Tag: Microsoft

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Microsoft Security Essentials

I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials Beta on day one. I did have some reservations on this product instead of blindly believing whatever Microsoft P.R. (a.k.a. Paul Thurrott) was saying in Windows Weekly Podcast.

My first impressions on Microsoft Security Essentials were:

  • Small memory footprint.
  • Doing good job at detecting malware on a known infected hard-drive.
  • Excessive use of “At Risk” phrase.

Overall I am impressed with the performance and I have installed it on numbers of computers that I managed. Two things that I stumbled upon are:

  • VNC is flagged as security threat.
  • Explorer.exe uses a lot more memory during the scan. It is unclear if Security Essentials offloads part of the scanning task to Explorer.exe.

In addition to that I have also installed Microsoft Security Essentials for some friends who were having virus troubles repeatedly in the past. This would put Microsoft Security Essentials to the test. Then again, the users often are the weakest links in computer security.

Get Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Google Sync with push Gmail and Picasa 3.5

Google has been busy today with the release of Picasa 3.5 and Google Sync with push Gmail.

Google has just added push support into Google Sync. Google Sync supports BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia S60, Windows Mobile and other phones. iPhone users now can have push Gmailon their phones.

Google Sync uses Microsoft Exchange Active Sync Protocol. iPhone can only have one Exchange ActiveSync account configured.

iPhone one Exchange ActiveSync

Picasa

Today Google also releases Picassa 3.5 with name tags.

picasa_name_tag

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FSF: Microsoft’s Windows 7 Deadly Sins

No! It is not FFS. It’s FSF. It stands for Free Software Foundation.

It’s “Free” as in Liberty, noat as in free beer.

As much as I believe that there are a lot of Hippies out there involved in the Free Software Foundation, I still wonder why I’m making this very statement.

Let’s get to the main story. As I read an RSS item from Slashdot (lots of Hippies are frequenting this site), one really caught my short attention span. Well because it is on the top of the RSS feed and the only unread items at that moment. I was previously offended by the troll-behavior of Microsoft P.R. team (Paul Thurrott, Ed Bott and  Mary Jo Foley with the addition of Randall C. Kennedy) as described by Tom Reetsman. By the way, Reetsman (via The Small Wave) just posted his take on Thurrott’s rants against anything that is not Microsoft; specifically Apple. Well, at least Thurrott has one loyal supporter (an accomplice *cough*) defending everything Thurrot said and attacking the non-Microsoft company (namely Apple in this article).

Oh where was I? I told you my attention span was short.

Free Software Foundation, Inc. has created a site titled “Windows 7 Sins – The case against Microsoft and proprietary software.”
http://windows7sins.org/

Don’t worry Apple haters, they mentioned “proprietary software.” Apple does make proprietary software, therefore guilty by association. I bet that Thurrott is trying hard to make himself look neutral by attacking other companies that make “proprietary softwares.” We all know that Thurrott lives off Microsoft’s business model.

I prefer to slack than copying and pasting the arguments brought up by FSF. I get the message, but I do not blindly agree to every single point they make. I do take advantage of many things the Open Source Community have to offer in the past and present. I am pretty sure that it will be a similar situation in the future. I do also believe that propriety was born out of necessity. I don’t mind proprietary software as long as we have other alternatives. I’m pretty sure that  Google has some kind of proprietary software. I still use Google as my main search engine; Microsoft can Bing themselves.

OK, I opted not to slack as much by echoing FSF’s argument points:

  1. Poisoning education
  2. Invading privacy
  3. Monopoly behavior
  4. Lock-in
  5. Abusing standards
  6. Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)
  7. Threatening user security

If you feel compelled to say that there are other companies also guilty of the sins, then feel free to tell FSF about it.

To loosely quote MacBreak Weekly panel, Apple and Steve Jobs would be worse than Microsoft if they had the monopoly.

Well, I definitely need to get some sleep, no wonder this turns into a rant.

P.S. EFF – I just feel like saying it at this moment.

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Rush Limbaugh of Technology Award Goes To: Ed Bott, Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley.

Congratulations to Ed Bott, Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley. Well, Randall C. Kennedy you got one too. Too bad you are a disgrace to everyone with name Kennedy. As a matter of fact I believe that Jamie Kennedy is a smarter Tech Journalist than you, Randall. Wait a minute, Jamie Kennedy is not even a Tech Journalist, yet he’s still smarter than you. Not that funny but definitely smarter than you.

Anyway, once again congratulations to Ed Bott, Paul Thurrott, Mary Jo Foley and Randall C. Kennedy to win “Rush Limbaugh of Technology” Award. Calling you guys Tech Journalists are a stretch.

Note to Leo Laporte. We know that you’ve realized that you’ve made a huge mistake asking Paul Thurrott to be a part in your precious TWiT Network. Thurrott is like the curse, just like the stray. You feed him once and now he stays. (Yeah, there’s a Metallica reference)

Dump that Microsoft P.R. Weekly (disguised as Windows Weekly) podcast of yours Mr. Laporte. Get real Tech Journalists to host the show instead of the shameless hack that Thurrott is.

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This angry rant is brought to you commercial and hyperlink free by common sense.

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Anticipating Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7.

I am currently running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard build 10A432 on my 15-inch MacBook Pro Core Duo. I also have just received Windows 7 RTM a few days ago.

At a glance, both Operating Systems are completely functional and ready for release despite of some of the promised features missing on the current builds. There’s no biggie because those features are not as critical as I thought they would be.

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Now, a lot of people are talking about the possibility of Snow Leopard ship date to be August 28th, 2009. That’s only a few days away from the time-stamp of this post. Apple still says that Snow Leopard will ship sometimes in September 2009. We will all find out if the August 28th date is just a pure speculation. In the meantime, you can still order Snow Leopard direct from Apple and your favorite retailers.

To get Snow Leopard direct from Apple:

To get Snow Leopard from Amazon.com

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Windows 7 is scheduled to be released on October 22nd, 2009. There are plethora of Windows 7 retail packages you can get. For informational purpose Amazon.com links are used to list available retail versions of Windows 7 SKU’s.

I’ll write more about the Windows 7 RTM if time permits.

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Disclaimer:

If you bought anything through Amazon link above, and I get some kickbacks.

“If you buy Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Windows 7, I can buy this Canon Vixia HV40 HDV Camcorder or the Canon Vixia HFS100” to paraphrase the great Robert Schimmel.