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Microsoft DreamSpark offers free software for students
If you’re in education (or know someone who is) and want to get started with some of Microsoft’s more advanced software, DreamSpark offers just that.
There are various programming tools along with some of the server software needed to get the best from them. There’s even a voucher for a free ‘Microsoft Technical Specialist’ exam
If you’re not a student, there’s no need for too much despair as some of the software can be downloaded from elsewhere on the Microsoft site. These are Virtual PC, Visual Studio Express Edition (including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++ and Web Developer) and SQL Server 2008 Express. Don’t forget that there may restrictions on how you can use free software.
Are bundled security apps good or bad?
I’ve just installed an update to the Shockwave Player (interesting in itself as I only installed it yesterday) and had an offer to run a Norton Security scan as part of the installation.
My first reaction was irritation; I’ve already got security software. But then maybe there are people who don’t.
Maybe I’ll live with checking install options more carefully.
What counts as a program in Windows 7 Starter Edition
A puzzle for the weekend. I’ve just been reading in the Personal Computer World newsletter about how Windows 7 Starter Edition will be limited to running 3 programs at a time.
I can see why they might want to do that from the point of view of getting people to move on to bigger and better versions of Windows but what counts as a program?
Word, Excel, each OpenOffice component, Firefox. Yes, that all makes sense.
What about instant messaging? Probably counts but that could be annoying given it’s something I leave on in the background.
But what about tools that blur the line between a program and a service. A service is a program that is always running from when Windows starts. That probably covers anti virus, but does it become a program when I start a scan?
Of course, there’s a way that this could backfire for Microsoft. Increasingly I spend more of my time in a browser. Using Zoho.com I can bring email, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and project management into one program. And then I’ll add my task list courtesy of the Chandler Hub.
Now you could say that working like this gives me the freedom to leave my instant messenger on in the background. Then again, if I’m just working within a browser, why am I bothering with Windows at all. Oh dear…
Fun games from Kongregate
As much as I enjoy games like Ka-50 Black Shark for their depth and challenge, there are times when I want something that doesn’t take quite so long to load.
It probably take 5 to 10 minutes to get going in Black Shark and similar games when you account for loading the game and then the mission or save. Frankly I don’t have the patience at the end of the day when I can only allow 30 minutes for a quick blast.
A faster and cheaper alternative that can be just as much fun, is to enter the world of online flash games. There is an important warning though, it is possible to spend (should that be waste?) huge amounts of time on these sites.
I’ve found more than enough good quality flash games to keep me happy at Kongregate.
Protector has kept me interested for ages. It’s a strategy game where you have to place units on a map to stop monsters from getting past. It sounds simple but there are right and wrong ways of doing it, as I’ve found out the hard way.
Warfare 1917 was good but didn’t last long enough for me. It is a good alternative to the fantasy setting that is use for so many of these games.
Gemcraft is similar to Protector but I’ve found it a lot more challenging.
Another way I’ve dealt with this is to restrict myself to really old games and rely on the relative speed of my newer computer. Deus Ex served quite well for a while. At nine years old it was really quick, even on the highest quality settings. The same goes for Morrowind.
You could go even further back in time and play some old DOS games with D-Fend Reloaded. A large collection of games can be found at Abandonia.com
Cheat sheets for an easy life
I think calling these very useful summaries cheat sheets maligns them unfairly. They summarise a huge amount of information onto just a single page and are very helpful for people like me how write code infrequently.
They won’t help that much with understanding what to do, but they serve as helpful reminders. I’m always forgetting which list is which in HTML.
This page has links for cheat sheets for WordPress, Javascript, HTML, CSS and some others.
In search of a balanced plan
One of the improvements in Vista I really appreciate is the better control over the power settings. Working off a notebook most of the time, it is very helpful to be able to save battery life more easily.
In fact that’s not entirely honest, most of the time I am plugged into the power but I still use the power settings to keep the notebook in Power Saver. Why? Well without this the fan is going constantly. So Power Saver reduces the speed of the CPU and keeps it quiet.
The problem is that it slows down the notebook quite significantly. No problem when I’m writing blog posts, but it was a problem when I was preparing a Vista recovery disc last night. It’s quite an involved task for the computer so I was left waiting around.
