A lot of people would say the only thing Internet Explorer is good for is downloading something else to surf the web with. Truth be told, I’d tend to agree. My current browser of choice is Firefox and it has been for a long time now. That’s not just because I spend most of time using a Mac either. Even when I use a Windows machine I still look for the the FF icon to do my web browsing. I only use IE when I have no other option, like if I am using an ASP based app which does seem to need IE to run properly. Judging from the ever growing market share of other browsers against IE. Its a fair assumption that more and more people I coming to realise that they don’t have to be stuck with what comes installed on their machine. Continue reading »
There is an interesting article over on Secure Works regarding the Windows Antivirus 2008 rouge antivirus software. The article goes indepth and uses screenshots from someone who hacked into the site of the people behind the software to give an idea of the kind of money it is possible for the scammers to make over a short period of time. Given the detail shown it is no wonder these types of programs are becoming more and more common.
The tables show that even though most of the scammers are only getting a 2% conversion rate (i.e. only 2% of people who install the software pay for it) due to the shear number of people installing the software the totals involved can be mind numbing. It’s a sad thing that people are so willing to fleece their fellow man. Hopefully someone will decide to do it back to them.
It’s not often big corporations done something for the little man, especially not some one like Mircosoft. As anyone who’s read some of my older posts will know I’m not exactly a big fan of the guys over at Microsoft but for once I am happy to speak about something good they’ve done.
A dot co.uk domain is free for two years and a dot com is free for a year. The only down side is you need to register with a credit card (but then thats normal really) but you are shown a bill stating the discount and it’s microsoft so should be trust worthy on that front.
The domains are shown as Office Live Busness accounts but don’t let that stop you from using it for personal use. See here to register
Most people have heard of the Browser Wars, the battle for dominance in the web browser market. The battle’s been going on for as long as the internet has been around nearly. One of the main stays of the war has always been Internet Explorer, there have been many challengers over the years but most have fallen by the way side or evolved or being integrated into newer web browsers.
Previously mentioned google utility Gears has added a new string to it’s bow recently. It’s been a while since Gears aquired the ability to store your Google Calendar offline, well now the Google Lab has released the Gmail version of this. Continue reading »
Following on from my previous post about the good things open source can do I thought it only fair to point out that its not all good. The corner stone of the open source movement openness. Releasing API’s to allow other people to interact with your application or allowing them to modify things directly (as in the Wiki model). This can be a good thing, opening your project up to outside influences like this allows thousands of minds out side your group to introduce interesting and creative features, things that you wouldn’t normally come up with on your own. There are some truly creative minds out there and its not always easy to ensure that that’s what you get inside the boundaries of your project.
Like many people I’ve been addicted to Stumble Upon for a while, I’ve found it useful for bringing many sites and services to my attention that I would have other wise missed. There are plenty of web masters out there that have found the increase in traffic that Stumble Upon can bring if one blog post gets a “Thumbs Up”, there are plenty of rather long blog post out there that discuss the virtues of SU verses other sites such as Digg and twitter.
Stumble Audio is a new take on the Stumble Upon theory, just like Stumble Upon Video allows you to stumble through the various videos currently doing the rounds, Stumble Audio allows a user to select a channel and stumble through random bands/songs on this channel and listen to their track free of charge.
It has no links to SU or eBay however. Its a good idea in theory and a good way for new bands to get exposure to an audience they wouldn’t normally reach. Each time a track is played the artist receives payment, and at the side are links to various on line stores where the music can be downloaded. Songs can be rated just like in SU.
Certainly worth a look if you are bored of shuffle on your iTunes!
The road to world domination has been trod by many in the past, from Alexandar the Great to Adolf Hitler, many have tried and failed to manage it. Bill Gates and behemoth that is Micro$oft have made a pretty good job of cornering the market. They had an effective operating system (it might have its let downs but it is still the most well known and most widely used), everybody uses there productivity package better known as Office. Most businesses could not run with out Microsoft because people are just so used to it!
Over the last few years google have slowly but surely been trying to work there way into the various markets that wouldn’t be considered traditional for a Search Engine. Areas that are normally dominated by Microsoft.
Anyone who has read my previous post The Facebook Addiction might think I dislike Facebook after this one. The BBC 3 program The Wall produced this little promo. Its cast in a comedic lighty but I feel the way it protrays Facebook is very true to life.
For a long time now I have always tended to use open source software where ever I can. I run my blog on wordpress, I use Firefox as my web browser, I use Open/Neo Office, I haven’t gone quite as far as running Linux on a PC I am using full time just yet but thats mainly because I am too lazy to set about learning another OS at the moment. One of the amazing things about the
http://www.speedy-b.com/open source movement is that for all the excellent solutions out there, the majority of mainstream IT is still done using paid for software. Be that the OS (Windows) or the other things (Microsoft Office) Continue reading »
