billso.com » Microsoft

Speed up your Windows 7 upgrade with PCMover

billso — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:28:14 +0000

I rarely use my billso.com pages to recommend specific software packages, but today I’m making an exception for LapLink’s PCMover Upgrade Assistant. At the current price of $20 or €16, it’s a steal. My upgrade process took 4 hours – and this was the easiest Windows upgrade I’ve done in 20 years.

I found PCMover when I was upgrading my wife’s Windows Vista laptop to Windows 7. Microsoft’s Windows 7 installer will do an in-place upgrade that tries to migrate the current files and applications — but from what I had read, a clean install would be a better option.

However, a clean install might force me to reinstall the old applications and migrate the data myself. I didn’t want to reinstall each app one at a time.

For users who are trying to upgrade their 32-bit Windows installation to a 64-bit installation, the clean install option is Microsoft’s only official upgrade path. Reinstallation of the applications is more or less required.

PCMover simulates a clean install by analyzing the drive’s files and creating an archive called a moving van. Applications that won’t migrate properly are flagged, and the user can choose what apps and data will actually be moved.

This process took less than an hour, and the archive was created on the current hard drive. Obviously, this migration software won’t work unless the target partition has a lot of free space available. Fortunately, this was a 500GB drive.

At this point, it was time to do a clean install of Windows 7. I just followed the PDF instructions that LapLink provided. The installation took about 30 minutes.

The longest part of the process was migrating the old applications and data to the new Windows 7 install. That took about 90 minutes. The projected times kept changing as PCMover unpacked the moving van.

After PCMover was done, I had to reinstall the computer’s antivirus program and a printer driver. That took about 20 minutes.

As a final step, I started Windows Update and had it download and apply the latest Windows 7 patches. That was the last hour of work – and I’m hesitant to call this work, as I did some reading during most of this 4-hour process. This migration was just too easy.

Image courtesy of Taller Hikari on Flickr via a Creative Commons license.

Conficker vs DNS

billso — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:07:35 +0000

Yesterday, the Conficker.c Windows worm was scheduled to change its behavior — and this family of malware did so. The worm now uses a list of 50,000 domains to check for new command-and-control instructions. Conficker didn’t crack the Internet in half, but the publicity about this worm has caused more users and system administrators to check and patch their computers. PC World’s article by Ian Paul titled Conficker D-Day Arrives: Worm Phones Home (Quietly) has more details.

One challenge is that this expanded list of domains includes valid web sites that have been hacked. When Conficker.c attacks a computer, it also attempts to edit that computers hosts file, which is usually empty on most residential computers. The hosts file is a leftover from the old days of the Internet — before the Domain Name System (DNS) existed, each computer had to have a complete list of addresses that it could contact. Today, computers still check the hosts file to see if a domain name is listed there. It’s used as a shortcut, as a DNS transaction will take more time to complete.

Conficker.c fills the hosts file with entries for major antivirus and software companies. These entries redirect the DNS request to other web sites, to block the user from downloading or using software to remove the malware infection. Simply blocking the Conficker domains isn’t appropriate, as some of these domains may be fixed soon. It’s also possible that some of these domains have nothing to do with Conficker at all. Of course, Conficker may update its list on a regular basis, in an effort to evade blocks.

Fighting back

OpenDNS is reporting at least 300 Conficker connection attempts per second on its domain name system.According to their analysis, computers in the US aren’t making most of these requests. The traffic is coming from Vietnam, Brazil, Philippines, Indonesia and Algeria — countries where broadband Internet service is available and software piracy is rampant. Pirated software usually doesn’t include a valid license for downloading or applying updates and patches that can stop malware infections.

As I mentioned in my previous articles, OpenDNS is a free service that, among other benefits, has been blocking Conficker and other malware for a few months now. With a free OpenDNS account, it’s very easy to see if your computers have been trying to access Conficker or malware domains.

See Neil Rubenking’s article called OpenDNS: title and the OpenDNS blog article titled Do you have Conficker? Find out in your OpenDNS account for more details.

Rubenking has another article (How to Tell if ‘Conficker’ Caught You, and What to Do) with links to a few tips and tests if you’re worried about Conficker.

One of these links is the Conficker Eye Chart, a page that residential users can load for a very quick scan of their system. The page tries to load images from servers that Conficker usually blocks. If some of the images won’t load, you’ve either got connection problems or a malware infection. If none of the images load, you may have turned off images in your browser — a time-honored trick for increasing browser speed. The test is not fool-proof, especially if you’re using a corporate or university network. This test doesn’t work if you’re using a proxy server.

Image courtesy of Oran Viriyincy through a Creative Commons license.

More about the Conficker/Downadup worm

billso — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:35:44 +0000

After my appearance on the Andy Bumatai Show last Tuesday, I received a flurry of questions and kudos regarding the Conficker.C worm, also known as Kido or Downadup. This worm is supposed to change its behavior on 1 April 2009, and the publicity has given the bloggersphere and mainstream media a new reason to discuss computer security. The archived video for my segment is not on YouTube, but it is available at www.theandybumatiaishow.com — you’ll have to:

Turn on the video viewer
Hit the on-demand button
Click the Andy Bumatai Online show tab,
Look for the archived show for March 24, 2009 and
Choose Segment 2.

I had a blast doing this show — Andy is a great interviewer, and the questions from our online audience were great. I hadn’t been to ING’s Waikiki location before — it looked more like a coffeehouse than a bank!

How to tell if your computer is infected by Conficker

Ken Colburn on CNN has identified two signs that your Windows computer might be infected with Conficker. The worm tries to shut down automatic Windows updates, and also attempts to block the Windows Update site itself. If Windows Update isn’t working on your computer, try an official alternate site like http://safety.live.com If you’re still having issues, it might be time to get professional help to remove the worm. In the meantime, disconnect that computer from your Internet connection so the worm can’t use the connection or your data. The main points of this segment are shown in the following screencap. The misspelling of “anti-virus” is an added bonus from CNN. The CNN video is also available at this page.

Be prepared

Once again, this worm affects only Windows computers. If you’re using a Mac and you don’t have Windows installed on that computer, you are in fine shape. The major antivirus companies already have updates and cleaners ready. Just make sure your antivirus is up to date. If you’re not running an antivirus program, try Avast. It’s free for home users.

Never ever try to run two or more antivirus programs on your computer! It’s a recipe for disaster, as each antivirus program might think the other is a virus or worm.

In an odd twist, searching Google for Conficker worm remedies tends to bring up far too many programs that actually try to install malware and worms instead of removing these programs. As I mentioned on Andy’s show, one program that I have used with good results is SpywareBlaster. It doesn’t remove spyware and worms, but it can close many of the holes and browser issues that spyware developers like to exploit.

Block that worm with OpenDNS and a strong password

I do recommend using OpenDNS as a quick and free fix. If your computer hasn’t been hit by this worm, OpenDNS will block the web sites that Conficker uses — and give you a nice speed boost in the process. OpenDNS won’t help you if your computer is infected, but it will stop the worm from spreading to other computers.

One point I neglected to mention during Andy’s show is that this worm tries to hack into Windows accounts by using a dictionary attack. It’s never a good idea to use a password that is an actual word, but this type of attack tends to work because so many users ignore that advice. See my articles about passphrases and secure passwords for some tips.

For a quick fix, add a punctuation mark, symbol or a number somewhere in your password — and not at the beginning or end of the password. It’s best to stick with symbols that are on your computer’s keyboard, but be aware that some web sites do not allow these types of characters in passwords.

I’m on the Andy Bumatai show discussing the Conficker/Downadout worm

billso — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:49:37 +0000

I’ll be on the Andy Bumatai Show today at 1 PM Hawaii time. That’s 7 PM for the East Coast, and 4 PM on the West Coast. It’s a live webcast, and the segment will be posted on his site and on YouTube later.

We’ll be talking about the Conficker/Downadout worm that is scheduled to do something interesting on 1 April 2009. No one quite knows what will happen, but Microsoft believes that up to 30% of Windows computers are vulnerable to this attack.

If you haven’t run Windows Update lately or updated your antivirus software, you may be at risk. Recent versions of this worm actually try to block these updates while turning the computer into a zombie or bot server. Over time, you’ll notice that your computer is running slower, and you’ll never realize that your files might be getting shared or uploaded to someone else’s server. Microsoft suggests opening an alternate update site (http://safety.live.com) in Internet Explorer if Windows Update doesn’t load.

If you have a Mac or you don’t use Windows on your computer, you’ll probably be fine. It never hurts to be careful, though. Residential users can change the DNS settings on their computer and router to access OpenDNS, a free service that is blocking this worm. Check my OpenDNS articles below for details on this 5-minute fix.

Windows servers are also affected by this worm, so many companies, governments, universities and other organizations are scaling up their efforts to patch their servers. People who use a computer at their office or school should check with their IT staff, especially if they use a USB stick to transfer files between computers.

These articles have some excellent background information.

CNN: No joke in April Fools’ Day computer worm
New York Times: The Conficker Worm: April Fool’s Joke or Unthinkable Disaster?
PC World: Conficker Worm Attack Getting Worse: Here’s How to Protect Yourself
Softpedia: $250,000 Reward for the Author of Nasty Worm Affecting Windows 7, Vista and XP
Wikipedia: Conficker

Apple finally fixes its DNS hole

billso — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:54:00 +0000

The latest patch for Mac OS X finally closes a major hole in the operating system’s DNS (domain name system) software. Apple’s description is in this knowledge base article (About the security content of Mac OS X v10.5.5 and Security Update 2008-006 ).

Of course, Apple is late to the party. By early July 2008, Microsoft had a Windows patch ready for distribution, and the major *NIX systems had their own patches ready. This Cnet article called Massive, coordinated DNS patch released has more information about this project, which preceded the public announcements about the flaw.

It’s sad that Dan Kaminsky’s warnings, detailed in a 24 July 2008 Cnet article called Kaminsky (finally) provides DNS flaw details, did not inspire an urgent response form Cupertino. Apple’s July 2008 patch addressed DNS server issues, but left most Mac users without a fix.

There are still other ways to redirect a computer to a bad domain name, of course. Another piece of prevention involves using OpenDNS instead of your ISP’s domain name servers. OpenDNS is free, fast, and provides spellchecking and phishing protection that is better than most PC and Mac security software.

See these articles from the New York Times (Apple Update Finally Fixes Important DNS Bug ) and ComputerWorld (Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.5, patches nearly 70 bugs) for more details.

How RSS can help you

billso — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:15:44 +0000

For today’s Executive MBA class, I put together a quick slide show about how RSS can help business users.

Here’s a few of the slides in PPT and Google Docs formats.

[slideshare id=522995&doc=6100embarss-1216686144405351–9&w=425]

The students in that course can get the complete slide show in our WebCT site.

Some of the links that I used to develop this presentation include:

Information Week: Order from Chaos via RSS
Accredited Degrees: 100 Cool Things You Can Do with RSS
Marketing Studies: More Enterprise RSS Examples
FeedIcons.com

Are Google Docs templates secure?

billso — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:24:22 +0000

Google Docs, the company’s online office suite, now lets people create and use templates. There are many examples already posted in Google’s template gallery, including invoices, resumes, invitations, mileage caluclators and calendars.

Avery Dennison has already posted a number of templates for their self-adhesive labels. Now I have one less reason to use Microsoft Word, and the folks at TastyPopsicle seem to agree with me: see their article called Oh hell no, Google’s got templates!

I’m sure there are security concerns. How hard would it be for someone to post a template that lets users record their web passwords or credit card information, and then sends back that valuable data to the developer? Google’s videos don’t mention any of these issues — instead, users are told that they can email template-based documents to friends, who can fill them out and return the data in their email client.

Before trying these templates, I suggest changing your Google password to something stronger, like a passphrase, or using a Google account that doesn’t have much or any email or data in it. It’s much easier to set up a fresh Google account than to figure out who’s looking at your data.

There’s more information and a couple of videos in this Google blog article called Templates bring Docs to life.

RIP CAPTCHA

billso — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:54:12 +0000

Long-time readers of billso.com may remember that I used reCAPTCHA to validate comments about my articles. reCAPCTHA is a web service that shows users pictures of two words. The service knows one of the words. The second word was provided by an electronic book scanning project that needs help with its quality control. reCAPTCHA send the results back to the scanning project, to help them fix their documents.

A CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) system is a simple test that determines if a computer user is a machine or a human. CAPTCHAs are small puzzles that people can solve quickly, while being too expensive for a computer system to solve.

I dropped the reCAPTCHA feature in May 2008, because the system was not stopping comment spam from appearing on my blog. “Comment spam” is just messages that have little or no relevance to an article or page.

In the past, people who wanted to crack a CAPTCHA system might pay users to stay at home and decipher dozens of captchas, in return for free content or Internet access. But people are slower and less reliable than computers. Processing power continues to improve, while CPU costs get lower.

Paying the price

Stephan Chenette, the manager of security research at Websense Security Labs, notes that CAPTCHA technology had made incremental improvements since 2000, while CAPTCHA crackers bought faster hardware and invested more in their efforts:

“CAPTCHA has been broken for the last year and a half. The technology has really not progressed. They’ve got a little bit harder but the hackers have made programs that can easily break them. This works both with print and audio CAPTCHA. All of these have been broken in one way or the other.”

In the last few months, the CAPTCHA systems of several major web sites have been cracked by automated systems:

January 2008: Yahoo Mail
April 2008: Gmail and Hotmail
May 2008: Craigslist

This has resulted in a flood of spam, scams, and fake postings on services around the world. It’s become quite easy to create a fake Web site that can fool many users. Social networks like MySpace and Facebook offer many more opportunities to trick users into revealing their credentials and personal information.

In the last few years, financial service companies and banks have adopted multifactor authentication systems that ask users for more than a password or a CAPTCHA solution. Now organizations in other industries are looking at similar solutions, because it has become much less expensive for scammers and crackers to break these companies’ systems. Several OpenID providers have added multifactor features to their authentication systems, too.

This article called How CAPTCHA got trashed has more details.

Image courtesy of Mess of Pottage through a Creative Commons license.

The SPOT watch and the AutoPC

billso — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:55:13 +0000

The retirement of Bill Gates from daily duty at Microsoft prompted bloggers and journalists to write long articles about Microsoft technology. It’s summer, and we have to fill the pages somehow.

This Engadget article called Bill Gates: top ten greatest hits (and misses) has some details and product photos. Two of the “misses” are interesting.

The AutoPC was a voice controlled system that connected the driver to music, GPS and Outlook services. It went on sale in 2000 and died a quick death, but many auto manufacturers are offering systems with similar features in 2008. The same Microsoft business unit that developed the AutoPC also developed the SYNC system for Ford.

The second “miss” is another example of pervasive or ubiquitous computing. It’s interesting that both of these products were championed by Bill Gates himself.

I have worn my Suunto N6 HR SPOT watch almost every day for the last 2.5 years. Yes, the watch is a little large, and I have to clip it to a USB charger every 2 or 3 days to freshen up the battery. I never got the heart rate monitor feature to work properly, though.

Microsoft partnered with Clear Channel to distribute news, sports, stock market and other data to users via Clear Channel FM radio stations.The silvery rim of the watch face is the FM antenna. It’s a one-way device that receives broadcasts, so it’s impossible to send information from the watch.

I don’t use Outlook, so I never use the appointment and messaging features. But the baseball scores are usually up to date, as long as I’m in a Clear Channel city, and I never need to set the time. It’s synced by an atomic clock somewhere in the cloud.

Sadly, Microsoft discontinued the SPOT watch line in April 2008 — see this Engadget article called SPOT watches R.I.P. — 2004–2008. The cloud service still works on MSN Direct. I just go to the web site, log in, and select the information and faces for my watch.

I see fewer wristwatches on wrists these days. Many of my friends rely on their mobile phone’s clock instead, as they carry their phones with them everywhere. Most modern mobile phones sync their clock to their carrier’s system.

Image courtesy of billso through a Creative Commons license.

Is email in danger from microblogging?

billso — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:57:42 +0000

I’ve claimed for several years now that email is broken. At best, email is the lowest common denominator (LCD) for sending messages to a specific Internet user. Every ISP subscription comes with some kind of email account. Free webmail addresses are easy to get. Many mobile phone accounts come with an email address. Alex Iskold’s post from ReadWriteWeb called Is Email in Danger? discusses how microblogging services like Twitter can overcome the inherent problems of heavyweight email clients like Microsoft Outlook.

Broadcasting with a microblog

Microblogging services are best suited for broadcasting messages to lots of users. FriendFeed, Twitter and similar services are widely used by popular bloggers to publicize their latest posts and mention their daily activities. Most of these services accept text messages and offer mobile versions of their web sites, so they are easier to use than email from an ordinary mobile phone. iPhone and BlackBerry users have better email clients on their devices, but microblogging from these devices seems to work well.

