Spy versus spy

Reuters reports that the best way to fight adware (sometimes known as spyware) is never to install anything funny. But the rule doesn`t always apply.

Adware is freely downloadable software that often piggybacks on other seemingly useful programs, like the ones offering to calibrate computer clocks or provide weather information for free. But it can carry a heavy price.

It can reset your home page and not let you change it back. It can add an assortment of Web pages to your list of "Favourites", some of which can be for adult Web sites. It can add an extra line on the screen of a Web browser, advertising all kinds of things, including X-rated Web sites. And, it can monitor where you go on the Internet. Read the story for good ways to get rid of it.

A porn search site called Booble has copied Google`s signature spare design and brightly coloured letters, reports New York Times. The likeness has sparked a rift between the two sites.

Google, claiming trademark infringement, sent a cease and desist letter to the operators of the Booble site. The parody site struck back by posting a disclaimer that says: "Booble.com is not affiliated with any other search engines. For starters, we have a sense of humour." Google disputes the assertion that Booble is a parody.

Job losses loom at Eastman Kodak, but it`s a different scenario for tech companies as photography shifts from film to digital technologies, reports USA Today. One of the winners: makers of memory cards, the postage-stamp-size cards that slip into digital cameras and store photos on computer chips.

In contrast, Kodak recently said it would lay off up to 15 000 workers. The problem: a sales slump from film, the company`s former cash cow. It, too, is shifting to focus on the future: digital.