"Cyber criminals are starting to use fake blogs to snare new victims.
The bogus web journals are being used as traps that infect visitor's machines with keylogging software or viruses.
Filtering firm Websense said it had found hundreds of bogus blogs baited with all kinds of malicious software to snare the unwary.
Websense warned that the baited blogs could get past traditional security measures that try to protect people from malicious programs."
Just another example of how careful, anybody surfing the internet has to be.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Are you breaking a social contract to use the Firefox Adblock extension?
I have alluded to this moral dilemma several times in the past. I agree with one poster that when the ads are offensive enough, there really is no dilemma. In that case I believe that the ad mongers have already broken the social contract with me. So read it, and see what you think.
IBM car tech to nab speeders | CNET News.com
Thanks to Curtis for this link.
Would you willingly drive a car that had a black box to check on your driving habits?
Would you willingly drive a car that had a black box to check on your driving habits?
Stopping spam at the source - Spam, Scams & Viruses - MSNBC.com
Its good to see that Earthlink (one of the country's larger ISPs) is restricting their email servers on their end.
What are ISPs doing to prevent spam?
1. Configuring their servers so that they aren't relays (only accepts incoming email for mailboxes on their servers).
2. Requiring internal clients to authenticate when they do send mail (like what Earthlink is currently phasing in).
3. Restricting access to send email only from their own mail servers. They do this by blocking the outgoing mail port from all other computers.
Its a start. Personally, I'd rather just see spammers tar and feathered.
Aaron
What are ISPs doing to prevent spam?
1. Configuring their servers so that they aren't relays (only accepts incoming email for mailboxes on their servers).
2. Requiring internal clients to authenticate when they do send mail (like what Earthlink is currently phasing in).
3. Restricting access to send email only from their own mail servers. They do this by blocking the outgoing mail port from all other computers.
Its a start. Personally, I'd rather just see spammers tar and feathered.
Aaron
Progressive News - Is Cheap Broadband Un-American? by Tim Karr
Progressive News - Is Cheap Broadband Un-American? by Tim Karr: "We have Big Media to thank for saving Americans from themselves. Just as the notion of affordable broadband for all was beginning to take hold in towns and cities across the country"
We all want cheap Broadband, Don't we?
Joe
We all want cheap Broadband, Don't we?
Joe
U.S. agencies ordered to be brand neutral | Tech News on ZDNet
U.S. agencies ordered to be brand neutral | Tech News on ZDNet: "The White House told federal agencies this week to stop specifying brand names in procurement contracts, a practice it says leads to higher prices for everything from paper clips to PCs and hurts the livelihood of smaller vendors."
My computers have AMD inside, do you demand Intel inside?
Joe
My computers have AMD inside, do you demand Intel inside?
Joe
Linux programmer wins legal victory | Tech News on ZDNet
Linux programmer wins legal victory | Tech News on ZDNet
A Linux programmer has reported a legal victory in Germany in enforcing the General Public License, which governs countless projects in the free and open-source software realms.
Score one for the Linux Programmers!
Joe
A Linux programmer has reported a legal victory in Germany in enforcing the General Public License, which governs countless projects in the free and open-source software realms.
Score one for the Linux Programmers!
Joe
Cerf: Hollywood interested in BitTorrent | Tech News on ZDNet
Cerf: Hollywood interested in BitTorrent Tech News on ZDNet: "Hollywood is anxious to embrace BitTorrent as a method of movie distribution, according to Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet. "
Are you using BitTorrent? I downloaded the new Fedora core 4 Release 2 in a couple of hours. 5 CD's
Joe
Are you using BitTorrent? I downloaded the new Fedora core 4 Release 2 in a couple of hours. 5 CD's
Joe
Major Security Flaw in Open Office Found
This one slipped below my radar. The patch is already out for download. Details of the announcement at the link above. Details of the patch and the patch itself can be found here.
Jack
Jack
Apple Salles Rise Dramatically
Well, we knew it would happen. A 40% rise in sales is certainly more than I expected, though. It's not just the "halo" effect of the iPod, either. The reputation of Macs as easy to use and secure is growing to where I hear it daily as fact from all sorts of people.
The release of OS X 10.4 (Tiger) comes at the end of this month and will almost certainly boost the popularity of the Mac.
Jack
The release of OS X 10.4 (Tiger) comes at the end of this month and will almost certainly boost the popularity of the Mac.
Jack
Legal action threatens Microsoft's Longhorn
A smaller company, Alacritech, has sued Microsoft and obtained an injunction against the software giant to prevent MS' usage of networking protocols belonging to Alacritech as part of Longhorn's communication packages.
It is unknown at this time what effect this will have on Longhorn's release date or it's constitution. What is known is that the increased communications capabilities are near the heart of what MS will put forth as reason to upgrade to Longhorn from XP. How big a blow this is can be debated. That it is damaging is a certainty. Look for frantic, big bucks negotiations for licensing.
Jack
It is unknown at this time what effect this will have on Longhorn's release date or it's constitution. What is known is that the increased communications capabilities are near the heart of what MS will put forth as reason to upgrade to Longhorn from XP. How big a blow this is can be debated. That it is damaging is a certainty. Look for frantic, big bucks negotiations for licensing.
Jack
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Worm attack forces Reuters IM offline | Tech News on ZDNet
Worm attack forces Reuters IM offline Tech News on ZDNet: "Worm"
Have you ever received a Virus through an IM? I have!
You don't just get a Virus from Email, you can get it from all sorts of places.
Remember I sell NOD32, The Anti-Virus that works! http://AlaskaJoe.com/NOD32
Joe
Have you ever received a Virus through an IM? I have!
You don't just get a Virus from Email, you can get it from all sorts of places.
Remember I sell NOD32, The Anti-Virus that works! http://AlaskaJoe.com/NOD32
Joe
Microsoft Action Pack Subscription
Microsoft Action Pack Subscription: "The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription"
This is a great deal, I have had a subscription to the Microsoft Action pack for years.
The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is a benefit that’s available to Registered Members of the Microsoft Partner Program.
You need to complete your program enrollment in order to be recognized as a partner on the Microsoft Partners website.
Action Pack software includes:
Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 (10 licenses)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition (10 Licenses)
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Professional
And more all for $299.00 for the first year. and $199.00 a year after that.
Joe
This is a great deal, I have had a subscription to the Microsoft Action pack for years.
The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is a benefit that’s available to Registered Members of the Microsoft Partner Program.
You need to complete your program enrollment in order to be recognized as a partner on the Microsoft Partners website.
Action Pack software includes:
Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 (10 licenses)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition (10 Licenses)
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Professional
And more all for $299.00 for the first year. and $199.00 a year after that.
Joe
Linspire 5-0: Surprisingly capable Linux desktop OS - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com
The next version of Linspire (formerly Lindows) is soon to be available for retail purchase. According to this review, its pretty plug and play, but is it worth the cost when you can get either Fedora, Slackware, Debian, etc for free?
Aaron
Aaron
Now taxes really can bug you
Oh My Goodness! Intuit and H&R Block use Web bugs on their Web based free filing service? Why doesn't this surprise me? It doesn't surprise me, but it does sadden me. Talk about a betrayal of trust. At least it is coming to light.
Dare to Explore: Microsoft's Web browser has a rapid rival in Firefox
It was interesting to find this article in one of our local papers today. It is an introduction to Firefox for the non-technically oriented who are just hearing about it for the first time. I think it's a pretty good article. It is fascinating for us techies to remember that while Firefox is old hat to us, it is brand new to the public at large.
P.S. After re-reading the article, I do take exception to one point. I hardly ever have to open IE -- maybe once every 2 to 4 weeks. Of course that varies with what Web sites a user frequents. I spend hours and hours each week surfing in Firefox alone and I'm making no particular effort in order to do so. Most of the time, I'm not aware that I'm using an "alternative" browser. In fact the only time I have opened IE in the last few weeks was for Windows/Office Updates, and to download Firefox to a computer that only had IE installed.
P.S. After re-reading the article, I do take exception to one point. I hardly ever have to open IE -- maybe once every 2 to 4 weeks. Of course that varies with what Web sites a user frequents. I spend hours and hours each week surfing in Firefox alone and I'm making no particular effort in order to do so. Most of the time, I'm not aware that I'm using an "alternative" browser. In fact the only time I have opened IE in the last few weeks was for Windows/Office Updates, and to download Firefox to a computer that only had IE installed.
Surprises Lurk in Satellite Snaps
This is a fun article about finding unexpected things in in satellite imagery, most notably using Google. Nuff said, go exploring!
CNN.com - The new telephony - Apr 13, 2005
Another article on VoIP. The industry appears to be getting bigger, but the word in this article is just to make sure you know what you are doing first.
Aaron
Aaron
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Internet phone service sometimes shaky
Yep. It's true. Generally old fashioned land-line phone service is pretty reliable and VOIP has to leap a high bar in equalling it, no less surpassing it as the recent 911 problems highlight. Nonetheless, I think the author of this article was a little harsh in terms of his "outtage" experience (he did not address 911 concerns).
While the documentation from ATT about the answering machine may have been a little weak, it was still probably a user error (leaving the answering machine plugged in), not a VOIP outtage that was the most likely cause of the problem. While inconvenient because of poor indoor cell coverage, he still had his cell phone. And what did we do in the days before cell phones and multiple phone lines in our homes when we needed to make a service call? We knocked on a neighbor's door, or found a phone booth (okay, that's getting difficult), or called from work. This guy "only" had a cell phone. That's more than most of us have had most of our lives. Nothing is perfect, but VOIP has great promise. Just be sure to do your homework and you will have few, if any nasty surprises.
On a slightly different, but realated topic, Joe and I had a conversation this morning about our impression that VOIP and cell competition is helping to drive down the cost of local personal and business landlines. I was surprised recently by some of the very attractively priced package deals offered by my friendly regional baby Bell. Not quite as attractive as VOIP, but since that's not an option here, I'm reaping the benefits anyway.
