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Firefox and addons signing

Thanks to Asa Dotzler who has left a comment explaining the signing process for Firefox addons in more detail. Here it is in case you haven't seen it on the original post.

"The signing process doesn't have anything to do with ensuring addons haven't been changed. Signing is to let you know who is providing the add-on, but if you get the addon from Mozilla's add-on site, we verify all of that for you so all you have to do is trust Mozilla, not necessarily every add-on author."

I'm glad to clear that up.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Text effects in GIMP

One frequent criticism of The GIMP (at least in the office) is that it doesn't have the same help for frequent tasks, it can do them but there are fewer wizards or dialogue boxes.

There is some advice on five common text effects to be found at www.tux-planet.fr - don't worry the link is to the Google translation from the French.

The effects include adding shadows and the very Web 2.0  reflection styling.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Winroll: a very useful utility

One feature of Mac OS and Linux that I had long envied was the ability to roll up windows into their title bar. It's a far more efficient way of switch between windows

Enter Winroll. This is a tiny download (just 89Kb) that makes windows roll up when the right mouse is clicked on the title bar.

I'm not sure if this will work in Vista given the new window manager. Unfortunately Winroll has not been updated in several years.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

New version of OpenOffice is available

OpenOffice 2.4 is now available for download.

The full list of new features can be found on the OpenOffice Wiki. There are some interesting aspects such as connecting to WebDAV servers for sharing documents online and importing custom icons. Mac OS X users can now use the native Quicktime player.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Playing old games in Vista

As I've mentioned before, there are lots of older games considered abandoned that can be downloaded from websites such as Abandonia.

The only snag is that Windows XP and Vista can sometimes be a little funny about playing old games, especially if they were written for DOS. There is some advice to be found at www.vistagamedoctor.com. Unfortunately, the site recently lost some data but there is still plenty of information to be found.

The DOSBox web site also has a comprehensive list of games with advice on any tweaks that are required to make them work. I have found this to be invaluable advice, and often very simple.

For example a favourite of mine is Might and Magic II, all that is required to make it work is to enter the command 'loadfix'. Simple but vital.

 

Posted by Tim Smith on March 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Vista Installation Shock - it's easy

A confession: despite writing about Vista on and off for the last year or so I did not, until last night, actually own a Vista computer. My work and home desktop PCs both worked well with Windows XP Professional and my Media Center seemed happy with XP MCE 2005, so I left all three alone and simply used a Vista notebook whenever I needed to check software or try out Vista's features.

Of course, this had to end at some point - and that point was my desktop PC beginning to slow down alarmingly and crash. Forced to reinstall Windows, I dithered - was it best to stick with the familiar face of XP, even if it meant upgrading again in the near future, or try Vista? In the end I decided to take the plunge with the new OS and, much to my surprise, it proved to be a great decision.

It turns out installing Windows Vista is easy - as long as you have a decent mobile phone.

Before starting I copied all my documents, photos, music and emails to an external hard disk, deactivated my software and removed an ancient PCI wireless network card that would clearly never work with Vista (it barely worked with XP). Out went two ancient and noisy IDE hard disks, and in went a 400GB SATA one. I also downloaded a few essentials (AVG antivirus, Zone Alarm firewall, Firefox and Thunderbird) onto the same external disk ready for use. Finally, I crossed my fingers and booted from the Vista DVD.

The installer started, hummed away for a bit and demanded a license number. At this point I hit the first and only real snag: Vista didn't like the SATA hard disk as it uses something called "GPT", and wouldn't go any further. With no idea what GPT even stood for, let alone why it should thwart installation given that Vista could quite clearly read the disk and see a  partition, I was stumped. Fortunately, a quick google via my mobile phone turned up a quick solution (here, for anyone interested). Vista could then repartition and reformat the disk ready for use - so far so good.

