A Present for Your Child: A Personalized Internet Domain Name

Do you think that your child will want his/her own internet domain name? That seems to be the trendy thing to do:

“NEW YORK (AP) - Besides leaving the hospital with a birth certificate and a clean bill of health, baby Mila Belle Howells got something she won’t likely use herself for several years: her very own Internet domain name.

Likewise newborn Bennett Pankow joined his four older siblings in getting his own Internet moniker…”

link: Tots getting Internet identity at birth

Perhaps, in the future, parents will check to see if the name has been taken online before naming their child. The question is ‘what will the child think about this in ten / fifteen years?’. Will he/she think that the parental units were forward thinking and very very very cool. Or will he/she wonder why, in the early years of this century, his/her parents were among the dorkiest people on the planet?

Shortcut Keys In Windows Vista

Keyboard shortcuts are a great way of performing little tasks more easily. Instead of having to reach for your mouse, you can press two or three keystrokes. There are those keyboard shortcuts that are common to all versions of Windows and now there are some new ones.

Among the new features introduced in Windows Vista, is a new set of shortcut keys that are used to launch various programs or perform different tasks. These new keyboard shortcuts are listed below.

Windows Key + G (cycles through the Gadgets)
Windows Key + L (locks the computer)
Windows Key + U (activates the Ease Of Use Center)
Windows Key + X (cycles through the Mobility Center)
Windows Key + Spacebar (moves the focus to the Sidebar)
Windows Key + Pause (opens the System Properties portion of Control Panel)
CTRL + + Tab (opens persistent Flip 3D)

Enable Insert Mode In Word 2007

Word 2007 includes a new feature known as Insert mode. When Insert mode is enabled, a user can place their cursor anywhere within their document, press the Insert key and automatically type over the current text.

Before you can use this feature, it must be enabled using the steps described below:

Click the Microsoft Office button and click Word Options.
Select Advanced.
Click the option to Use Insert key to control overtype mode.
Click OK.

CDMA2000 and EV-DO Technologies Continue to Thrive in North America

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced recently that CDMA2000, a CDMA-based mobile data technology, continues to dominate North America’s 3G wireless market.

More than 135 million North American wireless subscribers currently use some sort of CDMA2000-enabled handset, and 22% of these own an EV-DO-based mobile broadband device. The CDG credits an increase in EV-DO demand for a sharp, ongoing increase in the revenue of CDMA wireless carriers.

“CDMA2000’s strong growth in North America validates the technology’s powerful and robust evolution path,” commented CDG executive director, Perry LaForge. “Its superior performance, utility and reliability have made it the overwhelming choice for subscribers who demand substantial value — in other words, it is the best solution at the most affordable price.”

North American CDMA2000 carriers are currently generating more than US$3 billion in quarterly revenue from mobile data services alone. That’s more than $34 million each day, or about as much as the entire U.S. entertainment and game software industry makes on a daily basis.

Vodafone to Invest $1.8 Billion in Indian Network Expansion

British mobile phone giant, Vodafone Group, is set to spend approximately US$1.8 billion to expand its wireless networks in India, the Economic Times reported over the weekend.

Vodafone is getting ready to award a series of valuable contracts to networking equipment giants, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, and Motorola, the paper reported, citing sources close to the contract negotiations.

The wireless giant’s Indian unit, Vodafone Essar, are expected to discuss and finalize the contracts at a board meeting next month.

Officials with the company have not commented on the reports, but Vodafone CEO, Arun Sarin, said in June that the company would invest US$2 billion this year to expand its operations in India, the world’s fastest growing wireless market.

Windows Home Server - Are you excited?

Are you excited about Microsoft Windows Home Server?

I think I may be. I have often pondered running a server at home, but the thought of actually managing it left me cold. Well, I may just warm up to Home Server. I have not beta tested it, so my opinion is based on the opinions of others.

Windows Home Server’s core functionality includes:Automatic backup of all Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista PCs on the networkCentralized storage of data and media filesExpandable disk drive capacityRemote access to files and folders from the Internet

You will be required to have a Windows Live ID as remote access is via a Windows Live hookup.

This may not have all of the functionality of a server, but it sure will go a long way towards making home system maintenance and backup a lot easier.

