Vista Service Pack already?

Well, this is a great vote of confidence in a new operating system.

It makes sense to plan for service packs. All software needs patching and the complexity of computer operating systems mean service packs and major upgrades and inevitable. But publicly planning this early for a service pack is pretty ordinary.

To run insult into injury, the next XP service pack is not scheduled for another year and even that date is preliminary. As Brian Krebs points out, we're currently looking at over a hundred patches to an XP system. It may well be 150 by early next year.

This is another example of Microsoft losing it: Both XP Service Pack three and Vista are way overdue. The fact MS has to look at an SP so early only indicates Vista is being rushed to market without all it's features or with known bugs.

What I find bizarre is the world's biggest software company has found itself in such a hole. Perhaps it's time for a change in management.

mis-typing Google

You Tube has a chilling video of what happens when you get the letters wrong in the word "google". The resulting spyware infection isn't pretty. While teenagers looking for music are the prime target for these scammers, anybody can mis-type a word.

Once infected, not only is a computer alive with advertising and spyware, it can be used to send spam and all the passwords, banking details and passwords can be stolen. These problems are causing banks and their customers all manner of damages. This is why we recommend surfing the net only in a limited user profile.

Who comes up with these numbers?

So IDC and Microsoft reckon Vista will generate $9.5 billion for the New York and New Jersey IT industries in 2007?!?

Yeah, right.

The study itself is available on the Microsoft website.What I find intriguing is they claim every dollar spent on Vista will customers will also spend $9.75 in hardware, 4.60 in software and 3.65 in services. These numbers are right on for a new PC.

Looking at our cost breakdown for a new system, these proportions are about right. If you throw in monitors, printers and other peripherals then the proportion of hardware increases. So really all IDC are saying is they expect 9.5 billion to be spent on new systems this year in those two states.

I've got no idea how many systems are sold each year in New York and New Jersey so maybe they are right. But the figures are misleading as most of these systems would have been sold anyway. The real question is how many new systems will Vista sell, and my guess is it won't make much difference.

A big problem I have with triumphant press releases like this is it confirms in many people's minds that the IT industry just tries to perpetuate business for itself. If I were the cynical type, that's what this story would make me think. It certainly won't encourage business owners to buy Vista.

There's no doubt about the fact we'll get a boost in turnover from Vista. The early adopters are going to bleed badly as they do with every new operating system, but it's not going to be a massive part of our turnover. We recommend our customers steer clear of Vista until late in the year.

The iPhone hysteria

One of the big differences between Windows users and Mac fans is the willingness to fall for hype.

Imagine if Microsoft released a phone. Most Windows users would shrug and get on with things. Even hard core Microsoft fanbois would take any claims until they actually saw and used the things.

On planet Mac, you'd think the iPhone was the greatest piece of technology ever. Reading the blogs and the press reports you wouldn't know this phone hasn't been released. In fact it hasn't got regulatory approval and even it's name isn't certain.

Reading Steve Job's comments at the Macworld keynote, it seems to me the iPhone is purely designed for the US market. A lot of it's features are old hat compared to other phones and what foreign networks offer. Not to mention the corporate features Microsoft offer smartphone users.

I still find it funny that the Macolytes seem to have buried Nokia, Motorola and all the other mobile phone manufacturers on the strength of a prototype.

The reality distortion field

If you ever wanted an example of Steve Jobs' reality distortion field, the iPhone lawsuit is a classic. The number of Mac fanbois in denial about the fact Cisco has the US trademark for "iPhone" is remarkable. Some of the posts and blogs are terrific, the comments on this article are typical.

It's amazing just how far some people will go into denial. I'm wondering though if some of the Macolytes seriously don't know who Cisco are or believe that Motorola's only product is the Razr.

More serious is Apple's attitude. They've been in negotiations to use the iPhone trademark but instead of concluding their negotiations in a timely manner, they just ignore the problem and go ahead anyway. Now they call Cisco's claim silly.

All this from a company that sets it's lawyers onto bloggers when it thinks it's intellectual property or marketing plans are threatened.

Active X is a security risk

Brian Krebs makes a comment about Acer's use of Active X being a security risk in today's Security Risk column.

While Acer should be criticised for the sloppy use of this tool, Active X threats are the most common problem for Windows users. Unfortunately, many programmers and web site designers use Active X. Norton products are probably the worst for this.

Like Symantec, spyware writers have been the most enthusiastic users of Active X controls. This is why spyware is such a problem for Internet Explorer users and why a spyware infected machine running a Norton product will be reduced to a quivering heap. Active X is the number one path for infecting a computer.

To avoid all of this, we recommend surfing the net with Firefox, which doesn't use Active X, and in a limited user account, which prevents system changes.

Once again, this is an example of Microsoft's cavalier attitude to security. Windows users should assume their systems are not secure and be very careful about what they do on the net and the profile they do it in.

The dumbest article ever written

Is this the dumbest article ever written?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/08/AR2007010801352.html

For years, rumours have been around that the NSA has a back door into Windows, this only encourages the tin foil hat brigade.

But what I really like is the idea that the NSA has a clue. This is the agency that's got everything from the Bay of Pigs to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction wrong. They totally missed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the September 11 attacks.

The kicker is this paragraph.

Microsoft said this is not the first time it has sought help from the NSA. For about four years, Microsoft has tapped the spy agency for security expertise in reviewing its operating systems, including the Windows XP consumer version and the Windows Server 2003 for corporate customers.

Gee, they did a good job on Windows XP.

The Sydney property shortage

The Sydney Morning Herald today repeats the claim by the real estate industry that Sydney rents are about to soar. It's interesting the forces behind this claim. I can't help but think this is a self serving beat up by the real estate agents in the run up to the state election.

Sydney's problem is simply that property, in relation to income, is way overpriced. This is a combination of Sydney's geographic and economic advantages, Australian's historical preference to invest in property and an income tax system that favours property (and other passive) investments. To make matters worse, we have interest rates at the lowest in a generation and a Federal government that happily ramps the property market for it's short term gains.

The result of these factors is that the cost to buy is outrageous. It also means that more and more Sydneysiders can only afford to rent. As the demand side of rents is a function of wages, rents have stayed comparatively low as wages haven't grown the same way property prices have.

Fifteen years ago, the rule of thumb for Sydney rents was to knock three zeros off the market value to get the weekly rent. That 5% yield is now less than 3 and dropping fast. Compared to other investments, that's a lousy return and super now has better tax advantages.

I suspect the real estate agents are trying to encourage landlords to stay in the market with the promise of better returns. The problem is a 20% increase would still only leave yields around the 3% mark. Their other motive is to panic the state government into releasing more land and easing zoning rules.

But let's say the agents and their pet economists are right. A 20% hike in rents will be a disaster for Sydney. We'll either the Sydney economy go into a nose dive, or see inflation break out.

As an employer, I already have serious trouble finding techs who live East of Strathfield. Put another 20% on their costs and I'm going to have to pay more to cover either their higher cost of living or their increased travelling costs. A spike in inflation means higher interest rates.

The alternative is my view more likely; a 20% increase in rents will kill the Sydney economy stone dead. In many inner suburbs more than 50% of the residents are renters. Take a fifth of their after tax income away and suddenly they can't afford lattes, plasmas or nice cars.

Either scenario means the same thing: Sydney property prices drop. Sydney's real estate agents and their tame economists should be careful what they wish for.

Does Microsoft have corporate ADD?

After watching Bill Gates' CES keynote, I'm convinced Microsoft has ADD.

They have too many products for a start. But another thing that makes me think they have Attention Deficit Disorder is the way they let products rot. Windows Defender is an example.

