Linux Update again

Thanks to MissM. Link to original post is in title. Somehow I managed to get Zinf installed on Ubuntu. I'm still not sure exactly how, LOL. I followed the instructions on the site she posted. Somehow it worked. Thanks again MissM.

Corsair set to make Power Supply Units

This is news, though it doesn't seem like it at first glance. As the article points out, Zalman has been doing this for a while now.

We need more high quality, high peformance power supplies. As our systems become ever more sophisticated and require larger capacity power supplies and a power stream that adheres more closely to the necessary standards, the "toss in one of these" mentality by which many of us have been working is outmoded. Small variations in the power stream that your Pentium III would never have noticed will destabilize any of the current dual-core systems. For this reason alone, it is entirely within the scope of probability that the day of the serviceable yet inexpensive power supply is fast going away. We will have to pay a bit more - not a lot - to ensure the stability of our systems.

Jack

Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option | June 19, 2006

I've been subscribed as a plus user to Fred Langa's newsletter, for over a year. He uses the subscriptions to sponsor children all over the world and posts frequent updates of the children. But, his job is a columnist for Information Week, and this weeks column includes a non-destructive reinstall of XP!! I had to post this, because I've never heard of this trick before, its excellent, and the full article includes screen shots, and caveats about the messages on the screen from Microsoft. Reading the article, I can see several places where I'd go "OH NO! its erasing everything!!" We've all been there, when we hit enter just before we think about it. :) Anyway, back to the article that will hopefully save you several hair pulling (IF you have any ;) ) episodes. To quote the introduction to the article:

It's one of those software design decisions that makes you scratch your head and wonder, "What were they thinking?"

The "it" in this case is XP's most powerful rebuild/repair option, and yet Microsoft chose to hide it behind seeming dead ends, red herrings, and a recycled interface that makes it hard to find and (at first) somewhat confusing to use.

But it's worth exploring because this option lets you completely and nondestructively rebuild, repair, or refresh an existing XP installation while leaving already-installed software alone (no reinstallation needed!). It also leaves user accounts, names, and passwords untouched and takes only a fraction of the time a full, from-scratch reinstall does. And unlike a traditional full reinstall, this option doesn't leave you with two copies of XP on your hard drive. Instead, you end up with just the original installation, but repaired, refreshed, and ready to go.

We've saved this technique for last in our discussion of the various XP repair/rebuild options because the fixes we've previously discussed are like first aid--the things you try first. For instance, see this discussion on removing limitations on XP's Recovery Console, turning it into a more complete repair tool; or this discussion on the Recovery Console's little-known "Rebuild" command that can cure many boot-related problems. (There's also lots more on the Recovery Console here.

But when the Recovery Console techniques don't work, and you're facing the prospects of a total reformat/reinstall, stop! Try the no-reformat reinstall technique we're about to illustrate, and you just may get your XP setup running again in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the hassle of a grand mal wipe-and-restore.

Go read the rest of the article with screenshots.
--MissM
InformationWeek | Windows XP Management | Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option | June 19, 2006

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 06-18-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 06-18-06. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
Remember we will have a live Digital Video camera running for next weeks Geek Meet 2006. Join us live to see some of the people you listen to every Sunday.
If your going to be in the Anchorage Alaska area please join us.
Where should we have Geek Meet 2007?

Ever Wonder what liquid nitrogen does when poured into a pool?

CollegeHumor Movie: Ever wonder what happens when you dump a bucket of liquid nitrogen into a swimming pool?

--MissM

RIAA SUING AGAIN

How far will the RIAA go? Now you can't let people see you dancing to music on the Internet.
Next we won't be able to listen to our music and talk to someone at the same time.
AlaskaJoe

Model jet plane tech will help cool HP servers - Engadget

Since heat seems to be the current challenge in computer engineering. The lower wattage CPUs are addressing part of it. We've discussed liquid cooling, and now an HP VP, who is a model jet plane enthusiast has used his hobby to optimize fans. This allows them to maximize MIPS/cubic inch? (I just made that up.)
Engadget's article has more info:

Not content with just making its servers bulletproof, HP also wanted to pack more of them into a given space than anyone else on the market, but to do that, the company had to find a way to dissipate the massive amounts of heat generated by super-dense server clusters.
[snip]
HP found a rather unusual solution to the problem courtesy of one of its executive's pursuits outside of work: VP Rob Noblett's model jet airplane hobby. With the help of engineer Wade Vinson, Noblett realized that the electric-ducted fans he and fellow hobbyists had been using to achieve high speeds more safely could probably be modified to provide the air movement HP was seeking to cool the high-powered servers on its drawing board. After re-engineering the fans to optimize them for cooling instead of thrust, engineers were able build a model called the Active Cool Fan that is both smaller and more energy efficient than traditional fans, even though it's said to force out air as fast as a leaf blower.

I'm not sure how this would be applicable to the home market, blade servers are inherently more secured in place than a laptop, say, or a desktop in the mini form factor. ;)
--MissM

Model jet plane tech will help cool HP servers - Engadget
update: Some details about the cooling fan from ZDNet.com | HP's super cool computer fans, for instance:
1. At the highest speed, the fan reaches 166 miles per hour (Is this to scale, or real life, I wonder ;) ).
2. The Active Cool Fan design consumes one-third less power and is about half as quiet as traditional server fans. Very neat stuff.

Vista Security Features

Here's a one page summary of Vista's security features that I'm sure you'll find both informative and painless to grasp. It gives me hope that Vista really will be a major security upgrade for Windows users.

I was just a bit dismayed that at the end of the article the writer discusses the fact that there are already more security enhancements and compatibility features planned for Vista Service Pack 1. I don't know whether to be grateful for Microsoft's forward thinking or dismayed that they've already realized they will have to modify or enhance it after release.

Jack

Partition Logic

This looks pretty good. I've just gotten done trying it and my first impression is that it's grand.

It's a bootable CD that gives all the functions of Partition Magic and Norton Ghost. It's free software and the download is quick. Give it a whirl. I'm still testing, but I think it's just fine.

Jack

Official Google Blog: Finding government info

Hmmmm, its been a while since I blogged about Google. lol
I found this interesting, cause I can never remember the county website address, or the online traffic info available in North Carolina. I anticipate using this service a lot.

Want to find those IRS forms to get in your taxes on time? Need to figure out where to send your DMV fees, or find the phone number for your local parks and rec department? Google U.S. Government Search launches today -- it's a site on which you can 1) search across a huge index of U.S. Federal, state and local government websites via a single search box, and 2) stay up to date through personalized content feeds from government agencies and press outlets. Off you go.

For easy bookmarking, go to http://usgov.google.com.

--MissM
Official Google Blog: Finding government info

Potential Patch Problem with MS06-025

I wanted to give everybody a warning about this, just in case you have issues, of course, if dialup is affected, I'm not sure how you'll see this. ;)
To quote SANS Internet Storm Center:

Published: 2006-06-15,
Last Updated: 2006-06-15 18:59:11 UTC by Lorna Hutcheson (Version: 1)

We have received some reports of a potential issue with MS06-025. Here is a snippet of what appears to be the problem as it was report to us:

"We received couple of calls that users are
not able to dial up after applying MS06-025 (KB911280).

