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October 31, 2006
Beware Microsoft's free accounting software!
Today Microsoft released a free accounting package called Microsoft Office Accounting Express (Read Tech Crunch's post here).
While it sounds great - buyer beware! Behind the scenes, Microsoft Office Accounting Express relies on SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. The problem with this is that default installations of SQL server are very insecure and will compromise your systems security. Once compromised an attacker could corrupt data or use your system to propagate viruses and other malware.
If you are interested on Microsoft’s new free accounting software, be sure to brush up on your SQL Server administration skills first!
Posted by Jonathan at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2006
I'm Compatible with that
A couple of days ago I talked about old games being good. Specifically the Microsoft Pinball arcade that I purchased off eBay for my son. It came in a week later and he tried to install it on the xp machine but it had some issues with sound. It worked fine on my ME machine but I use the cheap ME machine as a notepad machine when working (The good xp machine is the family machine, the laptop is my primary work machine and the ME machine is for notes while working from home.) so he can't always use it.
The solution is the compatibility mode. XP offers this mode for the use of old programs. When he set the xp machine into windows 2000 mode all his problems were solved and he was off and running.
Simply right click on the application, choose properties and then click on the compatibility tab for the operating system that you are working on.
So the use of compatibility mode combined with some old software can be the source of some expensive fun.
BTW The game itself is first rate. The tables included are fun, particularly Haunted House. I highly recommend it. There is a demo availble at the site above, give it a try and you'll be bidding for it too.
Posted by Peter at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2006
Sony and St. Louis on Fire!
The St. Louis Cardinals have defeated the Detriot Tigers 4 games to 1 to win their 10th World Series in 17 trips. (Only the Yankees have won more with 26 titles in 39 trips.) They exhibited some of the hottest pitching in a world series since the 1966 Baltimore Championship team.
Meanwhile as St. Louis recovers from it's woes to reach the top, Sony continues to stumble, first a burning issue:
Fujitsu, one of several companies involved in the worldwide Sony laptop battery recall, disclosed Friday that one of its notebooks with Sony's batteries overheated and sparked, burning the hand of the user. The injuries were minor, and the incident was the first known occurrence on any of its products, the company said. Altogether, Fujitsu is recalling some 338,000 batteries due to the fire risk.
And if that isn't enough legal issues have arisen:
Sony admits that its senior staff bought PSPs from what are now deemed illegal sources, reports the BBC.The UK High Court ruled last week that gaming e-tailer Lik-Sang's importation of Japanese PSPs to the UK and European Economic Area as illegal, citing that Japanese units were not certified to European safety standards. Sony then took legal action against Lik-Sang, which purportedly caused the e-tailer to shutdown.
Lik-Sang subsequently posted a notice on its Web site explaining the reason behind its closure, plus naming several Sony directors who illegally imported PSP units through the site.
And the bad news continues:
Sony Corp. said Thursday its profit nose-dived 94 percent for the July-September quarter, falling to 1.7 billion yen ($14 million) from 28.5 billion yen in the same period a year ago.
A very wise man I know stated that this might be the time to consider Sony stock as not much else can go wrong.
Well this is the final Sony vs St. Louis post and I close with this conclusion:
In sports a team is often motivated when it is treated with disrespect. One must conclude that there is no greater insult than to be compared to Sony since the St. Louis turn around took place as soon as we compared them to Sony. Some things are just beyond the pale.
Posted by Peter at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2006
Well it beats one potato two potato..
Tech republic poster Atroon uses advanced analytical methods to conclude that Vista will fail.
I guess the Ouija board must have been broken
Posted by Peter at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
Ipod surprise followed by a bigger one
I was doing some Amazon shopping today and found that a new Ipod was to be released in a few days. The new version of the shuffle is basically a clip on pod that is the size of a person's thumb:
The world’s smallest digital music player and just $79, the 1GB iPod shuffle lets you wear up to 240 songs(1) on your sleeve. Or your lapel. Or your belt. Clip on iPod shuffle and wear it as a badge of musical devotion.
With all the years I've been in this business I thought I wouldn't be surprised, but I was, surprised and impressed but that didn't compare to the surprise when I asked my son what he thought of it: He said it was real cool but don't buy him one. (Consider, this kid has been after me to buy him a pod for ages)
"Why not?""It's so small I'd lose it for sure."
Absolutely nothing I've seen as a parent prepared me for that. So off the Christmas list it goes.
Posted by Peter at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2006
Google comments on political Googlebombing
We reported here about the idea of googlebombing results to steer people on the web to the desired articles (good or bad) about candidates. The NYT reports on Google's reaction:
“We don’t condone the practice of Google bombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results,” said Ricardo Reyes, a Google spokesman. “A site’s ranking in Google’s search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.”
Earler in the article they potential success of said tactics are discussed:
But it is far from clear whether this particular campaign will be successful. Much depends on the extent of political discussion already tied to a particular candidate’s name.It will be harder to manipulate results for searches of the name of a candidate who has already been widely covered in the news and widely discussed in the blogosphere, because so many links and so many pages already refer to that particular name. Search results on lesser-known candidates, with a smaller body of references and links, may be easier to change.
My own opinion on the tactic is unchanged, however I am proud to say that this search result was not manipulated at all.
via Hotair whose description of the tactic as "evil" is over the top to me, however it fits the topic of this article there to a t.
Update: The hotair link does have one point that is worth repeating:
…If Bowers and his search-challenged minions actually can manipulate the search results in time for the election? That’s a strike at the heart of Google’s core product itself.
I think that such manipulation of the product and every other search on any platform gets manipulated every day. With money involved anyone who thinks this isn't being done doesn't understand human nature.
Posted by Peter at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
Yet another poster jailed
Reuters reports (via Michelle Malkin) that yet another internet poster has gone to jail in China:
Li Jianping was sentenced in Zibo, in the eastern province of Shandong, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a faxed statement on the latest example of China's crackdown on Internet dissent.An assistant to Li's lawyer confirmed the sentence but could give no details. Li was tried in April.
A student participant in China's 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations, Li was found guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" for an essay published on overseas Chinese Web sites in 2003, the center said.
Don't expect this to end anytime soon.
Posted by Peter at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
Almost an argument for online banking
As you might remember if you have been my customer in the past I have never been a fan of online banking or keeping financial data on a pc. I am in a real minority here. I'm not even a big fan of my brother's method of keeping the data on a pc kept off the net. These days it only takes 60 seconds to put in a thumb drive and copy a directory containing that data onto it by anyone in a house.
As a consequence I still do all my financial stuff on paper. I don't even have a debit card or an ATM card. Today I cleaned out my financial records. I spent 3 hours pulling documents, shredding and bagging them and repeatedly cleaning out a jammed shredder. Unfortunately I don't have a fireplace or this would have been much faster.
Let me say for the record after filling two trash bags with shredded documents that I now understand why people do their stuff online as it was a pain in the neck. I however am not so upset that I am going to change.
Posted by Peter at 04:50 PM | Comments (1)
October 25, 2006
Cnet gives Firefox 2 Thumbs WAY up
Paul let you know about Firefox 2.0 this week. cNet gives its review today. The verdict:
Mozilla Firefox 2 is a winner, beating Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on security, features, and overall cool factor and deserving our Editors' Choice award.
The full review is here. I haven't had a chance to play with it but Paul may have a review later. Watch this space.
If you don't want to wait for us to tell you what we think, go here and you can download it yourself and give it a spin.
Posted by Peter at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2006
Why Pay to play?
I have been asked many times by people why would you want to pay a monthly fee to play a game on computer. You can purchase a ps2/ps3 or xbox/xbox 360 or game cube game and play it all you want with out paying anything other then that one time charge for the software.
Yet, most of this it would be just you playing by your self. One thing I found was a problem for many years is this community. Before the advent of radio folks use to gather together with friends down in town square by the band stand where actual bands would perform live to entertain. Folks would gather round for games of Horse shoes or other games. This brings people together and entertained.
