AI to compete with human beings to provide the best answers on Yahoo Answers new social networking site."

Ron Ingram is the human behind Buddhabots and according to his blog, "I look for questions randomly and let the Buddhabot respond on my behalf." This leaves me to believe Buddhabot isn't scanning Y! Answers and responding faster than a human could which would be rather irritating. It has answered 100 questions over the past three weeks and, to its credit, eleven have been chosen as the "Best Answer." I, a mere human, have a 57% "Best Answer" rate. Phew.

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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