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The iPlayer is here
The BBC reckons it's the future of television - Mark Thomson, the director-general, says he wants a significant proportion of all BBC watching to come through it in future. The iPlayer is the BBC's attempt at a 21st-century way to distribute programmes.
The idea is that, instead of (or in addition to) watching the conventional channels, you can download the software and watch anything from the last seven days, by downloading it - legally, and for free.
It's a fascinating idea, but it hasn't convinced everybody. Although the BBC are well ahead of the rest of the TV companies in internet terms. Apart from Channel 4, no-one else has a decent working system for getting programmes out over the net.
The player is still in beta testing, but you can give it a try at the BBC site.
More Windows PCs than cars
According Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer, by the end of 2007 there will be more WIndows computers than there are cars in the world. The company says it sold 40 million copies of Windows Vista in the first 100 days after it launched earlier this year.
And the biggest single reason people upgrade, at least as far as Microsoft's market research tells it?
Security concerns, which is something we can sympathise with - and despite all the concerns over Digital Rights Management and privacy in the new operating system, Vista's security features certainly improve upon those in XP.
Forget Vista, Windows 7 is on the way
The next version of Windows will be released in 2010, Microsoft says. Or at least, it says its' working on a three-year "development cycle", which means that it ought to be released in 2010. That said, Vista, when it finally arrived earlier this year, was more than a little late.
Interestingly, it might come with a brand new look. The big cheese behind the radical overhaul of the way Microsoft Office 2007 worked and looked has been brought over to the Windows team, which means we could see a truly different way of working, come 2010. Or slightly later, of course.
More on Vista Gadgets
Some helpful information about Vista Gadgets over at the Vista Team Blog, including the different states a gadget can exist it: in the sidebar or on the desktop in different sizes.
This makes gadgets more flexible than is possible with the Yahoo Widgets Engine. Then again, it makes the task I've set myself of porting over my Computeractive News Widget harder. What states should I support or force?
If you don't have the sidebar turned on, I strongly recommend that you give it a try.
Time to update Firefox
A patch has been released for the Firefox browser to fix a problem that allowed an attacker to run programs on the computer. Normally this would not be possible but the vulnerability existed if Internet Explorer was used to start Firefox. The slightly worrying thing for me is the more complex nature of the attack.
A couple of other problems were also fixed. The update should be downloaded and installed automatically by Firefox. Or you can click on the Help menu and select Check for updates to force the update.
Microsoft quietly starts working with OpenSource community
I hesitate to simply quote a press release from Microsoft but there is some useful information in this release about Microsoft 'bridging gaps' between the two XML office formats, its own and that of Open Office.
Lets face it, it's very unlikely that Microsoft will turn around and decide to release all of its code as open source. What is more likely is a degree of co operation because what the majority of people want are files and programs that will talk with each other. As I've mentioned before, there's a danger in choosing software or file formats just to prove a point.
In some respects this is one of the big benefits of using XML for office files. As the documents are all in plain text, it is much easier to access the information in other software. Of course, you could just use Notepad but that's a little hardcore techie for me.
The immediate benefit of this work seems to be for the Far East but this may be the beginning of an easier life for all of us using both Microsoft and Open Source software.
Be careful of digital traces
With the intense expectation, it was fairly inevitable that someone somewhere would leak the latest Harry Potter book. One such person carefully took a photo of each double page spread and then uploaded all the pictures to a Bit Torrent site (as if they didn't have a bad enough reputation already). All in perfect anonymity....
Well, maybe not it turns out, according to Ars Technica. All that helpful Exif data that digital cameras store alongside the photo such as aperture and shutter speed (that one day I will pay attention to to become a better photographer) also includes a unique serial number for the camera.
It's doubtful that the US publishers of Harry Potter are going to force everyone with a digital camera to submit their serial number in a gigantic ID parade but if the camera was registered, there might be a paper trail they can follow.
It's not the first time this sort of thing has happen, the undo and track changes features in Word and the rest of Office are a gold mine of first drafts and comments that were never meant to be seen by the client.