Maybe Microsoft Should Just Give Up

…and simply remove Internet Explorer from its operating systems. It continues to be a vulnerability point, which Microsoft cannot seem to adequately patch for very long.

A security researcher has already published a way to render useless the code that was released last (Patch) Tuesday by Microsoft. The critical bug, addressed by MS07-042, and causing Internet Explorer 6 to crash on Windows 2000 and XP with Service Pack 2. The MS07-042 bug is one that is problematic for every versions of Windows that is currently supported, including Vista.

The hacking of newly patched code is happening so quickly these days that along with Patch Tuesday, a new euphemism has popped up. It’s called Exploit Wednesday, a reference to the speed with which ways around all of Microsoft’s efforts to repair leaks happen.

Like the little Dutch boy, Microsoft is running out of fingers, and the fingers cannot grow any fatter, so the holes are opening.

Perhaps, back in the days of Windows 95, when it was suggested by the DOJ that Internet Explorer should be removed from its entanglement with the rest of the operating system, Microsoft should have listened. Firefox, Opera, and several other browsers allow all the functionality of Internet Explorer, yet remain free from the attacks that expose the whole operating system as a house of cards.

Top Tips on Securing Your PC

When you get a new Windows PC or re-install an old one from scratch there are things you should do to secure the box and your habits. These are the ones I semi-automatically do or think about when going through this process. They fall into several categories with sub-point(s) to each.

Security

1. Use a firewall.
I don’t care what others say about not needing a firewall - you do. How you choose to implement this is entirely a different matter. You can opt to:

trust XP or Vista’s (better) firewall and add to this by using a router that hides your local hardware.

Turn off the above but use a third party firewall which adds outbound protection as well. There are lots out there, but 2 free ones I’d be happy to use are Jetico and Comodo.

Finally you can add in a third party firewall box - anything from the big commercial boys would be fine or better still convert an old PC to use Smoothwall.

2. Install, use and update Anti Virus software.

For my money I presently use and recommend Eset’s Nod32 but AVG or Avast’s free home offerings also do a good job.

3. Install and run - weekly - an anti-malware / spyware package.

This is a huge area and potentially the one filled with the most risk. Unfortunately if you just go and google for an anti-spyware app you are as likely to find one that is spyware as one that removes said spyware.

The ones I like and use (yes, all of them) are:

Prevx
Lavasoft
Spybot S&D

Tweaks

4. Ensure you have installed the latest patches for your operating system (OS).

I tend to be a tad on the paranoid side for installing updates and one of the things I do is to disable windows automatic updates. Not totally though as I get it to alert me. I then investigate the patch, service pack, whatever and see if others have had problems. Then after a few weeks have gone by I’ll tentively update after having backed up my data.

5. Use firefox browser.

I guess Safari, Opera or any other non IE based browser is ok too but I do my best to avoid IE wherever I can. If you insist on using IE then please at least set the security level to high.

The other thing I do above all is to use a sandbox. Two I have used are GreenBorder and Sandboxie. Of the two GreenBorder is easier to use but is currently not available for purchase or download as Google have purchased them - my guess is that it will come out for free aspart of the Google Apps setup. However, Sandboxie is the free one of the two and works well.

So if you insist on visiting not so salubrious sites, or known spyware hangouts then let me suggest you use a sandbox from which to do your surfing and testing of any downloads. If your virtual environment doesn’t get infected after a week or so of use then you can feel safe in transferring whatever to your PC.

Software

7. Use a securer eMail client

The latest advice here is to use something like Google Mail via firefox but to add the ‘CustomiseGoogle‘ addon and set the always use https to access it. If you want a local client then run away from Outlook and its offspring Outlook Express and instead use Mozilla Thunderbird - you can even set it up to grab you Google Mail and leave the majority of the spam on Googles servers.

8. If you do use a local eMail client then be sure to:

install and use a third party spam filter

be very careful about opening attachments - even if you know the sender it is always best to double check if they send you something unannounced

in a similar vein - don’t click on random URL’s in an eMail especially if it purports to have come from your bank. Go and manually type in the known URL.

ensure you anti-virus is scanning your eMail

9. Passwords

Whilst not a tweak or software per se it is all part of securing your PC.