Giant AntiSpyware was a good product when MS bought it. Over time, Microsoft fiddled and tinkered with it until it had a totally different interface, although one that still didn't mesh with the rest of Windows. Then it stopped working.

In the last few months we've seen a lot of spyware slip past Defender. To add insult to injury, our friends at 180 Solutions seem to have done a deal that their spyware is marked as not to be deleted. It appears they weren't the only ones.

This month, we're telling our subscribers not to uninstall Windows Defender, the AVG free spyware product is better. It's this failure of Microsoft to stick with a product that makes me wonder if they do have ADD. That would also explain why products are so late to market.

The new Windows Home Server

Well, the rumours were right, Bill Gates announced Microsoft's Windows Home Server.

The whole thing raises some serious questions: Will it be restricted to HPs running AMD chips or will there be more products? Will it's advanced features such as automatic backup work on Vista or will it be XP compatible? Will it really ship at the end of the year?

It's also a concern on if it will distract from the launch of the domestic versions of Vista.

As a tech, another concern is there are too many versions of Windows kicking around. These are the Windows domestic and small business systems that will be in common use later this year.

Windows Server 2003
Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard
Windows Small Business Server Premium
XP Home
XP Pro
XP Media Centre

Windows Home Server
Vista Home Basic
Vista Home Premium
Vista Business
Vista Ultimate

All of the Vista versions may or may not have the Aero interface and other features enabled.

And then there's Windows 2007, should it be released on time.

Really, this is a support nightmare.

The Taiwan Earthquake and the Internet

The disruption to East assess Internet connections because of an earthquake in Taiwan is disturbing. This is a network originally designed to survive a nuclear war, and yet a single point of failure is causing massive disruption. It appears that the East Asian telecoms companies will have to seriously review their infrastructure.

An important lesson from this is that relying on one technology is dangerous. While relying on the net is risky, a far more risky proposition is relying on the mobile phone network. As we see here every bushfire season, the mobile phone network is quickly swamped in an emergency.

The worst example is the September 11 atrocity in New York. Taking out the World Trade Centre towers crippled New York's mobile phone and Internet networks as well as taking a number of TV stations off air. Even before the collapse, the web had pretty well choked.

We really have to remember that in an emergency too much reliance on mobiles and the net could well make a disaster much worse. Probably the best emergency communication technology is still radio. Don't throw away that transistor radio yet.

Tech reviews

As we deal on a regular basis with computers that have been messed up by poorly designed and over-bloated security packages, I read with interest the Sydney Morning Herald's review of the more popular ones.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/reviews/net-nasties-face-onestop-blocks/2007/01/02/1167500118494.html

One of my criticisms of newspaper, and many magazine, reviews is the reviewers often seem to have only read the press pack rather than actually try the products. In this case, it appears Adam Turner did at least try McAfee, and it irritated him. If he did try Norton then he either had a clean machine with 2Gb RAM.

Norton 2007 is awful. Thankfully I've only seen it once and that system was reduced to a crawl. Uninstalling it was a nightmare as it refused to run the wizard while Live Update was running, and Live Update didn't want to stop. Is it really that hard to stop a service when you want to uninstall the product.

Given the sheer weight of problems Norton products have created for users over the last five years, it would be nice for reviewers to at least acknowledge the problems. Reviews like this only encourage customers to continue making the wrong decisions. It also lets these companies get away with selling poor products.

Free Wi-Fi

Why am I cynical about the NSW government promising free wireless broadband?

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Iemma_NSW_CBDs_will_get_free_Wi_Fi/0,130061791,339272442,00.htm

Advertising supported?

Decision in the second quarter of next year?

Hmmm, just after the March election. I guess by then we'll have all forgotten about this.

What's disappointing about stunts like this is that it shows the politicians know this stuff is important. But rather than put in place sensible policies that encourage the development, use and growth of new technologies, they just engage in pointless gesture and stupid promises.

They say we get the politicians we deserve. What did we do to deserve the current crop?

Beating the MS Drum.

Who says Apple has all the fanbois?

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=684413783&eid=-4152

The simple fact is customers don't need Vista. Right now, there is little compelling reason for consumers to run out and buy Vista. Businesses have even fewer reasons.

Vista will be a success. But only because every new machine from mid year onwards will come with it preinstalled. The simple replacement cycle will make sure Vista sells.

The funny thing is the analyst, David Mitchell, actually admits this when saying why Office 2007 won't have the same take up rate: "You don't get the OEM drag effect. If you buy a new PC, you get a copy of Vista. You don't necessarily get a copy of Office."

The funny thing is that he's probably wrong there too.

Thinking before you send (again)

It's a shame Katrina Jorgensen lives in New Zealand. I'd like to hire her as my accounts payable manager. Unfortunately her all too direct email got her sacked by her own husband.

Again we see why it's important to think before you send. The line "Why don't you stay within your class level and buy something from payless plastics instead." is priceless but it really isn't something you'd like to see sent around the world. Again, don't send something you would like to see next to your photo on the six o'clock news, or the NZ Herald in this case.

A greater sin of the Great Marquee company is the use of sound on their website. Now that's a hanging offence. Incidentally, $NZ30,000 is a bloody cheap wedding so maybe Katrina does have a point.

Another offence is the shameless pinching of the story by the Sydney Daily Telegraph, right down to the photos. It's surprising the Tele couldn't find a story today given the circus that our state politicians are performing in.

The morals of this story are, spend more on weddings if you don't want to be insulted, don't read the Tele, don't imbed boring music in your website and never send an email you've written in anger.

Vista won't need anti-virus?

Microsoft suggest Windows Vista won't need an antivirus. Who are they kidding?

Co-President of Microsoft, Jim Allchin, is reported to have claimed Vista won't need an anti-virus. His seven year old surfs the net all the time and using the parental controls feature, Jim doesn't have to worry about AV. If he believes that, he's kidding himself.

My kids surf the net all the time using an XP computer. It never gets viruses because they use Firefox and they run as restricted users. When they go to virus or spyware infected sites, the malware simple cannot run.

That's not to say the malware sites don't try. AVG constantly picks up trojan attempts in the cache file. But they simply don't get on the system.

Vista almost certainly will be more secure than XP, just as XP was more secure than 98 and ME. However XP could have been as secure as the Mac had Microsoft not decided to make all users Administrators by default. Make the users limited and the bulk of the problems go away, thankfully Vista appears to do this, although in practice it might be different.

We'll see how secure Vista is in the next few months. But right now it's sounding like we have a lot of complex kludges like parental controls and Address Space Layout Randomization. All these seem nice ideas, but they are just adding to the complexity of an already complex system.

The real solutions to Windows' security problems are for normal users not to have administrator rights and to deny access to the registry and system 32 folder. There is no reason why any program should have to write to either for normal usage. Until this is done, then Windows will continue to have problems.

It's a shame someone like Jim Allchin would make such a silly statement. Of course Vista will still need an anti-virus. I doubt even the stock brokers and analysts are fooled by this sort of talk.

Telstra's ADSL2 pricing

Telstra has finally released it's ADSL 2 service, but it continues to offer poor value compared to the competition.

ADSL 2 has been available from many ISPs for the last year and Telstra has been installing this equipment without making it available to customers. Now they have finally released their ADSL2 service. The shame is that it is lousy value.

Australian Personal Computer has a good comparison of the various ADSL2 offerings. Telstra doesn't compare well. To add insult to injury, APC also points out that Telstra has decided to use different equipment to most of the competition, which means more compatibility problems.

Once again, we see good reasons why consumers need to shop around. What's more, it's another example of why Telstra should be split into a wholesale and retail providers. Sadly, we won't see this under the current government or opposition.

The spam explosion

Spam is increasing again. Is it all worthwhile

The last couple of months have seen a massive increase in spam. We're increasingly being asked how to control it and we're having trouble with the answers. The problem is the spammers have become smarter.

