Archive for February, 2008
Is the day coming when we will always be online?
Walter Mossberg thinks so. He recently gave a talk in Princeton, NJ where I live (except in the winter). I’m away so I missed the talk but there’s a report of it in the local newspaper:
Prominent technology journalist Walt Mossberg came to Princeton University on Wednesday bearing a message of the future: The Internet, for [...]
Where did all the real people go?
I suppose that by now most of us are reluctantly accepting the fact that what passes for service these days is pretty poor. I have already commented on the level of tech support at major companies. It isn’t just the outsourcing to script readers in faraway lands, however. Some companies don’t seem to have any [...]
Intellectual property is a slippery subject
Related to my previous post is the nebulous concept of “intellectual property”. I was a presumed producer of “intellectual property” for years but I never realized that I was supposed to lay claim to it and patent it or copyright it or somehow “own” it. Being just a naïve academic, I thought knowledge was something [...]
Hope for clarifying the software patent mess?
Current software patent law and policy is a disgrace. The patent office has been allowing absurd patents such as figuring out how to do something with one mouse click instead of two. Many or maybe all software patents should never have been allowed. A piece of code should be no more patentable than a [...]
How to escape from AOL jail
Even at its peak, AOL was consistently rated at the bottom of the national dial-up ISPs. When I had to teach computer classes using AOL, it was a frustrating experience using their dreadful software. It was a poor service but it trapped many newcomers with its ubiquitous offerings and omnipresent disks. Once snared, it was [...]
Very useful backup utility updated
Over the years I have mentioned a number of free utilities from Karen Kenworthy. Her backup program Replicator is one that I use a lot and it has just been updated. Here’s the description:
Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen’s Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can [...]
How to really remove Symantec security software
Norton anti-virus and other Symantec programs are notorious for being nearly impossible to remove. They come with uninstall programs but they leave behind significant pieces of these limpet-like programs. Symantec even has special tools just to remove their stuff but even they still leave things behind. For example, at least one DLL and some Registry [...]
Roundup of software add-ons and plug-ins
Probably nobody will use all of them but you may find at least one or two additions for your current software in a list from PC World entitled, 50 Ways To Make Your Software Do More:
Stuck with a boring browser? Wish that Word could handle more tasks? Feel hemmed in by Photoshop? You don’t have [...]
Melding the Web and the desktop
Where it will all go I don’t know but today’s announcement by Adobe of a system called “Air” that blends the Internet and the PC may be a hint of the future. The New York Times has a substantial article about the Flash-based project and how it may shape up a big battle with Microsoft. [...]
Pakistan causes YouTube blackout
For political and/or religious reasons, various governments have blocked Web sites from access in their countries. On Sunday, Pakistan blocked YouTube, not just from Pakistan, but from much of the rest of the world. The AP reports:
On Friday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered 70 Internet service providers to block access to YouTube.com, because of anti-Islamic [...]
One more review of Vista SP1
Windows XP users are probably tired of hearing about Vista service pack 1 but here is one more review. Unless something unexpected comes up, it is also the last one I’ll post about. I think the picture is pretty clear- Vista SP1 doesn’t offer a lot that is new for the home user but should [...]