Google and Microsoft - With Problems

Widespread Google outages rattle users

Many people found Google's search site was extremely slow or inaccessible Thursday, and other reports pointed to troubles with other properties including YouTube, Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Maps, Google Docs, AdSense, and Blogger.

Microsoft plugs 14 PowerPoint security holes

Microsoft has slapped a massive band-aid on its PowerPoint presentation software to cover at least 14 documented security vulnerabilities.

Is the Free Web About to Expire?

It's finally happening. The foundation upon which the Web is built—oodles and oodles of free content and services—is about to crumble. It hasn't happened yet, but the signs that it soon will are all there.

Internet Explorer 8: Nine Things You Didn't Know You Could Do

Microsoft got many things right with Internet Explorer 8, and one of them was the way it made most of IE8's niftiest features easily accessible. You won't have to explore the menus very deeply to find new features, but we've put together some tips about features that you may not have noticed, and we've added one important tip that Microsoft won't tell you about at all—how to add powerful ad blocking to IE8. Read on for the details.

PhotoScape - Free software

PhotoScape is an all-in-one style photo editor with fun and ease of use. Major capabilities are: viewer, editor, batch editor, page, combine, animated GIF, print, splitter, screen capture, color picker, rename, raw converter, resizing, brightness/color/white-balance adjustment, backlight correction, frames, balloons, text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal and blooming. PhotoScape has been used for two years and is expanding its features continuously.

Massive Fine for Intel

EU hits Intel with $1.45 billion antitrust fine

Intel has been fined more than 1 billion euros by the European Commission for violating antitrust legislation, following a lengthy investigation prompted by complaints made by its chipmaking rival Advanced Micro Devices. Intel is being fined 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) for engaging in illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude competitors from the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units (CPUs), the Commission said in a statement Wednesday.

The shape of the coming Netbook revolution

Tomorrow's portables won't just be smaller, lighter, and cheaper; they could also carve out a whole new niche in computing

Contrasting Windows: New feature comparison

This chart provides a rundown of some of the major features introduced in each Windows iteration, as well as a quick look at the minimum hardware requirements for XP, Vista, and 7.

Something in the air kills flu virus

A British company continues to offer a portable decontamination device that should come as breath of fresh air to a flu-weary public. In fact the unit duplicates the ability of "outdoor fresh air" to destroy a wide range of airborne viruses and bacteria including the H5N1, influenza, and SARS, all within minutes of contact, according to Tri--Air Developments.

New service tracks missing laptops for free

Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, have found a way to give you a shot at getting your life back. On Monday, they plan to launch a new laptop tracking service, called Adeona that is free and private.

Google Keeping Busy…As is Microsoft

Microsoft: Windows 7 available in time for holidays

Microsoft will make Windows 7 available to businesses and consumers in time for the typically busy holiday shopping season in the fourth quarter of the year, according to company officials.

Google conducting Netbook usability study

Google is soliciting Netbook users for a usability study, as rumors of Android-powered Netbooks continue to grow.

Google launches first TV ads

Google has launched its first TV advertising campaign across a range of US networks to promote Chrome, its web browser.  Chrome launched last September in a direct bid to lure users away from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Google has famously avoided traditional marketing routes in the past, however it is now desperate to promote Chrome.

The four stages of the average Twitter user

There’s a strange phenomenon that happens almost every time someone joins Twitter. They hate it. At least at first. But many of the people who once hated Twitter — or at least, didn’t quite get it in the beginning — are now many of its most active users and raving fans. So what’s going on here?

Five Best Journaling Tools

Public declarations and diatribes have their place, but sometimes you need a private space for your thoughts, dreams, and ramblings. Whether you crave a digital or analog tool, you'll find it in this Hive Five.  My personal hands-down winner is Microsoft OneNote.  I use it many many times a day.

Windows 7 First Big Boo-Boo

Windows 7 patches, both fake and real, in the hopper

Microsoft has made available a patch to a Windows 7 bug in the Release Candidate (RC) and is preparing to roll out some “fake” test patches to verify Windows 7’s automatic-updating abilities this week. Microsoft posted on May 8 an update that fixes incorrect access control list (ACL) settings on the root of the system drive in the 32-bit RC version of the product.

15 things you need to know about Windows 7

It has been said by a few that Windows 7 isn't very different from Vista. That assumption, however, would be a mistake. The reality is that Windows 7 is packed with new developments – it's just that most people aren't talking about them.

Sirius XM sticks it to subscribers

The family plan package went from $6.99 to $8.99 a month and there's a monthly $2.99 fee to receive Sirius XM stations over the Internet. That service was previously free.

Wolfram Alpha shows data in a way Google can't

Wolfram Alpha is like a cross between a research library, a graphing calculator, and a search engine. But does Wolfram Research's "computational knowledge engine," set to debut publicly later this month, live up to its hype as a Web site that Google needs to be afraid of?

Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities – Windows

It's the little things that make a Windows system great—like utilities that use less than 10MB of memory to make your life easier. Here are 10 apps that pack a lot of greatness into very little space.

Getting Ready for Windows 7

What to expect from Windows 7

This in-depth article discusses most aspects of the new Windows Operating System....including hardware and drivers, the Desktop, Start Menu, Task Bar, Explorer, search, security and networking.

Is Your PC Ready for Windows 7? This Tool Lets You Know

Microsoft has released the beta version of its Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, a free utility that tells you if your PC is ready to run Windows 7. It scans your computer, checking internal components, external peripherals, and programs, and alerts you to potential compatibility issues.

Five simple PC security tips

Maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist, but I think you can stay safe without spending all your spare time doing research, installing updates, and generally becoming a PC-security expert. Here are five relatively easy ways to improve your security.

An expert's guide to YouTube

Video-sharing site YouTube is massively popular and incredibly simple to use, but also has a few powerful features that are tucked away. This guide is to help you learn how to use some of these advanced features and to serve as a simple reference page.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

A free disk imaging software to back up your C: drive, including your operating system. If your hard drive crashes, restore your disk image to a new drive and you are back up and running in no time.

Free Photo Resizing Software – Works Great!

Cybercriminals use fake search engines to spread malware

Cybercriminals have moved on from search engine optimization techniques and are now creating fake search sites designed solely to direct Web surfers to pages hosting malware, Panda Security warned on Wednesday.

Free Windows 7 to end early with shutdowns

Microsoft will take a heavy-handed approach to encouraging people to upgrade from the RC, with bi-hourly shutdowns beginning March 1, 2010. You just knew there had to be a catch.

Why Tech Today Is Boring - John C Dvorak

Ever since the tech scene hit the skids in 2000, nothing exciting has happened—and you have to wonder how, after 25 years of growing thrills (1975 to 2000), things just died on the vine. There is no one cause of the continuous funk, yet four things stand out as causative.

Dirty little secrets of the keyboard revealed

Next time you are eating at your desk, try not to think of multitude of germs lurking on your keyboard — along with some other unpleasant debris.

FastStone Photo Resizer - Free

FastStone Photo Resizer is an image converter / resizer intended to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermarks to images in a quick and easy batch mode. Drag and Drop mouse operation is well supported.  It is a winner!

The New Kindle and How to Better Use Your Batteries

Amazon's big-screen Kindle DX makes its debut

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the much-anticipated large-screen Kindle e-reader in a lecture hall Wednesday at the downtown Pace University. Called the Kindle DX, the new device is geared toward readers of personal and professional documents, newspapers, and magazines--and textbooks, a potentially huge target market.

Windows 7 still allows unsafe files to be disguised as safe files

The good folks at F-Secure uncover the first Windows 7 security fail … and it’s a classic. The issue in question is nothing new. In fact, it’s been around for so long that I didn’t even bother checking to see if it had been fixed.

The state of Linux - Is it ready for the "average" user?

I’ve written quite a lot about Linux in the past, but quite a lot has changed since then.

Top 10 Battery Hacks, Tips, And Tricks

The gadgets you love don't always love you back—at least when it comes to battery life. But you can get more from your laptop, your iPod, your phone, and other devices with these 10 techniques.