As I mentioned yesterday in my article called The battle against Twitter spam, microblogging services like Twitter have their own problems. Because email is a mission critical service, it’s almost always available and working. Collecting comments and posts from microblogs can be accomplished with RSS — I use this to repost my FriendFeed activity to billso.com, but it would take a bit more effort to do this as part of an archiving and compliance effort.

I’ve never been a fan of Outlook. In its easly versions (Outlook 97 and 98), the application would crash at least once a day. Microsoft developed ActiveSync software to support PDAs, but 10 years later it is still a maddening piece of cruft.

Look out for Outlook and iTunes

My university uses Microsoft Exchange as its faculty/staff email server, so I occasionally get meeting invitations and Outlook forms in my Gmail my box. All of my university email is auto-forwarded into my Gmail account. Microsoft meeting invitations are useless in Gmail — I have to tap out a reply to accept or decline the meeting.

To be honest, Apple’s iTunes is following a similar evolution. It start as a music player, but has become a media storefront, disc burner and iPhone application installer. I’d think that several specific lightweight apps would work better than a huge, monolithic instance of iTunes. On a Mac, iTunes performance is barely tolerable. iTunes on a Windows box is a lumbering behemoth.

Gmail, on the other hand, was designed as a lightweight solution that would work in a standard web browser. I love Gmail because I can search for messages quickly, and I know I won’t run out of storage room for old messages. There’s no reason for me to delete an old message in Gmail.

Attacking the inbox

One approach to managing a bulging email inbox is to sit down and clear the queue. The Inbox Victory web page tries to make this process fun by letting users post pictures of themselves with their empty inboxes. I clear out my Gmali inboxes a few times a year.

Luis Suarez of IBM claims that he reduced his incoming email by 80%, thanks to his usage of social networking tools like RSS feeds, Twitter and IBM’s internal clone of Facebook, Beehive. Suarez discussed his article in the New York Times called I Freed Myself from E-Mail’s Grip.

Suarez admits that his job as a social computing evangelist helped him cut his email volume. He’s supposed to encourage his fellow IBM employees and managers to use Beehive, which is as much a knowledge management (KM) tool as it is a social intranet application. IBMers are supposed to use Beehive to share events, lists, pictures, tips, and ideas across the enterprise, as part of formal and ad hoc workgroups and project teams.

Image courtesy of gwENvision through a Creative Commons license.

Windows XP is disappearing

billso — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:21:31 +0000

Microsoft is pulling Windows XP off the market, as the company continues to push Windows Vista as its core operating system.

On 30 June 2008, computer manufacturers are supposed to stop offering Windows XP as an operating system for new computers. There are loopholes, of course, Until January 2009, some manufacturers can sell users a copy of WIndows XP, as long the user purchases a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate or Business edition.

Brent Evans article, Days of Windows XP Running Out, has more information.

iPhone 3G coming on July 11

billso — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:32:47 +0000

Apple has unveiled the iPhone 3G, which I had been calling iPhone 2.0.

The new iPhone will support 3G data connections, which should provide faster service when users cannot access a WiFi network. Om Malik thinks that some carriers, including AT&T, may not be ready, which I find hard to believe.
11 July 2008 is the first day of sale in the US and several other countries, with availability in 70 countries by 2009.
The new iPhone is slightly thinner, so it should fit inside current cases and accessories.
The back of the phone is black plastic. Bye-bye, aluminum metal back.
The headphone jack is no longer recessed, so almost any standard headphone should work.
The US price has been lowered to $199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB of RAM. There must be some factories in China that are humming with activity this summer.
The new iPhone firmware supports Chinese character recognition.
The new iPhone will have true GPS features.
Enterprises will be apple to authorize iPhones and to write enterprise applications that are restricted to company phones.
The iPhone 3G will work with Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007 servers.
The .mac email and file sharing service has been renamed to MobileMe, and given better compatibility with Windows machines
Steve Jobs claims the iPhone 3G will have decent battery life, with 300 hours of standby time, 10 hours of 2G voice, 5 hours of 3G voice, and about 6 hours of web browsing.

Engadget has a live transcript of the announcement. I enjoyed reading BoingBoing’s satirical version, written as a Greek drama.

Om Malik has a recap that focuses on the entertainment and social networking apps and sites for the new iPhone.

Microsoft may partner with Yahoo’s search business

billso — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:12:35 +0000

Rumors are swirling today that Microsoft may partner with Yahoo — specifically, the search company’s search advertising business, which matches Internet searches to targeted advertisements.

Lesson: If at first you don’t succeed, just make a deal with the most valuable part of Yahoo and leave the rest to wither and die. See Silicon Alley Insider, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times for more details.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang may be willing to listen, if only to keep Mark Cuban off the Yahoo board. Yang developed a strong dislike for Cuban after the Broadcast.com founder years ago — Kara Swisher has more details in this different article.

Of course, Jerry has to keep his Yahoo employees and managers focused during all of this turmoil. Read his internal memos and some comments from Silicon Alley insider here.

Related pages on billso.com

Microsoft and Yahoo

Carl Icahn may start a proxy fight for Yahoo

billso — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:22:37 +0000

From Reuters and today’s New York Times: financier Carl Icahn may start a proxy fight to force Yahoo into Microsoft’s arms.

Microsoft’s $60 Office 2007 deal for college students

billso — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:48:21 +0000

It’s pretty easy to get a legal copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for Windows, but you have to act before 16 May 2008.

Go to this web site, enter your .edu email address, and be prepared to send a copy or scan of your university student ID card. This Microsoft site has more details.

The offer started in September 2007, and the suite includes:

Access 2007
Accounting Express 2007
Excel 2007
InfoPath 2007
Groove 2007
OneNote 2007
Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager
PowerPoint 2007
Publisher 2007
Word 2007

Microsoft unleashes Service Pack 3 for Windows XP

billso — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:01:20 +0000

Yesterday was Patch Tuesday, and Microsoft has finally released Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP. See CIO, InfoWorld, Engadget and Paul Thurrott for some comments, and fire up Windows Update or Microsoft Update to start the install. This may be the last SP release for the 2001 edition of Windows. SP3 may be enough to keep companies from upgrading their desktops to Windows Vista for the next year or two.

Microsoft gives up on Yahoo — for now

billso — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:26:53 +0000

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer withdrew his company’s offer to purchase Yahoo yesterday, during a meeting with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.

I’ve said it before: Jerry Yang is in way over his head. Yang has not won a major victory here. If anything, Yang has given Microsoft time to create a better offer while he tries to craft and implement a strategy that ensures Yahoo’s continued independence.

It won’t be easy. As I’ve mentioned before, Yahoo’s best employees are leaving the company, and that trend is likely to continue. Neither Jerry Yang and his top aide, Yahoo presidentSue Decker, have ever run a large company before, as Steve Tobak and others have pointed out.

Yahoo needs a stable partner to ensure the company’s survival, if Yahoo management has indeed lost control of the company’s future. An alliance with Google would only make Yahoo seem less relevant. It’s much like an older sibling (Yahoo) who is surpassed by a younger sibling’s (Google)- but siblings usually aren’t traded on the stock market.

From Bloomberg:

Microsoft may come back with a new offer for Yahoo later, Heather Bellini, a UBS AG analyst, said before the decision. [Oracle], the third-biggest software maker, initially abandoned its bid for [BEA Systems]. after BEA asked for 24 percent more than Oracle’s $17-a-share bid. The companies agreed to the buyout three months later at $19.38 a share.

From the Associated Press:

“Clearly there’s frustration,” said Darren Chervitz, co-manager of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns Yahoo stock. “I am not even sure if Yahoo cares about its shareholders because they didn’t show much regard for shareholders’ best interests in this process.”

Ballmer is also facing higher expectations. Many observers believed Yahoo would accept Microsoft’s bid. Instead, Yang is testing Ballmer’s patience, which is as deep as a puddle right now.

From the New York Times:

With a bid for Yahoo, Microsoft was trying to buy its way out of the problem. It was a controversial step and a gamble, but at least it was a big move. Now, there is no clear prospect of a quick fix for Microsoft, as the center of gravity in computing continues to move away from the personal computer, Microsoft’s stronghold, and to the Internet.

Microsoft remains a powerful company, and highly profitable, but its stock price has stagnated amid doubts about future growth. Years of antitrust scrutiny have tempered its competitive behavior in new markets.

Microsoft-Yahoo deal possible in the next few days

billso — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:22:14 +0000

The Microsoft-Yahoo takeover battle may be resolved soon, according to Wired:

One of the better insights came from Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney, who handicapped the outcomes of the Microsoft-Yahoo war. Mahaney reckons there’s a 45 percent chance Yahoo sells out at a higher offer; a 40 percent chance Microsoft goes hostile; a 10 percent chance Microsoft walks away; and a 5 percent chance they both agree to the current price.

Yesterday’s New York Times had additional details. Saturday, 26 April 2008, was the deadline that Microsoft had set for Yahoo’s response to its recent purchase offer. According to this New York Times analysis, it seems unlikely that Microsoft CEO will abandon the company’s pursuit of Yahoo, because failure might send the wrong signals to the market.

Microsoft’s CFO, Chris Liddell, has led the company to spend more on acquisitions, and take on debt for the first time in the company’s 33-year history. He was profiled in Reuters article, which also discusses his management style.

To merge or not to merge

Microsoft doesn’t really need Yahoo, according to a recent research report. Michael Cusumano suggested in this New York Times article by Randall Stross that Yahoo is a poor fit with Microsoft’s enterprise software ambitions. SAP would be a better choice for Microsoft, especially after Oracle’s acquisition of BEA.

Another ZDnet report and this Wired article indicate that Yahoo has increased its severance packages for employees.

On 25 February 2008, Yahoo CEO asked his number two, Sue Decker, to join him on-stage at an important presentation, according to the New York Times. Decker has excellent ties with the advertising industry, and she was the real architect of Yahoo’s advertising business strategy.

Yang needs all the help he can get when facing nervous customers. At the event, Yang called Microsoft’s bid a “galvanizing event” for Yahoo managers, employees and board members. That’s some deep thinking… deep like a puddle. Threats of acquisition and unemployment can really command attention. The company’s plan to recapture its former dominance as an Internet portal is about seven years too late.

Photos courtesy of Carsten Knoch (top) and code_martial (bottom) through a Creative Commons license.

New iPhone will be subsidized, faster and thinner

billso — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:53:23 +0000

According to Fortune, AT&T will sell the 2nd generation iPhone with a US$200 subsidy when it goes on sale on or around 27 June 2008. I’ve compiled a list of my billso.com iPhone articles below, as they contain hints or information about iPhone 2.0

It’s an Interesting way to mark the first year of the iPhone, and it’s unlikely that AT&T will lose money, given the costs of data plans for the iPhone. The subsidy may or may not be available at Apple’s retail stores.

Those discounts would make the 8GB model US$199 with a new 2-year contract, and the 16GB model US$299. Those prices make the iPhone more attractive for consumers. Expect to see more iPhones in Starbucks stores around July, as customers use AT&T WiFi access points to download songs and videos from iTunes.

The new model iPhone will be 2.5 mm thinner than the original model, and will also have 3G, GPS and 802.11n chipsets. Current models support the slower EDGE protocol, a simulated GPS system and 802.11 b/g WiFi connections

It will also include version 2.0 firmware, which will support Microsoft Exchange servers. It will be interesting to see what AT&T charges its corporate customers for iPhones.

Many of these items will help some CIOs justify the iPhone as a corporate device. RIM is preparing its own “iPhone killer” model to support its Blackberry line, according to this New York Times article.

The new firmware will also support true applications for the iPhone, instead of web-based apps.

Google eats no evil

billso — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:00:08 +0000

Business Week reports the company has modified its famous free food policy to include healthy fare. Googlers squawked when their microkitchens were stocked with more fruits and fewer donuts.

As John Cook points out, life at google is not rough. Employees can bring their dogs to work, where free dog food is also available in microkitchens.

Less generous companies like Caterpillar are subsidizing gardenburgers and salads in their lunchrooms.

Microsoft added icons to the menu labels, so employees could find vegan, low-fat and other choices in the company’s 31 corporate cafeterias. How typical of Redmond.

What next? Treadmills in the cubicles?

Antitrust regulators would fight a Yahoo-Google combination

billso — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:13:23 +0000

According to this Reuters article, a Yahoo-Google combination would face more antitrust scrutiny than a Yahoo-Microsoft merger:

Google held a 59.2 percent share of the U.S. Web search market in February, compared with Yahoo’s 21.6 percent and Microsoft’s 9.6 percent, according to research firm comScore.

Those numbers would give a Yahoo-Google combination an 80.8 percent market share.

Combine Yahoo and Microsoft and their market share is only 31.2 percent, which is less than Google’s numbers.

Virtual keyboards and monitoring software foil keystroke loggers

billso — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:51:48 +0000

From Lifehacker comes a link to a free virtual keyboard called Neo’s SafeKeys. The keyboard is displayed on the computer screen, and lets a Windows user type their password without accessing the computer’s keyboard.

It’s trivial to monitor keystrokes through software and hardware called keystroke loggers or keyloggers. This New York Times describes a new phishing attack against executives, involving an email with a link to a fake subpoena. Click the link and a Windows keystroke logger gets installed.

Executives are excellent targets for such attacks. CXOs often want to bypass corporate security systems for the sake of personal convenience. When executives insist on carrying confidential or valuable corporate data on their laptop’s hard drive, they may as well paint a target on their foreheads.

CXOs might also disable virus scanners and security software to make the computers run faster. This only makes their personal computers much more vulnerable. When executives are reluctant to admit their mistakes or ask for help, the damage is already done.

I’ve seen virtual keyboard systems deployed on banking web sites, so that users can use a mouse to enter their passphrase. Of course, this can be very tedious if the user has a long passphrase. These virtual keyboard systems may become more common as banks implement multifactor authentication schemes that address consumer, regulator and compliance issues.

Keyboards and keystrokes

It’s still possible to use a keyboard for multifactor authentication, however. This article from Windows in Financial Systems describes a system from BioPassword that requires the user to enter their password ten times in a single enrollment session. Software determines the rhythm of their keystrokes, and stores that data along with the user’s account on a Microsoft Active Directory server. Anyone who tries to access the account will have to simulate that user’s typing behavior for that specific password.

In this 15 May 2007 article, ha.ckers.org pointed out some potential problems with BitPassword’s system. The timing needs to be loose enough to accommodate different keyboard styles. A laptop computer’s keyboard often is laid out differently from a standard desktop keyboard. otherwise, the timing checker might flag users who include numerics, international characters (such as € £ ß Ω) and typographical symbols (like % @ © ^#~) in their passphrase.

Dots and dashes

The concept dates back to the 19th century. Experienced telegraph operators could identify each other by through their fist, or their distinctive patterns of keying Morse code. The same concept was also used during both World Wars to match radio operators with their message content.

Some banks might have each user to enroll several different passphrases, as many banks now require for their web-based customer portals.

BioPassword’s software is designed for business and enterprise users. PC Magazine has an excellent review here, and the London Times and Baseline have good recent articles. This Wired article from 2000 describes how the system was used by a Canadian company, Musicrypt.com, as part of a user management service for music web sites.

Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo may disappear

billso — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:10:45 +0000

From Reuters and the New York Times: Microsoft and Yahoo aren’t negotiating.

Who will blink first?

Yahoo should come to their senses soon and take Microsoft’s offer, if Microsoft doesn’t rescind the offer first. Too many Yahoo employees are fleeing already, but Yahoo’s share price has dipped quite a bit lately. Microsoft is sticking to its offer of US$31 a share, and Yahoo stock has ranged from US$19 to US$28 since the offer. Microsoft’s stock has taken a beating in the interim, too.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates says that the next version of Windows may be released within the next 12 months, according to this Reuters report. I doubt the software will be released that quickly.

17 February 2008 : Shareholders may bring Microsoft and Yahoo together
7 February 2008: Microsoft’s rocket ship
4 February 2008: Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo faces roadblocks
1 February 2008: Microsoft makes offer for Yahoo

Widgets won’t work without a plan

billso — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:34:07 +0000

From Business Week: large companies, startups and individuals have been developing and launching widgets over the last few years. Widgets are small software applications that run inside a specific environment.

Yesterday I discussed a specific example – PicLens, a web browser extension for image viewing. Back on 9 January 2008, I mentioned Zotero, a Firefox extension that helps students and academic researchers organize their literature searches. CEO Lawrence Coburn of RateItAll has an extensive blog with reviews and comments about widgets, including this article about Google’s Facebook application.

Widgets are not new. Om Malik mentioned them in September 2006 in this article on Business 2.0.

Widgets a small applications that are run and installed on the client – the computer desktop, a web browser, or another application. A widget pulls specific data from servers on the Internet, or the cloud as it is usually called in the industry. Settings are usually based on the user’s preferences. My Mac dashboard includes time and temperature widgets, a calendar, an RSS widget that displays my blog posts, and an NHL scoreboard with the latest games.