With radio becoming part of most house holds families didn't need to go out you could stay at home to hear what’s been happening or listen to music and such. TV did this even more. Now we have people spending all their time sitting in front of TVs with very little interaction or social dialog. Many of early game systems fell into this as well. What’s missing? Except when your friends come over you’re not going to do much, but play game by your self.
What we see now are MMOs or massively multiplayer online game. Games like World Of Warcraft, Everquest2, Lineage2 or Dungens & Dragons. If you rather not play a fantasy type game you could try Sci fi games like Eve Online, Starwars Galaxies, or next year will be seeing Star Trek Online release. You can even be a Super hero or villain in City of Heroes. Most of these games require you to first purchase then pay a monthly fee of around 15$ per month to continue to play. In them you can create your self a character which you can move around a massive world. Much like you can do in many games you can buy in stores.
What makes them worth the money then that you have to pay out? The chance to play with other players or PC Player characters in the game. That means when you meet someone in the game it is most likely another person maybe from another country or just another city in your state. This brings back to games that community that has been lacking from TV and other single player games. This chance to hang out with group of new friends and do missions together rather then alone. Talk in chat or using voice software through the internet. So rather then sitting at home alone now you’re online with hundreds maybe thousands of people sharing a love for game.
I personally feel this is worth the investment of money. I could do same at local pool hall or maybe bar where could get in game of darts or even card game. You will still end up paying out money one way or another. I rather be at home during stormy day and still have time to play. What do you think? Do you play game online or perhaps you get into free games like ones at Yahoo or MSN ? Leave comment and let us know what you think am I crazy to pay or are you one of the many. Blizzard who make World of Warcraft released during Dec of 2005 there number of subscribers which are more then 5 million world wide. That is very amazing when you think about it. 5 million people all who can enjoy same game.
Posted by Eric at 01:48 PM | Comments (2)
You don't have to censor a non-existant net
North Korea seems to have found a fullproof method of censoring the internet: Don't connect to it:
While other restrictive regimes have sought to find ways to limit the Internet — through filters and blocks and threats — North Korea has chosen to stay wholly off the grid.Julien Pain, head of the Internet desk at Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based group which tracks censorship around the world, put it more bluntly. “It is by far the worst Internet black hole,” he said.
Hey why spend the time censoring when you can cut it off completely.
Posted by Peter at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
Googlebombing the election
It looks like the ability to tweak google searches isn't only for sales purposes anymore:
What The utilization of Google Adwords and simultaneous, widespread embedded hyperlinks in order to drive as many voters as possible toward the most damning, non-partisan article written on the Republican candidate in seventy key US Senate and House races. The campaign will run from Tuesday, October 24th until Tuesday, November 7th.
If you read the whole thing the plan is basically to manipulate searches so you will get the articles they want you to see. Hotair is not impressed:
it’s good to expose tactics like these. It takes a devious mind to come up with a convoluted way to rig Google search terms, tie that to Google ads and hope to move democracy your way via online hypnosis.
I'm not outraged at all myself. The tactic is cheezy, but they are purchasing the ad space and there is nothing to stop the other side from pushing up positive stories or negative stories on the other side. In fact this site is already planning to do so. Since this is not being done in secret people and it is not against the law I don't see the problem here. It looks like old style bare knuckle politics to me.
I don't see any real difference between this an last minute radio campaigns and phone banks. It is using technology to advance your agenda. It's the same hardball tactics that politics always entails it just using the new tools available.
HiWired doesn't have political opinions. My personal thoughts on elections follow below the fold.
Peter's Opinion:
In a representative republic we always get the results we deserve because the vote is driven by the action or inaction of the people. In an information age there is no excuse for somebody not to be informed. The poorest person can enter a public library and in a few minutes have access to more combined knowledge than all the rulers of the earth from the start of time to 1945 put together. It falls on each of us to make a wise informed decision.
Whatever the result, it will be our own fault.
Posted by Peter at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)
HP Scandal continues
I must be one of the only people in the world who found the whole HP ethics scandal a bit boring. Computerworld via slashdot says things are getting worse:
Here we have a company that’s desperate to retain (or regain) its users’ confidence following one of the highest-profile corporate ethics breaches in recent memory. It was essential to fill the newly vacated chief ethics officer post, and quickly, so that someone would be in place to ensure that HP adheres to its standards of business conduct. But in a demonstration of astonishingly poor judgment, the post was filled by one of HP CEO Mark Hurd’s old cronies from NCR.
It sure makes this sound like bad timing.
Posted by Peter at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
Yogi Berra Tech Guru
Ralph Sacco of Computerworld uses Yogi-Speak and applies it to the
field of project manager. He finds that Yogi-Berra, the 3 time MVP (and in my opinion the greatest catcher of all time even though he is a Yankee) has a lot to say on the subject:
“I didn’t really say everything I said.” Miscommunication: the gift that keeps on giving. How many times have you held a project meeting and been surprised that it wasn’t the “check the box” event you expected? Yogi knew what he was talking about: What I think I say and what you think you hear can be two different things. Who’s on first?
Any article that can connect Yogi to technology is ok in my book.
BTW if you want to argue about Berra's greatness remember, he won his 3 MVPs from 1951-1955 at the same time that Mantle, Willians, Ford and a bunch of other Hall of Famers were playing.
Posted by Peter at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
Anti-virus blues
No not blues because of virus' people are getting, blues because with the advent of Microsoft security the big anti-virus people may be in bad shape at least according to c-Net Australia. (via slashdot) They begin with a little history:
In 1994 there was one very good Internet browser: Netscape. Created by several members of the team who gave us Mosaic, one of the first browsers, Netscape was immediately successful as a commercial enterprise. Microsoft, realisinglate that it had failed to seize upon this thing called the Internet, hastily created the Internet Explorer browser
We all know how that ended, although the firefox people will tell you the fight isn't over yet. Flash forward to the present.
Vendors Symantec and McAfee have looked into the future and realised (sic) that people may one day speak of them in the way that we now speak reverently of the early builds of Netscape. This time, history is on their side; court cases and commissions have found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations, and the security vendors are now using these to argue their point. Unfortunately for Symantec and McAfee, time may have already run out; Microsoft is ready to ship Vista to manufacturers within the next few weeks.
And it gets worse for them:
McAfee and Symantec are also upset about PatchGuard...Microsoft claims that by locking the kernel to outside vendors, it'll eliminate most of the causes of the Blue Screen of Death, as well as prevent rootkits from installing. Unfortunately, it'll also eliminate most third-party firewalls.
Here's how I see it: The eyes on the prize here is no virus' or hacks. If the Microsoft system keeps them out people aren't going to give a care if Symantec, McAfee or anybody else is locked out. They don't buy that stuff to take business away from Microsoft, they buy it to keep their computers safe. In theory Microsoft should know their OS better than these other people, but also in theory they should be able to write an OS that doesn't need the security patch of the week to stay safe.
The user doesn't care what is being used. The user wants protection.
Jon raised an interesting point on the subject, a lot of these programs create a "black list" of what isn't allowed access. He suggests it would be wiser to have a "white list", of what is. I agree.
Posted by Peter at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
Chris Muir Techno-Retard Interview Pt 2.
Our latest podcast The funnies pt2 features the second part of our interview with Chris Muir author of the Day by Day strip and self confessed techno Retard.
We get a little deeper into the strip, and the future of online strips in general. As always you can listen directly here, or find us via the iTunes music store (search for HiWired). If you missed pt one, you can listen here or check out our previous post.
UPDATE: Here is that favorite cartoon of mine:
Posted by Peter at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2006
Old is still good
Two days ago 1/3 of the world's greatest family turned 13. He got a fair amount of cash and a few games. The first thing he did (with permission of course) was to purchase a game called Microsoft Pinball Arcade.
