From: newsletter-bounces@thepcgurus.com on behalf of Kevin-PC Gurus
[microdome@seidata.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:11 PM
To: jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net
Cc: PC Gurus Newsletter
Subject: GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 5, 2-7-08
Attachments: ATT00072.txt
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Vol. 8, No. 5
2-7-08
1 Microhoo?
2 Moogle?
3 MS vs. Google, Apple updates, covert ops, 3G expanding
4 Priceless music tool
5 XP searching
Microsoft recently made an unsolicited offer (some would call it a hostile takeover attempt) to purchase Yahoo for over $44 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a “b”.
This is bad on so many levels that it absolutely boggles the mind. Building toward an Internet monopoly, an online advertising monopoly, a search engine monopoly, name the Internet related monopoly and this could lead toward one.
First and foremost, Microsoft already has a history of unfair business practices. The US Justice Department put them under some pretty heavy constraints when it comes to bundling software with Windows (notably Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player) because they tried to skew the playing field with other companies like Netscape and RealPlayer.
Personally I wouldn’t use either product at this point but back in the day they were actually decent products and I used them both. By starting the bundling of a browser and media player as early as Windows 95 MS, which at the time was probably running on 95% of the computers in the world, attempted to force the other actors on the stage to take a bow and leave. Instead, they sued and eventually won. Unfortunately for them it took so long to get results that they are all but irrelevant even after their victory.
Of course Microsoft has continued to bundle software, adding firewalls, more robust media players, browsers with tabbed browsing and popup blocking, CD burning etc. You see the pattern. If it’s a software gadget MS wants to own the market.
Over the years they’ve launched battles with WordPerfect and QuatroPro (Office), AOL (MSN), Yahoo free web mail (Hotmail) and the search engines (Live Search) among others. Spyware scanners, IMs, email clients, defragging, drive diagnostics, you name it and Microsoft will shove it into Windows.
These are all attempts to stifle competition and take over any and all activities you can do with a computer. They are even moving to take over your phones and cars.
The acquisition of Yahoo, which is the most visited site on the Web, would simply add another layer to the eventual control of the Internet. It would give them control of the majority of email accounts that exist, IM traffic and very close to most web searches to all users. A lot of power for one company, especially one with a long history of anticompetitive behavior, and a move that regulators should look at long and hard before they even think about giving it the go-ahead.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not necessarily bashing Microsoft here. I use various versions of Office, Outlook Express and IE and WiMP but c’mon. I don’t use MS everything, nor do I want to, and I detest having it shoved down my throat at every turn.
It takes them years to introduce a new operating system and then another couple of years to patch it enough to make it useful, and even then it’s a bloated mess that wastes untold gigabytes of hard drive space and requires ever more power and resources to actually run. Why would I want them to gain any sort of power on something as open as the Internet?
Hopefully the SEC will smack this down as the horrible idea that it is and maybe maintain at least the current status quo.
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
After sparring for two years
over antitrust issues, Microsoft Corp. and
Google Inc. are preparing for the main event: a lobbying showdown over
the fate of Yahoo Inc.:
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-yahoo6feb06,0,3440399.story
When Apple introduces a new, cool product people
stand in line to buy it. When Apple updates that same product several
months later, those same people balk. Can't we all just get along? :
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/02/apple_updates_i.html
After two underwater cable cuts in the Middle
East last week severely impacted countries from Dubai to India, alert
netizens are voicing their suspicions:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/who-cut-the-cab.html
AT&T said Wednesday that it's expanding its
third-generation
wireless broadband footprint and completing the upgrade of its network
to the fastest 3G technology available. Breath holding in this situation
could be dangerous to your health:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9866005-7.html
Have a link to an interesting story you'd like
to share? Send it to my e-mail address below. Those who send the
link via snail mail written on the back of a $20 bill will receive prompt
attention. ;-)
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
So, you've got a disk full of
MP3s or other music files? If so, there's a good chance you've got duplicates,
hogging up hard disk space, and junking up your media library. Finding
duplicates can be an exceedingly time-consuming task, because you may have the
same music file, but with different names, multiple times. That means in order
to find duplicates you'll have to play every track, remember what you played,
and then delete duplicates. This could
be helpful if you've recently built a PC to use as a jukebox (HINT, HINT,
Kevin).
“Duplicate Music Files
Finder” finds duplicates for you, fast, and lets you delete them. It doesn't
just search for file names. It also compares file sizes, does CRC checks, and
even looks at ID3 tags to help track down duplicates.
It’s free here:
http://www.lcibrossolutions.com/dmff
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: when i go to start, then click search it does not launch. Not only that the bottom toolbar will no longer work after i do this. i can not click on start or any of the task bars. i have to ctrl, alt, delete to restart the computer. I am using a dell inspiron 9400, xp sp2 with 1 gb of ram. I have not installed anything different. I hope you can help I have searched all over for an answer.
A: Hi Chris,
Try this. Go to <Start<Run> and type in:
msconfig
Click on the tab
named “Services” and remove the check from “Indexing Services”. Restart
the computer.
That should fix
the problem.
Good Luck,
Art Maley
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