Glary Registry Repair 3 (Windows), from GlarySoft

(Note: this is a new version) Glarysoft Registry Repair is a free, advanced registry cleaner for Windows that allows you to safely scan, clean, and repair registry problems. Problems with the Windows registry are a common cause of Windows crashes and error messages. Highly recommended.

Govt Red Tape Helps Spread Conficker Virus

Feds' red tape left medical devices infected with computer virus

The Conficker Internet virus has infected important computerized medical devices, but governmental red tape interfered with their repair, an organizer of an antivirus working group told Congress on Friday. Rodney Joffe, one of the founders of an unofficial organization known as the Conficker Working Group, said that government regulations prevented hospital staff from carrying out the repairs.

Maker: First Android Netbook to cost about $250

The first Netbook computer running the Google Inc.-backed Android mobile operating system on a low-cost ARM chip could become available to customers within three months.  Some market experts predict that the combination of ARM and Android could help usher in an era of sub-$200 Netbooks with 12-hour battery life and creative designs highly tailored for different consumers.

Microsoft mum on Vista plans after Windows 7 launch

How long does Microsoft plan to keep selling copies of its Windows Vista operating system after the upcoming launch of Windows 7? The company isn't saying. With previous versions of Windows, Microsoft used a transition period when old and new versions of Windows were available to help corporate customers manage their transition to the new version of the operating system. This time Microsoft aims to put the ghosts of its Vista troubles to rest as soon as possible, and could stop selling Vista as soon as Windows 7 is released.

Presto! In ten seconds, you've got an Internet desktop.

Have you ever had the need to boot your laptop in a Starbucks, an airport lounge, or a buddy’s house, but don’t want to go through the agonizing multi-minute procedure of starting up your operating system with all of its managed software and utilities?

Desktop gives your Firefox bookmarks a new look

Desktop is a new experimental Firefox extension that lets you create a customized start page with quick access to some of your bookmarks.

Errata for A Friday

Acer exec: Windows 7 available on Oct. 23

Windows 7 will be ready a bit early, according to an executive at the world's third-largest PC maker, Acer. On Thursday Acer UK marketing director Bobby Watkins told tech blog Pocket-lint.com to expect the new operating system by fall.

Browser wars could improve productivity, but the enterprise still loves IE6

This news may come as a shocker to the tech savvy folks in the house, but 60 percent of companies use Internet Explorer 6 as their default browser, according to Forrester Research.

An Unofficial User's Guide to Gmail

Think you know everything there is to know about the popular Web-based e-mail application from Google? Think again.

A spring guide to help you clean out the clutter

Toss, reuse, sell, recycle. When it comes to getting rid of stuff, knowing what to throw out is only part of the equation. You also have to figure out what to do with it. Here’s a guide to getting rid of the things you don’t use, need or even want. Not exactly high tech, but definitely worth a read.

Cucku Backup

Free unlimited Local and Remote Backup. Cucku performs a local backup of your data and then uses Skype to send a secure copy of your data to a trusted friend. It's online backup without the monthly fees or the risks of a central datacenter. Cucku encrypts your files so that your backup partner can't access them or even see the filenames

Windows 7 Release Candidate Now Available

Windows 7 RC1 made available for download

Microsoft made the first release candidate of Windows 7 available for free download on Thursday. In an unprecedented move for the company, the software will run on a user's PC for more than a year.

Swine flu email scams circulating

Opportunistic scammers and spammers are actively exploiting the swine flu buzz across the web by spamvertising links to pharmaceutical scams, and bogus ‘Swine Flu Survival Guides’ using search engine optimization of typosquatted domains related to the outbreak.

Panda introduces cloud-based free antivirus

Panda Security, publishers of Panda Internet Security and Panda Antivirus, is set to take antivirus where it hasn't been yet: into the clouds. Panda Cloud Antivirus beta bets that nearly three years of development can pay off into a better protection system for users. To that end, Panda's willing to make the client free for personal use--even after it leaves beta testing.

FriendFeed rolls out redesign plus list-replacing email features

As you may know by know, I’ve been using the beta since it first rolled out. Now it has been released to the world. Friendfeed is used to aggregate all I do on the social media portion of the web.   I like it a lot

18 cool sites and apps that teach you about space

Few topics interest me more than space. Though I'll admit that I don't know nearly as much as I would like, it has always been my goal to learn about the universe. I bet I'm not alone. That's why I'm sharing this list of 18 space sites. They all offer something neat. And they're all informative.

Firefox, Star Trek, and Zimbra

One week later, Firefox updates again

Mozilla has updated Firefox again, just one week after its last update. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Firefox 3.0.10 fixes a stability problem that also behaved like a security breach.

Windows 7 on a Netbook - My verdict

The author has been running Windows 7 on a Samsung NC10 netbook for some months. With the Windows 7 Release Candidate now leaked, it’s time for a verdict on whether Microsoft’s latest OS is suited to these tiny portable PCs.

Ten innovations inspired by Star Trek

In the latter part of the 20th century, budding scientists had Star Trek for inspiration. From warp fields to flat-screen TVs, Star Trek boldly took its viewers where no programme had taken us before. Among those fans, of course, were the inventors, scientists and all-round boffins of today.

How to Get In-Flight Wi-Fi - Features

Each of the major airlines is currently either running a trial of in-flight Wi-Fi or has already installed the service on many of its aircraft. Some airlines charge for the convenience, while others offer it as a complimentary service. Interested in using Wi-Fi on your next flight? We compare eight airlines in terms of Wi-Fi availability, Wi-Fi providers, bandwidth speeds, pricing, and future plans.

Zimbra Desktop

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop 1.0 released for Linux, Mac and Windows. Is it time to dump Outlook or Thunderbird and get ALL your email in one place?

Your Windows 7 Questions Answered

Windows 7 Supersite

One of my favorite tech experts, Paul Thurrott, run the SuperSite for Windows. He has put together a list of everything you might ever want to know about Windows 7, including info on the New Windows 7 Release Candidate. Worth a view.

Windows 7 to have an 'XP mode'

For some time now, the company has been quietly building a "Windows XP mode" that uses virtualization to allow Windows 7 to easily run applications designed for Windows XP. According to sources familiar with the product, the application compatibility mode is built on the Virtual PC technology that Microsoft acquired in 2003, when it scooped up the assets of Connectix.

Channeling TV shows to the Web

Recent activity seems to suggest that cable companies and big media companies finally understand that the Web is their future. People want to watch what they want when they want. And the Internet provides an ideal way to connect people to their favorite content.

Netbooks: The New Norm for Laptops

Lance Ulanoff railed against netbooks as a marketing ploy, but that doesn't diminish the very real impact they've had on the computing market today and will have in the future. In fact, netbooks have so altered consumer expectations, it's unlikely things will ever be the same again. Is this a bad thing?

Getting started with podcasts in iTunes

I love podcasts. Not a day goes by that you won't catch me listening to episodes of my favorites in the car or while out exercising. And the most shocking thing about podcasts? They're free! Some of the best entertainment and journalism in the world is free for the taking, instantly available, and ready to take on the go.

Special Edition – Swine Flu Epidemic

Swine Flu: Questions and Answers - ABC News

The situation with swine flu is rapidly evolving, but here are some answers to questions on the top issues. Get the latest from the U.S. Centers on Disease Control and Prevention here: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

HOW TO: Track Swine Flu Online

This week, news broke of a new and fatal swine flu on the Mexico-U.S. border. It has quickly turned into a growing outbreak and possible pandemic. Knowing about these important and growing cases is vital to public health. Fortunately, there are several useful online resources that track health information and disease outbreaks.

Swine Flu - Google Maps

If you are concerned about the latest outbreak of Swine Flue, here is a Google Map showing the locations of where it has been detected

Is convenience worth a Google toolbar?

It will only work on Internet Explorer, and only in the U.S. right now, but if you're looking to extend the same timesaving search convenience of Google's mobile apps to your desktop, the new Google Toolbar from Google Labs will do it.

