BRUCEB NEWS
Windows Tip: Use Alt-Tab To Switch Programs
I don’t want to make you feel bad, but I don’t think you’re using Alt-Tab to switch programs, and I’m not sure I understand that. I use Alt-Tab a hundred times a day, but I suddenly realized that I never see anyone else use it. Why not? It’s a wonderful timesaver that...
ORSON SCOTT CARD ON MP3s
Popular SF/fantasy author Orson Scott Card has written a nice article deflating the recording industry rhetoric and explaining why mp3s are not necessarily to blame for the...
ANOTHER WINDOWS CRITICAL UPDATE
Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and install Critical Updates. There is another important security update. Another vulnerability has been discovered, very similar to the...
OPUS RETURNS!
Life is worth living again! Opus the penguin is returning to the comics pages! Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, creator of Bloom County and Outland, will...
TOYNBEE TILES
I love stuff like this. For years, a reporter for the Kansas City Star had noticed an odd tile embedded in the street near a favorite restaurant. Made of a rock-hard material,...
SUBPOENAS AND COMPUTER CRIME
Here’s a fascinating – and chilling – article by a former head of the Justice Department's computer crime unit describing a recent decision by a federal appeals court in...
GOOGLE TRICKS
You know how valuable Google is for web searches, but take a look at this page for other equally valuable Google services - among others, a price comparison service, an index of...
MICROSOFT SMALL BUSINESS SERVER 2003
Microsoft will release Small Business Server 2003 in October. It is a huge release. It will transform computing for small offices. The reason? It’s simple and it’s cheap. A new...
SPAM AND VIRUS TSUNAMI
I’ve used the same e-mail address for years. It’s listed on my web site and I’ve used it to subscribe to several mailing lists. That makes it a prime target for abuse - but I'm...
FILTERING SOBIG MESSAGES
Messages generated by the Sobig virus arrive in your mailbox with one of nine randomly chosen subject lines: - Re: Details - Re: Approved - Re: Re: My details - Re: Thank you! -...
NORTON ANTIVIRUS 2004 WILL USE PRODUCT ACTIVATION
Norton Antivirus 2004 will be released next month. For the first time, all versions of the product will require product activation, similar to the process of activating Windows...
SOBIG AND THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
This article in The Register discusses the long-term effect of spam and viral messages, which are undermining the potential usefulness of e-mail and might lead inexorably to a...
LONG TERM STORAGE ON CDRs
According to this article, a Dutch magazine did an extensive test of CD-R quality. Data was burned onto thirty different CDR brands, and a shocking number of them were unreadable...
WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN
Lord of the Rings fans: You have a long memory, right? Think back to last year - you bought the DVD of Fellowship of the Ring right away, and then found out that the extended...
WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 2 DELAYED
Microsoft announced recently that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP will be delayed until next year, possibly not arriving until summer 2004. The service pack will wrap up all the...
FLOP MOVIES: IT’S OUR FAULT
This summer featured a high percentage of failed blockbuster movies (The Hulk, Charlie’s Angels, Gigli, and lots more), and the industry has a new theory to explain why the...