A spam message traditionally had content along the lines of "get rich quick" or "grow your hair" and it was comparatively easy for spam checking programs to find most of these messages. The new breed just jumbles together commonly used words or phrases. This is why so much spam looks like gobblygook.

To get their message across the spammers have started putting their messages in an image file. So we have a picture of the spam message. The spam detector can't read the image.

The final nail in the spam checker is that they traditionally used blacklists of known spammers or compromised servers to check where the spam was coming from. A larger proportion of spam now comes from infected computers or unsecured wireless networks so blacklists are harder to maintain.

While the spam checkers are getting better, this is a curse we are going to have to put up with until we see fewer compromised computers and networks.

The porn case

What are the lessons from the Budlong porn case?

On the face of it, the NSW Industrial Relation Commission's ruling that being sacked for possessing porn is unreasonable is worrying. But like all these things a reading of the judgment reveals there's a lot more to the case. It appears NCR were inconsistent and made a number of mistakes.

The biggest mistake NCR made was inconsistency. Another staff member had been counseled for inappropriate email usage, she was sacked after continuing the behaviour. Budlong wasn't given counselling before being sacked.

A more striking problem for NCR was their Acceptable Usage Policy. The "air of automation" comment by the commission was my biggest worry, but it turns out the policy was FIFTY pages long. It clearly wasn't readable, the commission also hints that not all staff had signed it.

The third and, in my view, most dubious point against NCR was the lack of a firewall. While I'm surprised a company like this didn't have one, the commission took it as indicating the company didn't seriously enforce it's policies. It shows a business has to take positive steps to prevent this happenning.

This case has presented a few lessons for businesses and IT departments. While the specific case is only applicable to New South Wales, the lessons can be taken on board by most companies. Those lessons are.

1. Have a clear and concise policy on inappropriate usage.
2. Act decisively, fairly and consistently when it is breached.
3. Do not rely on an AUP, install filtering and monitoring equipment to stop these things coming into the network.

From a purely mercenary point of view, this is an excellent opportunity for IT businesses to push filtering and AUP policies.

Office 2007 pricing.

MS have announced their office pricing. Will people bother?

The Office 2007 pricing has been released and it's a clear indicator of where Microsoft want to sell. The OEM and family markets are the focus. With an interesting offer for business customers.

The home edition doesn't include Outlook while the OEM edition does. This clearly fits into the strategy of selling Windows into the home and small business markets. Coupled with the OEM prices for Small Business Service it becomes a pretty compelling sell to small businesses.

MS need a hook for people to buy. Most users are happy with Office 97 and, with the exception of improvements to Outlook, there's little difference to most Office users.

Reseller motivations

Are resellers solely motivated by margins?

Webroot Software sees an opportunity pitching to resellers who find themselves cut out of vendor's renewal programs. Basically what they are saying is we can make more money out of their renewals than, say, the nothing we get from Norton or McAfee.

To me, this misunderstands why we recommend products. The money we can make is a factor, but a much more important factor is how good the product is. We don't want to foist crook products on our customers, they pay us for good advice.

We can make good margins on products like Norton AntiVirus, the reason we don't recommend it is because we see too many computers screwed up by this product, the money is irrelevant.

Webroot would be much better off making sure their software is well written and effective. Pricing their product slightly cheaper than Symantec's equivalent and giving us a decent margin will help. But the most important thing is to deliver software that works and doesn't mess up the customer's system.

What the hell is it with lawyers?

You'd think lawyers would be the people most aware of the risks of sending dodgy emails to all and sundry, yet once again we have a story of lawyers passing on a silly email to all their mates.

The lesson, once again, is if you don't want to see the text next to your picture on the six o'clock news, then don't write it.

But I continue to wonder why I hear so many stories about lawyers and dumb Internet usage. Over the years I've heard stories of sexual harassment, dissing clients and all manner of inappropriate behaviour. Is it because they believe they are untouchable?

Bigpond drop the word "unlimited"

Quietly in the last few weeks, Bigpond have renamed their "Unlimited" plan to "Liberty".

This label was always misleading. The plans were never unlimited. Once you reached the limit, you were capped to slower speeds.

While misusing the word "unlimited" is typical IT industry behaviour, it's preferable to the alternative, a massive excess use charge. The 200, 400 and 500Mb plans are designed to hit customers with excess bills. The 200Mb plan would end up costing the typical family over $70 a month.

It worries me when I hear schools bullying families to get on to the net. Too many of those families will sign up with Bigpond and opt for the cheapest possible plan. Throw a couple of kids surfing for free music on that machine and a 29.95 plan could easily become a $29,950 plan.

XP Service Pack 3 delayed

It appears the next Windows XP service pack will not be released until 2008. This means it will be almost four years between service packs two and three. This is not acceptable.

Already a new machine with SP2 requires over sixty updates to get up to date, it boggles my mind how many we'll need by 2008.

Not good enough.

HP overtakes Dell

Gartner and IDC are reporting HP has regained the lead over Dell in worldwide PC shipments this quarter.

The frightening thing for Dell is the fall in US market share: IDC report 6.7% and Gartner 7%. A fall like that is a serious matter.

The problem for Dell is that they are now firmly stuck in the low margin, cheapo market. It's going to take a lot of work for them to break out of that niche. If they don't, though, they are doomed.

Apple defenders come out

When Choice named iPods as among the ten shonkiest products of the year, I expected the fanboys to come out snarling. In the next few days we'll see the usual sqwarking and attacks on everyone concerned. I certainly didn't expect Smarthouse News to be questioning Choice's integrity, however.

While I agree the Australian Consumers Association can be hysterical at times, and I disagree with their view that computers should be as reliable as toasters and fridges, their comments about Apple's disgraceful iPod return policy are quite right.

What I find interesting in the Smarthouse article is the quote from Harvey Norman's Rutland Smith: "The claims by Choice surprise me as we have no problems with iPod returns and we sell thousands"

It's amazing that there are two Rutley Smiths working at Harvey Norman. A month earlier another Rutley Smith told Australian Personal Computer,

Harvey Norman had repeatedly asked Apple to change its iPod return process which instructs customers to return faulty iPods directly to Apple by post.

“We’ve instructed our stores to resolve problems in accordance with the Trade Practices Act and handle stock problems with Apple at a later date. But so far we’ve found Apple to be particularly uncooperative.”

So it seems we have two Rutley Smiths at Harvey Norman. One thinks Apple are terrific and one seems to have a similar attitude to Choice Magazine. What a strange world we live in.

iPod wins shonky award

Choice Magazine has nominated Apple's iPod for their Shonky awards.

Apple's iPod has won a Shonky, the Australian Consumers Association award for "unsafe, unethical, dishonest or plain hilarious products". The main point against the iPod is Apple's disgraceful, and possibly illegal, return policy.

Then again, what more can we expect from a company that blames Microsoft when it ships a product with a virus?

I also love how Apple link their advisory to two of the buggiest antivirus products on the market.

It's way beyond time that the ACCC and various state consumer protection authorities start doing their jobs and prosecute a few vendors for breaching the Trade Practices Act and various state laws.

Perhaps if they did, these outfits would stop treating users, customers and resellers with contempt and start shipping products that did what they promised.

Techs pushing Vista

Are techs mad to be pushing Vista right now?

I received a competitors newsletter yesterday which was mainly an exercise in pushing Windows Vista. It's not something I would do.

Vista will eventually take over from XP, however we'll see a lot of teeth gnashing as the early adopters work they way through the many incompatibilities and bugs that we'll find. It's a brave tech that would tell their customers to upgrade three months after the release, let alone three months before. We're advising to wait until this time next year.