While the documentation from ATT about the answering machine may have been a little weak, it was still probably a user error (leaving the answering machine plugged in), not a VOIP outtage that was the most likely cause of the problem. While inconvenient because of poor indoor cell coverage, he still had his cell phone. And what did we do in the days before cell phones and multiple phone lines in our homes when we needed to make a service call? We knocked on a neighbor's door, or found a phone booth (okay, that's getting difficult), or called from work. This guy "only" had a cell phone. That's more than most of us have had most of our lives. Nothing is perfect, but VOIP has great promise. Just be sure to do your homework and you will have few, if any nasty surprises.
On a slightly different, but realated topic, Joe and I had a conversation this morning about our impression that VOIP and cell competition is helping to drive down the cost of local personal and business landlines. I was surprised recently by some of the very attractively priced package deals offered by my friendly regional baby Bell. Not quite as attractive as VOIP, but since that's not an option here, I'm reaping the benefits anyway.
Firefox: 237% Growth in 9 months
Here is a .pdf file complete with all the Nielsen/Net ratings.
Now I'd like to figure out why more men than women. Speaking only for myself, I think Firefox has a more attractive interface and that it would appeal to women.
Now I'd like to figure out why more men than women. Speaking only for myself, I think Firefox has a more attractive interface and that it would appeal to women.
Did I Miss the iPod Becoming Uncool?
Gosh, fashion changes so quickly that you have to keep an eye on the Internet constantly. I missed the story two days ago in the International Herald Tribune about president George Bush's personal iPod, which was given to him by his daughters last year for his birthday.
If the president is using an iPod (with tunes to get his exercise heartbeat up to 170), will it become "uncool" to the glitterati? I sure hope not since I have yet to get all the songs I want locked down once let alone once and for all.
Peter S. Kastner
If the president is using an iPod (with tunes to get his exercise heartbeat up to 170), will it become "uncool" to the glitterati? I sure hope not since I have yet to get all the songs I want locked down once let alone once and for all.
Peter S. Kastner
BigPond disconnecting Trojan-infected customers
In my opinion this is not only a fair repsonse to a customers computer flooding the networks with bogus DNS requests, it is a necessary one. To their credit BigPond is notifying its customers of the problem first and the disconnect is temporary in nature. In other words, once they clean their machines of the offending viruses, and trojans, etc. they can get back online. In fact, I think all ISPs should do likewise. If garbage spewing forth from my machine is ruining the Internet for others, I want to be disconnected so that I do the least harm. Anyone's machine can be compromised and become a menace on the Internet. It is in the interest of the ISP, the compromised customer, and the Internet for the ISP to be a watchdog in cases like this.
China Government Squeezes Foreign Software Companies
Fascism is a philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism. Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini were fascist. The People's Republic of China fits the definition in today's world.
The Financial Times (registration) reports that Chinese government agencies are strongly encouraged to buy software from local developers -- or foreign firms that must train local staff, invest revenues back into China and "transfer core software technology to China".
The "buy local or else" mandate comes a year after Microsoft won some local contracts in spite of national-level attempts to steer the business to local firms.
This is a helluva club to wield, especially given the virtually total disregard in China for intellectual property rights such as paying for software. Any foreign software firm that buys into these draconian Chinese government terms for some short-term revenue -- and with the hope of future China market share -- is making a pact with the devil. A pity that many software firms will ignore my warning.
Peter S. Kastner
The Financial Times (registration) reports that Chinese government agencies are strongly encouraged to buy software from local developers -- or foreign firms that must train local staff, invest revenues back into China and "transfer core software technology to China".
The "buy local or else" mandate comes a year after Microsoft won some local contracts in spite of national-level attempts to steer the business to local firms.
This is a helluva club to wield, especially given the virtually total disregard in China for intellectual property rights such as paying for software. Any foreign software firm that buys into these draconian Chinese government terms for some short-term revenue -- and with the hope of future China market share -- is making a pact with the devil. A pity that many software firms will ignore my warning.
Peter S. Kastner
Moore's Law is dead, says Gordon Moore
Well that's the title of the article. There is no quote of him saying "dead". However, he does share his thoughts on its limitations.
I don't know about you, but I've always been fascinated by Moore's law. It's nice to hear him comment on it.
I don't know about you, but I've always been fascinated by Moore's law. It's nice to hear him comment on it.
First Reviews: Dell Dual-Core XPS Gen5
Intel's dual-core launch is expected before Memorial Day. The first review of a production-ready machine by PC Magazine confirms what we learned last week with the initial press publication of performance benchmarks.
For $4,000, buyers of the Dell XPS Gen 5 will get a very rich configuration, including 1 GB of memory, 500 GB of hard drive capacity, and a TV tuner.
Note that this is the second recent indicator of Dell's special relationship with Intel. Two weeks ago, Dell launched 4-way Xeon servers prior to Intel's public product announcement. The XPS Gen 5 reviewed here is the first of the Intel dual-core desktops. As the non-AMD OEM in a crowded market place, it's worth observing that Intel seems to be taking care of its best customer, Dell.
Peter S. Kastner
For $4,000, buyers of the Dell XPS Gen 5 will get a very rich configuration, including 1 GB of memory, 500 GB of hard drive capacity, and a TV tuner.
Note that this is the second recent indicator of Dell's special relationship with Intel. Two weeks ago, Dell launched 4-way Xeon servers prior to Intel's public product announcement. The XPS Gen 5 reviewed here is the first of the Intel dual-core desktops. As the non-AMD OEM in a crowded market place, it's worth observing that Intel seems to be taking care of its best customer, Dell.
Peter S. Kastner
10 Things the Microsoft Longhorn OS Needs
From ExtremeTech:
1) New display system. This is what Avalon is supposed to address. The new display system needs to let us always run our systems as the maximum resolution our monitor supports and have the DPI (dots per inch) be fluidly scaleable without impacting software compatibility. I shouldn't have to run my laptop at 1024x768 in order to be able to read text if it supports 1600x1200. I should be able to run at 1600x1200 and size everything on the fly to be bigger.
2) Updated Searching. Google Desktop search only exists because the Find Files feature of Windows is essentially useless. I should be able to quickly find something on my system instantly. WinFS won't be out as part of Longhorn so what will they be improving in the meantime?
3) Smoother Multitasking. Windows still sucks at multitasking. Even when running on an SMP box, if the OS is "busy" doing something, you still can't quickly do something else. I eventually gave up on SMP since on Windows it's only good for CPU bound tasks and doesn't really affect multitasking efficiency very much (on MacOS X and OS/2, for instance, SMP basically made it so you could always be doing something in the UI, but on Windows, the UI is apparently not as multithreaded as it could be).
4) More Componentized. Whether we'll get Microsoft to make it so that pieces of Windows can be replaced or inherited from remains to be seen. I would like to be able to easily add more views (no, Ishell stuff doesn't cut it) to foldrers.
5) Stop bloating with needless bundling. Every new version of Windows throws in some half-assed immitation of third party software. While we can all appreciate having a "free" version of ZIP or uxtheme or movie maker, it damages third party software development. I'd rather think that when I BUY my copy of Windows that the work was put into features that only the OS vendor could do. Especially since Microsoft rarely puts any effort to let third parties expand on what they bundle (like adding RAR support to the compressed folders for example). There are some features only the OS vendor can really do. I'd rather see resources put there.
6) Make Networking better. I don't know about you guys but the LAN support in Windows is still quite a pain. As I type this, I am on a wireless LAN which has several computers on the same work group. It often takes several seconds, if at all, to find all the machines on the network. It would be nice if Microsoft re-thought how people use network resources and included ways of working with them in a more straight forward, ROBUST, centralized way.
7) Better use of memory. I have 2 gigabytes of memory on my main machine. I turn off the swap file. And yet I still hear the hard drive chipmunks going away. Why is that? And don't even get me started about the limited number of handles. Even on my 2 gigabyte machine, if programs use more than 24,000 or so handles, programs start crashing. The average person doesn't even know why their system becomes unstable because limited user handles on Windows XP has been largely ignored.
8) Fix Internet Explorer. CSS 2.0 compliance would be a nice start. How about making it much smarter about what it caches? I have lots of friends at Microsoft who admit to having switched to Firefox (or Opera). That's sad.
9) Fix your third party licenses. One of the ugly secrets of the PC OEM market is that computer manufacturers can't install things on Windows that changes the first boot-up experience. At best, they can put a few things on the desktop. But they can't, for example, include an alternative shell or have WindowBlinds running by default or change the boot screen or many ohter things. In short, there's not much way for PC manufacturers to distinguish their computer from every other computer. That means a LOT of lost innovation.
10) Fix Security. Outlook Express is still a spyware/spammer's dream. We shouldn't have to "upgrade" to Outlook to have some basic protections. There should be more end user tools that make it very easy to monitor net traffic. The "Network" tab in task manager is a nice start but it needs to go much furthre than that. Worms and the like should be stopped at the OS level. SP2 was a nice start, but there's still so much more to do.
There's lots of little things that are being addressed that I'm very excited about. Avalon is the big thing for me. XAML in particular is interesting but I fear it may lead to a ton of wacky looking "apps". I don't want my apps to be as poorly designed UI as the typical website. Let me put it this way, the people who make Office are VERY different from the people who made Link. I want the former writings the stand alone apps I use, not the latter.
1) New display system. This is what Avalon is supposed to address. The new display system needs to let us always run our systems as the maximum resolution our monitor supports and have the DPI (dots per inch) be fluidly scaleable without impacting software compatibility. I shouldn't have to run my laptop at 1024x768 in order to be able to read text if it supports 1600x1200. I should be able to run at 1600x1200 and size everything on the fly to be bigger.
2) Updated Searching. Google Desktop search only exists because the Find Files feature of Windows is essentially useless. I should be able to quickly find something on my system instantly. WinFS won't be out as part of Longhorn so what will they be improving in the meantime?
3) Smoother Multitasking. Windows still sucks at multitasking. Even when running on an SMP box, if the OS is "busy" doing something, you still can't quickly do something else. I eventually gave up on SMP since on Windows it's only good for CPU bound tasks and doesn't really affect multitasking efficiency very much (on MacOS X and OS/2, for instance, SMP basically made it so you could always be doing something in the UI, but on Windows, the UI is apparently not as multithreaded as it could be).
