evanmorris.com

More gnashing of teeth after Microsoft update brings PCs to a standstill | The Register

Something seems to have gone horribly wrong in an untold number of IT departments on Wednesday after Microsoft installed a resource-hogging search application on machines company-wide, even though administrators had configured systems not to use the program.

Welcome to Hell, here's your new harmonica. Dude, it ain't your computer. You accepted the EULA, and MS can do whatever they please. Now quit whining and search for something.

Posted by evan at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism

Of course, it would be foolish to suggest that people are incapable of making distinctions between social networking "friends" and friends they see in the flesh. The use of the word "friend" on social networking sites is a dilution and a debasement, and surely no one with hundreds of MySpace or Facebook "friends" is so confused as to believe those are all real friendships. The impulse to collect as many "friends" as possible on a MySpace page is not an expression of the human need for companionship, but of a different need no less profound and pressing: the need for status. Unlike the painted portraits that members of the middle class in a bygone era would commission to signal their elite status once they rose in society, social networking websites allow us to create status--not merely to commemorate the achievement of it. There is a reason that most of the MySpace profiles of famous people are fakes, often created by fans: Celebrities don't need legions of MySpace friends to prove their importance. It's the rest of the population, seeking a form of parochial celebrity, that does.

But status-seeking has an ever-present partner: anxiety. Unlike a portrait, which, once finished and framed, hung tamely on the wall signaling one's status, maintaining status on MySpace or Facebook requires constant vigilance. As one 24-year-old wrote in a New York Times essay, "I am obsessed with testimonials and solicit them incessantly. They are the ultimate social currency, public declarations of the intimacy status of a relationship.... Every profile is a carefully planned media campaign."

Posted by evan at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Video Professor upset by criticism, sues 100 anonymous critics:

You've probably seen infomercials for the Video Professor on late-night TV; a kindly-looking John Scherer has been pitching his company's computer training videos for two decades now. But Video Professor, Inc. has no problem using less-friendly tactics when confronted with criticism, and the company is now suing more than 100 anonymous Internet posters over derogatory comments that they made about Video Professor's business.

Derogatory? Perhaps. Unjustified? They sound pretty reasonable to me:

9/24/2007 - Melissa writes:

I ordered the Excel cd from Video Professor June of 2007. I ordered it through a promotional offer stating "free, just pay shipping and handling" I figured $6 shipping to try the product should be fine. I received it in the mail a few days later, never opened it. 5 days after I was charged the $6 shipping, a $89.95 fee shows up. I sent the unopened disk back and called the main phone number. After waiting on hold for 20 minutes someone tells me they will refund my money. Today, September 24th, I have not gotten my refund. On top of it all, I am STILL receiving disks in the mail. Excel, Quickbooks, Windows, you name it! I receive them every 2 weeks, a $6 shipping fee shows up THEN ANOTHER $89.95 fee for each and every disk they send. I had to cancel the credit card to prevent them from charging me. I have called their main number numerous times to cancel the disks and to get my money back and no one is able to help me. They tell me there is no refund for the disks. I have sent each and every one back unopened. SCAM. Do not use this so called "program." It is a waste of money.

Gosh, and to think that all this time I've been assuming his product was merely the useless crap it so clearly is. But a scam, too! You really get your money's worth with these folks.

Posted by evan at 9:53 PM | Permalink

Posted by evan at 12:43 PM | Permalink

Posted by evan at 12:14 PM | Permalink

mandolux

Click on "Archive" and go wild. Then donate.

Posted by evan at 10:28 PM | Permalink

More California E-Voting Reports Released; More Bad News

... Some of these are problems that the vendors claimed to have fixed years ago. For example, Diebold claimed (p. 11) in 2003 that its use of hard-coded passwords was “resolved in subsequent versions of the software.” Yet the current version still uses at least two hard-coded passwords — one is “diebold” (report, p. 46) and another is the eight-byte sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (report, p. 45).

Posted by evan at 3:41 PM | Permalink

I figured out not only how to get c-span to run in VLC on my desktop, but how to get all three c-spans to run at once. I love VLC.

Click on pic for larger version.