The notable thing about this company is they have a "no fix-no fee" policy. I suspect this advice might become very expensive in the new year.

Germany proposes a computer tax

In countries like Germany and the UK where televisions require a license it was inevitable that applying these taxes to computers would be proposed.

I'm surprised the record companies and movie studios haven't suggested a similar levy to compensate for the billions they claim to lose to piracy.

What this really illustrates is how flawed comparisons between computers and household appliance are. A TV can only do one thing: Watch TV (although the picture can come from a VCR or satellite dish). Computers on the other hand can do untold number of things.

This is why I get cranky at the Consumer Association's constant assertion that computers should be as reliable as toasters. I don't see too many viruses written for toasters or teenagers trying to share raisin toast in return for muffins. I also don't see too many home based businesses using a domestic toaster to run a cafe.

Cutting down peer-to-peer

Extel's decision to slow peer-to-peer traffic is hardly surprising.

Given that probably thirty percent of household computers we see currently have P2P software on their computers, and most of them have sharing enabled, the amount of data being pushed around by these programs is huge. The costs to ISPs must be massive.

The importance of the Internet to so many businesses and households means priortising other traffic is fair enough. Also, the market for ISPs like Exetel is largely price driven they just can't afford these sort of costs.

Users have to decide if they want cheap or capacity. They can't have both. Mind you, if some of the complaints are true, then I would be a cranky customer too.

It's industry practice to allow customers to terminate a contract without penalty if terms are changed during the term. The talcum Industry Ombudsman has a checklist for dealing with customer complaints.

McAfee complains about Vista

McAfee has joined Symantec to complain about Vista's security and lack of access to kernal.

What a laugh. Both of these products would work better WITHOUT access. All too often we see machines dragged down by them.

These programs shouldn't be allowed access to key operating files. Nothing should. The main reason for XP's diabolic security problems is the ease programs can write to the registry and system folders.

More exploding laptops

More battery problems.

On top of the exploding Lenovo laptop at Los Angeles airport, a Dell catches fire at the Yahoo! head office.

Toshiba are now recalling over 300,000 batteries. Apparently the problem is to do with corrosion, not fire risks. But the batteries are still Sony.

It seems Sony have some serious problems.

Is free security software worse?

Is free software worst than paid?

The SMH today looks at the pros and cons of free security software. While their conclusions are fair, that free software often requires more work from the user and sometimes lacks features, the comments from vendors are breath-taking.

I particularly like the Computer Associates spokesperson saying "They think they have something that's fully protecting them, when in reality they don't protect in a way they might need."

Priceless.

It's actually the commercial, full featured packages that leave users with a false sense of security. The number of times we discover users with damaged, disabled or out of date brand name security products is depressing.

The simple fact is the worst offenders are McAfee and Symantec.

Symantec suffers mainly because it relies on the Windows Scripting Host. This means a spyware infection will often drag a Norton product and Windows down with it. Their products is too complex and their licensing puts users at a disadvantage.

McAfee's problems start with their licensing obsession. Their registration system is so convoluted and prone to failure that many users are never properly covered. Like Symantec, their products are too complex and are even more difficult to fix when a problem arises.

While free products do have drawbacks and require more user intervention, most of them are far simpler and less prone to failure.

Software is always going to be complex, but the problem with most large software houses, including Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee, is they make their products even more complex than is necessary.

Attack of the giant laptops

We thought the Toshiba Qosmio took the cake when it came to portable computers, but the Dell M2010 surely takes the cake.

With a screen sizes between 17 and 21" and weighing in over 9ks, these beasts push the definition of portable. Laptop magazine has an amusing story on one of their writers travelling around New York with it. I certainly wouldn't want to be sitting next to someone using an M2010 in economy.

In fact, it's unfair to put them in the same category as laptops and portables. These are genuine desktop replacements. Usually home based business people with restricted space or who move between two locations buy desktop replacements.

The fact these systems come with remote controls and Windows Media Centre show the intended market is not the small business owner. These are firmly aimed at the home entertainment market.

Unfortunately at over $6,000 the prices will lock them out of most home users' budgets. These are strictly aimed at the top of the market.

Hackers in the system

One thing that always raises a smile from computer techs is when a user cries "there's a hacker in my computer."

While I'd never discount the real threat of hackers, the reality is usually far more mundane. Usually the "hacker" turns out to be a virus or spyware. If it is a person, that person is usually a family or staff member.

So a phone call from a client saying Bigpond had blamed her high Internet bill on hackers made us raise our eyebrows. The usual thing we ask when we get such a call is "do you have a teenager in the house?" Sure enough, one of her sons had moved home a few weeks previously.

A quick inspection of the computer found Limewire with the default file sharing settings enabled. The prodigal son denied all knowledge.

It must have been a hacker.

More battery woes

I'm wondering just how wide the Sony battery problems are.

My new Sony Ericsson M600 has been playing up since I bought it four weeks ago. Yesterday I took it back to find there is a battery recall.

I'm not sure the problem is related to the laptop recall, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Given battery problems are the most common complaint of laptop users, it seems manufacturers need to have a good look at the technology they are putting in these things.

Norton slows computers

So what does slow a PC down?

The Spy PC Blog looked at what slows a Windows computer down. They tested a number of programs to see which would be the worst offender. Norton Internet Security won by a long shot.

While not being scientific, it certainly does match our experiences in the real world. Removing NAV is often the best boost a computer can get. It's usually the first thing we do.

In the real world, the situation is more complex. While Norton Internet Security may be the biggest single culprit, the cumulative effects of a spyware infection will slow a computer even more.

To complicate the picture even more, a spyware infection will mess up the Active Scripting functions, which in turn will bork Norton products, which in turn will reduce the whole computer to a quivering wreck.

I'm sure Symantec's spin doctors will be able to portray the Spy PC tests as being unrepresentative. The fact is Norton products have serious problems. They need to fix them.

Exploiting tragedy

I've heard a number of marketing and advertising gurus advise exploiting 9/11 to sell disaster recovery and backup services.

Personally, I think it's bad taste. I suspect many people will agree with me. So we didn't do it.

The point's valid, but to tie a terrorist atrocity into selling your wares seems to be asking for trouble.

One of the most important rules in running a small business is: If your gut says no, then don't do it.

Every time I've ignored that rule, I've regretted it.

Let's party like it's 1999

We should have known Web 2.0 would lead to Bubble 2.0

I enjoy going to the Fourth Estate Domain nights at Sydney's CBD Hotel. Sally and Mike put on an excellent and interesting night (even if the bar can be a bit slow). Their choice of guest is usually very interesting as well.

Martin Dalgleish from PBL was August's guest and it left me deeply disturbed.

He made the point that content is king in the "new" online world.

The problem I see is his idea of content seems to be restricted to reposting magazine articles and getting users to send in content ala flickr and "Australia's funniest home videos".

I'm not sure Martin gets it, changing his title to Director of New Media doesn't help. That's so 1990s.

We certainly did have a 1990s theme. A lot of the people looked like they stepped from the 98 and they were certainly talking like it.

If we needed any proof the dot com 2 bubble is on, an article in Forbes confirms it: "The Cheap Revolution is On!"

Cheap software, cheap hardware, cheap content, cheap, cheap, cheap.

The problem is that people have to make enough to live on. Make things too cheap and you'll only keep your Boxter for as long as naive investors will throw money at you.

A good indicator that things are getting silly is CNet's article about Super Cheap Computers Office Depot are going to sell an HP system for $198 US (including shipping).

The article points out the original dot com bust arguably started when manufacturers warned revenues were falling. So perhaps the seeds of the bust are already here.

Smarthouse Sprays Foxtel

David Richards from Smarthouse News certainly isn't afraid of having go as his spray at Foxtel's chief executive shows.

