http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2007/06.php .
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At just about everywhere that I ever provided PC tech support, one or more employees complained about how the organization's computer security systems prevented them from doing whatever they wanted with "their" computers. In other words, because their work computers were "locked down," they couldn't download and install nifty screensavers, music files, games and other "fun" things. A few places that I worked at allowed their employees to download and install things onto their work computers. Those were the places where I spent hours and hours every week, disinfecting virus-and-malware-laden computers, trying to salvage lost data and trying to educate people about the dangers of doing "fun" things on work computers. If you're one of those people who think that you should be allowed to download and install things on your work computer, think again. Smart employees really don't want that kind of responsibility. Don't forget, there are plenty of criminals on the Internet who are just waiting to exploit your unsafe computing behavior to steal your organization's money and data.
In what has been hailed as a huge technological and neurological milestone, surgeons have successfully implanted a tiny bluetooth telephone device inside a man's head. The device is powered by his brain's normal electrical signals, and allows him to make and receive telephone calls through mind control alone.
We all like to think that our hearing is very sensitive and discerning. But can you hear the difference between songs that are encoded in significantly different formats? Apparently,
most people can't.
After several months of drought, the first day of the new hurricane season brought us some much-needed rain. Tropical Storm Barry is out in the Gulf of Mexico, shoving heavy bands of precipitation ahead of itself. It started sprinkling here yesterday afternoon. Within a couple of hours, it had turned into a steady rain that continued all night long and intensified this morning. According to one local TV channel, we've gotten about two inches of rain so far, and we'll probably get another two inches by around lunch time today. Everything that was yellow or brown and wilted yesterday morning is green again today. So far, the only downside has been that the frequent lightning has caused my DSL modem to lose its connection several times. That's OK, though — I just wait for all of its lights to come back on again before I try to upload or download anything.
I use Linux instead of Windows. To anyone who knows me, that's proof that Linux is not just for socially backward nerds. Along with cool guys like me, kids are also interested in it.
If you had a genetic disposition toward getting some disease, would you want to know about it? Here are
12 Gene Tests That Could Change Your Life. Which begs the question: Will they change your life for the better?
If you're a Windows and/or Mac OS X user who's always wondered what it would be like to use Linux, here's a well-written piece by a guy who used Macs for 22 years but has been using Linux for the past year. And the readers' comments after the article will give you an even more complete picture of what it's really like.
It's a well-documented fact that, on top of all of its "features" that treat computer users like probable criminals, Windows Vista continues to cause software and hardware compatibility problems for many of its users. As a result, many tech-savvy users continue to use Windows XP instead of Vista. Bypassing the whole XP vs. Vista controversy, an Ubuntu-Linux user has created a humorous new logo to identify computers that are Windows-free.
Speaking of making fun of Windows, here's
a much-needed new invention for Windows users.
Intelligent people often look at a situation and disagree about what they see. Several days ago, I linked you to an intelligently written piece that criticized the Linux community's understanding of average computer users. Here's an intelligently written piece that responds to that critique. See what you think.
It's been reported that, in the Nigerian black market, you can buy a pirated copy of Windows XP for only $1.15, but a copy of Ubuntu Linux — which Canonical ships out for free — will cost you nearly twice as much. You may be surprised to learn how Microsoft ultimately benefits from thriving black-market software economies in developing countries.
Many people are sick and tired of finding their brand new PCs bogged down with all kinds of unwanted software preinstalled on them. Now it looks like at least one PC manufacturer may be planning to
do something about the problem.
If you're a Windows user, you should know that an increasing number of computer users are coming to the conclusion that After Ubuntu, Windows Looks Increasingly Bad, Increasingly Archaic, Increasingly Unfriendly. To that, I'd like to add the fact that, as good as Ubuntu Linux was when I tried it last summer, I found SimplyMepis Linux to be even better, which is why I've been using Mepis full-time since last fall.
