BRUCEB NEWS
The Claude Crisis: AI And The Presumption Of Regularity
It’s Anti-AI week! Protests and petitions and boycotts and resignations , oh my. OpenAI (ChatGPT) is the villain. Anthropic (Claude) is the hero, topping the download charts after a burst of headlines about AI and the Pentagon and are you kidding me,…
NEW STANDARD FOR RECORDABLE DVDS
Recordable DVDs are available right now, but it’s a complete mess – DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and other “standards,” using different media, playing on different…
INTERNET EXPLORER SECURITY FIX
Microsoft has rolled up all the security fixes for Internet Explorer from the last few months and put them in a single download. This is a highly recommended update for everyone….
BRUCEB OUT OF OFFICE 2/11 – 2/15
I will be out of the office and out of touch from February 11 through February 15. I suggest that all my clients and friends stop using their computers until February 18th, when…
SECURITY: WINDOWS vs LINUX
As you probably read, Microsoft announced that it will focus on security rather than new features for the foreseeable future. According to one report, it has suspended all coding…
WINDOWS 2000 SECURITY UPDATE
Microsoft released a “Security Rollup Package” that provides a cumulative rollup of all security updates that have been offered since the release of Windows 2000…
OFFICE XP FEATURES
Microsoft Office XP struck me initially as a minor upgrade from Office 2000, but I keep running across new features that are changing my mind. WORD Word 2002 has a feature called…
WEB SITE OF THE DAY
Several years ago somebody was asleep at the switch. The official White House site is www.whitehouse.gov, which is fine and right. But similar names were grabbed by third…
AUDIOGALAXY AND SPYWARE
“Spyware” is a new term that describes little programs that report on your web surfing to third parties – usually without your knowledge. They typically arrive…
SECURITY UPDATE
Microsoft pledged to focus on security last week in an edict from Bill Gates that might be PR fluff – but not necessarily. Gates has a keen sense of when Microsoft has to…
GATEWAY SALES PLUMMET
Gateway continues to fall apart. Steep drop in fourth-quarter sales, another 15% cut in work force, more store closures. The future looks very dim. Interestingly, EMachines is…
NETSCAPE vs. MICROSOFT
The media played up the lawsuit Netscape filed against Microsoft a couple of days ago. The allegation is that Microsoft damaged Netscape by preventing the Netscape browser from…
INACTIVE HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS WILL BE DROPPED
Microsoft is going to start enforcing its policy of deleting Hotmail accounts if they’re not used at least once every thirty days. If you have a Hotmail account for…
POLITICS: ENRON AND WHITEWATER
I thought this was a particularly good discussion of the unfolding Enron scandal, well worth keeping in mind as the various players stake out their positions on the front page…
THE NEWS IS OR ISN’T AMBIGUOUS
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that America Online was in negotiations to buy Linux manufacturer Red Hat – leading to lots of talking heads speculating about the…
LATEST NEWS IN THE COPYRIGHT WARS
The recording industry is gearing up to sneak copy-protected CDs into the marketplace – audio CDs that would play normally in conventional CD players, but that would…