Where I do disagree with David is that Foxtel is not going to go out of business quickly. If IPTV, or any other medium, becomes a threat to Foxtel or the FTA TV operators they will lobby the Federal government of the day to stop the threat.

On past performance, the Feds will quickly do what they are told. No Australian politician in recent memory has stood up to the moguls. In fact, Foxtel itself was born of Keating and Richardson's attempt to keep both the Packer and Murdoch camps happy.

While attempts to stifle new technology will ultimately fail, the cost will be huge to Australian consumers and industry. But that's never worried the cowards in Canberra who pretend to be the leaders of this nation.

Melbourne IT to auction lapsed names

AustralianIT reports that our friends at MelbourneIT are planning to auction lapsed domain names.

The problem with this is that lapsed domains aren't theirs to sell. They go back into the pool for anyone to buy.

Could the cost of buying WebCentral be forcing them to become cybersquatters?

Apple Ads hit Australia

Some months after they are released in the US, we get the "hi, I'm a Mac" ads appearing on Aussie TV.

I have to say they irritate me on a number of levels.

1. Trashing your competition

Stupid. It makes you look petty. Even more so when they have about 90% of the market.

2. Insulting potential customers

Given the genuine problems the competition has, you might be expected to get some to switch. So why insult them?

3. Confirming stereotypes

The stereotype Mac user is a skivvy wearing, smart arse, smug metrosexual graphic designer who's a sucker for following cults. Well done in cementing that view.

What's more, the ad's play into the hands of "the Mac's a nice toy, but I need to get some work done" crowd.

4. Misleading advertising

"It Just Works". One thing that drives us techs mad is tech companies making misleading statements. Sure the bugger will work most of the time, but I'll bet there'll be plenty of households and businesses that lose a lot of time trying to get some hardware or software combo working on their Mac.

I guess what really bugs me is that Apple has a great story to tell. The biggest problem for home PC users is Spyware and Trojan Horses. This is not a problem for Mac users.

Apple should be emphasising it's positives rather than insulting thousands of potential customers, but I guess the swarmy smart metrosexuals at their ad agency couldn't resist showing how superior they are to the grey, dumb, dull Windows users.

Dell recalls batteries

Some six weeks after the Dell exploding laptop erupted into the media, Dell have finally decided to recall over four million batteries.

While it's the biggest recall, it isn't an isolated case. In the last year we have seen Apple Mac, HP and Dell have smaller recalls.

According to Dell's blog, this is something they have thought long and hard about before acting.

Our recommendations are straightforward:

Only buy genuine batteries. As this article shows, Lithium Ion batteries are precision instruments. Badly built batteries increase the risk of failure.

Damaged LiOn batteries are a risk, if you think your phone, laptop or cordless drill's battery may have been dropeed or damaged. Buy a new one.

If you notice the battery is misbehaving by discharging quickly, getting unusually hot or becoming mis-shapen or starts bulging then stop using it and contact the manufacturer.

Some other general laptop safety hints include.

Don't use the laptop on soft or flammable surfaces.

Don't block fan or ventilation ports.

If you notice the laptop getting hot, call for support.


It's not just laptops, here's a camera battery recall and. But Lithium Ion batteries are also used in cordless power tools and many other applications.

What we need to keep this in mind is that tens, if not hundreds, of millions of these batteries have been sold. Only a handful have had a problem.

Virus emails

It's amazing how everything old becomes new again.

A mail in my inbox this morning titled " Order Approval Notification" from Spysoft Central. Given the attachment has a .jpg.exe suffix, it's obvious that it's a virus.

A quick Google reveals this is the Bancos Trojan and this particular one has been around since mid July.

We've been seeing a lot of this sort of thing, from "e-cards" to warnings that the NAB is about to go bust. All are trying to install Trojan programs on to victim's computers.

It's another reason why we are recommending all users move to Limited User accounts. The nuisance value is less than the risk of these things.

The ATO and viruses

We changed this week's ABC 702 Weekend computer spot to discuss the Haxdoor virus and the ATO admitting users have had their details compromised.

In researching for the show, I stumbled previous warnings from the ATO about Trojan problems.

What worries me is that the ATO are the only big organisation admitting to this problem. There is no doubt banks are affected in a similar way. How much fraud is going on is a serious question.

It certainly has settled in my mind that all users should be Restricted Users and bugger the inconveniences.

Microsoft stuffed up XP by not introducing Restricted Users as the default. The question is how they are going to handle user permissions in Vista.

Reverse charge scam

A poster on the Whirlpool forums has pointed out a nasty new scam using reverse charge calls.

The scam involves a caller asking if you will accept a reverse charge call. If you do, the caller says "hello" and hangs up.

This costs you over $8.00.

Like the dialler, SMS and 1900 scams, these involve the scammer doing a deal with a telco. You'd think the telcos would be learning how to avoid these things.

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.

The Wireless Home

"Wireless devices poised for home invasion" predicts today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Having spent the morning in an unsuccessful battle with a dodgy Linksys router. I really don't think so.

Windows becomes spyware

Microsoft don't get it. Their Genuine Advantage notification rings home and spies on users. Brian Livingston at Windows Secrets and David Berlind at ZD Net do a much better job than me demonstrating how bad this is.

What amazes me is David Lazar, the director of the Genuine Advantage program, admits the function is there partly to turn off if the thing doesn't work.

So Microsoft launched a program which put potentially buggy software on millions of computers?

Trustworthy computing indeed.

More Aussie domain shenanigans

auDA, the Australian domain administrator, is in a blue with one of the the biggest registrars, Netregistry.

What has upset the auDA is what they consider to be Netregistry's failure to comply with the .com.au policies.

The demand by the auDA that the ws.com.au domain be deregistered is deeply unfair. A look at the company's website shows it is a legit business. Imagine having your domain pulled after spending ten of thousands on design, marketing and stationery?

Netregistry deserves a pat on the back in standing up for the customers. We can be sure their biggest competitor would have pulled the domain without any thought for their customer's business.

Microsoft licensing

Rotten effort is a good look by Computer World at how MS conducts it's licensing compliance and how many software vendors use compliance to drive sales.

In my view it is unethical, but a wholly predictable result of the push to put license breaches on a par with terrorist acts. In fact, a cynic like my selfishly might even suggest it's one of the reasons for big corp to push changes to IP laws.

The real fear for most companies though is that these threats are real. The complexity of many software licenses means many business would be caught out. If I'd been Dale Frantz of Autowarehousing, I wouldn't have been so confident an audit wouldn't have found something.

All companies need to take licensing issues extremely seriously. But companies like Microsoft and AutoDesk need to understand that restrictive, or marketing driven licenses only encourage their customers to look elsewhere.

Windows Vista patch

Microsoft announce the first patch to Windows Vista. It involves compatibility issues with Symantec Anti Virus. What a surprise.

Google Spreadsheet

Some differing views on Google's new spreadsheet application.

Phil Sim thinks it's a great idea and possibly a killer app, particularly for collaboration.

On the other hand, Jeremy Wright thinks it's all a load of nonsense.

I haven't seen it yet, but where I think it will make a difference is for small offices and homes that don't want to buy MS Office or where they are running older systems that won't play nicely with the latest Office versions.

Where I see Google and others threatening MS Office is by putting out simple and fast software.

Complex software is killing us at the moment: Office, Norton Anti-Virus, Adobe Acrobat and all these other applications are slowing machines and way too complex for the average user.

If Google can put together a basic web-based spreadsheet and word processor package then the reason for 80% of Office purchases vanishes. Particularly in education and workplaces.

It won't kill Office, because Microsoft will still make money selling Office to people that need a word processor that offer mail merge tools and a spreadsheet that can calculate the mean from a range of sub-totals.