If you're still not convinced, here are five reasons why everyone should use Linux, along with ten tips for new Linux users.
You probably already know that it's unethical and illegal for radio stations to accept
payola. What you might not know is that some online technology publications
are happy to do it.
To protect his anonymity, he calls himself Sum Yung Gai (if you don't get the joke, say it out loud). He's a staunch supporter and defender of freedom for computer users. "He states that GNU and Linux are superior to Microsoft Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. Here's where the irony comes into play: In the mid 1990's, he worked for Microsoft." See for yourself what else Sum Yung Gai has to say.
How hard is it to completely switch from using Windows to using Linux? Here's one guy's experience.
With so many people using laptop computers these days, there are many chances for bad guys to steal those computers and the data that they hold. Wouldn't it be nice if there was free software that could automatically notify you of your stolen Windows laptop's location? There is.
When you see how many unnecessary
security risks most employees take with their work computers, you may wonder how any organizations manage to keep their data secure and their networks from being overrun by hackers.
Most Windows users know that when they uninstall software, it's usually not completely uninstalled. Often, folders, configuration files, and/or Windows Registry entries remain undeleted. Over time, the stuff that's been left by numerous software uninstalls can contribute to a Windows computer running slower than it should. ZSoft Uninstaller is one of many Windows freeware tools designed to solve that problem.
Wow, it sounds like a lot of people have a lot to celebrate. In a huge medical breakthrough, three teams of scientists have successfully reprogrammed mouse skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. And in a huge genetic breakthrough, 200 scientists from 50 different research groups have identified the genes linked to heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, bipolar disorder and Crohn’s disease.
Pretty much everyone who uses a computer knows that every computer has a certain amount of memory, and when that memory is full, the computer has to "forget" something in order to make room to remember something else. Now research shows that the human brain works in a similar way, and that
Forgetting May Be Part of the Process of Remembering. I think I used to know that, a long time ago.
Were you wondering why I didn't update this site early this morning, like I usually do? In the more than 25 years that I've used computers, I've owned and used many different CRT computer monitors. As a PC veteran, I've even had a few monitors die on me. And when they did, they usually either refused to power-up or their displays got really fuzzy. In one case, a monitor's entire display became one bright white spot in the center of the screen. My last CRT was a Hitachi CM-81, 21" monitor that I bought used for only $149 about six years ago. It did a fine job and served me well until yesterday afternoon. While checking my email, its picture suddenly distorted with a sort of "down-the-drain" effect, and it made a long, electrical-spark crackle — the kind that's hard to ignore. Of course, I immediately switched it off. I waited a few seconds and then, for some reason that makes no sense in hindsight, I switched it back on. As if to emphasize the fact that "it had really meant it," it made another, even-longer, even-louder, electrical-spark crackle. With thoughts of having to run from my burning home, pets in hand, I quickly switched it off again, then unplugged it, wrestled it onto my 2-wheel cart, and took it outside. Thus began my multi-hour quest for a new monitor. That quest ended about 30 minutes ago, when I purchased the brand new 22" wide-screen LCD DVI monitor that I'm using right now. My wife's going to be very pleasantly surprised by all the extra screen space that its size and its pinpoint-sharp, 1680 x 1050 native resolution provide. I could have saved about $75 by buying a 20" wide-screen LCD monitor with that same resolution, but I figured that this larger screen will be easier on our aging eyebones.
Along with all of the Windows-to-Linux success stories, it seems like every few weeks, some Windows user tries Linux for a couple of hours and then writes an article, saying that switching to Linux isn't as easy as you think. Here's a Linux user's tongue-in-cheek response: Switching to Windows: Not as easy as you think.
John C. Dvorak has never had a problem telling people what he thinks about anything. If you scroll down past his IBM story, you'll see what he thinks about there being so many different Linux distros. He makes a couple of valid points, but since he's not a Linux user, he doesn't realize that many (most?) of us aren't interested in switching from distro to distro to chase the latest fads — we only switch distros until we find one that fits our particular needs. Unlike Windows users, we Linux users have many choices. I guess that kind of freedom is kind of scary to people who aren't used to having any.