Posted by evan at 2:10 AM | Permalink

Jobs warns knockoff iPhone "lacks many key features" | Brad Ideas

Steve Jobs of Apple Computer warned today that a rumoured cheap Chinese iPhone knockoff making its way toward America is an inferior product which lacks many of the important features of the iPhone. “It may look a bit like an iPhone, but when consumers discover all the great iPhone features that are missing from it, we think they’ll still line up at Apple Stores for the genuine article,” said Jobs in a released statement. Designed by software nerds, the knockoff, dubbed the “myPhone” by fans, has not yet been confirmed.

Apple released a list of features reported to be missing from the “myPhone.”

* The iPhone has special software that assures you will always use the trusted AT&T cellular network. Lacking this software, the myPhone accepts any SIM card from any random network. Users may find themselves connected to a network that doesn’t have the reputation for service, trust and protecting the privacy of customers that AT&T has. In addition, users may be stuck without 2 years of guaranteed AT&T service.

* The iPhone is configured to assure you the latest iTunes experience. The myPhone might function before you have installed the latest iTunes and registered your phone with it. Indeed, the myPhone lacks the protections that block it from being used without registering it with or reporting back to anybody, depriving the user of customer service and upsell opportunities.

* The iPhone has special software that assures all applications run on the iPhone have been approved by Apple, which protects the user from viruses and tools that may make the user violate their licence agreements. The myPhone will run any application, from any developer, opening up the user to all sorts of risks.

* The iPhone protects users from dangerous Flash and Java applications which may compromise their device and confuse the user experience.

* myPhones don’t forbid VoIP software that may cause the user to accidentally make calls over wireless internet connections instead of the AT&T network. Quality on the internet is unpredictable, as is the price, which can range down to zero, causing great pricing uncertainty. With the iPhone, you always know what calls cost when in the USA.

More at link. Very well done.

Posted by evan at 2:41 PM | Permalink

librarian.net -- do you ubuntu?

Cute video about installing Ubuntu linux on aging PCs in a Vermont library. Nice zydeco music, too. I have Ubuntu installed on an absolutely ancient (266 mHz) laptop, and it runs a bit slow compared to my 3 gHz desktop, but it's perfectly usable.

Posted by evan at 9:14 PM | Permalink

This is my computer running Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS. See? Not scary at all. Kinda like Windows, in fact, but without all the crapola. Click the pic for a larger version.

It occurred to me the other day that it's actually a tribute to Ubuntu that I'm running a version two generations behind the current release and find no pressing reason to update it (even though it would cost absolutely nothing to do so). With Windows, I was always tinkering with the system to make it work better. This just works, and in the 18 months that I have been using Linux as my primary OS, it has never once crashed.

Posted by evan at 12:16 AM | Permalink

A step up for Microsoft rival

There were surely no parties in the corridors in Redmond when Dell Inc. announced plans this week to offer Ubuntu, an increasingly popular variety of the Linux operating system, as an option on consumer PCs.

But one eighth-grader in Shoreline was pretty happy.

Paul Bartell, 13, is looking forward to telling people "Hey, you can go to Dell and you can buy a computer from them" with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.

"I think that will open up Linux to a lot more people, and a lot more people will learn about it," said Paul Bartell, 13, a devoted Ubuntu user. He's looking forward to telling people "Hey, you can go to Dell and you can buy a computer from them" with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.

[click on pic for larger version; more at link]

Nice article, but fails to mention that Linux systems are largely untroubled by the spyware and viruses that infest Windows World. Not having to run crap such as Norton Antivirus makes your PC much faster and far more stable.

Posted by evan at 8:46 PM | Permalink

The woman who needs a veil of protection from modern life | the Daily Mail

Before knocking on Sarah Dacre's door, I take the precaution of checking my mobile phone. It's switched off, as she has requested.

"Last time someone came to visit," she warns, "I started feeling awfully nauseous. It turned out he had a picture phone with him and had left it switched on. A picture phone!"

She pauses, looking genuinely horrified. Apparently, this type of mobile automatically sends signals to a local base station every nine minutes - "No wonder I felt so sick."

[snip]

Sarah, 51, is one of a growing band of people who claim to be experiencing extreme - and incapacitating - sensitivity to electrical appliances, as well as to certain frequencies of electromagnetic waves.

"Wi-Fi, or wireless broadband networks, seem to be the worst thing," she says.

"Closely followed by mobile phones - particularly if they're being used in an enclosed space - the base stations of cordless telephones and mobile phone masts.

"I have to restrict the amount of time I spend on the computer or watching television, and make sure I don't have too many household appliances on at once, because that sets me off as well."