What I see a Google Office doing is taking the cream off Microsoft's profits, but not killing it.

Managed services

One of those ideas that's really good but never seems to work out is the concept of managed services or hosted applications. In theory, they should put us out of business. So why aren't we worried?

Webcentral certainly has some good marketing people getting one of their case studies into today's Australian IT.

Having someone else host your system is good idea on a number of levels. It means your data is more likely to be backed up, you don't have to employ pesky IT people to make sure backups run and data is saved and it doesn't require spending tens of thousands of dollars on servers and stuff.

So why hasn't it taken off?

There's a lot of reasons. One is that all your data is now in someone else's hands, if you don't pay the bill or they go bust you've lost your data.

The second is that you are now wholly reliant on Internet access. No more getting away with a domestic 256/64 plan. The moment the Internet connection goes down, your business does too.

With your entire office using the Internet connection, it means it's going to be slow. So you're going to have to get a fast connection.

All of a sudden, you're looking at over a $1,000 a month for a business grade 1500 ADSL connection or more.

Now of course this means your connection and network are more important than ever. So you are going to need someone reliable to keep your network running. That's why you'll have to call us and why we're not worried.

Is Microsoft panicking?

Claims that Microsoft are dropping features from Vista are not a good sign.

Information Week claims MS are dropping various features from Vista.

Given Vista is running extremely late and many of us don't think they are going to make their early 2007 release date it's understandable they would drop features. Dropping accessories allows them to focus on the core product. But a bare system reduces the reasons for users to upgrade.

It's a shame they are dropping the synchronisation feature. This is a feature that many users need and MS seemed to be getting it right with their Synchtoy utility. We can only hope they don't try to bring back the briefcase feature.

We'll have to watch what other features they drop in the race to get Vista to market.

The decline of maths

ABC Radio reports that there's been a massive decline in the number of HSC students doing advanced maths.

This can't be a surprise given the message to our kids is quite clear, why bother studying maths when we have an economy based on selling real estate to each other. I can't help but feel this is going to bite us all on the bum in a few years time.

Online advertising the way of the future

Newspaper Association of America reported online ads growing at 35% compared to only 0.3% for print ads. While the print ads are still eighteen times the size of online ads, the future is clear. Ads are going online, an article in a US real estate newsletter shows this trend in that industry, and job ads are probably even more online than real estate.

I've been wondering for sometime much of the distribution price is paid for by newspaper sales. No-one should be predicting the death of print newspapers, but the one's who aren't adapting to this new age are going to go the way of the dodo, which makes the AFR's new venture much more interesting.

Design pricing

Some very good comments about the price of good design at the Pearsonified blog.

The comments are quite right: Good design costs. The problem is that most users don't understand this. But it's not just a design issue.

The problem is right across the technology based industries. Pretty graphic interfaces make everything from web and database design to computer networking look easy. The fact doing properly is a skill just like a plumber's or a carpenter is lost on many users.

Unfortunately I don't see this attitude changing in the near future. All I can suggest to Chris Pearson and other designers is to just hang on in there and find those customers that value service and good content. Let the other guys fight it out for the cheap charlie customers.

iiNet's travails

Internet provider iiNet saw it's stock value halved after slashing it's earnings forecasts due to the poorly executed takeover of Ozemail. Of course, making a conditional share placement at half the market price has a tendency to make existing shareholders nervous about the value of their shares..

iiNet's problems are a classic case study of how the IT industry gets it wrong so often. Ozemail was always going to be a problem child having been run down by it's previous owners. By buying a competitor bigger than itself, iiNet simply bit off more than it could chew.

The lesson is clear to IT businesses, big and small: Don't seek new customers if you are having trouble satisfying existing customers.

For customers, there's also a lesson. If there's an hour wait to get through to support, then that provider has a problem. Unless that provider is extremely cheap then you should be taking your business elsewhere.

Computer hijacking

The Sydney Morning Herald's tech section has a breathless article on the risks of ransomware. Ransomware is a virus or trojan that locks you out of your data and demands a ransom to unlock it. The first occurrence of ransomware was reported a year or so ago.

Ransomware is way overstated as a risk, for the writers the money trail would quickly lead the authorities to them and certain jail or a visit from some unhappy victims. Spyware writing and system hijacking are far more profitable and less risky pursuits. The funny thing is that no-one seems to have been affected by it, as the article admits.

"Computer emergency response team Auscert, said it had received no reports of ransomware trojans in Australia but because they tend to be spread via malicious websites rather than via email it was a difficult area to monitor."

Computers being hijacked is common. Spyware and virus writers do it all the time. A hijacked computer is then used to spread spam, viruses and plaster ads everywhere.

There's no need to be hysterical about computers being hijacked because it's happening right now. I get sick of repeating all the warnings about how you should protect your computer. But here's the instruction on the PC Rescue website.

Cyber sex

Charles Wright gives columnist Ruth Ostrow a serve about online sex in his Bleeding Edge blog. Ruth gets her knickers in a twist after she and her significant other posted their details on a raunchy website. Charles is quite right to point out that this happened before the arrival of the Internet.

Where I would criticism Ruth is that she's got the wrong end of a serious issue. We all hear warnings about children being stalked on line, but we find the kids are quite savvy with online creeps. The people who trash their lives due to someone they met on the net are more likely to be adults in unhappy relationships.

Personally, I've seen almost a dozen families broken by the results of an online affair. One client in Sydney had his wife leave him to join a bloke in Wisconsin: She left the kids but took the computer. Her new relationship turned out to be worse, which is a typical result.

It's not just affairs either. I've never heard of a kid sending millions of dollars to a Nigerian scam or blowing the mortgage on online gaming, but I know of adults who've done both. This is probably as a big a problem of online stalking or philandering.

The real story here is that you need to watch all your family member's computer use. Your husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend is as likely to get into trouble on the net as your kids are. If you are concerned about anybody's use, you need to talk to them and take measures to reduce or monitor their use.

Dell race to increase growth

Dell intend to "ignite growth" after being caught "flat-footed" by competitors' aggressive price cutting.

It's a difficult situation the PC manufacturers find themselves in. Until recently, the growth in the market has offset falling margins, but now PC sales are slowing and the manufacturers are finding their cashflows tightening. My guess is we are going to see further rationalisation of the market.

One of the biggest problems facing manufacturers is that their rock bottom margins leave them nowhere to move. The pressures on costs have been enormous and the vendors have been lucky that cheap Asian parts have seen the cost of systems drop dramatically in the last five years. Even that hasn't been enough and Dell have sought to cut support costs to make up for their falling margins.

This didn't work and Dell's reputation started to suffer as callers found the support lines were poorly staffed, badly trained and spoke poor English. These problems have been slightly fixed but the mud has stuck. Which makes it interesting that Dell have also announced they will spend $100m on customer service operations.

Dell customers will be thankful for that $100m investment, but I wonder how sustainable the model of increasing support while further slashing prices can be. If Dell want to have a low cost, low margin business model then support is going to suffer. It seems to me Dell want it both ways.

The big problem Dell have is their headline pricing: Desktops at $699 with notebooks and servers at $999. Of course they try to upsell customers for better warranties, more memory or bigger drives which helps pad the margin. But those headline prices are conditioning consumers to expect unrealistically cheap systems from Dell and their competitors.

If I were a Dell shareholder I'd be asking why they are spending billions on marketing so they can sell on price. Surely all that marketing spend could be spent trying to sell the message that Dell computers are better and deserve a premium price. That way they could ship a decent, well specced product, provide competent support and make a decent margin.

Microsoft Privileges

I was absolutely stunned to read that Microsoft gives its users Administrator rights and is only now thinking about removing them.

