Brought to you each week by the PC Gurus, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana region.
You can interact with the team via chat room or BBS at www.thepcgurus.com. There are usually members present in the chat room after 8:00 PM every evening and you can post computer questions, comments, rants etc. on the bulletin board 24/7.
If you’re new to the Newsletter you can read back issues at Team member JP Durbin’s website at http://www.jpdurbin.net. There are links to all the old 84 Online issues as well as the new GuruNews missives.
The WHAS Crusade for Children provides year round support for needy children throughout the Kentuckiana region. Visit http://www.whascrusade.org to make donations online.
11-11-04
Last week’s issue was bit short due to my abbreviated vacation but this week’s more than makes up for it. Bob gives some tips for digital camera shopping, there are new viruses in the wild and new versions of malware scanners available, we’ll have the usual news tidbits and the Email question and answer section, plus this week we have a special feature from Hash that takes a good hard look at Microsoft’s patent practices and their recent “olive branch” of offering indemnity for their customers from legal damages. A fun read, I must say!
Hang on!
Kevin Mefford, Editor
5 tips to buying a digital camera
One of the most popular holiday gifts this year will be the digital camera. In fact industry analysts InfoTrends/CAP Ventures predicts two more years of strong growth before sales peak. Digital camera sales are expected to reach 22.8 million in the US by the end of this year, a 42% growth over 2003.
So what should you consider if you'll be among the 22.8 million buying a digital camera? In my book the top 5 items to consider when buying the digital camera include: price, megapixels, battery type, recording media type and the ability to use an optical zoom lens. I suggest that you start your search with setting a budget. You'll find digital camera prices beginning at less than $100.00 and going up through the $5000.00 mark for professional digital cameras. In most cases accessories like extra batteries and recording media are options. The bottom line is that what you end up paying for the camera should be based on what you'll be doing with the camera.
If you plan on taking pictures of family gatherings, friends, vacations or scenery and either send those pictures by e-mail or print the pictures (either at home or professionally at a lab or drug store and up to 8x10 in size) a digital camera with a price tag of between $300.00 and $500.00 will fit most requirements.
The most important question (mixed in with price) is megapixels. That term represents the number of pixels or dots that a camera records in one square inch. If you're simply going to e-mail pictures to friends a 1-2 megapixel camera will do just fine. If you plan on printing a picture, say up to 4x6 you want to have at least a 2 megapixel camera in your hands. These days 3-5 megapixel cameras have become common and, in fact, Sony has just come out with a 7.0 megapixel camera for under $500.00. If you plan to print 5x7 or 8x10 pictures my suggestion is to go with a 4-5 megapixel camera. The more pixels or dots the sharper the picture and the happier you or the recipient of your gift will be. Because of recent price reductions I would bet you can find a 4-5 megapixel camera for between $300.00 and $500.00 either at a local store (shop the Sunday ads) or online.
In addition to price and megapixel rating, battery type is another important part of a camera to consider. If you're standing at the counter of a store and the camera you're playing with requires AA or AAA batteries put the camera down and walk away. I've owned cameras like that and quickly found that my budget for using the power hungry camera went down the drain. What you want is a camera that has a rechargeable battery pack (not the rechargeable AAA or AA types because they really don't last). You want a battery that doesn't retain a memory (Nickel-Cadmium), and can be replaced easily (if you thought enough in advance to buy a 2nd battery).
Every camera has to record the pictures you take on some type of media and the list of media types grows almost every day. Choose a camera with an easy to find (popular media types like memory stick or SD cards are inexpensive due to competition) media. Not sure what that might be? Look at the isle in the store where the batteries are sold, look for the battery types that are on sale or are made by several manufactures. Because the picture from a 3-5 megapixel camera can take up more than 3 megabytes with every picture, you want to plan on buying at least one and maybe two 256 MB or 512 MB cards to store those pictures.
Zoom
Zoom
The final item in my top 5 tips to buying a digital camera is the camera's ability to zoom into a subject. For many of us that zoom feature is very important for getting close to the action. Many of the digital cameras on the market today in the $300.00 - $500.00 range will come with a 3x or 4x optical and/or digital zoom lens. That's very important because though the camera won't be able to zoom into your son or daughter while they're playing football or on the ice skating rink, you will be able to move in closer to a group of friends across a small room at a party. An important point to remember, don't confuse an optical zoom with a digital zoom. The digital zoom (advertised by some camera manufactures as a selling point) simply amplifies the camera picture coming through a fixed lens and will leave you with a somewhat grainy picture. An optical zoom on the other hand uses lenses to get you closer to the subject and that will keep your picture as sharp as possible.