[more at link]

Can't be near a cell phone but can sit in front of a TV or computer -- certainly convenient, but does not, um, compute. Her neighbor's wireless router makes her sick, but her own toaster doesn't? Time for a double-blind test, folks.

Posted by evan at 1:25 AM | Permalink

One of a series of Linux promotions made by Novell, pointing out that it can be easily run on either a PC or a Mac.

Posted by evan at 12:41 AM | Permalink

An Open Letter to Microsoft: Re-Release Windows XP : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

... This time you don't have an escape clause: You can get a new PC with Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. But it's all Vista, and it's all got the same problems. Only some versions have more of them.

Posted by evan at 4:14 PM | Permalink

Interesting CBC report from 1993 (pre-web). Not badly done, focusing mainly on usenet.

Posted by evan at 1:50 PM | Permalink

Subtitles are a bit annoying, but worth it.

I used to have a job which involved, among many other things, explaining MS Windows and Word Perfect to lawyers ("Get down here right now! Half my screen is off my screen!"). This guy is entirely too reasonable to be a real user.

Posted by evan at 3:10 PM | Permalink

Pirated Version of Windows Vista selling for $8 in Iran - Cio Central

Microsoft has taken all possible steps to protect their latest and most advanced OS. Still all efforts are turning out in vain as according to reports the operating system is already been cracked by some Iranian hackers.

These hackers have managed to present the “fully-cracked” version of the operating system.

The pirated version is presented by an Iranian Software company and also has the possibility for its owner to have a legal serial number of the OS. With the legal serial number the users can easily activate the OS from Microsoft’s web site and enjoy all the benefits of buying a Pirated Original version of the OS.

Still better is the cost of the pirated version. While the original version of the OS is selling for around $650 you can easily get your hands to this pirated version for just $8. I don’t think this is the response that Microsoft expected from their ‘Most Advanced Operating System’.

Posted by evan at 2:17 PM | Permalink

For Windows Vista Security, Microsoft Called in Pros - washingtonpost.com

When Microsoft introduces its long-awaited Windows Vista operating system this month, it will have an unlikely partner to thank for making its flagship product safe and secure for millions of computer users across the world: the National Security Agency.

For the first time, the giant software maker is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as part of the Bush administration's effort to combat terrorism. The agency said it has helped in the development of the security of Microsoft's new operating system -- the brains of a computer -- to protect it from worms, Trojan horses and other insidious computer attackers.

[snip]

Microsoft said this is not the first time it has sought help from the NSA. For about four years, Microsoft has tapped the spy agency for security expertise in reviewing its operating systems, including the Windows XP consumer version and the Windows Server 2003 for corporate customers.

[snip]

Cherry says the NSA's involvement can help counter the perception that Windows is not entirely secure and help create a perception that Microsoft has solved the security problems that have plagued it in the past. "Microsoft also wants to make the case that [the new Windows] more secure than its earlier versions," he said.

[Emphasis added]

Posted by evan at 11:49 AM | Permalink

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

Executive Summary:

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called "premium content", typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.

Executive Executive Summary:

The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history.

See also this for a slightly less technical summary of the article.

Posted by evan at 12:26 AM | Permalink

Posted by evan at 3:44 PM | Permalink

Salon.com Audio | "A Child's Christmas in Wales"

Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed. But here a small boy says: "It snowed last year, too. I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea."

"But that was not the same snow," I say. "Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees; snow grew overnight on the roofs of the houses like a pure and grandfather moss, minutely -ivied the walls and settled on the postman, opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunder-storm of white, torn Christmas cards."

Dylan Thomas reading, in mp3 files.

Text here.

Posted by evan at 1:30 AM | Permalink

Forbes.com -Mac Envy

Daniel Lyons, 12.12.06, 10:41 AM ET

Are Apple computers better than Windows PCs? The guy who led development of Microsoft's new versions of Windows apparently once thought so.

In a January 2004 e-mail to Microsoft chiefs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Vista boss Jim Allchin said he would buy a Mac if he wasn't working at Microsoft.

Allchin, who is now a co-president of Microsoft, was complaining to Gates and Ballmer that Microsoft had lost its way in developing Vista and lost sight of what customers wanted.

The e-mail has become public since it was cited by attorneys in Iowa who are pursuing an antitrust case against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

Allchin oversaw development of Vista, the new version of Windows. The new operating system looks a lot like Apple 's OS X operating system. This hasn't escaped the notice of Apple executives who delight in pointing out similarities.

