Windows Live Mesh has just been updated, as of about noon on Thursday 10/30. If you are using it already, you will be notified to install the update; it will stop working until the update is installed on each computer running it. If you are not using it yet, it has been fully opened up to everyone - read about it, make sure you have your Windows Live ID set up, and you are free to sign up.

Windows Live Mesh is a place to store files online, a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere. Live Mesh now supports Macs, and limited testing has begun for Windows Mobile devices. (Click here for more information about the Windows Mobile client.) You will be able to take a picture with your cell phone and have the photo show up immediately on your PC and your Mac, or share files with anyone by sharing a Live Mesh folder so they can access it online or synced to their own computer.

The remote access is extremely well designed and will make it unnecessary for most people to pay for a subscription to LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. Connecting from one computer in your Mesh to another one is a single click - hover over the Mesh icon and click on "Connect." Files can be transferred between the local computer and the remote computer by dragging and dropping copying and pasting them.

[Addendum 10/31: Although files can be transferred between the local and remote computers by copying and pasting them, Live Mesh does not currently support dragging and dropping them. Live Mesh Remote Desktop also apparently does not implement any support for printing at all, so you can work on your remote computer but you can't print something directly on your local printer. Those will be compelling reasons for some of you to use LogMeIn Pro instead of Live Mesh for remote access!]

Other updated features:

• Tips for new users.
• Better support for large monitors in remote sessions.
• Permission levels for shared folders - creator, owner, contributor, reader.
• Drag and drop files between your PC and Live Desktop.
• Multiple file upload to Live Desktop.

Microsoft showed only a couple of applications built on the Mesh framework at the PDC this week. The BBC demonstrated a Meshified version of its iPlayer, an extremely popular service in England for watching TV shows online. The Mesh version will remember what you've watched and spread that information to all your devices. If you watch part of a show on your computer, the episode will start where you left off when you tune in on your cell phone or on another computer.

But that's just a taste of what's coming. Under the hood, Live Mesh has been moved to the Windows Azure framework that Microsoft announced at the PDC underlying all of their upcoming web services, and it's powerful stuff indeed. You are watching and taking part in a transition that will affect you just as deeply as the initial shift to the Internet. I'll write more about that in the next few days!

Labels: Apple, file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, remote, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/30/2008 12:51:00 PM | permalink

If you don't have enough memory ("RAM") in your computer, it will run very, very slowly. Once you have a reasonable amount of memory, performance won't change very much if you add more. Memory has been so cheap for the last few years that most people don't need an upgrade but I still run into underpowered systems occasionally, usually when someone has complained to me about how slow their computer is.

You can check how much memory is installed by right-clicking on My Computer (WinXP) or Computer (Vista) and clicking on Properties. You'll see the amount displayed there. Typical business computer users should have a minimum of 512Mb RAM for Windows XP and 2Gb (or 2048Mb) for Vista. If you have less, then add more or replace your existing memory sticks with higher capacities and you'll get an instant, noticeable speed boost, typically for less than a hundred dollars.

Memory is easy to install - once you've done it a couple of times, it takes less than a minute. (It's a little unnerving the first time because it takes a harder push than you expect before the tabs click into place to hold the memory.) The difficulty has always been the process of buying the correct type of memory from the hundreds of choices. It would be nice if the industry had settled on generic memory chips that you could pick up at Costco but no luck - it's a blur of different shapes and sizes and speeds and acronyms. I long ago stopped helping people upgrade memory and started sending them to a hardware outlet - even Best Buy! - where there are shelves of inventory and the store can find the part that will work.

There is an online tool that looks genuinely helpful and might even tempt me into doing upgrades again. Crucial, a long-established memory manufacturer, has a memory scanner on its web site that will identify all the details about the memory currently installed on your system and show you the compatible upgrades from its inventory, right down to the available slots and the details of whether the memory sticks have to be purchased and installed in pairs. It's a lovely tool! You can buy directly from Crucial and in no time you'll feel all speedy again.

[Addendum 10/29 10am: My enthusiasm is tempered a bit by the experience of the very first person who tried this and reported back to me - the Crucial scanner confidently proclaimed that his computer has no memory at all and therefore is at its maximum and would he like to buy an upgrade? Sigh. Okay, maybe it works most of the time.]