4) More Componentized. Whether we'll get Microsoft to make it so that pieces of Windows can be replaced or inherited from remains to be seen. I would like to be able to easily add more views (no, Ishell stuff doesn't cut it) to foldrers.
5) Stop bloating with needless bundling. Every new version of Windows throws in some half-assed immitation of third party software. While we can all appreciate having a "free" version of ZIP or uxtheme or movie maker, it damages third party software development. I'd rather think that when I BUY my copy of Windows that the work was put into features that only the OS vendor could do. Especially since Microsoft rarely puts any effort to let third parties expand on what they bundle (like adding RAR support to the compressed folders for example). There are some features only the OS vendor can really do. I'd rather see resources put there.
6) Make Networking better. I don't know about you guys but the LAN support in Windows is still quite a pain. As I type this, I am on a wireless LAN which has several computers on the same work group. It often takes several seconds, if at all, to find all the machines on the network. It would be nice if Microsoft re-thought how people use network resources and included ways of working with them in a more straight forward, ROBUST, centralized way.
7) Better use of memory. I have 2 gigabytes of memory on my main machine. I turn off the swap file. And yet I still hear the hard drive chipmunks going away. Why is that? And don't even get me started about the limited number of handles. Even on my 2 gigabyte machine, if programs use more than 24,000 or so handles, programs start crashing. The average person doesn't even know why their system becomes unstable because limited user handles on Windows XP has been largely ignored.
8) Fix Internet Explorer. CSS 2.0 compliance would be a nice start. How about making it much smarter about what it caches? I have lots of friends at Microsoft who admit to having switched to Firefox (or Opera). That's sad.
9) Fix your third party licenses. One of the ugly secrets of the PC OEM market is that computer manufacturers can't install things on Windows that changes the first boot-up experience. At best, they can put a few things on the desktop. But they can't, for example, include an alternative shell or have WindowBlinds running by default or change the boot screen or many ohter things. In short, there's not much way for PC manufacturers to distinguish their computer from every other computer. That means a LOT of lost innovation.
10) Fix Security. Outlook Express is still a spyware/spammer's dream. We shouldn't have to "upgrade" to Outlook to have some basic protections. There should be more end user tools that make it very easy to monitor net traffic. The "Network" tab in task manager is a nice start but it needs to go much furthre than that. Worms and the like should be stopped at the OS level. SP2 was a nice start, but there's still so much more to do.
There's lots of little things that are being addressed that I'm very excited about. Avalon is the big thing for me. XAML in particular is interesting but I fear it may lead to a ton of wacky looking "apps". I don't want my apps to be as poorly designed UI as the typical website. Let me put it this way, the people who make Office are VERY different from the people who made Link. I want the former writings the stand alone apps I use, not the latter.
Music Police Discover Internet2's Big Pipes
The Recording Industry Association of America today is issuing subpoenas to 405 John and Jane Doe college students over the mis-use of 930,000 media files. Internet2 is an academic research net that runs at 100 Mbs fast Ethernet LAN speeds. That means a DVD can be swapped during a bio break.
Needless to say, the media industry is none too pleased. I expect the RIAA's friends in Congress will go apoplectic about the mis-use of I2, a publicly funded net.
Stay tuned, folks, to the saga of emerging Internet content use law.
Peter
Needless to say, the media industry is none too pleased. I expect the RIAA's friends in Congress will go apoplectic about the mis-use of I2, a publicly funded net.
Stay tuned, folks, to the saga of emerging Internet content use law.
Peter
Best Buy and their NON Service!
This is a long story, but here goes. 2 years ago I bought a Laptop from Best Buy to use as my mobile Encoder for the OnComputers show. At the time I bought it I bought an extended warrantee from Best Buy for the Laptop. (I only get an extended warrantee for Laptops.)
Well about the 4th of November the laptop wouldn’t boot. I took it into Best Buy for service, and they sent it down to their service center in the lower 48 someplace. When I took it in I told them I needed it back for a remote show on the first weekend of December, I was told that is not a problem. The week of Thanksgiving the service center called me and told me they were replacing the harddrive, did I want to have them back up my data. (For a only $89.00) I told them no thank you. That computer only has one job; it is the encoder and only used to broadcast the show. They told me it would be finished that Friday, I said I will be leaving for Los Angeles on 12/1/04 I need it back here by them. They said that is not a problem.
When I arrived in Los Angeles I called the service center and asked when I was going to receive my laptop. I was told it’s finished and ready to ship. I told the same lady that called me Thanksgiving week I was in Los Angeles and needed my computer. (This was on a Friday) She checked with someone and came back and told me they would ship it Next day to the hotel in Los Angeles to me. I was happy. The next day UPS showed up at the hotel and I got my laptop. I brought it up to the room and plugged it in and turned it on. They replaced the Harddrive and there was NO Operating System on the computer, now I am in Los Angeles and have my laptop I use to broadcast the OnComputers radio show and it doesn’t have an OS. I called the local Best Buy and talked to the service manager, he told me to bring it in and they would take a look at it. Remember we were in Los Angeles for Deepak’s memorial so there were 12 or 15 of us there. We ALL went to Best Buy. I went up to the service counter and asked for the manager, I explained I just received this laptop from their server center Next day USP and there is no OS on the computer. He said he would see what they can do and came back a few minutes later and said there is nothing he can do. I need to bring in my restore CD from Compaq. I told him their service center had this computer for a month (from 5 November to 4 December) and I didn’t have the restore CD with me. I was then told by the Service manager they would send the computer back to the service center for me. (This is the second service ticket written up my Best Buy) We all went back to the hotel without my Laptop. An hour or two later they called me and said they can’t send it in to the service center for me I would have to come back to their store to pick up my Laptop. I pointed out that the service center UPS next day the laptop to me at the hotel because they couldn’t replace the harddrive in a month and return it to me in Alaska. I told the service manager I would be talking about the POOR service I was getting from Best Buy, The service manager then told me “They hear about their POOR service all of the time.” They had one of their GeekSquad Techs come to the hotel and give me back my laptop.
Here I was in Los Angeles with a Laptop without an Operating System. It cost me $42 to have the useless laptop FedEx home to Alaska. I installed XP on it and it was up and running again.
On January 17th the Laptop would not Boot again. Once again I took it into the Best Buy store in Anchorage for service. (Service ticket number 3) This time Best Buy had the laptop until February 12th and replaced the Motherboard.
On March 4th it went in to Best Buy again for the same reason it wouldn’t boot! (Service ticket number 4, this time because it was the 4th ticket the tech requested the laptop be replaced.) After a few weeks I looked on their (http://www.geeksquad.com/) web site and it said the computer was back at the store so I called them. After waiting 30 minutes of the phone ringing someone answered it. Chris the service manager in Anchorage told me the laptop was shipped to the wrong service center (I was told it was shipped to Compaq, even their web site said it was sent to their service center.) and was returned and had to be shipped out again. This time it was going to Best Buy’s service center. (Service ticket number 5, March 21)
At this point I called the Best Buy Public relations office. I got someone’s voice mail. On March 31 I was given a UPS tracking number and the laptop was going to be delivered to the store on April 1st. (Remember this time it went it for them to decide if they were going to replace it as a lemon.) April 1st I called the store and asked about my laptop, I was told they didn’t know anything about it, I told them USP said it was delivered at 10:47AM Friday April 1st. They then said they would send Chris an email and Monday when he came in he could look into it. Tuesday April 5th Chris called me and said it was fixed that a cable going under the power button was stopping the button from going all the way down and wouldn’t let it turn on the computer.
I picked up my laptop at 11:57AM April 5th. We will see how long it runs this time. Since November 5, 2004 Best Buy has had this laptop in for service for 90 days! Out of the last 5 months I have had my laptop for 2 months; Best Buy has had it for service for 3 months.
A little FYI, I have another Compaq laptop I bought at Best Buy, but this one I bought the extended warrantee from http://www.hp.com/ and I call them on a Sunday and tell them I had a problem, they have FedEx pick it up at my door on Monday and Wednesday it is back here repaired! It also cost about $100.00 less.
Joe Polinsky the on air host for the OnComputers radio show. Joe at OnComputers.info
Well about the 4th of November the laptop wouldn’t boot. I took it into Best Buy for service, and they sent it down to their service center in the lower 48 someplace. When I took it in I told them I needed it back for a remote show on the first weekend of December, I was told that is not a problem. The week of Thanksgiving the service center called me and told me they were replacing the harddrive, did I want to have them back up my data. (For a only $89.00) I told them no thank you. That computer only has one job; it is the encoder and only used to broadcast the show. They told me it would be finished that Friday, I said I will be leaving for Los Angeles on 12/1/04 I need it back here by them. They said that is not a problem.
When I arrived in Los Angeles I called the service center and asked when I was going to receive my laptop. I was told it’s finished and ready to ship. I told the same lady that called me Thanksgiving week I was in Los Angeles and needed my computer. (This was on a Friday) She checked with someone and came back and told me they would ship it Next day to the hotel in Los Angeles to me. I was happy. The next day UPS showed up at the hotel and I got my laptop. I brought it up to the room and plugged it in and turned it on. They replaced the Harddrive and there was NO Operating System on the computer, now I am in Los Angeles and have my laptop I use to broadcast the OnComputers radio show and it doesn’t have an OS. I called the local Best Buy and talked to the service manager, he told me to bring it in and they would take a look at it. Remember we were in Los Angeles for Deepak’s memorial so there were 12 or 15 of us there. We ALL went to Best Buy. I went up to the service counter and asked for the manager, I explained I just received this laptop from their server center Next day USP and there is no OS on the computer. He said he would see what they can do and came back a few minutes later and said there is nothing he can do. I need to bring in my restore CD from Compaq. I told him their service center had this computer for a month (from 5 November to 4 December) and I didn’t have the restore CD with me. I was then told by the Service manager they would send the computer back to the service center for me. (This is the second service ticket written up my Best Buy) We all went back to the hotel without my Laptop. An hour or two later they called me and said they can’t send it in to the service center for me I would have to come back to their store to pick up my Laptop. I pointed out that the service center UPS next day the laptop to me at the hotel because they couldn’t replace the harddrive in a month and return it to me in Alaska. I told the service manager I would be talking about the POOR service I was getting from Best Buy, The service manager then told me “They hear about their POOR service all of the time.” They had one of their GeekSquad Techs come to the hotel and give me back my laptop.