So, if you are going to leak or steal information, make sure you know everything that you are giving away.
What every USB key should include
The size of USB keys (I only ever seem to see 512MB and above) means they can be used for far more than simple file storage.
There is a rather good list of portable versions of popular programs that you can copy onto a USB key to take with you and use on any computer.
For example I've kept a copy of Portable GIMP on my key for several months now and it is very convenient when I need to edit images on the move.
As the comments point out the list should really be described as free rather than opensource as some of the programs use proprietary software. That doesn't really bother me, but I thought I should point it out.
EDIT: Sadly the link is no longer active but the list below is really good.
Microsoft Office wins over OpenOffice
It seems that the AA breakdown recovery company has decided that Microsoft Office works better for them than OpenOffice.
For me, it goes to show that free is not always better, or even free at all. Another example of this is a church local to me who wanted advice on software to use with a projector. I recommended OpenSong, an opensource program rather than spending the £300 for the alternative MediaShout. I don't have anything against MediaShout but I think it makes sense to start off with the low cost option.
It turned out that they decided to spend the money on MediaShout. Why? There are three other churches they share content with and they all use MediaShout. It doesn't take long to work out that they would quickly burn through £300 worth of time converting content.
For the AA, the decision to go with Microsoft Office was not just about price. Microsoft produces a plan of what the future holds and this long term view was considered valuable for planning purposes.
And there are other costs involved in using something other than Office, notably training and more work needed when sharing files. Of course, OpenOffice can read Microsoft files but sharing works both ways. It is possible to set OpenOffice to use Microsoft Office as the default file format but it is easy to forget and I've accidently sent out work in odt files that I've had to resend in Word. Not only is this a pain but there is the risk of having different versions of files in different formats.
I think everybody should try the free software versions around because they often work very well. I use GIMP more than PhotoShop now. But there is nothing wrong with spending money because it can sometimes work out cheaper in the long term.
edited as Craig pointed out it was the AA outside of the UK
Share your bookmarks with Windows Mobile
Over the last few months I've become a real fan of del.icio.us for storing and sharing bookmarks. So far I've collected something in region of 600 (take a look at my del.icio.us bookmark list here). The other thing I'm starting to get into is browsing the web on the move, as it makes the train journey much more pleasant.
So this new del.icio.us plug in for Windows Mobile is very interesting. It sounds like it was a far bigger project than Dale thought it would be, no surprises there.
I like this idea a lot because mobile browsing is not as good having a proper screen and so it's useful to have a way of saving bookmarks for later. Well I have a system now, but copying the links into a note is not as convenient.
Dale also has a very useful tip explaining that Windows Mobile has a run dialogue option, just like ordinary windows.
Opera web browser updated
If you are using the Opera browser it's time to upgrade to version 9.22. If you are not using Opera, I would strongly recommend that you give it a look. There are all sorts of good reasons for doing so.
Opera is the most secure web browser around. According to Secunia there are no unpatched vulnerabilities unlike the other browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Opera is not without it's frustrations. There are no addons like there are for Firefox, which is occaisionally irritating. Mouse gestures were actually introduced on Opera before Firefox was even released and emails are organised with tags, something that Googlemail now does. But if you want to use something like Scribefire for quick blogging you'll be disappointed.
Opera is also worth investigation if you have a mobile phone that you use for internet. Opera Mini is a very good mobile browser and all the content is compressed by Opera to keep the data charges down.
Strange reactions
Strange goings-on over in the world of Apple, after the researcher who posted news of a possible hole in the Mac operating system received death threats. I'm often surprised by the fanaticism of such devotees. It's not just Mac fans, either. Witness the slightly strange response of Harry Potter fans to news that the new Harry Potter book has been leaked online.
Now, Windows fans would never do something like that, would they? Would they?
I'm glad it's not just me confused about the Vista Firewall
I like firewalls to have outbound protection. This is because when I got hit by a virus, ZoneAlarm stopped it from sending itself on to all my contacts. So, the firewall in Windows XP has never impressed me and I was excited to hear that the Vista firewall would include outbound protection.
