Archive for January, 2007
New review of Windows Vista
In his regular Thursday consumer electronics column in the Wall Street Journal today, Walter Mossberg gives a useful review of Vista. His conclusion is, “Worthy, Largely Unexciting”. Here are some of his observations:
There are some big downsides to this new version of Windows. To get the full benefits of Vista, especially the new look and [...]
How to defend against ActiveX and other malware exploits- Part I
ActiveX and other malware exploits are a serious enough problem that home PC owners should be aware of all the defensive measures that can be taken. Although a properly updated anti-virus program is one line of defense, it is not sufficient to protect against a constant stream of new threats. So I am going to [...]
ActiveX problems continue
ActiveX refers to a group of technologies that Microsoft has incorporated into Windows and Internet Explorer (more detail is given at http://surfthenetsafely.com/activex.htm). A basic idea of this technology is to allow various parts of the system to interact with one another. This is all very well in theory but it allows ways for malware to [...]
Internet Explorer 7, Vista, and the cost of greater security
I repeat Laurie’s Law of Constrained Convenience: the time it takes to do anything on a computer is inversely related to the security measures being applied. I raised the issue of how much inconvenience Vista’s new security measures were going to cause back in November. Vista is not yet in wide use so it remains [...]
Vertical Search engines
As everyone knows, the amount of information on the Internet- good, bad and indiifferent- continues its upward spiral of growth. This is taxing the search engines, which face the near-sisyphean task of finding, sorting, and ranking all this stuff. The major search engines do an amazing job but I find that an awful lot of [...]
‘Til death do us part
The Internet is full of “free” trial offers. Usually they go something like this. You are offered some service for 15 or 30 days, “no obligation”. Of course, you have to fill out some forms and, this is the hook, give them your credit card number. Then, if you don’t like the service, just try [...]
Software update
I will be updating the blogging software tonight. Disruption should be minimal but you never know.
A 15-year perspective
I often cite writings by Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal because he approaches technical subjects from the point of view of the average person and gives balanced, informed articles. In a recent article at SmartMoney, Mossberg looks back at 15 years of writing about personal technology. He isn’t happy about the current state [...]
Shortcuts for using Internet Explorer 7 menus
As I posted previously, the menu interface for IE7 is not the same as for IE6. Here are some keyboard shortcuts for menus that apply explicitly to IE7. For clarity, the letters to be combined with the Alt key are shown in upper case. However, small letters are actually used in practice.
Alt+M [...]
Free trial of Office 2007
Microsoft is offering a free download of Office 2007 with a limited lifetime for those who wish to try it out. The download is here and is good for a 60-day trial period. You’ll have to fill out forms to get it, of course.