Widgets can also be deployed on an intranet or extranet, but there are additional security concerns that have to be addressed, including logins and permissions.

Mac users got their first taste of widgets in 2005, when Dashboard was first included in Mac OS X. Yahoo soon followed with its own widgets for Windows users. Windows Vista and Google each have their own gadgets. Of course, most these widgets won’t work on another system.

Facebook added support for third-party applications last year, as I noted on 28 May 2007. As i mentioned on 19 February 2008, I usually ignore invites that I receive for Facebook applications. I’m never quite sure who can see my data, profile or status, even when Facebook lets me set these preferences.

Where’s the value?

As a flood of widgets, extensions, appls and other software comes to market, it’s important to ask about the value of these features. In many cases, these are little more than features or mini-sites that get embedded into the web browser or the computer desktop. The vast majority of current widget developers are writing code for their own use. Some developers post their widgets and share them with other users.

It’s rare for a company like Slide to emerge. As I discussed on 28 January 2008, Slide recently received US$50 million in venture capital, based on the company’s successful line of Facebook applications. It’s a risky business, as Slide and other Facebook app developers are almost totally dependent upon the success of the main Facebook site itself.

So any developer who depends upon widgets for their business revenue has to diversify. Costs increase as the same widgets are duplicated for multiple platforms, because revising and recompiling each widget requires some duplication of effort for each specific operating system or web site. MySpace will soon offer widget support, and various interoperability and user privacy schemes have been proposed that may let widgets work on multiple social networking sites. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has its own proposal, as mentioned by Lorelle back in November 2006. David Berkowitz has a Widget Standards wiki.
These two issues are holding back user adoption of these tools on social networking sites. Business Week’s recent revision of its social media article is a great place to turn for more information, as I mentioned on 25 February 2008.

Today’s battle for tomorrow’s mobile phones

billso — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:38:51 +0000

From the New York Times comes a quick article about competitive forces in the mobile phone industry. The level of competition is very high, timelines can be long, and there is little margin for error.

The decisions that are being made now will affect mobile phone design, of course. The telecoms then have to sort through competing standards and schemes to create valuable calling plans and packages.

What operating systems will end up on handsets? Google is developing Android. Microsoft has Windows Mobile. Apple has adapted OS X for its mobile phones. Many mobile phones run Java.

As I mentioned on 20 February 2008, Symbian has more users than any of these competitors combined.

What features and file formats will be supported? Users want music and video, and web applications. Companies want enterprise applications, built-in security, and cost management features.

At a higher level, what systems will be used to serve, store and send data from the Internet to mobile phones? Users and companies want to work with current, relevant data. But local data storage is limited on small devices. Storing data on the Internet provides automatic backup and retention.
Java and Flash are battling at the network level, while Microsoft deploys Silverlight. Google is adapting its Gears API to support mobile phones, while Android will support cloud computing from day one.

The Google cable

billso — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:34:06 +0000

From the New York Times and Om Malik: Google and five telecom companies will build a trans-Pacific cable between Tokyo and Los Angeles, to increase bandwidth and reduce costs. The Times reported on the Unity consortium last September, but this new announcement confirms the US$300 million project. GearLog has more information on this topic. I haven’t determined if this new cable will connect with Honolulu.

It’s an important announcement because, as Om notes, this is the first time that Google has publicly confirmed its corporate strategy of building its own international telecom infrastructure through acquisition and investment. Google claims it wants to provide more reliable service to its users, so the company is entering the undersea cable industry not as a competitor but as a customer and complementor of Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel.

As I mentioned on 7 February 2008 and 31 January 2008, the oceanic cable business can be risky. Google will have priority on the 7.68 terabit connection when it is completed. Adding more bandwidth is an essential part of providing scalable, reliable web services in North America and the Pacific Rim. If Google controls its own network as a source of competitive advantage, will competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft face higher costs to stay in business?

Researchers develop simple attack against disk encryption

billso — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:52:33 +0000

From BoingBoing comes the most disturbing information security news I have read in a while.

We’ve long assumed that disk encryption is a robust means of storing confidential data on a computer. Disk encryption products work by encrypting all of the data on a drive, including documents, the operating system, swap files and caches. Disk encryption software can start up before the operating system to let the user enter their password or key. Disk encryption software can also be used on USB storage, as well as partitions on an unencrypted drive.

Disk encryption helps travelers keep their data confidential. My post of 5 Janaury 2008 addresses how cryptography works.

Warm RAM, lost key

Princeton University researchers have developed a simple attack that can retrieve the BitLocker disk encryption key from a Windows Vista computer. The user has to have logged into the computer so that the encryption key is then stored in the computer’s RAM. If the computer is in sleep mode, running a screen saver, or still warm, the encryption key can be extracted from RAM. The extracted data can be saved to a USB storage device, so that another computer can take its time to analyze and fix any errors in the extracted key.

The same kind of attack will also work on Apple FileVault, TrueCrypt, PGP Whole Disk Encryption, and other disk encryption products. The research report is available as a PDF file at this web site.

Declan McCullagh has posted his analysis of the report at news.com. he points out that this vulnerability has been used by other researchers to pull data through a FireWire connection to an iPod. It is difficult to harden a computer against this form of attack, but the attack must be carried out in person. It cannot be done across the Internet, at least in the form that the researchers demonstrate. The attacker needs a USB drive preloaded with the attack software. A can of Dust-Off might also be helpful, to chill the RAM.

Watch that drive

The easiest way to harden a computer against this attack is to maintain physical control of the encrypted drive. Don’t leave it alone. Update the encryption software regularly, as the software developers will more than likely develop their own patches to wipe the key from RAM.
This YouTube video produced by the research team is a brief overview of the vulnerability and the attack.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mobile phone platform wars

billso — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:07:42 +0000

The platform wars are heating up in the mobile phone industry. It is very difficult for a mobile carrier to support several different handset operating systems. Vodaphone CEO Arun Sarin estimated that his UK-based company supports 30 or 40 different OSes, according to this MacWorld UK report. Sarin is also quited in this Business Week article.

It takes a great deal of effort to establish a computing standard. Consider Apple, which became a new entrant with its iPhone. There are about 4 million Apple iPhones available or in use now, which is a respectable number when one considers its limited availability. There are no official iPhone providers in China or Japan yet, for example.

Google won’t make or market its own mobile phone, especially now that the company has dropped out of the 700 mHz auction, as reported by Forbes. The company’s Android mobile phone platform is based upon Linux, and over 30 companies have signed on to develop and support Android hardware. Prototypes of the Google phone were shown in Frankfurt at the Mobile World Congress this week. This CNET slideshow starts with a pic of one such prototype, which appears to be running and connected to a GSM network.

Microsoft used a similar approach to develop its Windows Mobile platform for PDAs and smartphones. The company expects that 20 million Windows Mobile phones from various manufacturers will be sold in the first half of 2008. None of these phones are Microsoft-branded devices.

Symbian claims to have the top spot, with 77 million units sold in the last year. Nokia is the main manufacturer that uses the Symbian operating system, along with Sony Ericsson. The latter company has started using Windows Mobile in its high-end smartphones, however.

For more information, see my earlier articles tagged as mobile, including:

11 February 2008: The modular mobile phone
31 January 2008: Applications are coming for the iPhone
25 January 2008: Nokia claims 40 percent market share
13 January 2008: The story of the iPhone
11 January 2008: BlackBerry vs iPhone
26 November 2007: Mobile devices for US census takers
24 September 2007: Do you want a PC on your iPhone?
23 April 2007: Samsung and Microsoft further their convergence goals

Who wants to buy Motorola’s mobile phone business?

billso — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:55:51 +0000

Motorola announced last month that it wants to sell its mobile phone unit, which is ranked third in global market share, according to Engadget.

No one’s buying. This month, several companies including Samsung and Dell have announced that they are not interested in laying out US$9 to 12 billion for the business.

It’s a bit of a shock. The Motorola brand name is well known, and the company has remained competitive. Certainly some up-and-coming manufacturer would want that nameplate! It’s the kind of play that made sense a few years ago, when Chinese manufacturer Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer business, including the ThinkPad name.

Motorola executives backpedaled last week at the Mobile World Congress, announcing that the company remains committed to the mobile handset industry.

Last Monday, Microsoft purchased Danger, the developer of T-Mobile’s Sidekick line. Om Malik estimated that Microsoft paid US$500 million for a mobile handset line that has a decent market share among the under-30 crowd.

Shareholders may bring Microsoft and Yahoo together

billso — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:58:21 +0000

Journalists are starting to discuss what financial analysts realized earlier this month: 90 percent institutional owners of Yahoo stock are also Microsoft shareholders. See this CNET article for details.

Fund managers don’t like to bid against themselves

This places companies like T. Rowe Price and the Capital Group in an awkward position. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has vowed to fight the Microsoft offer, even though a Microsoft takeover makes some sense for both companies. If Yahoo is seriously negotiating with News Corporation and AOL, as this report indicates, Yahoo CXOs must be quite desperate to avoid assimilation into the redmond hive mind.

An institution that holds YHOO and MSFT must balance its risk

Institutional fund managers may want an offer of US$40 per share for their Yahoo stock, but what happens if Microsoft’s stock price stumbles? These fund managers might consider a US$35 offer if it means a quick resolution to this battle. A proxy fight might take months to settle, and would send Yahoo into a tailspin as employees defect and CXOs waste time defending their firm.

On Thursday, the New York Times commented on this blog article by Bradley Horowitz, who announced on his blog that he was leaving Yahoo. Horowitz had been the VP of Yahoo’s Advanced Development Division, and his farewell message includes a few “ADD” puns. He wasn’t laid off – he simply left Yahoo to take a new position at Google.

The endgame plays out

The remaining Yahoo CXOs may not be ready to admit defeat, but it is clear that Yahoo management has less control over the company’s fate with each passing day.

See my earlier posts on the Microsoft-Yahoo debacle:

7 February 2008: Microsoft’s rocket ship
4 February 2008: Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo faces roadblocks
1 February 2008: Microsoft makes offer for Yahoo

Blu-ray beats HD DVD

billso — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:20:20 +0000

A few weeks ago, my face-to-face IS 7010 students talked about the high-definition DVD format war. Apple, Sony, Disney and Fox supported Blu-ray. Warner’s defection from the HD DVD camp last month was an indication that Blu-ray was winning the battle, according to this New York Times article.

The rival HD DVD format was supported by Universal, Paramount, Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel, according to this Wikipedia article.

Of course, Blu-ray discs won’t play in a standard HD DVD player, and vice versa. Engadget has a chart that compares the two formats here.

This format war is reminiscent of the Beta vs VHS video tape battle in the 1970s and 1980s.

It seems that this format war is over, and Blu-ray has won. Wal-Mart had been pushing HD DVD in its stores, but the company announced yesterday that they will no longer sell HD DVD movies, according to the New York Times. The shift was announced on Wal-Mart’s corporate blog in this article. Engadget has sounded the death knell, partly because Wal-Mart sells 20% of the DVD in the USA.

Toshiba made one desperate last attempt to promote their HD DVD technology with an expensive commercial during the Super Bowl earlier this month. However, Netflix and Blockbuster had previously announced they would support Blu-ray. Now Toshiba is suspending their HD DVD marketing.

Computer manufacturers have long wanted a single standard high-def DVD format. Software publishers don’t really need high-def DVDs and the moment, and game publishers have to go along with whatever format is used in the game consoles.

Happy Patch Tuesday

billso — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:59:37 +0000

It’s the second Tuesday of the month, which means that Microsoft has posted its monthly set of Windows operating system updates and patches. For home users, it’s a good idea to set Windows for automatic updates. Check with your company’s IT staff for questions about work computers.

Users of the latest MacOS X version, Leopard, are receiving 180 megabytes of upgrades in yesterday’s release of version 10.5.2. See cNet, Macworld and MacObserver for more information. There are bug fixes galore, and fixes for Time Machine, the Dock and Stacks.

See my post of 13 February 2007 for more discussion of Windows Update and its big brother, Microsoft Update.

Microsoft’s rocket ship

billso — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:06:06 +0000

Saul Hansell of the New York Times has an updated overview of the proposed Microsoft purchase of Yahoo. As his article’s title implies, merging the two companies is like building a rocket ship from spare parts. Which business units should be kept? What technologies will be used? What strategies will continue, and what new plans will be implemented?

The biggest risk is that engineering teams from Microsoft and Yahoo will spend years fighting to prove their systems are better and their bosses will listen instead of cutting off debate, picking something and trying to actually take on Google.

See my earlier articles from 4 February and 1 February 2008 for more comments.

Microsoft acquistion of Yahoo faces roadblocks

billso — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:08:13 +0000

Early Sunday, I saw this on a BoingBoing article: Google legal counsel David Drummond has released a statement that criticizes the proposed merger as anticompetitive. Here’s a New York Times article about the announcement. Google claims that Microsoft would use Yahoo to push proprietary solutions. Microsoft has a long history of developing and implementing its own extensions to Internet standards.

Elizabeth Montalbano of NetworkWorld had similar concerns in her article. She and the Register point out that Microsoft is really buying Yahoo’s computing platform and user base, partly because Microsoft’s Internet presence ls ineffective.

Of course, both companies have different cultures. One uniting factor may be their mutual envy of Google, as discussed in this BusinessWeek article.

This is not a “done deal” by any means

Yahoo’s board will most likely resist the buyout offer, which may give the Federal government and the EU more time to raise their objections. BusinessWeek has a good summary of the potential challenges to the proposed purchase in this article.

Even if Microsoft does actually purchase Yahoo, victory is not assured. As Joe Nocera of the New York Times pointed out in his article today, Microsoft’s online division is the only one of the company’s five strategic business units (SBUs) that loses money. Adding Yahoo may not stem the flood of red ink.

See my Friday, 1 February 2008 post and comments about the proposed Microsoft purchase of Yahoo for more information and links.

Microsoft makes offer for Yahoo

billso — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:25:50 +0000

As I told my IS 7010 class last night, Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo. Microsoft made the announcement this morning (AP, New York Times, ValleyWag, BoingBoing). The offer is almost US$45 billion in cash, or $31 per share.

Note: I didn’t discuss this story with anyone I know at Microsoft (MSFT) or Yahoo (YHOO) , and I don’t own stock in either company.

This deal has been anticipated for almost a year now, ever since former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel spurned another Microsoft offer to purchase Yahoo. Microsoft needs Yahoo’s technology, user base and web properties to battle Google. Here’s a 10 January 2008 blog article that discussed a few aspects of an anticipated merger, and a response that more or less said such a deal was a fantasy.

As the New York Times points out, this offer is well-timed. If Yahoo doesn’t come to terms quickly, Microsoft can pursue a hostile takeover through several means, including a board takeover at Yahoo’s June annual meeting.

Yahoo has lost its yodel

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang took over as the company’s CEO last year. He hasn’t helped a great deal, but he may be one of the few Yahoo CXOs to remain after Microsoft cleans house. Co-Founder David Filo will go to work in Microsoft’s data center division. As ValleyWag points out, if Microsoft wanted to keep the remaining CXOs, this would have been a friendly takeover offer.

This BusinessWeek article is mild compared to other criticism of Yahoo that I had read in the Wall Street Journal, SearchEngineLand and Screenwerk.

The company had previously announced that it was laying off 1000 employees. Financial results were below expectations, and the online advertising market is in flux. Yahoo depends on ad revenue to fund its acquisitions, but Microsoft, Google and other companies have been more aggressive.

Yahoo is also losing a significant chunk of its guaranteed revenue from AT&T’s residential DSL business. A new web advertising deal for AT&T’s mobile network may cushion the blow. Yang promised a plan to renew Yahoo within his first 100 days. After 200 days, stakeholders are still waiting.

Microsoft needs Yahoo’s position in web advertising, and could easily absorb Yahoo’s large international user community. After that, it’s a sorting process that’s similar to what HP did with Compaq. There is a great deal of overlap between the Microsft’s and Yahoo’s web services, including search, webmail, IM, online images, social bookmarking, and news. I’m sure Microsoft’s CXOs have an initial plan, but the merger – if it does happen – would take 2 years before the dust settles. SearchEngineLand has posted a long article that discusses what might happen in each business unit.

In a way, I’m almost sad to see Yahoo in play. I still use my first Yahoo ID, which has a space character in it. Yahoo fixed that hole a few months after I set up that account in 1996.

The company was the first major commercial Internet search portal, but it’s best days were in the 20th century. I have often used Yahoo’s main page as an example of cluttered web design and as a symbol of an overly broad corporate strategy. MSN.com’s main page isn’t much better.

QTrax makes deal for legal music sharing

billso — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:07:06 +0000

From Wired: developers are launching a beta version of QTrax, after reaching deals with the major music labels to allow free music downloads.

QTrax is an ad-supported P2P application that works within the Firefox web browser on Windows computers. Internet Explorer and Safari are not supported. Macs will be supported on 18 March, according to this article from New York’s Silicon Allwy Insider.