Here I was in Los Angeles with a Laptop without an Operating System. It cost me $42 to have the useless laptop FedEx home to Alaska. I installed XP on it and it was up and running again.
On January 17th the Laptop would not Boot again. Once again I took it into the Best Buy store in Anchorage for service. (Service ticket number 3) This time Best Buy had the laptop until February 12th and replaced the Motherboard.
On March 4th it went in to Best Buy again for the same reason it wouldn’t boot! (Service ticket number 4, this time because it was the 4th ticket the tech requested the laptop be replaced.) After a few weeks I looked on their (http://www.geeksquad.com/) web site and it said the computer was back at the store so I called them. After waiting 30 minutes of the phone ringing someone answered it. Chris the service manager in Anchorage told me the laptop was shipped to the wrong service center (I was told it was shipped to Compaq, even their web site said it was sent to their service center.) and was returned and had to be shipped out again. This time it was going to Best Buy’s service center. (Service ticket number 5, March 21)
At this point I called the Best Buy Public relations office. I got someone’s voice mail. On March 31 I was given a UPS tracking number and the laptop was going to be delivered to the store on April 1st. (Remember this time it went it for them to decide if they were going to replace it as a lemon.) April 1st I called the store and asked about my laptop, I was told they didn’t know anything about it, I told them USP said it was delivered at 10:47AM Friday April 1st. They then said they would send Chris an email and Monday when he came in he could look into it. Tuesday April 5th Chris called me and said it was fixed that a cable going under the power button was stopping the button from going all the way down and wouldn’t let it turn on the computer.
I picked up my laptop at 11:57AM April 5th. We will see how long it runs this time. Since November 5, 2004 Best Buy has had this laptop in for service for 90 days! Out of the last 5 months I have had my laptop for 2 months; Best Buy has had it for service for 3 months.
A little FYI, I have another Compaq laptop I bought at Best Buy, but this one I bought the extended warrantee from http://www.hp.com/ and I call them on a Sunday and tell them I had a problem, they have FedEx pick it up at my door on Monday and Wednesday it is back here repaired! It also cost about $100.00 less.
Joe Polinsky the on air host for the OnComputers radio show. Joe at OnComputers.info
EU's data retention laws could be illegal
Thank goodness the EU's data retention laws could be illegal. The proposed legislation would require that Internet Service Providers keep all data (e.g., traffic) transmitted by customers "indefinitely". Which means, of course, that the government could look at your Internet traffic anytime and for any purpose.
Bad idea and flawed legislation.
Peter S. Kastner
Bad idea and flawed legislation.
Peter S. Kastner
Harvard Says Optical Computers Practical Using Frozen Light
It's really pretty simple (not!). Just take ultra-cold atoms known as Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which can preserve the phase and amplitude of a light pulse. In normal matter, these properties would be smeared out, destroying any information content. If a device can be built that preserves that information, Harvard professor Lene Hau argues, it could be developed into the CPU of an optical computer.
Apple "Tiger" OS X 10.4 Ships April 29th for Clients and Servers
We discussed the imminent release of the next version of Apple's Mac OS X, code-name Tiger, on the radio show. Apple has begun its teaser campaign leading up to the launch.
Mildly surprising is the planned release of the server version simultaneously with the Mac version. That's good news for Xserve customers, who in the past had to wait for the server version.
Peter S. Kastner
Mildly surprising is the planned release of the server version simultaneously with the Mac version. That's good news for Xserve customers, who in the past had to wait for the server version.
Peter S. Kastner
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Microsoft Reports Five Critical Security Fixes
As we discussed extensively on the radio show last Sunday, everybody needs to get these fixes to Windows installed pronto. Details here. A restart of Windows is required after installation. The whole process is about 6 minutes at broadband speeds.
Windows to Linux Conversion Guide
IBM has a "roadmap" for transitioning from Windows to Linux at the link above.
While far from a comprehensive guide, it is still detailed enough that the merely curious will probably shy away from it. That's a pity because even a casual reading of the document and it's associated links will detail the differences between Windows and Linux, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the philosophies which underly their design.
If you really want to know the functional differences between the two, this might be your best shot at an honest appraisal of them, albeit one written by Linux advocates.
Jack
While far from a comprehensive guide, it is still detailed enough that the merely curious will probably shy away from it. That's a pity because even a casual reading of the document and it's associated links will detail the differences between Windows and Linux, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the philosophies which underly their design.
If you really want to know the functional differences between the two, this might be your best shot at an honest appraisal of them, albeit one written by Linux advocates.
Jack
Tougher data-leak law proposed
Here in California we have most of the protections offered by this proposed federal law. Considering the recent privacy kerfuffles that have come to light thanks fo the California law, why not extend this protection to everyone? Read the article and see what you think.
REAL Software - Free Offer for Visual Basic Users
REAL Software - Free Offer for Visual Basic Users
If you want a free copy of RealBasic VB here you go.
Thanks to Al_K in our chat.
Joe
If you want a free copy of RealBasic VB here you go.
Thanks to Al_K in our chat.
Joe
Monday, April 11, 2005
CHAOS - Everybody's Computer Cluster?
Even after being the butt of a lot of jokes over my experiment with clustering 486s, I'm interested in the concept(s) involved. Here's one effort I'm following.
Pure Hacking, an Australian security firm, has created a version of open Mosix which overcomes that system's security problems and has the capability to turn an unused PC into a node of a computing cluster running Linux. The distribution itself is 6 MB and the nodes of the cluster are booted and commanded remotely by a master computer. (It doesn't matter which operating system is installed on the machine for it's "regular" usage and the contents of the hard drive aren't ever touched by CHAOS.)
Check it out.
Jack
Pure Hacking, an Australian security firm, has created a version of open Mosix which overcomes that system's security problems and has the capability to turn an unused PC into a node of a computing cluster running Linux. The distribution itself is 6 MB and the nodes of the cluster are booted and commanded remotely by a master computer. (It doesn't matter which operating system is installed on the machine for it's "regular" usage and the contents of the hard drive aren't ever touched by CHAOS.)
Check it out.
Jack
States gang up on Vonage | CNET News.com
An update on the 911 case against Vonage. Apparently, there are a couple of other states looking into this as well.
The moral of the story: If you have Vonage, remember to activate 911 dialing.
Aaron
The moral of the story: If you have Vonage, remember to activate 911 dialing.
Aaron
Adobe To Release Acrobat Reader v7 for Linux Tuesday
Adobe's support of Linux has been spotty, over recent years. They're back though, with version 7 of their Acrobat PDF Reader, according to this CNet story.
I'm curious about this one and wonder if the new Acrobat Reader will have any advantage over the open source programs I'm using now to read these files. (I mainly use Ghostview or KPDF.) I'll give it a try and let you know.
Jack
I'm curious about this one and wonder if the new Acrobat Reader will have any advantage over the open source programs I'm using now to read these files. (I mainly use Ghostview or KPDF.) I'll give it a try and let you know.
Jack
Microsoft whiffs on tools, database betas
SQL Server and Visual Studio.Net will be delayed. No big surprise there. Huge collections of programs are hard to get out the door on time. This CNet story has the details.
There is more to it, though, if MS employees are to be believed. Many of them are saying in confidence that the delayed releases will contain new tools to integrate older Visual Basic code safely and securely into the new server apps. In addition, there will be tools to actually convert some of the older code to the newer Visual Basic.Net language. This addresses the concerns of VB developers who have felt abandoned as MS has sunsetted the language in favor of VB.Net and provides them a transitional route between the two languages.
Jack
There is more to it, though, if MS employees are to be believed. Many of them are saying in confidence that the delayed releases will contain new tools to integrate older Visual Basic code safely and securely into the new server apps. In addition, there will be tools to actually convert some of the older code to the newer Visual Basic.Net language. This addresses the concerns of VB developers who have felt abandoned as MS has sunsetted the language in favor of VB.Net and provides them a transitional route between the two languages.
Jack
A Look at the Current State of Mozilla
A critical, though accurate, look at Mozilla from a security standpoint. A short read, but worth it.
Jack
Jack
Spam: You just don't care
Yep, it's become a daily routine. Download the spam, er, e-mail, and delete it using any number of blacklists and bayesian filters. Yesiree, it's under control in that it is almost automatic and I hardly see it. I don't let it take my time or energy. Better living though better filtering.
Though this ariticle doesn't ask why folks have come to an uneasy peace with their spam, my personal belief is that since almose every ISP and many e-mail clients offer some kind of filtering these days it is just not in folks' faces as much of the time.
Though this ariticle doesn't ask why folks have come to an uneasy peace with their spam, my personal belief is that since almose every ISP and many e-mail clients offer some kind of filtering these days it is just not in folks' faces as much of the time.
Computer keyboards havens for superbugs: study
Does your keyboard serve its hightest purpose in keeping the crumbs from rolling on the floor? Do you prefer black keyboards because the don't show the dirt? Do your fingers stick to your keyboard?
Well fear not, this article deals with hospital keyboards and the supergerms that generally are only found there. On the other hand (forgive the sick pun) I think I want to wash up when I finish typing this blog entry.
Well fear not, this article deals with hospital keyboards and the supergerms that generally are only found there. On the other hand (forgive the sick pun) I think I want to wash up when I finish typing this blog entry.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
OC Podcast
This is the On Computers podcast for 04-10-2005. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
ftp://ftp.media.videotex.us/oncomputers/2005/mp3/04-10-05.mp3
ftp://ftp.media.videotex.us/oncomputers/2005/mp3/04-10-05.mp3
Tip: Watch Internet Port Traffic with Free Utility
PC Magazine has a nice utility to track what programs are accessing the Internet. You might be surprised.