He is a big pinball fan but what is most interesting about this choice is the age of the game. It is over 7 years old which makes in practically ancient in computer terms. He purchased a used copy from ebay for the astronomical price of $3 including shipping.
Most new games people play run $30-$50. Some games require subscriptions that run $15 a month. I had a customer tonight who had to purchase a new video card in order to play City of Villains. This is a common issue with new games.
Meanwhile hundreds of first class games lay unpurchased and unplayed and available at bargain prices. Many were $50 games at the time of issue but as time passed they became "junk" to many kids who only want the newest stuff. What they forget is that all of the new games will eventually become old games that are forgotten, that doesn't make them any less playable or fun. I suspect my son will get hours of fun off of his old $3 game when it gets in. If you look at some older games available online on eBay or other used pc site you might find hours of enjoyment for minutes of money.
Posted by Peter at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2006
New Firefox
The new FireFox web browser is almost here! Firefox 2 Release Candidate 3 (RC 3), the latest preview release of the next version of the Firefox browser, is now available for download here. The Browser is the world’s second popular web browser behind Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Some new Key Features:
• Improvements to tabbed browsing, including the ability to re-open recently closed tabs
• Inline spell checking
• New Windows installer based
• Built in Phishing Protection
• Enhanced search engine management
You can find a full list of features included in the release notes. Whether you do a lot of web browsing in Internet Explorer already, or use Firefox as your default browser, I would suggest downloading it to see some of the new key exciting features.
Posted by pbanacos at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2006
Ipod and hearing loss
Apple is being sued over Ipod volume:
The lawsuit says the iPod can generate more than 115 decibels, a level that could damage hearing to a user exposed for more than 28 seconds a day.Mr Patterson's lawyer, Steve W Berman, told Associated Press news agency that his client did not know if he had suffered hearing loss but that that was not the issue.
"He's bought a product which is not safe to use as currently sold on the market," Mr Berman said.
"He's paying for a product that's defective, and the law is pretty clear that if someone sold you a defective product they have a duty to repair it."
I speak with some experience that the pod can really blast into your ear, looks like these fellows selling ear-safe ipod headphones were way ahead of the game when we teased them a little here. At least the Nashua Telegraph thinks so:
The 38-year-old mother of four has a patent pending on iHearSafe, the only low-decibel earbuds that she says solve the hearing-loss problem caused by high volume on mp3 players.“I know myself, as a parent, I had to do something,” she said. “Children have tender ears.”So Ingemi and her husband, Rick, did some research, interviewed audiologists and came up with a product that can be used with iPods, stereos, televisions and other electronic gadgets.
IHearSafe earbud-style headphones are designed with a built-in volume control or audio limiter that doesn’t exceed 80 decibels, she said.
“Kids can’t turn it up, no matter what,” Ingemi said.
The fact that the kids can't turn it up makes it sound really good to me.
Posted by Peter at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
That's a lot of defrag
Years ago in the windows 3.1 days I used to set up my PC to defrag on each boot. At tech republic a PDF (free registration required) explains why the day of the daily defrag may have returned.
Posted by Peter at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
Sony falls lower, St. Louis rises higher
Well things continue to go from bad to worse at Sony:
Sony has added its name to a growing list of computer makers recalling laptop PC batteries made by one of its own subsidiaries.The Tokyo-based company said it will offer replacements for around 90,000 battery packs sold with models of its Vaio PCs in Japan and China. The battery packs have the model names VGP-BPS2B and VGP-BPS3A. The former was used with PCs sold in China while the latter was used in Vaio T-series laptops sold in Japan and in models sold overseas, Sony said in a statement.
Sony is planning to widen the recall to battery packs sold with PCs in other countries but has yet to finalize those details, said Daichi Yamafuji, a spokesman for Sony in Tokyo.
The LA Times is reporting a profit drop of 62%!
Meanwhile St. Louis formally on life support managed to overcome one of the greatest catches in playoff history (See the catch here)to win game 7 and go to the World Series.
As went the regular season, so went the National League Championship Series, so went the ninth inning of Game 7. The Cardinals have taken their time to close things out all season, but they've gotten it done every time.Adam Wainwright struck out Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, securing a 3-1 win for St. Louis over the Mets on Thursday.
It will be a tough series, last time St. Louis ran into one team of Destiny, will Detroit turn out to be another?
In 1934 the Cards beat the Tigers, in 1968 it was the other way around. What will it be this time?
Posted by Peter at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
Talk about passing the buck.
It's bad enough that Apple shipped Ipods with Virus on them, but they are blaming it on Microsoft!
On Monday, Apple released a statement on its Web site noting that a "small number of video iPods shipped with a Windows virus," which the company identified as RavMonE.exe. The number of affected iPods is small--less than 1 percent of all video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, the company said in its statement, adding "as you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
This is so bogus, in the manufacturing process a virus on a system needs to be put on proactively. The idea that it is microsoft's fault for Apple not watching its manufacturing process is laughable.
Apparently I'm not alone in this opinion:
’It’s not a matter of which platform the virus originated [on]. The fact that it’s found on the portable player means that there’s an issue with how the quality checks, specifically the content check, was done,” Poon wrote in a blog entry.James “Randy” Abrams, who held Poon’s job for more than a decade at Microsoft and is now director of technical education at ESET, agreed.
“The Apple iPod incident was not about Microsoft having a hardy operating system, it was all about security and process,” Abrams told InfoWorld in an e-mail message.
Viruses on Microsoft’s network weren’t unusual when Abrams was testing that company’s products before shipping them, he said.
“I released software in an environment surrounded by Windows machines. Many machines on the corporate network were infected. We never introduced a virus into the software in the release or manufacturing processes because we had a professional understanding of what it took to release what we were supposed to,” he said.
“That Apple would blame Microsoft demonstrates a lack of understanding of remedial security and manufacturing processes. Virus was only a symptom of the problem. Apple didn’t know what they were shipping,” Abrams said.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Apple is a business like any other business and wants to pass the buck.
Posted by Peter at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)
Voodoo + HP Maybe we don't know that Voodoo so well after all.
Well now we know what Rahal Sood of Voodoo PC was talking about in our podcast when he mentioned big things coming up in the future:
What the really long post that Rahul posted says in a nutshell is that HP aquired Voodoo PC.It would appear that the Voodoo PC line will be merged into the HP gaming division as Rahul is taking the reins of the gaming division.
Mr. Sood's very long blog post about it is here coupled with a ton of links about the acquisition. A sample:
Some time ago, after receiving an interesting offer “to take Voodoo to the next level”, my brother and I agreed that we would never simply take a check for the company. We also agreed that it would not make sense to go downstream to grow our brand like all of our competitors. Instead we chose to build Voodoo into something more meaningful because we both believed (and still do) in the brand and our vision regardless of what people on the outside thought. The teams within Voodoo also believe in our company – many of them have been here for years, some longer than my brother. Their enthusiasm for our products shows in the quality of their work. Our brand DNA flows throughout our entire organization and it is expressed in many ways.
This seems to be contradicted just two paragraphs later;
Our first choice in strategic partners was actually another OEM who we believed was in a stronger position. We spoke to some Taiwanese based ODMs who were very interested in working with us, but we didn’t see a fit. We kept circling back to that particular OEM who we knew was a diamond mine of technology and intellectual property. It is a company that we feel has made some significant corporate changes for the better in recent months (even after we started speaking with them) – little did we know that their management team consisted of like-minded people.
In terms of making a buck for themselves it's likely a smart move and the Sood brothers will make a mint. I don't know what the deal is with voodoo employees but I hope they are being taken care of as well in this.
For HP it is a counterpoint for the Dell move on Alienware, the advantages are pretty much the same. It is also in retrospect a great move for Dell because it make it clear that HP is following rather than leading, reacting rather than acting. More over it makes this post that we talked about here sound a bit like sour grapes. The move also implies that he might not have thought he could compete with Alienware (business wise that is, I'm sure there was no doubt about competing in terms of quality) now that it had Dell behind them due to the economics of scale, thus he was forced to make the move.