Sadly, this wasn't quite the only problem. With the new partition formatted Vista still wouldn't install, claiming that the motherboard couldn't boot from it. This didn't sound right, as the BIOS was detecting the disk with no problems, but I tried disabling the old IDE hard disk controller just in case - happily this did the trick, and re-running the installer set the installation in progress again. After half an hour or so the PC rebooted into Vista.

Much to my surprise, Vista didn't have any huge problems with any of my rather esoteric hardware - I needed a driver for my Creative sound card, but other than that Windows Update found all the needed files without prompting. My applications installed first time, and even the new wireless network card didn't cause too much trouble once the manufacturer's pesky management utility had been disabled. After an hour or so downloading 45 Windows updates and another hour copying back all my documents and emails, the PC was back and ready to use.

So, what did I learn? A few things:

1. Installing Vista, even on fairly old hardware, can be surprisingly simple
2. .. but always try to have an alternative means of checking the web to hand when reinstalling Windows
3. The GPT disk problem can be quickly and easily fixed via command line
4. Replacing two old hard disks with one new one is a great way to cut noise
5. If you own a rather fluffy cat the inside of your PC's case will fill with an alarming amount of grey cat hair. This is disgusting, but is easily fixed with a hoover.

But, most importantly, I learnt that installing Vista is actually easier than installing Windows XP. Why?

1. Vista requires less intervention. It's largely a silent process.
2. Vista works with SATA disks - no more finding a floppy disk drive, then finding a floppy disk, then finding SATA drivers and combining the three in order to install Windows
3. Vista's installer can actually partition disks - although some of the more advanced features, such as cleaning the boot record, do need command line access

All in all, after about four hours of work I now have a Vista PC that runs quickly and seems perfectly happy - it even runs Windows XP Pro inside Virtualbox. Would I recommend taking the plunge and upgrading to Vista? Yes. Am I looking forward to installing Service Pack 1? Not really. 

Posted by Tom Royal on March 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Mozilla isn't keen on the Apple Update Safari issue either

John Lilly from Mozilla has voiced his concerns about the decision to include Safari in the Apple update software, even if it hasn't previously been installed.

If you want a way of checking if the software on your computer is up to date, I can recommend the Secunia Personal Software Inspector. It scans the software installed on the computer and warns if anything is out of date. As the list of software installed on my computer gets very long, this is a very useful tool.

What do you think? Is this helpful or an imposition?

Posted by Tim Smith on March 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Opera and browser addons

I was writing yesterday about addons for Internet Explorer 7/8 and Firefox but nothing about Opera, my prefered browser.

There are extra bits of code that can be downloaded for Opera called Widgets that perform many of the functions that addons do but with some differences.

Really they are more like desktop widgets than browser addons. Think of the Yahoo Widget Engine or the Windows Vista Sidebar. They are more informational than adding new features to the browser. My biggest annoyance is that they appear on the Taskbar and are grouped with the main Opera Window, which quickly becomes unwieldy.

I have asked Opera about this because I depend on some of the Firefox addons when designing web pages or writing blogs. The answer was that of security. Addons can have quite a lot of power when it comes to what they can do or acccess. Firefox has a signing process to ensure addons haven't been changed but I can't remember ever having seen a signed addon. I just click on install. After my virus attack the other week I suppose I should be more careful but how?

There is one Widget tool that is worth having a look at, Widgetize, the widget generator. This is a three step wizard for creating a widget link for a blog. You can take a look by clicking on the button below in Opera to see the Widget for this blog.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Game of the week: physics special

Crayon Physics Deluxe, as the name suggests, combines physics and crayons to create a quite remarkable 'game'. The idea is that you draw shapes on the screen using the crayons provided, and the shapes will react to the physics of the situation in which they're placed. Using drawings, then, you can move a small ball across the screen to the target.

The word 'game' in that first sentence is in quotes there because, while being pitched as a game (and being shown at the Game Developers Conference) it's really more than that. Although there are objectives, CPD is really more of a play environment. Which makes it sound much less fun than it is.

