Classic Tech Tips Archive

I have no idea where to put this. It isn't exactly high tech.... Anyway, we live out in a rural (becoming suburban...) area which means good lighting is very useful. We have a good outdoor houselight…

OK, truth be told linux is usually thought of as a download for free and install operating system and there are LOT's of ways to do that. But it is also available for purchase at various places, from…

According to zdnet.com, Sony and SunnComm are pulling the OTHER DRM uninstaller from the web and it will be replaced with a safer version of the uninstaller. Researchers blogging at freedom-to-tinker…

This is an error I've run into a few times. It's rare enough that the second time I saw it, I had a vague memory that it had happened before. The third time though (was within the last week) I rememb…

Recently I did a post on the release of version 5 of Crossover Office which is a commercially supported variation of the wine project. In fact, it's very similar, the only exceptions I know of are th…

One of the nice things about working on computers is that when it comes to the raw hardware of a system, the engineers have designed a way to communicate what's wrong (even if it's just a general ide…

eEye has discovered a remotely expoitable security vulnerability in Apple's iTunes software. It affects iTunes 6 and prior and the current security updates (released yesterday) do not address the iss…

Google's not had a great week it would appear (Sony's had worse... but that's another story). The Analytics launch was somewhat rocky from most accounts and there is a GMail security bug that's been …

It's interesting some years ago when viruses on Windows machines were SOOOO plentiful it seemed like that's all I spent my time cleaning up, I thought... "you know, most viruses are prankster-ish pro…

News is coming out that Mozilla Firefox 1.5 RC3 is now available. There's coverage at mozillazine.org. From the comments there may be a few bugs to work out still, although I've just skimmed. I'm not…

It looks as though the recall is being detailed for the Sony cds that use the XCP Digital Rights Management copy protection. Sony has setup a page where customers can request an exchange. Sony will s…

There are rumors that Google may be acquiring Riya. Riya makes software that aims at recognizing faces in images and pulling text out of images (recognizing text on signs in a picture for instance.) …

You almost want to bury your head in the sand at this point if you're Sony.... Freedom-to-tinker has some details. The last couple weeks the XCP copy protection that Sony uses has been the center of …

I've spent some time covering some of the neat implementations of Google Maps and Google Earth, I've just come across a site that has similar uses for Microsoft's MSN Virtual Earth. The site is calle…

TRUSTe has announced a program to certify software downloads. Among them are certifications for adware and "trackware" (spyware?). The bullet summary for the article claims this will bring an end to …

I've got to say, I'm impressed that this is happening. From the IEblog... The core of my team’s job is to make IE7 and Windows Vista so compelling so that people choose our products. The people who…

Cogent has suffered a major outage of one of their main internet backbone connections. It appears that this link is having a big affect on the "internet health". Comcast seems to be relatively hard h…

CNet is reporting that Microsoft will require 64bit processor for upcoming server applications and Operating Systems. Amonge these, Exchange 12, Longhorn Server R2 and a small business version of Lon…

Google has renamed Google Print to Google Book Search today. It appears that among other things, the name was a bit misleading for some. (Some apparently were excited that "Google Print would help th…

The Sans Institute is reporting on a vulnerability in Windows 2000 and XP SP1 (sp2 and 2003 not affected), that "could allow an attacker to levy a denial of service attack of limited duration". It ap…

The SecurityFix has a great how to article for the general public on the best way to remove the Sony DRM rootkit that's been big news the last two weeks in tech circles. First, DON'T use Sony's remov…

A lot of web sites these days use "turin tests" to keep from having automated bots sign up for mail or other services. (Or post entries to a forum or something.) For those that don't know, a turin te…

There are flaws in Opera and Internet Explorer which could allow URL's in the address bar to be obfuscated. One of the safest approaches is to be wary of web links from unknown or untrusted sources. …

What are they trying to prove??? Okay, Google Analytics rolled out (slowly) earlier this week and is just now catching up on reporting data. It looked like one of the rockiest initial Google releases…

I've spent some time this evening looking at Google Analytics. (Now the data is being collected.) And I've got to say I'm impressed with the scope of what I'm seeing. First, since last night, more st…