I verified this on a test machine and it looks like it breaks dial up.

We have some scripts that need to be run in order to authenticate the user
properly after the dial up connection is established.

It looks like the patch prevents scripts from running at all. Even when I
turned on the terminal window (in interactive logon and scripting) I can't
log in manually at all. After the connection is established I can see the
Username prompt in the terminal window but I can't enter any data.

Uninstalling the patch fixes this."

Microsoft has confirmed they are getting some reports of this and have established a case number. If you are having similar problems, call Microsoft for free support, 1-(866) PC-SAFETY, and reference case number SOX060615700008.

--MissM
Potential Patch Problem with MS06-025 (NEW)

Intel "Santa Rosa" Desktop Platform Detailed

The next generation of Intel PC chips (as opposed to server parts) is code named "Merom". Daily Tech has a good, short review of what we can expect from them, both in desktop, small form factor PCs and notebooks/tablets.

This one is easy to understand and an almost mandatory read if you want to know what Intel thinks we will be using in 6 months.

Jack

Direct X 10 will be Vista only

We have suspected this all along. Vista's display system is different enough that it cannot be back-ported to XP without inordinate effort (something on the order of a service pack). Microsoft probably is not intending on supporting XP long enough to make this worth the effort and the new display foundation is just one more reason for folks to upgrade.

Jack

What users hate most about Web sites

Okay. We've been saying this over and over. Fixing just these five things will make your site much more usable.

This is a quick and concise read and if you ever thought of coding up a site on your own, you need to print this out and put it where you can see it as you work.

Jack

Microsoft presses the Stupid button

The link is to Ed Bott's blog on ZDNet. I think it boils down the Windows Genuine Advantage problem nicely. There are two links to David Berlind's blog posts as well, and these need to be written to get the full impact of Bott's arguments.

Jack

Why people hate Sony

Over the years I have had a lot of Sony products, ranging from various iterations of the Walkman to the satellite box that controls our TV viewing. I will not have another, period.

My anger is over the rootkit/DRM Sony foisted upon us a short while ago. The arrogance and complete disregard for the well-being of the consumer shown by the company's actions and statements surrounding that fiasco convinced me Sony was not my friend.

The link above will take you to a commentary at The Inquirer, illustrating even more reasons not to care for Sony. Aside from PlayStations, they don't sell anything I can't get somewhere else and I can frankly do without a gaming console from someone who considers my safety and well-being such a low priority.

Jack

Is DC the power to solve heat problems?

Tech Republic has an article about using DC power throughout the data center. It's a new idea that has polarized argument across the server industry. Some companies are actually putting money into the idea and others dismiss it out of hand.

Jack

Google Browser Sync

Since more have become familiar with the benefits of firefox ;)
I thought that everybody would find this useful. From what I heard on ChuckChat, you encrypt it locally (reading the FAQ, its a PIN and it doesn't say how many characters there are). I haven't installed it myself, I use a third party google toolbar, something about the UI as I recall (it maybe the blogger button, now that I think about it)....

Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions. For more info, please visit our FAQ.

--MissM
Google Browser Sync

How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu!

A handy reference for newbie Ubuntu users, or maybe an "Hey, this looks easy, I think I'll try it" moment. This seemed like a good starting point and asked some questions that puzzled me. There are also screenshots too which I found informative.

Having problems installing something on your new Ubuntu operating system? "Where's the EXE?", "Where do I need to extract this to?", "How do I run it?", "Where did it go?" - have you been thinking questions like these? Don't worry, installing software, themes and other things on Ubuntu is actually very easy! This guide will help you understand with screenshots, instructional videos and to-the-point language.

--MissM
How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu!

Microsoft's Calling Home Problem: It's a Matter of Informed Consent

This is the most detailed article on this subject that I've read to date. This situation is more and more alarming. We find that beyond the calling home every day, this software is beta. It is beta software that can't be uninstalled.

IMHO this is spyware. What it does goes beyond what most people believe that Microsoft needs to do in order to check that it is a genuine copy. The fact that the information sent and the scope of the phone home behavior was not fully and cleary disclosed to the end user makes Microsoft untrustworthy.

Personally, I don't think both shoes have dropped yet. I may be wrong, but I'm guessing that there is more to come.

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 06-11-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 06-11-06. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.

Schneier on Security: Hacking Computers Over USB

Security guru (at least that's what I'd call him) Bruce Schneier posts an article about the attack potential from stray usb devices, the part that I found of most concern was an except of this article:

We figured we would try something different by baiting the same employees that were on high alert. We gathered all the worthless vendor giveaway thumb drives collected over the years and imprinted them with our own special piece of software. I had one of my guys write a Trojan that, when run, would collect passwords, logins and machine-specific information from the user's computer, and then email the findings back to us.

The next hurdle we had was getting the USB drives in the hands of the credit union's internal users. I made my way to the credit union at about 6 a.m. to make sure no employees saw us. I then proceeded to scatter the drives in the parking lot, smoking areas, and other areas employees frequented.

Once I seeded the USB drives, I decided to grab some coffee and watch the employees show up for work. Surveillance of the facility was worth the time involved. It was really amusing to watch the reaction of the employees who found a USB drive. You know they plugged them into their computers the minute they got to their desks.

I immediately called my guy that wrote the Trojan and asked if anything was received at his end. Slowly but surely info was being mailed back to him. I would have loved to be on the inside of the building watching as people started plugging the USB drives in, scouring through the planted image files, then unknowingly running our piece of software.

Go read the whole thing, some excellent advice in the article by Schneier.
--MissM

Schneier on Security: Hacking Computers Over USB

Hands on: Google Spreadsheets is more powerful than you think

The small print under the headline reads; It's no Excel killer, but Google's online spreadsheet will surprise you with what it can do.

This is a 4 page report in some detail about using Google's online spreadsheet and it's worth it. If ever you thought Google was just playing at delivering some office application functionality online in order to deliver ads, this will change your mind. Yes, it is not capable of everything Excel can do. So what? It is a serious application. You may need more power than it provides at times, but for most of what we use spreadsheets for, this is good enough.

More and more we hear that the rivalry between Google and Microsoft will hinge on file formats and other esoteric criteria. Now, here is a fully-fledged application injected into the mix. Things are definitely going to get interesting.

Jack

Microsoft to ease up on piracy check-ins

Now that the bright light of publicity has shone on the Windows Genuine Advantage program, Microsoft is backing away from it. First, they'll go to bi-weekly reporting, then discontinue it entirely.