There's a demo at the creator's website, although he's at pains to point out that it's not a demo of CPD. It's really only a crude mock-up of the full game, but it's very impressive at demonstrating how much fun it can be. There's a Youtube video of the full version (below) along with a fuller write-up over at Slate.



In a way, it's reminiscent of Sodaconstructor, a Java 'game' that's been around for ages (well, nearly 10 years, which is a long time in internet terms). You can use the constructor to create objects using masses and springs, and alter the physical laws of the game's universe to make them walk, climb or dance.

And then there's Phun (more here), which is another physics-playground game.

More physics games can be found at Fun Motion.

Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on March 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The return of the BBC Micro

Anyone who was at school (or was the parent of a young child) in the 1980s or early 1990s will remember the BBC series of computers. Built by the lamented British company Acorn Computers, the BBC models A and B* and the later BBC Master were remarkably powerful for their time, and made appearances in schools up and down the land.

Last week, in a reunion organised by the Computer Conservation Society, some of the pioneers of the BBC computers met at the Science Museum in London to discuss the computer and the times. You can read parts of the interviews at, of course, the BBC's website.

Interestingly, Acorn lives on today, in a very different form. Its former subsidiary, ARM, which made the processor chips for the company's Archimedes computers, is today a global power in the small processor field. In fact, it's fairly likely that you have one of its Arm processors inside your mobile phone.

* the link is to a fan site that, endearingly, displays a "Site of the day, August 14, 1996" badge on its homepage

Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on March 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More on Safari

If there's one thing that really annoys me about big software companies, it's  assuming that a user will want to install extra software or change their homepage. There's a hint of this today in the Apple Software Update utility.

If you have iTunes installed and run the update utility it includes Safari, even if it has not previously been installed on the computer.

I accept this is a helpful tip and there might be advantages to (yet) another browser on my computer. But I don't think this is the best way to promote it as it is too easily confused as an update rather than new software.

The good news is that it does not take over as the default browser.

HT to Lifehacker and Gizmodo

Posted by Tim Smith on March 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Not all batteries are created equal

While there are few computers powered by off-the-shelf batteries, they are unavoidable when it comes to wireless mice and keyboards, MP3 players and all manner of other gadgets.

The key consideration for me is how long the battery will last, so I'm a bit obessive when it comes to reading the capacity, normally expressed as mAh (milli amp hours). It's not just AAA batteries but I tend to check on fixed batteries as well. It all stems for really needing a mobile phone only to find that the battery had run out.

There's a fascinating article about batteries to be found over at Coding Horror. Fascinating but doesn't do anything for my ego as I've been oversimplifying the decision.

It appears that it's not just about capacity but about how fast the battery will discharge. So you can have a higher capacity battery that runs out faster than a lower capacity one. And of course there is also the consumption of the device itself, which is why a single AAA lasts longer in an MP3 player than a huge notebook battery.

It also sounds like it's time for me to find a better battery charger.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Manage addons for Internet Explorer 8

It's odd that not more is made of addons for Internet Explorer, given that they are so popular in Firefox. One reason may be that not all of them are free but they are still very useful.

Getting addons onto a browser is one thing but managing or removing them is sometimes quite another. Firefox has a capable manager that can be used to disable addons and a way to access their options. Internet Explorer has as well although it looks more like the techie management tools rather than something welcoming to ordinary users.

The good news is that this has been addressed in Internet Explorer 8 and there is a good explanation of the changes on the IEBlog along with a peek of what the new management window will look like.

 

 

It's probably a very personal gripe but one thing I'm looking forward to is that the new window can be resized; it is very frustrating when text will not fit, and it's not unheard of for these fixed windows not to have a scroll bar either.

If you want a look at the sort of addons available, head over to the Windows Marketplace.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Game of the week (2): Contour

Contour is a clever reworking of the 1980s classic Marble Madness.