Every Windows users is assigned a security level, this can vary from a Restricted User who can't do things like add software or access system files up to an Administrator who can do anything and go anywhere.

Windows sets users up as Administrators unless it's told differently. In other operating systems like Mac OS X you do not get Administrator (or Root) privileges unless your specifically given them. If Windows set up restricted user accounts out of the box then we wouldn't be seeing the tidal wave of spyware and rubbish on Windows computers.

The main reason we don't set kids and office workers as Restricted Users is because many Windows applications don't run well without Administrator rights. We've tried it at many offices and homes and people have begged us to give them rights. Sadly, many of the worst offenders are Microsoft products.

Realising that Microsoft workers themselves have admin rights explains why this has happened. Microsoft's internal testing would never pick up the mess that restricted users find themselves. What's more they wouldn't know which of the software and hardware companies were supplying bodgy code that won't work without full rights.

The fact that Microsoft workers aren't forced into Restricted or Power User groups only confirms to many of us that Microsoft just doesn't get it when it comes to security. We can only hope that the upcoming Microsoft Vista does a better job than the previous attempts.

Diana Epps has a far more well thought out view on this on her blog. It makes good reading and explains the issues well. The comments also put forward some good perspectives on this.

Rootkits wreck havoc. Or do they?

The AusCert annual computer crime survey has some very alarming statistics: One in five corporate networks and twice as many public sector systems are infected with rootkits.

That's a serious statement. A rootkit is a set of files that hides itself deep in the system and is very difficult to find, they are often installed by spyware or hackers to take control of a system without the user knowing. One of these on your system means you have been bad infected with a virus, spyware or something much worse.

Personally, I don't believe a word of it. Given most corporate networks have some degree of security, if 20% of them were infected we'd be seeing 50% of home systems likewise affected. Tens of thousands of Australian computers would be pumping out spam, attacking the Pentagon and being a generally nuisance.

I suspect the replies to the survey have been misinterpreted. Many system administrators might have said "yes, we've had a virus infection" because they found a few java.byte trojans in a contractor's Mozilla cache. Either way, it's a silly and hysterical statement which the media thankfully hasn't picked up.

Mind you, I might use it in our market to scare up some work.

Only joking. Maybe.

Beating the Microsoft Word bug

Microsoft have warned of a serious bug in Word 2003 that is being exploited by a Trojan horse. Apparently one large US organisation has been targeted by it. Microsoft recommend only opening word attachments in Word Viewer.

This might be an opportunity to switch to sending attachments in PDF format. This is a far more secure and compact way of sending attachments. The free CutePDF is one of our favourites or you can buy a commercial product like Adobe Acrobat or PDF Factory.

Another alternative is to switch to Open Office or another office substitute. While the alternatives are good, they are not always compatible with all the features in MS Office. This is particularly true if you use the tracking features in Word.

If you need to exchange Word documents for editing, we'd recommend setting up a Restricted User account on your computer and doing your work in that account. Naturally you should have a firewall and an up-to-date antivirus. Being careful about who sends what is also important.

To date, it appears this exploit only works in Word 2003. Unfortunately we have no further details of the exploit or how to work around it. For the meantime you should be very careful about what you open.

How spyware gets on your computer

Two interesting links this weekend show how the spyware writers get their wares onto people's computers. An article in The Enquirer explains the most common spyware terms for getting infected. Anti-virus company Sophos announced how it's detected and stopped a rootkit exploit based on an online poker game.

The most common spyware terms only confirm what us techs see every day. The bulk of the terms are music download terms, others are screensaver and ringtones. Do a search on any of these, and you can be sure the top results will all be spyware related.

Sophos' detection of a rootkit using an online poker game illustrates the risks with online games. The only positive thing I can think of with this is that it targets adults instead of kids.

If people must go to these sites then it's important to run your Windows system in a restricted user profile, have an up to date antivirus and a firewall.

MYOB and VOIP

Accounting software company MYOB is reselling Engine VOIP boxes. Apart from asking just what experience MYOB has as a reseller, I can't help but being irritated that they are neglecting their core business on silly diversions.

Our MYOB customers outnumber Quickbooks by five to one. So MYOB is the leader in Australian small business accounting software, however their product has basically not changed for nearly ten years. There's been a few add-ins bolted on, but someone familiar with the bugs and quirks of MYOB 7 would not be lost on MYOB 15.

I guess we should be happy MYOB sticks with a stable product. But there are quirks which should have been addressed years ago. A decent form editor and better integration into MS Office would be a nice start.

I can't help but thinking this deal with Engin is just another example of management seeking buzzwords rather than improving their core product.

Why spyware writers are scumbags

In our household we're not too keen on the kids spending too much time on computers, but when they do we let the kids use the computer in the kitchen (yes, we do have one in the kitchen as well as a wireless access point). Every computer we have gets a nightly virus and spyware scan. Tonight's virus scan picked up a Java verify exploit in one of the kid's profiles.

The Java verify exploit is classic spyware. It takes advantage of a bug in the Microsoft java machine to take control of the browser. Once in, the little bugger can do anything.

So how does a ten year old get spyware into a machine? By visiting game cheat sites, that's how. Another example of how scumware writers target children as well as unsuspecting adults.

The sooner these people are shut down and thrown in gaol, the better.

Incidentally, each kid has their own profile as a limited user and is encouraged to use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. So the spyware would have trouble doing any harm. This illustrates why all parents should take security seriously.

Google Schmooogle?

Sensis Head, Bruce Akhurst, claims "We're not attempting to be a Google". Well that puts him at odds with his boss, who reckoned the Sensis Search was going to leave Google irrelevant in the local market. It should be noted though that Bruce was backpedalling on Sol's bragging almost straight away, as was reported on the ABC the night Sol said it.

As a Telstra shareholder, I'm disappointed they aren't planning to spin Sensis off. It might just be that Sensis is at the peak of it's power: Google are dominating the search engine market, News Corp and Craigslist introducing their own local searches and Sensis' investments in Trading Post, Kaz and Invizage not doing so well. Perhaps Sol should have taken the money six months ago.

Internet Explorer a mistake

John C. Dvorak makes an interesting point in his PC Mag column about Internet Explorer being Microsoft's biggest mistake. In John's view, Internet Explorer distracts Microsoft from concentrating on their operating and office products, creates most of their antitrust problems and compounds security problems in Windows. He suggests they should ditch Internet Explorer and do a deal with Mozilla.

He's quite right about the security flaws. Take Internet Explorer out of Windows and you have a much more stable and secure system. However I think John overlooks why IE was developed in the way it was.

In 1995, Microsoft had been caught napping by the Internet and Netscape appeared to be a real risk. So MS had to bury Netscape, the quickest way was to integrate IE into Windows giving functions that Netscape could never do. It worked.

As John points out, the cost of that was years of litigation and massive security problems for Windows users. But IE did achieve it's task. It's notable that since Netscape's effective demise that there was barely any development in Internet Explorer until Mozilla and Opera started gaining traction.

Microsoft strike me as a company in trouble. Even the biggest companies have trouble juggling too many balls at the same time. I agree with John: It's time for MS to drop Internet Explorer and concentrate on their OS and Office products.

Windows becomes Nagware

Microsoft today released an update to their Windows Genuine Activation Notification program. Instead of making this mandatory for users wanting to install MS updates and add-ins it will now nag any users it suspects are using a non-licensed copy.

I'm ambivalent about this. The people most affected by this are those buying or selling systems with pirated copies of XP, the more done to put these people out of business, the better. On the other hand, I am certain we'll see some people driven mad by this system when it falsely detects them as using a pirate copy.

A slightly irritating point with this is how MS released this update out of sequence with their usual "Update Tuesday". I guess anti-piracy is a higher priority than the security of user's systems.