Those are just my impressions and I could be dead wrong. Anyway you can read Rahal's blog to get his take and that of his readers. I dislike it in my gut since no matter what the deal is, the Soods will be answering to someone OTHER than the customer; let me elaborate:
When you the boss, you answer to the bottom line and to the customer. You are in a position to have the eyes on the prize. It's not easy and it's not for everyone, it can burn you out, but that is the way it is. When you answer to a higher up in a company you just don't have the same control, maybe he will be the HP CEO someday, but the time will come when he will be overruled on a VooDoo matter. That day there will be a really ugly taste in his mouth and he will have to decide if that taste is worth it. If he was burned out a bit, or if he figured the company couldn't make it otherwise, it will be ok, most of us work for somebody else, but when you've been your own boss all your adult life your perspective is different.
For the employees it will not be the same, there is something special about knowing that when you come into work you see not only your boss but THE bosses and can talk to them and interact with them. It's one of the great things about HiWired. I know them, they know me, I trust their judgment, they trust mine. I don't know if everybody here feels that way, but as somebody who has been here since day 1 I sure do. For the Voodoo people the buck no longer stops at the office of the guy they know.
Anyway I wish them well, I hope it all works out. It will be interesting to see if we start getting voodoo calls as people search for HP support. Personally it won't really affect me I'm much too cheap to buy one anyway.
Posted by Peter at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
Warcraft Foe vol II
I've played the board game version of Warcraft but never the online one (I'm much too cheap to pay a monthly fee to play a game that I've already paid for.)
I know Eric plays the game but he's single and he has time I just don't have. Looks like there is a good reason to avoid it:
Why did I leave? Simple: Blizzard has created an alternate universe where we don't have to be ourselves when we don't want to be. From my vantage point as a guild decision maker, I've seen it destroy more families and friendships and take a huge toll on individuals than any drug on the market today, and that means a lot coming from an ex-club DJ.
That's quite a statement from a guild master, it goes on.
The worst though are the people you know have time commitments. People with families and significant others. I am not one to judge a person's situation, but when a father/husband plays a video game all night long, seven days a week, after getting home from work, very involved instances that soak up hours and require concentration, it makes me queasy that I encouraged that. Others include the kids you know aren't doing their homework and confide in you they are failing out of high school or college but don't want to miss their chance at loot, the long-term girl/boyfriend who is skipping out on a date (or their anniversary - I've seen it) to play (and in some cases flirt constantly), the professional taking yet another day off from work to farm mats or grind their reputations up with in-game factions to get "valuable" quest rewards, etc... I'm not one to tell people how to spend their time, but it gets ridiculous when you take a step back.
Civ IV can be like that but the game will end even on epic mode after several days. Pirates can go on a bit but this is really something.
This is one of the reasons why I like face to face gaming, even with role playing like AD&D you have to actually meet and socialize with people. I've been playing with the same group for over 25 years now, we've seen each other get married (and unfortunately divorced on occasion, but not me thank God We've watched our children start to grow, purchased houses, go from bad to good jobs and actually have a life outside of games. We love our games and enjoy them but not as much as each other's company.
I think it really comes down to types. The addictive type can get too hooked on anything, booze, drugs, sex, computers, games etc. We've all met people who are more interested in non-real life than real life, the trick is to enjoy what is out there it it's place. For this fellow it just couldn't be, for somebody else it might be fine. I'll bet the game is pretty good and well written, but if you find yourself playing this till all hours every day like he did, then I hope you are able to do a reality check on yourself.
Via Glenn who can quit blogging any time he wants to.
South Park did a very funny (but gross as always) episode on this very subject. The preview is here.
Posted by Peter at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)
Not so private after all
It's been said that people will do or say things online that they might not normally say in public due to the anonymous nature of the web.
Well C-Net (via drudge)reports the times may be a'changin
FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year."Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.
This is a real tough one, there is no doubt that terror organizations use the net to conduct business. They will often hide their activities in unlikely places.
It is also true that if recorded a supercomputer can likely scan through entries to flag for terrorist activities.
The potential for misuse is pretty high, does the chance of success in stopping an attack override the chance for abuse of the system and does such abuse outweigh the potential plus of an attack stopped? Those are tough questions that I need to think on.
In terms of legality the question I have is this: Is the internet a "public" place or a "private" place.
To the avg person it is considered private since the actions take place in their home, but since the servers accessed are not the property or not on the property of the user the law will not likely see it that way.
This will be a loud debate either way, but in the end the best advice is something I've already said. Don't do things on the net you wouldn't want your mother to see.
Posted by Peter at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
The EU climbs on the censorship bandwagon
I guess censorship must be fun because except for England apparently the whole EU wants to get into the act:
THE (British)Government is seeking to prevent an EU directive that could extend broadcasting regulations to the internet, hitting popular video-sharing websites such as YouTube.The European Commission proposal would require websites and mobile phone services that feature video images to conform to standards laid down in Brussels.
Ministers fear that the directive would hit not only successful sites such as YouTube but also amateur “video bloggers” who post material on their own sites. Personal websites would have to be licensed as a “television-like service”
Michelle Malkin & Glenn aren't impressed. Neither am I. After all where will I get my cool Dr. Who videos.
Posted by Peter at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2006
Now that's what I call firewall protection.
Interesting story from the Catholic News Service:
Islamic computer hackers tried to disrupt the Vatican web site earlier this week, but failed, according to a report in the ANSA news service.In an online forum for militant Muslims, a group announced plans for an assault on the Vatican computer network, which was said to be a form of retribution for Pope Benedict's criticism of Islam in his Regensburg speech. Police later confirmed that there had been a concerted effort by hackers to penetrate the Vatican site, but computer-security experts were able to detect and repel the attack.
The Curt Jester reports that the Vatican firewall is named Michael. Looks like you can't lose when an Archangel is on your side.
Posted by Peter at 03:02 PM | Comments (0)
Symantec not holding it's breath
CNet reports that so far Microsoft's talk about making it easier to use non microsoft virus protection in Vista, is well talk:
Security rivals' reaction to word that Microsoft will make changes in Windows Vista to allay competitive concerns: We'll believe it when we see it.
A More specific quote:
"We have not seen anything yet," said Cris Paden, a Symantec spokesman. "These are technical issues. Until we actually see the APIs, all we know is what they have said in the media. So far they have not done anything yet."
Time is running short on this:
"If the APIs exist, then Microsoft should make them available to the security industry immediately," Symantec's Paden said. "We will have Vista compatible solutions when the operating system is finally available for consumers. Last we heard, that was going to be January; therefore, we need these APIs yesterday."
I remember how things were when ME was released, it wasn't pretty.
Posted by Peter at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)
Peter's wrong again!
20 years ago I told a co-worker at Raytheon that the PC would never replace the mainframe. I'm still wiping egg off my face over that one.
I've also said that the PC won't replace the TV due to the smaller screen and viewing area, it might be an alternative but not a replacement.
This New York Times article hasn't convinced me otherwise:
Computers, which were designed to save time, have become machines that make it disappear and threaten to take traditional models of wasting hours (i.e., television) with them. About 20 percent of the audience of “Lost” has gone missing since last year, even though the show has suffered no discernible decline in quality. It is less likely that its audience fled to NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” in the same time slot than that it found other diversions.
Nor has Jeff Zucker's echoing my opinion:
One of the panelists, Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC, was asked what he would do if he found out that YouTube had run a piece of copyrighted NBC material. “We will claim outrage, demand that it be taken down and then check back in a week to make sure it has been done,” he said. His sly-devil acquiescence is informed by YouTube’s ability to take a Saturday Night Live skit called “Lazy Sunday” last year and market it to more young people than have sampled S.N.L. in years.