Instead of using a trackball to rotate the playing surface and move the ball towards the hole, you click squares on the playing grid to lift them up. That then makes the ball move (you're creating contours, hence the name) in a certain direction. The aim is to finish having made as few clicks as possible.

It's much harder than it sounds.

via Jay is Games

Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on March 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Safari for Windows updated

There's an update for the Safari web browser, which Apple released for Windows a little while a go. You can download the full version from our downloads page.

The Mac lovers may hate me for this but there isn't really anything that Safari does that the other Windows browsers do. The progress indicator in the Address bar is a nice touch. But can be replicated in Firefox with an add-on called Fission.

Still if you are designing any kind of web site this is an important download for checking how pages look in it.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Update: Vista SP1 Released

As predicted earlier today, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released on the Windows Update service. For more information, and details on why it might not always appear (including reason number one, "you are already running Vista SP1"), check the Microsoft Vista blog here.

Posted by Tom Royal on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Game of the week: Questionaut

Every so often, something comes along that, it seems, justifies the BBC's license fee almost single-handedly. Questionaut is one of those things - it's a beautifully designed Flash game that works alongside key stage 3 of the national curriculum.

In addition to being a learning tool (with questions on maths, physics, English and more) it's also a nice, laid-back puzzle game with some dastardly clever brain-teasers.

via MetaFilter

Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How the internet works

Well, sort of. A poster called Malor, over at the online discussion site metafilter.com, has provided a succinct, easy to follow and informative account of how your browser gets to a website when you type in the address.

It's something we don't often think about, having become accustomed to just typing addresses in and getting straight to the page you want. But when Youtube recently went off the air (which is what the Metafilter discussion is all about) it becomes very important indeed.

Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Virus update

Sadly my hopes for the Symantec Virus removal tool were overly optimistic. Just then the Microsoft updates window appeared with the March Malicious Software Removal Tool. What great timing I thought.

This also reported having removed a virus but the problems did not go away and Internet Explorer is riddled with popups and dodgy warning messages.

Enough is enough, so I've asked our Systems department to wipe the computer and start again. My files are safe in a roaming profile (a clever technology where the Documents and Settings folder is copied to a server so that it is available wherever I log in) so the only inconvenience installing extra software not included in the default setup.

I recognise that I've very lucky to be able to do this and it is unlikely to be an option for most home users. But spending some time preparing for a disaster like this is a good investment.

Software like DriveImageXML is a good start although restoring the image may require creating a Windows recovery disc, using something like Barts PE. These tools are all free but frankly I think this is a situation where it is worth spending a little money to save time. Something like Acronis True Image 11 Home is much simpler to use and worth the £40 price tag. Now all I need to do is find the time to make the backup.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hot notebooks

Notebooks are just about as popular as desktops now. Even if you don't want to use the computer on the move (and popular opinion seems to suggest about 80% of notebooks never leave the desk), they save space and can be hidden away when not in use.

There is one big drawback, heat. With all the components crammed in together so tightly it is harder to keep any kind of air flow around the processor and graphics cards. With a dual Geforce2Go notebook, such as I'm using now, that presents a bit of problem.

As the day progresses the keyboard starts to get hotter and hotter. Eventually I have had to connect a separate keyboard to the notebook. There are various notebook coolers around that have fans to help with cooling.

I've often worried that this may reduce the life of the notebook compared to a desktop but thankfully this does not seem to have been the case. In fact, now I get more worried about the temperature of the power supply. Sometimes this gets too hot to touch comfortably, but I'm not sure of any way to cool these down.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Do you benefit from multiple monitors?

I've been using two monitors at my desk for many years now, and it is frustrating to return to a single monitor at home. It can be very helpful to have a document open in one monitor for reference while working on another.

I don't think it's always a good solution. I've known people who spend more time looking for the correct browser window and then rearranging everything around it on the screen. I've done it myself but now tend to have an 'active document' monitor and a 'reference' screen.