Tree Style Tab - Free Firefox Add-on

This provides tree-style tab bar, like a folder tree of Windows Explorer. New tabs opened from links (or etc.) are automatically attached to the current tab. If you often use many many tabs, it will help your web browsing because you can understand relations of tabs. Try it, you you may really like it.

Conficker Continues to Cause Problems

Conficker's estimated economic cost? $9.1 billion

In a recent blog post, the Cyber Secure Institute claims that based on their previous studies into the average cost of such malware attacks, the economic loss due to the Conficker worm could be as high as $9.1 billion.

Conficker infected critical hospital equipment

The Conficker worm infected several hundred machines and critical medical equipment in an undisclosed number of hospitals recently, a security expert said on Thursday in a panel at the RSA security conference. If IT people would do their normal security upgrades, this would have never happened. Heads should roll!

Photos: Mars500 project preps for spaceflight - CNET News

You don't have to travel all the way to Mars to get a sense of what it would be like to make that long, long trek. That's the premise of the Mars500 project, which this year is undertaking two studies of how a human crew would hold up in the close quarters of a flight from Earth to the Red Planet and back again.

6 music services compared: Who can bust the iTunes monopoly?

What does a monopoly look like? In 2009, you can get a pretty good idea by looking at Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS). It has overwhelming market share with a hockey-stick growth trajectory, is designed to work exclusively with the enormously profitable iPod/iPhone family of hardware devices (another near-monopoly), and appears to be immune from pricing pressure.

AVG LinkScanner 8.5.289 (Windows) - Free

The most dangerous page on the web may be the one you are about to click on. AVG LinkScanner provides an advanced layer of security against fast-moving, invisible web threats, and hacked web sites. It verifies the safety of web pages you visit, and of links returned from web searches (Google, Yahoo! and MSN), so you know how safe/unsafe a page is at the time you attempt to click on it.

Our Government and Cyber-Security

DoD Gates: We're always under cyberattack

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the United States is "under cyberattack virtually all the time, every day" and that the Defense Department plans to more than quadruple the number of cyber experts it employs to ward off such attacks.

White House takes control of cybersecurity

Speaking at RSA, Melissa Hathaway, who has been running a 60-day government-wide review of cybersecurity policy, left no doubt that the White House will take direct, top-down control of cybersecurity.

Watch out for the feds' proposed cybersecurity 'fix'

The proposed Cybersecurity Act of 2009 would give the White House and the Department of Commerce the power to shut down Internet traffic, disconnect critical infrastructure systems, and have access to network infrastructure data when needed on national security grounds.

Palm's WebOS lives up to hype, early developers say

Developers say the Web OS offers a user-friendly mobile service that is highly integrated with Web-based services

10 Services with Real-time Functionality

It seems like "Real-time" is a term that's getting a lot of usage lately and seeing a rise in terms of trends. Services that have some kind of real-time functionality surely receive more attention from users. The reason it gets so much attention is not just because it's trendy, in most cases it can simplify online work.

Windows 8???

Windows 8 starts to come into focus

Windows isn’t done when Windows 7 is released to manufacturing (most likely in late fall 2009). Windows 8 has been on the drawing board/planning stages for a while now.

Firefox 3.0.9 targets 12 security vulnerabilities

Mozilla released an update to Firefox 3 on Tuesday that patches 12 security vulnerabilities, four of which it rated as critical. Firefox 3.0.9, the Web browser's third update this year, fixes two critical vulnerabilities in the Firefox browser engine and two in its JavaScript engine, according to a security advisory posted Tuesday.

Bluetooth SIG adopts 3.0 spec

Bluetooth 3.0 is finally official. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Tuesday, April 21, was the day the Bluetooth Special Interest Group would officially adopt the Bluetooth 3.0+High Speed specification.

Microsoft exec outlines Windows 7 security

Video: At the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft's Scott Charney explains how it will be safer, easier, and faster to sign in remotely to a business network. It’s a bit techy, but you may find it of interest.

PCPhoto - Classic Black & White Photos

Tips and software for making beautiful monochrome images digitally.

Latest Info on Windows 7

Should I upgrade to Windows 7?

How I answer the question depends on the type of user asking me, because each market segment has different requirements. Let’s look at three kinds of user, starting with the home user, and consider how they should approach Windows 7.

Living with the limits of Windows 7 Starter Edition

If you’ve read anything about Windows 7 Starter Edition, your first reaction was probably the same as mine: Is Microsoft nuts? This ultra-cheap edition is intended for use on netbooks, but its biggest restriction sounds like a complete deal-breaker: it only runs three applications at once.

As economy plummets, cable, satellite TV bills are on the rise

When the country fell into a severe recession in the second half of 2008, prices dropped nearly across the board in response to consumers becoming reluctant to spend money on anything beyond basic necessities. But according to a new study conducted by research firm Centris, the cable/satellite TV industry was one of the rare ones where consumers paid more than they did in the sunnier times of 2006 and 2007.

The Pirate Bay Verdict Won't Affect File Sharing

If you use BitTorrent to download-ahem-content, then you've likely been following the Pirate Bay trial. Pirate Bay uses BitTorrent to enable downloads-without hosting anything. Now this band of wacky Swedes has been convicted. Reviews czar Dan Costa says that even if Pirate Bay does go away for a few years, the course of file sharing will remain unchanged.

FBI Has Its Own Spyware

FBI spyware used to nab hackers, extortionists

The FBI has used a secret form of spyware in a series of investigations designed to nab extortionists, database-deleting hackers, child molesters, and hitmen, according to documents obtained by CNET News.

Has online piracy reached a tipping point?

For years, digital technology and the Internet have provided a virtual buffet of digital content from which millions have feasted for free. Whether it be downloading movies illegally found with the help of the Pirate Bay, ripping a movie rental from Netlix to a computer hard drive, republishing an unauthorized copy of a news photograph to the Web, or sharing music on peer-to-peer services, the people who create this content have begun to send a message: "no more free lunches."

Windows 7 Release Candidate due date is May 5

Looks like Microsoft’s March slip-up that pinpointed the next milestone delivery date was correct. The Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) — the one and only public RC — is set to be available on May 5.

The Embarrassment of American Broadband

The Internet was born and raised in the United States. Yet--thanks to slow speeds, inconsistent availability, and bandwidth caps--we now lag the rest of the world when it comes to broadband Net access.

10 things you should look for in a netbook

Who saw this coming? In the day and age of quad-core CPUs, 17-inch laptop displays, and terabyte hard disks, who’d have thought small laptops with slow CPUs and little storage would set the world afire. But that’s just what’s happened.

Pirate Bay Update and Music’s Future – Related?

Court jails Pirate Bay founders

A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.

Do major record labels have a future?

Record stores are fading fast, the big labels--EMI, Sony/BMG, Universal, and Warner--are on their last legs, and commercial radio stations rarely play new music. The big music retail chains: Tower, Virgin, and HMV are all gone. People still listen to music, it's how they hear it and find it that's changed. Oh, and they don't want to pay for it.

New Net taxes amid taxing times?

A growing number of states are considering laws to tax digital goods, such as iTunes songs, Amazon MP3s, or electronic books. Yet at a time when governments say they want to encourage broadband adoption and the development of a low-carbon economy, opponents say taxing digital goods sends exactly the wrong message.

Top 13 Twitter Don'ts

Want to keep your Twitter followers happy? Avoid these microblogging faux pas.

Nine more Firefox add-ons to try

Can't get enough Firefox add-ons? Neither can we. As long as developers keep making them, we'll keep singling out the ones we deem worthy. Here are nine new favorites we enjoy.

GhostNet – Global Electronic Espionage

GhostNet: Why it's a big deal

The Tibetan Government in Exile asked the Information Warfare Monitor consortium to investigate allegations of cyberspying. It appears they’ve found evidence of spying plus a whole lot more and that should concern all of us.