Labels: computers, hardware, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/29/2008 12:32:00 AM | permalink

The Outlook team at Microsoft plans to publish a series of tips in their blog about interesting ways they use Outlook. Today's item highlights a way to display any range of dates in the Outlook calendar, even unconnected dates.

Click a day in the date picker (the little calendar in the upper left or upper right), then hold CTRL down and click additional dates. Each one will be added to the calendar display. You can display the range from Wednesday to Tuesday, for example, instead of being limited by the Sunday-Saturday view in the normal "WEEK" display; or you can choose just Thursdays and see your next month's worth of Thursdays lined up next to each other.

Don't forget my tip about displaying Outlook in multiple windows and creating shortcuts to start Outlook directly in the contacts or calendar folders!

Labels: Office, Outlook

posted by bruceb at 10/28/2008 12:19:00 AM | permalink

If you're using my favorite web service Live Mesh, watch for an update in the next few days. It will be required to continue using Live Mesh; file sharing and remote access will go dead until the update is installed. I'm going to do a backup of the files stored in Live Mesh folders, just in case of any problems during the upgrade. Live Mesh is about to be opened up to a wider audience as a "beta" release and the update goes along with moving the service onto servers that can handle a bigger load. Here's more information from the Live Mesh team.

That's not the only reason, though. Microsoft is hosting the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles over the next four days and new features added to Live Mesh will be the focus of some of the more interesting announcements at the show. The details are a closely held secret - I can guess that Live Mesh may begin to support Macs and Windows Mobile devices, perhaps, and there are likely to be new collaborative applications that leverage the Mesh platform's ability to securely communicate among several computers on widespread networks.

That won't be the only news out of PDC. Much of the development of personal computing over the next few years will be outlined at this conference! Many of the announcements will be directed at developers rather than consumers and there may not be many services that you can start using the day after the conference ends, but this is the one to watch if you want to know where things are going. The media will breathlessly cover announcements concerning "Windows 7," next year's successor to Vista, but that's a marketing distraction that you can safely ignore for another few months.

Instead, watch for announcements of new and upgraded online services and lots of talk about "cloud computing" - and ready or not, here it comes, that's the world we are moving into faster than you realize. The services that will change your life are the ones that move your programs and files online where you can be connected to them from any device - desktop computer or notebook or mobile device or game console. There are lots of issues to be addressed before we will be fully committed to that vision - the programs will have to look familiar and work in familiar ways and you'll have to be convinced that your data is secure and backed up and under your control. The announcements at PDC will give us a good look at some of the steps we will make toward those goals in the next few years.

I'll keep you posted!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, mobile, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/27/2008 12:44:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft rushed out a critical security update today that should be installed without delay on every Windows computer. It will have been installed overnight on Wednesday on many computers.

Please make sure this update is installed on your computer!

If you use Windows Live OneCare and it is green on Thursday, the patch was installed.

Otherwise, please check your computer! Go to Windows Update and check for updates. If any critical updates are listed, install them.

This is discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 ("Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644)").

Apparently a vulnerability was privately reported to Microsoft, which realized it was "wormable" - capable of propagating across multiple computers very quickly. There was already evidence that it was being exploited in the real world, raising the spectre of a global attack like the SQL Slammer Worm that had a devastating impact in 2003.

The security problem, and the patch, apply to virtually every version of Windows. I'll be patching servers tonight. It may not be a direct threat to many of you but it's difficult to evaluate that, since details of the exploit are not being published for obvious reasons. As near as I can tell, it does not get through firewalls but once it's inside a network it can spread to any unpatched system with printer sharing turned on, which is virtually every computer.

Windows Live OneCare was updated to stop the exploit this morning, and I assume the other security vendors have issued updates as well. But don't count on security software - get the patch installed!

Labels: SBS, security, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/23/2008 09:45:00 PM | permalink

Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 will be released on November 12. Veterans of SBS 2003 are finding many things to like in the new version; I'll have more to say about it in the next few weeks. Here's an early look at the features and changes in SBS 2008.