On Monday night, after reporters began making inquiries about the e-mail, Allchin published an item on a Microsoft blog in which he claimed the e-mail statement was being taken out of context.

He said that he'd made the comment about buying a Mac "for effect," that the e-mail was nearly 3 years old and that he was trying to shake things up at Microsoft. "We needed to change and change quickly," Allchin writes. Today, he says, "Vista has turned into a phenomenal product, better than any other OS we've ever built, and far, far better than any other software available today."

Allchin has announced plans to retire from Microsoft after the commercial version of Vista ships at the end of January. Note to employees of Apple retail stores in Bellevue, Wash., and Seattle: On or around Feb. 1, be on the lookout for a white-haired man wearing a Groucho mask, furtively purchasing an iMac.

Posted by evan at 6:07 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Issues Word Zero-Day Attack Alert

Microsoft on Dec. 5 warned that an unpatched vulnerability in its Word software program is being used in targeted, zero-day attacks.

A security advisory from the Redmond, Wash., company said the flaw can be exploited if a user simply opens a rigged Word document. ...

There are no pre-patch workarounds available. Microsoft suggests that users "not open or save Word files," even from trusted sources.

Golly, I've been saying that for years.

Why not try Open Office?

Posted by evan at 12:55 AM | Permalink

A Wii Workout: When Videogames Hurt - WSJ.com

Blaine Stuart of Rochester, N.Y., mistakenly whacked his fiancee, Shelly Haefele, while playing tennis and also accidentally hit his dog while bowling.

Posted by evan at 2:19 PM | Permalink

'Pump-and-Dump' Spam Surge Linked to Russian Bot Herders

... Stewart, a reverse engineering expert with expertise in deconstructing malware samples, gained access to files from a SpamThru control server and found evidence that the attackers are meticulous about keeping statistics on bot infections around the world.

For example, the SpamThru controller keeps statistics on the country of origin of all bots in the botnet. In all, computers in 166 countries are part of the botnet, with the United States accounting for more than half of the infections.

The botnet stats tracker even logs the version of Windows the infected client is running, down to the service pack level. One chart commandeered by Stewart showed that Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2) machines dominate the makeup of the botnet, a clear sign that the latest version of Microsoft's operating system is falling prey to attacks.

Obviously, the solution is for Microsoft to sue Linux users.

Posted by evan at 1:02 AM | Permalink

Computerworld - Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft

In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property.

In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and Microsoft wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation."

[snip]

"Novell pays us some money for the right to tell customers that anybody who uses SUSE Linux is appropriately covered," Ballmer said. This "is important to us, because [otherwise] we believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability."

"My reaction is that so far, what he [Ballmer] said is just more FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt]," said Pamela Jones, editor of the Groklaw.net blog, which tracks legal issues in the open-source community. "Let him sue if he thinks he has a valid claim, and we'll see how well his customers like it."

[snip]

Jones also challenged Ballmer to "put his money where his mouth is" and detail exactly what part of the Linux kernel source code allegedly infringes upon Microsoft patents, so that "folks will strip out the code and work around it or prove his patent invalid."

Ballmer did not provide details during his comments Thursday. But he was adamant that Linux users, apart from those using SUSE, are taking advantage of Microsoft innovation, and that someone -- either Linux vendors or users -- would eventually have to pay up.

"Only customers that use SUSE have paid properly for intellectual property from Microsoft," he said. "We are willing to do a deal with Red Hat and other Linux distributors." The deal with SUSE Linux "is not exclusive," Ballmer added.

Posted by evan at 3:16 PM | Permalink

Ed Foster's Gripelog || A Vista of Licensed Censorship

Let's say you get Windows Vista sometime next year and, after using it a bit, decide it really sucks wind compared to other operating systems like Linux or the Mac OS. Can you tell your friends, family, or your blog readers about your comparative findings? Well, before you do, you will at least have to check what Microsoft's web pages say about just what kind of Vista criticism Redmond is allowing at that moment in time.

Which is to say not much.

Posted by evan at 1:18 AM | Permalink

Microsoft to Step Up Anti-Piracy Stance - washingtonpost.com

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. is cracking down harder than ever on software piracy as it tries to boost profits, but some say the harsh repercussions facing people who use unlicensed versions of its new Windows Vista operating system could spur a backlash.