Report: AT&T's exclusive hold on iPhone may end next year

As the exclusive purveyor of the iPhone in the U.S., AT&T has a stranglehold on those who covet Apple's handset; if you want to buy an iPhone, you're going to have to deal with them. But that Faustian bargain may soon come to an end. A report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal says that AT&T's exclusive deal with Apple ends next year, and the wireless provider's executives are scrambling to try and extend the contract.

For draft, NFL goes deep on social media

For serious football fans, there is likely no bigger single event--except the Super Bowl--than the annual amateur draft. And as the NFL gets ready for two days of hysteria over where dozens of pro prospects end up, the league has deployed its deepest roster ever of social media tools to ensure that fans' thirst for even the most minute news is quenched.

Getting started with iTunes playlists

I am a big fan of iTunes as it has organized my music not only on my computer, but on my iPod. In the following video and slideshow tutorial, CNet shows you around the iTunes standard playlist feature.

ContactHelp Gets You Through to a Human Being

Customer service calls are frustrating. Don't just sit there pounding the 0 button, hoping you'll eventually reach a real live person—use ContactHelp to get to a human being. ContactHelp is a database of tricks for bypassing the customer service carnival and getting to a real human.

Interesting Articles for your Perusal

All-in-one NetTops resurrecting desktop market

Just a year ago, this category didn't exist. But after several Atom-powered all-in-one PCs debuted at CES in January, it's officially the hottest grouping of desktops on the market.

Facebook Users Get Worse Grades in College

Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-users, according to a survey of college students who also ironically said the social networking site does not interfere with studying.

The 25 Golden Rules of E-Mail

Electronic mail is older than tweets, blogs, SMS texts—older even than the entire Internet. Why is it so many people still don't get it right?

LaCie's rugged external hard drive gets bigger

If you own a compact Rugged All-Terrain external hard drive from LaCie, you know how tough the device is. It has a rubber bumper, and the scratch-protected aluminum case can take a serious beating. Now the same drive has evolved to a bigger physical size with larger storage capacity.

13 Great Free Backup Programs for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Making sure you've got a reliable backup solution is a must for any user - and more so for an administrator. Why? Well, mostly because your users probably aren't very good at remembering to back up their own files. And so it falls to you to provide the right software for the job! Backup software is a difficult category to tackle nowadays as the distinction between backup and synchronization apps has become a little blurred. Prices being what they are, my personal choice is to use external or removable hard drives for my backup chore

Patch Tuesday and Skype

Patch Tuesday heads-up: 8 bulletins, 5 critical

Microsoft plans to ship 8 security bulletins next Tuesday (April 14, 2009) to fix remote code execution and denial of service vulnerabilities affecting Windows, Office and Internet Explorer. According to the company’s Patch Tuesday advance notice, five of the bulletins will be rated “critical,” meaning they can be exploited by hackers to take complete control of Windows machines.

Overcoming My Fear of Skype

Hard to believe, but up until recently I had never effectively used the Skype free voice and video over IP service. Then in the space of just a few days I got a crash course, and found myself wondering how I'd ever lived without it. Follow my little tale to learn why you may want to start using Skype today.

Skype Call Recorder 0.5.2.1 (Windows), from VOIP Call recording

Free Skype Call Recorder is irreplaceable program for everybody who is using Skype to make voice calls. Conversations are stored in space efficient, widely used, convenient mp3 format. It is easy to store, easy to share and cast you nothing to record. Skype Call Recorder seats in system tray and starts recording automatically.

CompUSA 2.0

Though presumed to be dead since it went bankrupt more than a year ago, CompUSA is showing signs of life. There are 30 new retail outlets bearing the CompUSA name in the U.S. that are trying a new retail strategy that includes computers available for customers to do price matching on the Web sites of CompUSA's competitors. Is this a preview of retail stores future?

Battle of the multicolumn Twitter clients

There was a time, not long ago, when the power Twitter users were gaga for Twhirl. This Air app gave (and still gives) you quick access to different views of your Twitter network, as well as your FriendFeed stream. But Twhirl didn't last as the go-to client once the Twitterati discovered TweetDeck.

Is Our Internet Infrastructure Safe? And Free Hubble Wallpaper

Our fancy Internet infrastructure operates on a wire and a prayer

The fiber-optic outage—actually sabotage—in the Bay Area on Thursday reveals a dirty little secret: Our infrastructure is ridiculously vulnerable and it only takes a few vandals (or terrorists) to bring communication to its knees.

Microsoft to start pushing IE 8 to existing IE users

Microsoft already has pushed via Auto Update the final version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8) to customers who had installed the beta version of its latest browser. Starting next week, the company plans to begin delivering IE 8 via Automatic Update to users with older versions of IE installed.

Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year

The success of Windows 7 will depend a great deal on if large businesses will finally upgrade. New data shows that the vast majority of corporate IT departments won't touch Microsoft's next OS until at least 2011.

Free Music Archive: Free MP3s, and yes, they're legal

Do you like free music? Who doesn’t? If you’ve been downloading music illegally because you’re just too strapped for cash to go out and buy the record — because that’s the only reason you would do that, right? — then there’s a new solution for you.

Hubble Site - Wallpaper for your Computer

The Hubblesite.org Website offers a ton of free wallpaper for your computer. And it comes in various sizes for different monitor settings. Chose the one that is right for you. If you like images from far off places, check this out.

Has Our Electrical Grid Been Compromised?

The U.S. electrical grid: How big of a cyber target is it?

Spies have reportedly been probing the U.S. electrical grid for months and planting software that could be activated at a future date, according to a Wall Street Journal. The report highlights the latest vulnerabilities facing U.S. power infrastructure.

AT&T and Apple needlessly shackle Skype users

Skype versus AT&T and Apple, a duopoly I like to call Ma iPhone. Since Skype put its app on the App Store, more than 2 million downloads have been recorded because people want to make cheap Skype calls with their iPhones. Go right ahead, says Ma iPhone, but you can only make those calls via Wi-Fi, not 3G.

Windows 7 HomeGroup: Networking Made Easy

Microsoft has been trying for a long while to make home networks easy to use, with automatic connections and ready access to shared files and folders. With the Windows 7 feature known as "HomeGroup," the company seems to have succeeded.

Hands On: Acer's New 11.6-Inch Aspire One Netbook

(This new netbook looks like a winner, if the price is right) Acer raised the stakes Tuesday night by launching the first netbook with an 11.6-inch screen, a version of the Acer Aspire One. Perhaps most importantly, the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire One is long enough to accommodate a full-size keyboard, while the majority of netbooks have ones that range between 89 percent to 92 percent of full size. That, together with Acer's aggressive pricing strategy, could solidify the One as the premier netbook in the United States.

Gadwin PrintScreen 4.4 (Windows) - Free

Gadwin PrintScreen allows much more flexibility with that Print Screen button at the top of your keyboard. This is a good one!!

The New FriendFeed – I Love it

New FriendFeed: Simpler, Faster, Better (Maybe Too Fast)

FriendFeed is taking the next step in its evolution with a complete redesign and lots of new features. We were able to see a demo of the new site last week and have been testing it over the weekend. Our opinion: the new FriendFeed, which launches into beta today, is simpler, faster and better than the old FriendFeed.

Mixed reactions to FriendFeed overhaul

From what it looks like, the fresh, real-time streaming redesign of social aggregator FriendFeed is getting some accolades from already-avid users--but might not sway the masses.

Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload

The Conficker worm is finally doing something--updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday. Researchers were analyzing the code of the software that is being dropped onto infected computers but suspect that it is a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the machine, said David Perry, global director of security education at Trend Micro.

Olympus: 12 megapixels is enough

Olympus has declared an end to the megapixel race

BumpTop: Software toy or useful desktop replacement?

If you're tired of that flat desktop, BumpTop is a 3D desktop interface you're going to want to try. What could be better than 'organizing' your space by flinging, stacking, and fanning icons and photos? Read on to find out we like and what still needs work.

