Practical Technology

for practical people.

June 22, 2010
by sjvn01
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Bill Gates doesn’t work at Microsoft anymore

Love him or hate him, Bill Gates was, and still is, the face of Microsoft. What Microsoft doesn’t want you to know though is that Gates has almost nothing to do with the company anymore.

That’s what comes across loud and clear in the recent Fortune overview of the world’s richest man. Instead of plotting out how to knock Apple back into the dirt or how to put Google in its place, Gates spends his days on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, stopping by the laboratories of Intellectual Ventures to talk blue-sky ideas every few weeks with Nathan Myhrvold, and dropping off or picking up his three kids from school.

Bill Gates? The great white-shark of computing doing the suburban dad routine!? Yes, yes he is, albeit I doubt he drives a mini-van.

While this is fine for Gates, it doesn’t bode well for Microsoft. As ace Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley, told me when we talked about the article, she liked the article “because it admits what MS doesn’t want out there: Gates is no longer really involved at the company. They are scared for that to be known even though to us it is obvious.”

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June 21, 2010
by sjvn01
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Dedicated E-Readers: They’re History

Barnes & Noble just launched a new Wi-Fi only version of the Nook for $149 and cut the price of the original, with both Wi-Fi and 3G from $259 to $199. Whoops! And, what’s this? I no sooner finish this blog and Amazon drops the bottom-line Kindle’s price to $189. That’s great, right? Wrong. It’s actually just postponing the end of all dedicated e-readers.

As it happens, I like e-readers in general. And, I like the Nook and Amazon’s Kindle. So why am I unimpressed by this price-cut? I’m unmoved because I don’t think there’s a chance in heck that dedicated e-reader devices will still be around, except as vastly discounted electronic toys by 2011’s holiday season.

My reasoning is quite simple. Everything a Nook or a Kindle can do an Apple iPad can do better. And, what’s far more important, an iPad can do far, far more.

Why should I buy a Nook or Kindle to read a book, when I can read the same books, from the same vendors, on an iPad? Or, for that matter, an iPod Touch? As Jason Perlow pointed out in his great overview of iPad e-reader applications, anything you can read on one of those devices, you can read on an iPad.

Besides, with an iPad, I can also listen to music, watch videos, play games, etc. etc. Of course, an iPad is expensive. In fact, it’s a lot more expensive. The cheapest iPad is $499 compared to the new Nook’s bottom line of $149 and the Kindle’s lowest priced model is now $189. But, it’s not going to stay that way. Historically, Apple drops the price of its earlier models when it introduces a new one. While you may lust in your heart for a new iPhone 4, your brain and your wallet might be very happy with the last generation iPhone 3GS, which Wal-Mart will be happy to sell you for $97.

Besides, in the next few months you’re going to see a flood of Linux-powered iPad clones and other tablet devices. I expect these tablets to have prices ranging from $150 to $250 and, thanks to most of them running Google Android, they’ll be able to run many of the same applications that now live on Apple iPads. Besides, when it comes to e-readers, the Nook is an Android Linux device and there’s already a Kindle for Android application.

The one hope that I see for the dedicated e-readers, and Nook already has the foundation to pull it off, is to give up being single-purpose devices and join the general purpose tablet revolution. But, dedicated e-readers, or GPSs, mobile-phones, and the like? They’re history.

A version of this story first appeared in ITWorld.

June 21, 2010
by sjvn01
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Dell back-tracks on Linux being safer than Windows

Recently Dell did something amazing. The Austin, TX computer giant admitted on one of their Web pages that “Ubuntu [Linux] is safer than Microsoft Windows.” (PDF Link) But, now Dell has backed off to the far more generic “Ubuntu is secure”. Boo!

The explanation for both statements has also changed a bit. When the statement was stronger, Dell’s explanation read, “The vast majority of viruses and spyware written by hackers are not designed to target and attack Linux.” Now, it’s been watered down to ” According to industry reports, Ubuntu is unaffected by the vast majority of viruses and spyware.”

Ah, no. Anyone who pays any attention to operating system security knows that Windows is insecure both by design and by poor execution. Linux, while far from perfect, is far more secure.

You see Windows was designed as a single-user, non-networked operating system. That design is still at the heart of Windows, which is why security must always be an add-on to Windows. Linux, in contrast, was built from the ground up as a multi-user, networked system. Linux, like Unix, which came before it, was constructed to work in a world with hostile users.

