Software and Technology in World Market

Mac OS X only: Free Adium plug-in Challenge Response prevents instant messaging spam by requiring unknown users to answer a quick challenge question before interrupting you with their message. Challenges would look something like, "What is the square root of 49 in numerical form?" which requires a response of "7," but you can customize your own question and answer. Once a user answers correctly (i.e., verifies intelligence), Challenge/Response adds that user to a whitelist and they won't be challenged again. There's always the chance that the challenge and response might confuse an actual human enough that they'll just give up on IMing you, but if you're used to a lot of IM spam, Challenge/Response is a must. Challenge/Response is a free download, Mac OS X only, requires Adium. Thanks Jason!

iPhone and iPod touch only: A free, "lite" version of previously mentioned email composition app TouchType—which sells for 99 cents in the iTunes Store—is now available. TouchType offers landscape view (and wider keyboard) for composing email on your iPhone or touch, and even better, can save and load reusable text snippets to reduce your typing and make sending repetitive emails a matter of a whole lot fewer taps. The two differences between the 99-cent version and the free Lite version? Twitter integration and spell check. TouchType Lite is a free download for the iPhone and iPod touch running the 2.1 software.

If you've been enjoying Google's 3D virtual experience Lively—which they released in July—we've got some bad news. By the end of December, Lively will be no more, according to the Official Google Blog. Anyone here care? Commiserate in the comments. [via]

Windows only: If you're eager for a simple, non-browser, quick-starting app that will let you get remote desktop access to your mom's desktop, your struggling friend's laptop, or nearly any other machine, Ammyy Admin is just about perfect for your needs. The 128KB, no-install app opens and gives you a dedicated client ID number. To connect as the administrator, you simply enter the client's ID's number, choose a connection speed optimizer (if needed), and hit "Connect," while the client only has to hit "Start." Unless you use its sister private router product, Ammyy Admin will route its screen-sharing traffic over the developer's servers, so work that requires privacy shouldn't rely on Ammyy. Still, for keeping it simple with one-time connections—or even regular hook-ups, through Ammyy's Windows service option—Ammyy is worth checking out. Ammyy Admin is a free download for Windows systems only.

You shouldn't let the uncertain economy drive you to a crazed bank run, a la It's a Wonderful Life, but it might make sense to keep a decent stash of legal tender at home these days. Consumer Reports' Money blog points out that your mattress is the first place a nefarious intruder might look, but a hollow light fixture, a waterproof bag in your toilet tank, and a few other spots make for more secure hiding spots:

... How about behind acoustic tiles in the ceiling? According to the book Hiding Your Money by Jerome Schneider and Allison Hope Weiner, “The beauty of acoustic tiles is that they always look broken, moved and dirty.”

We've pointed out a few other "hidden safe" ideas involving wall outlets, soup cans, and even pens, but Consumer Reports has a few other inspiring spots. Let's also hear where you might stash a bit of rainy day money (assuming your account has some anonymity to it) in the comments. Photo by markhillary.

The Windows Live SkyDrive Team announces that the online storage service will jump "soon" to 25GB, with lots of photo-friendly tools like slideshows, people and place tagging, and Live Photo Gallery integration (so, why not just make Photo Gallery 25GB?). Pretty impressive space boost, and it might help link all the Windows Live services into a semi-coherent whole. [via]

Windows only: Create and mix your own file and media playlists with Freepath. Users can create file playlists from a variety of sources: files from their own computers, video files found on YouTube, photos from Flickr, nearly anything you can drag and drop from the web or your own computer can be dumped into Freepath. Once the files are placed within a playlist, users can opt to keep the list as spartan or create a slideshow complete with transitions and extra effects. One of the more unique features of Freepath is that files remain editable once they are embedded into the playlist.

If you added an Excel document at but noticed you needed to edit the file, you can do the editing from within Freepath without the hassle of removing the file, editing it, and replacing it. Once you have a mashup of media and files you can opt to share with a single contact, a private group, or public group. The only potential restriction on sharing, is that the recipient needs to be using Freepath to view the playlist file. MyFreepath, the companion online file sharing site for the Freepath software comes with 100MB of free online storage for the playlists you create. Freepath is Windows only, freeware.

Web PR worker Steve Rubel has a great post at his Micro Persuasion blog detailing how he adapted Gmail to serve as his ideal start page for nearly anything he needs to get done. Lots of stuff is built into Gmail by default—like web or mail search and RSS web clips—but Rubel goes into detail on using Google Talk to update IM-friendly social services, Labs tools like Quick Links and the new gadgets to access his calendar, documents, and vital services, and start his writing in an auto-saving Gmail box, to be mailed to other writing apps. It's a neat primer for creating a manageable, inter-connected workflow in the webapp cloud, if you're down for that sort of thing. Got your own Gmail-centric system, or another app that's a smarter start page? Tell us in the comments.

Yahoo is rolling out a search service that aggregates an interesting mix of non-web search results across a page. Glue has been available through Yahoo India with customized results for about seven months, and the U.S. version offers a similar set of results boxes: Yahoo Shopping, blog search from Google (seriously), Yahoo Answers and Images, YouTube and Wikipedia pages. More relevant search types are shifted to the top when found. It's an intriguing, semi-open move, and a decent bookmark for grabbing broader information about a topic at a glance. Tell us your take on Glue in the comments.

Windows only: Service Pack 3 for Windows XP removed the ability of that operating system's users to keep a quick-launching address box on their taskbar session after session. MuvEnum Address Bar aims to address that shortfall, but also adds a few neat conveniences to the package. There's a customizable global hot key (Ctrl + Shift + A by default), bookmarks and history pulled from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and/or Google Chrome, auto-complete convenience, and a key to clear out MuvEnum's history without wiping out your browser's. While Vista has its own address bar option on its taskbar, MuvEnum installs on Vista and adds the same conveniences. MuvEnum is a free download for Windows systems only. Check out its single, helpful options screen below.