That article also reveals that Universal was the final of the 4 major labels to sign with QTrax.

The music files use Windows Media DRM, so they probably won’t work on iPods. A QTrax spokesmen claims iPod compatibility is high on the service’s list, and this Associated Press article says that QTrax has developed a workaround for iTunes compatibility. Apple has released patches to break previous iTunes workarounds by other companies.

QTrax has signed over most of the music revenues to the labels, so the service will earn the bulk of its margin by selling highly targeted web advertising. Of course, it is trivial to block ads in Firefox web pages by using an extension like AdBlock Plus. Whether AdBlock will work with the QTrax Songbird engine is another question. OpenDNS should block the ads, as I mentioned on 3 September 2007.

When I checked QTrax.com a few minutes ago, I saw a single image that claimed the service was overwhelmed by demand — check in tomorrow.

Netflix lifts limits as Apple enters online movie rental market

billso — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:10:18 +0000

We mentioned Netflix during our IS 7010-T class discussion last Thursday. According to USA Today, Netflix has changed some of the restrictions on its broadband movie rental service yesterday, in anticipation of Apple’s entry into the same market.

Netflix will allow most of its customers to view TV shows and movies from its 6000-title library without the old cap of 17 hours usage per month. I would assume that most Netflix customers were under these limits in the first place.

Apple will roll out a 1000-title online library next month, and renters will have 24 hours to watch their video before it expires in a puff of DRM.

Netflix uses an on-demand model that lets viewers watch the title at their own pace.

While Netflix charges a stable monthly fee, Apple will charge a fee for each title viewed. The Netflixpricing model seems much more flexible to me.

Apple’s service will use QuickTime and iTunes, so it supports MacOS, Windows and AppleTV boxen.

The Netflix service requires Windows Media Player 11 and a Windows OS – it’s possible to run this software suite on an Intel-based Mac with some help from Boot Camp, or perhaps an emulator solution like Parallels Desktop.

Keep in mind that online movie distribution requires a great deal of bandwidth. Pricing is one way to manage viewer demand, of course.

Asustek is the most hated PC company

billso — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:14:50 +0000

From one of my students comes a link to this article about Asustek, also known as ASUS. Here’s a November 2007 article from Forbes with some more details.

The company’s US$299 Eee PC laptop runs Linux on an Intel processor, and ships with OpenOffice and Firefox preinstalled. The price is less expensive than a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista, and was enough to scare Microsoft into a special deal: Eee PC buyers could add Microsoft Windows for US$40.

While the XO project and other spinoffs try to bring their low-cost laptops to the US mass market, Asustek is moving aggressively.

The story of the iPhone

billso — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:14:25 +0000

Wired has published a brief history of the iPhone’s development, as mentioned in Engadget. As I mentioned to my IS 7010-T students last Thursday, it is well known that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a difficult boss. This article provides a few examples of how he led Apple to develop the iPhone, a device that has spurred almost every mobile phone manufacturer and carrier to reevaluate their business models… even Microsoft.

Zotero and Firefox

billso — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:00:22 +0000

I’m testing a web-based research tool called Zotero. I hope this free service can replace bibliographic database products like EndNote and Citation. I’ve recommended that software to IS 6100 and professional paper students. However, both products cost over US$100 for the student versions.

Zotero is free. It’s an add-on that can be installed in the Firefox web browser. The database is saved in that computer. I’m looking for a way to overcome this limitation. Zotero will not work well or at all with Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari.

Like other software packages, Zotero can capture citation information from web pages. This is a very helpful feature, especially for users who are dealing with long reference lists. Users can import listings directly from EBSCO and ABI.

It’s also possible to add photos from Flickr and materials from the Internet Archive. Zotero keeps adding support for more sites, and web site developers can add some support on their own. Yesterday, I added Zotero support to this blog. Zotero users can click the icon in the address bar to add a billso.com article to their Zotero library.

Zotero also plays nice with Microsoft Office and its leading freeware competitor, OpenOffice. The OpenOffice software can be downloaded from its web site.

One feature I want to try is file management. Zotero can import PDFs and other documents into its search database. I usually save web pages and articles as PDFs for long-term storage.

Of course, a big reason to use any bibliography manager is auto-formatting. Any decent bibliography package, including Zotero, let users build a reference list. The software then creates a list with the user’s choice of formatting, such as APA style.

Please note that I will not require my IS 6100 and IS 7010 students to use Zotero or Firefox, of course.

Bill Gates: the exit interview

billso — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:36:01 +0000

What happens when an influential executive leaves his company?

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue thought he should just step away from decision-making when he retired in September 2006. It’s a good idea, but many founders and top executives just can’t do it.

“I think generally the best way to run an organization is for the person who is running it to be in charge and for the people who had been running it previously to disappear.” — Paul Tagliabue

Intel co-founder Andy Grove has kept his distance form Intel, although he has written about the company in several books, including the textbook for my IS 7010 course.

Engadget gives us some clues about this process in an exit interview with Bill Gates. Gates has n ot left Microsoft yet, but he will step down from his day-to-day duties at Microsoft this July to focus on his philanthropic work.

He will still work on some pet Microsoft projects. My favorite bit in the article is Gates’ admission that he is never satisfied with any Microsoft product. Can Bill let go in July?

Impression management and Facebook

billso — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:24:24 +0000

I’ve been removing apps from my Facebook account over the last month. Some of these apps sounded fun when these apps were a novelty. Over time, I got more and more invitations from other Facebook members to add more apps.

But SuperWall and FunWall were slower than the default Facebook Wall. I didn’t really want to draw graffiti on my Wall.

The Oktoberfest app was fun in September, when it first appeared. After it morphed into beer, it became dull.

Finally, I decided I had enough. MyAquarium infected our Windows computer with malware that took 3 hours of systematic registry hacking and file deletions to remove.

After I did my little victory dance, I deleted MyAquarium from my account and reported the app to Facebook.

The New York Times ran an article today about online impression management. Academic researchers have examined how users post meaningful photos of themselves, and send carefully worded email messages. As I mentioned last June, employers have used MySpace and Facebook to investigate job applicants. Users who claim this form of background checking is an invasion of their personal privacy should consider why their made their profiles publicly available during their job search.

Because my Facebook site is linked to my university e-mail address, my Facebook site makeover continues. My page is still fun and festive, but it’s a bit more guarded these days.

The mobile web isn’t ready yet

billso — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:30:59 +0000

The New York Times ran an interesting critique of the mobile Web yesterday. Michael Fitzgerald identifies some of the major obstacles to mass-market adoption of mobile websites, including the following items.

Inconsistent user interfaces on mobile devices – new users have difficulty finding the address bar and bookmark features. Fitzgerald fails to mention that, on some mobile devices, the font sizes are too small for most older users to read. Managers, who make media placement and Web development decisions, tend to fit an older demographic than their customers.
Poor formatting on small screens – RIM, Google, Bloglines and other service providers include reformatting and filtering technology in their mobile portals, but many web sites do not resolve well on a small screen.
Lack of support for Flash – as more Web sites adopt Adobe’s Flash technology for animation and other features, Web developers often fail to provide a low bandwidth or text only version that will work well or at all on a mobile device.
Slavish duplication of the desktop web model – this can also be seen in Microsoft Windows Mobile, which includes a Start button as a key part of the user interface.

For the most part, I agree with him – but I still use the mobile Web every day to check Gmail and read other web sites. The mobile Web isn’t a smooth experience yet, but it’s better than toting around a full computer, as my previous post about the US Census suggests.

Mobile devices for US census takers

billso — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:16:40 +0000

Engadget reports on a new Windows Mobile PDA that census takers might use for data collection. bandwidth is provided by Sprint. The batteries last 10 hours – an amazing result on a PDA that is deisgned for heavy data entry and network usage in the field.

The US Constitution requires a national census every 10 years. One early use of Hollerith cards was in the 1890 US Census. The previous census in 1880 used manual methods and took 9 years to complete. With Hollerith’s cards and tabulation equipment, the Census Bureau finished the 1890 count within 7 years at twice the cost of the 1880 census. The reports and data were far more complex and complete than any previous census, however.

I keep a stack of vintage Hollerith cards in my office, so I can remember the good old days.

Any Outlook 2007 RSS users out there?

billso — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:12:57 +0000

If anyone’s reading my RSS feed with Outlook 2007, please let me know.

I want a better television — but it’s not ready yet

billso — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:38:30 +0000

Here’s a great BusinessWeek article about the current state of television.

If you’re willing to buy and integrate several different pieces of software and hardware, you can have a television that:

Finds and records the programs you want to see, based on previous viewing habits and keyword searches
Finds and shows video from cable, satellite, NetFlix, YouTube, and other sources
Provides an easy way to schedule and watch programs
Use a stable, DRM-free file format that works on different computer systems
Saves video for long-term storage

However, there’s nothing available that will satisfy all of these requirements. Sure, there’s MythTV – but most consumers don’t want to build their own television.

Apple has its own solution, while Microsoft continues to sell its Media Center software. But both products trap video and audio into one of several formats, complete with a healthy dose of DRM.

If I’m going to save video, I’d like to save it forever, not until next month.

Sometimes the publishers and copyright owners are to blame. Major League Baseball example is a good example. Last month, MLB switched off its DRM server for its Digital Download service. Fans could buy and download digital video of old baseball games and documentaries. However, MLB now maintains that fans did not have a perpetual license to view these programs. These purchases were “one-time sales”, and when MLB dropped its contract with its DRM provider, no one could watch the video files.

Is Major League Baseball “evil”?

Google made a similar change a few months ago when Google Video’s store was discontinued. After a few days, Google decided to give purchases full refunds.

Some exexutives seem to understand the problems. Viacom’s Sumner Redstone may be one of them, based on this brief New York Times article.

As more viewers stop watching live television, we’re starting to see another strategic inflection point. An earlier strategic inflection point occurred in the 1980s, when the VCR and tape rentals let people watch movies and record television programs at home. In the late 1990s, TiVO and the DVR gave viewers much more control in their time-shifting.

The advent of YouTube and devices like the SlingBox have overturned the basic assumptions that built the television industry. The computer and the Internet have forced US broadcast networks to offer more news, sports and reality shows — real-time programs that have immediate entertainment value and may offer long-term revenue from clips and licensing.

The current writers’ strike has just made these problems worse, by taking scripted television shows off the production schedule during a prime viewing month in the US calendar. It’s ironic that a major point of contention in these strikes is DVD revenue. Studios and broadcast networks had relied on box set sales to offset decreasing advertising revenues.

There is no Google phone – but there is an OS

billso — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:16:41 +0000

Google announced today that they will release a mobile operating system (OS) under the project name Android.

The short story: Google won’t be selling a Google Phone or gPhone. But any device manufacturer can join the Open Handset Alliance and use Google’s software to build a mobile phone.

In the words of Andy Rubin, Google’s executive for the project:

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.

Google will provide services that give users access to Google documents, spreadsheets, mail, and other services. In return, Google gains a new way to sell more Web ads, which accounts for a major portion of the company’s revenue.

An open platform makes it easier and less expensive to develop software and hardware for this system, a key point that mobile carriers and handset manufacturers will like. Apple’s iPhone is still more-or-less locked down, which makes it very difficult for large companies to develop their own iPhone applications for employee use. Apple has announced a software development kit for February 2008, according to TidBITS.

Programmers who want to write software for Symbian or Microsoft smartphones usually pay for the privilege.

Some relevant articles on this topic include:

Wired, 5 November 2007: Google Phone announced as mobile operating system
TechCrunch, 5 November 2007: Breaking: Google announced Android and Open Handset Alliance
New York Times, 5 November 2007: Google enters the wireless world
New York Times, 4 November 2007: I, Robot: The man behind the Google phone
My articles on the Google Phone
Business Week, 17 August 2005: Google buys Android

Here’s the official Google video of the announcement form YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ultra-low cost PCs for schools

billso — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:00:58 +0000

Vendors have been selling inexpensive personal computers for years. Dell has offered models that are more-or-less disposable – the case is sealed, and the repair costs may exceed the computer’s actual value.

Business Week reported on 9 October that sales of ultra-low cost PCs are growing, especially in Asia and Latin America. One popular market for these computers is in schools, where students need durable computers. Some models lack hard drives, relying on flash memory and network storage instead. This 16 June 2006 ZDNet article describes an Intel project to design similar computers. The article also points out some of the distribution challenges in these markets. Weekly payments, microloans, content filtering and asset control systems are important features.

The One Laptop Per Child initiative provides similar computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Windows. This 4 October article in the New York Times provides a brief overview of the XO project, and Laptop Magazine has an extensive hands-on review. Wikipedia has an article, of course, and it notes that Intel has redirected its ultra low-cost PC program to support the XO project.

As this spec sheet shows, the XO computer is not a fast device. Its power usage is only 2 watts, which is less than some PDAs and smartphones. The XO’s battery can be recharged in several clever ways, as described in this list from OLPC News.

Ultra-low cost PCs aren’t supposed to compete with standard consumer and corporate models, so the key success factors in this industry may become quite different than those found in mainstream PC markets. The XO is inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and easy to deploy in local schools.

Google, Yahoo and IBM in the Office

billso — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:40:12 +0000

Microsoft Office has huge market share – an estimated half a billion users, according to this interview with Microsoft manager Betsy Frost.

But it’s difficult to compete with free applications offered by well established Web software-as-a-service providers. Today, Google announced its web-based slide show application. This wasn’t a surprise. I mentioned Google’s office apps on 19 April and 23 February. These web-based apps don’t have all the features of Microsoft software, and Google doesn’t support third-party plugins. Plugins are software that hooks in to Microsoft Office applications to provide additional features.

When does free beat market share?

But web-based apps do allow users to share documents online, instead of emailing versions of documents. There are security concerns, of course. Google’s applications are tied into the company’s single signon (SSO) authentication system. Google does offer corporate and educational versions of these services, but storage is centralized in Google’s massive data network. Google isn’t offering a database product, but one could argue that the entire Google office suite is really a vast database full of XML-formatted documents and messages. Corporate customers pay Google US$50 per seat each year for the web-based office applications and email. I haven’t seen how Google controls document sharing on academic networks, either.

Web-based office software is becoming a key success factor for the largest Internet search sites. Email, calendar and address book applications are a logical offering. In most industries, companies must use email, but it’s often cheaper to let someone else run the servers. According to the New York Times, Yahoo just purchased Zimbra, a developer of web-based email services. Zimbra’s annual pricing is reasonable: $28 per seat for corporate customers. Universities pay $1 per student account, and $8 per employee account. At those prices, more universities are outsourcing their email systems. I discussed Google’s academic email services on 11 April. Of course, Yahoo is the dominant webmail provider with 181 million unique visitors each month. Google has only 18 million.

The New York Times reported today that IBM will launch its own downloadable version of Sun’s open source office suite. Users still have to install the IBM applications, so the versioning problem still exists.

But IBM is offering its software for free. Oddly enough, IBM resurrected the Lotus Symphony brand for this product. Of course, IBM is offering technical support for corporate users, but not for free.

TurnItIn.com vs WYSIWYG

billso — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:26:10 +0000

Every semester, I get at least one student who asks about the paper submission process in TurnItIn.com. Paper 2 drafts are due on Wednesday in IS 6100 and Friday in IS 7010.

I discussed this issue in this 29 January article.

The short version: When users press the “submit” button to send an assignment to TurnItIn.com, the web site retrieves the document from the user’s computer. This process is similar to uploading an attachment to a web-based email system like Gmail or Yahoo Mail!

TurnItIn.com refreshes the web page and displays an unformatted, text-only version of the uploaded paper, along with a second submit button.

This confirmation step should help users determine if they uploaded the correct file. TurnItIn.com does let instructors limit students to a single upload on an assignment. But some users get confused because their paper is displayed without any formatting at all!

I’ve always believed this was a usability issue that TurnItIn.com’s software and user interface designers should fix. The only reason I can think of is that TurnItIn.com management wants to reduce the response time during the submission upload cycle. Generating an image or PDF would increase the time needed to submit a paper.

I usually allow students to upload their file as many times as they wish before the assignment deadline.

DWIMNWIS = “do what I meant, not what I said”

TurnItIn.com does send a digital receipt via email to the user after a successful submission. But I’m not sure this confirmation message is enough. TurnItIn.com should always display a PDF or graphical version of the formatted document. Students who use Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or almost any other Mac or Windows-based word processor usually keep their software in a layout mode that supports WYSIWYG, and displays the actual fonts, margins, spacing, and other document attributes.

So I’m not surprised when some students expect TurnItIn.com to display a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) version of their paper with the formatting and graphics intact. If I hadn’t used TurnItIn.com before, I’d probably ask the same question!

Gartner: Expect an enterprise iPhone

billso — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:09:38 +0000

Apple may not be announcing it tomorrow at their press conference, but the Gartner Group believes that an enterprise version of the iPhone is inevitable, according to ZDNet.