Well, isn't that special. A company has announced that it hopes to profiteer from the software patent system, by patenting fixes for security holes and forcing other companies to pay it to use them. Slashdot's readers
have a lot to say about that idea.
They have nothing to do with former Vice President Al Gore, but here are a few Inconvenient truths: PC vs. Mac, Windows vs. Linux, us vs. them, et al. See if you agree with their author.
If you ever have the need to copy and paste multiple lines of text into an online form — like when using Google Maps, you'll appreciate this quick-and-easy Firefox tip.
Speaking of tips, here are 20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches.
In case you weren't already aware of it, here's a reminder that
Antibacterial Products May Do More Harm Than Good. And just in time, too:
Scientists have discovered a new, potentially deadly bacteria.
I'm still very happy with my new 22" wide screen LCD monitor, but I might stop in at my local computer store to talk to the salesman about it. Here's the story: My new monitor has both VGA (analog) and a DVI (digital) inputs, to make it compatible with both old (VGA) and newer (DVI) video cards, but the salesman and I both thought that, like many VGA-DVI monitors, my new one came with only a VGA cable. Knowing that my PC's relatively new video card has both VGA and DVI outputs, I asked him if it would be worth buying a DVI cable for the new monitor. He told me that the VGA cable that came with it would give me the exact same picture quality as a DVI cable would, unless I was going to watch DVD videos or play high-speed games. So I bought the monitor, but I didn't buy a DVI cable. When I got home, I happily discovered that it came with both VGA and DVI cables, so I decided to compare their picture quality.
The VGA cable gave me a nice clear display that looked normal to me, just like the display of my old 21" CRT monitor. The edges of the screen looked a little soft, and so did very tiny text, like the links to the various language translations at the top of this site's home page. The thumbnail photos in the upper-right corner of this site's home page, and this site's left navigation-column buttons were clear, but they weren't sharp, which made them look exactly like they had looked on my old 21" CRT monitor.
On the other hand, the DVI cable gave me a much better display. Every single pixel on the screeen is crisp and defined, from edge to edge and from corner to corner. The thumbnails in the upper-right corner of this site's home page, and this site's left navigation-column buttons all look very sharp and defined, and so does text that is even tinier than this site's home page's language-translation links. And for the first time ever, I noticed that the digits of my Linux desktop's digital clock (in the lower-right corner of the screen) have a light-gray drop-shadow, and the colons between the hours, minutes and seconds are actually made up of little squares, not round dots. Wow! It makes me feel kind of like I felt when I got my first pair of glasses in the fifth grade — until then, I had no idea that I was supposed to be able to see the individual leaves on trees! My new monitor has now taken its rightful place in my mental list of "the best things I've ever bought," along with my old Brother HL-5040 laser printer and my new Brother HL-5240 laser printer.
When I was a kid, Saturday morning was a time of staying in my pajamas and watching cartoons on TV. Here's a cute little 5-year-old who spends her Saturday mornings playing with a paint program on a Linux computer.
Here's a story that could quickly affect all of us: "Five of the largest Internet service providers in the U.S. plan to start charging businesses for
guaranteed delivery of their e-mails, in a bid to combat spam." Slashdot's readers have
some pretty strong feelings about that idea. Do you?
You know, it's getting to the point where you just can't trust huge corporations to look out for your best interests any more. A privacy watchdog group has given Google its lowest possible grade for its privacy policies. And a court has ruled that Microsoft and Best Buy must stand trial on federal racketeering charges.
Researchers predict that, there will be one billion PCs being used worldwide by 2008. And there will be two billion in use by 2015.
If you have children in your life that you care about, here's a neat article that describes 27 Skills Your Child Needs to Know That She’s Not Getting In School.