At about the same time, Windows Live OneCare will be upgraded to version 3. If you already use OneCare, the new version will presumably be sent to you automatically, it will restart your computer, and it will cause enough glitches that I'll be busy on the phone for a few days. I don't have any details about the new version yet but I'll keep you posted about what to expect.

(Loyal OneCare users - I've spent some time in the last few days with the latest security suites from Symantec/Norton, ZoneAlarm, and TrendMicro. Trust me - OneCare is the very model of decorum and politeness and looks angelic by comparison.)

The big news for Windows Live OneCare is the addition of Windows Live OneCare for Server, which will be included with SBS 2008 as an optional choice for security. The new server product will provide simple virus and malware protection, which in itself is a welcome addition for small businesses.

But apparently it will also allow up to 25 workstations to be managed centrally and covered by a single OneCare license, which is good news indeed! I've needed better monitoring and management for my clients' computers. It also allows the data on the workstations to be backed up centrally, which might be sufficient to protect the Outlook .PST archives that are piling up everywhere. Here's some info about the new server product.

Pricing is pretty reasonable:

• OneCare for server only: $189.95/year
• OneCare for server plus a "site license" (apparently up to 25 workstations): $399.95/year.

There is a big caveat, though - OneCare for Server will only work with SBS 2008. I can't install it on my clients' existing SBS 2003 networks.

In my mind, this is a big selling point for an upgrade to SBS 2008 as we replace aging SBS 2003 servers!

Labels: domains, network, OneCare, SBS, security

posted by bruceb at 10/23/2008 12:37:00 AM | permalink

I've got something that might help you out when you face your California election ballot.

A good friend who has worked in state government and politics for most of his career has written an analysis of the twelve propositions on the California ballot. It's as close to nonpartisan as anything can be today, with solid information about the background, cost, and strengths and shortcomings of each proposition. (No position is taken or argued on Proposition 4 (parental notification of minor's abortion) or Proposition 8 (same sex marriage).)

I encourage you to take a look if you haven't researched the propositions! It's exactly what I was looking for at a time when it's hard to find an independent source of information. Whether you agree or disagree isn't the point - at the least, you'll be better informed when you make up your own mind.

You should be able to download the PDF from my public Skydrive folder by clicking the link below. If you have trouble retrieving it, drop me a note and I'll email a copy. Vote smart!

Labels: law

posted by bruceb at 10/22/2008 01:28:00 AM | permalink

Access everywhere! Lots of interesting services are being set up to make it easy for you to have access to files, folders, photos, and computers from anywhere, whether it's working on an office computer from home or bringing up pictures from your home computer on a mobile phone.

The latest entry comes from Dell, strangely enough. Dell just introduced Dell Remote Access, a ten dollar per month service for a number of tasks loosely related to "remote access." It's designed to be extremely easy to use. You'll install some software on the computer to be controlled; the software will run continuously and periodically check in with Dell Server Central Command. Then when you go to my.dellremoteaccess.com and log in, you can control your computer remotely as if you're sitting in front of it. That's not all, though! You can stream music and photos to your remote device or upload files to the computer running the Dell software. Plus one more interesting feature that I haven't seen before - you can send a link to someone by email that gives them an encrypted connection to a folder on your computer, so they can look at pictures, say, with very little fuss.

Here are a couple of places where people say nice things about the new service. The people saying those nice things work for Dell. Haven't seen much feedback from the real world yet.

That's pretty cool stuff, and you might want to try it, but I'd offer two thoughts before you jump in.

This is an increasingly crowded field. You have alternatives to choose from at a range of prices, with simple or difficult interfaces, and with similar or different features. You can jump into whichever one gets your attention first - just be aware that's what you're doing. LogMeIn will let you run its software and connect remotely to a single computer for free; its paid subscription adds very easy file transfers and the ability to email a link to a single file on your computer. GoToMyPC is slightly more expensive and aimed more at business users. Windows Live Mesh is a free service from Microsoft that will let you connect remotely to a number of computers, along with file and folder sharing and syncing and more to come; it's a little complicated to get started but might be worth the learning curve for its extra capabilities. Windows Home Server sets up remote access and photo sharing along with its file storage and backup features. Businesses running Microsoft Small Business Server already have remote access to their office computers using Remote Web Workplace.