What convinced me was the sight of my wife watching Grey's Anatomy on our PC, while playing Freecell. The combination of, multiple episodes available online, Comcast hi-speed internet, her favorite game, and not having to hear kids beg for the TV proved irresistible. Even with part of the screen blocked by her game she enjoyed it for hours.
Consider me converted to the PC as the center of the house tribe, or PC integration with the TV to the point were your TV will be both a PC and a TV.
Posted by Peter at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)
Multiple Drives multiple Cleans and defrags
There are several reasons to have apartitioned hard drive. Separation of data and applications, disaster recovery and simple organization to name just a few. It is also not uncommon for a user to have more than one physical hard drive. Maybe the old computer was retired and you want the data, maybe you want to totally different boot drives, in the days before 2gig ram memory I knew a fellow who put in a 2nd drive and configured it totally as Virtual Memory.
Either way a lot of people forget when they have these multiple partitions etc that each one is defragmented separately and cleaned separately. It's all well and good to run disk cleanup and defrag on your C drive, but if you don't do it on the other drives you are using (particularly if they are larger and contain the lion's share of data) then you are not doing the whole job.
So when you schedule your basic maintenance, make sure you don't forget those other partitions. Sooner or later the clutter from the side rooms will affect the main dining area.
Posted by Peter at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2006
A new batch of virus' e-mails
There has been a rash of virus infected e-mails that have been trying to get into my system, they might be heading for yours as well.
In each case the e-mails appear to be from the customer service department of a company. In my case I've had mails from "customercare@dell.com" and the came with "Circuit City" substituted for "Dell"
It's the same old deal, they try to install a downloader to get trojans and homepage hijackers etc onto your system.
Now of course if you used our Connected on the Go e-mail system those e-mails would be blocked at our server before they ever managed to be download to your system, but if you don't make sure you have e-mail protection on and DON'T even think of opening up any such e-mail that is either unexpected or whose order number doesn't match your current order with the company in question.
Posted by Peter at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2006
Sony claims Wii and Xbox 360 overpriced
"With its wide range of titles, PS2 has become the family favourite, but it's a mantle that will be seriously challenged by Nintendo's Wii. Do you think Wii can attract many new consumers who haven't previously owned a console before?
Nintendo is a great company as far as games development goes, they have been around for
a long time, they know how to deliver an entertaining product. My only question for this Christmas on Wii is the price point. Even though it's affordable, at $400 plus whatever you need to buy accessories-wise, I'm guessing you need to spend about $500 to take home a Wii and enjoy it. I can't judge the product because I haven't played it but I've heard good things about it. For this Christmas, I think that price point is still not family entertainment because $500 is a lot to fork out, but we welcome the Nintendo heritage of gaming where they can appeal to a broader audience because long-term that is critical for the industry. What we've done on PlayStation 2 with social gaming has broadened the audience and we're glad that they are attempting to do similar things to open up the market to families and never-before gamers. Time will tell. For this Christmas I think the price for what it specifically does as a video games machine is a bit pricey, but I think that their strategy long term we have great respect for.
Do you expect 360 to do well among the more traditional gaming audience now that PlayStation 3 won't arrive until March?
If you look at what's happening in retail, 360 has done fairly well at launch but since then it has struggled to kick up a gear to the next level of sales. I think their product offering is still not broad enough. The content is narrow and appeals only to a very core group. I don't see content that will appeal to a family or a broader mass-market audience. It's still pricey, and I'm sure Microsoft will do everything they can, but if you just look at the offerings from each format and the marketplace that we are now playing in, especially PlayStation 2, it has to be affordable because we are talking about mass-market and non traditional gamers. We clearly have that advantage going into this Christmas. Microsoft's price point at $600-plus a big investment for family entertainment."
http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives/gaming_trends/003390.html
I really dont understand this.
Nintendo Wii - Console, controller, and a game. = 249.99
X-box 360 - Console, Controller, 20GB HD. = 399.99
Playstation 3 - Blu-ray, Console, Controller, 60GB HD = 599.99
(but if you want to watch Bluray movies or play the games in true High def you have to purchase a $99.99 HDMI cable, making the PS3's real total 699.99)
So who's really overpriced?
Posted by matt at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
Nice of Microsoft to obey the law, (anti-trust that is)
It looks like Microsoft isn't going to force people to use their anti-virus/spware stuff with Vista after all:
Microsoft Corp. did an about-face yesterday, agreeing to make it easier for customers of its forthcoming Vista operating system to use outside security vendors, such as those who make popular antivirus and anti-spyware programs....
So far sounds good
The company said it was doing so to address the concerns of security and performance in Windows XP and apply them to Windows Vista.
Well lets read farther down and see the real reasons:
The European Commission, which has fined Microsoft nearly $1 billion for antitrust violations, told the company that it was concerned that Vista's system for alerting users about security weaknesses might confuse customers who were using a similar alert system with other security programs.
Was it all a feint?
"It looks like Microsoft was really testing the waters here, sort of pushing the limits of antitrust and decided they probably couldn't cross that line just yet," Northcutt said. "That's a good thing, because it's just too easy for mistakes to happen when you are only left with a single security provider."
Posted by Peter at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2006
Terror via eBay?
I've heard of eBay stores, but financing a terror attack with it?
The intelligence update said suspect Assad Sarwar, 26, "used eBay extensively" to raise funds for the plot. "It is believed they would sell and purchase items to make a profit to fund [the] plot." There were no further details in the report. A spokesperson for eBay had no immediate comment.
Update: Very busy last night when I changed the title, my bad.
How many eBay items do you need to sell to finance Jihad?
Posted by Peter at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
Google buys YouTube Peter's Verdict
Well I've had a few days to think about it, here is what I think about Google buying YouTube: For both companies it is mostly win-win.
The YouTube guys get a ton of money and let somebody else deal with copyright issues. (I guess they got a DNA transplant.)Google gets a better video source than Google video and stays on the cutting edge.
Google, unlike YouTube has leverage to deal with lawsuits, after all Google drives a lot of traffic to the sites of those who wish to sue.
YouTube also gets the technical and ad strength of Google. This is a huge win for both companies.
The only drawback for them I can see is that now people wanting to sue have a really big target.
For the user particular the ones concerned about censorship on the web it is a likely a big loss. YouTube has been rather ideological concerning what it censors and what it doesn't, and as we've documented Google does have a history of giving in to dictators.
The bright side to all of that is that the YouTube restrictions are "free market", being done by the company rather than under pressure from a government. This means that if somebody wants to pony up servers and space they can choose to go up against them, perhaps in hand in hand with a Dogpile or a Yahoo.
Anyway it's a look into the future and in my opinion a smart move on all sides. It now remains for the products to integrate wisely.
Posted by Peter at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)
Boy they are really pushing toward Vista. xp sp1 EOL
Tech Republic reports that Microsoft will end support for Windows xp SP1:
Microsoft will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP1a on Tuesday, leaving people no option but to upgrade to Service Pack 2 if they wish to continue to receive crucial components, including security software.
Sp2 is so much better than Sp1 that I always encourage people to upgrade anyway but the EOL of an OS or a version of an OS only 4 years old seems rather drastic. Remember they only ended support for 98 & ME in July.
They must want to drive people to Vista big time.
Posted by Peter at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2006
Tricks of the trade pt 1 the undocumented problem.
When you are doing tech support you run into many type of problems, some are known issues that you have worked with before, others are simple user error or configuration errors that any person not familiar with a particular program or device might make and still others are things you've never seen before. Over the next week or so we will put up a few posts called "Tricks of the trade" to give you an idea of how we do our jobs.
Problem: A device is attempting to sync with a program. Software is provided to sync the device. The software works but when the software works the base program fails. They just won't work together. No documentation on the net to suggest the problem even exists and only a couple of people mentioning the same issue. What do you do?