Spammer Gets Serious Hard Time
One of the world's top ten spammers was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating a Virginia law. He is free on bail waiting a challenge to the constitutionality of Virginia's state law to regulate the spammer's North Carolina activities.
This is one of those times when the majority would prefer to tar and feather the SOB before hanging him from a nearby limb, vigilante style, leaving legal niceties to the lawyers.
This is one of those times when the majority would prefer to tar and feather the SOB before hanging him from a nearby limb, vigilante style, leaving legal niceties to the lawyers.
AMD to Launch Dual-Core Opteron Server Processors April 21st
AMD will launch its server version of dual core microprocessors on April 21st in NYC. HP. IBM, and Sun are expected on stage to announce new server products based on these first-for-AMD chips.
Note that last Monday Intel allowed tech sites to publish performance data on the forthcoming dual-core Pentium Extended Edition microprocessors. We blogged this story.
The key differentiation between AMD and Intel is simple: AMD's dual core efforts are in the server space, where the company is trying like crazy to get to double-digit market share versus Intel's Xeon; Intel will this quarter launch two versions of dual-cores for consumer and business desktops. Both companies will follow on next year with their respective desktop, server and mobile dual cores.
Peter S. Kastner
Note that last Monday Intel allowed tech sites to publish performance data on the forthcoming dual-core Pentium Extended Edition microprocessors. We blogged this story.
The key differentiation between AMD and Intel is simple: AMD's dual core efforts are in the server space, where the company is trying like crazy to get to double-digit market share versus Intel's Xeon; Intel will this quarter launch two versions of dual-cores for consumer and business desktops. Both companies will follow on next year with their respective desktop, server and mobile dual cores.
Peter S. Kastner
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Yahoo! News - Fake Microsoft Security Trojan on the Loose, Antivirus Firm Says
It is important to remember: MS never emails the end user of Windows Updates (unless you are signed up on one of their distribution lists). Unless there is a major issue, updates are only released on the second Tuesday of the month. Also, you should only access Windows Update either via Automatic Updates running on your computer which will automatically download the updates when you specify, or via the Windows Update link on the Start Menu. Accessing Windows Update any other way could lead to viruses.
Aaron
Aaron
Wired 13.04: VIEW
Wired 13.04: VIEW
What If Every Kid Had a Computer?
The MIT Media Lab's plan for a $100 laptop.
Will you get your kid a $100 Laptop?
Sounds like a great idea to me! :)
Joe
What If Every Kid Had a Computer?
The MIT Media Lab's plan for a $100 laptop.
Will you get your kid a $100 Laptop?
Sounds like a great idea to me! :)
Joe
eyYahoo! News - Software Helps Track Child Pornographers
Yahoo! News - Software Helps Track Child Pornographers
What else are they keeping track of?
Don't use a credit card if you have a record!
Joe
What else are they keeping track of?
Don't use a credit card if you have a record!
Joe
Paint.NET - Download
Paint.NET - Download
Another from the newsletter:
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. (Tim) http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/download.htm
Another from the newsletter:
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. (Tim) http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/download.htm
Friday, April 08, 2005
Macromedia - Flash Player : Settings Manager
Macromedia - Flash Player : Settings Manager
This is from a newsletter I receive called CrackTalk by Terry Blount:
Tim Writes:
58% of web surfers deleted cookies from their system in 2004. This has sent a loud message to marketers in regard to consumer's preference as to tracking their online activities. The marketers have responded with PIE. Persistent Identification Element (PIE) is a technology that uses Macromedia's Flash MX to track you even without using cookies.
Macromedia has created a page to instruct users on how to disable this.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html
This is from a newsletter I receive called CrackTalk by Terry Blount:
Tim Writes:
58% of web surfers deleted cookies from their system in 2004. This has sent a loud message to marketers in regard to consumer's preference as to tracking their online activities. The marketers have responded with PIE. Persistent Identification Element (PIE) is a technology that uses Macromedia's Flash MX to track you even without using cookies.
Macromedia has created a page to instruct users on how to disable this.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html
Yahoo! News - Judge Sentences Spammer to Nine Years
Its about time. A spammer that wasn't fined an inconceivable amount of money for what they did. They got good hard jail time. The question is, will the appeals court uphold the sentence?
Least-Privilege User Accounts To Be Part of Longhorn Security
The idea of limiting user priviledges on a system or within a network has been around forever. You can do it now in Windows 2000 and XP to an effective degree, though most users ignore this and log on with priveledges far in excess than necessary.
Apparently Microsoft is going to modify their implementation of this to allow regular user accounts easier access to some management features while still seriously curtailing access to the heart of things. Software developers will have to go along to make things work as intended, but this shows to me that MS is serious about tightening up their OS.
Jack
Apparently Microsoft is going to modify their implementation of this to allow regular user accounts easier access to some management features while still seriously curtailing access to the heart of things. Software developers will have to go along to make things work as intended, but this shows to me that MS is serious about tightening up their OS.
Jack
Thursday, April 07, 2005
iPod Sells Mac Mini at Best Buy
As we have discussed on the On Computers radio show, Apple is on a renaissance roll, driven by the widespread adoption of the iPod. This week, Best Buy said it would give retail shelf space to Apple's Mac Mini -- the lowest priced model of the Macintosh family which debuted in January. This is a proof for our point of view that Apple's iPod will indeed drive sales of PCs and other products (e.g., accessories).
Peter S. Kastner
Peter S. Kastner
NetApp & IBM Partner on Networked Storage
Interesting deal, and not unexpected. IBM fills holes in its mid-range storage product line, while NetApp gains IBM's superior tape technology and will plug Tivoli for storage management, a NetApp hole.
The conventional analysis is correct: EMC is regaining momentum lost in the early 2000's with strong hardware and software offerings tied to the best storage vision in the industry. That makes partnerships to confront EMC an act of self-preservation. Since storage is virtually the tail wagging the enterprise dog these days in growth terms, the big computer vendors have to have a competitive storage line of products. I expect more such partnerships and realignments this year.
Peter S. Kastner
The conventional analysis is correct: EMC is regaining momentum lost in the early 2000's with strong hardware and software offerings tied to the best storage vision in the industry. That makes partnerships to confront EMC an act of self-preservation. Since storage is virtually the tail wagging the enterprise dog these days in growth terms, the big computer vendors have to have a competitive storage line of products. I expect more such partnerships and realignments this year.
Peter S. Kastner
PC Market Growth Slows
We told you earlier this year on the radio show that PC growth this year was unlikely to meet market research forecasts of 10%. A 10% year would mean another 19-20 million units sold. Sorry, Charlie, no deal. Kevin Rollins, CEO at Dell, confirmed our analysis yesterday in this story.
"As we have come into (the first quarter), it's become clear things are a bit slower (than last year), a little bit slower than maybe we had even thought," Rollins said, referring to the 10 percent forecast by research group IDC. On Wednesday, Dell left its own revenue and outlook profit unchanged for its first quarter ending later this month, saying it expects revenue of $13.4 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago, and 37 cents a share in profit, up 32 percent.
Don't forget, we are now in earnings season, so surprises are to be expected. Next week will be full of earnings announcements.
Peter S. Kastner
"As we have come into (the first quarter), it's become clear things are a bit slower (than last year), a little bit slower than maybe we had even thought," Rollins said, referring to the 10 percent forecast by research group IDC. On Wednesday, Dell left its own revenue and outlook profit unchanged for its first quarter ending later this month, saying it expects revenue of $13.4 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago, and 37 cents a share in profit, up 32 percent.
Don't forget, we are now in earnings season, so surprises are to be expected. Next week will be full of earnings announcements.
Peter S. Kastner
All Hell Will Break Loose on April 12th
On April 12, Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to turn on its Automatic Update service, which will deploy the XP Service Pack 2 to all PCs connected to the Internet regardless of whether corporate IT departments or individual PC users have prepared for it. With the upgrade deadline looming, one study shows that the vast majority of companies running XP have actively avoided the upgrade or simply ignored the problem. The study, by AssetMetrix Research Labs of Ottawa, Canada, showed that only 24 percent of Windows XP PCs have been upgraded to SP2.
This one could be bad news for IT departments that have been in denial since last September. The auto-updating will, however, put a strain on LANs and WANs as tens of millions of PCs start downloading hundreds of megabytes of SP2 code apiece. It's not inconceivable that the Internet will dim next week as all this traffic gets pushed around country by country, but the likelihood is the download process itself will take a couple of weeks. During that time, IT department help desks will have to deal with lots of phone calls about slow response times, the need to reboot, "a virus called SP2 just took over my machine" -- you get the idea.
For Microsoft, this is a tough call. Customers are going to be angry in a major way due to the disruption, in spite of all the warnings to be prepared. But after all the dust settles, Microsoft's support job will be considerably easier and the Internet will be a somewhat safer place with millions more hardened and firewall-secured PCs.
Peter S. Kastner
This one could be bad news for IT departments that have been in denial since last September. The auto-updating will, however, put a strain on LANs and WANs as tens of millions of PCs start downloading hundreds of megabytes of SP2 code apiece. It's not inconceivable that the Internet will dim next week as all this traffic gets pushed around country by country, but the likelihood is the download process itself will take a couple of weeks. During that time, IT department help desks will have to deal with lots of phone calls about slow response times, the need to reboot, "a virus called SP2 just took over my machine" -- you get the idea.
For Microsoft, this is a tough call. Customers are going to be angry in a major way due to the disruption, in spite of all the warnings to be prepared. But after all the dust settles, Microsoft's support job will be considerably easier and the Internet will be a somewhat safer place with millions more hardened and firewall-secured PCs.
Peter S. Kastner
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Microsoft Pushes Back Debut of Compute Cluster Edition
Technewsworld has an article about this. Microsoft has bitten off a big chunk by invading what is primarily a Unix world inhabited by anti-Windows techs and managers. It's not really surprising they can't deliver on the original schedule and I doubt anyone except a dedicated Microsoft hater will see this as a genuine setback. They're just not releasing until they think they have it right.
