Is Your Computer Connecting To Websites Without Your Knowledge

from Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

If you are worried that some programs on your PC are secretly making connections to websites in the background, here's a quick tip that uses a simple DOS command to detect and prevent such suspicious activity:

1. Type cmd in your Windows Run box.

2. Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter. After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.

3. Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

The file activity.txt will have a log of all process that made a connection to the Internet in the last two minutes. It will also show which process connected to which website in this time. And not just the web browsers (like iexplore.exe or opera.exe), the log will also show your IM clients, download managers, email programs or any software that requires a net connection.

Scroll though the activity.txt file and look for any process names or website addresses that you are not aware of. If you track one , go to the task manager (or Process Explorer) to find the location of the executable on your computer and eliminate it.

© 2007 Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

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Cellphones: Digitimes Reconfirms gPhone

from Gizmodo by Brian Lam

Digitimes has a quick bit on the gPhone, saying it is definitely coming out, sourcing factory workers, who may very well have the GPhone innards in their. We already knew this, from Crunchgear's HTC insider. They talk about whether or not EDGE or 3G will be on the phone, but that looks more like a hedge than any specific information. My two cents on HTC -- I know that key individuals inside the company were severely disappointed with Windows Mobile 6, so the idea of a Linux and Google powered OS running on HTC's heralded hardware is really one I'll buy in to. [DigiTimes]

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Apple: iPhone GPS Hack Works and is Awesome

from Gizmodo by Brian Lam

Whoa, the iPhone just got GPS. Well, assisted GPS, but still, It actually works. This morning, the Navizon GPS app showed up in Installer.app. After creating a username and login (get this: email NOT required), the free app started up, taking about 30 seconds to find my location by measuring the delay between nearby cell towers and using their known locations to pinpoint where I am. Then it pushes your coordinates, by latitude and longitude, to many, many, many decimal places of degrees, to the map application.

Kind of. It's off by a few hundred yards, but this is a lot better than the total lack of location awareness that the iPhone officially enjoys. And its FREE. It also claims Wi-Fi positioning, which I don't completely understand. A caveat: It crashed Chen's phone, but it worked great for me. And this is only version 1.0, but maybe the real question is why wasn't this functionality built into the iPhone to begin with? Go Navizon!

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Who Owns Your Financial Data?

from A VC by Fred

That's the question we should all be asking. Now that Mint has finally launched and joined Wesabe, Geezeo, Buxfer and a few others in the personal financial web service space, it's time to discuss what it means to take your personal financial data out of the hands of your bank and credit card company (who thinks they own it but do not), and put it on the web.

Wesabe, a Union Square Ventures portfolio company, has a Data Bill Of Rights.

It says:

• You can export and/or delete your data from Wesabe whenever you want.
• Your data is your data, not ours. Our job is to help you understand and act on your data.
• We’ll keep all of your data online and accessible for as long as you have an account. No “archive access” charges.
• Any data you want us to keep private, we will.
• If a question comes up not covered by these rights, we will answer it remembering that your data belongs to you.

That's a good start. But I think its time to discuss this at length. And there's no better place to do that than in the blogs. Here's some questions to ponder.

- who owns the metadata you and others create about the transactions that come into the system? - is it better to let the service do the tagging or is it better to let the community to do the tagging of the transactions? - should the tags be shared and if so, when and with whom? - where should your login and passwords be stored? - can these services be hacked? - is personal identifiable information (PII) being stored with the data?

I am sure there are more questions. So now that we have a full fledged category here with at least four high quality companies in it, let's figure out the rules of the road.

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Mint Wins TechCrunch40 Top Company Award; Takes $50,000 Prize

from TechCrunch by Mark Hendrickson

Jason Calacanis just announced that Mint was chosen as the best presenting company at TechCrunch40. The provider of an impressive personal finance application will receive $50,000 as part of the award.

Mint presented its application this morning during Session 5, which was entitled "Productivity and Web Applications". See our coverage of that session here.

Mint is a personal finance application that lets users track and monitor their financials in one place without the need of routine maintenance or accounting knowledge. Their application tracks bank, credit union and credit card transactions and alerts users to upcoming bills, low balances or unusual spending. Mint's patent-pending technology automatically categorizes transactions, so users know with precision where they are spending money, what their bank and credit balances are, and how much interest they have earned.

Their application also helps people find ways to save money by constantly searching for deals on credit cards, bank accounts, etc. Mint's technology also analyzes your finances and makes suggestions all while using the same security systems as top banks.

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