There is a discontinuity in all this. If the WGA tool is as benign as the company says it is, why are then intending to discontinue it? If it is not, why haven't researchers found it before? It's just a feeling, but I'll wager there is more to this than we have been told and it is not necessarily bad doings by Microsoft. I am wondering if someone hasn't figured out how to either spoof WGA into accepting counterfeit copies or to attack a system running XP with the WGA software installed. Hopefully, we will find out soon.

Jack

No fix for 'critical' hole in Windows 98, ME | CNET News.com

"Microsoft will not fix a serious flaw in Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition because a patch could break other applications"
Well for you diehards that can't live without your Windoiws9X. It's time to join the 21st century.
AlaskaJoe

Windows 98, 98SE and ME: Information about Support Lifecycle and MS06-015

In this TechNet blog entry, Christopher Budd writes that it is not feasible to repair certain vulnerabilities in Windows Explorer as found in Windows 98, 98SE and Millennium Edition (ME). Windows Explorer in the NT derivatives, Windows 2000 and XP, is able to be repaired to cope with the vulnerabilities in question. Hence, Microsoft is urging folks to upgrade, rather than stick with these old operating systems.

Jack

Crave Talk: Is Nintendo the apple of Apple's eye?

It's a rumor and not much more. A very interesting rumor, to be sure, but only that. Idle speculation is another term that applies. The "logic" in the article linked to above is definitely weak enough to be ignored and tantalizing to the point of some folks wanting it to be true.

Jack

Turn your $60 router into a $600 router - Lifehacker

This is a great idea, I have heard there were some Linux hacks for the firmware on some Linusys Wireless Routers. Here is a "How To:" on how to upgrade your firmware and then tweak your router.
Please be careful you can make a nice blue and black paper weight flashing your router's firmware. However if you do it right, these are very nice tweaks.
AlaskaJoe

Intel pledges 60 per cent price cuts

The implication is that we should hold off buying new machines until the price cuts take effect. (Maybe the cuts will be drastic enough to offset part of the expected tariff for Vista.)

Actually, this is part of Intel's counter to AMD's recent gains in market share. The prospect impresses me, but evidently the folks at the stock market missed the announcement as Intel's stock price fell 3 sessions running.

Jack

Super Battery

Longer life, vastly shorter recharge times and they might not wear out. What's not to like? It's a simple idea utilizing carbon nanotubes. Check out the link above. It sounds marvelous and, though it really is rocket science, it is nowhere near as remote as most of this sort of technology is. We might see it relatively soon.

Jack

RIAA can fine you if you install Kazaa

No comment. I couldn't equal this one if I tried.

Jack

Bumper crop of Microsoft patches on the way

"Microsoft plans to release on Tuesday a dozen security bulletins with fixes for flaws." Make sure you do your Windows Updates this coming Tuesday!
AlaskaJoe

Linux UMPC Updated

It's not just Microsoft who is interested in Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) though they are certainly the largest force moving them toward the marketplace.

XYZ has a review of Pepper Pad's Linux powered UMPC. It looks very attractive and is far and away the lowest priced device in that market segment. And the list of functions, along with equipment, is impressive enough to have me wanting one.

I wonder if they'll give me one for review? I'm surely going to ask.

Check it out at the link above.

Jack

Seagate announces hybrid, encrypted 2.5" drives

It is happening. The surplus and thus low price of NAND flash memory is encouraging new storage products, just as we had predicted. No, I'm not bragging. It was really sort of a no-brainer.

There are going to be a LOT of new products incorporating flash memory. This is just one use for it. Look for a bunch of others coming out that we probably hadn't thought of.

Jack

For Dell, industry standard now includes Linux

The upshot is that 25% of Dell's enterprise business is now running Linux.

Even as Linux grows, it loses market share to Windows servers, running either Apache or Microsoft's web server. The figures are somewhat skewed by Go Daddy's recent move to all Windows operation. Without that factored in, Windows is still taking share.

The reason? There are not enough Linux techs to go around. An organization can find technicians qualified and able to run Windows well and with reasonable security quite easily. Linux techs are harder to find. I, personally, have seen 4 or 5 organizations move away from Linux to Windows or Solaris because of the technician problem within the last 12 months. Neither the economic or quality advantages of Linux matter if an organization cannot find someone to run the systems for them.

Jack

Vista Sheds Yet Another Feature

The latest feature to be stripped out of Microsoft's upcoming Vista operating system is PC to PC synchronization.

Microsoft cites quality concerns, while the scuttlebutt says it is because a large part of the code would need re-writing to be secure. Whichever it is, Microsoft has a problem.

Technically oriented observers have been down on the delays and continuously shrinking feature list for quite a while now. After all the fuss, even the man or woman on the street, who generally could care less about operating systems, are now starting to remark upon Microsoft's "failure" to produce a viable product. It is very plain that it will take a LOT of doing for MS to overcome it's ever more sullied reputation.

Jack

Microsoft product phones home every day

I feel like humming Darth Vader's theme -- you know -- the evil empire.

Just when I think I like Microsoft, they pull something like this. Even better, once you install WGA you can't uninstall it. So there it goes reporting back to MS each day without telling you what it is reporting or how often -- until they got caught that is.

Six Hosting Companies Most Reliable Hoster in May

Sometimes you just stumble upon a good story. I had gone to Netcraft to see what it was reporting for some hosted domains I manage and I saw this headline. I'm pleased to see that many of the hosts are ones that I and my friends use and recommend. In fact, Rackspace is on of the hosts that On Computers uses and they ranked a very respectable second.

The six-way tie is a first for the reliability survey, as three and even four providers have shared the top position in the past. The showing reflects a strong month for hosting reliability, as the winners each had just 0.01 percent of their DNS responses fail, just a hair short of a perfect showing. All six companies have finished atop the survey at least once previously.

What is also neat is that among the top hosts this month. all use Linux and FreeBSD. Want to know who they are? You'll have to read the article to find out.

Now if Blogger were only as realiable. Then again the price is right. (Blogger has been out to sluggish the past 24 hours so if you don't see us posting much it is because there have been serious technical difficulties.) Fortunately the actual blog at blogspot.com seems to have remained up.

Australian IT - Microsoft takes on net nasties (double click | David Frith, JUNE 06, 2006)

I'd seen this a week or so ago, and was too busy to post it. But, I thought it was hysterical. How many of us have been here???

MICROSOFT executives love telling stories against each other. Here's one that platforms vice-president Jim Allchin told at a recent Windows Vista reviewers conference about chief executive Steve Ballmer.

It seems Steve was at a friend's wedding reception when the bride's father complained that his PC had slowed to a crawl and would Steve mind taking a look.

Allchin says Ballmer, the world's 13th wealthiest man with a fortune of about $18 billion, spent almost two days trying to rid the PC of worms, viruses, spyware, malware and severe fragmentation without success.

He lumped the thing back to Microsoft's headquarters and turned it over to a team of top engineers, who spent several days on the machine, finding it infected with more than 100 pieces of malware, some of which were nearly impossible to eradicate.

