Easy to install digital light switch timer

I have been looking for a light timer for quite sometime but all the good existing solutions available on the market would need to be installed by a qualified electrician and their services do not come cheap.

Anyway, I was looking for something much simpler and I was delighted when I came across the Light Switch Timer. It was officially launched early this month and was on display at the Gadget Show Live (1st to 3rd November).

According to the police, installing a light timer is a strong deterrent to burglars. A dark house announces that the occupants are not in and is like an open invitation to burgers and squatters (if for a prolonged period). Programmable light switch timers are thus great for people going off on holidays or getting home late.

Now that Winter is finally here, the days are getting shorter and it is dark by the time we get back from the office. A friend who lives alone normally leaves one of the light on in her house when she gets out of the house in the morning, just to give herself peace of mind when she gets home. However, in these tough economic times and from an environmental perspective, that's not a really good idea and finally had a light timer installed in her house. It's quite complex and she can even turn the lights on using an app on her phone. What's great about the Light Switch Timer is that it fits over your existing light switch and requires no wiring. It is powered by two AA batteries.

Installing it was quite simple and took less than a minute. All I had to do was unscrew the light switch (do not have to fully unscrew), slip in the Light Switch Timer cradle and tighten back the screws.

The timer has an easy to read LCD screen and you can programme it to control 1,2 or 3 gang home light switch. I had to read the instructions a few times to fully understand how to programme the digital timer. You can programme it for all 7 days of the week and make up to 9 programmes a day. There are 3 programming modes,namely, random, pre-programmed and manual. The random mode may be useful when you are on holiday. However, I programmed our switch manually to come on around 5:30pm and switch off at 6:00 am.

I can switch on/off the light manually using the on and off buttons as well, in case you are wondering.
Oh! It tells you the temperature as well.

To buy the Light Switch Timer, go over to their website www.lightswitchtimer.co.uk. It is now available at a special launch price of £27.99 (on-line).

As as a special offer to my readers, buy 2 and save an additional 10% and free postage with the code: Lights-on

Hurry! The promo expires on the 18th November.

Note: The timer can only be used on standard type light switches and not on those with a flat profile, flush or larger size switches.

Website Security and Data Breaches [Infographic]

There are various threats and risks online. Businesses should know how to protect themselves. There seems to be a shift to more targeted attacks and an increase in strikes on small and medium-sized businesses.

Check out the infographic from Symantec.

Thanks for the link Carolina.

Are you worried about network security?

If you are, you are not the only one. I understand the chaos that ensues when a network goes down, even if your company is not completely dependent on computer networks. It once happened in one of the companies I worked for. The network server crashed because of power problems or something and work in the office ground to a complete halt.

That shows how dependent we are on computers now. Fortunately the information stored on the servers were found to safe when they were brought online after several hours. However, I am sure that it gave the the top management a big scare as they put in several backup and remote management solutions after that particular incident.

Hundreds of Blogger blogs carrying bobby trapped links

According to a BBC news report, a number of Blogger blogs are carrying fake entries with bobby trapped links which downloaded viruses on clicking. These were first noticed by security researcher Alex Eckelberry from Sunbelt Software on Blogger blogs on 27 August.

Blogger has responded saying that:

the blog posts are from bloggers whose machines were compromised by a Trojan horse.

Apparently, the trojans exploited the mail2blogger feature that lets users post to their blogs directly via e-mail.

Read more on Blogger Buzz: Blogger and malware.

Prevent laptop theft by installing a laptop alarm

The West Midlands Police here in the UK recently warned students to be extra vigilant with their laptops and other hand held devices as their exams drew nearer. Evidently most thefts of electronic devices occur during this time, usually from libraries or other communal areas. Most of the thefts would occur when people left them to go for a coffee or toilet break. Taking your laptop along with you every time you take a leak is not very convenient but sometimes you don't have a choice.



Laptop Alarm 1.13 (only 188KB) just might be the perfect solution. A loud alarm will be emitted from the computer speakers when someone:
- tries to shut off or log off the laptop.
- pulls the AC adapter plug out.
- pulls out your USB mouse.

This will definitely attract a lot of attention is a place like a library.

However a little warning:
Make sure that you don't accidentally trip the alarm yourself as it is extremely loud, especially if you are wearing earphones, as it might damage your ears.

Track your car via GPS

In Malaysia, I was once approached by a salesman who wanted to sell me an car alarm system. My car had the original factory installed security system and I refused because I thought it was good enough. However, I was intrigued when he claimed that he could open my car in less than a minute. As I had nothing to lose, I agreed. And I was left with my mouth open as he not only opened the car without the alarm going off, he also opened the car boot and the bonnet and started the car as well in less than a minute. I was really impressed with the demonstration that I agreed to have my car security upgraded. It was costly but it was worth it or so I thought.

One year later, I was again approached by another guy at another place. He claimed that he could open my car even with the new security system installed. I gave him a chance and he did.

I didn't upgrade and even though I never had my car stolen, to tell the truth I was always scared that it would.

However, there is a solution - thieves can steal you car but they can't hide when you have a car tracker installed.

There are several type of these high tech GPS tracking devices that can be hidden in your vehicle and used to track their location. They can be distinguished into two main types, namely Past track and Real-Time. The former gives in depth information such as where the vehicle went, where it stopped and how fast it was driven. On the other hand, real time vehicle tracking device as the name suggest, displays the exact current location of your vehicle at any time. Besides tracking stolen cars, these devices can also be used for fleet tracking.

Security software comparison sites

As someone who's obsessed with the security of my computer, I am quite astonished when I come across people who don't have any anti-virus software installed on their computer. Usually, these happen to be the newbies who just bought their pc. I have also noticed that even when they do have an anti-virus program installed, a lot of people do not bother to update the virus definitions. 

 I already have a firewall, an anti-virus program and two spyware removers installed. However, I do keep myself updated to compare different software available in the market. It can be a bit confusing sometimes when you have several companies advertising their security software, as the "best". 

 Visiting review and comparison sites can help us in making our purchase decision. The best ones reviews and compare different web security software along with the prices.

HongKiat's blog hacked

Just visited Malaysian blogger, Hong Kiat's blog and I got this:


Looks like his site has been hacked.

At time like this I am thankful that I am hosted on Blogger.I don't lose sleep at night wondering whether someone will deface my site or worse still, delete it all together.

Email protection

A large number of companies prefer to have their own on-premise email servers, as they believe that this gives them more control and for security reasons as well. However, this comes with a price - huge investments as compared to hosting outside, the need for constant monitoring , requirement to have a tech personal to look after the systems. One of my former colleagues at an NGO I used to work for, was that tech person. He told me that spam was a really serious problem.

Initially I had thought that spam was just an irritation until he told me that they do take up bandwidth and they contribute to the total bandwidth usage (and hence extra costs) of the company. However, there are other more dangerous threats such as email attacks and phishing e-mails that can sometimes be quite hard to detect.

If you are running an in-house email server, you might want to look at Concentric's Perimeter Email Protection (PEP), which provides complete email security and anti spam services for businesses hosting their own on-premise email servers.

As the name suggests, this complete email security solution filters and authenticate incoming email outside your email infrastructure. It blocks spam, viruses, directory harvesting, denial-of-service attacks, fraud, phishing schemes, and other attacks from reaching your corporate email server. This can reduce email load and spam by up to 90% and more.

It also doesn't matter what mail server you are using, as you don't have to purchase, download or install any software nor worry about updating them. All the hard work is taken up by their patented server cluster. If you are interested, do check out their site for more information.