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Vol. 3, No. 8
2-27-03
A few weeks ago we discussed
the inclusion of Product Activation and spyware in TurboTax 2002. Since then we have been smothered with
emails asking what's up with it, as well as anecdotal messages of sales clerks
warning customers not to buy it because it has a "virus" and reports of Intuit
actually refunding the purchase price to unhappy
consumers.
Obviously the groundswell of
ire from the IT community, which resulted in warnings to consumers, has had a
negative effect on TurboTax sales.
How has Intuit
responded? In my opinion, not very
well. Tests from ExtremeTech (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,881243,00.asp)
show that the C-Dilla malware makes changes to the boot sector of the hard drive
on machines that TurboTax is installed on, which Intuit admits to according to
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,901355,00.asp. To quote:
"ExtremeTech tests have
shown that the Macrovision SafeCast software writes to protected sectors of the
hard drive used when a PC boots, and can also remain on a user's hard drive
unless sophisticated uninstallation procedures are
used.
On Monday, Intuit officials
said that Intuit is sitting down with Macrovision to ask them to remove both of
those features. Specifically, the company said it would ask Macrovision to
rewrite SafeCast so it would not write in the so-called "sector 0" or boot
sector of the disk. Intuit officials said they had made the change in response
to the ExtremeTech tests and the resulting protests from
consumers."
However, according to http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,901448,00.asp
tests performed by PCTest Corp. (funded by Intuit) show that SafeCast/C-Dilla
doesn't write to the boot sector:
"The tests also do not seem
to have detected the SafeCast's software ability to write to the boot sector of
the hard disk, as ExtremeTech tests did."
Since ExtremeTech did it's
testing without prejudice and PCTest Corp. was paid by Intuit I tend to believe
ET here. And since Intuit had
already said it was in talks with MacroVision to alter C-Dilla so it wouldn't
write to the boot sector… If it
walks like a duck… you know the cliché.
In other news this week the
Washington Court of Appeals has ruled against Microsoft in its suit against
Timeline Inc. over a patent dispute involving SQL. To many of you that sounds pretty
obscure but it could have devastating consequences on many small
businesses.
SQL is a database language
that allows developers to customize software for many uses including Point of
Sale, Medical, Legal and Dental practices, Real Estate Appraisal services,
Financial institutions and Insurance offices. It seems Microsoft assured developers
that they were covered by the licenses that were purchased by MS for use in SQL
that involved adding or modifying code to suit individual customers
needs.
Timeline's press release is
headed with: "Microsoft Vs.
Timeline Final Judgment Affirms Timeline Patent Rights; SQL Server Users Could
Face `Staggering' Damages".
Even if Timeline just goes
after developers and not the businesses that run their software millions of
companies from Mom and Pop grocery stores to huge corporations could suddenly
find themselves without technical support for their core software. Not a pretty
thought.
You can read more on this
issue from http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/29419.html
and http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-985359.html.
Thanks to team members Hash
and Andy Lytle for the links in this week's
Editorial.
Due to the retirement of Art
Maley last week the Download section of the Newsletter will rotate around from
week to week for a while. This week
team member Robert Heite offers up yet another Pop Up ad blocker, Hash describes
an easy way to email attachments in OSX and Matt's email pick deals with
transferring videotapes to CDs.
Happy computing
J
Kevin Mefford,
Editor
Imagine
a world where tiny windows of horror emerge from the deep abyss of Al Gore’s
creation, plaguing your browsing experience with horrid flashes of everything
from prize winnings, to vacation offers to those neat little cameras with the
attractive women on it that have nothing to do with whatever reason they have
for buying it (a woman, a house, a camera…you make the connection). Every day there seems to be more and
more of these vile Pop-Up ads. You
can hardly find a site that isn’t a host to this
disease.
This
week, I bring you the antidote to this dreadful object of hate and disgust. Pop-Up Stopper, the Rambo of the pop-up
killing software out there. This
little baby has it all. It will
automatically start up when Windows loads (excellent for the InsightBB users),
will play a sound, have its work of art yellow hand flash in your system tray,
display a MSN Messenger like window that flashes up at the bottom right of your
screen or even change the mouse.
All to alert you that another pop-up demon has been put out of its
misery. All of these can be turned
on or off in the preferences…I personally have them all off…the silent
kill.
There
are several versions of the program available from their site, http://www.panicware.com/, from free to a
30-day trial and purchase for $29.95.
Your degree of pop-up killing power varies from each version. Like any
weapon of destruction, the more you spend, the bigger the bang. I downloaded the
Pop-Up Stopper Professional to give a try at. I will never go back to POW or any other
pop-up killer again.
My
search for this product came when POW, perhaps because it was taken over by
liberal anti-war protesters, decided to block msnbc.com for no reason. If Pop-Up Stopper doesn’t allow you to
access a site that you are trying to get to, just hold the CTRL key and you
grant a stay of execution for that link. If anything pops up once you open it
Pop-Up Stopper goes right back to work.
Another
difference between Pop-Up Stopper and POW is that POW opened the window first,
cross-checked its black-list of sites, and than killed it…leaving you to deal
with the annoying sudden appearances and disappearances of sites. Pop-Up Stopper does all its dirty work
in the background and runs off of a built-in list that harbors no safety. This list is upgradeable through Panic
Ware, a very usefully function as webmasters and advertisers get more creative
in their efforts to get us to research our family history, sign up for wonderful
life changing newsletters <cough>SPAM<cough> and all the other
wonderful offers out there.
So
give it a try, and if you don’t like it…simply delete it off your computer for a
full pre-install computer back guarantee.
Email
Attachments
Normally when you send
someone a file by email, you compose a message and then attach your file to it.
Well, OSX has a simple drag and drop approach that is so elegant it didn't dawn
on me till I tried it. If you have a file you have to send to someone, all you
have to do is drag that file on top of the Mail application icon in the dock.
The Mail application will launch, open a new email and have the file already
attached. If it is an image file, it will be embedded in the email! All you have
to do is fill in the "To" in the address line.
My recommended
Application for this week - Fink Commander
http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/
If you use Fink to install all that wonderful Linux/BSD software but
feel odd that you are having to resort to command lines on the Mac to install
stuff, the Fink Commander is your answer. It’s a GUI based installer and
management app for Fink Packages. Hey, this is a Mac after
all!
Q: I heard on one of your shows that there
is a way to hook a VCR to a PC and capture old movies. Then the old movies
can be burned to a CD and played on a DVD player.
I have a system with
adequate memory and hard disk space, but I don't have a DVD drive. Is
there something out there to help?
A: Yes, you can do this by using a video
capture card and appropriate software.
You don't need a DVD if you are making VCDs. You will need one if you are
making DVDs.
Instead of going through a long-winded but still incomplete
explanation, I will refer you to a good site.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/
This site
has lots of information on video capture and recording including how tos and
tutorials. There are other sites out there too and you can do web searches and
get tons of information.
Thanks for listening.
Hash
hash@ucanweb.com.
If you have
tech support questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please
email them to bob@iglou.com.
Copyright 2003,
The 84 Online Team. All rights
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Information
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Although the information provided is known to work on most systems, it
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