If misery loves company, Ballmer has a lot of it. :)
--MissM

Australian IT - Microsoft takes on net nasties (double click | David Frith, JUNE 06, 2006)

Slashdot | The Worst Bill You've Never Heard Of

Slashdot | The Worst Bill You've Never Heard Of
I have enough license for my computer to run, why do I need another one to use it?

More Linux updates

Hope you guys ain't getting tired of this. :-). Both Ubuntu and Arklinux had updates last week. Ubuntu I was able to do an upgrade while running it. Pretty cool. It went fine. Only had to re-enable MP3's. So, a nice "attaboy" for the Ubuntu folks. Arklinux I re-installed. So far so good. Thanks Arklinux folks.

Google Spreadsheets Sneak Peek

For a company that professes to be only mildly interested in offering an office suite online, Google sure is accumulating a bunch of components, aren't they? First was Writely, an online word processor that allows collaborative document generation and editing. Now it's a spreadsheet that handles Microsoft file formats and allows up to 10 collaborators at a time to work on the document.

I'm done speculating on all this, but it does walk like a duck, quacks like a duck and for all I can tell.............

Jack

Dell to become a bank

Don't mind the headlines. Without the hysteria it just means Dell is going to start acting like a car company and financing the purchase of what they build. It could be a good deal for all concerned, especially if Dell uses lower interest loans on entry level machines to open computing to those who might otherwise not be able to afford it.

There is potential for profit and the scheme might even help improve customer service. After all; you don't want a frustrated customer defaulting on a loan upon which you hold the note.

Jack

New Microsoft E-Mail Client Gets Ads

This is the first revenue generating part of Windows Live announced, if I'm not mistaken. The article posits it as an eventual replacement for Outlook Express, which makes a lot of sense.

Jack

Something Untoward in the Latest Yahoo Messenger

This is a personal and anecdotal story, but here's what happened. I just downloaded the latest version of Yahoo Messenger (msgr75us.exe). The first thing I had to do to install it was to turn of Data Execution Protection in Windows. I've had to do that with a few older programs, but what is up with this in a brand new version of Yahoo Messenger? Just how are they burrowing into my computer?

Something smells bad about this. Add to that the fact it crashed on the install in spite of me giving it a pass through DEP, and the fact that it required a Macromedia download when I finally got the install to proceed on the third try, and I got rid of it. I went back to version seven. (OldVersion.com)

This version includes an annoying animated ad at the bottom of the contacts list that I'm unable to hide. That was just the frosting on the Yahoo Messenger crud cake. And the cherry on top is the AT&T co-branding -- yuk! As to the ad, I don't mind looking at an ad in return for a service, but the minute you flash it at me it annoys me and I will do just about anything to get rid of it. I did.

Yahoo Messenger never has been the best of the best, but IMHO right now the current version is worse than useless. And I ask again, just why does it need DEP privileges? Something stinks here. I think I'll run Rootkit Revealer just to be on the safe side.

UPDATE: For the time being, you can get the last stable version (7.02) of Yahoo Messenger here. FYI no version is bug free, but this is the best IMHO.

Lenovo deletes Linux

I have to wonder why this is a story and conclude it's just Microsoft's marketing monies at work and signals Lenovo's move into the top tier of manufacturers in Microsoft's eyes.

There are very few PC companies supporting Linux (as opposed to server makers, most of whom support Linux). HP offers Mandriva Linux in France in what can only be thought of as an experiment in offering Linux and support in a small but ready market. Local or regional "white box" PC makers sometimes support it, but none of the majors do so on the desktop or notebooks they offer.

The problem PC companies have with offering Linux is two-fold. First, they'll probably lose MS marketing monies. Second, they have no support structure in place and building up one would be both expensive and time consuming. They state there is not enough demand for Linux, which is true enough when you consider they mean there is not enough demand to quickly pay for the increased infrastructure they would need AND replace the MS marketing money that would be lost. What we in the trenches see as substantial demand is not adequate to their needs. It's as simple as that.

Jack

Update; Lenovo is now back-tracking frantically. They will continue to offer Linux on their business notebooks, known as the "ThinkPad" models. Considering that it took diligent searching to find their Linux offerings before and that they seemed to discourage the choice of it with unseemly vigor, this is hardly good news for Linux fans. Still, it is there if you want or need it. ZDNet has a story about it, here.

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 06-04-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 06-04-06. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
Due to internet problems we were late starting this morning and the audio is not up to par for us.

Don't upgrade Web software, just keep improving it | By Jon Udell

When I logged in to my bank’s online system to pay some bills last night, I was greeted with the following message: “Bill payment system upgrade completed.”
Uh-oh. That’s a message I don’t want to see.

Thin-client software delivered through the Web can improve gradually and continuously, and that is one of its greatest virtues. When we could ship upgrades only once every year or two, we had no choice but to batch up the changes in ways that were guaranteed to disrupt the work habits of the people using our applications. But now we can trickle-feed those changes so that people can gradually adapt to them and we can more carefully monitor and adjust their experiences.

Unfortunately my bank’s bill payment service provider doesn’t operate that way. Along with a big-bang release of its back-end service, which added a variety of new features, it switched to an all-new Web interface. As a result, it took me a surprisingly long time to rediscover how to do the most basic thing -- namely, pay a bill.

Hint: The link that leads to the bill payment window should probably be labeled “Pay bill.” Or, at the very least, that link’s anchor title -- that is, the text that pops up when you hover over the link -- ought to say “Pay bill” rather than “Opens a new window.”

It gets worse. The old system would queue up payments from multiple accounts in a single screen. The new system, with “simpler navigation that makes paying bills easier,” won’t let me do that. Now I have to make payments from my household account in one batch, and from my business account in another. The forklift upgrade didn’t just temporarily disrupt my online banking experience, it permanently subtracted value from it.

My credit union did the same thing, now when I look at my account I see from the beginning of the previous month. This is useless, in my opinion, I want to see the most recent transactions and their choice was a bad one. I also recently logged on to my Gas Company website, to look at my bill. I had questions about the bill, and didn't want to waste time on hold, so instead I clicked on "Send Email" or something similar to that... and I'll copy my comments to the company:

I find the website very difficult to navigate. My original email was about my bill, but when I tried to struggle through the contact us form, it became more obvious that feedback is very needed. I offer these suggestions because I think it can only get better. :)
1. Send To*: I didn't expect to pick the company, but the department, then it was unclear to me which choice to make to send the email. I know BigCompanyA bought LocalCompanyA, and BigCompanyA was my first choice, but then realized that the operations might not merged yet. I was thinking that Send To* could possibly be changed to "Your local utility name," though I think that is awkward, too. It seems that one address could have rules setup to forward the email to the appropriate division, transparent to the customer.
2. Questions* I have EPP payment questions, and it is not listed in the options. Therefore, I select "What if my question is not listed?" and it opens another window that says "We apologize that you could not locate the information you needed in our "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) section. Please contact us by using the link below or calling our 24-hour Customer Service Department at 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX and a Customer Relations Specialist will assist you." and to use this form. This is a totally unnecessary action, in my opinion, and should be removed.
3. When I hit Send (which should be at the bottom of the window, not near the subject line, in my opinion), my account number, which is not required had the dashes eliminated, then told me it was an invalid account number. After double checking, I realized it had truncated the last two digits of the account number, when the dashes were removed.