I don’t intend to repeat the excellent advice on what constitutes a good password but I will tell you my process. I install and use Roboform or a free alternative is KeePass. With both of these apps you can create unique entries and passwords for each and every website or piece of software you need to log in to. You don’t have to worry about remembering any of these as the two I’ve mentioned both have an autofill function.

The final act in setting these up is to use one ultra tough master password to secure your database with. Both allow you to set time limits on the database access before you have to re-enter the master password. And all you have to recall each time is the master password.

Additionally both of these apps will happily reside on a USB key.

Also obviously, or maybe not from my experience, one should never ever write a password down.

10. Backup.

Whilst in itself not a security feature, it is vital to have a decent backup regime that allows you to restore corrupted databases of passwords. etc.

Hardware

11. Secure your Wi-Fi.

Please don’t use WEP - instead workout what is the securest form of encryption you have and use that. Currently it is WPA2 with either a pre-shared key or access to an authentication server (this can be done easily and relatively cheap for a small network with organisations such as Witopia).

Despite what you might hear - turning on MAC Filtering and SSID hiding does not increase your security. What it may do is persuade any would be hacker that you have taken steps to configure your wi-fi encryption, but without WPA2 MAC filter and SSID hiding are useless.

Lastly, if using a laptop on a public wi-fi then ensure your communications are encrypted. Again WiTopia can help here or alternatively something like Keypoint Access from RedCannon or the SiNiC Card which is (in their blurb) a ‘hardware enforced endpoint’. Cool.

12. Secure your hardware

All of the above is useless if you haven’t secured your hardware in some form. Either locked behind your front door or in the use of anti-theft devices for your laptop.

—-

There it is then. Not 100% comprehensive, but a good start to securing your new or newly rebuilt PC.

Public Folder Sharing In Windows Vista

One of the ways that you can make files available to other users is through the Public folder. By placing a file in the Public folder, it becomes accessible to everyone who logs onto your computer and depending on how you configure Public folder sharing, can be accessible to others on your network.

One of the advantages to using the Public folder is that it can simplify file sharing on your network. It eliminates the need for you to have to share individual folders. For example, if you have a folder called MyFolder on your computer that you want to share with users, all you have to do is copy or move it into the Public folder.

Before you can share any folders and files on your PC running Windows Vista, you must enable File and Printer Sharing. To enable it:

Open the Network and Sharing Center.
Under the Sharing and Discovery section, click the down arrow beside File Sharing.
Select the option labeled Turn on file sharing.
Click Apply.

Once File and Printer Sharing is enabled, you also need to enabled Public Folder Sharing. To enable it:

Open the Network and Sharing Center.
Under the Sharing and Discovery section, click the down arrow beside Public folder sharing.
Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open files.
Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open, change and create files.
Click Apply.

You can add a level of security to your Public folder by enabling password-protected sharing. By doing so, only those network users who have a user account and password on your computer will be able to access the Public folder.

To enable password-protect sharing in Windows Vista:

Open the Network and Sharing Center.
Under the Sharing and Discovery section, click the down arrow beside Password protected sharing.
Click the option labeled Turn on password protected sharing.
Click Apply.

Microsoft: A Move into the Rental Business

If you can’t afford to buy, perhaps you will rent. At least this is what Microsoft is hoping:

“Software giant Microsoft has begun renting its Office productivity suite to users in South Africa so that they are able to run the package without buying it.

Instead of purchasing it, the user are able to rent the software on a pre-pay basis. It is one of a number of ways Microsoft is experimenting with charging users for its applications.”

link: Microsoft launches pay-as-you-go Office

Cell phone companies are finding a lucrative market in the monthly rental business. Microsoft sees that rental of software applications as following the same business model - and generating a constant revenue stream from people who cannot afford a large one time payment.

Toshiba: 320 GB Laptop Hard Drive

Toshiba announced that it will begin production of a 320 GB hard drive for the laptop. The production is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2007:

“…The drive is one of a series of five that make up Toshiba’s new MKxx52SX family of hard-disk drives. The 320GB model will contain two platters — the circular disks on which data is recorded. Other drives in the range will offer between 80GB and 250GB of storage space. They will connect via a 3Gbps serial ATA (SATA) interface.”

link: Toshiba to offer 320GB laptop drive from Q4

Undoubtedly, as more laptop hard drives reach this capacity, the price will drop. However, at this point, Toshiba has not announced the pricing for its initial 320 GB offering. All that storage may be carry a big price tag - and a data breach with a laptop, with this much capacity, would be disastrous.