Mostly Microsoft News

End nears for XP, Office 2003 support

Microsoft will drop mainstream support for Office 2003 on April 14--the same day that the retirement process begins for Windows XP. Although mainstream support for the Office 2003 applications suite will come to an end, Microsoft has the product scheduled to remain in "extended support" until April 8, 2014.

Skipping Vista

Despite the fact that Windows 7 is almost cooked, a leaked Microsoft memo suggests that XP may live on past its May 30, 2009 retirement date.

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows 7 Product Editions: A Comparison

Even at this early stage, I believe these tables will help you pick which Windows 7 product edition makes the most sense for you, based on your needs and wants. Let's dive right in.

Microsoft's intelligence security report: The top 5 takeaways

Microsoft on Wednesday will unveil its sixth Security Intelligence Report and the tome—all 184 pages of it—has a lot of interesting data points culled from the software giant’s antivirus applications. Microsoft concludes that rogue security software is a big threat, lost and stolen equipment is a bigger issue than hacking and PDF and Office extensions are leading vectors.

BumpTop: Software toy or useful desktop replacement?

If you're tired of that flat desktop, BumpTop is a 3D desktop interface you're going to want to try. What could be better than 'organizing' your space by flinging, stacking, and fanning icons and photos? Read on to find out we like and what still needs work.  Free download.

More on Newspapers and Other News

Survey: Credit card fraud a top concern in U.S.

This should come as no surprise to anyone, but people in the U.S. are worried that as the economy worsens, the chances for identity fraud, particularly with regard to credit card data theft, will increase.

Google helps, not hurts, newspapers: executive

Google Inc helps newspaper websites make money through online advertising and does not misappropriate their content, a lawyer for the search engine said on the company's blog on Tuesday.

AP cuts newspaper rates, moves to protect web news

The Associated Press unveiled rate cuts on Monday to help member newspapers reeling from declining advertising revenue and said it would sue websites that use its members' articles without permission.

Changes to Apple's iTunes prices take effect

he era of one-price-fits-all-songs on iTunes came to an end Tuesday as Apple Inc., the Internet's dominant digital music store, began selling some of its most-downloaded songs for $1.29 apiece.

Power Twitter- Firefox Add-ons

Free Firefox Ad-on adds more features to your Twittering: search and recent searches -search scoped to a specific user -status history peeking on mouseover -Facebook status updates -inline YouTube, Flickr, TwitPic, Google Maps, song.ly, and more

Special Edition – The Death of Newspapers

As a university journalism graduate, I am more than interested in what is happening to our nation’s newspapers.  In short, many are dying; many more will die in the near future.  What does that mean for all of us?

There are many reasons for this trend, too many to name here.  One is TV news.  If that is to be our main source of news, God help us all.  CNN and Fox are a joke when it comes to news.  Their version of news is about entertainment, not news.  Same with most local TV stations. Ratings, ratings, ratings.    

Another reason is Craigslist.  We all use Craigslist now for our want-ads, thereby killing a huge revenue stream for newspapers.  And, of course, the rise of news on the Internet is still another reason for the end of traditional newspapers.  I suppose I could go on, but the bottom line is that print media may have outlived its usefulness in today’s digital world.     

If you do a search on “Death of Newspapers,” you will find hundreds, if not thousands of recent articles on the subject.  I have selected a handful here, many focusing on the digital world and how it may replace newspapers.  I hope you will find it of interest.

Jim

The future of newspapers | Who killed the newspaper? | The Economist

“A GOOD newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself,” mused Arthur Miller in 1961. A decade later, two reporters from the Washington Post wrote a series of articles that brought down President Nixon and the status of print journalism soared. At their best, newspapers hold governments and companies to account. They usually set the news agenda for the rest of the media. But in the rich world newspapers are now an endangered species. The business of selling words to readers and selling readers to advertisers, which has sustained their role in society, is falling apart.

Death of newspapers

The real problem isn't that newspapers may be doomed. I would be severely disheartened if I was forced to abandon my morning ritual of sitting on my deck with a coffee and the papers, but I would no doubt get used to burning out my retinas over the screen an hour earlier than usual. As Nation columnist Eric Alterman recently argued, the real problem isn't the impending death of newspapers, but the impending death of news -- at least news as we know it.

Murdoch says papers should charge on Web

Rupert Murdoch, whose media company News Corp owns one of the few U.S. newspapers that makes people pay to read its news on the Web, said more papers will have to start doing the same to survive.

The future of newspapers: print v. digital

Five articles worth reading that relate to journalism as it transforms.

Newspaper Death Watch

This web site describes itself as "Chronicling the Decline of Newspapers and the Rebirth of Journalism." Might be worth a view

Readers share some advice for Starbucks

Even though this story is only partially about technology, I found it very interesting and thought you might also. Pay particular attention to the part Starbucks might play in replacing newspapers.

Weekend News and a Free Book

Texas Tells Microsoft's Vista To Mosey on Out of Town

Texas government shouldn't be Vista country, according to its state Senate. That legislative body approved earlier this week a rider to the state budget that would prevent governmental agencies from using the Microsoft Vista operating system without approval from a legislative board.

PC Failures, PC Fixes: Troubleshooting Mysterious Problems

Has there ever been a truly trouble-free PC? We've gotten a lot closer to it in recent years, thanks to better diagnostics and improved software and hardware engineering -- but sometimes, every now and then, things fall apart and the center cannot hold in a big country way.

Lifehacker - Top 10 Home Office Hacks

Whatever kind of work you do at home, your office is one place you want to spend the time to make comfortable and convenient. Take 10 of our tips on organizing, fixing, and streamlining that space.

After the Software Wars by Keith Curtis (Free Book)

Keith Curtis, an 11-year veteran of Microsoft, takes a programmer’s approach in “Software Wars,” attempting to systematically build a case that free software can help pave the way for a 21st-century renaissance in many fields ranging from artificial intelligence (cars that drive themselves) to the human journey into space (space elevators). For Mr. Curtis, free software is all about leveraging our collective intelligence." Book is free to download

Digsby - Free Software

Digsby helps you manage all your IM, e-mail, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application.

News and Free Software for Wednesday

Readers share their Security Baseline nominees

Windows Secrets readers have been giving me their feedback loud and clear: they hate Norton all-in-one products and love standalone antivirus, antispyware, and firewall apps.

Microsoft Rules Netbooks Now, Linux Lurks

Microsoft today sits comfortably atop the growing netbook market with Windows garnering 90 percent of netbook sales in November, December and January.  Can Linux survive?

Gmail: Expect bigger changes in next 5 years

Some thought Google's e-mail service an April Fools' joke when it arrived a half-decade ago. Look for Gmail's differences to increase in the next five years.

Recuva 1.25.409 (Windows)

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted

Xobni 5342 beta (Windows), from Xobni Corporation - Free!

Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments.

Browsers, Worms, and Intel’s New Killer Chip

Installing Internet Explorer 8--photos

Installing IE 8, it turns out, is an involved process, and one that will reboot your computer. This is a good time to make a phone call, brew some coffee, or begin a calisthenics routine.

My painfully poky week with IE 8

In the interest of broadening my horizons, I promised Microsoft I'd give Internet Explorer 8 a fair shake by trying the browser as my default for a week. And, boy, am I glad that week is over.

Find the right Firefox add-ons

If you're a Firefox user, chances are you've been using add-ons to extend its functionality. But if you haven't, or if you're looking for new add-ons, I've found 20 for you to try. But since installing all 20 will probably slow your browser to a crawl, I've broken them into four categories. I have grouped the add-ons into "packs" for business professionals, shoppers, social-network fanatics, and students.

The "no bull" guide to Conficker

I get the feeling that while there’s a lot of hype surrounding this latest bit of malware, actual infections are much lower than some would want you to believe. However, over the past few days the number of enquires I’m getting in relation to Conficker has skyrocketed, so to try to answer people’s questions, and calm people’s fears, I’ve put together a quick “no bull” guide to Conficker.