I received a nice, but not grammatical letter in response, I'll be curious about the results. The only changes I've seen based on the effort I go to to give good feedback are when podcast url's are wrong. Its disappointing, frankly.
Do you have any similar experiences? Relay them in comments, please. :)
--MissM
Don't upgrade Web software, just keep improving it | By Jon Udell

Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won't Like About Windows Vista

I hesitated posting this for a couple days, for fear it would be seen as bashing. I finally decided it had to be brought to your attention as a legitimate opinion piece.

It's worth reading so we'll know more of what to expect from Vista. Of course, that's assuming Microsoft doesn't just junk the whole thing and re-write it around Free Cell Solitaire.

Jack

AMD Introduces Ultimate Enthusiast Platform - 4x4

As an addition to Jack's post about the new AMD processor. The link has pictures! And a few more details for you detail hungry readers!
Join us tomorrow for the live show.
--MissM

PC Perspective - Comments

Why First Generation Apple Products Suck

I'm not sure I agree with everything the author of this piece, Gundeep Hora, has to say. He has a point, though, to one degree or another. It is worth a read, though, if only to argue about just how close he is to the mark.

Personally, I love the two Apple computers we have, though I should note I'm running Linux on them both. The hardware is simply superb! And it's not Apple's fault I was unwilling to learn to work in yet another operating system.

Jack

AMD 4X4 to arrive sooner rather than later

Trust me on this; THE fastest route to insanity is to attempt to understand, then keep up with either Intel or AMD roadmaps. It will indeed make you crazy and old before your time. The ATI and NVidia roadmaps are even worse, but we won't get into that where the children might see it.

AMD is popping for two sockets with a dual core part in each one as an ultimate gamer's machine, though I could see it put profitably to a lot of other uses, like my Seti@home totals.

I have to wonder if I'm missing something here, though. XP Pro can only see two processors, right? Does AMD have some way of foxing this OS to use 4 while it thinks it is using 2? Or is this Linux only until Vista comes out? I don't recall seeing anything about a Vista desktop version able to use more than two cores, either. I could have missed it, and God knows the Vista roadmap has had it's own twists and turns.

So far; I have not been able to clear this up. Hopefully, all will become clear soon.

Jack

Bowing To Adobe, Microsoft Strips PDF Support From 2007 Office

Adobe publishes the PDF standard in its entirety and makes it available for free, without restrictions, to anyone who cares to use it," Adobe Senior Director of Public Policy Michael Engelhardt wrote last year in a letter to a Massachusetts state senator. "No one needs permission from Adobe to build their own product with the PDF standard.

Unless of course you are Microsoft and want to put it in Office 2007. Then Adobe strongarms you to take it out of Office. So you offer it as a downloadable patch. Except that upsets Adobe's apple cart and they want you to charge for it. After all, if end users can save to PDF out of Word, who will buy Adobe's overpriced and bloated Acrobat?

Somebody?

Anybody?

Nobody?

OpenOffice catches macro-virus

It apparently is not out in the wild but is, instead, proof of concept code.

Because of the shared code base, it also affects Star Office.

We've been saying it for a long time now; when an application or operating system reaches a market share of any significance, the bad guys will start paying heed to attack vectors for it. It has recently happened to Apple, both their Safari browser and the Mac OS X itself.

Move along now. Not much to see here.

Jack

My Linux update - Apologies to Arklinux

My original post here

Ok, I think I may have figured out what went wrong with Arklinux. It was my fault. I installed it at the end of a drive. I think that's what hosed the whole file system, on this computer. This time it's at the beginning of the drive, and I formatted the Linux partitions in Win XP with Partition Magic before I installed.
So, sorry Arklinux folks. It was my Boo-Boo not yours. Comments?

The time has come to ditch email

This is an opinion piece in The Register and though I don't totally agree, the writer may be correct in the assumption that we have to scrap email and start over with a more secure and efficient system.

There is a bit more on email and spam here.

Jack

Codes on Sites 'Captcha' Anger of Web Users

The codes, called captchas, are also showing up more often amid a boom in new Web services, ranging from blogging tools to social-networking sites. The trickiest ones 'make you not want to go to those sites anymore,' says Scott Reynolds, a 29-year-old software architect in Ocala, Fla., who lambasted the devices on his blog last year.

We use these captchas on this blog and I hate them, but the alternative is unreleting blog spam. It is another case in which by controlling the bad guys they win anyway because doing this inconveniences anyone else. We also use comment moderation in order to try to keep the comment spam down to a dull roar. If we didn't used captchas, along with moderation, there would be so much comment spam that the moderators couldn't keep up.

Bottom line is that if you hate these captchas, you are not alone. The other bottom line is that Google and others are realizing that there is a need for an alternative for visually impaired people. I think more companies will adopt audio captchas in the future as an alternative and thereby make their sites more accessible.

The Windows XP Command Line

Would you like to dabble in the Windows command line? Here is a nice Web site I found to get you started. If you heard last Sunday's show, you know that we discussed using the command line. To quickly get the CLI (command line interface) just type "cmd" into the run box on the Windows start menu.

Ubuntu to Support Sun 'Niagara' Platform

Up until yesterday, there had for all intents and purposes only been two Linux distributions with real traction in the enterprise space; Red Hat and SuSE. Some of that is sales hype and public perception of it, but a good part of it was real. RH and SuSE were the only distros with real, professional support capabilities. Organizations running other distros (and there are many) either bought support from third parties or did it all themselves.

Yesterday, Sun announced they would partner with Canonical, the parent company of Ubuntu, in porting their Linux to UltraSparc T1 "Niagra" multi-core cpu. This is a HUGE win for Canonical and probably adds Ubuntu to the short list of "top tier" distributions with RH and SuSE.

Jack

AM2: AMD Reinvents Itself

This is from the last page of a comprehensive review over at Tom's Hardware:

With Socket AM2 the (OEM) customer now has the option of DDR2 memory from AMD too. In theory, that should produce a higher memory bandwidth, which in practice is only achieved by the expensive top processors. Compared to 'old' DDR memory-based platforms, the bulk of AMD's CPUs cannot benefit from the higher bandwidth of the DDR2 memory. A closer analysis of the benchmarks even reveals a marginal performance deficit when pitting the 'new' against the 'old'. It's clear that DDR2 memory only begins to pay off at higher clock speeds of 2.4 GHz and above. And that in turn affects only the CPUs from the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ that have a price of at least $600.

My advice on the AM2 platform, is that if you can afford to wait for the next gen and/or for the prices to drop, you will be much happier.

