database

Ubisoft hacked; users' e-mails and passwords exposed

Anyone that has an account with video game developer Ubisoft is being advised to change their password immediately. The game maker announced Tuesday that its user account database was breached by hackers who gained access to user names, e-mail addresses, and encrypted passwords.

"We recently discovered that one of our Web sites was exploited to gain unauthorized access to some of our online systems," Ubisoft wrote in a statement. "During this process, we learned that data had been illegally accessed from our account database."

The game maker emphasized that the company doesn't store personal payment … Read more

Review: Keep all of your precious passwords in one location with Ultra Passwords

Ultra Passwords gives the user control over their password collection by storing it in a hidden, proprietary database powered by the Borland Database Engine. While mostly functional, the program doesn't seem to have the whole UI translated into English.

Ultra Passwords opens to a rather confusing interface where some information doesn't seem to be written in English, i.e. "Libelle" is a field that is not explained. The program requires that you choose a category for the secure Web site, type in your username, password, and Web site address, and then save that password in the … Read more

Google plans to wipe child porn from the Web

Photos and videos of child pornography on the Web have multiplied at an alarming rate over the past few years. In 2011, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it received 17.3 million images and videos of suspected child abuse, which is four times more than 2007.

Google has announced that it wants to help curb this proliferation of child pornography. In fact, the Web giant plans to take it even a step further -- it wants to completely eradicate child porn from the Internet.

"Behind these images are real, vulnerable kids who are sexually victimized … Read more

LivingSocial hacked; 50 million affected

Daily deals Web site LivingSocial is the latest database target for hackers, who have compromised the personal information of more than 50 million people.

In internal LivingSocial e-mails obtained by AllThingsD, the unknown culprits appear to have made off with the names, e-mails, birthdates, and encrypted passwords of what appears to be the vast majority of LivingSocial customers.

The Washington, D.C.-based site, owned in part by Amazon, claims around 70 million customers worldwide. The company's divisions in the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand remain unaffected because they are hosted on different servers.

To put this breach … Read more

Free LibreOffice office suite beefs up with version 4.0

Fans of LibreOffice will discover a new and improved version with several features typically found only in Microsoft Office.

For those unfamiliar with the product, LibreOffice is an open-source desktop suite, one of several free alternatives to Microsoft Office. The suite includes applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and drawings.

Released today by the Document Foundation, LibreOffice 4.0 builds on its foundations with a host of new features and fixes.

As just a few examples, users of the Writer word processor can now add comments to entire blocks of text, more easily create different headers and footers for … Read more

Citizen scientists map 1,400 defibrillators in Philly contest

After researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine called on the general public to find as many of Philadelphia's estimated 5,000 automated external defibrillators as possible, more than 300 "citizen scientists" stepped up and located 1,429 of them in more than 525 buildings across the city.

The eight-week crowdsourcing contest, called MyHeartMap Challenge, is part of what the researchers hope will be a national effort to catalog as many AEDs as possible and develop an interactive app of the registry so that laypeople can act quickly in the event someone nearby … Read more

IMDb on the go

More than just a tool for reading up on celebs and movies, the IMDb mobile app lets you access an enormous entertainment database, view movie trailers, read reviews, track shows, and even get notifications for updates on your favorite celebs. What's more, the Android tablet version is optimized for the larger screen, as it breaks up IMDb's sections into two functional panels.

IMDb opens up directly to a Home screen displaying new trailers, popular movies and shows, upcoming titles, and top news. If you log into your IMDb account, it also shows you recommendations for shows and movies, … Read more

Database corruption causing woes for some Office 2011 SP2 users

Recently Microsoft released the Service Pack 2 upgrade for its Office 2011 for Mac productivity suite, which primarily addresses issues and functions with Outlook for Mac, but also addresses problems with other aspects of the Office suite. After applying this update, a few people have had problems in which the Office identity database has become corrupted and when launching Office programs have received messages stating "Please upgrade the Office database."

Yesterday Microsoft acknowledged in a blog posting that some users have been experiencing this error, and has provided a couple of options for getting around it.

If you … Read more

Mobile carriers partner with FCC to battle cell phone theft

Almost everyone knows someone who has had their cell phone stolen. And most likely, there wasn't much that person could do about it. Some mobile carriers and the U.S. government are now trying to change that.

The Federal Communications Commission announced today that it is partnering with four major carriers to work toward curbing rampant cell phone theft, according to The New York Times. The plan is to jointly create a centralized database of lost or stolen cell phone information that will make it easy to track the devices and cutoff voice and data service.

"It's … Read more

Apple iOS users can get the new FileMaker Go app for free

FileMaker Pro users can download the latest iOS version of the program for free starting today.

FileMaker Go 12 lets iOS users access databases created by the full desktop edition of FileMaker Pro 12. Dedicated versions are available for the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad.

The new iOS apps coincide with new editions for the PC and Mac. Customers who want to try before they buy can download trial versions for both desktop platforms.

The latest iOS upgrade offers a variety of enhancements.

You can now multitask FileMaker Pro with other apps, letting you pick up where you left … Read more