Test Center: Intel's Nehalem simply sizzles

Intel's new Nehalem Xeon CPUs, which are being introduced in countless one- and two-socket servers and workstations today, have already generated a lot of heat. While introducing the new processors to technical journalists in February, Nick Knupffer, Intel's global communications manager, boasted that "Nehalem represents the biggest performance jump we've made since the introduction of the Pentium Pro."

Microsoft is busy…plus worms and Twitter

Updating the Windows 7 release schedule

Microsoft has been doing an admirable job of suppressing leaks about its Windows 7 release plans. But someone in Redmond needs to do a better job of teaching its own employees when not to hit the Publish button on web pages.

Microsoft's "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person" ad tries to kick Apple where it hurts

Microsoft’s latest salvo in the Mac vs. PC ad war seems to have hit a nerve with Apple fans.

Microsoft exits the encyclopedia biz, kills Encarta

Microsoft Encarta is a digital encyclopedia that used to come on a CD-ROM, and eventually graduated to a web-based service. But in the age of Wikipedia, where even the Encyclopedia Brittanica allows users to suggest edits, it looks like Microsoft either can't or choose not to compete. The company is pulling the plug on Encarta later this year.

'60 Minutes': What's next for the Conficker worm?

The following is a transcript of a "60 Minutes" report on Internet viruses that aired Sunday.

Nine Ways to Use Twitter

Disregard the hype and the haters; Twitter is a powerful platform with plenty of practical uses.

Today’s Computer News Roundup

I am back in Tucson from my week-long stay in Vegas.  Had a very good time with Elisa, and later, Susan, in spite of a cold and sinus infection.  Still recovering from that, but improving daily.  Happy to be home and getting back to normal.  Here is today’s news:

Two security holes patched in Firefox 3.0.8

Mozilla published a critical security upgrade for Firefox Friday evening. Version 3.0.8 for Windows, Mac, and Linux fixes two security holes listed as "critical."

Conficker worm might originate in China

There's been a lot of fuss about theConficker worm. However, there is a $250,000 question: the origin of the virus. This is the amount Microsoft is putting up as a reward for any information leading to an arrest related to the case. Folks at BKIS, a Vietnamese security firm that makes the BKAV antivirus software, announced Monday that they found clues that the virus may have originated from China. Previously, there were rumors that it might have been from Russia or Europe.

Facebook changes to address user complaints

Facebook users haven't exactly been reticent about their dislike for Facebook's recent redesign. And Facebook staff want you to know they're listening.

Microsoft, NASA put universe back on the Web

Microsoft and NASA, announced plans to make planetary images and data available via the Internet. The two organizations will jointly develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to make NASA content--including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon--explorable on Microsoft's online virtual telescope for exploring the universe, called WorldWide Telescope.

Convert your PDFs to MS Word

There are several well-regarded, free ways to take advantage of the Print function to transform just about any file to a PDF. PrimoPDF and doPDF sit at the top of the list, but what about reverse engineering that conversion? Converting in the other direction, from a PDF to a Microsoft Word-compatible format like DOC or RTF is trickier.

Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer V.8

Sorry about not doing a blog post lately but am currently in Las Vegas with my Italian daughter Elisa…and finding free Wi-Fi in Vegas is about as easy as finding a slot machine that hits jackpots.  Found one at Denny’s (Wi-Fi, that is) way way out on Sahara Blvd.  Will be back in Tucson next weekend and will continue my traditional blog updates then.  Until then, I hope you find these stories of use:

Hands-on with IE 8: A giant step for Microsoft

Setting aside the issue of speed for a moment, some of the features in Internet Explorer bring it up to what we've come to expect from a browser, and some of them forge ahead. Many of these are borrowed from other browsers, and at least in the case of Firefox, the features can be imported using extensions.

IE8 focuses on usability

The ultimate improvement in browser performance is not making a page load faster but making it unnecessary to load the page at all. That's the guiding principle behind some of the most interesting interface changes in Internet Explorer 8

Why You Want Windows 7

I've been using Windows 7 for months, first as a pre-beta and now as the remarkably stable Beta 1. It's an encouraging update. No wackiness. When I use it, I don't find myself wondering, "Who moved my cheese?" It's sensible and smart—often in hidden and surprising ways. It also seems to be allergic to blue-screen crashes.

All flash drives not created equal | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com

Low-priced SATA flash drives are tempting. But beware: some of them test at an abysmal 2 random writes per second!

Safari hole exploited in seconds at security conference

The security expert who won $10,000 hacking a MacBook Air in less than two minutes last year won $5,000 on Wednesday by exploiting a hole in Safari in 10 seconds or so.

Windows 7, iPhone, and Better Tweeting

Windows 7 build 7057 - Performance that blasts past XP, Vista and previous builds

After I carried out the performance test on Widows 7 build 7048 I commented that I thought some of the results were all over the place. However, on looking at this latest build, I’ve no doubt that not only will Windows 7 will be fast. In fact it will blow away all previous Windows OSes, including the sainted Windows XP.

Microsoft Details New Changes to Windows 7 - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Just weeks after releasing a lengthy list of 36 improvements it plans to make to the release candidate (RC) of Windows 7, Microsoft on Friday unveiled 28 more changes it plans to make before upgrading the operating system from beta to Release Candidate.

iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know

Apple on Tuesday unveiled the next version of the operating system that powers the iPhone, dubbed version 3.0, at an invite-only event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. It will be available for developers beginning today, and to everyone else "this summer." It's a free upgrade for iPhone users

Home Networking in 5 Easy Steps - Reviews by PC Magazine

Building a home network? First question: Why would you want to? Only ten years ago you could have answered that question easily: "I'm an incurable geek." But nowadays there are so many products and services being offered for home networks that it's really a question of "why wouldn't you want to?"

How to kick iTunes' lock-in media formats squarely in the fruit

If you're not tied to using an iPod as your primary portable media player, or if you're just playing songs on your PC, avoid iTunes entirely. There's any number of alternative media players and managers you can use.

14 Tricks for Making 140 Character Twitter Tweets

If you Twitter, you might want to read this.

New Tools and Free Software

Google Voice: A push to rewire your phone service | Webware - CNET

Google Voice, the new version of the GrandCentral technology Google acquired in July 2007, has the potential to make the search giant a middleman in an important part of people's lives, telephone communications. With the service, people can pick a new phone number from Google Voice; when others call it, Google can ring all the actual phones a person uses and handle voice mail.  This could become huge.

20+ tools for price watching and protecting

In the U.S., tax season is well upon us. And with the recession in full tilt, you may be--smartly--biding your time to make a purchase. Fear not though, there are tools aplenty to help you keep an eye on the price of something, and swoop in to get it when it goes on sale or the manufacturer offers a rebate.

Four PC Blu-ray Drives Reviewed and Tested

To Blu-ray or not to Blu-ray? When it comes to adding a Blu-ray drive to the PC, that question is getting asked more today than a few months ago. With projections of Blu-ray disc sales of over 100 million units this year, Blu-ray has certainly arrived.

Recover Files 2 (Windows)

Recover Files is an award winning program that can undelete / recover deleted files after they have been deleted. Recover Files is a professional file recovery software that allows it's user to recover accidentally deleted files.

Gadwin PrintScreen 4.4 (Windows) - Free Downloads on ZDNet

Gadwin PrintScreen allows much more flexibility with that Print Screen button at the top of your keyboard. Free

A Virtual Cornucopia of Tech News

Is Windows 7 reliable enough to release now? | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report

Ed Bott: I installed Windows 7 build 7048 on a Dell XPS 420 one week ago, and after a few hours of road testing decided to begin using it as my main production system. So how is it working out?.

Federal CIO on leave following FBI sting at DC offices

The U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, appointed by President Obama last week, has been placed on leave, following an FBI raid yesterday at the District of Columbia’s IT offices...even though he has not been linked yet int the big DC bribery investigation.

Facebook Challenges Twitter to Celebrity Deathmatch!