Symantec repairs flaw in anti-virus software

Symantec said its engineers have worked 24 hours a day on the problem since its discovery last week by eEye Digital Security of Aliso Viejo, Calif. 'Symantec is a company used to responding rapidly,' said Vince Weafer, senior director for Symantec's security response unit.

Weafer said consumer versions of Symantec's popular Norton Anti-virus software — sold at retail outlets around the country — were not vulnerable to the flaw. Symantec's anti-virus products are installed on more than 200 million computers

Here is a quick update to a story we have been covering. Kudos to Symantec for fixing it quickly.

News from PC Magazine: Microsoft Releases OneCare

I'm not sure I'd be tempted to switch from another solution that was working for me. From the article it seems like the anti-spyware is not well integrated into the package. So maybe a better name would be two-care. Until more information is available I would proceed with caution, though with a 3 computer license and anti-virus, anti-spyware, a firewall, back-up and maintenance, no one can say you are not getting a lot for the money if it does the job as intended.

China battles rejection of Wi-Fi encryption algorithm

The Chinese Government is upset that the ISO rejected their wireless encryption technology known as WAPI back in March. What was the ISO's concern? The Chinese had refused to disclose some details of their technology so ISO members were not sure that there wasn't a backdoor to WAPI encrypted material. Because of this only 32% of ISO members supported it. The Chinese are crying foul and accusing the US IEEE of conspiracy and unethical behavior since the ISO favored IEEE's 802.11i encryption standard.

Gee. ya think maybe the fact the Chinese government was unwilling to give all the info to the ISO had something to do with it being rejected? I guess if you are totalitarian state it is easier to posture and complain, than to give the details of your standard to the standards folks. Personally, I'm glad the ISO rejected it on that basis, as they should reject any technology which they are not allowed to evalutate to their satisfaction. Anyone want to take bets as to there being a little hidden something in WAPI?

MPAA is charged with hiring a Hacker!

"Rothken said. 'We think it's ironic for the MPAA to claim that they are protecting the rights of the movie studios and then go out and pirate other people's property.'"
I'm posting this for Riley, he wanted to talk about it on the show but we didn't get to it.
Joe

ASUS to Enter Tablet PC Market

Asus will be putting forth a premium price convertible tablet. Convertible meaning it has a keyboard or can be swung around to be used as a "pure" tablet with pen input. The feature list is pretty rich, as one would expect.

Though they remain very much a niche product, tablets are slowly gaining traction in their market. One equipped with XP Tablet Edition and fairly well equipped is something I think would fit right in to my life and it would see a LOT of use.

With flash memory prices falling again and this year's production forecast to be 196% of last year's, it is also quite possible we will soon begin to see tablets equipped with solid state storage. At that point, where the delicate and power-hungry hard drive is no longer part of the package, I think tablets will truly come into their own.

Jack

Early Testers Hit Vista Beta 2 Snags

This is hardly unexpected in a beta testing cycle.

What surprised me is how Vista is so hard on notebook battery life and how notebooks seem to run very hot because so much of the graphics are off-loaded to the GPU, which is usually not very well cooled in a notebook form factor. It is fair to ask if this should limit notebook owners upgrading to Vista and instead holding off until they buy new kit, which will presumably be better suited to the task.

Jack

SIS backs AMD AM2 socket

While I doubt the powers that be at AMD were losing sleep waiting for SiS to support the AM2 socket, this is important. SiS provides a LOT of chipsets for low and middle bracket computers. A few more wins like this and AMD can rest assured the socket won't debut into a vacuum.

I mentioned this to a local white box maker and he thought it exciting.
Evidently there was some worry about chipset availability for the new parts. That's all over now.

Jack

PS3's STI Cell processor gets boffins excited

The upshot of the article is that the Cell processor has grand potential for scientific computing, though it favors 32 bit work over the 64 bit work most scientific computing needs. They're obviously sure that can be overcome, though. You can get a PDF about the findings, if you care to, from a link on the page cited above.

Jack

Mystery Solved

I requested a free USB stick from Microsoft, many weeks ago. I believe it was a couple months, at least. Today I checked my hotmail account, and received an email dated 5/26/06 with this url. They ran out. Dagnabit. :)
Although I was gonna give it away, because I have a few already. Just in case you haven't heard about your USB stick, I thought I'd post this.
--MissM

Mystery Solved

Microsoft bug-checking tools promise fewer crashes | CNET News.com

"Microsoft is readying two tools to help hardware makers create more stable and secure Windows drivers, which should help reduce the number of crashes."

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 05-28-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 05-28-06. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
The Winner for last weeks PodCast give-a-way of Diskeeper 10.0 Pro was:
J.D. Klein
Cave Junction, OR
K7JK-jonny
Congratulation Jonny

HD DVD to carry unwelcome DVD baggage

HD-DVD and Blu-ray is barely here and already, region coding is arriving. It seems like an ill conceived joke since region coding has never stopped a pirate and it has certainly never stopped a determined end user from viewing the DVD's of their choice.

Symantec Says Its Own AV Product Has Zero-Day Vulnerability

They are not giving all the details in order to keep the exploit out of the wild until updates are available. Symantec says tht none of its consumer grade titles are at risk including Norton AV and Norton Internet Security.

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

I've just linked to the page that lists the worst 5. I'm either proud or ashamed to admit that I have used 3 of the 5. Which 3 I will leave to your imagination.

Setting Up a Server - Linux Forums

I found this on digg.com and remembered mopguy's post and somebody in the chat talking about setting up linux.

This article teaches you, the reader, how to configure a GNU/Linux based server with three of the most important services that must be provided in a company, at home, a lab or anywhere else, both for clients and internal usage: web, database, mail. So it will be assumed that the idea is to host websites that use certain technologies such as a scripting language and a database (for dynamic sites), and also to act as a mailing tool, for sending and receiving email.

It is deemed worthy of mention because the first command given is "apt-get,"
which is critical, in my opinion, to really, really make installing things in linux easy. It does take typing, and the command line intimidates a lot of people (though I wager, not many of our listeners/readers), but apt-get takes care of all dependencies and makes installing programs in linux as easy as windows. I won't say OS X, because of a guess that it does it even easier, but I have no personal knowledge of installing programs on a Mac. Though I understand you just drag an app to the trash can (if that's the right icon/term) to uninstall. Which always gives me a *ClunK* How easy can it be? moment, when I consider the simplicity of it.... :)
--MissM
P.S. the url in the title, and below, goes to a site that mirror servers shut down, because of the digg effect, analagous to the /. effect. I was able to get to linuxforums.org, but it was slow.
Setting Up a Server - Linux Forums

Office Depot Advertised Specials

HP Pavilion a1400e Desktop Computer
SAVE $430 this is $199.99 after rebates, with an
AMD Sempron Processor 3200+ with 15" LCD and All-In-One Printer
• 256MB Memory
• 80GB Hard Drive
• Burn & Play CDs
• FREE HP 1410 All-In-One Printer
Some nice Upgrade also,
512MB of RAM add $50
CR-RW & DVD-RW Combo Drive add $25
9-in-1 Memory Card Reader add $15
160GB Hard Drive add $50
This offer is not yet available
May 28 - Jun 3
It looks like there are some killer deals out there this weekend.