But does it? This question came to head when I actually had to write about the firewall and it suddenly became very difficult to get an answer to the question. Looking through the settings suggested not but the information from Microsoft suggested yes. I don't like going to editors saying 'the balance of probability suggests x. Mainly because they don't like it either.
Computerworld have found that, yes there is some outbound protection but you have to use the Advanced Security Group Policy applet in the Microsoft Management Console. Although one of the comments suggests there is an easier way it still sounds harder than ZoneAlarm
This is my greatest frustration with Vista in a nutshell; it's so difficult to do anything beyond the basics of settings.
It's a fair point that many ordinary users probably don't really think about the firewall warnings but at least the warnings are there.
I'm going to stick with recommending a third party firewall for the time being
Windows Vista Service Pack 1, or not
Having found reports that Vista service pack 1 had a release date, Microsoft told Information Week that this was 'inaccurate' and the most specific release date is 'sometime this year'.
Watch this space, or this one (Windows Update)
Making Windows XP last
We never really thought that Vista would make XP disappear overnight. We still hear of people running Windows 98 (even, shudder, Me) and that was a much bigger leap. But there is still that worry that sticking with XP will leave you disadvantaged in some way.
The reality is probably not. At least until Microsoft decides to stop security updates but that isn't likely to be for a long time yet. Support for Windows 2000 was extended beyond the original plan and there's no reason to suggest that XP will be anything different. If anything it may even be supported for longer. The real deciding factor is whether businesses decide to upgrade to Vista. It would be very unlikely that Microsoft would try to force their hand by ending support.
There's some very helpful advice over at Computer World for giving Windows XP another 7 years of life. That might be a little optimistic as I think the only piece of hardware or software of mine that has survived that long is an old CDROM drive I keep for sentimental reasons.
Regardless, this should give you plenty of time to save up for a computer that can run Vista comfortably while not missing out on some of the new features of Vista. Er, perhaps to make that make sense, they're new to Windows, not new to computing.
Microsoft puts finishing touches to Home Server
Since getting one of my own (though not Windows based) I'm a convert to home servers once there is more than one computer in a house. There is no need to constantly rerip music for each computer or duplicate photos. Windows Home Server has a lot of potential, especially the feature that really caught my eye; automatic backup for the computers on the network.
There is one potential problem here, keeping it all running smoothly. There is a certain amount of extra work required with a system like this.
The official site is here. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy, or even a ready installed server, and seeing how it compares to my Bubba server.
Update on Magix Mufin
It seems that the problem I had with Magix Mufin not importing all of my music tracks was due to a corrupted file. Having deleted the file it is now importing the music properly. The website is getting closer as well.
New HP Smartphone with 'internet calling'
Forget about the iPhone - Windows smartphones are where it's at. And the cool cats at HP clearly think so, because they've just come up with the company's first phone ever, which uses the Windows Mobile operating system.
So far, it's fairly similar to most Windows smartphones, although one addition that's pretty conspicuous is 'internet calling', which uses the wi-fi and data functions of the phone to place calls over the internet rather than using the phone network. The name of the phone - the HP iPaq Voice Messenger - bears this out.
This is something the mobile phone networks are a little scared of, because it means they'll lose some of the revenue they get from calls (although they might make it up through the data costs). So far, we haven't heard which UK networks - if any - are going to take the phone. Watch this space for more information, and a full review, shortly.
Logitech MX Air review
As promised, we've finished taking a look at Logitech's new mouse, the MX Air. It's a fascinating device, and very clever in its design, but it's perhaps not best suited to being a desk-based mouse. When you pick it up and use it in the air, it becomes much more apparent why it was designed the way it was - as a remote control for a media centre PC, for instance, it's excellent.
There's a clever touch when it comes to scrolling, too - instead of a wheel, there is a small touch-sensitive strip mounted between the two buttons, which you run a finger up or down to scroll in one direction or the other. It did lead to some runaway scrolling at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite sensible. That said, the auto-locking scroll wheel on the MX Revolution is still a far better way of doing things, as far as we're concerned.