Other items to consider are the camera's ease of use, the software that comes with the camera and the camera's ability to reduce red eye (the light from the flash bouncing off your subject's retina in the eye). I suggest you buy a camera from a store that has a good return policy so you can give it as a gift (or keep it for yourself). That way you (or the subject of your generosity) can play with it for a couple of days and return it for a different model or brand if it's not the right camera.
Bob Sokoler
The battleship SCO, plying the waters of their nonsensical war against Linux everything, took a salvo to the waterline this week when Novell filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the company, offering as evidence the minutes of a meeting between SCO and Novell from 1995 that clearly states Novell would retain the copyright to Unix.
http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/Novell-57.pdf
Ralph Nader is demanding a recount! Not for his campaign’s sake mind you, but to insure that “every vote is counted and counted accurately.” He cites horror stories of voting machines gone haywire, including one in Ohio that took 638 ballots and tallied the results as 4,258 for Bush, 260 for Kerry. Diebold made the machine, natch…
Indymedia’s servers in London were seized last month by the US for some un-named third country, and Indymedia wants to know why. The EFF among others is trying to help but you know the drill, terrorism investigation and all that…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/11/gov_indymedia_response/
Microsoft says IE is as secure as any other browser and Firefox is no threat. Features like tabbed browsing? We don’t need no steenking features! Ummm, sure ;)
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+says+Firefox+not+a+threat+to+IE/2100-1032_3-5448719.html?tag=nefd.top
Copy us on the good stuff!
Kevin Mefford
http://www.troyoverton.com/downloads/visit.php?lid=21
InterMute, Inc. has picked up
CWShredder and introduced a new version. This is the newest in the line of
CoolWebSearch removal tools that was developed by Merijn.org. He stopped releasing updates for the
popular program when it became too time consuming to keep up with. Anyway, this
is another free tool that will strengthen your arsenal against spyware and other
crap that Internet users shouldn't have to deal with but do. Be sure to run it
about once a week or so, as needed, and check for updates before you run it.
If I repeat myself, bear with me.
Your antivirus and spyware tools are only as good as
your last update!
Troy
Overton
A new worm, called Bofra, is currently making the rounds and it uses a security fault in IE that was reported only a week ago to spread.
Originally this virus appeared to be a variant of MyDoom, but further analysis showed that it was similar but obviously not from the same miscreants behind MyDoom (http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39125759,00.htm). And the record time of the virus creation after announcement of a security flaw is quite troubling.
Aside from the usual “keep your AV program updated” and “check for Critical Windows updates frequently” admonishments I usually give I’ll add a new one. If an email comes in about a service that you don’t use (in this case PayPal) DO NOT click any links in the message. CitiBank, Visa, National City etc. are all huge companies but if you don’t have accounts with them why would you click on a link to update your account information?
“Of course you realize, this means war”. Those of my generation would instantly recognize that line by Bugs Bunny and knew that things were about to get really bad. From time to time in this newsletter I have railed against what I regard as the biggest bully in the technology playground. This is one of those times. I do so without any idea if our editor will consider this worthy of publishing. But this is my outlet, and I wish to present my opinions and the facts as I see them.
Microsoft this past week has now suddenly started beating the drum of indemnification.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5445868.html
To most people who fall for the marketing blitz, this sounds great. Look how wonderful Microsoft is, to offer legal “protection” to its customers. But to people like yours truly, who have for years watched this company lie, cheat and steal their way to the top, this new scheme too rings hollow.
First you wonder why, after all these years of selling software, is Microsoft doing this? Make no mistake; it’s because of Linux. Microsoft is on an all out assault on Linux and this is just one of the tricks in their bag. Steve Ballmer recently sent a four-page memo to his customers touting the benefits of Microsoft over Linux. Microsoft, in their typical fashion, selectively used parts of data from studies they funded to “prove” of all things that Windows was more secure and offered better TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) than Linux. This is part of Microsoft’s overall “Get the Facts” campaign, which in my opinion can be termed “Get the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt)”. Is there anyone other than the paid Microsoft mouthpieces like Rob Enderle who believe this nonsense anymore?