In a case like this a good tech operates on two tracks:
#1. Find a work around to allow the user to function. A busy user likely doesn't have time to spend hours troubleshooting an issue and needs their program to function at once. If at all possible get the user partial functionality or conditional functionality. This is both to pacify the user and to buy time for more research. That may sound cynical but you don't want to be in a "try anything" mode since it is easy to make a problem worse. If the user objects the best reply comes from this exchange from the old John Sable comic concerning his finder fee for stolen items:"My finders fee is 30%""That's kind of steep!"
"Depends on how you look at it, I figure 70% of something is worth more than 100% of nothing."
70% functionality isn't a final solution but without a final answer you have to play the card you have.
#2. Look at related functionality problems with other software:
When you are dealing with new software integrated with well known established program the knowledge base on their interactions is likely small. In addition the old program is likely being used my a million people in thousands of different ways, more ways then the developers of the new stuff have considered or could afford to. Here the secret to success is in the past. Have you seen a similar problem with other software using the base program? Is the error message the same? Does that other software try to access the same data files? If you follow that trail you have an excellent chance of finding a cause and if you are lucky a solution. It is stuff like this that solutions databases are made of.
There are of course many ways to proceed but if you keep your eyes on the prize; the customer's ability to perform a particular function. You have the best possible chance of providing what they need.
Posted by Peter at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2006
too much of a good thing
Very busy will be trying to post later.
BTW we don't mind being busy like this and thank you for your support, that's what keeps up in New England instead of New Delhi.
Of course they are having more fun.
Posted by Peter at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)
These are machines they do break
Had a customer today who had a six year old hp all in one giving an error message.
We worked on the system and I played every card there is but in the end, it was hardware and it was old, so the d135 had to go.
This illustrates something that both techs and customers seem to forget on occasion. People don't think of computers as an appliance so when system, motherboards etc go the question begins, why is this acting like junk?
Computers, printers and all of these things are machines. They will break, they will fail and they do wear out. This is a fact of life, and even when you can fix an old one it might not be worth the effort.
This can also be a trap for a tech in two ways. I have seen too many times in the past where techs (particularly "free support" ones) give up saying "it's hardware" when it is not. That's bad service and it drives me nuts, however there is the flip side of the coin and it's a trap I sometimes fall into:
There are times when the signals say hardware but you just don't want to let go. I can hear the excuses in my head:
Maybe this next step might solve the problem.I could have overlooked something, I'd hate to give up and have someone else fix it.
This is expensive I don't want the customer to spend that money.
I don't like to be beaten by a machine.
Whatever the reason remember this is a machine not a person if you pull the plug on it; nobody dies. In fact you might be doing your customer a disservice by wasting their time with a fix that has little chance of success instead of forthrightly saying it can't be fixed. Customers don't like to hear it and might not believe you but you are being paid to be straight with your customer. It can be hard but it's better customer service than saying what somebody wants to hear that isn't true.
Posted by Peter at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
Not sure what I think
I haven't made up my mind about the purchase of YouTube by Google.
Pajamas media has opinions collected so you don't have to wait for me.
Posted by Peter at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2006
Indian call center workers just want to have fun!
I have written about and have heard from customers over the years that they don't like non-US call centers. It looks like the people working there have other things on their minds:
"Women come to work with condoms in their handbags," said one call centre worker, Alkesh Dua. "Everyone is doing it. You're together all night in this cool, hip atmosphere, and you end up getting intimate."Since many staff work night shifts, after which normal socialising is impossible, office friendships — with accompanying sexual liaisons — have blossomed.
I thought they seemed kind of distracted when I was working with Vartec.
In Bangalore, a call centre hub, the rising number of abortions — up 50 per cent in two years — is blamed on licentious lifestyles.So entrenched is their reputation for dating, drinking and partying that many middle-class parents are now reluctant to let their daughters take up such jobs.
Now you know why they are so anxious to get us off the phone.
Posted by Peter at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)
Online funnies Chris Muir interview Pt. I
Our latest podcast The funnies pt1. features part one of a two part interview with Chris Muir of the popular Day by Day online strip.
We talk about Cartooning, why an online strip, the future of technology and cartooning and had so much fun doing it that we had to break it into two parts!
As always you can find us at the iTunes music store or you can listen right now by clicking here.
Posted by Peter at 01:31 PM | Comments (1)
Sony looks back. St. Louis looks forward
In an interesting chapter to the Sony saga the former CEO talks about the mistakes made during his tenure from 1995-2005:
In a frank interview at the European Technology Round Table in Barcelona, Nobuyuki Idei explained what had gone wrong during his 10-year tenure at the helm of Sony.Mr Idei ran Sony from 1995 to 2005 - a period when the Japanese giant's fortunes suffered, with its finances faltering and rival products such Microsoft's Xbox and Apple's iPod eating into its reputation for world-beating innovation.
Asked to explain why Sony had been caught out by the iPod's success, he said that Apple chief Steve Jobs liked Sony and had studied its record carefully.
Well that actually sounds like a non-answer to me.
Meanwhile St. Louis' fortunes continue to rise:
The St. Louis Cardinals tasted champagne and made plans for the Big Apple on Sunday night at Busch Stadium.Chris Carpenter overcame a shaky start and a Cardinals lineup lacking a sizeable portion of its power manufactured runs in a variety of ways en route to a 6-2 victory against San Diego in front of a sellout crowd of 46,476.
"No matter how you get here, you're here," the NL Cy Young candidate said. "And once you're here, you have a chance."
The relative fortunes of these two entities guarantee me post fodder for at least another week.
Posted by Peter at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
Unlocked the secrets of your hard drive!
Ever wonder what the inside of your harddrive looks like and what it does when you boot, well wonder no longer!
What gets me is how much it looks like the old large drives we used to see in my old Mainframe days. The basic operation is pretty much the same.
If the embedded video is a problem the actual YouTube link is here.
Basically the data is saved on the disk magnetically, the disk spins and the arm moves back and forth reading the drive. This is why btw defragmenting a drive is good. The more sequential the files are the less the arm has to move and the quicker the files are read.
Update: meant to say "Hard drive" not "had drive" of course.
Posted by Peter at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2006
What did the buggy whip makers do?
I haven't linked to our favorite free speech diva in a while so I checked out her blog today. There is a long post concerning an interesting subject, how to rethink the delivery of news in the information age. It sounds like there were a lot of questions and not too many answers.
She points to the Doc Searls webblog that has some suggestions two of them hit home with me:
Sixth, start looking to citizen journalists (CJs) for coverage of hot breaking local news topics -- such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires and so on. There are plenty of people with digital cameras, camcorders, cell phones and other devices that can prove mighty handy for following stories up close and personally. Great example: what Sig Solares and his crew did during Katrina.
This is a great suggestion, remember just a couple of weeks ago 25,000 marched in New York blogs (like us) covered it and the papers didn't
...And please, get rid of those lame registration systems. Quit trying to wring dollars out of every click. I guarantee you'll sell more advertising to more advertisers reaching more readers if you take down the barricades and (again) link outward more. And you'll save all kinds of time and hassle.
If I have to register I just don't go there myself.
Posted by Peter at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)
Speaking of toolbars
One thing that can cause you some grief either minor or major is an excessive amount of toolbars. Many sites from google to yahoo to Norton offer to install toolbars on your browser so you can use their stuff to search or do other functions.
Most of the time these bars stay unused and just clutter up your screen. If you don't want to install them (which is your best option) remember you can disable individual toolbars from the VIEW, TOOLBARS option at the top of the screen. Simply uncheck the bars you don't want and watch your browser window space grow!
Posted by Peter at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)
Toolbars Toolbars Toolbars
A Vista user (via slashdot) shows what happens when you try to infect the IE7 browser with as many toolbars as possible since it is supposed to have security features built in. The results are interesting.
Posted by Peter at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2006
XBOX 360 This is why getting it right matters.