What I should have used is the Balanced power plan, which is rather clever. Rather than forcing me to accept fast and loud or slow and quiet it adapts to what the computer needs. Like the Power Saver mode, it slows the CPU to 50% of it’s normal speed. But unlike Power Saver it doesn’t keep it there. As the load on the CPU increases it gradually increases the speed
So why didn’t I use it? Well first I forgot, but also because I enabled the Presentation power plan in it’s place and so didn’t think about it.
Left click on the battery icon in the Notification Area and then on More power options. Click on the down arrow to the right of where it say Show additional plans. Balanced should appear in this list.
Click in the radio button to bring it back. The change is made immediately. I could tell quite easily because I was on battery (the joys of the train) and the screen went dim. On the other hand the air con is so loud that no one is going to complain about the noise of the fan if I do anything taxing.
Chandler 1.0.3 released
There's a new version of the Chandler task management software just released.
It's a great way to stay organised and can share information with other people over the internet even if they use alternative services like Google Calendar or iCal.
If I sound like a fan that's because I am. Chandler fits my working style and has helped me get through some very busy times at work, even though I'm only really scratching the surface.
My biggest frustration is that I don't have Java no my home server so I can't run the server side software myself for calendars. Still there's really no need as the Chandler Hub service is very good.
Moving touch controls to the back
We all assume that the best place for controls are on the front of devices and flexible touch screens are the current favourite for devices like PDAs and phones. There's a novel alternative over at the Channel 10 website from Microsoft.
The Microsoft Research team created a small device with the controls on the back so that the screen is never obstructed. I like the sound of it, but would prefer to have a go first, before buying a new PDA.
Take regular breaks with Workrave
It’s easy to get caught up in whatever is big on the web (or maybe even some work) and not take proper breaks from the computer. This can lead to eye strain or worsening RSI problems (even with a graphics tablet). Workrave is a good way of making sure you don’t over do it by recommending regular breaks.
There are two kinds of breaks. Microbreaks are short frequent breaks and rest breaks are rather longer with animation showing exercises for easing joints. Both kinds of rest periods can be skipped or postponed if you happen to be in a rush.
Thankfully it is also possible to change the length and interval between breaks; I found taking 30 seconds off every 3 minutes just a little but too disruptive.
I’m using it on Windows but there is a Linux version available as well.
Oh, and they have a very cute sheep as a logo – how can anyone resist?
Using the clipboard with Internet Explorer
One of my frustrations with Internet Explorer is that it won’t just let me paste text from the clipboard without it asking me if I want it to.
It’s a security feature, and the inconvenience means that it is probably doing its job.
I found instructions to turn on clipboard access but didn’t really want it to apply to every single website, just in case I happen upon a hacked site.
The answer is to use the Zones in Internet Explorer to turn on clipboard access for my Trusted Zone and to make sure that the site I need is in that zone.
Start Internet Explorer and go to the webpage you want to give access to the clipboard. Click on the Tools icon and then Internet Options. Click on the Security tab and then on the green tick icon. Click on the Sites button below this section. The current website should automatically be added to the top text box so click on Add to include it in the Trusted Zone. You may need to click in the box labelled ‘Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone’ so that the tick disappears. Click on Close when the site has been added to the bottom box.
Now click on the Custom level button towards the bottom of the Internet Options window. Scroll down to the option ‘Allow Programmatic clipboard access’ option in the Scripting section, which is towards the bottom of the list. Click on the option Enable and then on OK.
If you want to check that this setting has not been changed for the normal Internet zone, click on its icon and then on the Custom level button. Find the clipboard option again and check that it is set to Prompt.
In fairness this is true of Firefox as well. In fact, Firefox is somewhat less helpful when it comes to changing the settings. Rather than the settings window like Internet Explorer, you have to go to the about@config page, promise to be careful, create a new value called signed.applets.codebase_principal_support and then set it to true. It’s not all pasting but only when Javascript is being used by the website.
The story of the Office Ribbon
My thanks to Anthony for passing me this video link, “The Story of the Ribbon”. Having read Dreaming in Code a little while ago, I found the video fascinating as explaining how the interface was created and why. It doesn’t pull any punches with criticisms of user interface either.
The screenshot history of Word was something of a nostalgia trip for me. What I hadn’t realised was that the menus used for Word for Windows 2.0 didn’t change all the way up to Word 2003!
First look: video from the new Nikon D5000 digital SLR camera
arlier today Nikon released details of its new D5000 digital SLR, a camera that falls in the middle of the company's range of consumer SLR cameras.
At the press conference at the top of central London's Centre Point tower we got our hands on the new model and shot some footage looking out over the streets of London.
