RATs meaning remote access tools, that is. Malware that conceals itself in a system and lets someone on the outside with the right application and credentials connect and manipulate the system remotely. The classic such utility is Back Orifice by the Cult of the Dead Cow, and was probably the first of its kind which let you do such things as mess with the mouse cursor and typed text, flip the display upside down, access the webcam, and open or close the CD-ROM.

It seems that combination cellphone/PDA's are now advanced enough to be targeted. Nowadays many cellphones have …

When using the Pilot Link toolset with an open source operating system to back up a PalmOS device such as the Palm Treo 700p, remember two things: One, when you connect the phone to your system using the USB cable, it will create two devices in the /dev directory, /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 (assuming that there is only one Treo plugged in at a time). You'll want to reference the second device file, /dev/ttyUSB1. Secondly, press the hotsync button on the cable or activate the hotsync function on the device before running the pilot-link utility. This is the …

I knew that something was going to happen when I spoke to my mom, and she mentioned getting ready for an ice storm in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

That meant only one thing: It was headed toward DC.

Early this morning, I was awakened by the sound of snowflakes merrily ticking against the window above the bed that Lyssa and I share. Some time after we went to bed last night, the ice storm arrived in DC and the snow began to fall.

And fall.

And fall.

The local weather report says that we're looking and three to six inches …

If you're a Newton user, you've no doubt considered picking up the ObEx stack for NewtonOS, which allows your MessagePad to communicate with other PDAs, such as the Palm Pilot or the HP Jornadas. I highly suggest that you spend the $40us to do so, you won't regret it. It can be tricky at first to get working, though. I spent a good bit of today trying to figure out how to beam entries from the Dates application to a Palm Vx unit, and here's how I did it: First, you need to set up the time at which to …