I discussed some of the enterprise issues that affect iPhone users on July 6. For a sole proprietor or a very small business that already uses Macs, iPhones may make sense, especially for new media and web design firms. iPhone doesn’t seem to work reliably with iTunes for Windows, from what I’ve read.

TCO: it all adds up

Another important consideration is total cost of ownership (TCO). TCO is a common benchmark for information systems managers that adds up the entire cost of a product, including associated services, maintenance, replacement costs and training. I discussed some of these issues in my June 27 and June 6 posts.

iPhone users must have their own computer with iTunes and a broadband connection. That’s the only means of activating an iPhone, establishing an account, syncing the iPhone, and updating the device.

Larger companies that deal with compliance issues may want to avoid the iPhone as a corporate device. iPhones are expensive to acquire and replace, have limited storage space, and offer limited support for Microsoft Exchange.

When users block the ads, should web sites block the users?

billso — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:47:29 +0000

The New York Times ran an interesting story today about ad blocking software for web browsers.

I’ve used variations of ad blocking over the last few years, in an effort to speed up my Internet browsing. After all, every ad on a web page takes time to download. Some ads use Flash or Java to provide animation, and those ads can take additional time for a browser to download, process and present.

AdBlock Plus, which is discussed in the Times, is one of the easier tools to use, but it only works in Firefox, my favorite web browser.

Updated 8 September 2007: AdBlock Plus supports several third-party lists of domain names – see this page for details. Subscribing to a list such as EasyList or EasyElement is a quick way to set up a comprehensive ad blocking system in Firefox.

There are other tools available for Internet Explorer, but I won’t discuss them here.

In the past, I’ve used a more comprehensive approach that blocks ads from appearing on a computer or a network. This method uses a hosts file, as described in this Lifehacker post and in this page, to block well-known ad servers, based on their domain names. This isn’t a good idea unless you own your computer and you understand what you’re doing. I wouldn’t do this on a corporate or public computer.

Updated 8 September 2007: Yoyo.org has a page with detailed information about ad blocking at the router and computer level.

It’s also possible to do this with an OpenDNS account. Just add the domains that the router or your computer should block. I mentioned OpenDNS on July 13.

Ad blocking is easy to do

For both the hosts and DNS methods, the strategy is simple. I’m trying to stop my router or computer from looking up the ad servers, thus blocking the ads themselves. Usually I’ll see a blank space or a 404 (file not found) message in place of the ad. In the example below, OpenDNS has blocked an ad server before my browser could open the ad.

Some of my readers may have noticed that I do include Google Ads on this web site. The Google Ads are located at the bottom of each page, and Google tries to select appropriate ads based on my site’s content.

Last week, I also added some dynamic ads from Amazon.com that show prices for my courses’ textbooks. Here’s an example.

I’m hosting these ads to see how the systems work before I include ads on some of my customers’ web sites. I do receive a small amount of cash if anyone clicks on the ads, somewhere between 5¢ and US$1, so this really isn’t a revenue stream for me.

Updated 8 September 2007: To my chagrin, I noticed that the default settings in AdBlock Plus will block my Amazon ads. It’s easy to fix this by deactivating or removing the entry for rcm.amazon.com.

But ad blocking can affect the revenue streams of some web sites, especially if a significant number of users are blocking ads. A few small web sites are throwing the baby out with the bathwater by blocking Firefox users, usually redirecting them to whyfirefoxisblocked.com, based on the ridiculous assumption that every Firefox user has also installed and is using AdBlock.

This kind of filtering by a web server isn’t an invasion of privacy. It’s trivial work for a web server to determine the kind of browser that a user is running, because the browser itself includes that information whenever it requests a file from a web server.

Blocking Firefox is not an option for larger web sites

While Internet Explorer still holds the most market share, a significant number of users, including myself, usually use Firefox for their web browsing. No sane advertiser wants to block users who are smart enough to install and run an alternative browser, as smart users might have more disposable income or more influence on their company spending.

There are some ways to circumvent ad blocking. Most ads come from third-party web servers. Webmasters can choose to server the ads themselves. Anyone who wants to see the site will have to see the ads, because these users won’t want to block the web site itself.

As the Times mentions, Microsoft itself is caught in the middle of this problem. Microsoft doesn’t include ad blocking software in Internet Explorer, but the company hasn’t prevented users from loading that software, either. But Microsoft also has a significant revenue stream from ads that its MSN sells.

Microsoft, IBM and that Honolulu vacation

billso — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:03:57 +0000

This morning’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin has a brief story about Microsoft’s software development office on the 24th floor of Alii Place. The 1900 square foot office has 4 employees, and may grow to 10 as managers recruit local talent. The facility opened in May 2007.

I find it hard to believe one of the reasons for the office: Microsoft managers believe it is more expensive to move Hawaii hires to Redmond.

It’s easier to believe that Microsoft managers wanted a convenient office in a popular vacation destination. We’ve seen a slow parade of Microsofties visit HPU to speak in copmuter science and MSIS courses. Many combined a business or conference trip with some personal time. I can’t blame them. This is paradise, and flying anywhere is a hassle these days.

As this article in the New York Times points out, other software companies like IBM are particularly generous with their vacation policies. IBM employees can take vacation on short notice, as long as their supervisors concur.

On the other hand, IBMers are expected to check their email and be “available” during their vacation time. Perhaps the same is true at Microsoft.

20 seconds of pecha kucha

billso — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:13:55 +0000

Wired ran an article a few days ago about pecha kucha, an art-house event that turns PowerPoint on its ear and makes presentations bearable.

The rules are simple:

20 slides per presenter
20 seconds maximum per slide
The presenter talks as the slides whiz across the screen.
No questions may be asked during the presentation.
When the show’s done, the presenter is done.
Next presenter, please.

I checked Pecha-Kucha.org to see if there were any events posted for Honolulu. After all, there have been pecha kucha events in over 80 cities around the world since 2003.

No luck.

Pecha kucha in Honolulu?

But this seems like a natural for First Fridays. Pecha kucha was first developed for architects and designers, to keep their pitches reasonable. A typical pecha kucha event has 14 slide shows in a single evening. That’s 280 slides.

There are reports of businesses who use pecha kucha as a presentation format for internal meetings. Perhaps this works better when no one else in the room is using a laptop. This article in the New York Times and this Microsoft web page discuss how Microsoft managers deal with laptops in meetings.

Personal computer use in a meeting can be helpful, but a computer is often a distraction, especially when they’re connected to the Internet. Mobile devices are almost as bad, too.

Now I’m wondering if pecha kucha is a useful tool for teaching. While the format doesn’t leave much time for questions, it does provide a quick pace.

Could pecha kucha help in the classroom?

Over the years, I’ve given student presenters rules that are similar to pecha kucha. I hadn’t made the connection until today, though. One common issue was that students tend to have problem with time limits and slide counts, possibly because this type of presentation format takes some practice to do well.

This format might be very useful for presentations given in online courses, though.

Microsoft Paint: Behind the Scenes

billso — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:23:48 +0000

Say what you want about Microsoft Paint… it’s free.

Set the sarcasometer to snark, Mr. Jobs!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Large print and hearing aids for the baby boomers

billso — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 22:08:42 +0000

The New York Times ran an article today about adaptive aids for the baby boomers. Because I was born before 1964, technically I am a boomer, even though I don’t feel like one.

The Lucida font is one example cited by Times journalist Katie Hafner. The font was co-designed for Apple by Charles Bigelow to provide a highly readable font for low resolution printers and monitors. Lucida is the default menu font for Mac OS X and the Safari web browser, and has been included in Microsoft Windows since 1995. Wikipedia has a page full of examples.

Tiny fonts in web browsers? There’s hope.

Hafner mentions that Internet Explorer and the Mac have features to enlarge fonts on the screen. These are handy, especially when using a laptop computer. I’ve noticed that Internet Explorer sometimes compresses or mangles the page layout when displaying enlarged or zoomed fonts. In my favorite web browser, Firefox, fonts can be enlarged with the Ctrl+ keystroke on a Windows computer, or Command+ on a Mac. this method doesn’t always work, especially on sites that use Flash.

There are a few screen magnifying utilities for Windows users. I’ve used Magnifixer, a freeware product that is easy to install. Windows also has its own accessibility utilities, available in the Start, Accessories folder.

Mac users can find a Zoom feature in the Universal Access preferences panel. There is a built-in feature to enlarge the mouse cursor, but the results look awful. I use Pinpoint, a US$10 app, to display a very large mouse cursor on my MacBook Pro.

It’s much harder to enlarge the fonts on a mobile phone or PDA. A few models provide adaptive features, but most don’t. The Sidekick 3 provides no way to enlarge a font on the screen, and that’s been a sore point for a few of my colleagues. Larger screens can help, like the display of an iPhone. But a larger screen almost always increases the device’s size and reduces battery life.

Oticon’s Delta hearing aid was profiled in the New York Times on September 24. This model looks more like a fashion accessory, and is marketed towards users in the 40–60 age group.

Hearing aids that look like Bluetooth headsets

A blog that covers technology for older users, 50+Digital, posted an article last week about the Audeo. This hearing aid is marketed as a “personal communications assistant”. It looks like a large Bluetooth headset, but it is similar in many ways to the Delta.

Devices like the Audeo and Delta will become more popular, according to Don Aucoin of the Boston Globe, as boomers hunt for fashionable alternatives to traditional hearing aids and reading glasses.

I expect more younger users to adopt hearing aids, partly because they’ve blown out their hearing with their iPods. I’m always careful to keep my iPod’s volume at a level that will let me hear traffic noise.

A history lesson: browsers and computers

billso — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:41:12 +0000

TechRepublic has a photo gallery of Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 1 through 7, along with pictures of some old PCs. I doubt any of these PCs from the 80s ran IE, as version 1 was released in 1995. This industrial film from 1994 helps set the mood.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Meanwhile, a German website has some photos of Apple prototypes and products from the same period. Check out the 1983 iPhone! Reminds me of Minitel, an online service that most Americans have never heard of, even if it’s still popular in France. See these BBC and Wikipedia. articles for more information.

Nine reasons not to use an iPhone in an enterprise

billso — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:54:42 +0000

Now that the iPhone is out, users want corporate IT managers to let their iPhones work with corporate email servers. It’s tricky, as I’ve mentioned before on June 29. Several bloggers, including Jason Levine and John Gruber, have posted very good articles on how enterprises might deal with iPhone users.

The iPhone isn’t ready for business users yet

ZDNet’s Russell Shaw has posted an article that lists Gartner’s seven reasons why the iPhone is not ready for the enterprise. Gartner analyst and report co-author Ken Delaney warns companies not to buy iPhones for the following reasons, which I’ve quoted from the ZDNet article. My comments are in italics:

1. Apple’s “rudimentary” experience designing mobile devices specifically for the enterprise — this is a first generation device, after all. Microsoft, RIM, Nokia and other companies have a serious head start on this item.

2. Lack of support from mobile management and mobile security software utilities - there’s no third party software support for the iPhone in this area yet, and there won’t be until Apple opens up the iPhone API. Gizmodo claims there will support late in 2007. Apple might stop unauthorized iPhones from being recharged, according to this patent. But that’s a far cry from monitoring mobile devices in the field.

3. Lack of compatibility with major business e-mail systems — iPhone can handle POP and IMAP4, but Microsoft Exchange servers need this update to support IMAP4.

4. An operating system not licensed to third-party hardware suppliers, resulting in no backup — Apple is the only source for the iPhone hardware. Users are supposed to backup their iPhones with iTunes.

5. No removable battery, creating the potential for increased support costs — while Apple has announced a mail-in program for iPhone battery replacement, the user cannot open an iPhone and disconnect the battery. I used that trick a couple of times a week on my Cingular 8125 when it needed a reboot.

6. Only one carrier operator (AT&T Wireless) — at least in the United States, and that exclusive will last at least 2 years. Apple’s competitors support every major cell phone carrier in the US.

7. The high price point, $499 for 4GB or $599 for 8GB — the iPhone is an expensive device with no quantity discounts. Lost an iPhone, and the hardware replacement cost can be high. Memory can’t be expanded because there is no external memory slot.

I’d add two more reasons to this list:

The iPhone is clearly an entertainment device. It’s a very nice video iPod with a phone, a data connection, and web apps. But at it’s heart, iPhone is all about driving more users to iTunes.
The iPhone has some Internet and productivity features built in, but the document viewing features, calendar and contacts list can’t be easily synced to a corporate network yet. Give Apple and its partners some time. Corporate support will come if sales are strong.

CXOs face malware email attacks

billso — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:25:16 +0000

ZDNet reports that several hundred CXOs are receiving a new kind of email attack. Messages containin Word documents that include an executable file. If the recipient clicks on the file, it runs a zero-day exploit on the victim’s computer.

According to MessageLabs, the recipients tend to be CXOs as follows:

30% chief investment officers
11% chief executive officers
6% chief financial officers

The targets are technically inexperienced victims whose computers may hold interesting personal or corporate data. Attackers find the victims names through search engines and social networking sites. I’m guessing that LinkedIn is one of these sites.

Rumor: Google might buy Apple

billso — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:46:45 +0000

Based on a quote from John Heilemann’s article on Steve Jobs, the Internet is bubbling with rumors that Google might buy Apple. Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Business 2.0 discusses the rumor here.

The two companies have cultures that are similar in some ways, so the rumor has some face validity.

Google + Apple = something interesting

Apple would give Google a platform to roll out some interesting consumer devices. As I’ve noted in other posts, including my discussion of the Heilemann article, the iPhone includes a few Google web applications, including mapping.

But Google really hasn’t shown much interest in the high volume hardware business. Sure, Google builds most of the machines in its data center from off-the-shelf hardware. Google also sells a couple of search appliances, but those are rack-mounted devices designed for a server room.

Google has shown a great deal of interest in networked storage, however. Given the pervasive nature of broadband Internet access in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim, it’s only a matter of time until we see PDAs and portable computers that rely on services provided by Google, Microsoft, and other vendors to store user email, images, music and documents.

Google doesn’t have enough cash to buy Apple… yet

In the end, Google doesn’t have the cash on hand to buy Apple. Matther Siegler at ParisLemon ran the numbers. Apple’s network is over US$100 billion and climbing, while Google has a net worth of $US158 billion. So a buyout doesn’t make much sense this month.

Just say “no” to HTML in email

billso — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:54:14 +0000

Jeffrey Zeldman made a good point in this post from Friday: email is no place for HTML.

HTML formatting is the sign of an amateur emailer.

Email was never meant to look nice. Email is supposed to be good old text. I have plenty of colleague and students who use HTML code in their email messages. When I receive a fancy formatted email message, I wonder how much time the writer really spent on the content.

People who read email on their phones and PDAs might not see that precious formatting. Some webmail clients can parse out the fancy HTML code in a message, so that the user can actually read that message on a small screen. Isn’t email supposed to be readable in the first place?

I also get mass email messages loaded with HTML formatting by vendors, organizations and companies. These senders may not realize what they’re doing when they use colors, fonts and styles to make their messages look perty.

Anal-retentive marketers want email campaigns to look like print.

They’re wasting my time and mailbox space with email that tries too hard to look like a printed piece. The fact that Microsoft has broken 5 years of email formatting progress by bundling an old rendering engine into Outlook 2007 makes me wonder if Redmond did that on purpose.

There’s plenty of malicious code that can be hidden in an HTML email message. Outlook is still a big security hole for users and companies, and crackers continue to use these holes to deliver viruses, exploits and worms that execute as soon as a message is previewed or read on a user’s unprotected computer. Security is another good reason to turn off HTML rendering in an email client. If the client is rendering the formatting, there’s less risk of an attack.

Sometimes I’m tempted to use HTML formatting in my own email, to deliver a table or a hyperlink. I’ve found that it’s easier to build the table in a spreadsheet or word processor, and to attach a small snapshot of that table to the email message. Many email clients will convert a web address to a clickable link automatically.

Every time I set up a new installation of Outlook for myself, I turn off HTML and Microsoft Word editing in the email preferences. Here’s an excellent page from Gerald Boyd that describes more details of how and why to send plain text emails in a wide variety of mail clients. Tha page hasn’t been updated since 2003, but it’s still a good place to start.

Of course, I’ve been using Gmail for a few years now, so I find myself using Outlook much less than I did in the 1998, when some people thought HTML formatted email was a good idea.

TurnItIn.com supports Word 2007

billso — Tue, 08 May 2007 03:18:50 +0000

On February 21, I wrote about Microsoft Office 2007. At that time, TurnItIn.com was not accepting the new Word 2007 file format, .docx, so I told Office 2007 users to save their files in either .doc format or as a .pdf file.

I just noticed that TurnItIn.com has fixed this issue. Office 2007 users can submit files to TurnItIn.com without major problems. It’s easy to fix a web-based service, after all.