But while the gloss plastic case is a little too susceptible to finger smudges, the MX Air's value as a remote control is still high. Some more nice touches, such as the way you can change volume by holding down the VOL button and swinging the mouse from side to side, are indicators of how much thought has been put into the media centre side of things.
GIMP for Windows updated
Now, I wouldn't recommend GIMP over the likes of PhotoShop Elements for optimising photos, but it is great for quickly editing images and is very powerful if you are willing to invest the time. And being open source, it's completely free.
I'd recommend taking a look as soon as possible. You can download it from Sourceforge. Don't forget that you will need the GTK+ software installed first. It's nothing to be afraid of. Just install it and then forget all about it.
Why people use Windows
The post may be titled why most businesses use Windows rather than Linux but I think most of the points are valid for home users.
It seems to be part of a growing number of posts that are taking a more reasoned look at the comparison between Windows and Linux, or Microsoft and the OpenSource movement in general. Something I welcome.
My personal feeling is that both can coexist. Plenty of companies use Windows and Office for their desktops and Linux for their webservers. It's a case of using the strengths of each in the right way.
To get into the specifics of the post.
I've said it before but Microsoft Office is far more capable than
OpenOffice. That is not to say that OpenOffice is not a good office
suite. It is, but there are many things that Microsoft Office does
better. I know I'm about to get flamed for this but that proves my
point. Prove to me in a reasoned manner that OpenOffice is better and
I'll quite happily change my mind but it is not just about whether it
is free. If you scroll to the comments at the bottom of the story that
is precisely what 'Merlin of Chaos' fails to do. He mocks Office but
can't say why. So as not to appear hypocritical, Office rules when it
comes to collaborating on documents in the workplace, I'm not aware of
anything that comes close to Sharepoint or Groove for OpenOffice.
iPhone keyboard for Windows Mobile
I've been using my PocketPC based XDAII for a couple of years now and so was interested to see that someone has written an improvement to make the keyboard look like that of the iPhone.
There's none of that fancy automatic rotation that the iPhone does but it is a larger keyboard making it easier to type the right letter. One the other hand, this means that there is no space for the numbers so I'll have to relearn tapping in my password.
If you have an XDA phone, the XDA Developers forum is a great place for getting help and information on tasks such as unlocking them from networks. Be warned, the latter task is not for the faint hearted.
Thanks to the Download Squad for the link
Microsoft loses ground in the DRM war (for now)
The backwards and forwards battle to keep protection on music took a turn against Microsoft with the news that the Digital Rights Management it produces has been cracked again.
Call my defeatist but I've always felt that complete protection against piracy is nigh on impossible (not that I agree with piracy, artists deserve to get paid), so I'm not overly surprised or disappointed. The balance is sure to swing the other way in a few days with Microsoft likely to release another update.
Microsoft patents advertising based on user files in Windows
Very interesting reading over at the Channel 9 forums this morning (it's a forum for Microsoft developers). It appears that Microsoft has just filed a patent for generating advertising on an operating system based on the files on the computer.
Most operating systems already have a pretty good idea of what user files contain; that's how software like Google Desktop and the Vista search work. I can't see many people being pleased at the idea of this kind of information being used for advertising
The trouble with patents is that it does not mean that Microsoft necessarily has any plans in this direction, just that it wants to own the idea. Nonetheless I've contacted the press office to see what they have to say.
Sony attacks root kit company
Sony has sued the company it got to write the root kit that was used in an attempt to protect its CDs (and got the company into all sorts of trouble) for a whopping $12 million.
The summons accuses The Amergence Group Inc. of 'negligence, unfair business practices and breaching the terms of its license agreement by delivering software that "did not perform as warranted'.
The settlement that Sony came to with owners of the CDs cost a total of $5.75 million. Should the judge find against them in this case the total cost to their business is only going to go up.
Unsurprisingly, The Amergence Group said they would fight the allegations.
