Excellent Pre-Olympics Video of Tom Brokaw explaining the relationship between Canada and the US

11 Reasons NOT to Buy and Apple iPad

1. The Name: I guess the machine only works 3 out of 4 weeks!
2. No USB: Absoultely inexcusable that Apple is still trying to screw their customers with proprietary peripherals. If I could drop a USB keyboard into it, it might be useful.
3. No Flash: Other than through the use of a special YouTube player you will not be able to watch Flash videos (i.e. most of the videos on the web)
4. 4:3 Aspect Ratio: Love it or hate it... it's at 16:9 world. If I could connect a USB DVD Drive to it (which you can't!), movies would look like crap on it.
5. No MultiTasking: Want to listen to some music while you surf the web... ya... you can't
6. That stupid "One Button Mouse": The least they could have done is put another one on the side of the screen so when I have it turned sideway, I can access it.
7. No Camera: WTF... thanks for not kicking in the $.38 cent option.
8. Developer Gag Order: Thats right... the dreaded and hated Apple Non-Disclosure agreement is back.
9. Too Expensive: I can buy a great netbook with MUCH more power and versatility for MUCH less money.
10. Proprietary: Yet again, nothing will work with this thing. Buy Apple... all Apple peripherals and pay until your have nothing left and you might get a product that is functional.
11. Its just a big iPhone: The bloom has come off of that rose. iPhones no longer carry the cache they used to. This looks like over priced, wrong sized, iPhone.

Like the Apple Newton (which was a cool little PDA), the iPAD is interesting but Apple will screw it up with the cult of conformity and limited performance.

Firefox Accounts for 44% of Vulnerabilities Compared to IE’s 15%

http://prosecure.netgear.com/community/security-blog/2009/11/web-browser-vulnerability-report---firefox-leads-the-pack-at-44.php

















A recent report by Web application security vendor Cenzic pointed out that in the first half of 2009 Firefox totaled for 44% of all vulnerabilities amongst popular Web browsers. Also somewhat surprising is Safari coming in at 35% due to iPhone Safari vulnerabilities (that's another story in itself). IE came in third at 15% and Opera at 6% (BTW, where was Chrome?).

Firefox (by the way, I've been a Firefox user since its debut) is an open source browser which has marketed itself as a "safer" alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Early on that was true, however when Firefox started to gain popularity, hackers began shifting focus to it and Firefox became "less safe".

Two factors contribute to the amount of vulnerabilities we are seeing in the browser today. Number one, the browser is relatively young, so there are naturally more holes in it. This will get better as the browser further matures. Second of all, Firefox is open-source and has a flexible add-on architecture where basically anyone who can code (and even some who can't) can make an add-on for Firefox. While this architecture and open source in general bring flexibility, functionality, and scalability to the browser, many of these add-ons are not "hardened" and could introduce security loopholes into Firefox. Also, due to the open-source nature of Firefox,hackers can study the browser source code inside out and find holes that way...

In Just TWO WEEKS, Windows 7 Has More Users than ALL Users of Mac

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-7-mac-osx-apple,9159.html

…The interesting stat, however, was that Windows 7 usage surpassed all versions of Mac OS X combined…

Office 2010 Looks Pretty Good

I have just started playing with Word 2010 and found some nice minor improvements. The most notable is that the Office Button, which confused most 2007 users, has been correctly replaced with the "FILE" menu drop down list.

This is my first test of the new BLOGGING interface. I use Google's Blogger to blog to my own server and if Word can handle the content creation, that will be great.

By for now!

Windows 7 Turn Laptops into Real Wi-Fi Hotspots

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-Laptop-Internet-hotspot-Connectify,8971.html#xtor=RSS-181

http://connectify.me/

Connectify takes control of Windows 7's Virtual Wi-Fi feature and turns the laptop into a hotspot.


PC Advisor reports that Philadelphia developer Nomadio has discovered an unfinished Windows 7 feature (Virtual Wi-Fi) that can turn a laptop into a Wi-Fi hotspot. That means other devices in the near vicinity can access the Internet without the need for special tunneling software. The company has now exploited the uncovered treasure and created a free application called Connectify, released just last week.

Microsoft's research group originally began development of Virtual Wi-Fi years ago; the feature would take a network card and virtually split it into several, separate adaptors. However, Microsoft halted its development back in 2006, but apparently never removed the feature from the operating system. Now it appears in Windows 7 as "Native 802.11 Virtual Wireless Fidelity (Virtual Wi-Fi) object identifiers (OIDs)".

Alex Gizis, CEO of Nomadio, told PC Advisor that driver support for Virtual Wi-Fi was never finished. With that said, the driver-level "stuff" isn't present, however the "low-level code" is still intact. There's also no application or setting to turn the feature on. Naturally, this is where Connectify comes in.

But Gizis was quick to point out that the software differs from Internet connection sharing. "For one thing, it shows up as a real wireless access point," Gizis said. "Two, internet connection sharing has issues. It returns to the default settings every time you shut down a connection. And three, you can join another wireless network and still run the Connectify Hotspot on the same Wi-Fi card."...

How To Dismantle / Disassemble a Blackberry 8800 8810 8820 8830 88xx

This is a dandy video of how to take apart a Blackberry 8800 series:

http://cnn.cn/shop/blackberry-88008830-black-keyboard-french-azerty-p-2022.html

Click the BlackBerry 88xx disassembly link at the bottom right of the page.

