Archive for November, 2006
Search features in Windows XP and Vista
One of the new features in Vista is an improved search function. Actually, the same search engine is also available for download to Windows XP so it isn’t exclusive to Vista. Personally, I think that Microsoft waited far too long to improve the original Windows XP search feature, which is really slow even with indexing. [...]
From Russia with spam
As I mentioned previously, we are all getting more spam these days. And many of these spams are penny stock rip-offs. A major source seems to be botnets run by Russian professional criminals. An article in eWeek gives a report on these gangs. It’s a sophisticated enterprise that is planting spam-spewing Trojans on the systems [...]
Vista myths(?)
Ed Bott has had a series of ZDNet posts on what he calls “Vista Mythbusters”. He gives a summary at his blog. To get somewhat different opinions, read the readers’ comments as well.
Social Security Agency warns of email scam
A new phishing mail pretending to be from the Social Security Administration is circulating. According to PC World:
…the SSA said it has received several reports of an e-mail being circulated with the subject header of “Cost-of-Living for 2007 update.” The e-mail is designed to appear as if it were from the agency and provides information [...]
New hosting service
I have moved to a new hosting service. So far the migration seems to have gone smoothly. I apologize for any disruptions that may have occurred. Let me know if you experience any problems.
Vista is joining the blog
Back in the spring, I thought that Vista was enough of a separate story to warrant its own blog. Now that Vista has gone gold, I think the subject deserves to be in this main blog. So from now on I will be writing about Vista here.
How safe is your private data?
It’s bad enough that a lot of people are being taken in by phishing scams but even the wary can get ripped off because somebody loses their private data. InformationWeek reports that 49 million US adults have been warned about data breaches in the past three years.
More than one in five adults surveyed said some [...]
About passwords
How do you choose your passwords? Most people use very simple schemes and accordingly leave themselves open to crackers. The security expert Roger Grimes maintains that length is your best protection. To prove his point he has issued a challenge and you can read about it here. According to Grimes:
Even if complexity is required, [...]
A new backup utility
Good backup utilities are always welcome and Microsoft has a new free download that adds a graphical user interface to the existing command-line utility called Robocopy. Robocopy has been around since Windows 2000 but until now has been strictly a command-line tool. Robocopy is primarily for backing up over a network and is more complicated [...]
Trying another theme for the site
I am experimenting with the appearance of the blog again. Any comments are welcome.