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June 17, 2010
by sjvn01
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Why are you still running Windows XP SP2!?

OK, I get why many Windows users haven’t moved from XP to Windows 7. For one thing, while you can upgrade some XP PCs to Windows 7, chances are you really need to buy a new PC. And, whether you’re just buying a new PC for yourself or a few thousand for your company, cash is tight these days. But, why the heck is anyone still running XP SP2!?

I was shocked to see that, according to security risk and compliance management provider Qualys, that half of its corporate customers were still using Windows XP SP2. Again, I get why people don’t do major upgrades. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” right?

But, I really didn’t see why people are sticking with XP SP2 this long. Windows XP SP3 was and is still, as far as I’m concerned, the best Windows desktop ever. Yes, that’s me, Mr. Linux saying nice things about Windows. Get over it. I’m not so much in favor of Linux per se as I am in favor of what works well, even if it does come from Microsoft.

I found XP SP3 to be faster, more stable, and to work better with my peripherals and Windows software than any other version of Windows. I recommended that all Windows users — including the poor devils running Vista — upgrade to XP SP3 as soon as possible.

Now, whether people paid attention to me or not, I still assumed that by 2010, two-years after Windows XP SP3 had arrived, that 90% of XP users, and 99% of XP business users, would have upgraded to XP SP3. I mean, it was better in every way and it was free to boot? What was there not to like?

Inertia is a powerful force, though, and so here we are with 50% of all business users still stuck on XP SP2. It looks like unless XP SP2 users get a kick in the rump, they’re not going to upgrade. Well, too bad for them, because Microsoft is about to give them that kick.

On July 13, Microsoft is going to stop issuing patches for XP SP2. This isn’t just the minor fixes; this includes the big security patches you’re used to installing every Patch Tuesday. After July 13th, if you want to try to keep Windows XP SP2 secure, you’re out of luck. You won’t be able to do it.

It’s not just the base XP SP2 operating system by the way. Microsoft also isn’t going to release patches for IE (Internet Explorer) 6, IE7 or IE8 patches after July 13. I think it’s a perfectly safe prediction to say that if you’re still running XP SP2 in August, your systems are almost certainly going to be infested with botnets, rootkits, and other malware.

In short, it’s time to get off the pot and download and install Windows XP SP3. It’s not that hard. If you don’t, well, don’t blame me if you sit down some morning soon and find your computer spilling your credit card numbers to J. Random Hacker or cheerfully sending Viagra spam to all your friends.

A version of Why are you still running Windows XP SP2!? first appeared in ComputerWorld.

June 16, 2010
by sjvn01
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HP: The Linux distributor?

Hardware companies don’t tend to have their own Linux distributions. IBM uses Linux everywhere, but they don’t have their own Linux. Dell will be happy to sell you notebooks and netbooks with Ubuntu or a workstation or server with RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). But, no major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has had a house-brand Linux… until now. HP has recently bought not one, but two Linux distributions.

Surely HP is not getting into the Linux distribution business? Are they!?

HP first acquired its own Linux distribution bough Palm to get its hand on webOS. For some reason, a lot of people seemed to think that Palm was still using its old proprietary operating system, Palm OS. Nope. WebOS has proprietary extensions but this mobile device OS with its Linux kernel heart has more in common with Android and MeeGo than it does with its proprietary fore-bearers.

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June 16, 2010
by sjvn01
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Patching the Patch: Trouble with the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard update

I was very pleased to see Apple’s new Mac OS X Snow Leopard patch this morning. It fixed numerous minor, but annoying problems with my Mac Mini and my wife’s MacBook Pro. It also cleaned up numerous security problems. That’s the good news. The bad news is it also introduced a serious security bug by including an old, and vulnerable, copy of Adobe Flash.

The good news is that it fixed several issues that I’ve had trouble with myself. In particular, I was glad to see that my Macs now work much better at copying, renaming, and deleting files on SMB (Simple Message Block) file servers, aka Windows, Linux, and most NAS (Network Attached Storage) servers. Since I keep my music and video libraries on servers this was a real plus. Also in the networking line, it fixed a problem with maintaining VPN (virtual private networking) connections.

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