When MS first announced they were shooting for cluster deployments there was a LOT of [shall we say] skepticism. Since then, it's become apparent that MS has selected a rather more realistic target; the smaller clusters operated by engineering departments and other such small to medium sized entities. Even here, MS is the world's largest underdog. Still, there's no reason why they can't deliver a usable and efficient product and the tools necessary to develop for it and manage it.
This is going to be fun to watch.
Jack
When MS first announced they were shooting for cluster deployments there was a LOT of [shall we say] skepticism. Since then, it's become apparent that MS has selected a rather more realistic target; the smaller clusters operated by engineering departments and other such small to medium sized entities. Even here, MS is the world's largest underdog. Still, there's no reason why they can't deliver a usable and efficient product and the tools necessary to develop for it and manage it.
This is going to be fun to watch.
Jack
SANS - Internet Storm Center - DNS cache poisoning
Can spammers and other Internet miscreants be more evil? Of course they can and here is one way they are doing it.
New Linux Show by the Susitna Linux Users Group
Susitna Linux Users Group
There is a new Linux show that is broadcast from the Susitna Linux Users Group. On Computers will rebroadcast their show on its regular feeds every Tuesday starting at 5:00pm PST. For more information, please see http://www.slugak.com. Also, visit their chat room on server irc.slugak.com, channel #SLUG.
Note: The show will only be broadcast on the MP3, OggVorbis, and Windows Media LOW streams. The regular high speed Windows Media stream will continue to rebroadcast last week's On Computers show.
There is a new Linux show that is broadcast from the Susitna Linux Users Group. On Computers will rebroadcast their show on its regular feeds every Tuesday starting at 5:00pm PST. For more information, please see http://www.slugak.com. Also, visit their chat room on server irc.slugak.com, channel #SLUG.
Note: The show will only be broadcast on the MP3, OggVorbis, and Windows Media LOW streams. The regular high speed Windows Media stream will continue to rebroadcast last week's On Computers show.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Finally, A Fast Recharging Battery is on the Way
According to Toshiba, the 3.8mm thick, 62mm high and 35mm deep prototype lithium-ion battery takes only a minute to charge up to 80% of its 600mAh capacity. For comparison, the battery inside a 4th gen iPod holds 950mAh, takes an hour to charge up to 80%, and roughly 4 hours to reach a 100% charge. According to Toshiba, its new battery "takes only a few more minutes" to reach a full charge.
It does not take a world-class analyst to see the implications of this important innovation. Battery technology has lagged the digital consumer revolution by leagues. The ability to charge up your MP3 player, cell phone, camera, notebook in minutes would allow for usage changes which make these devices, well, just more useable. I can't wait!
Peter S. Kastner
It does not take a world-class analyst to see the implications of this important innovation. Battery technology has lagged the digital consumer revolution by leagues. The ability to charge up your MP3 player, cell phone, camera, notebook in minutes would allow for usage changes which make these devices, well, just more useable. I can't wait!
Peter S. Kastner
Intel Dual Processor Performance Revealed
The AnandTech article here represents about a week of human effort compressed into three days. The report is invaluable to PC aficianados who are interested in how Intel (and be implication AMD's) forthcoming dual core processors will perform in lab and real world benchmarks.
In a major break with history, Intel sent selected PC editors an evaluation kit for the not-yet -announced dual core Pentium D (3.2 GHz with no Hyperthreading) and Pentium Extreme Edition (3.2 GHz with HT). Thus, we all can digest what these products will do even though they are not yet launched.
Here's what Anand concludes after some three dozen tests:
- In general use of the system, the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 felt just as fast as the 3.73GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. In multitasking, there was no substitute for the dual core Pentium Extreme Edition.
- Hyper Threading made a decent impact on our usage, even on the dual core platform. However, the benchmarks show that Hyper Threading on dual core doesn't always result in a performance boost. That being said, we'd still opt for Hyper Threading as it just seems to make things smoother than without on the dual core chip. - all users could benefit from its presence on their dual core platforms.
The ExtremeTech review is here. (Read the AnandTech review first)
Dual core processors such as the Pentium Extreme Edition tested in these benchmarks will force the software industry to rewrite code to take advantage of resources that in the past were only available on big-iron servers. The rewrite will take years, but will be worth it.
That makes the introduction of dual core processors for personal computing this spring not just another product launch but a landmark in the history of the information technology industry.
Bottom Line: intense computing users who do lots of multi-tasking will "feel" better performance in every day work with a dual-core processor, even though some individual tasks may take longer.
Peter S. Kastner
In a major break with history, Intel sent selected PC editors an evaluation kit for the not-yet -announced dual core Pentium D (3.2 GHz with no Hyperthreading) and Pentium Extreme Edition (3.2 GHz with HT). Thus, we all can digest what these products will do even though they are not yet launched.
Here's what Anand concludes after some three dozen tests:
- In general use of the system, the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 felt just as fast as the 3.73GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. In multitasking, there was no substitute for the dual core Pentium Extreme Edition.
- Hyper Threading made a decent impact on our usage, even on the dual core platform. However, the benchmarks show that Hyper Threading on dual core doesn't always result in a performance boost. That being said, we'd still opt for Hyper Threading as it just seems to make things smoother than without on the dual core chip. - all users could benefit from its presence on their dual core platforms.
The ExtremeTech review is here. (Read the AnandTech review first)
Dual core processors such as the Pentium Extreme Edition tested in these benchmarks will force the software industry to rewrite code to take advantage of resources that in the past were only available on big-iron servers. The rewrite will take years, but will be worth it.
That makes the introduction of dual core processors for personal computing this spring not just another product launch but a landmark in the history of the information technology industry.
Bottom Line: intense computing users who do lots of multi-tasking will "feel" better performance in every day work with a dual-core processor, even though some individual tasks may take longer.
Peter S. Kastner
Your Computer Legal Rights and Responsibilities
We talk about digital rights management, computers and the law frequently on the radio show. I thought this article was worth clipping as a backgrounder on the changing legal scene related to computers and online activities.
Peter S. Kastner
Peter S. Kastner
Monday, April 04, 2005
Florida files multimillion-dollar spam suits
Florida, best known for beaches, DisneyWorld and spammers, is taking on the spammers.
Do I have much hope of this being effective? No.
Do I wish Florida the best? Yes.
Do I have much hope of this being effective? No.
Do I wish Florida the best? Yes.
Company Bypasses Cookie-Deleting Consumers
Don't like being tracked on the Internet? All you cookie deleters have made an impact. Now the marketers are going to be tracking you using the other internet tool used for invasive marketing -- Flash. Macromedia as posted a way to disable this feature so read and disable if you don't want to be tracked in this way. Indeed Macromedia is looking like the good guys in this by having as a goal allowing computer users control their own machine. How novel a concept is that?
USB Repeater Cable
I saw this article in The Inquirer and immediately called a friend who has, until now, been unable to structure his office as he wishes, due to limitations imposed by cable length requirements in USB 2.
For those of you who have never run into this, USB can't use a cable more than about 40 feet long. (The actual figure varies according to situational factors. The USB standard says "15 meters".)
Previously, the inelegant solution was to place powered USB hubs at intervals along the cable. It looked bad and was troublesome, in my limited experience. Now, you can use a repeater to boost signals along the cable. Very neat idea.
Jack
For those of you who have never run into this, USB can't use a cable more than about 40 feet long. (The actual figure varies according to situational factors. The USB standard says "15 meters".)
Previously, the inelegant solution was to place powered USB hubs at intervals along the cable. It looked bad and was troublesome, in my limited experience. Now, you can use a repeater to boost signals along the cable. Very neat idea.
Jack
Sunday, April 03, 2005
OC Podcast
This is the On Computers podcast for 04-03-2005. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
ftp://ftp.media.videotex.us/oncomputers/2005/mp3/04-03-05.mp3
Joe
ftp://ftp.media.videotex.us/oncomputers/2005/mp3/04-03-05.mp3
Joe
Microsoft Files Suits Against Phishing Sites/Owners
I'm not sure whether to take this as of benefit to the public or just as MS defending their trademarks, but the company has filed suit against over 100 "John Doe" defendants and evidently there is more to come.
Jack
Jack
How to Hack Your GPS
ZD's touting a new book on how to creatively hack your GPS for fun and more personal operations.
You must be careful when making any changes or modifications to the firmware of your GPS because there is a risk that things can go wrong and render the GPS inoperable. And sorry, I won't go sailing with you and your hacked GPS.
Peter S. Kastner
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Bloglines Harnesses Blogs and RSS Feeds
Bloglines has free software to manage multiple RSS blog and news feeds. If you think you are spending too much time running down news stories, Bloglines can tee up your own custom news page.
Peter S. Kastner
Peter S. Kastner
Wireless Quality-of-Service Media Protocols
The WiFi in your home doesn't care whether you are wirelessly sending an e-mail or trying to record a TV program. There is no "quality of service" capability, a concept that is necessary noow that wireless needs to deal with data such as media that has high priority, real time delivery requirements.
The pieces of the sizeable digital-content puzzle are starting to fall into place, but roadblocks remain. Digital Rights Management is still chief among them, but other issues, such as wireless networking performance and Quality of Service, can also rain on the parade. Today, we'll take you on a tour of the media-networking landscape and show you what are—and will be—the key technologies to make digital media and data play nice on your home network.
Peter S. Kastner
The pieces of the sizeable digital-content puzzle are starting to fall into place, but roadblocks remain. Digital Rights Management is still chief among them, but other issues, such as wireless networking performance and Quality of Service, can also rain on the parade. Today, we'll take you on a tour of the media-networking landscape and show you what are—and will be—the key technologies to make digital media and data play nice on your home network.
Peter S. Kastner
Intel Rolls Out 64 Bit Xeons at Pentium Prices
Intel unveiled three performance Xeon MPs, ranging in frequency from 2.83GHz to 3.33GHz and 4MB to 8MB of Level 3 cache. Two "value" processors offer 3.16GHz and 3.66GHz speeds and 1MB of Level 2 cache.