Synchronising files

One of the banes of our lives is synching files. We have a number of customers who have really suffered with this and it's a problem we have to struggle with. Now we're having a play with Microsoft's Power Toys and the Synch Tool.

In general, we've had good experiences with the various power toys, particularly Tweak UI. So it will be interesting to see how the Synch Tool behaves. The hope is that it's a lot more reliable than Microsoft's Briefcase or Laplink.

Wireless networks and false experts

We've always warned customers about leaving their wireless networks unprotected, so it was with interest we read today's Australian IT's article about Wireless hacking. Although I'm not sure whether logging on to unsecured network is "hacking". What really worries me are the people our big businesses and corporates outsource their IT to.

Kim Valois, global head of security at Computer Sciences Corporation, claims wireless hacking isn't really illegal at all, saying "It's not really illegal, it's like leaving the door open and someone coming in and watching your cable TV." Well Kim, I dunno what the law is where you're from, but that's called trespass around these parts.

She's later quoted as saying "most home wireless networks did not even have passwords" which I assume means encryption. If she'd made that comment two years ago, it would probably been correct, these days it would be 25% at most. I'd be fascinated to know the source of Kim's figures, maybe it's from how well her colleagues setup their own networks.

Reading Kim's comments, I'm not surprised CSC is retrenching 5,000 employees.

It's strange how wireless networks bring out odd opinions. My favourite is George Ou's blog on ZDNet, where he claims all our advice is useless. I can only assume George doesn't lock his car or front door because determined bad guys will break in anyway.

All this reminds me of Bob Rosenberger's False Authority Syndrome. The worrying thing is some of these people should be authorities.

Nightlife computers: Spam or filtering

One thing I try to do with upcoming radio spots is to tie up early what the topic will be. The producers and presenters have a hard enough job without having to make up topics on the fly. Also, being well prepared means I've checked my facts so I'm less likely to make an idiot of myself on air.

Sometimes it comes undone. This week is an example. I thought we'd tied up Internet filtering as being the topic, but the Thursday night promo talked about spam. So now I'm confused about what we'll be talking about.

It will be a shame if we don't go the Internet filtering as I've spent a lot of time on it. On the other hand, spam is an issue we haven't looked at closely for over two years, so we're due to revisit it.

The other topics we'll be looking at is growling at MS about their patch SNAFU, Boot Camp, the Mozilla update and Spam Act. It's going to be a busy night.

Microsoft fix breaks Windows

So Microsoft tell us they hold back fixes until their monthly "patch Tuesday" to ensure quality. So much for that idea.

There's a simple solution. Use Firefox. Although there is a major update to Firefox out too.

Government obsessed with T3

The Federal opposition's communications spokesman, Stephen Conroy, claims broadband services are suffering because the government is focused on propping up Telstra for the T3 sale.

It's an interesting claim with a bit of truth, but the real problem for Australian communications is that it is bundled with broadcasting. The minister of communications under any Labor or Liberal government is really the minister for keeping the Packers and Murdochs onside. Everything else is just a distraction.

What we really need are separate broadcasting and communications ministers. This would go some way to separating communications policy from the games our party pollies play to keep their paymasters onside. The only danger with such an arrangement is that the communications minister would find themselves out of cabinet while the broadcasting minister would probably be number three after the treasurer.

180 Solutions and kiddy porn

If one didn't need any more evidence of just how bad the spyware problem has become, Suzi Turner describes how 180 Solutions' Zango spyware affiliate is hijacking browsers to kiddy porn sites.

The really irritating thing about 180 Solutions is that it is an incorporated US business. It isn't a shadowy crime syndicate, pimply script kiddy or third world scammer, it has offices and managers sitting in Seattle. They even have private equity investors prepared to invest $40 million US dollars into their business.

On the surface of it, you can't blame the investors. An article by Washington Post's Brian Krebs claimed that 180 Solutions is making a million dollars a week peddling this stuff. There sure is profit in convincing users to install advertising software on their systems.

The problem is that most users aren't convinced: They are duped, they have no idea this muck is being installed on their systems. While 180 Solutions can claim this is just the behaviour of a few rogue affiliates, those of us who have to deal with cleaning it up know it is not the case.

180 Solutions and other spyware peddlers are creating great damage and offense with their use of this software. Hijacking consumers products with pornography and false advertising wouldn't tolerated in any other field and it shouldn't be tolerated in personal computing. It needs to be stopped.

Australia's first spam prosecution

It's good to see the first prosecution under the spam act, the big question now is to see what penalty Justice Nicholson imposes. The Spam Act allows the court to "The Court may order the person to pay to the Commonwealth such pecuniary penalty, in respect of each contravention, as the Court determines to be appropriate." So the fines could be anything from a dollar to the tens of millions.

Whether Wayne Mansfield has any money to pay these fines is another question. This case can't have been cheap to defend, and Wayne has lost in the courts before. Although with industries like unsolicited email and other Internet based scams it never ceases to surprise me how much money can be made.

To be fair to Mr Mansfield, he probably hasn't made billions. His spam seems to have only promoted his own businesses. He's certainly not accused of hijacking South Korean mail servers and pumping out billions of messages promoting dodgy investments and viagra. His mistake is that he just doesn't understand how much unsolicited email irritates people.

Interestingly, Wayne has his own blog where he shares some of his wisdom. Sadly, he doesn't give us his point of view on the proceedings. Although he does have some interesting links such as the one to Ivan Levinson's website.

This site has some terrific tips on writing advertising copy and emails, one of the first is "How to use e-mail to fire up sales (without getting flamed)". In it, Ivan describes what he finds to be spam at it's worst. It's a shame Wayne didn't read this article before he discovered unsolicited email.

Tech support blues

One of the most common whinges we hear from small businesses and home is "we can't get decent tech support".

It's true, they can't.

But they only have themselves to blame. Imagine you owned a car that you never serviced, never checked the oil or water and, when it did break down, you picked up the Yellow Pages to find the cheapest mechanic that could do it now. That's exactly what people do with their IT.

I had a client call at 8.00am this morning, Easter Thursday, who's moved offices and finds their computers won't work. They need them fixed now. We can't get anyone to them.

The problem I face, along with the entire industry, is that this idea of picking up the phone and hollerring for a tech just doesn't work. I can't employ staff if I don't know how much work I'll have on next week. Equally, you can't expect to get 24/7, two hour response support unless you are prepared to pay for it.

Australia falling behind?

Charles Wright's Bleeding Edge blog raises the issue about Australia's failure in communications policy, specifically in the area of broadband access.

While I agree that Australians are being ripped off by a government that understands little and cares even less about IT or communications broadband, it is only one part of a much bigger picture where we are being let down by the people we vote to be our leaders.

There's very little point in having super fast broadband if our industries don't need it. Graeme Phillipson keeps pointing out that our governments just don't want to buy Australian technology preferring to buy foreign than to support local developers. The situation is probably no different in the corridors of big business.

An even bigger problem is education. Even if we had a vigorous IT industry with super-fast broadband, it would be starved of skilled workers. We're just not offering our kids the education to compete in the high-tech world.

Of course if we did educate our kids, it would make no difference anyway. A school leaver choosing a career in science either has to immigrate or take a vow of poverty. It's much more lucrative to become a builder, property developer or commercial lawyer.

It seems to me Australians made a decision some ten or fifteen years ago: We'd rather not compete. It's much easier to be the lucky country riding on the back of wool, wheat, bauxite, iron ore, uranium, gold or whatever commodity is booming this year. Creating new and innovative technologies is something other people can do.

Charles is right in decrying the lousy state of broadband in Australia, but I can't help think the great Senator Alston was right, all we'd do with real broadband is download porn and pirated music.