Toshiba Laptop For Under $400

I got a email this morning from a friend of mind asking what I thought of this Toshiba laptop at Best Buy for under $400. I took a look at the unit and for what he wants to do, mainly surfing and email, found it to be satisfactory. I know. It is a light weight PC, but it does have a 15.4 screen and DVD burner as well as wireless. I’m not sure how long this sale will last so you best hurry if you are looking for an inexpensive laptop system.

On the Best Buy site they describe the unit as:

Surf the Web at Wi-Fi hotspots or exchange data with other network users quickly and easily with this versatile notebook that features high-speed wireless LAN. The double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW drive lets you archive important data and watch or record your favorite DVD movies.

Intel® Celeron® M processor 520 with 533MHz frontside bus, 1MB L2 cache and 1.6GHz processor speed

512MB DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 2GB

Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media; also supports DVD-RAM

The operating system is Vista Home Basic so you should be cautious since this is Microsofts least expensive operating system with some limitations.Take a look here.

Refurbished Apple iPhones

Over at the Apple store they are now offering refurbished iPhones for $100 off the original asking price. The systems comes with either 4GB or 8 GB and offer a one year limited warranty. Apple describes these refurbished units as:

Apple Certified Refurbished Products

- Quality products/great prices
- Stringent refurbishment process prior to sale
- Covered by Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty
- AppleCare Protection Plan can be purchased
- Supplies are limited

So if you want to save a few bucks and are in the market for an iPhone, this seems like a fairly good deal. Also Apple is offering free shipping as well.Apple iPhone here.

Dell Still Having Problems

Dell seems to be still having their problems but this time it is the way they were reporting their sales to meet their financial goals. It seems that from the years 2002 to 2006 there may have been some shady business practices that have now come to the attention of the SEC. Though Dell is promising to remedy the situation by having an outside agency audit their accounts, this current situation can only add to the recent problems that Dell seems to be having.

In view of recent scandals by companies such as Enron and Worldcom, this recent disclosure can only hurt consumer confidence in the once popular company. Though Dell representatives are saying the financial missteps and reporting procedures are being corrected, one would have to believe that this can only tarnish their image. While Dell continues to struggle, one wouldn’t be surprised if the company slipped in sales to the #3 spot with Acer aggressively marketing their wares against the once mighty Dell corporation.

During the past year Dell has started to listen to their customer base and is trying some novel new approaches to bolster sales. Introducing Ubuntu Linux systems, changing their color schemes on their laptops and basically revamping their product line, it seemed Dell was on the right track in making a comeback. Though there was some hint at the beginning of 2007 of the SEC investigation, no one really knew how deep the financial misreporting was going to be. As HP continues to extend their lead over Dell, one can only wonder how much of an impact this latest investigation will have.

What do you think? Will this latest revelation hurt the computer company even more?

Yahoo Photos to Close on September 20th

Do you use Yahoo Photos? Get ready to move your pics! You may have missed the announcement last week … Yahoo is closing their Yahoo Photos service, in favor of their wildly popular Flickr. Yahoo Photos users can move their photos over “with a couple clicks,” to a number of outfits, although many popular photo printing services are not included in the swap. I found this note from Yahoo buried in my inbox …

We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to move to another photo sharing service (Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket). We’re making the transfer real simple, and with a couple clicks we’ll automatically move your photos to Flickr or wherever you want them. You can also download your original-resolution photos back to your computer, or buy an archive CD from our featured partner (for users of the New Yahoo! Photos only). All you need to do is tell us what to do with your photos before we close, after which any photos remaining on Yahoo! Photos will be deleted and no longer accessible.

Photo print providers not offered include: ClarkColor, dotPhoto, Sony ImageStation, Photoworks, RitzPix, and SmugMug.

404 Error Pages

I found this site that has some fairly novel 404 error message pages to replace the arcane one that normally come up. For those of us who have surfed the Internet for awhile, we usually dismiss a 404 error message and just keep surfing. We know that web sites, pages and such come and go every day. Even server or Internet problems can cause a 404 error. But for those who are new to the Internet, a little help wouldn’t be a bad idea. Even a 404 error they merely suggests ‘ Hey, Check Your Spelling”. may be helpful for some.