When people go to a movie theatre, I think they should to be able to hear the dialogue and watch the action, without being distracted by loud groups of inconsiderate strangers. Apparently,
some Canadians disagree.
If you use one operating system (i.e. Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) and you're thinking of switching to a different operating system (i.e., Linux, Mac OS X, Windows), one author asks that you think about what each OS can do for you, instead of how they compare to each other. On the other hand, I think that it's a good idea to think about both things.
There are plenty of tools to help you write your own blog. And there are plenty of things that you can blog about. Just don't try to write any blog entries at an NCAA baseball game. I have a feeling we haven't heard the end of that story yet.
U.S. researchers have taken another step toward creating a self-healing Terminator. But I'll bet they'll waste the new technology on something that's really boring, instead.
Here's something else that The Terminator could use:
a liquid camera lens with no moving parts.
Yesterday, I linked you to an article that implored everyone to not be so enthusiastic about their operating system of choice. Today, that same author says that we all use rose-colored glasses when we view our chosen operating systems. I'd just like to say that we all disagree with him on that.
Do you ever watch movies and TV shows and get frustrated by their unrealistic portrayal of people using computers? It seems like the hero always guesses the enemy's login password on the third try, and computer geeks always do incredible things with onscreen 3-D graphics by simply clicking two or three individual keys on their keyboards, without ever touching a mouse or graphics tablet. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has compiled his own top-ten list of usability bloopers in movies.
More power to you (pun intended), if you decide to convert your car to use biofuels instead of foreign oil. That is, unless you live in North Carolina.
Here's a
funny response to an employment rejection letter. It's probably also a perfect example of doing something that feels good at the time, but will come back and bite you in the butt later.
According to one author, internet providers are in the process of taking away many of the rights and services that you pay them for. In fact, it's getting so bad that you might as well say goodbye to the Internet you knew.
If you're the kind of person who likes to call Microsoft and give them an angry earful about how bad their products and services are, you should be aware that Redmond has been granted a U.S. patent that may make that a bad idea.
Have any of your youthful indiscretions found their way onto the Internet, giving you a bad reputation? There are companies that will work to clean up your online reputation. Of course, their efforts sometimes backfire.
No matter how bad your job is, just remember that
it could be worse.
A few years ago, I totally redesigned this entire site to give it a new look, and to use valid XHTML 1.0 coding, use valid CSS layout and styling, and meet web accessibility standards. At that time, I chose colors that gave this site a slightly "soft" look. Regular readers of this Journal may notice that I tweaked this site's colors yesterday, to give it a "snappier" look.
What's it like to install and use Windows Vista? Read about one guy's experience in "A Linux User in Vista-land:" Part 1 and Part 2.
Do you own and use all kinds of gadgets? What would it be like to try to live without them? One guy had some funny experiences when he tried
The 8-Step Technology Detox.
Regular readers of this Journal know that I started using Linux full-time in the summer of 2006, and that I've been using SimplyMepis Linux full-time since the fall of 2006. If you're curious about how easy it is for new users to install and use Mepis, here's a very short, "first impressions" look at it.
If you have your own web site, and you like to keep up with web development standards, you'll want to read this overview of the new HTML5 specs.
Did you know that you can buy 80 MB of storage for less than $12,000 — and 300 MB of storage for less than $20,000? Computerworld's staff found those incredible deals and other entertaining items while looking through
40 years of that magazine's printed advertisements.
If you have children, and you want them to learn computer skills, there are good reasons why you should consider having them use Linux computers.
Insider information is nearly always good information to have. In this case, you'll get a lot of good insider information from
22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager. You might want to read it right away, though, since it's such good information that
Dell has demanded that it be taken off the web.
If you think you have a great resume, you may want to see how it stacks up to the 24 Reasons Why Your Geeky Resume Will Cost You the Job.