Microsoft Office 2003 users can install a compatibility pack that lets their suite open and print Office 2007 files.

I still haven’t seen an Office 2007 compatibility pack for Microsoft Office 2004 on the Mac.

For Windows users who just want to view and print Visio 2007 or PowerPoint 2007 files, Microsoft’s Office 2007 viewers for Visio and PowerPoint will do the job.

The Office 2007 file formats are explained in gory detail here.

I haven’t touched Office 2007 yet. The familiar menus and toolbars have been replaced with something called the Ribbon, which is NOT a part of Office 2008, the Mac version of Microsoft’s venerable suite. At least Mac users will still have menus!

We’ll see if users take the time to upgrade from Office 2003/2004 to Microsoft Office 2007/2008.

I have more hope for Google Docs at this point, even if these web-based apps aren’t as powerful as Microsoft Office and the file sizes are limited.

At least I can open Google Docs in Firefox and share them with my Googling colleagues.

Samsung and Microsoft further their convergence goals

billso — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:25:05 +0000

USA Today reported Thursday that Samsung and Microsoft have signed a cross-licensing agreement for consumer electronics patents.

Samsung’s mobile phones have become popular in the US. More of these phones include a digital music player. Microsoft needs to get more of its mobile software on these platforms, even if sales volume of its Zune audio player has brisk.

Cross-licensing agreements are one commonly used method for companies to share technology.

Living la vida Google

billso — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:30:43 +0000

Wired News editor Michael Calore spent a month using Google’s web applications instead of Microsoft Office. Overall, it worked for him, but he had to jump through hoops to translate files for Microsoft users.

I’ve written about Google apps in my March 7 and February 23 posts. Web-based apps make sense for businesses, as long as employees have plenty of bandwidth and IT is aware of the security issues.

While Calore wasn’t able to use a Google presentation app in his experiment, Google is releasing one this summer according to Google’s blog, eWeek and Wired News. It looks like Google’s slideshow app will import and save PowerPoint (PPT) files. Compatibility with the market leader is a key success factor.

I won’t miss PowerPoint at all.

I just hope TurnItIn.com and WebCT start supporting Google document formats soon.

Google wants to hear about your university email service

billso — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:51:02 +0000

Google has been offering universities an academic version of the Gmail service for over a year now. As I mentioned on February 23, this suite of web-based applications includes Google’s word processor, spreadsheet, calendaring and chat programs.

Yesterday, a post in Google’s blog asked university students to send comments about their university’s email systems to Google. The Gmail survey is an interesting way to prospect for sales; ask for leads and examples from disgruntled users of competing systems.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll mention that I’ve been using Gmail for several years now and I love it. The spam filters are constantly updated, and I can check my email on my Sidekick 3. My email is backed up and available when I need it.

Given the state and reputation of HPU’s various mail servers, I’ve often wondered why the unviersity doesn’t use an outsourced service like Gmail, Pau Spam or the implausibly branded Microsoft Windows Live @ Edu Mail (formerly Hotmail). I’ve become so tired of receiving internally generated mail about HPU events that I recently agreed to head a university task force about our email systems.

My main complaint is that there is no easy way for a member of the HPU community to unsubscribe from any or all HPU email lists. Why can’t I go to a single web page and tell HPU that I don’t want email announcements, like users at other universities can?

Instead, I’ve been told to hunt down the sender of each message and tell them to drop me from their list. I’d rather spend my time teaching, writing and consulting.

Why are companies stalling on Windows Vista?

billso — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:27:07 +0000

I’ve had a few students ask me why businesses should upgrade to Windows Vista, the newest version of Microsoft’s operating system. Microsoft has spent a great deal of money and time promoting Vista, and has claimed that businesses are accelerating their Vista migration plans.

I always tell people to wait until Microsoft releases their first Service Pack before installing new Microsoft software.

This article from ZDNet features an interview with Simon Szykman, the CIO of NIST, the US government bureau that sets Federal standards for cryptography, information security, and other areas. NIST also runs the Computer Security Response Center, which posts alerts and warnings about virus, worms, and other computer security threats.

Sadly, that article has a deceptive title. NIST hasn’t banned Windows Vista. The agency is evaluating the operating system.

NIST, like many large organizations, has several applications that were developed in-house. While Microsoft tested Windows Vista on thousands of computers worldwide, companies usually perform their own testing with these homegrown programs. This is crucial, as Windows Vista might not support hardware or software that companies rely upon every day.

In January, ZDNet described how Microsoft invited NIST and the National Security Agency and to review and comment on the official Windows Vista Security Guide. NIST is still examining how to secure its own computers wafter Windows Vista is installed. The Janaury 2007 version of the guide is available here.

Dell, HP and other computer manufacturers have largely stopped shipments of Windows XP on new computers. Customers who haven’t switched to Windows Vista usually wipe the new hard disk, and install Windows XP. However, some new machines might be used as testbeds to determine how much value Windows Vista might deliver.

NIST, like other organizations, has already adopted Internet Explorer 7, which was included in Windows Vista. IE 7 also shipped for Windows XP, and for most Windows users, it’s a good upgrade that closes some security holes and adds helpful features like tabbed browsing. Of course, Firefox has offered tabbed browsing for years.

Microsoft Office 2007 shipped earlier this year, but as I mentioned on February 21, some companies are encountering problems with Office 2007’s new file formats.

Personally, I don’t plan on using Windows Vista any time soon. I’m hoping to replace my university Windows XP computer with a Mac. I’m waiting for Office 2008 for the Mac, also.

Microsoft vs. Google

billso — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:53:27 +0000

Ina Fried of ZDNet wrote about Microsoft’s attitude towards Google. Ray Ozzie, the company’s Chief Software Architect, noted that Microsoft is trying to catch up to Google in several areas, such as search engine usability and advertising sales. As usual, Microsoft is buying small, innovative firms and rolling their products and services into Microsoft’s value chain and offerings.

My IS 7010 students should note Ozzie’s comments regarding a strategic inflection point. It’s quite typical for CXOs to use hindsight to find a SIP that they should have identified as it happened. Grove’s comments in our textbook are excellent in that regard, and they are highly recommended reading.

Microsoft and Daylight Savings Time

billso — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:40:05 +0000

On February 5 and February 13, I wrote about the changes to Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the US and Canada, and how these changes required software patches.

Phil Wainewright writes that last week, Microsoft finished releasing its official patches for DST. According to Mary Jo Foley, a noted IT journalist who has followed Microsoft for years, MS just released the DST patches for Microsoft Dynamics. That product is Microsoft’s entry into the customer relationship management (CRM) field, an industry dominated by smaller vendors like Salesforce.com and NetSuite.

Of course, these vendors have patched their web-based on-demand software already, as their programs don’t require a corporate server installation like Microsoft Dynamics does.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes notes that while the DST changes aren’t as bad as Y2K, the conversion will give IT departments headaches for the next few weeks. Managers and technicians are discovering that Microsoft’s patches must be applied in a specific order, or they won’t work correctly.

In the past, Microsoft’s patches have been easier to apply. For most users, Microsoft Update or Windows Update, the built-in patch management systems in Windows, would handle the patching process for Microsoft products.

This time, DST patch management is a colossal mess and Microsoft has dropped the ball. For example, next Monday morning, mainland users who patched their copy of Outlook before their IT staff patched the company’s Exchange server will find their Outlook appointments could be one hour off. It depends on how the user connects to the Exchange server.

While the state of Hawaii does not observe Daylight Savings Time, plenty of companies and employees in the state do business with the mainland. Unpatched versions of Outlook and Exchange may report that conference calls start an hour early or late, for example. Mainland call centers that handle Hawaii-based customers may have similar issues.

Margie Semilof noted that , Shavlik Technology and BigFix customers received their list of approved patches last month, as each company completed their respective tests of the available software patches. Eric Schultze, Shavlik’s chief security architect, said that keeping up with the changing inventory of patches has been a challenge for the firm. Both companies build their own patches for older versions of Windows, including Windows NT 4.0.

Of course, none of these patches address time and clock functions in hardware. Some PDAs and cell phones will need patches, for example. Clocks and watches that synchronize to atomic clocks on the mainland may be one hour off for the four-week period between March 11 and the traditional start of DST, the second Sunday of April or April 8.

In the meantime, some IT administrators will be hoping that the Easter Bunny is carrying software patches in his basket this spring.

Google Apps vs Microsoft Office

billso — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:28:37 +0000

In last night’s IS 6100 lecture, I mentioned Google Apps. This is a free web-based application suite that offers email, calendar, contacts, word processing and spreadsheet functions. No software installation is required, other than a Web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer.

According to this Yahoo article and this Google site, Google will offer a business version of this suite for US$50 per seat per year. This version includes customization, support for specific domain names in e-mail addresses, and 10 GB of hosted storage per seat.

Google is aiming squarely at Microsoft Office, which is a major cash cow for Microsoft. Businesses that don’t need a full office suite on every employee’s hard drive can save money by using Google’s web-based apps. Google updates its software on its own servers, as it is operating as an application service provider (ASP), so Microsoft Update isn’t needed to patch the apps.

Google also offers an education version for universities. A university like HPU could offer students Gmail with an hpu.edu e-mail address. Google Apps allows users to share and edit DOC and XLS files, which would be very handy for group projects.

Finally, there are various free office suites available, including OpenOffice. Some of these require installation to a hard drive. I prefer web-based solutions, even when they don’t support PowerPoint files.

TurnItIn.com can’t handle Word 2007 .docx files

billso — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:21:59 +0000

A couple of my students have asked why TurnItIn.com won’t accept their documents. Their files were written in the brand-new Microsoft Word 2007.

Students who use Office 2007 are going to encounter problems whenever they share files with students who use older software packages. As part of Office 2007, Microsoft has deployed new document formats based upon XML. In Word, this new 2007 file format has the extension .docx

TurnItIn.com has not updated their submission page to accept Word 2007 documents. One of two things is happening when TurnItIn.com receives a docx file. The site may be rejecting files when it sees the docx extension. This is an example of data validation, a task that computers perform to check hand-entered data. If you’ve miskeyed a postal address or telephone number into a web form, and received an error message, you’ve encountered data validation.

It seems more likely that TurnItIn.com’s server-based system simply can’t read the new XML format that Microsoft has used in docx files.

TurnItIn.com can easily fix this problem when they write and test a new docx filter. Because TurnItIn.com is an application service provider (ASP), it’s easy to deploy this change. TurnItIn.com doesn’t have to compile and release software for personal computers.

I’m not brave enough to try Word 2007 yet. I usually wait until Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 before I’ll try a new software version. I’ve heard reports from colleagues and friends that Word 2007 breaks macros, templates and documents that worked just fine in Word 2003.

The quick fix for Windows users is to use File, Save As and choose the Word 2003 DOC format. Upload that new DOC file to TurnItIn.com and all is well.

TurnItIn.com will also accept RTF and PDF documents.

File, Save As does have an RTF file type choice. RTF is an file format that Microsoft used in early versions of Micorsoft Word. For a simple document without graphics or macros, it should work well enough.

There are several free programs like CutePDF Writer that will allow Windows users to save documents directly to PDF format. I’ve used that program for years. Sometimes I get better results with CutePDF Writer than I do with Acrobat Professional.

Mac users can save any printable file to PDF format by opening the application’s Print dialog, pressing the PDF button in the lower left corner of the dialog box, and choosing Save as PDF…

Steve Jobs calls for DRM-free music sales

billso — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:29:25 +0000

As reported in today’s New York Times and BoingBoing, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has apparently changed his company’s strategy regarding digital music. He’s done it in a very public fashion — with an article on the Apple web site. (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/)

The iTunes Store sells digital music files that are copy protected, using a form of digital rights management (DRM). DRM is a set of rules developed by publishers and enforced by software that limit how a digital file can be used. Apple’s FairPlay DRM makes it difficult to move music purchased on iTunes from one computer to another.

Jobs proposes two alternatives — the status quo and an industry-wide adoption of FairPlay — before recommending a third choice: selling digital without DRM, most likely in the popular MP3 format that almost every digital music player supports.

iTunes biggest legal competitor, eMusic, has sold 100 million songs without DRM. Jobs also provides calculations that indicate Aple has sold only 22 songs to the average iPod user, even though many iPods are “full”.

If the record companies really are selling 20 billion songs a year without any DRM at all, as Jobs claims, then the current iTunes model has to change.

Several European countries have sued Apple over the DRM used in iTunes. Last week, the major music publishers held a summit to discuss selling music without DRM. Jobs is telling these countries that Apple isn’t the impediment — it’s the music publishers that wanted Apple to use DRM in the first place. Of course, there’s more than one side to every story.

Will computers know that daylight savings time starts early this year?

billso — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:32:11 +0000

While this isn’t as bad as the y2K problem, and we don’t observe Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the State of Hawaii, Canada and the the rest of the United States will start DST early and end it late. Clocks, computers and other devices will need to be patched or replaced to handle this man-made change in the natural order of things.
March 11 is the official start of DST for 2007, as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. That’s the second Sunday of March. DST will last until the first Sunday of November (November 4, 2007).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/31/AR2007013102318.html?nav=hcmodule

According to the Washington Post, US and international companies are only now planning for the change. Microsoft Windows, MacOS and other operating systems include functions to handle DST, but these are keyed to the traditional start and end dates (the first Sunday of April and last Sunday of October).

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rtrent/archive/2007/01/19/one-dst-patch-angle-you-may-not-have-thought-of.aspx

Microsoft states that they will have patches ready by early March. Cutting it a bit close, huh? According to Rod Trent, Microsoft’s DST rebasing patch will cause existing Outlook and Exchange appointments to be off by one hour.

Microsoft has a page of DST-related information at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx

That page includes this little gem: Mexico will NOT observe the new US DST guidelines, but Canada WILL. Canada agreed to follow the US changes last year, but Mexico didn’t.
Among the business-related topics mentioned by the Post are ATMs. Banks time-date stamp every transaction, and on many ATMs, the electronic clock is built into the machine. So ATM transactions that involve Mexico in some way will be affected by the new guidelines.
Airlines have to coordinate schedules across multiple time zones and jurisdictions.
Most of the world is only now figuring out that the US and Canada are changing their implementation of DST, which most of the world refers to as summer time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

AITP meeting on February 8

billso — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 22:08:33 +0000

I’m a director of the Association of Information Technology Professionals’ (AITP) Honolulu chapter.

Last week in my IS 6100-E class, I mentioned that these meetings are great places to meet and network with local employers who are looking for IT-savvy professionals.

Our February 8 lunch meeting features Don Thorsen of Mitel. His topics will include videoconferencing, mobile devices and Microsoft Live Communications Server.

The meeting will be held at the Hale Koa Hotel in beautiful Waikiki from 11:30 am to 1 pm next Thursday. Reservations are required and should be made before February 5. Student discounts, meeting fees, parking fees, and other information are available at http://www.aitphawaii.org/mtg0702.htm

Please note that AITP meetings are NOT and will never be a requirement in my courses. These are optional activities for students who have the time, funds and interest to attend.

Michael Dell replaces Rollins as Dell CEO

billso — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:20:45 +0000

According to ZDNet, founder Michael Dell has returned to the CEO slot at his own company.

This was a surprise to me, as former CEO Kevin Rollins represented Dell on stage at a major Microsoft Vista launch event in New York City on Monday, as shown in this New York Times article.

Bloomberg News also discussed the event here.

Rollins is on the left in this picture from the event. He does look a bit unhappy, doesn’t he? Also in this picture, from left to right: Dean Maloney of Intel, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Hisatsugu Nonaka of Toshiba, Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro Devices and Todd Bradley of Hewlett-Packard.

Brian Caufield of The Red Herring has an interesting article that poses an important question: has Dell run out of ideas?

Competitive advantage and key success factors

billso — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:56:30 +0000

This week my IS 6100 students should be reading chapters 1, 2 and 13. My IS 7010 students are well into the third module of their textbook.

In this unusually long blog posting, I’ll discuss two important concepts regarding strategic management: competitive advantage and key success factors.

Microsoft has launched a marketing web site for the new Windows Vista operating system, which was released to the US retail market yesterday. It’s an unusual site. The spokesman, Demitri Martin, barely mentions computers, Microsoft or Windows Vista. The episodes, skits and comments focus on how complicated his life has become. By implication, Windows Vista offers his character hope for a less stressful life.

This is the first online ad campaign that I’ve seen with its own RSS feed, available at http://www.clearification.com/rss/. The RSS icon is also visible in the ad.

Of course, it helps to view the campaign at http://clearification.com with Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer. I haven’t tried the site in Firefox or Safari, but my experience is that Microsoft’s web sites work best in IE.

As Patricia Winters Lauro of the New York times pointed out yesterday at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/business/media/30adco.html, this campaign is a stark contrast to the introduction of Windows 95 almost 12 years ago. Jay Leno was the “face” of that campaign.