I've never used more than two monitors for any length of time, apart from testing the Matrox Parhelia, a graphics card with three outputs. Without access to three identical monitors, the gaming side of things didn't really work out, not to mention some odd display problems in Dark Forces: Jedi Outcast. The only other games I've seen that support multiple monitors are Microsoft Flight Simulator and X3 Reunion

The picture on the right is from Coding Horror, who have plenty of links to studies on how helpful multiple monitors can be.

Don't rush out to buy three 20" LCD panels though, apparently productivity drops off after a certain point. This is probably as people start to lose programs.

Am I alone or do other people find this helpful?

Posted by Tim Smith on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Vista SP1 today, tomorrow - or next month in the UK?

Rumours of the imminent release of Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) have been circulating for some time, but the latest batch suggest that the long awaited update should appear on the Windows Update download service at some point today (18 March).

What's more, information posted on the US shopping website Amazon suggests that boxed copies of Vista that include SP1 will be available from tomorrow (19th March).

UK customers, however, will be less than delighted to know that the UK Amazon website is currently listing the same items with a shipping date of the 4th April. Not to mention that the price of £169 converts to roughly $338, wheras the same product is sold in the US at just $216 (£108).

We will, of course, keep you updated.

Posted by Tom Royal on March 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Check if a web site is working

We are used to the web working without any problems but there are actually lots of different 'points of failure' any of which can block a web site.

The problem of course is knowing what's causing the problem. http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com is a very simple web site that checks if a web site is working or not from another computer. Enter the problematical web site in the box and click on the or just me? link. I like simplicity like this.

And if can't access this web site, it's a fairly good indicator that the problem rests with your computer...

Posted by Tim Smith on March 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Experiences in backing up

Well, it seems that Vista has managed to fix whatever it was that I fouled up a couple of months ago. A very helpful tech from Microsoft called and tried to work through the problems. He couldn't identify any particular problem so we decided that a repair install was the best way forward.

In order to do this, I had to uninstall Service Pack 1 RC, otherwise the repair wouldn't work. I'd hoped that SP1 might solve the problem, although this wasn't the case.

Now that it's working I've decided to make a proper backup before doing anything else.

The biggest disappointment I've had with Windows Backup is that it won't backup to a network share. I can't face sitting with a pile of 10 DVDs and in any case I would need to start very early in the morning, so the hundreds of of GB on my home server.

The best alternative so far seems to be DriveImageXML, a freeware backup utility that also works well with Windows XP recovery CDs such as Bart's PE Builder.

Interestingly, DriveImage XML has issues with User Access Control. I'd just started on the downward spiral of disappointment that none of my drives were listed when the following message appeared, telling me to disable UAC before making the backup.

So disable it I must, but I will certainly turn it back on after the backup has finished.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Do you like the Office ribbon?

Office 2007 was quite a radical move for Microsoft because they made a big change to the interface. The traditional toolbars were discarded in favour of a dynamic ribbon.

Bigger than the old toolbars the ribbon change the icons on show depending on what you happen to be doing at the time. For example, move the cursor into a table to see all of the table options.

Some programs have now followed the example of Office, MindManager being one of them.

I've found myself warming to the ribbon. It needs more screen space to really shine, otherwise it takes up too much room that I would rather use for editing.

Thankfully there is a solution as a quick double-click on the ribbon makes it hide away leaving the tab titles at the top. Click on a title to reveal that part of the ribbon.

But so long as my screen is at least 1024 pixels high, I leave it on as I've found it to be an improvement on the old windows, and certainly one on the personalised menus of Office 2003. Turning those off is one of the first jobs on a new installation.

So what do you think? Is the ribbon an aid to productivity or just a clever gimmick?

Posted by Tim Smith on March 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Windows Secrets - Dual booting tips

There's some interesting tips on making the most of dual booting over at Windows Secrets.