The larger cache in the performance SKUs will make these transaction processing and data warehousing workhorses.
The price as low as $722 (qty 1,000) makes the Cranford value chips attractive for a new generation of low-cost 4-way servers. Dell immediately jumped in with its offering. These will sell by the boxcar for web processing and Tier 1 apps.
Peter S. Kastner
The larger cache in the performance SKUs will make these transaction processing and data warehousing workhorses.
The price as low as $722 (qty 1,000) makes the Cranford value chips attractive for a new generation of low-cost 4-way servers. Dell immediately jumped in with its offering. These will sell by the boxcar for web processing and Tier 1 apps.
Peter S. Kastner
Open-Source Fans Often Miss Business Basics
I love this op ed piece. Could not have said it better myself:
If open source really wants to gets out of the back room and into the office, open-source supporters need to support open-source projects for the long run. That's really what businesses want: programs that not only work well, but will still be fully supported five years down the road.
The IT ecosystem needs to make money on open source for the process to be worth the efforts of enterprise practitioners. Support costs money. Pay them now or pay them later, but be prepared to pay for the value of support.
Peter S. Kastner
If open source really wants to gets out of the back room and into the office, open-source supporters need to support open-source projects for the long run. That's really what businesses want: programs that not only work well, but will still be fully supported five years down the road.
The IT ecosystem needs to make money on open source for the process to be worth the efforts of enterprise practitioners. Support costs money. Pay them now or pay them later, but be prepared to pay for the value of support.
Peter S. Kastner
What Bill Gates Is Thinking
If you want to know what Microsoft is considering investing in and bring to market, follow the stories here and in the Wall Street Journal this week. Gates is famous for going off a couple of times a year for a week to a Washington lake and ruminating on white papers and proposals from inside Microsoft. What comes out of these cathartic sessions is not nearly as public as this 2005 episode.
Something amiss at Microsoft? I doubt it. For reasons beyond me, Microsft PR decided to take this opportunity to spotlight Bill and the Microsoft R&D process.
Bottom Line: Where Microsoft goes, at least part of the IT industry will follow.
Peter S. Kastner
Something amiss at Microsoft? I doubt it. For reasons beyond me, Microsft PR decided to take this opportunity to spotlight Bill and the Microsoft R&D process.
Bottom Line: Where Microsoft goes, at least part of the IT industry will follow.
Peter S. Kastner
HP Selects NCR's Mark Hurd as New CEO
Hurd is well regarded for turning around NCR. He steps into the second largest computer company with lots of decisions to make. Stay tuned...
Desktop PCs: The Essential Consumer Buying Guide
PC Magazine does a good job of asking and answering questions for prospective buyers of a new desktop PC.
However, as we have discussed during the On Computers radio show, the PC lineup will change dramatically with the introduction of dual core machines soon. If you can hold off, wait until the new machines are announced, as prices on existing inventory will drop. I expect July to be a buyer's paradise since the "duallies" will be the beginning of a new processor generation. The summer "back to school" months are the best time of year for consumers to buy a PC.
Peter S. Kastner
However, as we have discussed during the On Computers radio show, the PC lineup will change dramatically with the introduction of dual core machines soon. If you can hold off, wait until the new machines are announced, as prices on existing inventory will drop. I expect July to be a buyer's paradise since the "duallies" will be the beginning of a new processor generation. The summer "back to school" months are the best time of year for consumers to buy a PC.
Peter S. Kastner
Microsoft Releases Windows Server 2003 SP1
After two years in the field, Microsoft is updating its enterprise OS with service pack 1.
This will be a mandatory install at enterprises, as it has new security features and improved performance. (Obviously, test applications before installing.)
Peter S. Kastner
This will be a mandatory install at enterprises, as it has new security features and improved performance. (Obviously, test applications before installing.)
Peter S. Kastner
Dell Launches Sweet Thin-and-Light Notebook
As a road warrior, I am drooling over Dell's new 2.5 pound Latitude X1. The Latitude series are for managed enterprise PCs.
Dell also has several other new notebooks here.
Peter S. Kastner
Dell also has several other new notebooks here.
Peter S. Kastner
Google Doubles E-Mail Space to 2GB
This is a great deal in free e-mail.
Google Inc. is doubling the capacity of each account and plans to keep bumping up the limit in the future.
Once the upgrade takes effect Friday, Gmail users will be able to store up to 2 gigabytes of e-mail and attachments for each account. Even more capacity will be made available after that as it becomes feasible, the company said.
Google Inc. is doubling the capacity of each account and plans to keep bumping up the limit in the future.
Once the upgrade takes effect Friday, Gmail users will be able to store up to 2 gigabytes of e-mail and attachments for each account. Even more capacity will be made available after that as it becomes feasible, the company said.
Create an Electronic Living Will
Sales of computer software to create living wills are surging amid the high-profile debate over Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged Florida woman who died Thursday.
Xrackhosting debuts dedicated Mac Mini hosting
You gotta love this. Xrackhosting debuts dedicated Mac Mini hosting. They ought to be able to fit about 2 million (just kidding) in a 42" rack.
The price of $200 a month is ridiculously high, but the "wow" factor is there.
Peter S. Kastner
The price of $200 a month is ridiculously high, but the "wow" factor is there.
Peter S. Kastner
'High Risk' Flaws Found in IE, Outlook
More security problems for Microsoft to get into this month's patch kit in two weeks.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Google Gulp
Happy Birthday, GMail!
On the eve of Gmail's one-year birthday, our engineers were toiling away furiously. Notes scribbled all over the walls. Complex calculations on napkins and empty pizza boxes. Millions of M&Ms.
The result?... starting today, we're beginning the roll-out of our new and top secret Infinity+1 storage plan. The key features are:...:
Can anybody get ahead of google???
Other features are here.
POP access is da bomb! :)
If anybody needs/wants a gmail account let any of the members of the blog know.
On the eve of Gmail's one-year birthday, our engineers were toiling away furiously. Notes scribbled all over the walls. Complex calculations on napkins and empty pizza boxes. Millions of M&Ms.
The result?... starting today, we're beginning the roll-out of our new and top secret Infinity+1 storage plan. The key features are:...:
Can anybody get ahead of google???
Other features are here.
POP access is da bomb! :)
If anybody needs/wants a gmail account let any of the members of the blog know.
NASA World Wind Forums -> Google Launches satellite, named "gSat"
Its too late for me, but maybe not for you, between 10-11am local time, "...google.com has provided 24 hour access to nasa of their global imaging satellite, gSat.
We invite the World Wind community to participate in this great event; the gSat will be imaging the entire Earth this Friday, the first of April.
If you want to be photographed in this new dataset, the gSat's special orbit should mean that it passes over your respective time zone between 10:00am and 11:00am.
Simply go outside that hour and wave, feel free to make signs supporting World Wind or other message, but please keep things appropriate. This new set of images should be in the next major version of World Wind due in a few months. Thanks again for the community's support and interest in World Wind!
so, get out there and wave! :)
There are also some images already on the site...
w0w the detail is amazing... any privacy concerns???
We invite the World Wind community to participate in this great event; the gSat will be imaging the entire Earth this Friday, the first of April.
If you want to be photographed in this new dataset, the gSat's special orbit should mean that it passes over your respective time zone between 10:00am and 11:00am.
Simply go outside that hour and wave, feel free to make signs supporting World Wind or other message, but please keep things appropriate. This new set of images should be in the next major version of World Wind due in a few months. Thanks again for the community's support and interest in World Wind!
so, get out there and wave! :)
There are also some images already on the site...
w0w the detail is amazing... any privacy concerns???
SCIFI.COM | Battlestar Galactica
I've been aware of this for a while, but don't recall if I posted it, and because of the dirth of posts, I'm gonna, possibly, repost it. If you are into Battlestar Galactica and podcasts, they post "an exclusive commentary by Executive producer Ronald D. Moore about each episode, while you're watching it. There are two ways to enjoy this feature - subscribe to our podcast feed or download individual mp3 files. (Beware of spoilers! Although the commentary is provided before you watch the episode, it is meant to be
listened to while watching the episode. Listening to it beforehand might ruin certain dramatic surprises.)"
In case you have broadband, or the patience of Jack ;) , you can also download an uncut and commercial-free first episode, and four deleted scenes.
listened to while watching the episode. Listening to it beforehand might ruin certain dramatic surprises.)"
In case you have broadband, or the patience of Jack ;) , you can also download an uncut and commercial-free first episode, and four deleted scenes.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Motorola iTunes Cell Phone Meets Media Moguls
The long awaited convergence phone that features iTunes MP3 support on a cell phone seems to have been delayed by a combination of billion dollar roadblocks:
- Cell phone companies want a share of the music download revenue stream with Motorola and Apple
- TMI (The Music Industry) may be having content distribution doubts -- like creating another Napster of freely sharable content -- and is pressuring the cell phone companies.
Will we see the Moto iTunes phone? I think so for several reasons: the most convincing is there's billions in potential handset, network service, and content revenue to be had. But the groaning board may look so appealing there's a fight on to get to the head of the buffet line.
Peter S. Kastner
Peter S. Kastner
Microsoft Launches Windows XP Home Edition N -- Again
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced an agreement with European Union antitrust regulators on the name "Windows XP Home Edition N," with "N" standing for "not with media player," for a reduced version of its Windows media software sold in Europe.
As we discussed on the On Computers radio show yesterday, poor Microsoft can't win with the European Union -- it's political, you see. The whole thing is just asinine. Are consumers better served with a box labelled Windows XP Home Edition N as opposed to Windows XP Home Reduced Media Edition? I guess I just do not have a European sense of humor -- or irony.
If you are in Europe, I would scoop up a few copies of the retail version of "Windows XP Home Reduced Media Edition" while they are still on the shelves as they will definitely be collectible (if only by the Computer Museum). Some day you can sell these now obsolete boxes on eBay -- but be sure to pay your taxes!