In 1957, a brand-new Plymouth Belvedere was buried in an underground time capsule that was designed to be safe from a nuclear bomb. Now, fifty years later, that car has been removed from its fortress. Do you think it would've survived a nuclear blast?
You probably heard about the judge who is suing his dry cleaners for 54 million dollars because they lost a pair of his pants. It seems like some people will sue for just about any reason, like in these 30 bizarre lawsuits.
Here's a
commercial for Linux that's funny, even though you'll probably figure out where it's going after the first few seconds.
I use Linux full-time. My wife uses Windows XP. I don't have to worry about viruses and malware in Linux, but I've done a lot of work to lock down the XP side of my dual-boot computer, to try to keep it from getting any sort of infection. I also maintain Linux, XP and data backups on a separate, external hard drive, so that if anything ever gets infected, I can easily restore it to a previously "known good" state.
If you're a Windows user and you don't have extensive backups of your entire system, you should probably read How to Clean Up a Windows Spyware Infestation, and these readers' comments about it. The truth is, though, that restoring from a backup can be a whole lot faster, easier and safer than trying to clean up an infected PC.
This web site has used some of them for several years. You may decide that some of them work for you, too. Though they're not new, they are Ten CSS Tricks You May Not Know.
I've been taking photographs since I was 12 years old, when Uncle Dom taught me how to use a camera, develop film, and print my own photos. If you want to improve your photographic skills, you might pick up a few good tips from reading The Ten Most Common Photographic Mistakes.
Everyone needs a certain amount of salt, but eating too much of it can be really bad for you. Ancient people used it as money — that's where we got the expression, "He isn't worth his salt." Besides sprinking it on our food and and using it to melt winter ice, salt has many uses, including these
Fifteen Household Uses for Table Salt.
If you've thought about trying Linux, but you've been scared that it might be "completely different" than the Windows that you're used to, Your mom Kubuntus! may help alleviate your fears. Once you've installed and configured them, most modern Linux distros look and work surprisingly similarly to Windows. In fact, I've been using Mepis Linux full-time since last fall, but if you're a Windows user, and if you were looking over my shoulder right now, you'd probably think that I was using Windows.
You already know all about Windows Vista — all of the hardware and software incompatibilities, glitches, "deployment blockers, high impact issues" and unresolved problems that have caused so many companies and individuals to keep using Windows XP instead of Vista. And you already know that Microsoft knew about those problems before they started selling Vista — in fact, Redmond started beta testing Vista's desperately-needed Service Pack 1 — which won't be released until later this year — even before it started selling Vista to home users. Well, Microsoft says you should ignore all of that. It "has launched a 'fact rich' program to help customers understand why they should 'proceed with confidence' in rolling out Vista across all their PCs." That reminds me of the old saying: "Never ask a barber if you need a haircut."
Where will the automobiles of the future be developed? You may be surprised to see
who's working on them.
A Venezuelan has reportedly set a new record for the world's longest wireless connection — 237 miles. Unfortunately, his microwave signals cooked every single bird that was in the sky between the two connected points.
If you're smart, you take precautions to prevent your identity from being stolen. So how would you feel if your boss made it possible for over 40,000 people to steal your identity?
Here's something you don't see every day:
The birth of a new island in the Pacific Ocean.
If you've known for months about all of Windows Vista's compatibility, user-rights and security problems, but you're still curious to try it out, do yourself a favor and read Vista: They took five years for this? It could save you a lot of time, trouble and frustration.
I've been using Mepis Linux full-time since last fall. As a long-term Windows user, I found it relatively easy to switch to Mepis. Many people think that the secret to making Linux-based operating systems more popular is to make them look and feel as much like Windows as possible. Other people think maybe that's not such a good idea.
Here's something that's extremely rare:
A PowerPoint presentation that's funny, educational and memorable.