Here’s just one example
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1427005,00.asp
of someone who doesn’t agree with Microsoft’s interpretation. Do a Google search and you will find this whole TCO thing has been effectively torn to shreds. Actually one has but to look at the landscape of general computing and ask yourself the question: Do you really think Windows is a secure operating system by any metric?
But the plague of viruses, security breaches and malware afflicting windows has been done to death so let’s leave that be. Getting back to the point about intellectual property. To look at this, lets go back a few decades. I want you to open Internet Explorer (this is the only time I will ever advocate that) and click on Help – About Internet Explorer and you will see “Distributed under a licensing agreement with Spyglass, Inc.”. At the time a fledgling Microsoft desperately needed a browser to compete against Netscape. They licensed one from Spyglass and promised to pay them royalties for every sale. MS then gave away Internet Explorer for free, and cost Spyglass untold millions. Spyglass sued them for deception, and Microsoft bought them out for a one-time fee to end the lawsuit.
Why am I bringing up this past history? Because this was the beginning of what has become Microsoft’s modus operandi through the years. This story is repeated time and again. Microsoft’s history with regards to “Intellectual Property” issues is a long laundry list of being sued by companies over the past three decades. They include lawsuits by Digital Research, Stac, Syn’x, 3Com, Borland, Bristol Technologies, AT&T, Caldera, Sun Microsystems, GoldTouch, Blue Mountain Arts, Eolas, Intertrust, Kodak, AOL/Netscape, Be, Network Commerce, Burst.com, SPX, E-Data, Real Networks, Timeline and as recently as December 2003, Mythic.
Go on; tell me, does this look like a company that respects your “Intellectual Property”? The standard argument is that people sue them because they are money hungry and Microsoft has billions of dollars. Keep in mind; these aren’t your run of the mill contingency, “slip on a banana peel” lawsuits. These are companies that have gone broke trying to protect the only thing they had - their programs and their products. Lawyers and lawsuits are the last thing they can afford, and they usually do it as a last resort. Microsoft probably has the highest paid legal team on the planet. $60 billion pays for a lot of lawyers. So if they are truly innocent then why is it that Microsoft never prevails on these lawsuits?
Because, in my opinion, this company has made it a habit of skirting the law when it comes to these issues. A good example can be found from the Timeline lawsuit. Timeline sued Microsoft for violating their patents. Here is a line from an actual press release Microsoft put out in 1999:
"The (Timeline patent) license ensures that all users of Microsoft SQL Server 7, Office 2000 and other Microsoft products that utilize this type of technology are unencumbered by Timeline's patents."
This was a blatant lie. But by the time Timeline prevailed in court, Microsoft had already made its billions on SQL server and all the SQL server developers were left holding the bag. You think this newly found indemnity offered by Microsoft applies to them? Think again. People will say that Microsoft has never actually lost a lawsuit, effectively proving that they never stole code. This is Microsoft’s tactic at its very best. Most people don’t even have the resources to sue Microsoft, so they just give up and go do something else. If you do sue Microsoft over any alleged violation, they know they can afford to keep any case dragging out in court for years. To them it’s a cost of doing business. By the time you reach a resolution, they have made billions, you are broke, and you will take any amount as a settlement. Of course as part of the settlement, you will also agree to keep your mouth shut about any (cough) stolen code. And we as stockholders, bowing to the almighty God of Wall Street, have rewarded this behavior by making Microsoft the most successful business in the world.
Recently, Microsoft has gone on a binge settling lawsuits left and right. Most notably were settlements with Netscape, Sun and Novell. They have spent close to $4 Billion on these settlements. They are effectively cleaning their legal slate. At the same time, Microsoft has gone on a virtual rampage of filing patent applications the past couple of years. From double clicking on a handheld to tabbing through a web page, the Redmond giant is patenting it all. They hired former IBM patent strategist Marshall Phelps to help them in this effort. (IBM of course has more patents than anyone on the planet, and it is said that the very act of turning on your computer violates a few hundred of IBM’s patents). We geeks can scoff at these silly patents, but for every goofy patent such as FAT that gets examined and overturned, hundreds get awarded to MS. And the onslaught of patent filings by Microsoft measures in the thousands, and it is not just in the US, but places as far away as New Zealand.