Apple’s spokesmen, Justin Long and John Hodgman, are featured in hilarious television commercials that can be viewed at http://apple.com/getamac

(And just for the record, I use a Mac and a Windows PC.)

For my IS 6100 students, these marketing campaigns are interesting examples of concepts discussed in Chapter 2. (My IS 7010 students might find this blog post helpful, too.) Microsoft is the dominant provider of desktop computer software. Some of Microsoft’s competitive advantages rely upon the ubiquity of the company’s products and services. Almost every business uses Microsoft Office. Most universities in the US have standardized on this productivity suite, too. Most personal computers come with a version of Microsoft Windows preinstalled.

A competitive advantage gives an organization enhanced capabilities for developing and delivering strategic value. Companies should have several competitive advantages that are complementary, difficult to copy, and sustainable over the long-term. I believe that companies rent, not own, their competitive advantages.

Apple has managed to increase its market share with the successful introduction of Intel-powered computers to its product line. Apple has developed and maintained competitive advantages in the areas of usability and product design. The Macintosh and iPod are two good examples.

Over the last year, Apple has used its new Intel CPUs to offer enhanced compatibility with the Wintel (Windows/Intel) computing platform. There are several software packages available that let Intel Macintosh users install and run Microsoft Windows applications. Apple’s Boot Camp, Parallels and CrossOver Mac are three examples that I’ve evaluated. Some of these packages run faster than traditional Windows-based computers.

It’s no surprise that Apple’s market share in the desktop computer industry has risen over the last few years. By one recent estimate cited in http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/1788/, Apple now has 5% of the US desktop computer market.

At the same time, both Microsoft and Apple must address several key success factors (KSFs) in the desktop computer industry. Over time, a company’s competitive advantage may be copied, rendered less valuable, or otherwise converted into KSFs. Companies rent their competitive advantages (CAs), just as companies rent market share. Neither CAs nor KSFs can be bought and owned outright.

There’s a good list of KSFs for online retailers at http://retailindustry.about.com/library/bl/bl_yg0309.htm

Keep in mind that in most industries, there are only a few KSFs, and these tend to show up in SWOT analyses as strengths or weaknesses of specific companies in that industry. Here’s a PDF file that summarizes some important ideas about SWOT analysis. There’s some more information on pp 419–420 in the IS 6100 textbook. I’ve also posted a PDF file about SWOT analysis here.

As an example, support for Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices was a novelty in 1998. The original version of Windows 98 shipped without USB support. To this day, many hardware manufacturers include install disks with Windows 98 drivers for their devices.

Today, USB support is considered essential in any desktop computer and operating system. Customers might ignore a computer manufacturer or operating system supplier that does not include USB support in their products, unless that product has compelling features that obviate the need for USB.

My favorite example of a KSF is in the elevator industry. Most building owners and maintenance departments cannot provide specialized service for their building’s elevators. Therefore, elevator companies like Otis and Thyseen-Krupp provide 24/7 repair service. It’s expensive, but it’s necessary to support customers. No one wants to wait for a broken elevator or be stuck in a broken elevator.

Please note that KSFs are more specific versions of critical success factors (CSFs), which are discussed in Chapter 10 of O’Brien & Marakas. (379–380).

Here is a helpful PPT file about the five forces and value chain models. I fixed this link on February 2 at 14:45 HT.

Windows Vista arrives in US stores tomorrow

billso — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:43:22 +0000

Microsoft is releasing Windows Vista, the latest version of its desktop operating system, to US retailers tomorrow, January 30.

The operating system is available at midnight tonight at local CompUSA stores. Customers can also purchase and download the software.

Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post noted in his review that Vista looks much better than previous Windows software, but requires a thoroughly modern personal computer. For some users, it’s less expensive to buy a Vista-ready computer than to upgrade their RAM, graphics card and hard drive.

I don’t recommend installing Windows Vista until Service Pack 1 is available. Companies should delay their upgrade until their business and enterprise software vendors provide Windows Vista support. Even then, the average user doesn’t need the extra features.

See this link for more information: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012900615.html

Microsoft wanted to pay for Wikipedia edits

billso — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:24:36 +0000

I like Wikipedia. Really, I do. It’s a handy general reference, and I’ve included Wikipedia links in some of my blog postings, especially when they involve technical terms and IT standards.

I cringe when I see my graduate students cite Wikipedia articles in their written assignments, however. At best, these are secondary references. Most of the time, a paper that includes more cites to Wikipedia and Webopedia than to the course textbook is a sign that the student hasn’t dug very deep. We expect graduate students to find and cite authoritative sources, not encyclopedia articles or dictionary entries.

http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/01/an_interesting_offer.html

Rick Jelliffe, an Australian CTO and an expert on XML, revealed in a blog post on Monday that Microsoft (MSFT) managers wanted to pay him to edit at least one Wikipedia article.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/microsoft-snared-in-wikigate/2007/01/24/1169594329590.html

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/brierdudley/2007/01/the_guy_behind_microsofts_wiki.html

Doug Mahugh identified himself as the Microsoft manager who contacted Jelliffe.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/01/24/ap3358497.html

Microsoft spokesperson Catherine Brooker claimed that article on OpenXML had several contributions from IBM employees and was biased against Microsoft.

No money changed hands, and Jelliffe never edited anything. Of course, the mess has hit the fan.

Paying for Wikipedia edits appears to violate Wikipedia’s culture and policies. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales suggested that Microsoft commission and post a white paper that addressed the company’s concerns. Wikipedia users could then reference that paper in the Wikipedia article.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/1/23/6733

Brad Patrick, a Wikipedia lawyer, stated that that Microsoft’s plan was unethical. “This is a hot issue, and Microsoft wanting to soften the edges on an entry raises concerns about the perceived independence of both Wikipedia and Microsoft.”

I’ve read that Another Wikipedia board member contacted Jelliffee to offer support and encouragement. If I can find the link to that article, I’ll post it.

When companies start paying for Wikipedia edits, it’s time to question the site’s authority. I have a little experience in editing Wikipedia. I do visit Wikipedia once or twice a month to edit articles about my university, Honolulu, my favorite sports teams and comic book characters. Sometimes the changes stick. Sometimes my changes have been edited, improved or removed by other users. I’m fine with that.

http://hp.sodeman.com/references.htm

As I discussed in my page about finding good references, peer review is a helpful tool that academics use in their writing. Wikipedia’s version of peer review allows almost anyone to change an article, regardless of their knowledge on that subject.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/01/24/national/a120616S70.DTL

If legions of public relations professionals are poised to wage daily editorial battles over Wikipedia articles, then Wikipedia will have to adapt.

In the meantime, I’m telling my students not to cite Wikipedia in their assignments.

Federal study claims one percent of Web files are porn

billso — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:49:17 +0000

From USA Today and news.com: According to a Federal study, approximately 1% of files listed on Google and Microsoft search engines are pornographic.The study was commission by Federal lawyers to support the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. COPA required web sites to collect a credit card number before allowing a user to view adult materials. The law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1998. A 2000 law that required libraries and schools to install and use Web filters was upheld by the Court in 2003. An earlier 1996 law that banned online pornography was overturned by the court in 1997, in part because the law employed a broad definition of porn.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supports filters, claiming that highly restrictive filters can block a majority of adult web sites. However, many porn sites are operated outside the United States, and porn sites tend to use popular non-pornographic keywords in attempts to direct new users to the sites.

Yahoo teams with US newspapers on web services, ads and news content

billso — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:35:02 +0000

From the New York Times and Yahoo: Yahoo has announced a partnership to share news and advertising content with 176 US newspapers. Several newspaper publishers are included, including Belo, Cox, Hearst, MediaNews and Scripps. The largest newspapers in the deal are the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Daily News. The deal covers 38 states and a combined daily circulation of 12 million readers.Google had announced an advertisement placement deal with 50 US newspapers earlier this month. Local advertising is a fragmented market, with national and regional advertisers exerting more pressure on small newspapers for simplified media purchasing and consolidated reporting.

The new Yahoo agreement started with an existing deal among HotJobs, Medianews and Belo. HotJobs is owned by Yahoo, and holds a 9% market share among online job sites. CareerBuilder and Monster.com are virtually tied for first place with 32 and 31 percent shares respectively.

The newspapers will use Yahoo’s technology and content to place ads, maps, calendars, local listings, and search features on their own web sites. News stories from the local newspapers will be posted on Yahoo, and local newspapers will have access to Yahoo’s news content.

“The bottom line is that these newspaper companies have decided to answer the ‘friend or foe’ question that all traditional media companies face regarding online players,” wrote UBS analyst Brian Schachter. “They have decided it is better to be friends with Yahoo.”

This is an interesting business model that has already failed in earlier attempts. Yahoo may be able to learn from other companies’ mistakes.

An earlier attempt by newspapers to form an Internet alliances failed after three years. The New Century Alliance was formed by the New York Times, Times Mirror, Gannet and Knight-Ridder in 1995 as an early entrant in online news content and advertising. The owners dissolved New Century in 1998, before Yahoo, Google and other sites found their online news audiences.

Microsoft also attempted to develop its own local content sites in the 1990s. Sidewalk bled cash as Microsoft struggled with establishing relationships and branding in major US cities.

The top 10 most dangerous online activities

billso — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:02:32 +0000

This post first appeared on my old log at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=219

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/2006/10/25/microsoft-mozilla-malware-ent-tech-cx_sb_1025smallbizresource.html

From Forbes and SmallBizResource.com, here’s a good article about everyday mistakes that employees make online. How many of these mistakes have you made? Read the article and find out the dangers, and how to avoid these errors.

1. Clicking on e-mail attachments from unknown senders
2. Installing unauthorized applications
3. Turning off or disabling automated security tools
4. Opening HTML or plain-text messages from unknown senders
5. Surfing gambling, porn or other dicey Web sites
6. Giving out passwords, tokens or smart cards
7. Random surfing of unknown, untrusted Web sites
8. Attaching to any old Wi-Fi network
9. Filling out Web scripts, forms or registration pages
10. Participating in chat rooms or social networking sites

The virtuous cycle

billso — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:50:04 +0000

This article appeared in my old blog at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=206

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060208_760555.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

Peter Burrows of Business Week reports on Cisco’s recent performance. Cisco is the dominant vendor of networking equipment worldwide. I think of Cisco as the Internet’s plumber. Your packets moved through a Cisco switch or router at some point in their journey.

If you use a Linksys router or network appliance at home, you’re using a Cisco product. Cisco purchased Linksys in 2003, and has been integrating operations and marketing ever since. Linksys is positioned as an entry point for SOHO (small office and home office) users who need networking equipment, and who may need higher-powered Cisco equipment when their business expands. At the same time, Cisco engineers have been remaking the Linksys line, using best practices from Cisco’s enteprise networking equipment.

A virtuous cycle occurs when a company moves from one “favorable circumstance” to another over time. Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, Intel, Google and Apple have all benefited from the creation and maintenance of their own v-cycles.

One might argue that Nintendo and Sony are risking their v-cycles, at least in the video game market. Wii and PlayStation 3 each have their own issues.

Cisco has apparently built its own v-cycle around advanced networking technologies, including VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol). VoIP telephones are connected to an RJ-45 jack, not a telephone RJ-11 jack. Remember that RJ-11 also provides electrical power for telephones.

So how does a VoIP telephone get enough power to operate? Users could plug the telephone into an AC outlet, but there’s a neater way. Through a handy protocol called Power over Ethernet (PoE), special switches can connect these phones to the network and deliver 13 watts of power, which is enough to keep a telephone and a small display screen running.

PoE can’t deliver enough power to keep a laptop computer running, which is one reason why laptop computers need their own power source — either AC current or batteries.

PoE features aren’t built into most older network equipment, so any company that wants to deploy VoIP in its offices has to buy PoE switches from Cisco, Foundry or another hardware vendor.

PoE and VoIP adoption are powering Cisco’s virtuous cycle — at least for now.

Ban the CAPS LOCK key?!?

billso — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 17:18:17 +0000

Engadget reports on a Dutch user’s campaign to remove the CAPS LOCK key from the standard keyboard layout. You can read his blog at http://capsoff.blogspot.com/

This is a fine xample of a usability issue. Mac OS and Windows will prompt a user if CAPS LOCK is on while they are in a password field.

I do use CAPS LOCK once in a while to leave quick comments or reminders for myself as I’m writing a long document.

But the CAPS LOCK key is a necessity for some users. Removing the key seems like an extreme solution. Remapping the keyboard is easy, and we’ve been doing this for years to support multiple languages.

I remember when Microsoft added the Windows and property keys to the standard keyboard in 1995. It took a couple of years, but most manufacturers added these keys to the left and right of the space bar.

I still see laptop keyboards that place these two keys in odd corners. Again, it’s a usability issue for me. Fortunately, Honolulu has a couple of well-stocked computer stores, so I can check out computers and their keyboards before I recommend products to clients and friends.

Still running Windows 98?

billso — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 01:48:31 +0000

From the Washington Post: Microsoft has finally ended Windows 98 product support in North America. Rob Pergoro of the Washington Post discusses some inexpensive, legal alternatives to a Windows XP upgrade.

Anyone who is still running Windows 98 needs a reality check. The first version of Windows 98 didn’t support USB, and this is a key reason many users have upgraded over the years.

Now that Microsoft has stopped issuing patches and security updates, any computer running Windows 98 is a potential entry point for viruses, worms, and Trojans.

One final reason: any computer that is running Windows 98 is likely to be several years old right now. On average, desktop computers seem to last a few years. Notebook computers have an even shorter life span. Yet according to this article, 3 percent of computers are still running this operating system.

Windows 98 is an example of legacy software that is more of a burden than a benefit in most organizations.

Free antivirus programs

billso — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 18:33:28 +0000

You may want to print this post and save the hard copy for later use. If your computer does become infected by a virus, you might not be able to retrieve this information.

On one of the hobby web sites that I visit, I noticed a forum thread this morning. Several users complained that a web ad posted on that site gave their computers a virus infection — specifically, Trojan.Ducky.B or Bloodhound.Exploit.56. (Yes, there are several groups that name the same viruses, and it can be confusing.)

Web ad brokers such as ValueClick are supposed to provide clean, free web ads to sites. Web sites that display the ads earn commissions when users click through the ads. Unfortunately, these ad distribution networks are a sneaky way to infect Windows machines and turn them into zombies.

I don’t offer repair services for my students, but I can point you towards other reliable reosurces. So here’s some advice, no warranty expressed or implied, for home and personal Windows users.

Always consult your organization’s or company’s IT department if it’s their computer, because they already have software and procedures in place for you. Those policies and agreements are usually considered part of your employment contract. Also, their software may be part of a corporate or enterprise system.

I have talked to Windows users who refuse to run a virus program or use Windows Update. I try not to laugh or scold, but their behavior is like walking on the freeway. Sooner or later, if you have a cable modem, DSL, or WiFi connection, you will get hit, and your computer will receive a virus.

My computer’s security systems block several virus attempts every day. I didn’t do anything wrong. These viruses are out “in the wild”, attached to incoming e-mail and hidden on web sites.

Unless you paid for premium service that specifically includes virus infections, your warranty or service plan does not cover virus removal and data recovery. Your computer’s manufacturer and Microsoft won’t provide much help if you call them, especially if you haven’t taken steps to secure your computer.

Check with your Internet Service Provider

A few large Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including EarthLink, Road Runner, Hawaiian Telcom and AOL, provide free antivirus programs and limited support for subscribers. It’s worth checking out before you have a problem.

Why do ISPs give away software that you could buy in a local store? It’s in an ISP’s best interests to do so, as a major virus outbreak can compromise their connection quality and create a spike in call center volume.

Some ISPs and companies use network appliances that scan and clean incoming and outgoing network traffic. These are excellent tools, but they are expensive. Also, it is generally assumed that the final sender or recipient of a message is responsible for scanning it.

If there are viruses in the wild, then why don’t we scan the Internet itself? It makes little sense to scan traffic as it goes through the Internet. If the packets are encrypted, they probably cannot be scanned at all. Also, in the United States, there are regulations and privacy restrictions that prevent the casual snooping of data, except in the interests of national security.

The most compelling argument against a perpetual virus scan of the Internet is the cost. It’s more effective and efficient to place the traps at the points of entry and delivery.

In the end, if it’s your own computer, then it’s your data. This is why organizations and businesses have IT departments — to protect hardware, software and data before something bad happens. See our discussion of disaster recovery for more information.

If your Windows computer is already infected

If your computer is already infected by a virus, and you’re in Honolulu, disconnect the computer from the Internet and shut it down. You don’t want to spread the virus, and restarting the computer might make the situation worse.

If this is your own computer, consider calling a local computer reapir service such as CompUSA or Personal Touch Computers. SuperGeeks has stores on Honolulu, Kailua-Kona and Maui. They will remove the virus infection for a fee.

If this is your company’s computer, report the problem immediately to your IT staff. They will help you remove the virus.