Blame Shaquille O'Neal. Facebook's sudden, desperate move to help celebrities, sports personalities, and big brands transform their somewhat static Facebook pages into full-blown profiles is, I think, almost a direct response to the blast of excitement created by relative Twitter newbie and basketball icon Shaquille O'Neal.

How to Delete Accounts from Any Website

Sadly, not all Web sites and social networks are created equal when it comes to breaking up. With some, it takes only a couple of clicks to say good-bye. If you stop paying, that goes a long way toward ending it with a few sites. Others make you jump through more hoops than a tiger at the circus.

Kindle, schmindle...I've got your $350 e-book reader right here

With all the buzz about Amazon's new Kindle 2, you'd think this revamped e-book reader was the most advanced piece of technology this side of designer babies. After all, for $359, you get a color screen, Wi-Fi and full-function Web browsing, video playback, 60GB of storage, and a reasonably usable keyboard. Oh wait, you don't get any of that stuff. No, that's what $350 can get you if invested in even a low-end Netbook, such as the new 10-inch Acer Aspire One. Not only is there a wide range of PC software available for buying and displaying e-books (and tons of free content as well), when you're done with all that highbrow readin', pop open a Web browser and rot your brain with some Hulu videos.

Gadwin PrintScreen 4.4 (Windows) - Free Downloads on ZDNet

Gadwin PrintScreen allows much more flexibility with that Print Screen button at the top of your keyboard. Free

Windows and Firefox News

Microsoft wants to 'rescue' apps for Windows 7

The rule of thumb is that if a program runs in Vista, it will run in Windows 7. Conversely, in general, programs that won't run in Vista also won't work with Windows 7. At least in a few cases, though, even applications that didn't run in Vista will run in Windows 7. That's because of some work that Microsoft has done to "rescue" certain types of programs that were rendered incompatible by the move to Vista.

A sneak peek at the Windows 7 Release Candidate

This build is not the long-awaited Release Candidate, but it does include a slew of bug fixes, design changes, and interface tweaks checked in as part of the march toward an RC, much of it based on feedback from beta testers. What you see in this build is not experimental; given the development process for Windows 7, it is a near-certainty that the changes you see here will make it into the final product.

Microsoft plugs remote execution, spoofing holes in Windows

Microsoft on Tuesday issued patches for critical holes in all supported versions of Windows that could allow an attacker to take over a system by executing code remotely if the user viewed a maliciously crafted image file.

Extreme PCs and "Homebrewing": Rest in Peace

In the glory days, everyone had lots of disposable income, and those of us who called ourselves “PC Enthusiasts” thought nothing of doing complete hardware refreshes every six months to keep up with the technology.  Those days are probably now over.

Electric car network coming to Arizona

Alternative energy company Ecotality said on Friday that it will supply charging stations in Arizona as part of the planned roll-out of plug-in electric cars from Nissan next year. Nissan North America has committed to making its electric vehicles available to municipal or private organizations in the Tucson, Ariz., area, Ecotality said. Nissan's all-electric sedan is scheduled to be available in certain areas of the U.S. next year.

Beta Beat: Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 Available for Download

If you're eager to stay on the cutting edge of Firefox, head over to Mozilla to grab the newly released Firefox 3.1 Beta 3. As we mentioned last week, the next beta will be upped to Firefox 3.5

Which Windows is Best? Plus More

Windows 7 vs. Vista vs. XP performance shootout - which is best?

How does the latest leaked build of Windows 7 (7048) compare to the beta 1 (build 7000), Vista SP1 and XP SP3 in terms of performance? According to my Hardware 2.0 inbox, this is a question that you want answered. Let’s see if I can answer it for those of you who are interested!

Is IE8 the end of the line for Internet Explorer?

IE8 is the last version of the Internet Explorer Web browser. At least, that's what I'm hearing through the grapevine. It seems that Microsoft is preparing to throw in the towel on its Internet Explorer engine once and for all.

Firefox, too, revamping new-tab behavior

Opening a new tab in a Web browser shows a lot of prime but empty real estate, and now the programmers behind Firefox are following their peers at Safari and Chrome in trying to make it more useful.

Web Browser Speed Dating

When did the story stop being about the Internet and start being about Web browsers?

PMA 2009's photo finish

Despite the economy, tons of new photo products debuted, partly because planning takes place 6 to 12 months out. So it's likely that the first real signs of contraction will appear with the fall product lines. And, in fact, at least one manufacturer has already changed its dSLR release plans in preparation for tough times.

Olympus: 12 megapixels is enough for most folks | Underexposed - CNET News

Olympus has declared an end to the megapixel race. "Twelve megapixels is, I think, enough for covering most applications most customers need," said Akira Watanabe, manager of Olympus Imaging's SLR planning department, in an interview here at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA). "We have no intention to compete in the megapixel wars for E-System," Olympus' line of SLR cameras, he said. Instead, Olympus will focus on other characteristics such as dynamic range, color reproduction, and a better ISO range for low-light shooting, he said.

Today’s Really Good Stuff

Hackers update Conficker worm, evade countermeasures

Computers infected with the Conficker worm are being updated with a new variant that sidesteps an industry effort to sever the link between the worm and its hacker controllers, according to researchers at Symantec. The new version, dubbed Conficker.c, represents the first set of "orders" that researchers have witnessed being sent to infected systems, said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Symantec Corp.'s security response group. The update shows that the hackers want to defend their collection of compromised PCs, Weafer argued.

The Google OS is coming by year's end

It's not news that Microsoft will get Windows 7 out as fast as possible this year. Vista has been a complete dog, so Microsoft will rush to deliver what is essentially a cleaned-up, lightweight version. What is news is that Google will have its own contender for desktop operating system king: Android.

Dreaming of cutting the subscription TV cord

The economy is in the toilet, and I know I'm not the only person in America who is looking for ways to cut costs. Top on my list in 2009 is finding a way to eliminate my $100 a month cable TV bill. Up until very recently, the idea of cutting off subscription TV would have meant skimping on a whole lot of good quality entertainment. I must admit, I don't watch a lot of TV. But I watch enough that I would be very sad if I had to give up HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" or NBC's "30 Rock." But thanks to that wonderful communications network known as the Internet and the fact that big Hollywood studios and TV networks have finally realized that digital distribution is actually a good thing, cable cord cutters, like me, won't have to sacrifice that much or anything at all, depending on what movies and TV programs we like to watch.

How Vista mistakes guided changes to Windows development

About a year ago on its Redmond, Washington, campus, a member of Microsoft's Windows Vista team met with a group of journalists to face some tough questions about the OS. At the time, it was clear Vista was not going to be the great success Microsoft had predicted, as many of the company's critical business customers were beginning to reveal they would wait for the next release of Microsoft's client OS instead of upgrading corporate desktops to Vista.

Trackle gives you web alerts for virtually anything

Sometimes you just don't want to sit in front of a browser window and hit reload. Maybe you're waiting for plane ticket prices to drop, or maybe you want to be the first person to apply for fresh jobs on Craiglist. Trackle is one way to get alerts via email or SMS for practically anything on the web. You can Trackle stocks, product prices, and even people.

Seattle Paper to Go Net Only?

Seattle paper may shift to online-only

Hearst Corp, one of the largest U.S. publishers, has offered some of its Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I) staff work in an online-only version of the paper, amidst speculation that the newspaper's print edition may be shutting down, according to media reports.

Facebook vs. Twitter: How will you stream your world?

The future will be streamed. And streamed some more.

Will iTunes kill the CD?

We're getting close to the day when a major artist or group releases a download-only album. Maybe it'll be the next Rolling Stones or Sufjan Stevens album. That'll be a dark day

Pretec unveils 666x Compact Flash Cards

Pretec creator of the highest capacity CompactFlash card in the world (100GB) and the fastest CF card in the world (433X), continues today its record breaking history in the field of speed and capacity by unveiling the extraordinary 666X CF card, the world’s fastest CF card.

Downloads: DeskHedron Adds 3D Virtual Desktop Eye-Candy to Windows

Free application DeskHedron brings multiple virtual desktops to Windows, complete with an impressive spinning 3D animation that switches between your desktops.