I'll have a moment of pride by highlighting the fact I was triple booting on my notebook (I believe the record I've seen is around 9). The problem is that it gets difficult fitting everything in on a smaller hard disk. Desktop computer are less prone to this because 3.5" disks are cheaper and bigger.

Scott Dunn suggests installing applications into the same folder for both Vista and XP to avoid duplicating the files. The installation wizard has to be run on both to include all the Registry information.

It sounds like a good idea, and one I'll be intrigued to try. It'll be interesting to see how Windows Updates copes with Office.

One tip I've done several times in the past is to have a separate partition for files; I found that Vista and XP were not always happy accessing the others Documents folders. Ironically it was Vista that complained about not having access rights. XP just opened the folder. Or you could use a network share.

There's always some compromise involved but dual booting is as close as getting the best of both worlds as possible.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What do KB, kb and kB mean?

This is the source of much controversy both in the office and the letters page. What do these letters actually mean?

Well xkcd.com has the answer including the Bakers Kilobyte: 9 bits to the byte since you're such a good customer.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Are your passwords safe?

It must be my day for being shamefaced. Having fallen for a trojan, I then took a look at the Microsoft Password Checker. Only a couple of my passwords were considered strong or safe and quite a few came up as weak.

That was mainly due to length as they use a mix of cases, numbers and non alpha numerical characters.

Perhaps it's time for a complete security overhaul...

Posted by Tim Smith on March 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It happens to us all

I managed to infect my computer with a piece of nastyware yesterday, Trojan.Vundo to be precise.
The link to the file came through on my instant messaging software from someone I trust. That's not a dig at them, it's possible that it was a spoof of some kind. Anyway it looked relavent so I clicked on it. And now I really wish I hadn't.
Thankfully the effects appear to have been contained but getting rid of the wretched thing is proving quite difficult. My first attempt to run the Symantec removal tool hung when it encountered the Symantec Virus checker.
It's running now so hopefully I can return to normal without having to restore the backup image. That would be even more hassle.
The moral of the story. Always check links first. Always. And ask people what they are first.
I stand humbled.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What software can you trust?

Trust is a curious notion online. We often have people who are very suspicious of what we write, and then cheerfully accept something that a blog post they found in Google wrote about having seen a report of about an article found on a rumour site. Sorry if I sound bitter.

When it comes to software, it seems that the situation can be even worse, and I'm guilty of maybe being too fast to trust as well.

I started thinking this about a report on Coding Horror of a Google Mail backup utility that was programmed to email usernames and passwords back to the author.

There's no need to use the main email software for this so no one was any the wiser until a programmer did some research and noticed the outgoing email.

The good news is that this programmer changed the receiving Googlemail account and deleted the user details. Of course, we only have his word for it.

What can be done?

I'm not even sure if there is an answer here as it is so hard to be sure of where software has come from. It's one reason I've stuck with the Opera browser so long and put up with the lack of addons. Firefox Addons are great but I'm never completely sure of who has created them or what they do.

Having said that, when I submitted a widget to the Yahoo Widget Gallery, they did actually check the code. I know this because they rejected it (here comes the bitterness again though it was with good reason). So there are places you can trust.

So I think I'm going to stick with software from companies know. And keep my ear to the ground if I want to install something else. That is at least one advantage of Open Source, that people can check easily if they want to.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No password safer than weak password?!

I couldn't quite believe the headline Set a Blank Password in Windows XP To Protect the Computer from Internet Attacks but it seems that there might actually be something in this.

If there is no password on an account it cannot be accessed over the network or internet. There is still the question of physical security but this is less of a problem at home. Unless you want to run parental controls software. Or your house is broken into, as we heard in an email into the office a couple of days ago.

Given that most people end up using simple passwords for an easy life, this advice is fairly good. But I would still recommend people to create a strong password (upper and lower case, numbers and even extra characters like !"£$% if allowed).

