Windows 8 RP Released Today (And Other Items of Interest..)

Folks, here are a few news items worthy of your consideration..

* Microsoft’s Windows 8 Release Preview looks to hit on May 31 (that’s today..)

“Microsoft may be set to deliver the near-final release preview of Windows 8 to testers as early as May 31, according to an accidentally posted blog entry.” Read more..

[update: Windows 8 Release Preview: Microsoft gets its apps together

“Microsoft’s carefully timed unveiling of Windows 8 has been frustratingly incomplete. Today’s launch of the Release Preview fills in many of the missing pieces, with the biggest surprise being a… Read more.. ]

* Free Wi-Fi could boost Ultrabooks in business laptop market

“Intel could one-up Apple in the business laptop market thanks to free Wi-Fi on Ultrabooks and tablets.” Read more..

* Cloud Computing: do you have a clue?

“Big systems vendors are spreading misconceptions about the cloud because it helps them sell more kit.¹ Here’s a rundown of some of their tactics” Read more..

* RIM’s impending collapse: By the numbers

“RIM is in dire straits. This week it announced it would suffer an operating loss and suspended its shares on the Nasdaq. Here’s what you need to know before market open.” Read more..

* Judge hands another win to Google; rules 37 APIs not copyrightable

“In a ruling in the Oracle vs. Google case, a district court judge says 37 of Oracle’s APIs are not copyrightable.” Read more..

* Apple’s Tim Cook ‘rules out’ iPhone 5 with 4-inch screen

“Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook appears to have poured cold water over suggestions the next iPhone will have a larger screen. Strangely, he outright said it. On air. Live.” Read more..

¹ emphasis mine.

Okay. That’s all I have time for today.. have a good day everybody!

Today’s quote: “Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.” ~ Alfred Painter

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

A Bargain For Some Games (and Music)

And A Word About “Flame”..

Folks, a helpful reader left a comment telling me about an “indie bundle” deal on (12) games and music you may want to be aware of. These types of deals let you set the price, and your contribution can help charity. [note: Steam is required for most of these..] I quote:

“Here is a Game sale and you give to charity. 5.99 for 12 games plus music…

Indie Gala V is LIVE ! – YouTube

“Gives fans of indie games and indie music a chance to save money on awesome games and albums and contribute to a good cause at the same time!

We believe that there is a close link between music, video games and comics.They are all forms of art that often complement each other. With our initiative we want to give many talented developers and artists the opportunity to have a wider audience.

IndieGala lets customers set their own price for high-quality indie games and music, then donate some or all of the proceeds to Able Gamers and Italian Red Cross for helping Emilia hit by earthquake.”

Web site: The Indie Gala

Making History: The Calm & the Storm (Steam key) Beat Hazard (DRM free) Razor 2: Hidden Skies (Steam) Ironclads Collection includes all five games (Steam Key) Space Empires 4 Deluxe (Steam) Battle Mages (DRM free) World Rally Championship Racing (DRM free)

Bad Rats: Rats Revenge (Steam) Disciples II: Rise of the Elves (Steam) Puzzle Kingdoms (Steam) Ninja Blade (DRM free) SBK: Superbike World Championship (DRM free) With music tracks to be added later.

Thank you, Dear Reader, for sharing this with us!

Today’s reading reco: (I have been telling you,  for some years now, that {some of} the malware I encounter is military grade..)  Flame Malware: Cybergeddon or Old News?

“Over the holiday weekend the online news networks were abuzz with news of a “massive cyber threat” variously called Flame, Flamer, or sKyWIper.” Read more..

(Irresponsible journalism creating hype [for ratings]??? Never happens. Learn the skinny. Click the link.)

(.. but, no. I have not seen Flame/Flamer/sKyWIper.. yet.)

Of possible interest: First time I have seen that.. $1 per Gigabyte.. on a solid-state (hard) drive. (Click here if you don’t believe me..)

Today’s Quotable Quote: “Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort.” ~ Humphry Davy

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Feels Like Monday | AT&T, T-Mobile Merger Off (News)

I hope everyone had a stellar holiday weekend.