Which leads to a point that gets more important all the time. A new program or service requires a commitment! Do not install programs or sign up for services on a whim! Each program will require time to learn its features and its quirks; it will require periodic attention to keep it up to date when security issues inevitably appear; if it's a good choice, it will require time to figure out where it fits in your life or your business. You'll likely have another web page address to memorize and another login name and password to add to the notes you can never find when you need them.

There are exciting new services out there! Choose them wisely and stick with the ones you choose so you can make them work for you. If you flit from one new thing to another, installing programs and abandoning them quickly,  you'll wind up talking to me about why your computer is slow and programs are crashing. You'll be depressed when I click on your Start menu and nod my head sadly and give you an economics lesson in the cost of cleanup versus the cost of a new computer.

With that in mind, get connected remotely! You don't have to leave computers behind any more.

Labels: computers, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, phone, photos, remote, SBS, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/21/2008 01:36:00 AM | permalink

Adobe released Flash Player 10, a new version of its ubiquitous software for displaying video clips and special effects in a web browser. You're using Flash every time you watch a YouTube video. There's a long list of new features on the Adobe web site, although really all that matters is whether it will stream higher-quality video without stuttering. Supposedly the new version will do better at that.

So I scurried off to install Flash 10, since I live for things like this - went to the web site and clicked on the "Get Flash Player 10" button and watched in excitement as a setup dialog appeared, followed by a couple of quick glimpses of setup windows coming and going, followed by the thrilling conclusion!

Hmm. Now Flash is broken.

I'm not discouraged! Back to the web site, click the setup button again! The computer whirs and belches and eventually the animation appears and I get the confirmation that installation was successful!

Version 9? Not quite what I was expecting.

Okay, fine. Let's get tough.

Off to Control Panel to uninstall Flash. There are two Flash programs listed, one of them for Flash 10 plus another one that probably was supposed to have been removed by the Flash 10 setup program. Uninstall them both.

Then back to the Flash web site, click the setup button, computer clanks and beeps, and wow, I've got Flash 10! Great!

I have no idea what difference that makes but perhaps it will be clearer after developers and web sites with video begin taking advantage of the new features.

Our experience with online video will steadily improve and this is one of the incremental steps forward. Microsoft just released Silverlight 2, Microsoft's competing technology for online video, which Microsoft hopes will chip away at Flash's commanding lead in the market. I don't care much who wins, but wouldn't it be nice if you could install useful tools without this kind of exercise?

Labels: IE, software, video

posted by bruceb at 10/17/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft released security updates on Tuesday night, following its normal monthly schedule. Your computer should have restarted during the night.

We're all overwhelmed by updates but we're stuck with them. The holes fixed today are the ones that the bad guys will be hammering on tomorrow. You should be installing the updates for Windows and other Microsoft products when they're released. Some of them will not be installed automatically - it's up to you to take care of the ones that require extra clicks!

Take a minute to check your settings!

(1) If you're running Windows Live OneCare, the icon should be green. If it's not, it may be waiting for you to install updates manually. Open OneCare and follow the instructions and keep the icon green!

If OneCare is green, you're covered for everything else I mention here. Go be productive.

(2) If you have a little gold shield (Windows XP) or update icon (Vista) by the clock, it's waiting for you to download and/or install updates.

• The Vista update icon is supposed to look like the figure at the left. I wondered about that! I couldn't have told you that by looking at the little blob down by the clock.

(3) Click on Control Panel / Automatic Updates (Windows XP) or Control Panel / System and Maintenance / Windows Update (Vista), and make sure your computer is set to automatically install new updates.

(4) Visit the Microsoft Update web site (Windows XP) or Control Panel / System and Maintenance / Windows Update (Vista), and make sure your computer automatically installs updates for Windows and other Microsoft products. The updates for Microsoft Office are just as important as the ones for Windows.

Updates for other programs can also be important but keeping up with the security fixes for Windows is a fundamental requirement of using a computer today. Be safe out there!