And now the picture starts to get a little clearer. Many people wondered about the backdoor funding of SCO by Microsoft in their hare-brained lawsuit against IBM, Linux, and everything Open Source. At the time, a couple of years back, many believed this was just another way Microsoft can point to some perceived “problem” with Linux and add to the FUD. But in the light of recent events the motives appear to be much more sinister. With Microsoft touting indemnification as a selling point against Linux on the one hand and their lackeys such as SCO suing people without rhyme or reason on the other, what do you think corporate CEOs and CIOs are apt to do?
With a truckload of nonsensical patents in their pocket, when Microsoft salesmen now come and talk to you what do you think they are going to say? Microsoft talking to you about legal protection is like “Fat Tony” coming to your office and saying “Nice business you got here. Be a shame if something were to happen to it”. Get the picture? So when you purchase Microsoft Software, you will now be paying “protection” money. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?
Microsoft had started to lose badly on the Linux FUD front. No one was buying their story anymore. People were using Linux as a bargaining chip against the ludicrous prices Redmond was charging for their software, and Microsoft had to drastically lower prices just to keep customers. Software assurance turned out to be a disastrous license as Microsoft’s next big thing, which is now Longhorn, kept getting pushed back. Microsoft and Windows “security” is a running joke that no one even laughs at anymore. The constant barrage of viruses, worms, and malware is costing businesses real money. Promises by Bill Gates on trustworthy computing and wishy-washy phrases of “Security is a Journey” just wasn’t cutting it any more. Especially now that there is a viable alternative called Linux that costs less, offers better TCO and is miles ahead on security no matter what the shills regurgitating the Redmond press releases claim. Once the big guns like IBM, Novell, etc. jumped on the Linux bandwagon it was time for Microsoft to get serious.
So, Microsoft needed a new chip in this high stakes poker game. And they have found it in legal indemnification. To me, the writing on the wall is clear. Microsoft has always maintained its hegemony via intimidation. In the old times it was the dealers and the resellers. If you dared sell anything other than Windows you were a marked man. If you dared compete with Microsoft, they would either steal your code or give it away for free and “cut off the air supply”. I didn’t make up that line. That was a direct quote from Microsoft boardrooms regarding their game plan for killing Netscape. The DOJ antitrust trial finally managed to put a dent in that behavior. Of all things, it took the government to go to court to tell Microsoft they couldn’t intimidate people!
So now Microsoft may decide to go after the customers in an extension of the FUD machine. Buy anything but Microsoft, and risk getting sued. That will be the new mantra. Remember when the old saying was “No one ever got fired for buying from Microsoft”. It will now be “No one ever goes to court if you buy from Microsoft”. And they have some wonderful allies in this scam. The Sun lawsuit that Microsoft settled for close to $2 Billion is a “sell out” by Sun on Open Office. Under the settlement, Sun gets significant legal protection for customers of StarOffice, but explicitly denies that same protection to users of OpenOffice. What’s worse, Sun agreed to help Microsoft in future lawsuits involving OpenOffice. And where has Microsoft been recently losing ground with major customers including governmental agencies? Would it have anything to do with people ditching Microsoft’s bloated Office package for OpenOffice?
Microsoft won’t go for a direct attack on IBM or HP. They have already shown that. This is like any predator in the jungle. You isolate the weak one from the herd, and only then you attack. In this case their first target is Red Hat. While IBM is kept busy with nuisance lawsuits from the likes of SCO, Microsoft and Sun have launched a full frontal assault on Red Hat. Every press release by Ballmer is now about Red Hat = Linux. How Red Hat doesn’t offer the same indemnification as Microsoft. The Linux community is very protective of its code and community effort. Ballmer won’t go after Linus Torvalds or GPL anymore. Their “Linux is a Cancer” stuff backfired miserably. But Red Hat is a company like any other and destroying companies is old hat to Microsoft. Once they have Red Hat isolated from the general GPL and Linux community “herd”, they will take them out. And my guess is they will do that by targeting Red Hat’s customers with gentle persuasion regarding patents, copyrights and trademarks. At the same time they will offer a bargain basement introductory price that includes indemnification. “Our lawyers working for you. Free of charge!” Can’t ask for a better deal than that, can you?
If you think Microsoft is doing something wonderful with legal indemnification, I ask you to first look at your End User License Agreement for any version of Windows. That’s the thing you click the “Yes” button for every time you install their software. Every time you answer “Yes” , you absolve Microsoft of anything that may befall your computer. Here’s an excerpt:
“…In no event shall Microsoft or its suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever…”
You have to today actually request the Attorney General of the US for permission to sue Microsoft for damages based on your EULA. And after all that, the maximum you can get back is $50. Don’t you wish you read through all that you agreed to when you installed Windows?