If this is not a corporate computer, and you want to try cleaning it yourself, go to a clean computer, and visit your antivirus vendor’s web site. Here’s an example from Symantec. Some antivirus vendors post free cleaning programs that will disinfect some viruses. Son’t buy and install a new antivirus program on an infected computer. You can download the cleaner to a USB memory stick or other external media. Be sure that media is clean and free of viruses first!

If your antivitus program came with a CD, check the manual. That CD may also be a bootable disk that can be used to clean an infected computer. You may need to read your computer’s manual to change your BIOS settings first.

Windows Update vs Microsoft Update

One way to keep your Windows system secure is to run Windows Update and apply the patches regularly. Microsoft issues a set of patches on the second Tuesday of each month. Check your settings in the Control Panel’s Security Center, if you use Windows XP.

Better yet, do the free upgrade to Microsoft Update. Go to Windows Update, and if you see the Microsoft Update invitation, click on the link. Microsoft Update adds Microsoft Office updates to the patches. You may need your Office installation CDs if you installed that suite from disk.

You do need a legal copy of Windows and Office to qualify — pirated or cracked copies might not receive automatic updates.

Other security tools

I’ve seen one download that might prevent these ad-based infections. It’s called GreenBorder, and it works on Windows to protect Interenet Explorer from exploits. It’s not an antivirus program, so you can use it with your current antivirus setup.

My father tried GreenBorder after reading Walt Mossberg’s recommendation in the WSJ, and dad likes it a lot. I tried it, but I have been using Firefox as my web browser for a couple of years. Its extensions, like GreaseMonkey, give me a lot of control in blocking browser ads.

Another tool that I like is SpywareBlaster. It’s a free download for Windows, but it’s not an “always-on” scanner. This software finds and closes known holes in Internet Explorer and Firefox. I would install, update and run it once a month.

Free antivirus programs

I do meet students who say they can’t afford an antivirus program, or they let their update subscription lapse because it was too expensive.

If you need a free antivirus scanner and subscription, and you subscribe to Earthlink, HawTel, Road Runner, or AOL, see my recommendations above.

If you want to use something else, I can recommend two programs. They are free for home or personal use, and I like them better than McAfee or Norton.

Both programs will automagically update themselves if you set the preferences correctly, and have an always-on connection to the Internet.

freeav.com
avast.com

Only one at a time

Always, always UNINSTALL your previous antivirus before installing a new one, even if you are only “trying out” a new antivirus like avase or FreeeAV.

NEVER, EVER RUN TWO ANTIVIRUS PROGRAMS AT THE SAME TIME ON THE SAME COMPUTER.

I’ve heard users say that two antivirus programs must be better than one. It doesn’t work that way. If you install and run two antivirus scanners on the same computer, they will each act as if the other scanner is a virus. Every antivirus scanning program assumes that it is the only one scanning your computer.

An antivirus scanner works at a privileged level in your operating system, so that it can intercept, access and scan files before other applications can do so. That’s what these scanners are designed to do.

If a second scanner is monitoring the activity, the first scanner’s behavior will appears to be viral. Your files will be caught in the middle, and your computer might not restart properly.

Be aware that some “Interent security” suites like McAfee and Norton include antivirus protection along with software firewalls and other features. You may have to open your security suite and permanently disable its antivirus feature before installing another antivirus program.

Frankly, I would not run a security suite and a separate antivirus program. The risk to my data is too great.

Installing a new antivirus program safely

Download your new antivirus program and save it to your desktop, or to external media such as a USB memory stick.

Don’t run the new antivirus right away. Disable or unplug your Internet connection on the computer that requires the new antivirus program.

I recommend removing your old antivirus program. Disabling it not may not be enough — the new antivirus might recognize the old antivirus, even when the old program is disabled.

Go to the Control Panel and Add/Remove Programs to uninstall your old antivirus program. Restart your computer, then install the new antivirus.

The Dead Formats Society

billso — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 23:05:58 +0000

This article first appeared on my old blog at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=36

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70946–0.html

What happens when your new computer can’t open an file you created or bought years ago?

In IT, we call this a “legacy” issue. See chapter 9 and pages 326–7 for a brief discussion of legacy issues and end user resistance.

I’ve used several different word processors since 1981.

During the first year of my MBA program, our university’s computer lab used Samna Word. Samna was ugly, but it worked. The software had one ridiculous feature — if you swapped the floppy disk while a document was open, Samna would overwrite the new floppy disk’s directory tracks with the old disk’s directory information. This was a fast, effective way to lose every file on both floppy disks.

Between my first and second years, our computer lab switched to WordPerfect, which had a commanding market share at the time. WP couldn’t open Samna documents easily, but we kept Samna around so that users could save their old documents to the WP format. The converted documents still required some cleanup, as Samna’s conversion wasn’t word perfect enough. (rimshot)

File conversion is a common legacy issue for IT departments. If I had to convert my old MBA files today, I’d use Google to find a conversion service like this one. They’ll even process a 5.25 inch floppy disk, which is what I used as an MBA student.

In 1997, such conversion services were difficult to find at a moment’s notice. While I was packing for a cross-country relocation, I gulped down hard, said “goodbye”… and tossed all of my 5.25 inch floppies into a dumpster.

I hadn’t owned a working 5.25 inch floppy drive in years. Those floppy disks were in bad shape, and I didn’t see the point in retaining them. I still have some digital and hard copies of my MBA work, but the original disks are sitting deep inside a landfill in Indiana.

Between 1987 and 1997, I used WordPerfect. I can still open and read the files I created, including my dissertation.

In 1997, I moved from academia to the corporate world, and I switched to Microsoft Word. I’ve been using Word ever since, even though it’s a bulky troll of an application when compared to WordPerfect. Most Windows computers don’t have WordPerfect installed these days.

Microsoft delays Windows Vista launch

billso — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:34:19 +0000

From Money Magazine: Microsoft has announced another delay for the new version of Windows. Windows Vista was supposed to go RTM (release to manufacturing) for the holiday retail season. Consumers will have to wait until early 2007 to buy the software. Some corporate customers may get the new operating system before December. However, most large companies wait until the first service packs are released before buying large quantities of Microsoft products.

Free anti-virus protection for Windows PCs

billso — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:40:48 +0000

Snopes reports that a new mass-mailing worm tells users that they have visited “illegal websites”. This reminded me that it’s time for my regular end-of-term anti-virus spiel.The winter holidays are that special time of year when hard drives “crash” and no one has a recent backup of that final paper or project. Faculty are as guilty of this sin as students, to be honest.

If you are working on a final project and need a quick, free way of backing up the files, open a free Gmail account and mail the files to yourself. if you lose the file on your local computer, you can retrieve the copies you sent to your Gmail account. Gmail provides users with 2.5 GB of disk space, and accepts 10 MB attachments that would choke other mail servers.

I don’t understand why HPU students continue to use Pipeline mail, when it’s so easy to open the Pipeline Mail options and auto-forward every message to their Gmail account.

If you need a good, free anti-virus program for your Windows computer, try Avast. This is what I have used on my home computer for most of 2005, and I like it. Do the free registration and your copy of Avast will automatically update itself with new virus signatures.

Another free anti-virus product is available at FreeAV. I sued to recommend this package, but its update system is a bit clunkier than the Avast implementation .

I’ve been using the beta version of Windows OneCare on my TabletPC since October. This will be a subscription service that offers an anti-virus solution, software firewall that works in both directions, and a data backup utility.

So far, my only complaint is that the program tends to start very slowly when it finds no available network connection at system startup. Occasionally the software firewall gets overzealous and doesn’t notify me that it has blocked a program. But the configuration is relatively easy to change.

The beta appears to be a good free solution. OneCare does its automatic virus and firewall updates quickly, which is a boon. Every two weeks, OneCare prompts me to connect my external hard drive for an automatic data backup. The backup feature also works with optical drives. However, it won’t completely restore your computer from bare metal. If you need that feature, try Norton Ghost.

OneCare is a blatantly obvious attempt at creating a subscription-based revenue stream for SOHO Windows users. For someone who owns one or two computers at home, OneCare should be an easy value-add decision 30 days after a new computer purchase.

If there’s a decent academic discount for a OneCare account with multiple computers, it would be a worthwhile deal. Frankly, I wish Microsoft would make OneCare totally free for university faculty and students when the program goes live next year.

I’ve used my own home backup and firewall systems for years, but that’s a tale for another day.

Post 1510

billso — Mon, 23 Aug 2004 23:36:00 +0000

Tech: Windows XP SP2 is causing major headaches on university campuses. The download is huge, and many universities are banning the service pack until it can be tested thoroughly. The release date did not help matters, as most US universities have little student staffing in early August. IT departments often schedule updates to systems in August, as well as prepare for the return of students and faculty. Microsoft isn’t helping matters. MS is telling universities not to distribute SP2 on CD, unless the universities are prepared to pay extra license fees. So I won’t be passing out SP2 CDs in my classes this fall. Universities that have ordered update CDs won’t get them until early September, which is after many universities start their fall terms.

Post 1475

billso — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:05:00 +0000

Tech: The Guardian discusses Microsoft’s geopolitical incompetence. Windowsx 95 was banned in India because of an error on the Date/Time time zone map. Microsoft included chants from the Koran in a fighting game. The list goes on and on.

Alternatives to Microsoft Office

billso — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 17:11:00 +0000

Tech: Dvorak devotes another column to his hatred of Microsoft Word. I rarely use the program myself, and agree with him that Word should be scrapped and completely rewritten. Frankly, I get nervous just installing MS Office on a computer these days. The process takes too long, when I include all of the service packs and patches that should be applied to fix Microsoft’s security holes.

What to do? I miss WordPerfect, but I don’t keep it installed. I prefer OpenOffice. It’s free and easy to install. OO does most of what Word can do, and includes a PDF converter. But I do encounter documents that require Microsoft Word for proper formatting, so I keep the free Microsoft Word viewer installed and ready for those misfits. It can print, so I can convert a DOC into PDF format no matter what.

OpenOffice doesn’t have anything like Access, unfortunately. So I go to another machine when I need to use a Microsoft database, which isn’t often. Instead of Outlook, I use Thunderbird, another fast and free wonder that handles e-mail. I’m still looking for a decent event and contact manager, though. When my cell phone contract is up in December, I may get a PDA phone.

Post 1465

billso — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 17:08:00 +0000

Tech: John Dvorak continues his lists. Let’s look at the 10 worst PC programs. I remember all of these. Microsoft gets four entries: the truly pathetic Windows 1.0, the original Access (a telecom program!), Bob and OS/2 1.0.

Another column lists the top 10 software packages: MS Basic, Sendmail, Pagemaker, dBase II, Photoshop, MacOS, Mosaic, Apache, WordStar and VisiCalc. I would include AutoCAD and WinZIP.

Post 1446

billso — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 19:55:00 +0000

Tech: ZDnet has 10 tips for corporate document management. For home users, Microsoft has 7 tips that are more specific. Thanks to Tablet PCs Weblog.

Post 1432

billso — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 16:36:00 +0000

From a joking friend:

Thanks to all my friends who sent me such important emails in 2003 and 2004! It’s so wonderful that you included me in your quest to inform! Because of all of you:

I stopped drinking Coca-Cola after I found out that it’s good for removing toilet stains.

I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.

I smell awful, but thank goodness I stopped using deodorant because they cause cancer.

I don’t leave my car in any parking lot even though I sometimes have to walk about seven blocks, for fear that someone might drug me with a perfume sample and then try to rob me.

I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they will ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.

I stopped consuming several foods for fear that the estrogen they contain may turn me gay.

I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat feces and urine.

When I go to parties, I now don’t mix with anybody, for fear that someone will take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

I went bankrupt from bounced checks that I made, expecting the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL were supposed to send me when I participated in their special e-mail program.

It’s weird, though, that my new free cell phone never arrived, and neither did the passes for my paid vacation to Disney. But I am positive that all this is because of the chain I broke or forgot to follow and I got a curse from hell.

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 1200 people in the next ten seconds, a bird will crap on you today at 7:00 PM.

Windows XP Starter Edition is worse than DOS

billso — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 16:28:00 +0000

Tech: Microsoft has done it again. What were they thinking? According to Gartner, Windows XP Starter Edition is a non-starter, and will actually encourage customers to get a pirated copy of Windows. XP SE is the version that MS developed for the Asian market, as a response to Linux and software piracy. What a bargain! XP SE can’t run more than 3 programs at a time. It has no user accounts, so everyone runs as root. Worst of all, the OS can’t handle hardware upgrades. If you add more RAM, the OS won’t recognize the new memory. I got better performance running DOS in 1989.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 is available

billso — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 20:26:00 +0000

Tech: If you’re desperate to download Windows XP Service Pack 2, you can try this link to Microsoft. You can turn on Automatic Update and just wait a couple of weeks to get the service pack.

There are other ways to get your 272391 KB of update goodness, including FileMirrors and BitTorrent. Here’s some background on the P2P efforts and Microsoft’s response.

Do NDAs mean anything in India?

billso — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 16:41:00 +0000

Tech: Jolly Technologies, which sells printing software, announced that a contractor at their Indian outsourcing office used Yahoo mail to steal source code and documentation for one of the company’s main products. She did sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), not that it means much in India. Meanwhile, Microsoft says they did use Indian subcontractors for Visual J#.Net and Services for Unix, but not on “core” features of Longhorn.

Post 1365

billso — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 20:39:00 +0000

Tech: Mike Magee of the Inquirer recounts the years he’s spent installing Microsoft Windows. I feel his pain! The article brought back my memories of configuring BlueMAX so that I could have 633 MB of RAM under PC-DOS, for example. I needed that much base memory to run Windows 3.0 reasonably well. I beta-tested OS/2, only to see Windows 95 crush IBM’s operating system.

adamga works at Microsoft and has his own development stories to share.

Post 1338

billso — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 17:23:00 +0000

Tech: Jeff Maurone has a long, fawning post on his dinner at Bill Gates’ home. I’m sure Jeff will stay at Microsoft and change the world… after he drinks enough of their Kool-Aid.

Labor group accuses Microsoft of outsourcing Windows programming work

billso — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 00:28:00 +0000

Tech: The Seattle Times reports: ” A Seattle labor group said it has new evidence that Microsoft is shifting high-level work to foreign contractors, including work on the next version of Windows.”

The security implications of this news are staggering. Does the Federal government really want Microsoft to use foeign nationals to write a next-generation operating system? The Feds are already locked-in to Windows. Maybe its time to look at open source more seriously. At least the Feds can vet the code.

How I protect my Windows boxen from email evil

billso — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 20:28:00 +0000

Tech: E-mail is not dead yet according to the CEO of ReturnPath. His company is the official e-mail change of address contractor for the US Postal Service. They also help companies match old and new e-mail addresses. I usually get an e-mail or two every month with some marketer that wants to “reconnect” with me. And I almost always say “no”.

IMHO, e-mail is still broken, and badly so. Spam filters provide some relief, but an alarming number of zombie PCs on the consumer broadband network continue to send most of the spam. ISPs should cut off user accounts that host zombie PCs, and require the user to repair their computer before getting online.

For my part, I’ve done the following:

The only time I use Internet Explorer is when I do a Windows Update. Otherwise, I leave the security settings at High, so I can’t even fill out a form in IE. The cache and auto-complete options are disabled.
When Windows XP SP2 goes gold, I’ll install it. The beta is working well on my test box. In the meantime, I check Windows Update at least once a week on each box, and I’ve enabled automatic downloading of updates.
I use other web browsers like Firefox for my web browsing. Firefox is fast, free, and relatively safe. It also has some great extensions that add nice features.
I stopped using Outlook Express and Outlook years ago. These clients are memory pigs and security nightmares.
Instead, I use Thunderbird as my primary e-mail client. It’s still in beta, but it works well. I can always use webmail clients when I’m away from my machines.
HTML in e-mail is a bad idea, and I do my best not to send out HTML formatted e-mail. I usually use plaintext, although Thunderbird’s default settings are still a bit strange.
I disable HTML formatting of incoming mail in my e-mail clients. I’ll miss your pretty formatting and bouncing smilies, but I’m less likely to load the webbugs and exploits that malware and spammers insert in messages.
I use SpamAssassin on my e-mail servers, and have added a block list from Bill Stearns. My SpamAssassin blocklist is here. Server-side blocking takes more time and skill to configure, but it’s a much better approach if you check your e-mail from several different computers. A client-side spam filter will only work on one computer.
I run software and hardware firewalls on my home computers. If you have DSL or a cable modem, and you don’t have a router or NAT box, you are living dangerously.
I use a free anti-virus program on all my computers, and do a deep virus scan every month. My virus scanner also checks incoming e-mails and their attachments.
I scan my computers with programs like SpywareBlaster and Ad Aware. Both are free.

The sad truth is that I’d have an easier time with security if I ran Linux on all of my computers. There just aren’t a lot of malware and virus threats on Linux boxes yet. I rarely have to do any security-related maintenance on my Linux boxes.

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