How to control sharing your Facebook data using friends lists?

Few days ago Facebook launched a new functionality – Friends lists. You may have not even noticed them, which means the functionality is not critical for your Facebook activity. However, if you look deeper into it, then you discover how handy they are. Having multi language posts on your wall may be annoying – Facebook lists are the solution. They make it easy to protect your private data from some friends. A video tutorial at the end of this article will show you how to create lists and handle the privacy settings. Continue reading on Foture

Note to my readers: From now on I will be writing on the Foture blog, about pretty much the same stuff I was covering here on f055.net – I’ll keep posting excerpts of new articles, like this one, for some time, but be sure to subscribe to Foture feed to get the latest posts in your reader. Thanks!

Exploiting Gmail webmail for phishing

I recently noticed that a certain Gmail webmail “feature” enables you to convince the receiver that the email was sent by someone else than you. This exploit is really easy to fix by Google, but apparently it would also change the way they display senders completely – would, sort of, be like a step back to the era of email addresses as identification. Here’s how it works.

Using Apple Time Machine with an ordinary USB stick

I was looking for an optimal backup solution for quite a while. By optimal I mean fast, daily, portable and inexpensive. I looked at some online backup solutions, but they all failed at several gigabytes of data, not to mention the monthly payments for premium options and very questionable security – it was hard to find an encrypted online storage, and to make matters worse SSL wasn’t a solid standard but a “marketing feature enhancing security”...

Don’t be amazed by the millions of $$$ of startup funding

I hear more and more news about millions of $$$ and €€€ being pumped into startups I have never heard of. Each time I read such a piece I think “Oh boy, I could do so much with that money!”. But then the smart side of me kicks in and I realize I could barely live a year or two on that. Why? Because when you really think about it, the cost of running a startup with no profits is huge. Let’s count it.

How to use Google Apps and App Engine to get free email, calendar, homepage and more

This article will explain how to setup email, calendar, online docs and more from Google Apps, as well as deploy your homepage using Google App Engine – all integrated and all under your own domain! Why? Because GMail is the best online mail client, because Google Calendar is awesome, because Google App Engine works blazing fast, and finally – because it’s all free!

Read luggage conditions before flights - you may be positively surprised

In an era of cheap flights over Europe, the one not cheap thing about them is the luggage transport. In most cases, you are entitled to just one piece of hand baggage, and they really mean one — if you wish to have a purse with you, then you can’t have anything else. Also, check-in baggage is normally restricted to 20 KG, and you have to pay for each piece, plus the overweight. However, before your departure, always read the fine print about luggage conditions, as sometimes the airlines (both cheap and regular) have interesting rules.

Use your plastic cards to spread the word

We all have them in our wallets, tons of the plastic goodies that give us cash, collect points or simply open doors (and I don’t mean by stuffing it between the doors and the frame). Now, recently I noted that in quite a lot of cases, the issuer lets us put a short text on the card — either it’s our account name, or some string identifier to distinguish the cards (like Nectar, cause you can have more than one in your family). Why not to exploit that?

How to defog a mirror in 30 seconds

What I hate the most is when I want to shave and the mirror is fogged. Waving a razor around my face without seeing what I am exactly doing is not safe, nor comfortable. And opening the bathroom doors and waiting for the air to filter is both long and cold. But I came up with one trick, which you probably already know, but if not — read on.