James Lileks tells the story of his X-Box 360 that his daughter was looking forward to. The story starts full of hope but then they try to put in an old X-box game:
She remembered the Simpsons game, though, and was twitching with anticipation. I put it in.And it doesn’t work. This old Xbox game doesn’t work on the newfangled Xbox game. Sigh. She was disconsolate; she was so looking forward to this, so much. My wife gave me a look: anything you can do?
This process repeats several times including after a trip to the video store for games nothing works so what is to be done? Well a father hangs in there:
To recap: three TV sets in different locales are now in disarray, unplugged and askew, and the entire purpose of the evening has shifted to making the old Xbox work.
So now while she plays the old xbox he looks for updates with some success:
I found a link to an updater that let the 360 run old games. You download it and burn it to a disc and all is well.God forbid such a thing should be installed on the machine when you buy it I put the disk into the Xbox...
So he burns the disk and here is what happens:
According to the MS site, it will automatically begin the update process.“Unrecognized Disc.”
You should read the whole thing not just because it is an interesting story but because he writes 10 times better than I can ever dream of writing. The people who should really be reading this is Microsoft. I suspect this scene has repeated itself in house after house in America this year.
The people who need to read this story are Microsoft, Sony and any other manufacturer. Making your customers jump through hoops to make something work is a bad idea. There is too much choice out there for you to get away with it.
Posted by Peter at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
Two franchises still moving in different directions
The Bad news for Sony continues to come:
Sony will lose at least $560m from its predicted earnings this year as it pays for huge battery recalls and a price cut for its PlayStation 3 games console, analysts believe.
It's the next sentence that is the real bombshell:
The company has also been hit by allegations that it knew its notebook PC batteries could catch fire a year ago, but failed to understand the magnitude of the problem.
If true that will be a real killer. Meanwhile ever since I first compared them to Sony St. Louis has been on a roll:
Getting out of September intact was the hard part for the St. Louis Cardinals, who clinched a division title while stuck in reverse...The Padres appear to be headed for their same ol' postseason fate against the Cardinals, who won 2-0 on Thursday behind Albert Pujols and reclamation project Jeff Weaver to take a 2-0 lead in the NL division series...
St. Louis, which barely avoided one of the biggest September collapses ever, improved to 8-0 in the postseason against San Diego. That includes division series sweeps last year and in 1996.
I guess being compared to Sony is quite a motivation.
Posted by Peter at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)
I'll give them three more days
I mentioned my Vartec hell on Sunday. I was promised a letter in the mail by yesterday, it still hasn't arrived.
I know I told you I'd give the whole story if they didn't come through but I think I'll give them till Monday before I vent.
As of today I have Verizon for my in state and out of state long distance. I'm paying more and a monthly fee. The extra money is worth it to see the back of them.
Coming from the cheap one that is quite a statement.
Posted by Peter at 06:03 PM | Comments (0)
Not all hacking is without purpose or for just profit
Most of us are used to dealing with hackers trying to get credit card info or pushing ads, but hacking has become almost another front in a new information war:
Chinese-based hackers, especially in the Chinese province of Guangdong, have mounted systematic efforts to penetrate US government and industry computer networks in order to access secret information, according to computer security experts.The experts and some US lawmakers believe the attacks are sanctioned by Chinese government agencies.
The attacks on the Commerce Department have been so persistent that the affected office, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), has been forced to replace hundreds of computers and set up a new computer system.
This type of sparing on the international stage is to be expected as governments become more dependant on technology.
Posted by Peter at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2006
Shipping on time is news? It is if it's Vista
Some interesting news concerning Windows Vista:
Microsoft, the world’s leading producer of software, may very well meet its scheduled release dates for the enterprise and consumer editions of its highly anticipated next-generation Windows Vista operating system (OS), the Associated Press reports via BusinessWeek Online.
I think the bigger news is below it:
Sherlund also said he thinks Microsoft will soon begin to issue free Vista—and possibly Office 2007—upgrade coupons, for existing users to update their systems, according to the AP.
Free upgrades will, in my opinion, move people to Vista in droves.
Posted by Peter at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)
BestBuy to enter iTunes like service
Seems like a lot of companies aim to grab some of Apple iTunes market share which enjoys over 80 percent of the market. I refuse to buy DRM'ed music there for I will not be joining the iTunes band wagon or any other service which tries to restrict my usage, degrade the quality, and create a compatibility nightmare.
BestBuy is the latest addition who will be using the Rhapsody service which has a subscription service and offers DRM'ed music. They will be trying to use there in store marketing muscle to promote the service in order to steal some market from iTunes.
You can read the full story HERE.
Posted by Hector at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2006
A pretty good question
The big story in Washington is the Foley scandal which we aren't going to get into here as it really isn't our thing, but there are two aspects that are very much worth pointing out to the computer user:
1. If you type it in an e-mail, send it as an instant message, post it on a blog then it can become public. 20 years ago if you acted like an idiot at a party it was an embarrassing memory, now it's a posting on Myspace.
2. Andrew Sullivan asks the 64,000 question concerning all of these IM's that have been released:
Who saves and records IM exchanges for posterity? I mean: I know how emails are saved and forwarded; it happens automatically. But I was unaware that IM interactions have some permanent record that can be retrieved after the fact. Is there such a possibility? Or did someone keep saving and recording these IM exchanges at the time - presumably the teens involved?
The bottom line is don't put something in print or in pixels that you don't want your mother to read.
Posted by Peter at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)
Firefox hack bogus
Apparently the Firefox vulnerability we reported on here, isn't real as George Ou reports:
Two of the presenters at the ToorCon 8 event embarrassed themselves by pulling a prank on the media and Mozilla. The two claimed to have remotely compromised Mozilla Firefox when in fact they had only crashed it. They have now backpedaled and retracted their statement with this letter to Mozilla stating that it was meant to be "humorous" but no one in the security community found it to be amusing.
We apologize for posting the incorrect information. More info here on the hoax:
But Spiegelmock has now backpedaled on those claims. In a statement provided to Mozilla, which coordinates development of Firefox, Spiegelmock said that the computer code displayed during the presentation does not fully compromise a PC running the browser."I have not succeeded in making this code do anything more than cause a crash and eat up system resources, and I certainly haven't used it to take over anyone else's computer and execute arbitrary code," he wrote in the statement, which was posted on Mozilla's Web site on Monday.
"The main purpose of our talk was to be humorous," Spiegelmock wrote. "I apologize to everyone involved, and I hope I have made everything as clear as possible."
I wonder how many man hours were spent by companies and people debugging this "joke".
Posted by Peter at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
Apparently YouTube will ban some things.
...things like videos attacking calls for murder:
I asked YouTube to inform me of the exact nature of the "inappropriateness" of the video. But no response. The banning of my innocuous video is not an isolated incident. Anti-jihad YouTube users have reported having their videos yanked and accounts suspended...
As we've said in the past the solution for speech you don't like? More speech, namely a video posted questioning the ban. Here is the link.
Strangely enough videos of American soldiers being killed apparently do not rise to that level of "inappropriateness".
The wildly popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com has dozens of videos purporting to show individual American soldiers being killed in Iraq, in what amounts to snuff films, overlaid with music and insurgent slogans.Some of the videos, including ones of American soldiers purportedly being picked off by snipers or being blown up by improvised explosive devices, have been viewed tens of thousands of times each in the past few months. Some are posted in YouTube's "news and blogs" category, but others are listed under "entertainment" and even "comedy."
The response has been well underwhelming:
Calls and e-mails to YouTube requesting an interview regarding the war videos went unreturned. The Web site's "terms of use" and "safety tips" sections make it clear that the organization -- which describes itself as a "consumer media company" and "entertainment destination" -- expects users to police themselves.The "safety tips" states that "YouTube doesn't allow videos with nudity, graphic violence or hate" and advises users who find violations to flag the videos and report them to YouTube.
Some of the graphic war images are flagged as objectionable, but come into view after the user clicks on a box acknowledging that the video contains graphic content.