This could get interesting.
Weighing the cost of Vista
The introduction of Vista has been very different to that of XP. The older operating system was so much better than Windows 98, it was hard to justify not upgrading for any other reason than unsupported hardware.
Vista does have more features than XP and they are genuinely useful. I'm particularly pleased with the parental controls that are now included. But are they really worth the money of upgrading? Is is possible to get the same effect with third party software and Windows XP?
In fact the situation is even more murky because many of the 'new' features in Vista are not really new but old features that have been given an interface suitable for ordinary users.
Take the restrictions for when users can log onto the computer. I remember reading about this option in NT4. That's the precursor to Windows 2000 that was the precursor to Windows XP! Quite why it has taken this long is a bit of a mystery. I'm sure I'd be told it was more complicated than that.
I'll be taking a look at some of the new features in Vista and whether or not they can be replaced with free or cheap alternatives.
Why does nothing get faster?
Maybe it's all perception but I seem to spend as much time waiting for things to happen in Windows as I ever have done. But why? When I started here I was using a humble Celeron running at a paltry 500Mhz. Now I'm on a Pentium 4 running at an astounding 3000Mhz but Windows doesn't seem any faster.
One reason was brought up at a meeting with Xara a couple of days ago. The graphics rendering part of their software is pretty impressive, even when displaying 3D images. Normally we'd expect to need dedicated hardware but this is done all in software. The reason their MD gave was partly the time they spend optimising the program but mostly that they have some very talented programmers who can speak the raw language of computer, called assembly code.
In contrast, a lot of software is written is such as way that it is interpreted on the fly as it were. Java is a good example of this. A Java program is actually run by the Java Runtime Environment that is run by Windows. This extra level adds in more work for the computer with a drop in performance.
These days programmers rarely interact with the deepest parts of the operating system. For a quick example I recently wrote a Widget for the Yahoo Widget engine to display the latest news from our website. Written in JavaScript and XML, the Widget Engine has to interpret the software as it goes along. For showing a list of stories it is not a problem but it is a very inefficient way to write software.
The advantage of this system is that it is possible for people without a long formal programming education (like me) to start writing useful software. Oh dear, that makes me part of the problem....
Exclusive: Magix MuFin
MuFin is an interesting take on automatic play list generators. Most of the time I just listen to whole albums rather than creating playlists; it is just too much work to sift through a large collection.
Rather than searching the meta data included with music files (or not in the case of most of my music), MuFin analyses the music itself to find similar music.
What is different about MuFin is that it does not just limit itself to tracks on your computer. There is also the option to search for similar music online. Magix are in the process of analysing over 4 million tracks. This will include music you can buy but interestingly not just the big name labels. Magix is also responsible for music creation software such as Music Maker and Music Studio so smaller artists will also be included in the search.
This sounds like a great idea to me. It's a chance to listen to music from lesser known artists that should hopefully be cheaper to buy too.
The initial analysis is not that quick, the Jurgen from Magix admitted that his 7000 track collection took around 21 hours to process. My collection is nothing like as big but it was still several hours. Thankfully it can remember what has already been looked at and only analyse new tracks. This also means you can stop and then start again.
I was impressed by the results when creating playlists as it brought together tracks on the computer that fitted the starting track. Another nice touch is a normalize option. This makes sure that the tracks are at a similar volume level to avoid any nasty surprises.
Finished playlists can be saved for later or burnt to a compilation CD. Sadly there is no option yet to burn an MP3 DVD.
This is still a beta product and there are still some issues to be sorted out. I found that not all my music was included in the final list and protected WMA files caused the software to crash. But it is still enough to keep my interest piqued until the final version is released, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
Get some Air
We're currently taking a look at Logitech's new mouse, the MX Air. It's half-mouse, half-remote; in fact, some people have been comparing it to the Wii-mote. It can be used both on the desk, like a normal mouse, and in the air, which could make it very useful for Media Center fans. Unlike the Wii remote, this one uses standard RF communications rather than Bluetooth, but that shouldn't make any practical difference.