As with the previous D90 (to which the new camera bears more than a little resemblance), the D5000 can't auto-focus while it's shooting video, and zooming is also a matter of twisting the zoom ring on the attached lens, just like when shooting still images.
What that means is that shot footage can come out rather shaky, as you can see from the clip, because the photographer is constantly having to reach out in front of the camera to turn the dials.
That aside, the camera looks pretty impressive. It uses the same 12-megapixel image sensor as the D90 and is capable of 4fps stills shooting. The camera costs £720 for the body only or £800 with a kit lens.
Pictures and video courtesy of Olivier Laurent of our sister title the British Journal of Photography.
Read more about the D5000 at the BJP's site.
A former digital music giant bites the dust
We received an email from Nokia yesterday informing us that it was shutting down the OD2 music download service. The name may not ring any bells, but at the dawn of legal music downloading, it was the biggest player in the market.
OD2, or On Demand Distribution, as it was first known, was one of the pioneers of digital music sales. It was set up ten years ago and by 2004 had partnered with big names such as MSN and HMV to run their download shops. It was never designed to be a big name - the idea was that each partner would provide the front end of the shop and OD2 would handle the sales and actual downloading.
Having been set up by former Genesis singer Peter Gabriel OD2 had something of a tortuous journey, running at a loss before being acquired by American firm Loudeye in 2004. Loudeye was then bought by Nokia two years later, and incorporated into Nokia's own online music shop.
Partly, what killed OD2's success in the UK was the fact that its shops were web-based and depended for their reliability on users' web browsers, but more of a problem was the advent of iTunes, which opened its music store in Europe in spring 2004, at the same time as OD2 was starting to make sales headway.
True, those who had portable music players that couldn't play protected AAC files were still using the service, but the appearance a couple of years ago of significant numbers of unprotected music files for sale (either through iTunes, pioneering projects such as Bleep or competitors such as 7digital or the late Wippit) finally did for the service.
So following the demise of Wippit last year it's time to say goodbye to another British pioneer in the field of music downloading.
Nokia is going to be concentrating on its own Nokia Music Store, which is linked to many of its new handsets. MSN, meanwhile, has shrugged off the change with an announcement that it's moving to an in-house distribution service for its MSN Music Store.
Be careful when replacing high end memory
Once upon a time you had a heatsink on the CPU and that was it, not even a fan. These days it seems that a fan or a heatsink is required for the smallest imaginable flat surface. In fact not even that, as I’ve seen heatsinks for capacitors on some motherboards.
Now, this doesn’t normally cause any problems apart from disapproving stares from co-workers wondering why a small helicopter appears to have been started up in the office.
But there is one big problem. Heatsinks make great hand holds, attractive ones at any rate, even if actually they shouldn’t be used as such. This happened to me the other day when fitting some memory to a computer. It was quite high end so there were the obligatory heatsinks but as they matched the colour of the memory slot I didn’t mind too much. As you can just make out the heat sink rises above the actual circuit board. Ever so slightly but no less significantly.
If you’ve ever changed RAM you’ll know that it requires a little bit of force to get it into the appropriate slot. Being in a slight hurry I just pressed on the first available surface, which happened to be the heatsink.
Turning the computer on produced those dreaded BIOS bleeps indicating a problem with the memory. I took it out and had a look. At first I thought that it was just a case of the heat sink coming away from the chips. Sadly the heatsink had taken the memory chips with it. Not something I can repair.
So there’s my cautionary tale.
Always insert memory by pressing on the circuit board. Not the heatsink. And that probably holds for CPUs as well.
Ghostnet and the possibilities of "cyber-war"
Not so long ago the idea of cyber-war was risible - something you might find in a bad 1990s movie (or a very good 1980s one), perhaps, but not in the real world.
But recently, attacks on the countrywide networks of Ukraine and Estonia, whether they were led by other countries or by organised crime networks, almost certainly constituted attacks on sovereign states, effectively fulfilling the definition of cyber-war.
Then came reports of the so-called Ghostnet, a spy network discovered in March by a monitoring group who'd been contracted by the Tibetan government in exile, itself concerned that its network had been hacked.
Ghostnet has apparently inflitrated political and economically sensitive networks all over the world, including those of embassies and governments. It operates out of China and much of the press coverage has pointed the finger at the Chinese government, although it could just as easily be run by a large-scale criminal organisation inside the country.