Bug Patches and Other Good Stuff

Mozilla patches eight Firefox bugs, six critical

Mozilla this week patched eight security vulnerabilities in Firefox, half of them critical memory corruption flaws in the browser's layout and JavaScript engines. Oracle White Paper - Nucleus Report: Who's ready for SMB? - read this white paper. Firefox 3.0.7, the second security update this year to the open-source browser, fixes about the same number of bugs that Mozilla patched a month ago.

Coming on Patch Tuesday: 3 Windows bulletins, 1 critical

Microsoft today outlined plans to ship three security bulletins for software vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system. One of the three bulletins will carry a “critical” rating, meaning that it will cover flaws that could be exploited to launch remote code execution attacks.

3 Free Anti-Spam Programs Reviewed

We pulled three, free-for-personal-use anti-spam programs off the Web and gave them a specific challenge: Beat Microsoft Outlook's own anti-spam prowess.

Advanced iTunes 8 Management - Solutions by PC Magazine

Inexpensive iPods, music-playing cell phones, and—heck—even PCs have essentially replaced the traditional stereo system. Power up your iTunes 8 organization, navigation, and maintenance skills with the following tips:

YouTube - Hudson River Plane Landing (US Airways 1549) Animation with Audio

SHere is an animation of the US Airway crash complete with audio between plane and tower. Very interesting and well done

Highlights from the Big Photo Show in Las Vegas

PMA 2009 - Digital camera news from the 2009 PMA show

Want to know what to expect in cameras and camera gear over the next 6 months? It's all on display at this year's Photo Marketing Association show, and CNET's there to bring it all home to you.

Microsoft may let Windows 7 users turn browser off

Microsoft has included in recent Windows 7 test versions an option to turn off the Internet Explorer 8 Web browser, according to testers who have used the recent builds.

Microsoft's Biggest Enemy Now: Apple, Linux, or Itself?

In a meeting with financial analysts last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laid out who he thinks are the biggest threats today to Windows on the client side. Surprisingly, Apple wasn't number one. It wasn't number two or three either.

Skype 4.0 for Windows delivers truer video, sound

Skype 4.0 became available for free on Tuesday to Windows users. The free desktop VoIP communicator is a worthy final version that brings some key enhancements with video and audio bandwidth.

Whimsy: Entire State Of Maryland Roped Into Online Prank War

This video is hilarious. This is payback for a prank one fellow pulled on the other at Yankee Stadium. There is a link to that one also. Don't miss this.

Near Future Not Good for PC Business

Gartner: PC sales to see worst fall in history

The global PC industry will suffer its 'sharpest decline in history' in 2009, as overall demand for PCs falls by 11.9 percent compared with 2008, according to analysts at Gartner. The new low beats the previous record decline of just 3.2 percent, which took place in 2001. According to a statement from Gartner, both emerging and mature markets are forecast "to suffer unprecedented market slowdowns".

Microsoft's Massive List of Improvements to Windows 7

Microsoft on Thursday released a lengthy list of 36 improvements it plans to make to the release candidate (RC) for Windows 7, though the company did not provide any details on when that RC might actually be available.

Gazelle: The browser that thinks like an OS |Fatal Exception

Interesting article about Microsoft's newest Web browser now in development. The operating system is now losing its importance. The Web is becoming more important and more relevant than the operating system. Is this the future?

The Post-Chronicle Wiki: Imaging a New Media Frontier in San Francisco

The question is no longer, "Is the traditional newspaper model viable?" or even "How can we tweak it to keep it alive?" No, nothing short of a complete overhaul will be enough to keep traditional print media relevant. Or at least that's what some media professionals in San Francisco are saying.   The days of newspapers printed on paper are ending.

Foxmarks becomes Xmarks, does site discovery

Now known as just Xmarks, the tool layers in site discovery features. The Xmarks plug-in shows you sites similar to the one you're on, based on what other users have bookmarked and where they've filed those bookmarks. The plug-in also gives you additional information in search results, letting you see site popularity and user ratings on your search hits.

A Google Computer Coming?

The Google Computer: Android Desktop Edition - Columns by PC Magazine

If cranky columnist John C. Dvorak is right (and I'm thinking he is), the world of desktop computing is about to take a big left turn. The company in the driver seat? Google. Dvorak outlines how Microsoft cannot kill Google the way it previously torpedoed Netscape and then lays out a simple plan for Google to introduce a new Android OS-based Google PC. If this happens, Microsoft will have a real problem on its hands. You must read this fascinating column.

White House ditches YouTube after privacy complaints

Responding to complaints by privacy activists, the White House has quietly abandoned YouTube as the provider of the embedded videos on the president's official home page. With the release of the latest weekly video address, the White House has shifted to a Flash-based video solution using Akamai's content delivery network.

5 Reasons Why I Bought a Kindle 2 - Opinions by ExtremeTech

Until the release of this version of the Kindle, I hadn't been particularly interested in buying one. Frankly, I thought the first Kindle was ugly and a rather stupid idea. I chuckled and snorted with derision when Amazon first announced it, sure that it would be just another e-book bomb like so many before it. But oddly enough, the Kindle turned out to be a reasonable success with around 500,000 estimated sales last year.

How to: Keep your laptop from being stolen

A laptop is stolen every 53 seconds, and approximately 97 percent are never recovered, according to the FBI. Worse, one out of every 10 laptops will be stolen within the first 12 months of purchase.

CCleaner 2.16.83 Free Download

Remove unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.

Special Windows 7 Edition

I took some time off from my busy baseball schedule to put together another blog…this one on Windows 7.  Have been enjoying the Arizona sun (in the high 80’s lately), to take in some major league baseball Spring Training games as well as some University of Arizona baseball games.

The Rockies and the Diamondbacks both train here in Tucson.  Saw the Dodgers yesterday and the White Sox on Thursday.  I also have tickets for upcoming games with the Giants and A’s, and hope to take in the Mariners also.  It is fun-in-the-sun here in Tucson and Spring Training games are inexpensive.  I had a box seat on Thursday, five rows from the field between home and first and it cost me all of $16.

But, if you love the game of baseball, the college game is great fun to watch.  The crowds are smaller, but the student cheering section is fun to listen to.  And, you can’t beat the price of a ticket…$3 a game for us seniors.  But, I still hate the sound of aluminum bats.

Anyway, here are today’s news stories about the new Microsoft operating system that holds so much promise:

 

Microsoft: Here are some of the Win 7 changes coming in the next build

In a February 26 post to the Engineering Windows 7 blog, Microsoft itemized some of the changes that it is making to Windows 7 that will be part of the Release Candidate (RC) test build that is widely expected in April.

Is Jumping from XP to Windows 7 too Complicated?

When Windows 7 is released later this year or in early 2010, many PC users who upgrade will be coming from Windows XP. Unlike Vista users, they can't do an "in-place upgrade," in which the new OS overwrites the old one, preserving their installed applications, preferences, and data. Instead, they'll have to do a clean install, which means they have to back up their data, install Win 7 (either deleting or XP or installing as a separate environment), reinstall their apps, restore their data, and re-create their preferences.

10 Things Windows 7 Must Do To Succeed

I recently attended a briefing where Microsoft explained some of the new features in Windows 7 to reviewers from different publications. At the end of the meeting, the MS folks asked the half-dozen of us present what it will take for the new OS to be a success.

Netbook Smackdown: XP, Windows 7, and Ubuntu Face Off

What’s the best OS for use on the new ultra-portable netbook systems? I used a Samsung NC10 netbook and three operating systems to try to find out the answer. The Samsung NC10 is a pretty standard netbook--1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and a really nice 10.2-inch WSVGA screen. The NC10 comes with Windows XP Home as the preinstalled OS.

Software: Turn Windows XP Into a Fake Windows 7

Bored of Windows XP and antsy for Windows 7? With a couple of quick downloads you can get the look and feel of Microsoft's next OS, no clean install necessary.