I was a big fan of Logitech's last innovation in this area, the MX Revolution, but will this one turn out to be quite as clever? Keep your eyes out for a full review shortly.
Zune - the response
Gene from Zunechannel.com responded to my post about the iPhone and the Zune, saying that he reckons the Zune will make it to Europe, after all.
His blog expounds on the notion that Zune isn't actually about being a music player: "Zune
is not really about music or video:
Now that's an interesting idea. I'm still not convinced, though. Gene reckons that if Microsoft get the second, third or ninth generation of Zune right, it will take over from the iPod as the top dog. But while it takes that time for them to get it right, the iPod is just going to continue to sell and sell, especially in the absence of any serious competition. Isn't it?
A whole world of Warcraft
Some people take their gaming far too seriously. Generally, they tend to be fans of flight simulator
games: there are plenty of examples of people going slightly over the top when it comes to kitting out their 'rigs' for flight sim games. That said, having had a large screen HDTV rigged up to a very fast PC in our labs last year when Microsoft released Flight Simulator X I can testify that flying on a big screen is more fun than it ought to be.
But this is the first time we've ever seen the principle applied to a role-playing game. "Gameslah", who posts on a forum for RPG World of Warcraft, has posted pictures of his own 'rig', which involves 43 PCs and seven screens, by the look of it. Apparently it allows him to play multiple characters at once.
That's a whole lot of Windows licenses. And a lot of copies of the game.
iPhone bubble bursts, Zune holds steady
The New York Times reports that several people looking to make a fast profit on Apple's new iPhone have been left disappointed after failing to sell them on eBay. The piece quotes one person who bought two in anticipation of selling one, only to be left with both. He says he hasn't heard of anybody selling one.
Apparently people reckon they'll show up in shops before too long, so there's no point splashing out on one right now. Of course, on this side of the Atlantic, the iPhone won't be showing up for several months, at least. Rumour has it that O2 is about to sign a contract to sell the phone in the UK.
The same situation applies to Microsoft's Zune music player - it's available in the States, but not in the UK. The player, which has been available for a year in America, has just passed the one-million-sales mark, at the same time as the iPhone, which has been out for, oh, a couple of weeks.
The Wired story (above) points out that that's a reasonable sales figure for such a player, but it's still hard to believe Microsoft had those kinds of figures in mind when it unveiled the player. That surely means it's unlikely we'll ever see a European Zune.
Word on Vista Service Pack 1, now with date
One of the common reasons for not buying Vista is the desire to wait for SP1. Strange then, that Microsoft has been so tight lipped about when this might be released. A post on the Channel 9 forum links to a story on ZDNet about a possible date for the Beta of this update, 16 July.
Sadly the list of new features is less than exciting for most home users. Support for ExFAT is more worrying than anything else, we don't need a Windows format for flash memory. Still, improved performance when copying files and shutdown will be most welcome.
Does Windows really need another browser?
Not according to the guys over at Extreme Tech. They have compiled a list of 10 reasons not to use Safari on Windows. Assuming it renders in exactly the same way as the Mac version it will be quite useful for web developers but apart from that it just seems to join a long list: Opera, Firefox, Flock, IE et al.
I'm tempted to agree. There was nothing wrong with Safari when I installed it but equally there was nothing to keep me using it either, especially given the lack of what I consider to be essential these days such as mouse gestures.
Still it's useful if you are trying to give your PC the Mac look along with OjectDock but if you're that desperate, it's probably best just to go and buy a Mac....
A market for bugs
There have been some odd attempts in the last few years to bring market theory to all sorts of unlikely areas. Perhaps the strangest was the Policy Analysis Market, an innocuous name for what was actually a stock market for futures in terrorism.
A similarly strange (and far sillier-named) idea is the new Wabi SabiLabi, a market for the sale of holes in software.
At the moment, most vulnerabilities or bugs in software are found by volunteers, who submit their discoveries to the manufacturer. But some manufacturers have noticed that, in these days of financially motivated hacking, there's an incentive for researchers to sell their findings to hackers instead.