And never, ever, ever leave a notebook without a password when out and about.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

American shoppers don't love Linux

According to the Associated Press, the mindbogglingly enormous American chain of stores, Wal-Mart, has decided to stop selling Linux-based computers.

The company had been conducting a trial during which it sold Linux-based desktop PCs made by Everex for $199 (£99).

A spokesperson is quoted as explaining that "This really wasn't what our customers were looking for", although she also explained that the company sold out of the $199 computers before deciding not to buy more.

Wal-Mart will continue to sell Linux-based computers online.

Posted by Tom Royal on March 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cheatsheet for the GIMP

One of the biggest challenges for starting out with new software is learning all of the new keyboard shortcuts.

If you've just started with The GIMP, help is at hand with a useful list of hotkeys over at Gimpusers.com.

It covers all of the different tools and dialogues. Sadly it hasn't been there isn't a printable version but it is still very useful.

Depending on how adventurous you are, it is possible to reassign all the keyboard shortcuts. This is particularly helpful when moving from one image editor to another.

Click on the File menu and then Preferences.

Click on the Interface button in the left hand menu and then on Configure keyboard Shortcuts

All of the possible keyboard shortcuts are shown in the next window, organised by the menu or tool.

Click on the small plus next to each section to see the available options

Click on an option and then press the keyboard shortcut to use for it. Pressing escape cancels the change, if you happen to click on the wrong one.

Click on the Close button when you are happy with the changes.

The previous window also offers the opportunity to save the changes immediately, or to reset them back to the defaults.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft 'not at all worried' about Vista SP1 incompatibilities

There's a report on Silicon.com that a senior person at Microsoft has dismissed concerns over software that may not work with Vista Service Pack 1.

The last time I looked at the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article with details of known problems it was as bad as it sounds; in fact all of the programs had updates available to solve the problems.

As long as you do some basic research into the security software on the computer there shouldn't be a problem as there is likely to be a reasonable amount of time before it becomes a mandatory install.

But then, that's the problem. It shows that software developers still haven't made the leap to a truly consumer orientated culture. I don't have to make lots of checks before upgrading the firmware on my PVR.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Open source: more secure?

I recently interviewed Mike Schroepfer, VP of Engineering at Mozilla, the organisation that produces the Firefox web browser. He was in London to talk about Firefox 3, and you can read about that browser and its new security features in our news section here.

During our discussion, though, Mr Schroepfer made some fairly bold claims. One of the most interesting was that, to put it simply, open source software (such as Firefox or Linux) is inherently more secure than closed-source software (Internet Explorer, or Windows).

Or, as he put it:

“Open source means that it’s an open process. I like to say that you don’t have to trust anything I say – you can go and check it out for yourself. Dial in to one of our meetings, look at our bug tracking system, look at the source code yourself. You don’t have to trust anything I or anyone else says - anyone in the world can verify it, at any point in time. I think that’s a lot more comforting to me than some promise from some executive that, “yes, it is secure, we’re doing a great job”. Well, how do you know? How do I really know for sure?"

This quote was still in my mind when, this morning, I came across this story from the Coding Horror blog. A reader claims that, having examined a shareware utility that downloads Gmail messages for backup purposes he found that it was programmed to email the username and password details of every user's Gmail account to the software author.

It's important to note at this point that the allegation could be untrue - however, were I a user of G-Archiver I'd want to change my Gmail password and stop using the program until more details are available, just to be on the safe side.

In a way, this incident proves that security issues with closed-source software can be found - as long as a technically-minded and curious user decides to poke around. On the other hand, the process would be easier with an open source program - and it could easily be argued that only a fool would create a program to steal passwords, include his own email address in it then post the code for all to see.

That said, I'm not sure that I'm ready to start distrusting all closed-source software in future. Much as I love the idea of OpenOffice and the GIMP, I'm completely lost without my copies of Microsoft Word and Photoshop. I do generally, however, pick free open source software rather than shareware / closed source freeware. What do you think - do you choose open source because it's more secure, because it's free, or not at all? And, ultimately, who do you trust when it comes to the software running on your computer?