I found the time this weekend to watch the headlines come in, look at some of the (tech) sale prices, and think about where this is all going — how things are changing. And, yes. They are changing.

One thing, I looked through the notes I keep on my repair workbench, and I compared this past week with the same week last year, and it became clear(er) to me that I am seeing a distinct decline in the number of severe malware infections in my shop. Largely, this is due not to people being less prone to fall for a rogue antivirus pop-open, (see Internet Plague – Rogue Antivirus) I don’t think, but because less people are on Windows XP now (at least in my area of the world).

The changes Microsoft made – starting with Vista (such as the UAC, DEP, and Random Memory Allocation) – and the switch to 64 bit, have – it seems – had a positive impact. Early last year I finally wrote a piece saying something I had been thinking for a while: It is time to face facts and finally dump Windows XP. (I remind you that in tech, a year is equivalent to 7 human years.) I have no doubt that you would be safer from viruses, cybercrime, and Identity Theft on a new Win7 machine than an old XP unit.

*     *     *

The headlines tell us that “the PC is dead” – that now all you need is a tablet. (Example: this landed in my Inbox not more than 5 minutes ago. Great Debate: Can PC makers survive in a post PC world?) I don’t recommend that you believe it, though.

*     *     *

Aside from switching from Desktops to ‘viewing tablets’, computing is “moving into the cloud“.. and so I see headlines like: Revealed: The jobs that will be wiped out by cloud computing “As businesses switch to cloud computing demand for some traditional IT roles will plummet“. (Don’t worry India and the Philippines. I think we’ll still keep shipping jobs to you for a while yet.) And yes. Some people are even beginning to question if cloud computing is secure… or can be secured..
* Gartner: Seven cloud-computing security risks Cloud computing is fraught with security risks, according to analyst firm Gartner.
* Cloud Computing: Secure or a Security Risk? …
“In a few years, no-one will consider how secure cloud computing is because there will be few alternatives.”

But the only thing certain about the future of tech – in my mind – is that it is uncertain. And that it is not going to stand still, but continue to change and evolve, exponentially. How? Well.. this might tell us a little: 10 wild new patents: The future of tech? “USPTO has been granting lots of new patents, some with a surprisingly quick turnaround. Here are drawings of 10 noteworthy patents issued to top tech players last week.” View on site.
And you can see the new products from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (aka “CES”) which took place a little while ago.

And things continue to obey Moore’s Law in other ways too; namely, prices continue to decline. Tablets are no longer 1st Generation and $800, so if you have been thinking about getting one, but haven’t yet.. maybe now is the time? And if your Desktop unit is Windows XP.. you don’t need to wait for Windows 8 (I wouldn’t).. the time for a new unit is quite overdue. This article may help.. What to Look for When Buying a New Computer

I was going to write about the ridiculous world of SEO gamesmanship, but that will have to wait for another day. As will software piracy. (Are you aware that there are *people* who – for a fee – will write [phony] good reviews about your product/service.. and/or [phony] bad reviews [slams, even] about your competitors? And that Google’s ranking counts those the same as real reviews? Crazy!)

18 spam comments were posted to this blog – by infected machines (aka “bots”) – in the short time it took to write this..
The more things change.. the more they stay the same, eh?

News item: I just got a text on my T-Mobile phone saying the ATT merger is off. (Says to see, http://t-mobile.com/attoff.)

Today’s quote: ““Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Remembering…

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.

A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Another tradition is to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff from dawn until noon local time. Many people observe this holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials.

Some Americans view Memorial Day as the unofficial beginning of Summer, and the holiday is also used as a time for picnics, barbecues, family gatherings, and sporting events. One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500 motor race.

Inscription: “HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD”

Please have a safe and joyous Holiday Weekend.

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Rrruff! (video tutorial)

Okay. I admit. That is a weird title for a tech article. Maybe too weird?

Unless, maybe, you know who Scotty is.