Labels: Microsoft, Office, security, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/16/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Some of you are running into unnecessary software included with many USB flash drives. The U3 Launchpad probably seemed like a good idea but I'm not aware of anyone who uses it, and I know a lot of people who find it irritating.

The U3 software is included with many popular models of USB thumb drive, including the SanDisk Cruzer series, some Kingston models, and a host of others. It is occasionally advertised as a feature (the "Kingston U3 DataTraveler"); other times it turns up unannounced.

When a USB drive with U3 is plugged in, the software autoplays and adds an icon by the clock to start the U3 Launchpad, which theoretically allows programs to be run from the USB drive without making any permanent changes to the computer. A U3 device shows up twice in the computer even if the U3 software is not run, identified once as a USB drive and separately as a CD drive for reasons that must make sense to somebody smarter than me.

Theoretically there are some advantages to the U3 features - data can be secured in interesting ways, programs can be run that already know all your favorite settings, and you can use your favorite software without the bother of installing it on strange computers.

Except you can't. Programs won't run on U3 devices unless they've been specially written for that purpose, and the selection is none too compelling. A special version of Firefox will run and there's a U3 version of Roboform, one of the most popular programs for keeping track of passwords and the content of web forms. Actually, there's a good case to be made for carrying the Roboform information with you in a secure way that's easy to access, so Roboform users might want to consider getting the U3 system to work. There's nothing compelling for the rest of us.

There are a handful of reports of problems. Well, more than a handful.

• The extra drive letter is annoying!
• The platform is proprietary, the programs designed for it cost too much, and it hasn't generated enough interest to attract developers.
• Some computers lock up, freeze, or crash to a blue screen (!) when the U3 software is run. The U3 support page helpfully lists six or eight programs you might want to uninstall if your computer explodes when you run U3.
• If you don't have local administrator privileges on the computer, you'll have nothing but trouble and might not be able to properly close programs before pulling out the drive.
• Many people report that the U3 software makes the drive slower, affecting the data transfer speeds. The company denies it and claims to feel just terrible that people are so unfair.

There are lots more criticisms listed here.

The U3 software (and the extra partition on the USB drive) are almost impossible to delete manually. If you just want a USB drive without any of this stuff in your way, you'll have to use the uninstallation tool from U3 (or this specialized removal tool for Sandisk drives.)

Be careful - you'll lose any data on the USB drive when the U3 software is uninstalled and there's no way to reinstall the U3 software later.

You know what? I don't think you'll miss it.

Labels: hardware, software

posted by bruceb at 10/15/2008 01:35:00 AM | permalink

I routinely set up a Windows Live ID for my clients when they get a new computer. There are many programs and online services in the world; Microsoft's programs and services under the Windows Live name are well designed, free to explore, and reasonably simple - a good choice for people who want to do some new tricks without being overwhelmed.

Here are the steps to get started.

Windows Live ID is a single sign-on service from Microsoft that allows people to log into many websites and services with one account. A Windows Live ID is an email address and a password stored in Microsoft's servers. It's free. Follow the instructions here to log in with your Windows Live ID, or set one up if you don't have one already. If you're at your own computer, check all the boxes to sign in automatically and remember your password - the services will then work automatically.

Download and install Windows Live Photo Gallery, a free program for viewing and editing your photos. It's an upgrade for the version of Windows Photo Gallery included with Vista, and also runs on Windows XP. It includes an easy way to share photos online for free. Here's more information about Windows Live Photo Gallery.

• Be careful when you install Windows Live Photo Gallery! You'll have the option to install other Windows Live programs; only install the ones that you are genuinely interested in. Watch the checkboxes on the right - if you're not careful, your Internet Explorer home page will be changed and you'll get an unnecessary extra toolbar.

Explore Windows Live Skydrive, a free place to store and share files online. It is a genuinely useful service, completely free and very easy to use! You'll have access to the files stored in Skydrive from any computer, and you can set up easily that can be shared with someone else, or left open for anyone. Once you're familiar with it, it can be very handy! Here's more information about Windows Live Skydrive.