Legal Indemnification is a marketing gimmick at best, and a tool to destroy Linux at worst. If you think it is in any way Microsoft being responsible for their products, think again. Has Microsoft ever taken legal responsibility for any of their disasters? What about all those lost hours, lost data and lost productivity due to Blaster, Slammer, SoBig or any of the gazillion viruses that every day destroy entire networks? Microsoft squarely places the blame for all that on the virus writers and you, the consumer.
What about the bug that could potentially have caused an 800 plane pile up?
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=2275
That story was hushed up as much as possible. After 9/11, I thought people would be at MS’s throats for this but not a peep from the government, or the national media. I wonder why? What if you or your loved ones were on one of those planes? You still think someone clicking on the “I agree” button should protect this behemoth from that liability? The Slammer worm took out a 911 center in Seattle (how ironic) serving two police departments and 14 fire departments. That bug existed in Microsoft software for almost a decade before Slammer exploited it. What if your family member died because the ambulance never got paged out to the heart attack at your house? What kind of “Indemnification” does Microsoft offer for that?
A leopard never changes its spots. This is still the same old Microsoft. They are a company who has time and again proven that their goal is to win at all costs, and the ends justify the means. The new game is patents and licensing. Even the latest anti-spam effort by Microsoft is tainted by a so-called “royalty free” license, one that makes it impossible to implement if you are using GPL software as the backbone of your server. Make no mistake, the Internet runs on open source software, not Microsoft.
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html
The Apache web server and SendMail are the dominant platforms on web servers. This is because they are stable, secure, cheaper and far superior to anything Microsoft puts out. But now Microsoft wants to create a rift based on the Spam issue. So implement it and soon after a couple of revisions you will be left with no choice but to upgrade your mail server to a Microsoft Exchange Server. Get enough people behind this protocol and all email will now have to be sent and received the “Microsoft” way. You didn’t think they were doing this for the good of mankind did you? Microsoft’s web page lists cross licenses you can buy for all sorts of protocols, including things they don’t own like TCP/IP. Microsoft is actively pursuing cross-licensing deals with the top 30 technology companies so they can have access to their patents.
“Come into my parlor”, said the spider to the fly. They so want you to join this happy Microsoft licensed club. The “we are the only ones who can write software, since we own all the patents” club. Once the club is big enough, they will snuff out all the rest of the developers who don’t belong to the club. Or sue them into oblivion. Remember Ballmer’s Monkey Dance? It’s all about developers, developers, developers. Once there are no developers, who will write applications for Linux? And without applications no one will buy Linux.
I have presented these thoughts to you to make you think not just to simply bash Microsoft. I sincerely feel that we keep pandering to this Monopoly, and we will get exactly what we deserve.
Judging from the last email Kevin got from a distraught woman who said, “Do you have a shoulder to cry on............a box of Kleenex? ARGGGGGGGGGGG”, I fear we are already there.
Harish Venkatachalam
Q: My brother has had a problem, evidently with a site that he has visited, with a invasive spyware program called Pop-Uppers. This program will initiate a new browser window about once an hour. If he leaves his PC on overnight, he may have 15-20 windows open with various messages. There is a site called Pop-Uppers.com (or some variation of this URL), and it will load the program to your PC if care is not taken. We have tried using SpyBot, AdAware, and some other removal tools to no avail.. We have also been researching this problem on the web, but have found little to help remove this from the PC. Have you heard of this, and if so, what would be a method of removal? Thanks in advance for your help
A: There is a removal tool at http://www.popuppers.com. Did your brother try this route yet by chance?
Tam Cavadias
If you have tech support
questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please submit them by
visiting www.thepcgurus.com and click
on the “Email the Team” icon.
Copyright 2004, The PC
Gurus. All rights reserved.
Publication, rebroadcast or storage is prohibited without prior consent,
however you may freely forward this publication to friends as long as A) it is
forwarded in its entirety and B) no fee is charged.
Information provided in this
publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed
or implied. Although the
information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL
systems. Make use of any
information supplied at your own risk.
The PC Gurus are a group of
volunteers who provide support for the PC, Mac and Linux users in the
Kentuckiana region.
To unsubscribe from this newsletter send an email to microdome@seidata.com with the words “unsubscribe newsletter” (without the quotes) at the top of the body of the message.