Last year, apparently, Russian hackers were selling details of a vulnerability in Windows for some £2,000. Having the details would, of course, allow whoever bought them to exploit the hole and hack into people's computers before anyone knew the hole was there.
The WSL is designed to stop this from happening, by allowing companies to pay researchers directly for their information. It's not without its flaws - for instance, how will the company keep tabs on who's buying? It says it will only allow legitimate companies to buy information, but there are always ways around that kind of system.
Perhaps the criminal element will have to set up a market of their own?
New version of Flock getting closer
I've just downloaded and started using Flock again after a break of a few months. For those that don't know, Flock is a version of Firefox with a load of extra bits for 'social networking' built in.
It's true that many of these functions can be added with Add-ons but the tighter integration into the browsers give a much more polished feel. There have been some real improvements in this new version. This is still a beta so I haven't added it to the download site yet - warnings about lost data put me off for some reason!
Thankfully, I've not had any problems so far and the experience has been even better than the last time I used it. There are some new online services that have started since Flock launched, such as Twitter, which would be good to see, but the Photobucket integration will make posting images on our forum much easier.
The other part of good news is that the memory leak problem with the previous version has been fixed. A memory leak is where the software gradually (or very quickly) takes up more and more memory, eventually rendering the computer unusable until it is stopped.
Hopefully the finished product will be out very soon. Watch this space.....
Microsoft extends warranties on XBox 360
Peter Moore, from the Microsoft XBox360 team has announced an extension in the warranty period for the XBox 360. This has been due to problems resulting three red error lights. Microsoft will now extend the warrenty period to three years if the three red light problem occurs.
CNN estimates that this announcement may cost Microsoft $1billion in repairs.
New PCI Express Wireless card from Belkin
The chances are that if you have bought a new notebook recently, it has a PCI Express slot rather than the older PC Card. That's true of my notebook, so I was pleased to receive the news from Belkin about their new Draft N wireless card in PCI Express format.
My personal experience of Draft N is that it is not quite as fast as the claims but the range benefits are worth having.
The N1 range of wireless adapters also has adapters for PC Card, PCI or USB. The PCI Express version is £70.
Make Windows XP look like Vista, Part 1
I've just posted a download review of ViStart, a rather good utility for Windows XP. It changes the Start Menu to look like the Start Menu in Windows Vista, including the search function.
It is the search that really attracts me to ViStart. Even after six months, I have so many programs on my computer that the Start Menu more closely resembles the deep dark wood.
Finding anything is virtually impossible, especially after several well intentioned but doomed attempts to 'organise' the start menu.
If this is too much of change for you, I can strongly recommend Launchy as a Start Menu replacement. It's open source too, so it doesn't cost a penny.
I hardly use the Start Menu any more as Launchy is so easy. The only unnerving thing is that the search results often include programs I had completely forgotten about or thought I had uninstalled months ago!
Experiences with graphics tablets
I've been a strong convert to the advantages of graphics tablets. I added one to my computer a few years ago after I was suffering from pain in my wrist from using a mouse too much (too much Unreal Tournament at lunchtime!). Within a couple of days of using a tablet my wrist felt better.
After a trying out a few, I've stuck with Wacom tablets; it is a good example of you get what you pay for. They use a clever induction loop to power the pen so there are no wires or batteries and they have that all important 'feel' of quality. Their tablets are not the cheapest but it's worth the extra £20-£30.
Wacom must have thought it was their lucky day when Vista came out because all of the tablet PC pen options are now included in the desktop versions. With this is mind they have introduced the Bamboo tablet. I first got a glimpse at a lunch with Michail Domke from Wacom.
It is in a widescreen format, which is great for my two monitor setup, and includes the shortcut buttons and mouse wheel equivalent. It's got a fairly positive write up from Darren over at Office Rocker!
You may remember a blog post a few months ago trying out the hand writing built into Vista. It was good but the keyboard still has the edge for speed. Still maybe one day I'll make the switch, maybe on the day I start to learn Dvorak properly!