$129 19-inch LCD and a whole mess o' other pre-Memorial Day deals

"Cheap Geek: $129 19-inch LCD and a whole mess o' other pre-Memorial Day deals" IF you are thinking about getting a new 19" LCD monitor or some other goodies check this out.

Incredibly funny video

This is a test, to see if it woiks. :)



Its a 6 minute video of a guy doing his ode to modern dance. He goes from Elvis to Saturday Night Fever to Michael Jackson, and beyond. I found it... well... incredibly funny. Check it out. Enjoy YouTube too, if you've never run across it.
--MissM
P.S. looks like it does woik! [typo intentional]

Microsoft shows off JPEG rival

I think this is a case of Microsoft suffering from the NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome. As far as I can see, this is just another proprietary format to confuse things, albeit a particularly good one. Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format already does everything MS' new one does.

PNG is open source and free for all, which of course sticks in Microsoft's craw and they give it only the most grudging support.

Jack

MSRC Blog : Incorrect reports of a new Windows 2000 SMB vulnerability

MSRC is the Microsoft Security Response Center. I wanted to reassure everybody this is an already patched item. Though a different type of exploit, the patch still protects the server.

Hey everyone. Stephen Toulouse here. There has been a bit of a flurry of activity here in Redmond this morning when we noticed a couple of people releasing information about an SMB vulnerability in Windows 2000.

We just want to let everyone know that we've investigated this claim and found the vulnerability being discussed is fixed by MS05-011, a security update released almost 16 months ago. We contacted our partners on this and made sure they understood this is not new. What *is* new is that someone reportedly has found a different way to exploit the vulnerability. But if you have the update, you're protected.

Just as a long U.S. holiday reminder, we watch the secure@microsoft.com email 365 days a year, so we'll have an eye out this weekend. In addition, teams are still working on the Office Word update.

Here's wishing everyone a safe Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., and a safe weekend in general to our international customers as well.

S.

*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

--MissM
edit: [consider this the caveat, aka "according to Microsoft"]
MSRC Blog : Incorrect reports of a new Windows 2000 SMB vulnerability

Microsoft wants users to actually use Office 2007

It's a truism that users of office productivity suites use 20% or even less of the available features. This doesn't just apply to Microsoft Office, either. It applies across the board, to Open Office, Star Office and all others, as well.

Microsoft realizes this and is (finally?) taking steps to get users more informed about what is available to them. Don't worry. Clippy is still dead. Instead, they're taking the approach of minimizing the interface options and directing users to whichever features they might wish to use.

If they can succeed in this, it will definitely change the way people work.

Jack

CNN.com - Company: Hackers can crack top antivirus program - May 25, 2006

I don't think I need to give most of our readers any more than one guess as to which company is being referred to in this article. The one surprise to me is that its their corporate edition that is affected, not the home version.

Microsoft: Windows Vista is on target, unless it isn't

I noticed these two opposing statements by Ballmer and Allchin earlier today. Here they are in one neat package. I'm still betting that Gartner was right a while back. I predict that we will not see Vista until 2nd Quarter 2007. And that means on computers in the stores or available for immediate shipment online, no less in the boxes on the shelves.

DefectiveByDesign.org

Evidently protesters wearing yellow Hazmat suits showed up at WinHEC to protest DRM and publicize their new DRM fighting Web site. It got my attention.

Which reminds me, if you haven't written your Senate critters to protest the lastest assault on home recording by the RIAA with a convoluted acronym, check out this. The PERFORM Act would require DRM where none is currently required. My Senate critter Feinstein is a sponsor of this ugly, ugly thing that is something that only RIAA money can buy. I wrote asking her to reconsider (fat chance). I also wrote Senator Boxer from whom I received a polite, non-committal, boiler-plate reply.

Oh, be sure to tell all your friends.

The Curious Incident of Sun in the Night-Time

RMS writes about Sun's making Java Open Source, or not. Forgive the pun but you always have to consider the source. Even though RMS is hard line when it comes to free or open source (and he clearly acknowledges open source) he doesn't think that this step by Sun comes close to open sourcing Java. He mentions that the Java source code is only available under an NDA. That's too bad. Open under NDA does not really equal open in my opinion and certainly not in Stallman's. Let's hope that this is a baby step towards true open source Java by Sun.

Windows in view

I'm starting to feel like today is all Vista all the time. So here is a list of articles on News.com. They have conveniently put them all in one place. The big thing I really want to know at this point is price and that still seems to be a big secret.

Samsung to launch PCs based on flash memory

We knew it was going to happen. Of course, the price is higher than that of a comparable laptop with a hard drive, but that was expected. I did not expect it to be as high as it is, but it's early days and before too long, there will be enough price competition to bring things down to a more realistic premium.

Jack

Schools block MySpace access; kids fight back

Schools are cracking down on access to social networking sites like MySpace in an attempt to make time spent in a computer lab profitable

That seems like a no-brainer. After all, schools have always had the ability to keep materials that the school or teacher thought were distracting away from students. In my case, I can remember a novel I was sneaking a peak at being taken away, as was a crossword puzzle. You can only imagine what a snorer the class was! I only wish that I had a computer when I was in school even with MySpace blocked from my inquiring mind.

What is a little more interesting is the Libertyville school where students in extracurricular programs can be disciplined for what they post on their own time that is considered illegal or inappropriate. "Illegal" should be pretty easy to define. "Inappropriate" is more of a judgment call. I hope that the guidelines are publicized and very clear or that the students get a warning and a chance to remove "inappropriate" before they are disciplined. I'm afraid, given recent history in schools, that is will be an extension of zero tolerance. The good news is that the schools won't be patrolling the Web.

Also, will any measures be taken to assure that the student named really posted the material that is in question? This seems like it would be a very easy way to "frame" someone you didn't like by posting Web content in their name. After all the Web is such a secure place (not). I'm not sure that school administrators will be perusing ISP logs to determine the truth or who posted what when and where. It will be up to students (and parents footing legal fees) to prove themselves innocent in some cases. It could be a lot of time lost and reputations ruined falsely for some students. Enough of that goes on in high school low tech -- like writing on the bathroom wall. I can imagine this rule resulting in some high-tech sabotage.

I can see both sides and there are no good answers, but with school rules just like the criminal justice system, I'd rather see the guilty go free than see one innocent person harmed.

MS Share Point Server 2007 and "Knowledge Network"

Microsoft's Share Point Server 2007 is winding it's way toward users. It's a really hard product for anyone to get excited about, but it is more and more widely used in enterprises. The most interesting thing about SPS'07 might be a freebie add-on called "Knowledge Network" which will be offered to licensed users.

It's a bit hard for me to think of Microsoft as innovative, no matter how much they trumpet their opinion that they are. But in Knowledge Network, they have hit upon an innovation that I think of as truly revolutionary; able to change the way companies and their staffs search out the knowledge held within the company itself.