Anyway, the site below has a lot of well designed 404 error pages that not only look pretty, but gently guide a user to another possible location to find the information they are looking for. On their site they describe the error messages as:

Every day you visit one of them. The pages, which don’t exist any longer, have moved to a new server or have never existed at all. Once you’ve missed your intended destination, either through a bad or outdated link, or a typo in the page you were hoping to reach, you’ll hopefully get an internal error message from the server. However, by default these messages aren’t that helpful - after all, you are looking for the information, not for the reason you can’t find this information.

Check out the designs and see what you think.

404 error pages here.

Users Mistakenly Trust Higher Positioned Results In Google Searches

An eye tracking experiment published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication revealed that college student internet users have an inherent trust in Google’s ability to rank results by their true relevance to the query. When participants selected a link from Google’s result pages, their decisions were strongly biased towards links higher in position, even if that content was less relevant to the search query.

“Despite the popularity of search engines, most users are not aware of how they work and know little about the implications of their algorithms,” says study author Bing Pan. “When websites rank highly in a search engine, they might not be authoritative, unbiased or trustworthy.”

According to Pan, this has important long term implications for search engine results, as this type of use, in turn, affects future rankings. “The way college students conduct online searches promotes a ‘rich-get-richer’ phenomenon, where popular sites get more hits regardless of relevance,” says Pan. “This further cements the site’s high rank, and makes it more difficult for lesser known sites to gain an audience.”

The author says users need to be aware that search engines have tremendous influence on what and how information is accessed. An effort on the part of search engine developers to provide users with information on how the algorithms function could help to raise user awareness.

American Airlines vs Google

Rueters reported a story last week in which American Airlines is suing Google since the air carrier says that Google is infringing on their name with unwanted search results. Heh American Airlines, get a life! Instead of suing Google why don’t you people concentrate on your own business affairs and get your own house in order.

Your company is notorious for having the worst on-time flights and treating your customers as cattle not clients. I have talked to more people who have complained about your flight delays including my own personal experiences to know that your service leaves a lot to be desired. Back in June when your entire dispatch system went down including the backup system, makes one wonder who is running your IT department. Rin-Tin-Tin? It sure doesn’t instill to your clients a sense of responsibility since you are dealing with our safety after take off.

Someone mentioned to be last week that it makes one wonder if the airlines are getting a kick back from the vendors at the airline terminals. It does seem strange that one out of four flights gets delayed or are just canceled without warning. Bad weather? Come on. That excuse is getting old. Do you really think the public is that stupid to believe that ever delay or canceled flight is due to bad weather? Grow up AA.

If you people have the resources to hire lawyers to sue Google, maybe we customers should file a class action suit against your company every time one of us is delayed. Maybe that would get the attention of those corporate types at your company and get you people back on track doing what we pay you to do. To get us to our destinations as quickly and safely as possible.

Top 93 ‘Dangerous’ Addons for Firefox

I trust most of you have heard about firefox by now even if you aren’t using it yet. However, what a lot of firefox users are unaware of is the extra functionality that it has above and beyond IE by use of addon ‘extensions‘.

Like most software these days there are support forums and firefox is no different there. Whilst doing one of my irregular wanders through the firefox support forum I came across this thread which talks about the dangerous extensions one should be aware of as containing spyware or at the very least track users without having pre-advised them of this.

As with most things you get a choice and here it’s to install or not. The list of 93 known bad extensions is something I plan to keep an eye on - for my part I only use 10 or so extensions with only 3 or 4 of those on a daily basis and thankfully none of mine are in the list!

Three Free Firewall Programs

If anyone asks you to explain firewall basics or to explain why a firewall is necessary, a good starting point is Robert Hummel’s article. The article was written in 2000 and it is gives a basic understanding of protecting the computer from internet dangers.

Costs should not be a barrier in having this primary protection. Here are three free firewall programs (in random order):

1. Comodo Free Firewall

2. PC Tools Firewall Plus

3. Outpost Firewall

Other computer users may have their personal favorites, in terms of free firewalls or ones that are purchased. The firewall is one program with which you should have a good working knowledge. It prevents a whole load of problems when you know what you are receiving and what you are sending over the internet.