tech TV is back

The Age reports that tech tv shows are back with not one, but two new programs.

Australian TV hasn't been kind to computers. Most of the coverage in the past have been superficial and boring advertorials. Outside of that, computers only get a mention when viruses are going to eat your granny's computer.

The ABC effort is confined to ABC 2, so it won't draw much attention. I would imagine the gamer community will be on their machines anyway. Good luck to them.

Channel Ten are no strangers to the IT advertorial scene. Their Internet Bright Ideas program was the best example of the genre. The new program, Cybershack, appears to offer untold opportunities for taking advertorials further.

The show itself is a joint venture between Chic Media, a division of Chic Model Management and CBN Media. While Cybershack is a great improvement on Hot Dog's Up Late Show, it doesn't appear that it will be a source of critical, unbiased reviews.

One day we'll figure out an entertaining way to talk about technology. For the moment, I guess we'll just have to content ourselves with ill concealed adverts.

It's a bug, not a feature

ZDNet have shown us another reason for avoiding Internet Explorer in their article showing how programs can be run from IE.

What is unbelievable is Microsoft's reaction. "Organisations or individual users may require or desire to automate part of the process for application connectivity with IE." Said Peter Watson, head of security at Microsoft Australia.

Again, we see how Microsoft just don't get security.

Price Wars

Dell and Apple dragged the US stock markets down last night. Investors are quite rightly concerned about the risk of a price war breaking out in the PC industry. The margins are so tight that no vendor is in a position to fight such a battle.

The concern was so great that Asian stocks were dragged down by Dell and Apple's suppliers. This is with good reason as any pain suffered by Dell is going to be shared with it's suppliers. It could even be that we are seeing the last of any fat, or profit, that existed in the PC industry.

It's not good for Dell in Australia either, the entry of JB Hifi into computer retail is going to put pressure on retail prices. This is going to hit Dell along with Harvey Norman and Woolworths/Dick Smith.

Another issue facing Dell is the three month warranty. Anyone who buys a computer with a three month warranty is almost as dumb as the retailer who tries to sell it. This not going to fly with the ACCC or state fair trading departments.

Personally I'm amazed Dell are continuing to cut prices. It seems to me this is a strategy doomed to failure. It would make far more sense to position the brand as offering good quality at reasonable prices rather than the cheapest.

Then again, I'm not a high paid corporate warrior.

The profits of spyware

Another article illustrates the profits to be made from spyware. The good news at least is that this mob, Direct Revenue, not only infected their business partners, but are now facing serious legal action. We can only hope the people behind this rubbish get long jail sentences.

If anyone has any doubt about the morals and ethics of the people who write spyware, then the latest trick by our friends at 180 Solutions should settle it. They are using Myspace to con teenagers into installing their malware.

It's getting harder to remove this rubbish from people's computers, so hopefully the legal system is going to get the message through to these people.

Windows Activation Blues

There's no doubt Microsoft has done the wrong thing with the Windows Activation Notification debacle. But some of the rhetoric is getting silly.

Today's Australian IT has a ramble about this. What really caught my eye was the comment by a computer tech that "no-one had been warned." We were, the fact people with pirated systems didn't get the message (or even knew they had crook systems) isn't MS's problem.

The simple fact is that all the people getting WGAN messages are getting them because they bought computers from dodgy companies or hired a crook tech. In some cases they've been ripped off, in some cases they bought the cheapest system.

What surprises me is how few systems I'm seeing with the warnings. It probably shows just how over-stated piracy is by the software companies.

Norton update problems

We continue to see Norton Anti Virus problems.

Nearly every Norton installation we currently see encounters a live update problem. The real concern with this problem is that it stops Norton updating it's virus definitions. We've seen machines completely out of date, with the customer having no idea their system isn't updating.

Symantec have a solution to the 1875 problem at their website. It's easy, it's quick and it works. Although the subject line is slightly wrong (just to make it harder to Google) and the file path is not necessarily correct.

Once again, I'd point out this shouldn't happen and I won't be recommending Symantec products until they strip out the complexity that allows this sort of thing to happen.

Crook Business

Today's Smarthouse News has an article which discusses why the home automation business is broken. The conclusion: It's a cottage industry dominated by small operators.

http://www.smarthousenews.com.au/Smart_Ideas/Installers?Article=/Smart%20Ideas/Installers/T5E5K5C2

The same can be said of our industry.