It's a bit hard to explain, but I'll take a stab at it. It all seems very logical, to the point of "why didn't I think of that?" when you get into it.

Estimates vary wildly, but it is a truism that much of any enterprise's knowledge resides in the heads of their employees and is not recorded anywhere else. I've read figures from 30% to 80% with very good arguments for whatever numbers the writer chooses to espouse. I imagine it varies from situation to situation anyway. The only thing we have to know is that a lot of this knowledge can be unavailable to those who need it, unless you know the right person to ask. Knowledge Network is intended to point you toward the person who has the knowledge you require. Making it part of a collaboration suite is simply logical.

Using keywords and like that, combined with a bit of clever artificial intelligence software, Knowledge Network collects facts that can help others find the person with the knowledge they need, when they need it. The knowledge base is built up over time, from documents generated and records of projects an employee has taken part in.

The database thus constructed and manipulated could be a privacy nightmare and Microsoft recognizes this up front. They talk of "appropriate privacy policies" needing to be in place and most accounts I have seen also speak of allowing the workers to edit their own profiles to avoid privacy problems. With such measures in place, there is no reason for this to be a problem. (Although I have to wonder how many employers will take the problem seriously enough to go to the trouble.) It is expected MS will ship KN with rather restrictive defaults.

Frankly, just the promise of Knowledge Network is enough to make me a fan of Share Point Server '07! Used wisely, it could and probably will be a lifesaver at times and a useful tool the rest of the time.


The link above will take you to the blog of the team developing this at Microsoft. Here's a link to Microsoft Watch's "rah-rah" take on it. And if you're interested, here's a link to Bill Gates' latest missive on knowledge work and handling.

Jack

My intoduction to Linux

I finally decided once and for all to try Linux. Here goes:

So far I’ve tried 3 distributions. Ubuntu, Ark Linux, and White box Linux. In all cases I was dual booting with windows XP pro.

Ubuntu is probably the best all around but, it refused to let me run above 640X480 Screen resolution with an onboard Nvida Gforce
video chip. I even tried to install a driver. Didn’t work. I think because it’s Debian based? I do have it installed on a Mother board with an S3 video chip and it runs fine.

Ark Linux, red hat based did let me do 800 X 600 with the same Nvida chip however, One day it hosed my “C” drive and I had to restore from an image. Still not sure what exactly what went wrong all I Did was plug in a USB “thumb” drive. Next boot entire “C” drive was hosed.

White box Linux, also red hat based, so far so good. However, it is 4 CD’s to down load and takes about 12 attempts to get it to update correctly, if you are lucky.

So, to sum up, all things considered, not bad for free operating systems. I’d have to recommend Ubuntu if you decide to take the plunge. It didn’t hose my system. The only problem was the driver for the Nvida chip. Even then it did run OK at 640 X 480. Comments please, Jack or anybody.

Dell does retail

Apparently, Dell says they were inspired by the Apple stores. That's a little hard to take, as it seems as if the plan is for nothing more than kiosks to allow prospective buyers to see products.

There will be one in Dallas, which is near me, and I'll be over there as soon as it opens. I'll let you know what I find.

Jack

New Yahoo IM Worm Poses as 'Safety' Browser

First discovered by anti-malware researchers at FaceTime Communications, the worm, labeled as yhoo32.explr, is forwarding itself throughout Yahoo's IM system via the contact lists of people whose computers it has already been infected. Once loaded onto a PC, the malicious program automatically hijacks the computer's existing browser home page and encourages users to visit a fraudulent Web site that attempts to load spyware programs onto their devices.

More fun and games from the bad guys.

Introducing AMD's AM2 Platform

It is official, tomorrow is the day AMD will finally announce the AM2 platform for desktop processors. AMD originally had plans to launch the chipset on June 6, 2006, but shortly after the announcement that Intel's Core 2 Duo processor would launch at the same time, AMD bumped the launch date up to May 23, 2006.

I'm sure there will be more news and information tomorrow, but this will do for now.

Tales From Packaging Hell

From Psyclone electronics cables encased in impenetrable layers of thick plastic to DigiPower camera batteries coated with packaging several times the size of the item itself, the hardest part of buying electronics these days is opening the products when you get them home. In many cases, it makes solving Halo 2 seem like a kindergarten project.

This is an all too common problem. This article describes the difficulties encountered with theft resistant packaging and some steps taken to make packaging more user friendly. In the end this is one more case where honest people are inconvenienced and even injured in the attempt to thwart dishonest people.

Microsoft Doesn't Expect Suit To Block Vista Launch

Asked whether the case would have any impact on the Vista roll-out, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told Reuters: 'I wouldn't anticipate any, but that will go to the courts now.'

Ballmer, speaking in Beijing after a news conference, did not elaborate.

Symantec is also seeking an injunction that would block the further development, sale or distribution of Vista and other products until all Symantec intellectual property is removed.

Juts a little update for those of you who are concerned about this.

Thieves Steal Personal Data of 26.5M Vets - Yahoo! News

Do you trust Uncle Sam?

Wired News: Why We Published the AT&T Docs

As part of the EFF suit against AT&T wiretapping, Wired.com has released the statement from the whistleblower. Good for Them!! I say.

A file detailing aspects of AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic wiretap operation is sitting in a San Francisco courthouse. But the public cannot see it because, at AT&T's insistence, it remains under seal in court records.
[snip]
AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released.

Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.

They also use words like "anonymous source" and a motion to release the documents along with "other news and civil rights organizations that have already done so, including the EFF, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Associated Press and Bloomberg.

Before publishing these documents we showed them to independent security experts, who agreed they pose no danger to AT&T. For example, they do not reveal sensitive information that hackers might use to attack the company's systems."
--MissM

Wired News: Why We Published the AT&T Docs

Regarding what I said about Apple closing Darwin for x86 code

I said on the show that Apple was closing the source of the Darwin kernel for x86. Apparently I have mistaken rampant speculation for fact. Here is a post on an Apple mailing list from someone high up at Apple which seems to indicate that no decision has been made.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 05-21-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 05-21-06. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
Listen to this show to find out how you can win a copy of Diskeeper Pro 10.0!

The fight against V1@gra (and other spam)

The author of this CNet News.com article seems to think the flood of spam is stabilizing at about 70% of all email traffic. That may or may not be correct. It certainly doesn't hold true here. This morning, I downloaded 802 pieces of mail, 18 of which were legitimate. (And, yes; I DID count.) Oh; and that is AFTER passing through my filters.

That ratio seems to hold pretty constantly, here. Spam to my 10 accounts seems to be growing at the rate of about 10% every 3 weeks. That doesn't sound like stabilization to me. And it sure doesn't seem like stabilization.

The article may or may not be worth reading, depending on how agitated you get when all this stuff is brought to your attention. I thought it was, but I kept two bottles of antacid tablets at hand throughout.

Jack