The world's largest software maker said Wednesday that people running an unlicensed copy of Vista that it believes is pirated will initially be denied access to some of the most anticipated features of the operating system. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology.

If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager.

Under that scenario, a person could use the browser to surf the Web, access documents on the hard drive or log onto Web-based e-mail. But the user would not be able to directly open documents from the computer desktop or run other programs such as Outlook e-mail software, Lindeman said.

Not a pirate? Prove it, and good luck with that.

Or you could use an OS that doesn't consider you a criminal.

Posted by evan at 7:51 PM | Permalink

But, then again, I'm very tired.

You can buy it on a t-shirt here.

A sort of explanation here.

Posted by evan at 12:50 AM | Permalink

Anti-Spyware Group Targets AOL 9.0 As 'Badware' - Internet News by InformationWeek

An anti-spyware group on Monday slapped AOL's client software with a "badware" label, and told users to avoid installing the program because it "adds software without disclosure" and "interferes with computer use."

Stopbadware.org, a non-profit group headed by Harvard University and Oxford University, and backed by Google, Sun, and Lenovo, blasted AOL 9.0 for the kind of deceptive installation practices usually reserved for adware and spyware. In the past, Stopbadware.org has limited itself to pegging such dangerous programs as the file-sharing Kazaa peer-to-peer software, fake anti-spyware scanners, and screensavers bundled with Trojan horses and keyloggers.

According to the group's online alert, it considers the AOL software irresponsible for 8 different reasons, among them that it installs software such as the You've Got Pictures screensaver and ViewPoint Media Player without telling the user, that it adds the AOL toolbar to Internet Explorer without adequate disclosure, and that it fails to uninstall completely.

"We currently recommend that users do not install the version of AOL software that we tested, unless the user is comfortable with the level of risk we identify," the organization concluded in its online report.

AOL 9.0 is the free-of-charge software that the Virginia-based Internet service provider hands out to subscribers for connecting to, and accessing the Internet.

Posted by evan at 12:12 PM | Permalink

The Code Linux

Interesting Finnish film (on Google Video) about the origins of Linux (including interviews with Linus Torvalds, left). Finnish subtitles on English interviews, no problem, but also Finnish subtitles on non-English, non-Finnish interviews and no subtitles on Finnish interviews, so parts are hard to parse, but well worth watching.

Posted by evan at 1:42 PM | Permalink

The antenna for our wireless internet service. The Morning Glories don't seem to impede the signal.

Posted by evan at 1:33 PM | Permalink

Symantec labels vicars' software as spyware

The Church of England's publishing arm has advised clergy to ignore Symantec threat warnings, after its Norton Antivirus product wrongly identified church software as spyware.

Many Church of England vicars use a software tool called Visual Liturgy to plan, create and deliver church services. Four weeks ago, on Saturday, 8 July, Symantec issued a new virus definition which has had "a significant detrimental effect on Visual Liturgy," according to Church House Publishing (CHP), the publishing arm of the Church of England.

Norton's auto-update wrongly identified a file integral to Visual Liturgy as Sniperspy, a piece of spyware. After receiving the update, users were prompted to accept the Sniperspy threat warning and delete the file, called vlutils.dll. This rendered Visual Liturgy useless.

"Up to 4,500 churches with approximately half a million churchgoers have been badly affected by this," said David Green, outgoing new media manager for CHP. "Usually it takes a lot to get a clergyman upset, but we have had a fair few on the phone. There's been no talk of smiting yet, but we'll wait and see," Green added.

And, of course, Symantec's crack Customer Service is on the case:

According to CHP, Symantec has compounded its sin by not responding to repeated requests to put the situation right.

"We spoke to Symantec on Monday morning, and were told to fill in an online false positive form. We were told Symantec would respond within four weeks. From our point of view, this was not good enough," said Green.

Green and CHP staff contacted Symantec in London, Dublin and the US, trying to get them to action the complaint quickly, and asking for escalation at each point. They contacted Dublin in the morning and the US in the afternoon, every day for a week.

"We were told we needed to speak to the Security Response Team, but apparently the Security Response Team doesn't take phone calls," said Green.

Dude. It's a sign.

Posted by evan at 1:28 PM | Permalink

The Insider: Microsoft rolls out Windows Vista, the soft drink

You won't find Windows Vista in stores this year -- but on the Microsoft campus, it's already in the refrigerators.