I don't pretend to understand half of what it's talking about, but what I do understand sounds really good. If you use a KDE-based Linux distro, here's a bunch of good information about what's coming in KDE 4.
Could it really be this simple? It has been highly successful on mice, so now medical researchers are doing human testing of a new drug that could stop Alzheimer's disease. It apparently works like "Drano for the brain-o."
A California company is developing
robots to replace thousands of migrant fruit pickers. For an extra dash of irony, insert your own lame joke about how the robots will only be taking jobs that the migrant workers aren't willing to do.
When Windows 95 came out, the company that I worked for had me upgrade a couple of departments worth of employees to it from Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups). I still remember carrying a huge stack of floppy disks from desktop to desktop, manually upgrading those PCs one at a time. And who can ever forget all the phone calls that I got afterward, saying things like, "My old Windows used to print things right away. Why does Windows 95 take 2 1/2 minutes just to send a one-page document to the printer?" Ah, happy memories... Here are some Windows 95 promotional videos that I don't remember at all — starring a couple of friends.
One guy thinks he's discovered that there are ten different life types. He asks you to decide which one of them you are, and which one you want to be. Is there something wrong with me? I'm six of them. And so am I. And so am I. And so am I. And so am I. And so am I.
I thought about it for a minute, but I had to read the article to learn
why some coins have ridges along their edges and others don't.
I've been using Linux full-time for almost a year and I've never noticed it, but more-experienced Linux users sometimes complain that the KDE Konqueror file manager/web browser is too bloated to be able to do either task really well. Maybe they'll be happier using the Dolphin file manager that will be part of the upcoming KDE 4.
Here's an emotional public letter to Microsoft, ranting about why Linux and Mac are both better choices than Windows Vista.
In years past, I bought at least two full-price packages of Partition Magic, the non-destructive hard drive partitioning tool, because its graphical user interface made it easy to create, move, resize, copy and delete hard drive partitions. But for the past few years, I've saved my money by downloading and using the bootable LiveCD of GParted, because it looks and works just like Partition Magic, and it works on both Windows and Linux partitions, but it's totally free.
How many years would you guess that banks have been using ATM cash machines? And why do they usually require that you use a PIN code of only 4 digits? Learn the answers to these and other questions by reading The Man Who Invented the Cash Machine.
BREAKING NEWS: Following a two-day trial earlier this month, a judge
has issued a ruling in the case of the guy who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a lost pair of pants.
A few days ago, I added a Site Meter icon to the bottom of this site's left navigation column. Site Meter offers both Basic (free) and Premium (paid) site counter and site statistics services. I'm using the Basic service, which gives me a lot of detailed information about this site's visitors, even though I've chosen to use my own site counter instead of Site Meter's. Since this site gets visitors from all over the world, I especially like Site Meter's Recent Visitors By World Map feature (127 KB image). When I point my cursor at one of those dots, a tooltip appears, telling me exactly where that visitor came from. I highly recommend Site Meter.
If you sometimes need to use an FTP program to transfer files to or from a different computer, you know how daunting it can be to download, install, configure and learn how to use bulky FTP software. People who use Mozilla's free Firefox web browser have an option that's much easier — FireFTP is a tiny Firefox extension that adds FTP capabilities to your browser itself, whether you use Windows, Mac or Linux.
I've said it many times before, but every couple of weeks, a news story pops up to remind us that the biggest threat to any organization's security is its loyal employees.
A British racing team hopes to break the land-speed record for
a steam-powered car. If they're successful, they'll attempt to communicate the news of their accomplishment to relatives in a distant city, using a device called "a telephone."
It doesn't really make any difference, but sometimes it's kind of fun to see what various site-ranking sites think this web site is worth. If you're curious to see what one site-ranking site thinks your web site, or any site you specify, is worth, check out dnScoop.
If you're a fan of Saturday Night Live, or if you've ever read the quotations that automagically appear at the top of this site's home page, you've probably seen at least a few hilarious Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey. If you've enjoyed those, you'll like Jack's nature documentary.