Almost makes one want to cheer for this suit.
Posted by Peter at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
St. Louis recovers; Sony Doesn't
Looks like Sony's trouble aren't limited to batteries:
Already reeling from a string of laptop battery recalls, Sony Corp. saw its shares drop nearly 3 percent on Tuesday amid fresh worries about the coming release of its much anticipated PlayStation 3 video game console.Sony has already twice delayed the product's launch amid intensifying competition from rivals Microsoft and Nintendo.
Meanwhile St. Louis continues to recover:
Pujols' two-run homer in the fourth inning gave the Cardinals a lead they would not relinquish in a 5-1 win over the Padres at PETCO Park on Tuesday afternoon. St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the National League Division Series. Game 2 of the best-of-five series will be played here on Thursday afternoon.The Cardinals limped into the postseason having lost nine out of 12, but the first round of the postseason always seems to turn them into world-beaters
So far this post is holding up pretty well.
Posted by Peter at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2006
The pain of the latest
As most pc owners there are times when its fun to kick back and game. Enjoy either simple game of Solitaire or text games which allow you to reach out and talk to other people around the world. I my self enjoy playing on sites like Yahoo Games
You can play card games, board games and even pool. Free of charge not including the cost of internet which you can get free with cup of joe at most Starbucks
What becomes a problem is when you start getting into higher end games now your old 98 or even 2000 system will lag and keep you from enjoying the game as you should. Imagine playing old coin game and having it lag up at point your about to win. When gaming is spending most your time yelling at your computer then playing, its time to look into an upgrade.
After reading reviews about the latest Sli on stick it made me want to run out and pick one up yet will it run and if so how long.
Yet my friends and my self have found sometimes that high end system isn't as nice as it should be. It still amazes me today that you can buy stable not even cutting edge card with latest drivers and you will still crash a game that has been out 2 years +.
Sometimes though its not what you think when your having system problems. When you choose to build a system sometimes its great to just pick up the latest parts and throw them in, but just last week a friend I game with setup new system and found any graphics heavy game he ran crashed. Each and every time didn’t mater the vendor of the game.
Both of us felt it must be the new card and yet it ends up it was ram and not the ram on the video card. Simple System memory was bad. It ran windows find but if you pushed it for gaming with in 5 minutes it would crash the video card and bring you to desktop.
Looking into building a system, you’re going to want to find the best system parts you can and be sure to review them. Check blogs or review sites even call us at Hiwired for advice. Look for support boards and check that model, if it already has 2 year long threads talking about same issues time to move on to different product. Also don’t mix and match ram sticks buy from good vender and look for like Kingston. If not be sure to check the CL lower better but good review is here at PCWORLD
Last but not least is cooling. Systems grow hotter with each new upgrade. Make sure your power supply can
1 Power everything most systems should run under 600+ Watt
2 Help cool the case.
A great CPU fan is important. You also want to make sure cables and lines inside case are neat to allow air flow. Rear and front vent fans are common now and help keep the case cool. All and all you can build a nice system and enjoy most games at good price.
Have you had luck with building systems add a comment. I look forward to hearing your experiences as well. Anyone have Sli on stick yet? Do you love it or hate it and better yet which games does it work on?
Posted by Eric at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2006
YouTube Doomed?
C-Net reports that YouTube's chances in court don't look good:
"You may tell me that companies like Warner Music are happy to work with YouTube, just as Bertelsmann was willing to work with Napster," the analysts wrote. "But for every company that wants to do a Warner-type deal, there will be others like Universal that won't stand for it."It only takes one unhappy media company--Disney, Sony, CBS or News Corp. for example--to force the company's hand. And the cases on this point, from Napster to Grokster at the Supreme Court, are clear."
YouTube may go by the boards but another one will take it's place. It can't be stopped. Like Prohibition it is doomed to failure.
Posted by Peter at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)
Barbarians vs Danes Update: Danes 1 Barbarians 0
Back in February we ran this cartoon from the Day by Day strip:
You might be interested in knowing how it all turned out well this story at the Guardian says it all:
...Americans started buying Bang & Olufsen stereos and Lego. In the first quarter of this year Denmark's exports to the US soared 17%. The British writer Christopher Hitchens organised a buy-Danish campaign. Among the thousands of emails sent to Rose was one from an American soldier serving in Iraq. "He told me he was sitting in Iraq, watching a game of football and drinking a can of Carlsberg," Rose said.
In today's Opinion Journal Best of the Web feature James Tarento elaborates:
Much of the Muslim world--or at least that part of it that doesn't have oil--is an economic backwater. The power of commerce to influence politics is always limited by a lack of interest on the part of most consumers, but this is a reminder that the West has a lot more economic clout than its adversaries.
The cartoons in question are here, but the previous coverage and subsequent violent outrages over other things suggest that we are in fact dealing with barbarians. This final quote clinches it:
Death threats and reward offers for killing the cartoonists were made. Most are still in hiding. One Indian minister offered a reward of $1.1m (£590,000) for anybody who beheaded a Danish cartoonist
These rewards have no more been revoked than the one on Salman Rushdie. They are outrages against free speech/internet speech. Kill somebody over a drawing or book, yup Barbarians is the word.
BTW please note that if I quote a non-American English source the spellings of some common words might not be identical to American spellings.
Posted by Peter at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
Hackers Conference! What's next the union of drug dealers convention?
This story, via slashdot is incredible but not for the reason listed:
The open-source Firefox Web browser is critically flawed in the way it handles JavaScript, two hackers said Saturday afternoon. An attacker could commandeer a computer running the browser simply by crafting a Web page that contains some malicious JavaScript code
UPDATE Apparently false more here:
Interesting enough and the rest of the article includes suggested work arounds, it's worth a read but for me the bombshell is in the next sentence:
Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi said in a presentation at the ToorCon hacker conference (emphasis mine) here.
A Hacker conference? There is a Hacker conference? What's next the annual party of IAVSMFW (International Association of Virus, Spammers and Mail Fraud Workers) held at the Ritz?
Posted by Peter at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
Touché for Brandon More Microsoft issues
Well my gloat fest lasted almost 10 minutes, from the same blog today:
Microsoft is warning Windows users about three separate flaws widely deployed in the operating system that bad guys are using install spyware when users merely visit a nasty Web site or open a maliciously crafted Powerpoint deck.
Ok Brandon you can stop laughing. Some interesting background info from the story:
Websense says its researchers have spotted this exploit on a number of sites known to be controlled by the same Russian hacking outfit that Security Fix previously credited with some fairly nasty past exploits.
The Russian stuff is pretty nasty, more details on that here.
Remember as long as there is money to be made from spyware and exploiting a system, people will try to do it. So be protected. Might I suggest this?
P.S. This doesn't change the fact that the idea that you can't be hacked or infected on a mac is a myth.
Posted by Peter at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)
Security Flaw , on a MAC? NO!
The Washington post tech blog Security Fix reports that Apple did some patching this week:
The updates include fixes for several remotely-exploitable flaws, including four bugs in the Mac version of Adobe's Flash player, as well as some that could be exploited just by viewing a maliciously crafted image file or visiting a nasty Web site.
but I thought that these type of things didn't happen on Apple machines? That's what this ad says?
The downloads are available here.
Over to you Brandon.
Posted by Peter at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
Yet another reason to download in Sweden
In a blow to the record/movie industry the conviction of a Swedish man for file sharing has been overturned:
A 29-year-old man from Västerås in central Sweden suspected of sharing files from his computer was today acquitted by Svea Court of Appeal. Last year the man was the first person in Sweden to be convicted of file-sharing, having been charged with making the Swedish film Hip Hip Hora available for download from the internet.
The fellow was facing a serious fine:
Västmanland District Court had initially fined the defendant 16,000 kronor. The original court ruling noted the serious consequences that file-sharing has on the film industry.
That