Special-edition cans of Talking Rain sparkling water, sporting the logo for the upcoming operating system, have been stocked among the other free sodas available to the company's employees. It's a promotion for the preliminary version of the program, pointing employees to an internal Windows Vista site.

Presumably, the actual operating system won't be available in lemon-lime.

Posted by evan at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Keeping a Democratic Web - New York Times

"Net neutrality" is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else. Opponents of these plans are supporting Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. Net neutrality recently suffered a setback in the House, but there is growing hope that the Senate will take up the cause.

One of the Internet's great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft's home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access, and slower to navigate. Providers could also block access to sites they do not like.

That would be a financial windfall for Internet service providers, but a disaster for users, who could find their Web browsing influenced by whichever sites paid their service provider the most money. There is a growing movement of Internet users who are pushing for legislation to make this kind of discrimination impossible. It has attracted supporters ranging from MoveOn.org to the Gun Owners of America. Grass-roots political groups like these are rightly concerned that their online speech could be curtailed if Internet service providers were allowed to pick and choose among Web sites.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated a good Net-neutrality amendment last week. But the amendment got more votes than many people expected, suggesting that support for Net neutrality is beginning to take hold in Congress. In the Senate, Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, are drafting a strong Net-neutrality bill that would prohibit broadband providers from creating a two-tiered Internet. Senators who care about the Internet and Internet users should get behind it.

"Providers could also block access to sites they do not like." Could, have and will. The net does not need a Clear Channel. It's a common carrier, just like the phone company. Do you want Verizon telling you whom you can call? Don't let them control what you can read.

By the way, large sites, all websites in fact, already pay for their bandwidth usage. What I pay is directly tied to my number of readers in a given month. My hosting service pays part of that to the backbone providers. It's all already paid for, folks.

Posted by evan at 6:05 PM | Permalink

YouTube - Mac/Windows Virus-Free Ad

and high time, although not, perhaps, exactly true....

Posted by evan at 1:01 AM | Permalink

Linux: A European threat to our computers

Like most things that are worth owning, Computers are an American invention. Look at any modern computer and you will see that the whole thing is the product of American brilliance.

For example, this rugged IBM laptop I am using was designed and built by an American company. It runs software built by Microsoft, one of America's most productive organizations. My computer does everything I could possibly want: I can do my work, submit my taxes and even search the Bible.

Like all the greatest American engineering, it's an example of innovation that makes a growing group of European and Chinese hackers jealous. They hate our lead in computing technology and will stop at nothing until they have control of all of our computers.

I'm talking about a project called 'Linux', something you may not have encountered, but might do some day.

It's a computer program that was initially developed in Finland as a means of circumventing valuable copyrights and patents owned by an American company called SCO Group.

Unlike Windows, which is a mature commercial product which is normally included with every new computer, Linux is given away. Now it may not sound like much of a problem, after all there is very little profit in merely giving a product away.

This would be certainly true were in not for the Linux project's seductive Marxist ideology and the effect that it has on 'Blue-State' liberals. Indeed, Linux is so pervasive amongst the blue states and many liberal universities that a leading computer expert Steve Balmer (from Microsoft) described Linux as cancer.

The American software industry is worth more than $7 Billion; Introducing a foreign product like Linux which is often copied for free could threaten that entire industry. A generation of computer users might get use to accepting foreign software hand-outs rather than paying for a superior American products. If only the danger were just to our economy:

These days computers control everything from TV stations to battleships; Our crucial information and defense infrastructure is built on computer technology. If we allow this cancer into our networks, there is no knowing what the effect might be on our infrastructure, but that is just what liberals are trying to do.

Imagine if the State of the Union address were hacked because the TV station decided to save money by using Linux? Imagine if a stealth-bomber crashed because it's software was written by anonymous Chinese or European hackers. It would make as much sense as inviting the French to come over and take over the White-House.

And guess what software Osama Bin Laden uses on his laptop?

more at link

Posted by evan at 3:01 PM | Permalink

MS Expands Anti-Piracy Program, Reissues Patch - (washingtonpost.com)

Microsoft today began expanding its anti-piracy program by quietly pushing out a software update that in many cases automatically scans Windows computers and reports on whether they are powered by unlicensed software.

Posted by evan at 11:51 AM | Permalink

Save the Internet

Congress is pushing a law that would abandon Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Network neutrality prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you — based on what site pays them the most. Your local library shouldn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to have its Web site open quickly on your computer.