A few days ago, as I was pushing my shopping cart full of groceries to my car, I couldn't help but notice how sunny and hot it was, just like it is here almost every day during the summer. Years ago, I would've felt a little annoyed at the heat, but my previous decades of having to endure
a more northern climate taught me to appreciate the southern heat. I still keep one of my massive down parkas in my office closet, just so I won't forget.
Every day, there's more evidence that The World Can Live Without Microsoft. If you can't live without Microsoft yet, and you want to take some control over which programs automatically run each time Windows starts, take a look at Startup Control Panel and Safe XP. Both programs are free.
In an effort to compete with Google, Microsoft will soon offer users up to 500 MB of online storage for free. Of course, you won't be allowed to store any pirated software. Or copyrighted videos, songs or photographs. Or DRM-free music or video files. Or documents that criticize any of Microsoft's products or services, or praise any of its competitors' products or services. And it goes without saying that Redmond will have free and unfettered access to your personal financial information, web browsing history, email messages, email address books and buddies lists. Other than that, it sounds like a good idea.
A U.S. company hopes to reduce the amount of junk that ends up in landfills by using a giant microwave oven to
turn plastic back into oil and flammable gasses. I think that this new invention will be much more profitable than their earlier one that turns diamonds back into carbon.
Recently, a Microsoft security employee published a Windows Vista - 6 Month Vulnerability Report, claiming that Vista is much more secure than Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. Now that people have had a week to analyze that report, there is a growing feeling that it is nothing but propaganda and Vista Security Baloney. Why? Because it plays fast and loose with the facts. For example, in Linux's open source software community, security vulnerabilities are almost always less critical than they are in Vista. Linux's vulnerabilities are all publicly disclosed and publicly fixed — usually very quickly. In sharp contrast, Microsoft doesn't disclose many of the security vulnerabilities that it finds. In fact, it has reportedly admitted that it silently fixes many security vulnerabilities without ever admitting that they even existed. As a result, there's no public record of them, and Microsoft doesn't mention them in its Vulnerability Report. Believing Microsoft's self-reporting that its products are more secure than its competitors' products is kind of like letting one of your employees fill out their own yearly employee evaluation — and the employee evaluations of all of their co-workers. If you care about your computer's security, be sure to learn the truth and don't be fooled by self-serving security double-talk.
PC Magazine calls them Five Ideas That Will Reinvent Modern Computing. I'm always interested in reading these types of predictions, and they may all eventually come true, but in the back of my mind, a little voice asks, "What ever happened to the flying cars that they said we'd all be driving by now?"
Any guitar player who's ever "jammed" with a friend or visited a
Guitar Center or
Sam Ash store, will totally understand
this photo.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to release its upcoming Internet Explorer 7 as a forced update to Windows XP users, sometime later this year. IE7 is expected to be more compliant with W3C web-coding standards than its predecessors, but it still might display some web sites differently than competing browsers like Firefox and Opera. If you have your own web site, you may want to look into Preparing Your Site For Internet Explorer 7, even if your site meets all W3C standards like this one does.
In the past several months since Windows Vista was released, many corporations, organizations and individuals have preferred to keep using Windows XP, even on brand-new PCs. Now Microsoft plans to make it simpler for PC makers to downgrade their customers' new computers from Vista to XP. Most of us would consider that to be Redmond's admission of the failure of Vista — which some people are jokingly calling "VistaME" — but you'll see near the end of the article that Microsoft continues to try to spin Vista's failures into something good.
Every bank that I've used in the past several years has wanted me to do my banking online. With a name like "ComputerBob," you might think that I'd be eager to do that, but I know how insecure online banking can be, so I've never done it. Now, banks in New Zealand are looking for ways to
blame the insecurity of online banking transactions on their customers. Sadly, in most cases of fraudulent or disputed online transactions, they're probably right.