Today, an “oldie but a goodie”! It has been a while since I have mentioned one of my favorite little free computer protection apps – WinPatrol.

Clean up your Taskbar, ActiveX, Brower and Startup programs. WinPatrol monitors and exposes adware, keyloggers, spyware, worms, cookies, and other malicious software. This program puts you back in control of your computer with no need for constant updates.

I not only have been using WinPatrol forever, highly recommend it, count it as one of those few apps and programs that is fersher worth the small fee to “go Pro” (aka “paid version”), but I like the author.

You do not need to be “computer savvy” to benefit from having WinPatrol on your PC, but Über Geeks will find plenty to fiddle with (aka “good, advanced, tools”). Improve performance and enhance your online safety. That’s a “win”.

Today I have a video ‘demonstration’ of WinPatrol, made by a fellow blogger.. which will give you an idea of what it does (and why you want it).  Again, you do not have to be as savvy as is shown, or open all those menus — he’s trying to show all that it can do.

Today’s free download: Download WinPatrol (Window XP, Vista, Windows 7 – includes 64 bit support. There’s a “portable” version as well.)

Today’s Bonus: Five things you should know before trying to fix a smartphone or tablet

“Bill Detwiler shares essential advice for everyone who wants to repair a cracked iPad screen or broken smartphone.” watch video..

Today’s quotable quote: “The thoughts of Plato and Machiavelli… don’t seem quite enough armor for a world beset with splitting the atoms, urban guerrillas, nineteen varieties of psychotherapists, amplified guitars, napalm, computers, astronauts, and an atmosphere polluted simultaneously with auto exhaust and TV commercials.” ~ John Fischer

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Hey! Some Good News

Here’s some items of interest for your thoughtful consideration:

* Password Protection Act of 2012 filed

“A new bill is filed to prevent employers from asking employees and job candidates for their passwords to social networking sites.” Read more..

I was beginning to think there wasn’t one good thing I could say about our “leadership” in Washington.. yet, here we finally have something almost good. Though, the fact that we even need to enact something like this is pretty sad .. and scary.

Next up: oops.

* Facebook under fire, under water: Investor lawsuits, investigations slam FB

“Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) stock closed at $32 today, but that’s the least of its problems. It’s now besieged with lawsuits and investigations around allegations that it did not disclose negative information about future earnings to investors before it went public on May 18.” Read more..

Oh, well. What’s a little lawsuit or two between Friends?

Related? A bad week for launches

“You’d be wrong to expect that internet giants Yahoo and Spotify would be able to launch new services without incident. Read more..

(Also: Yahoo launches Axis ‘browser’ and fumbles it disastrously {good read: I highly reco}

“Yahoo, in a bid to outstep the controversy left by former chief executive Scott Thompson, launches a brand new browser. But in doing so, it fouls it up horribly and causes another stir.” Read more..

( “Axis”? Seriously? And .. these are the professionals. ) ( Hmm.. “Outstep”? )

Idjits:

Actually useful?

* What is the best font to use in a resume?

“Could the font you use in your resume really be that important? You bet it can. Read more..

Not such good news…

* Comcast phishing site contains valid TRUSTe seal

“Security researchers from Sophos are reporting on an intercepted Comcast-themed phishing email, which contains a valid TRUSTe seal. Read more

Did you know? Everything you type online, picture you send, webpage you look at — everything you do and say online is recorded by somebody somewhere. And you cannot erase it. Ever. Maybe.. think twice before you click?

Also: The curse of free cloud services: a cautionary tale

“Cloud services have their failings, and I’m not talking about the usual crashes and cyberattacks. No, sometimes the service just goes away.” Read more..

Your reward for reading this far:

Today’s quotable quote: “Yahoo could probably trip over a chain in the street and unwittingly pull the plug on the Great Lakes — it’s that unlucky.” ~ seen on Between the Lines

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Breaking (Tech) News

Jury clears Google of infringing on Oracle patents

“A jury has found that Google did not infringe upon Oracle’s patents.” Read more..