Windows 7 - Lesser Known Interesting Features

These are taken from "77 Windows 7 Tips"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.10.77windows.aspx

6. Shift to and from Explorer and CommandPrompt. The classic Windows power toy Open Command Prompt Here is now an integral part of Windows 7 Explorer. Hold down the shift key then right-click a folder to add this option to the property menu. While you're in a command prompt, if you want to open an Explorer window with the focus of the window on the current directory, enter start.

17. Embrace Troubleshooting Packs. Designed to help users troubleshoot and solve problems on their own, you need to update your support procedures to acknowledge these Packs. For example, don't force users to repeat steps the Pack already walked them through, and consider developing your own Packs (in Windows PowerShell) to support in-house systems.

21. Presentation Nirvana. Press Windows+P to access the new Presentation mode, and easily turn on your projector and laptop screen at the same time. No more messing with vendor-specific utilities and arcane keystrokes. (Windows+X accesses the Mobility Center, with additional presentation options.)

26. Restore Point Previews Many of us used to shut off System Restore because we were terrified to actually use it; under Windows 7, we can be much calmer. After selecting a Restore Point, Windows will now offer to show you which files and folders will be affected by restoring to that point.

29. RoboCopyCopyCopy. The always-useful Robocopy.exe can now run multi-threaded; run Robocopy /? to review its new parameters (like /MT for multithreading) and make your copies go faster.

33. Drag-and-Drop Notification Icons. The redesigned notification area displays only a minimum number of icons; all other notification icons are moved to a side window. Rather than using the Customize option to select icons for the main display, you can drag-and-drop icons from the side window to the notification area.

37. Shortcut the Taskbar. The Windows key is great for shortcuts. You can select the Windows key and a number to correspond to items on your taskbar. So, if IE (for example) is the third icon on your taskbar (not counting the Start button), you can hit the Windows key and the number three to launch or open IE.

38. Manage Passwords. Control Panel includes a new application called Credential Manager. This may appear to be a completely new tool that allows you to save your credentials (usernames and passwords) for Web sites you log into and other resources you connect to (such as other systems). Those credentials are saved in the Windows Vault, which can be backed up and restored. However, you might see this as similar to a tool we have in XP and Vista. From the Instant Search, type in control /userpasswords2 and you will be brought to the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel, where you can also manage passwords for your account

42. Remove Apps. Although some applications have been moved off of Windows to become an optional download, other apps, such as IE8, Media Player, Media Center and DVD Maker are still included. In times past, especially when it came to IE, the applications were tied into the OS. However, in Windows 7 you can easily remove them if desired. Head to the Program and Features applet in Control Panel and select the "Turn Windows features on or off" link in the top left-hand corner.

44. Analyze Processes. One of the coolest new features in the revamped Resource Monitor (resmon) is the ability to see the "wait chain traversal." An unresponsive process will be shown in red in the Resource Monitor; right-click the process and choose Analyze Process. This will show the threads in the process and see who holds the resources that are holding up the process itself. You can then kill that part of the process if you like.

45. Create Virtual Worlds. Virtualization capability has been added to the Disk Management tools. If you open Computer Management, go to the Disk Manager tool and then click the Action button at top, you will see the options Create VHD and/or Attach VHD. This allows you to create and mount a virtual hard drive directly from within the GUI. Note: With Windows 7 you even have the ability to boot a Windows 7 VHD

46. Encrypt USB Sticks. Use BitLocker To Go. Maybe you've managed to never misplace or lose a USB key, but for the rest of us mere mortals, it's a fact of life. Most of the time it's no big deal, but what if it contains sensitive data? BitLocker To Go enables you to encrypt data on removable storage devices with a password or a digital certificate stored on a smart card.

49. Restore from Backed up Restore Points. You can choose to include restore points in your backups and restore from them when using System Restore. This is convenient if you want to create a baseline of a working configuration and be able to restore to it in the future without overwriting other data on the hard disk.

56. Calculate. Another basic utility that received a major overhaul is the venerable calculator. In addition to standard and scientific views, there are now programmer and statistic modes. You will also love the conversion and calculation features. Want to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit but can never remember the formula? Use the conversion panel. You'll also enjoy the data calculation extension. Quickly find the difference between two dates or calculate a new date by adding or subtracting years, months or days.

57. Manage Services from Task Manager. The Windows 7 Task Manager now includes a tab to manage services. You can quickly see at a glance the status of all services on your machine. Click a column heading to sort. You can even start and stop services with a simple right-click. If you need full-blown service management, use the Services button to launch the Services management console. You may often have the Task Manager running in the system tray; now, having service management access means one less window to have open.

66. Win+Shift+arrow - Move current window to alternate screen

68. Win+E - Launch Explorer with Computer as the focus

69. Win+F - Launch a search window

71. Win+L - Lock the desktop

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.10.win7security.aspx
Windows Biometric Framework Fingerprint readers are everywhere—even the cheapest laptops sport the shiny swipe spot. Although the lack of built-in support in prior versions of Windows left the devices unused, PC makers delivered systems with the drivers installed anyway. The poor quality of much of this code caused a fair number of blue-screen crashes, many of which dutifully reported themselves to Microsoft.
Armed with this knowledge, Microsoft added native biometric support to the OS...