Windows Watch joins Technorati
To help improve the way people find us, we have now joined Technorati with this post.
No more mouse?
Blogger Clay Barnes is interested in HCI - Human-Computer Interaction, or, to the rest of us, the way we use computers. He reckons that the mouse is overused, and that many people would be better off using a keyboard for many tasks. The crux of his argument, which will be familiar to many older users, is that keyboard shortcuts are quicker for performing most tasks, than the mouse (once you've learned them, of course). The idea is that it's easier to hit a key or two without looking than look up, move the mouse to a place on the screen, click, then get back to what you were doing.
In the next post, he goes on to propose an entire mouse-less computer interface. I'm not entirely convinced, but it's an interesting idea.
Help for creating Dreamscene content
Reading through the Windows Ultimate posts, I found this gem for creating good DreamScene videos. It's a long way from my occasional attempts at taking photos specifically for Windows wallpapers.
If you do make some DreamScene videos, we'd love to see them, there may even be a small prize for any we particularly like...
More Windows Ultimate Extras are on the way, really
It seems that the frustration of Vista Ultimate owners waiting for more Extras has been heard by the various Vista teams in Microsoft.
There is a statement by the Vista Ultimate Team underlining their commitment to more Extras coming in the future. Sadly there is little in the way of actual detail. The Windows Ultimate website is worth a visit, even though it looks a little sparse at the moment. At least there is an RSS feed for getting alerts of new content.
Thanks to the Windows Vista Blog for the alert.
One for the Microsoft conspiracy theorists
An editorial at the Softpedia site reckons that Vista is far cleverer at collecting user information (and sending it back to Microsoft) than previous editions of Windows. The story counts "47 Vista features and services that collect data".
But what can Microsoft do with all that data? Even the above article isn't sure, although it points out that while the company is fairly transparent in its license agreements about protecting privacy, those same agreements allow it to use the data for its own purposes when "neccessary".
Getting things off your chest
Every so often it does you good to have a bit of moan. Well My Biggest Complaint.com is a place where you can indulge in your greatest rants. I have just now about the stupidity of companies that use non standard USB sockets on peripherals. Maybe it's just because I have endless gadgets pass through my desk or I'm very good at losing cables but it really annoys me.
There, I've done. And I feel a lot better for it. If you agree with me you can vote for my complaint on the website, or just start on of your own.
Add the visual effects of Ubuntu to Windows
Some interesting advice from The Indi Tribune for making Windows look like Ubuntu Linux. I'm not going to recommend that you install all of them as there doesn't seem much point in replacing the boot screen for example.
But the Yod'm 3D utility is definitely of interest. I like many of the desktop effects (3D or otherwise) around but often want to pick and choose. Some small utilities make this possible. WinRoll is a wonderfully small utility that makes windows 'roll up' into their title bars.
Yod'm 3D reproduces some of the 3D effects found in modern Linux distributions, including the 3D cube effect when switching between multiple desktops.
Sadly the attention on the web has been too much for the Yod'm 3D web host so the download is unavailable at the moment. But I'm going to take a look as soon as it returns.
10 'unknown' Vista features according to the Vista Team Blog
It is a well accepted fact that 80% of people only use 20% of the features in any program. This was obviously the motivation behind this post from the Windows Vista Team Blog of 10 Things You Might Not Know About Windows Vista.
It is certainly a nice idea but one that wouldn't make me think that I was missing out if I didn't already have Vista. My other gripe is that several of the features need Windows Vista Ultimate, BitLocker and Ultimate extras to name but two.
Before I get too negative, I've found some of the features listed to be very useful, especially the Windows Sidebar. I don't like writing or reading in wide columns so the sidebar gives plenty of space for useful information.
The ability to select several items without having to use the Ctrl key is also very welcome. Whether it is just me but I've found this method of selecting multiple files unreliable, so using checkboxes instead should remove some of the frustration from my life.
The list is only the beginning as the team plans to write an article on each of the features listed.