It may sound implausible, but it's been known for what you might call 'concerned interests' to undertake attacks, often using quite sophisticated social engineering to get to people working in the area.
For instance, the discussion on Ghostnet over at Metafilter uncovered a fascinating comment by someone who's been attacked in this way:
I could go on for pages describing various things we have seen over the past two/three years, but you get the gist. For small NGOs like mine, protecting against infiltration, monitoring our systems for intrusions, and educating our staff to recognize potential hazards has become a huge drain on our already limited resources. The frustrating thing is that there is pretty much nothing we can do about it, except to remain diligent.
In unrelated news, earlier this week, the British intelligence service put word out that it may have allowed the Chinese government access to infiltrate its own secure networks. Apparently the government's telecoms provider BT subcontracted some work on a new network to Huawei, which is thought to have been partly funded by the Chinese state. As with all such allegations, little is clear, although according to one report GCHQ warned the government about the danger of attack through the network.
Duty Calls
It's fairly old now, but I just came across this classic from webcomic XKCD:
in a discussion on rights and freedom of speech that also provided a link to the interesting Media Watch Watch.
Edit Zoho documents with Microsoft Office
Editing documents in the cloud is great when you are on the move, but online editors are rarely as capable as their online equivalents. The Zoho Plugin for Microsoft Office lets you sign in to Zoho with Word or Excel 2000 and later to edit documents.
Word 2007 asked me how I wanted to open the document with options including HTML (the choice I made) or rtf and others.
Once the document has been imported it is just like a normal document on the local computer but you do have to remember to save it back to Zoho using the Zoho buttons.
Strongly recommended.
Microsoft kills Encarta
Encarta was the first CD-based computer encyclopaedia I ever used, so it was with some wistfulness that I read that Microsoft, its publisher, is to finish it off.
On October 31, 2009, the site says, the Encarta websites will be discontinued (the Japanese version will go on until December 31) and it's going to sell the software products (by now a DVD edition) by June. Existing Encarta subscribers will receive a refund for any fees paid for access after April 30, to the credit card used for the subscription.
The Guardian (or rather Paidcontent, its sister site) blames Wikipedia, which makes a certain amount of sense.
Most people will be happy to get, free, information that's probably correct, rather than pay for information that's certainly correct. That said, the study a few years ago that showed Wikipedia to be roughly as accurate as some paid-for encyclopaedias probably didn't help either.
With Encarta gone and its one-time competitor Grolier long-forgotten, that just leaves the venerable Britannica slugging it out with the young free pretender. The former charges £50 a year or £5 a month for access.
We looked at Britannica's latest DVD edition back in January, and came to the conclusion that it's harder and harder for a software encyclopaedia to compete with online ones, in terms of frequency of updates if nothing else. It'll be interesting to see whether Britannica decides to continue with its DVD edition after the current one.
Luxury graphics tablets
I’ve commented before on how I like graphics tablets, so I’ve been very excited to have the opportunity to give the new Wacom Intuos 4, the latest range of professional tablets.
First impressions are very good. It’s hard to explain exactly what it is, but there’s a feeling that it’s just ‘better’ than the Wacom Bamboo that has sat on my desk for the last year or so. The pen is more comfortable and comes with different nibs for simulating felt tips and other pens if you want.
I’ve got the smallest one in the range; not being a designer I don’t really need the extra space. The other difference is that it doesn’t have the coolest feature of the rest of the range, an OLED display by each as you can see in this picture. The display shows what the buttons do.
This is quite impressive by itself but the really cool thing is that the driver can change the button function depending on what software you’re using, and the display changes as well.
The Touch wheel is present on the small one as well and can be used for scrolling or zooming. The middle is a button that cycles between different modes. The wheel doesn’t actually turn, it’s like the iPod wheel and is very useful.
Pricing information: Intuos4 S: £200, Intuos4 M: £330, Intuos4 L: £430 and Intuos4 XL: £700.
There’s no getting away from non-free software
Free software evangelist Richard Stallman has written a piece about the problem of Javascript for those who want to avoid any proprietary software.
Javascript is a programming language used in web pages for anything from drop down menus to the sophisticated websites like Google Docs or Zoho.
It presents a problem because you don’t necessarily get to find out whether the Javascript code is free (available in this context) before accessing the website.
The other problem is that it is not easy to run a modified version of the program. One of Stallman’s essential software freedoms is the ability to edit software.
Part of me understands what he is saying, and even sympathises to a degree, I just think it unlikely that anything will happen.