Windows Live Mesh is (a) a place to store files online, (b) a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and (c) a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere - and in the future it will do more! It's a little more complex to get started with but it's already one of the most interesting services available. There's basic information about the service here, and notes about how to get started here. (If you get a message that the Mesh service is not available in your country, it's a glitch - the instructions to solve it are here.)

The world is already flooded with online services, and this is just the beginning of a very big transformation indeed. We're moving from complete dependence on our usual computer, to a much more amophous relationship with a number of computers and other devices that communicate with each other and a mix of locally installed software and services running up in the cloud. Stay sharp! Things are changing.

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, photos, remote, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/13/2008 12:49:00 AM | permalink

I've set up more new computers in the last few months than in the year before that. A lot of you are retiring your trusty Windows XP computers and sitting down to Vista for the first time.

Welcome to Vista! It's a great operating system.

You'll be able to get started right away. These are the new features that I point out to my clients - things that set Vista ahead of Windows XP that you might not discover right away. Go read about each one!

Vista's Favorites list can be made into your best friend, a customized list for one-click access to the folders you use most often. It's so easy to customize that it would be a shame not to use it.

"Breadcrumbs" give you an easy, intuitive way to move through folders and subfolders, a huge improvement over the folder navigation in Windows XP.

The snipping tool is a built-in utility for quick screen shots that can be dropped into an email or document or photo.

Shadow copy is a feature in Vista Business and Vista Ultimate that automatically makes extra copies of your folders twice a day and tucks them in a safe place. You can restore files as they existed in the past, regardless of whether they've been edited or deleted in the meantime.

Don't hunt for programs - search for them! When you click the Start button, your cursor is immediately blinking in a search bar. Start to type in the name of a program! You'll see it immediately appear at the top of the Start menu. It's far faster than looking for a program by combing through the "All Programs" list.

Have fun!

Labels: software, Vista

posted by bruceb at 10/10/2008 12:42:00 AM | permalink

From Paul Thurrott's blog today.

Unbelievable.

I love Dell, I really do. I recently bought that Optiplex, which has been great. So when my dad called this morning and asked about buying a new PC, I told him I could probably get something at Dell for under $500. I headed over to Dell, went back and forth between the Inspiron and Studio desktops and then started configuring an Inspiron 518.

If you've spent any time on Dell.com, you know how this works. They have this nice configurator wizard that walks you through all of the components you can change on the system you're browsing, like the microprocessor, the graphics card, the hard drive, and so on. It's all standard stuff and it works well.

And then I got to this step. Honest to God, Dell.

Select my ... Iron Man Movie??? And it's between the steps for "Printers" and "Speakers." I kid you not.

But seriously. Crapware in the configurator?

People have been doomed to hell for eternity for less than this, Dell. Wake up.

I like the note that you'll be able to play the movie on your TV "through windows media extenders," as if that's something a lot of people will casually take advantage of.

That's not the only merchandising madness going on for this movie, by the way. There are eight different versions of the movie going on sale - every major retailer has a different package, one with bobbleheads, another with a comic book or a steel case or a stained glass window or something else. It's an odd world, isn't it?

Labels: business, computers, hardware, video

posted by bruceb at 10/09/2008 12:29:00 AM | permalink

There are reports of increased phishing attacks purporting to be messages from various banks. Be alert! The bad guys create email messages that appear to be from banks, with links to malicious web sites that attempt to install viruses or adware or fool you into entering account information. The messages and web sites are increasingly professional, to the point that they are indistinguishable from the real thing.

The current wave of bank activity might make it plausible that your bank would contact you by email, but I don't want anyone fooled. In today's environment, no bank or other company will ever send you an unsolicited email message about your account; the only communication you will receive from any company will either be advertising or a response to something you initiated. If you're unsure, always doublecheck by phone, or by going to the company's web site directly instead of by clicking on a link in a message.

Be safe out there!

Labels: mail, security, spam

posted by bruceb at 10/08/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Apple's software for Windows has been causing problems on more and more of my clients' computers. I've been wrestling with bluescreens caused by iTunes, file extensions hijacked by Quicktime, and now I'm suspicious that an uninvited service has been causing problems in Outlook.

