The previous post was about possible problems with the service pack for Vista. There is also a new service pack for XP and, you guessed it, there are problems with some systems. For some precautions and advice go to Minimizing XP SP3 woes.
Service pack 1 for Windows Vista has now been available for general download for a while. As always happens with service packs, some systems have problems. In case any readers are among the unfortunate, here is a link to Windows Vista SP1 Disaster Recovery Guide.
Economic incentives govern criminal online activity just like so much else of human behavior. The Bits Blog notes:
To make money, you have to move up the economic food chain into higher-value, more profitable work and markets. That economic fact of life applies to nations, companies and individuals.
A study released this week shows how this natural law is being applied in the subculture of criminal computer hackers. Pilfered credit card numbers and bank account PIN numbers have become commodities on shadowy Web sites where stolen digital information is bought and sold.
Company e-mail, business documents and personal health information are the new targets of choice for illegal hackers, according to Finjan, a San Jose-based maker of Web security software and appliances.
Ed Bott, who writes excellent Windows books, is a staunch defender of Vista. He says there’s nothing wrong with Vista that a little fixing won’t take care of. Of course, Bott is a Windows expert; you might even say that Windows is his profession. So what he regards as a little fixing is a major undertaking and way beyond the average home user, Still, he knows a lot about Windows and, if you are a more advanced user, his three-part series Fixing Windows Vista has some valuable pointers. I especially like part 3, where he shows how to use some of the nice system tools that come with Vista. But it’s not for the casual PC user.
The term “beta” for software, like so many other words, is being misused. An opinion piece at Computerworld discusses how the term no longer means what it once did:
Once upon a time the term “beta” meant that the software was very close to release, but the developers were still seeking feedback. Betas were typically only distributed to a limited audience of a few customers who understood the risks inherent in using software that might break, and who would report bugs. Those bugs would then be fixed and the final version released for sale.
Today, betas are instantly available to everyone worldwide; there are rarely limits. They are used to attract free publicity, or to drive user demand through “invite only”-style launches. And a beta is not a one-time event. The software changes frequently; new features are added constantly. If problems occur the answer is often not to fix them, but to state that “the product is only in beta”. But people use the product as if it were final. At best, the service might not work exactly as advertised. At worst, your data could be lost, destroyed or leaked.
While we we have all been focused on the Microsoft-Yahoo struggle, we have been forgetting another important fight involving the future of the Internet. This is the court case between Viacom and Google over what’s shown on YouTube. Viacom claims that the showing of clips from Viacom shows is an infringement of the copyright. At Ars Technica, Jacqui Cheng notes:
It has been just over a year since Viacom launched its $1 billion lawsuit against Google for “brazen disregard of intellectual property laws” on YouTube. Although we haven’t heard much news about the case as of late, some fightin’ words have come out of both sides recently to indicate that the case is still going strong. There’s no sign of an impending settlement, either, as Viacom is still beating the piracy drum and Google continues to stand its ground. Because of this, the eventual outcome of the Viacom suit may set a legal precedent that could send ripples throughout the entire Internet.
Presently, YouTube doesn’t check to see if what is posted is copyrighted material and relies on the safe harbor provision of current law. The article concludes:
“Nearly every major Internet company depends on the very same legal foundation that YouTube is built on,” Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Fred von Lohmann told Ars last summer. He explained that a victory for Viacom could mean a fundamental change in user-generated content, forcing sites to clear every single video before putting it up. “In other words, a decisive victory for Viacom could potentially turn the Internet into TV, a place where nothing gets on the air until a cadre of lawyers signs off.”
If the DMCA’s Safe Harbor doesn’t hold up in court against Viacom, it’s clear that Google and YouTube’s suffering would just be the tip of the iceberg. The case could have widespread implications for companies like Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Microsoft… the list goes on. Anywhere there’s a community that thrives on public participation, there’s a risk of it drastically changing (and possibly dying altogether) if Safe Harbor no longer means what it means now. Perhaps, like Viacom, Google is fighting the case until the bitter end not just to serve its own interests, but to stand up for the interests of the Internet-using public at large.
Right now, Google is king of search with Microsoft huffing and puffing in third place trying to make progress in the field. Number two Yahoo, of course, doesn’t seem to know exactly what it wants to do to catch up. BusinessWeek says neither of these Google rivals is the real threat to Google dominance:
No, one of the most formidable challenges facing Google (GOOG) is likely sitting in your pocket or purse. It’s your cell phone, and it will put added pressure on Google and other Internet companies to revamp the way they handle online marketing.
As more people use cell phones and their tiny glass screens to gain access to the Internet, Google and its fellow online advertisers will have less space, or what’s called ad inventory, to place marketing messages for customers. Google makes money selling ad inventory. And its ad inventory is diminished on a cell phone.
Although the Mac is picking up market share in the home, it remains a stranger to the business environment. In fact, Apple has basically ignored the corporate market. Since the iPod and the iPhone have gotten a lot of people interested in Apple products, could now be Apple’s chance at this market? The ability of the present Intel based Mac to run Windows as well as Apple’s OS X makes the Mac a much more plausible choice in the corporate world. An article at BusinessWeek takes a look at this possibility.
I previously noted the growing number of video clips on the Web that show you how to do something. Now, Katherine Boehret at the Mossberg solution has written an article about some Web sites with instructional videos:
If there’s a skill or process you want to learn or know more about, chances are there’s an online video for it. These days you can find a video that will teach you to cook, survive college, build your own headphones or even become a better kisser.
This week, I took a look at just a few Web sites that make finding these videos easy, including Howcast Media Inc.’s Howcast.com, WonderHowTo.com from WonderHowTo Inc. and eHow Inc.’s eHow.com.
I might note that my colleague Joel May and I were involved several years ago in a project for SeniorNet where we made some Windows how-to videos. They can be viewed at this link.
The publication Consumer Reports has been a valuable reference for consumer information for years. The June issue (available only to subscribers) has a buying guide for computers. It also rates companies for their technical support and Apple comes out on top. (The same result was obtained by PC Magazine when it did its annual survey.) PC World comments on the Consumer Reports findings:
Apple beat all comers in a Consumer Reports survey released Monday that rates the technical support offered by computer makers. Apple topped the rankings for both laptop and desktop support, beating out Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony and HP.
Consumer Reports based its ratings feedback from owners of more than 4,500 laptop computers and almost 5,600 desktop computers who contacted manufacturer tech support between September 2006 and January 2008. Computer owners were asked to rate their experience based on three criteria: Whether the manufacturer solved their problem, how long they waited to talk with someone on the phone, and how knowledgeable the support staff were. Apple received the highest ranking of “Better” in all three areas for both laptops and desktops–the only company to do so.
Vic Laurie is a retired chemistry professor. He began using computers as a research tool in 1956 and has been using them for a variety of purposes ever since. He is active in SeniorNet and is especially interested in helping senior citizens learn about computers.
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