Posted by Tom Royal on March 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cash points running Windows are 'easily hacked'

You might be thinking that if you don't use internet banking, your money is safe from problems with Windows. Rather worryingly, it seems that this may not be the case.

According to Silicon.com, security hackers (the good type) have been able to hack into cashpoint machines, and claim that up to 90 per cent of cash machines in the UK are vulnerable.

Some cases physical access to the cash point was possible with a key bought from the internet, allowing the hackers to take the money, or install key logging software to track account numbers and PINs.

Otherwise communication between the cash points and the banks was picked up in plain text.

I'm going to buy a large sock to hide my money up the chimney in I think....

Posted by Tim Smith on March 7, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What is S/PDIF?

If you've ever wondered what the socket with a red glow inside was, this article on the Vista Team Blog will reveal all.

It is an optical audio connection called S/PDIF. The important thing about it is that it is a digital connection so there is no loss of quality; Windows works in a purely digital sense with audio until it is time to send it to an output. Inevitably some quality is lost, which doesn't make sense if the output device is also digital and has to convert it from audio to digital again.

I was caught out on my notebook because the ordinary headphone socket was doubled up as the S/PDIF. I saw the red light and thought that there wasn't a headphone socket. Silly me!

Posted by Tim Smith on March 7, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More information on the XP Eee PC

Asus has finally announced details of a version of its cheap Eee PC notebook with Windows XP preinstalled. We were rather impressed by the original Eee, which cost £220 and included a version of the Linux operating system, but (despite much derision from Linux lovers) we also tried installing Windows XP, and found that it worked well.

Interestingly, just as the original Eee PC included OpenOffice, Asus says that the new Windows XP Eee will include "Microsoft Works features" - word processor, spreadsheet and database applications. It'll be interesting to see whether any anti-virus software is included, but we had no problems protecting our Windows Eee with AVG.

We have contacted Asus to request details on how much the Windows Eee will cost and when it will be available, but these will apparently follow "in due course" - we'll keep you updated.

Posted by Tom Royal on March 6, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New file formats supported by the Zoho online office suite

Online office suites are excellent for those of us who live a nomadic life between computers. They solve the problem of losing USB memory keys or trying to remember which version of a document is the most recent.

Google Docs is well known now but there are several others, some that offer more features.

Zoho is a good one and it now supports the latest Microsoft Office format, docx.

A basic Zoho account is free, though there are some benefits to paying.

Zoho is also built into the MyGoya online desktop, although some of the more advanced apps are missing.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Internet Explorer 8 will now follow web standards

It's probably not related to my rant of the other day, but there was an announcement on the IEBlog saying that IE8 will follow standards in the most standards compliant way it can. That's not quite saying that it will but it's a very welcome step in the right direction.

There's a proper press release as well.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Why local software is great

As more and more online services appear such as email, word processors, even complete desktops, you might be forgiven for thinking that the age of the 'thin client' (a pc with just enough power to display the hard work of a big central server) has arrived.

I'd like to stop this trend, or at least suggest that some work is left to the computer on which you happen to be working.

This has been brought on by having to spend the best part of a day running statistical reports with a web based system, and the amount of time it has taken.

Now some of this is inevitable but even under the strain of playing some MP3's I'm sure my computer could have finished most of the reports much faster once the raw data had been downloaded.

The other thing about the delay is that it is the most frustrating length. When I'm waiting for a video to render, there's time to get started on something else. Waiting for Word to launch or save a document is only a couple of seconds.

But web apps always seems to take around 30 seconds. Long enough to think about doing something else, but not to actually do anything. It doesn't sound like much but it quickly snowballs throughout the day

Dynamic websites are great but let's keep what is actually appropriate in mind. If nothing else but for the sake of my sanity.

Posted by Tim Smith on March 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack