If you hate spam as much as I do (the email kind), then this will thrill you. According to the AP, a Man described as a top spammer has been arrested.

SEATTLE (AP) — A 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised “zombie” computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

“He’s one of the top 10 spammers in the world,” said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company’s Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. “He’s a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day.”

A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that – even with four bank accounts seized by the government – he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer.

Cranton is right, this is a very good day. Of course, the story has been dugg, and some very interesting comments made. One suggested punishment is give him one minute of prison time for each spam email he sent (Which should lock him away for a few hundred thousand years) and feed him nothing but spam (the Hormel kind).

Man described as a top spammer arrested [AP News Wire via Digg]

While there are many alternatives to Explorer for managing files in Windows, this is the most interesting one yet. With the IE Tab Firefox extension you can use Firefox as a Windows file manager.

IE Tab, an extension from Taiwan, embeds Internet Explorer in a Mozilla/Firefox tab. This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your web page displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.

As it turns out, this great extention allows you to view Windows files too.

Just have IEtab set up to automatically engage whenever the page begins with “file:///*” and set the folders I open often as my homepage such as Recently Downloaded Music, My Documents, iTunes Music, etc.

This is a great way to avoid Windows Explorer and use everyone’s favorite browser, Firefox.

IETab [Lifehacker]

Today, Apple did what had been expected for some time, by releasing iTunes 7.2 and iTunes Plus. From their press release:

Apple today launched iTunes Plus—DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings—for just $1.29 per song. iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of outstanding recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.

iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available. In addition, iTunes customers can now easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks for just 30 cents a song and $3.00 for most albums.

I think this is a giant leap in the right direction. Most music buyers, including myself, have no problem paying for music downloads, but hate all the DRM (Digital Rights Management) stuff included. With all of the heat DRM has been gettting recently, Apple almost need to do this. I think the extra 30 cents is worth the extra bit-rate and DRM-less music. You can download iTunes 7.2 from the Apple Website.

iTunes 7.2 Download [Apple]

Time for another Mac Tip. Today’s tip deals with any file’s info in Mac OS X. The Finder window, in icon view, shows you the files name, and nothing else. But as we all know, all files have more info about themselves than that. You can view it buy getting the info (Cmd+I), but there’s a more efficient way.

Just turn on Show Item info. This adds an extra line of information below many files and folders that can be very useful. For example, now not only do you get a folder’s name, but just below the name (in unobtrusive light-blue, 9-point type), you’ll see how many items are in that folder.

If the file is an image, the Item Info shows you how big it is. MP3 files show how long the song is, etc. To turn on Item Info for your current Finder window, press Command-J to bring up its View Options. Then turn on the checkbox for Show Item Info. If you want to show the item info for every window (globally), then choose the All Windows button at the top of the dialog.

This is a great way to see more about your files with less effort.

See Your File’s Hidden Info [Apple]

One thing all computers lack is the right number of USB ports; no matter how many you have, it’s never enough. Thankfully, the people at Apiotek have the ultimate solution, ExpressCard USB hub.

What makes it so darn convenient is the the fact that it just slides into the ExpressCard slot, giving you room for your USB lava lamp in split seconds.

The only downside is the AC power option. The hub has a spot for a AC adapter to avoid draining the laptop battery. Conveniently, they decided not to include one, so you’ll have to go to Radio Shack and find one. Also keep in mind this uses a ExpressCard slot, so you should make sure you’re laptop has one of these slots (and I can tell you off hand the MacBook doesn’t, but the MB Pros do).

As far as it appears, this product is not yet available, but it is sure to be a hit.

Dragon Steel Mods [via Gizmodo]

If having an iPod stereo system isn’t up your alley, then maybe a mixer is. Bird Electron is doing just that with a retro-like option.

The retro-styled micro mixer DJ-4 sports a minuscule stainless steel enclosure, a couple of electric guitar volume knobs, two 3.5-millimeter auxiliary inputs, and a 3.5millimeter stereo output. Of course, the iPod inclusion is more of a marketing gimmick than anything, as the company itself admits that any audio source can be used without issue.

The Micro-Mixer DJ-4 is expected for release in Japan for ¥9,600, or $79 which seems like a little much for something you could whip together with stuff from Radio Shack.

Micro-Mixer DJ-4 [via Engadget]

I usually like to spread out my articles even based on topic, but this one was too good to pass up. It turns out iChat has a hidden functionality to send SMS text messages to a mobile phone. And the best part is it’s easy to do.

1. In iChat, click on “File”, then on “Chat With New Person”. You will then be asked to provide the person’s screen name.
2. In this field enter the mobile phone number that you wish to send the text message to, preceded by a “+1″. So, it should look something like this: “+18015551234″. Don’t forget to add the “+1″ or this will not work.
3. Click on the “OK” button.
4. You will then see an iChat window that you are used to seeing. Enter a message, hit “return”, and your message will be sent.
5. You should get a confirmation message from iChat letting you know that your message has been sent.

Now, before anyone has to tell me, this is a feature of AIM, not necessarily of iChat. None-the-less, it’s a very cool trick. Let’s just hope the person you’re sending to has free texting. Enjoy!

Use iChat to Text Message a Mobile Phone[Mac Info Source via Digg]

As you all know I use Firefox, mainly because of the tabbed browsing. However, I just hate it when I close a tab I didn’t want to. Sure, you can go to History and reopen it, but there’s a faster way.

Ctrl+Shift+T (or Cmd+Shift+T in OS X) will reopen the last tab you closed. That’s all there is to it.

Firefox keyboard shortcut to retrieve closed tabs[OS X Daily]

Good Afternoon (in the Western Hemisphere, anyway). I’m getting a head start on a new feature I want to do twice a week called the WFG Help Desk.

For this to work, however, I need your help. If you have any technology related question you need to get off of your mind, email it to helpdesk@wiredforgadgets.com. Please put your question in the subject line, as this will help me get through the questions faster. I’ll then pick what I think are the best and cover those. My plan is to cover Help Desk Question twice a week. And if your question is really good, you might get an entire post towards it.

The other thing to keep in mind is due the amount of questions I’ll receive, I cannot respond to each individual question; That would be impossible. That said, pop those questions in to helpdesk@wiredforgadgets.com. Thanks!

Before we get into today’s post, I would like to mention I will go to everyday posting since school is out for the summer. Be ready for new content at least once a day.

Now, on to Cell Phones: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Not to fear, help is here. Ben Patterson, The Gadget Hound for Yahoo! Tech, wrote an article earlier this month on cell phone acronyms everyone should know.

Confused by the alphabet soup of cell phone acronyms? I don’t blame you…

Most of the confusion arises when it comes to the various types of cell phone networks. For example, when I ask my aunts and uncles which networks their phones work on, they’ll usually tell me their carrier instead of whether they’re using GSM or CDMA—and frankly, before I started writing about cell phones for a living, I didn’t know the difference, either.

I must admit, there are a ton of them: GSM or CDMA? EV-DO or UMTS and HSDPA? 1xRTT or GPRS and EDGE? Ben’s article expains what you need to know about your network.

Basic Cell Phone Acronyms You Need to Know[Yahoo! Tech via Digg]