An iTunes installation includes far more than a music library that syncs to your iPod. There are multiple services and kernel mode drivers and program addins, with very little of it included in any disclosure or presented with any options. Apple also installs its "software update" framework, which it has used to install additional unrelated software without adequate disclosure, notably when it used the update service to install its insecure Safari web browser a few months ago.

The last few releases of iTunes install "Bonjour," a service that's only used if you share iTunes libraries across a network or use AppleTV. You don't do that. Why is that running on your computer without your knowledge?

You've also got "Apple Mobile Device Support," which syncs with iPhones and iPod Touch. If you don't have one of those devices, you don't need that software.

And if you're running Outlook and iTunes, you're probably running an Outlook addin named "iTunes Outlook Addin" or "Outlook iTunes Sync Addin." Take a look! In Outlook 2003, click on Tools / Options / Other / Advanced Options / COM Addins. In Outlook 2007, click on Tools / Trust Center / Addins, and click on "Manage COM Addins / Go" at the bottom. Now how did that get there! Make it go away. I suspect it of causing Outlook problems for several clients in the last few months.

There is a way to install iTunes without most of that unnecessary bloatware but be warned - it's not for the faint of heart. If you have to install iTunes, this guide will lead you through the process of locating the installation files for its individual pieces, so you can install only iTunes (and Bonjour if you need it), and leave the rest of it behind.

It doesn't help that the latest version of iTunes breaks the connection between J River Media Center and iPods. You're now forced to install iTunes if you get one of those devices, because Apple creates closed, unfriendly platforms and fiercely locks out potential competitors. Here's more info about that.

I hope my iPod Classic doesn't break - it connects to J River Media Center and I will never install iTunes or Quicktime on my computers. Apple is moving way up on the list of vendors helping send my kids to college.

Labels: Apple, audio, mobile, Outlook, phone, software

posted by bruceb at 10/07/2008 12:13:00 AM | permalink

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a fascinating article summarizing the history and effect of the RIAA's five-year battle against online music sharing. The conclusion is compelling: every single move made by the recording industry has backfired. The RIAA has filed more than thirty thousand lawsuits and threatened even more people, turning public opinion overwhelmingly against the RIAA and the labels, and has accomplished nothing.

"The RIAA's lawsuit campaign against individual American music fans has failed. It has failed to curtail P2P downloading. It has not persuaded music fans that sharing is equivalent to shoplifting. It has not put a penny into the pockets of artists. It has done little to drive most filesharers into the arms of authorized music services. In fact, the RIAA lawsuits may well be driving filesharers to new technologies that will be much harder for the RIAA's investigators to infiltrate and monitor."

Public respect for copyright law has plummeted and the use of peer-to-peer file sharing programs has soared in the last five years, in large part due to the unforgivable tactics used by the recording industry. Currently the RIAA is openly engaged in protection racket shakedowns: it sends "pre-litigation settlement offers" to students, offering to take a few thousand dollars in exchange for not filing a lawsuit. It has set up a web site, http://www.P2Plawsuits.com, where the payment can be made by credit card. (When one student attempted to negotiate the proposed $3,750 settlement because she was already in debt for tuition, the RIAA representative suggested that she drop out of school in order to pay off the settlement.)

The EFF article focuses on the procedural aspects of the RIAA lawsuits, with detailed information about the various tactics used over the years by the RIAA to obtain the names and addresses of alleged offenders. When you share files with a P2P program, your IP address might be visible but only your ISP can tie that IP address to your account. The RIAA exploited a loophole in the DMCA to issue thousands of subpoenas to ISPs before any lawsuit had been filed; eventually the courts rejected the industry's interpretation of the law (referred to somewhat proudly by the industry as "driftnet fishing), but not until more than 3,000 subpoenas had been issued, followed by hundreds of lawsuits and many more settlements. The RIAA then began filing massive numbers of John Doe lawsuits, and more recently has tried to intimidate colleges into voluntarily forwarding the threatening pre-litigation letters to students.

Perhaps the RIAA are not the worst and stupidest people in the world - there's a lot of competition for that title - but I think they would make it into the finals, anyway.