Peter S. Kastner
As we discussed on the On Computers radio show yesterday, poor Microsoft can't win with the European Union -- it's political, you see. The whole thing is just asinine. Are consumers better served with a box labelled Windows XP Home Edition N as opposed to Windows XP Home Reduced Media Edition? I guess I just do not have a European sense of humor -- or irony.
If you are in Europe, I would scoop up a few copies of the retail version of "Windows XP Home Reduced Media Edition" while they are still on the shelves as they will definitely be collectible (if only by the Computer Museum). Some day you can sell these now obsolete boxes on eBay -- but be sure to pay your taxes!
Peter S. Kastner
Party's Over: IRS Discovers eBay
Hard to imagine the astute folks at the Internal Revenue Service took ten years to be shocked, shocked to find income being generated on the online phenom, eBay -- where a mere 34 million taxpayers are registered.
You've now been warned ...
Unfortunately, the tax code is at its foggiest regarding money made selling goods over the 'Net. One woman's hobby is another's job. Go figure -- with a professional, please!
Based on past history, the IRS will pick a couple of miscreants and make a public stink, ending with a trial. This is supposed to educate the public to cough up the IRS' full measure of revenue. I wish them good luck (and state up front I have nothing to hide).
Peter S. Kastner
You've now been warned ...
Unfortunately, the tax code is at its foggiest regarding money made selling goods over the 'Net. One woman's hobby is another's job. Go figure -- with a professional, please!
Based on past history, the IRS will pick a couple of miscreants and make a public stink, ending with a trial. This is supposed to educate the public to cough up the IRS' full measure of revenue. I wish them good luck (and state up front I have nothing to hide).
Peter S. Kastner
IRS may tax eBay Sales
If you spend a lot of time selling things on eBay, you may want to give this a read.
New Music File Sharing Method: Apple iPod
Some 19% of those who download audio and video files -- about 7 million adults -- admit to having downloaded files from someone else's iPod or MP3 player, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project research.
While Apple limits iTunes songs to 5 PCs, there is no limit to the number of iPods that can "tank up" at a PC. Not surprisingly, college students discovered this last year. Because the file sharing exchange is local -- no networking involved -- there is no illegal music file downloading to measure on the Internet. Therefore, the Pew research is an important indicator of a new form of an old Internet vice: stealing MP3s and videos.
It will not take the music industry long to point a finger at Apple as "promoting the theft of the music industry's intellectual property". And Apple looks to me like a lawsuit target with very deep pockets.
However, Apple's retort is that many families now have multiple iPods. Just like a family (or friends) can share a legitimate CD and VCR collection under the fair use doctrine, cannot members share the family music freely on their individual iPods?
You'll hear more about this story, most likely as it becomes a highly visible and messy court case.
Peter S. Kastner
While Apple limits iTunes songs to 5 PCs, there is no limit to the number of iPods that can "tank up" at a PC. Not surprisingly, college students discovered this last year. Because the file sharing exchange is local -- no networking involved -- there is no illegal music file downloading to measure on the Internet. Therefore, the Pew research is an important indicator of a new form of an old Internet vice: stealing MP3s and videos.
It will not take the music industry long to point a finger at Apple as "promoting the theft of the music industry's intellectual property". And Apple looks to me like a lawsuit target with very deep pockets.
However, Apple's retort is that many families now have multiple iPods. Just like a family (or friends) can share a legitimate CD and VCR collection under the fair use doctrine, cannot members share the family music freely on their individual iPods?
You'll hear more about this story, most likely as it becomes a highly visible and messy court case.
Peter S. Kastner
Computer Games at Work Face Government Scrutiny
"Senator Allran (NC) wants the state to erase the free game modules such as Solitaire from all its computers - the digital version of throwing the deck in the trash can. The plan, he says, will save taxpayers millions in gained productivity -- not to mention soothing their angst over secretaries and executives' long hours clicking digital decks.
The solitaire crackdown here, though perhaps rare in its specificity, is part of a behind-the-scenes battle over personal time that's affecting not just unionized state workers in North Carolina, but sales reps in Washington and phone-bank workers in San Francisco. It goes straight to the issue of distractions from long days at the office and, more fundamentally, how much of their employees' time and concentration employers can reasonably expect to own.
Research done by the IRS has shown that over 50 percent of the time an IRS employee goes on a computer, he or she also hooks up to the Internet to shop, gamble or play games."
The juxtaposition of record high U.S. worker productivity with claims that half of worker's computer time is wasted to employers is too rich to pass up. Obviously, employers need to get a handle on what's going on. If big government employers are moving to ban solitaire by law, then some workplaces are totally out of control.
Peter S. Kastner
The solitaire crackdown here, though perhaps rare in its specificity, is part of a behind-the-scenes battle over personal time that's affecting not just unionized state workers in North Carolina, but sales reps in Washington and phone-bank workers in San Francisco. It goes straight to the issue of distractions from long days at the office and, more fundamentally, how much of their employees' time and concentration employers can reasonably expect to own.
Research done by the IRS has shown that over 50 percent of the time an IRS employee goes on a computer, he or she also hooks up to the Internet to shop, gamble or play games."
The juxtaposition of record high U.S. worker productivity with claims that half of worker's computer time is wasted to employers is too rich to pass up. Obviously, employers need to get a handle on what's going on. If big government employers are moving to ban solitaire by law, then some workplaces are totally out of control.
Peter S. Kastner
T-Mobile Pulls HP 6315 SmartPhone
Listeners to the On Computers radio show will recall the hosts travails with HP software: we have stated that one of HP's flaws is the inability to write good consumer software.
This week, T-Mobile, HP's exclusive partner in the hp6315, pulled the 6315 PDA phone from retail distribution pending a ROM update from HP. From my own experience, the GSM/GPRS (Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service) modem software used for voice and data is problematic. My 6315 will lose its mind in poor coverage areas, requiring a soft reboot to correct. That can mean lost calls. Lost WiFi coverage can cause the device to run down its battery in an hour, or not be able to connect to a known working access point without rebooting and reinitializing settings. And last week, my 6315 decided to spontaneously do a hard "factory reboot" while sitting idle, powered on, in the USB dock of my desktop PC. Factory reboot means all the data in the PDA becomes missing in action.
Obviously, T-Mobile has had more than a few customer complaints. To pull the product until HP fixes the software is not good news for HP's heretofore good reputation in the telecomm industry. As a T-Mobile customer for the 6315, I can see why T-Mobile went to the extraordinary step of pulling the product.
Peter S. Kastner
This week, T-Mobile, HP's exclusive partner in the hp6315, pulled the 6315 PDA phone from retail distribution pending a ROM update from HP. From my own experience, the GSM/GPRS (Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service) modem software used for voice and data is problematic. My 6315 will lose its mind in poor coverage areas, requiring a soft reboot to correct. That can mean lost calls. Lost WiFi coverage can cause the device to run down its battery in an hour, or not be able to connect to a known working access point without rebooting and reinitializing settings. And last week, my 6315 decided to spontaneously do a hard "factory reboot" while sitting idle, powered on, in the USB dock of my desktop PC. Factory reboot means all the data in the PDA becomes missing in action.
Obviously, T-Mobile has had more than a few customer complaints. To pull the product until HP fixes the software is not good news for HP's heretofore good reputation in the telecomm industry. As a T-Mobile customer for the 6315, I can see why T-Mobile went to the extraordinary step of pulling the product.
Peter S. Kastner
Today's Show
Sorry guys, we had some technical difficulties today for the third hour and ended the show after the second hour. We should have the problem fixed by next week. Thanks everyone for bearing with us.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
OC Podcast
This is the On Computers podcast for 03-27-2005. Due to technical difficulties, the show is only 2 hours long. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.
Texas to Vonage: Fix 911!
Texas sued Vonage on behalf of consumers who cannot get to 911 emergency services. The suit is the aftermath of a home invasion shooting where the caller could not get through to 911. Fortunately, no one was killed.
Texas claims that Vonage provided inadequate warning to voice over IP (VoIP) customers that they needed to register their location with Vonage.
As I have stated on the On Computers radio show, I have some not so pleasant experiences to report as a Vonage customer. However, I will support Vonage's position in this case. Vonage has the problem that VoIP adapters are portable. In fact, take your adapter with you on a trip -- anywhere in the world. Because IP addresses have no correlation to geography, Vonage, AT&T, Skype and the other VoIP providers have no way of mapping a customer's VoIP adapter to a local Emergency 911 call center. For that reason, Vonage prominently informs new customers in its welcome e-mails, adapter user manual, and web site set-up instructions that a 911 instructions form has to be filled out and filed. If you read the Vonage literature or installation instructions, you really cannot miss the 911 instructions.
The Texas law suit will pivot on how proactive Vonage needs to be with customers who do not read instructions. A sad state in law and in consumer behavior.
Peter S. Kastner
Texas claims that Vonage provided inadequate warning to voice over IP (VoIP) customers that they needed to register their location with Vonage.
As I have stated on the On Computers radio show, I have some not so pleasant experiences to report as a Vonage customer. However, I will support Vonage's position in this case. Vonage has the problem that VoIP adapters are portable. In fact, take your adapter with you on a trip -- anywhere in the world. Because IP addresses have no correlation to geography, Vonage, AT&T, Skype and the other VoIP providers have no way of mapping a customer's VoIP adapter to a local Emergency 911 call center. For that reason, Vonage prominently informs new customers in its welcome e-mails, adapter user manual, and web site set-up instructions that a 911 instructions form has to be filled out and filed. If you read the Vonage literature or installation instructions, you really cannot miss the 911 instructions.
The Texas law suit will pivot on how proactive Vonage needs to be with customers who do not read instructions. A sad state in law and in consumer behavior.
Peter S. Kastner
Case Silencing Debacle
A funny story of one man's earnest efforts to silence his PC. There is a lesson here, for sure.
Peter S. Kastner
Peter S. Kastner
Happy Easter to all Christians.
Easter eggs, little nuggets hidden on DVDs, computer programs, Operating Systems..
Link Courtesy of Gizmodo and Lifehacker.
Enjoy :)
MissM
Link Courtesy of Gizmodo and Lifehacker.
Enjoy :)
MissM
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