Net Neutrality allows everyone to compete on a level playing field and is the reason that the Internet is a force for economic innovation, civic participation and free speech. If the public doesn’t speak up now, Congress will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by telephone and cable companies that want to decide what you do, where you go, and what you watch online.

This isn’t just speculation — we’ve already seen what happens elsewhere when the Internet’s gatekeepers get too much control. Last year, Canada’s version of AT&T — Telus— blocked their Internet customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to workers with whom Telus was negotiating. And Shaw, a major Canadian cable company, charges an extra $10 a month to subscribers who dare to use a competing Internet telephone service.

This is very serious, and it will be irreversible. Read the whole page and lean on your legislators NOW.

Posted by evan at 12:30 AM | Permalink

... Modern operating systems like Linux and Mac OS X operate under a security model where even administrative users don't get full access to certain features unless they provide an in-place logon before performing any task that might harm the system. This type of security model protects users from themselves, and it is something that Microsoft should have added to Windows years and years ago. Here's the good news. In Windows Vista, Microsoft is indeed moving to this kind of security model. The feature is called User Account Protection (UAP) and, as you might expect, it prevents even administrative users from performing potentially dangerous tasks without first providing security credentials, thus ensuring that the user understands what they're doing before making a critical mistake. It sounds like a good system. But this is Microsoft, we're talking about here. They completely botched UAP. The bad news, then, is that UAP is a sad, sad joke. It's the most annoying feature that Microsoft has ever added to any software product, and yes, that includes that ridiculous Clippy character from older Office versions. The problem with UAP is that it throws up an unbelievable number of warning dialogs for even the simplest of tasks. That these dialogs pop up repeatedly for the same action would be comical if it weren't so amazingly frustrating. It would be hilarious if it weren't going to affect hundreds of millions of people in a few short months. It is, in fact, almost criminal in its insidiousness. Let's look a typical example. One of the first things I do whenever I install a new Windows version is download and install Mozilla Firefox. If we forget, for a moment, the number of warning dialogs we get during the download and install process (including a brazen security warning from Windows Firewall for which Microsoft should be chastised), let's just examine one crucial, often overlooked issue. Once Firefox is installed, there are two icons on my Desktop I'd like to remove: The Setup application itself and a shortcut to Firefox. So I select both icons and drag them to the Recycle Bin. Simple, right? Wrong. Here's what you have to go through to actually delete those files in Windows Vista. First, you get a File Access Denied dialog (Figure) explaining that you don't, in fact, have permission to delete a ... shortcut?? To an application you just installed??? Seriously? OK, fine. You can click a Continue button to "complete this operation." But that doesn't complete anything. It just clears the desktop for the next dialog, which is a Windows Security window (Figure). Here, you need to give your permission to continue something opaquely called a "File Operation." Click Allow, and you're done. Hey, that's not too bad, right? Just two dialogs to read, understand, and then respond correctly to. What's the big deal? What if you're doing something a bit more complicated? Well, lucky you, the dialogs stack right up, one after the other, in a seemingly never-ending display of stupidity. Indeed, sometimes you'll find yourself unable to do certain things for no good reason, and you click Allow buttons until you're blue in the face. It will never stop bothering you, unless you agree to stop your silliness and leave that file on the desktop where it belongs. Mark my words, this will happen to you. And you will hate it. ...

Posted by evan at 11:14 PM | Permalink

Macworld: News: Apple could double market share on Microsoft defections

Consumers are so distrustful of Microsoft that Apple could double its market share due to defections from the Windows operating system, a report by market analysis firm Forrester Research says.

[snip]

The low scores for Microsoft could mean good news for Apple as consumers showed their distrust of the Redmond-based software-giant.

“Microsoft faces big consumer defection risk: One measure of consumers’ dissatisfaction with Microsoft is seen in the 5.4 million households that gave it a brand trust of 1 (distrust a lot) or 2 (distrust a bit),” the report said. “Compared with all Microsoft users, these at-risk users have higher income, are much more likely to be male and are bigger online spenders. These households know they run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind — if they could. Apple could double its PC share by winning Microsoft’s at-risk customers.”

The demographic of Microsoft’s at-risk customers fits well with Apple’s user base, which Forrester describes as “affluent, optimistic about technology and brand aware.”

The study was also done before Apple gave users of its Intel-based Macs the ability to run Windows na