Labels: audio, DRM, file_sharing, law

posted by bruceb at 10/06/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

You might find something you can use in this collection of tips from David Pogue. Take a look! These are just examples from a much longer list:

• You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it's the Command key and plus or minus.
• You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse. On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image.
• You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.

Lots more. (He's wrong about the recycle bin, though - it doesn't have to be emptied manually.) And don't forget the keyboard shortcuts that I wrote up last year.

Labels: Apple, computers, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/04/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

I set up a new Dell Inspiron 518 desktop computer today - a nice home computer, a lovely case bristling with USB ports and shiny black plastic that will attract dust like nobody's business, fast and well-equipped, shipped with the correct configuration and working out of the box, as usual with Dell.

Dell ships computers with less preinstalled software than most other manufacturers, even from the Home & Home Office division, so setup is easy. There were a handful of third party apps to take off - Google's cluttered "Google Desktop" widget/search program and the rarely used Google Toolbar, one or two others. Dell is starting to load on more of its own homebrewed applications, though, so new Dell computers still have too many helpful startup screens and popup windows and balloons and taskbar icons. I remove most of them right away - in my experience, more people are annoyed than helped by the incessant notices from the "support center" and the well-meaning advertisements for services like Dell's online backup and the rest.

Maybe it's just me but I don't like the "Browser Address Error Redirector," licensed by Dell from Google. If you try to go to a nonexistent web page - a typo in the address, say - this redirects your web browser to keep you from seeing a "page not found" message. Instead, you'll get suggestions for what you might have been looking for, along with lots and lots and lots of advertisements (sample on the right).

I'd rather see a "page not found" message. I uninstall it.

The latest Dell software was introduced a few months ago - a dock that parks itself at the top of the screen to fool you into thinking you bought a Mac by mistake.

Programs are grouped, so a click on the applications icon might provide access to Word, Excel and Powerpoint. (Umm - which one of those icons would that be again?) The dock is intended to scoop up the normal desktop icons so the rest of the desktop is pristine. Here's a writeup with a few more details about the Dell dock. If you have a Dell computer running Vista and a dock would make your life complete, you can reportedly download and install it from this page.

Who uses things like this? Is there such a demand for an enhancement to Vista's desktop and menus that this is a great addition to every home computer shipped by Dell? I don't get it. I'm an old fogey. Don't get me wrong, I'm not insensitive to how personal some of these choices are. You can use the Dell dock and I'll be happy for you. Lots of people love their Macs and feed them special treats at dinner and put them to sleep on a little pillow and apparently nobody feels the same way I do - when I look at a Mac screen, I see a stupid, juvenile design that makes me so happy that I work in a PC world.

Labels: Apple, computers, Google, software, Vista

posted by bruceb at 10/03/2008 01:11:00 AM | permalink

Pass it on.

posted by bruceb at 10/02/2008 12:06:00 AM | permalink

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony can cause the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to fail.

Ah, the good old days! I used to be able to solve so many problems because I would run into them more than once! These days nothing happens the same way twice.

It's true about Beethoven. A sample of the Fourth Movement named BEETHOV9.WMA is copied into a "Sample Music" folder during installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3. On some computers, an error message comes up that the file can't be copied, and the whole installation of the service pack fails, leaving the computer in an unsteady state.

As always, when I ran into this, I found in a Google search that other people have run into this, with lots of the usual handwringing and namecalling and workarounds. As near as I can tell, the service pack attempts to copy the file into one of Windows XP's default folders, C:\Documents and Settings\All users\Documents\My Music\Sample Music. On some computers, that file path is missing or permissions aren't set correctly. It's hard to know if this will always work but this solution seems likely to succeed:

• When the "beethov9.wma error" comes up, open My Computer.
• Click on the C: drive and go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents.
• Right-click on Documents and click on Properties.
• Click on the Sharing tab.
• Check the box "Allow Network Users to Change My Files".
• Retry the copy.

But you won't run into that problem. The next time you have a problem, it will be something neither of us have ever run into - your monitor will rotate 90 degrees while your back is turned, or you won't be able to send an email without typing the word "chipmunk" into a box or Word will start typing text from right to left or good god, who knows what the next one will be? Not me.

Beethoven. Sigh.

Labels: WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/01/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink