I posted this to my local LUG this morning, then realized that it would make an excellent blog post, so I'm cross posting it here for a wider audience. For those who know me, know I'm anal retentive about my mail. It started probably 4-5 years ago, when I discovered the difference between the IMAP […]
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The ONLY purpose Internet Explorer serves, is to download Mozilla Firefox. I subscribe to Bruce Schneier, leading expert on security. His articles and publications are always well written, and he brings so much to the table in terms of security. Well, the latest entry on his […]
Last week, my wife called me to tell me that we had been infected by a virus and that she couldn't get online without her browser being forwarded to inappropriate sites. Further, there were new icons on the desktop, nasty messages popping up all over the workspace, and a saturated network. Sounds like more than […]
Digital Restrictions Management. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, of which I am a member, recently pointed in their Deep Links site how DRM is is punishing paying customers rather than "pirates". Clip from the article: Netflix subscriber Davis Freeberg ran headlong into an incompatibility between Microsoft DRM and ... Microsoft DRM. The trouble all started when […]
I'm cleaning up a Windows laptop for a friend, and boy, is it infected. These being the results of running Windows Defender, LavaSoft AdAware, MacAfee Virus Scan and Spysot Search & Destroyer. Luckily, no worms. 8 trojans 144 adwares 71 spywares 39 viruses So, I couldn't help but come up with the 10 Golden Rules […]
I couldn't believe this when I read it, and even now, it still floors me. Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems. It's such a tremendously bad idea that it's almost bound to succeed. Microsoft has filed another patent, this one for an "advertising framework" that uses "context data" from your hard drive to […]
You're treated like a criminal out the door. I won't go into WPA, the patent policies with Novell and Xandros, or the fact that you have to enter a serial number every time you want to install the operating system. In other words, the average Joe and your grandma aren't the subjects of this post. […]
No. Not me personally. It's the threat that we, as Linux users and developers, hear constantly. It's on the forums, mailing lists and IRC. These ridiculous threats, that if something in the Linux operating system is not fixed or handled to their liking, they're running back to Windows. To me, it seems to be getting […]
UPDATE 2: Groklaw covered this post and Justin's. Comments following are insightful, and far outstretching the content here. Read more here. UPDATE: Justin wrote up a good review of the conference on his blog. You can find his post here. I had the opportunity today, along with John, Kyle, Justin and Mike (some local LUG […]
Can Microsoft develop a browser that doesn't frustrate their own internal web developers when developing Microsoft web applications and sites? If no: then Internet Explorer is not the browser to be designing sites for, but, instead, developing for standards compliance browsers like Firefox, Konqueror and Safari. If yes: then why haven't they improved the browser […]
Ok. Maybe this is just me. Even if it is, it's enough to keep me from using the Windows operating system. When running Windows, if I want to burn a CD, I have to walk on egg shells to get a clean burn, otherwise, the burn fails, and I have to start over. Case in […]
It's been a while since I've done one of these, so I thought "why not"? The next in the series of why I choose not to run Windows comes with the recent news of iPods being infected with the RavMonE.exe virus. Of course, I am helping wage the war against DRM, so I don't wield […]
Microsoft is supposed to be the king of innovation, yet they come up with this garbage: Ultimate Keyboard Windows Automotive Pocket PC OK. Let's look at these a each a little more closely. First, the Ultimate Keyboard. I'd like to know where the naming scheme came from for that one. What makes the keyboard "ultimate"? […]
Reason #2: Microsoft has practices that would border the shady (what's new, right?). Case in point, Microsoft Genuine Advantage. According to the web, if you're running a pirated copy of Windows, you could be reported to Microsoft. Nothing wrong with that, right? After all, it is their software; their proprietary code; their property. But what […]
Reason #1: The "Security Center" that Microsoft has put in their flagship OS is nothing more than a comfortable blanket for it's users. "Hmm. I have a Security Center in Windows. It must be secure now." Please. Here is why the "Security Center" sucks- it doesn't update 3rd party applications, at least ones that don't […]