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Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft

Great list from Blake Handler...

Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft

Microsoft has over 150 FREE Windows XP, Windows
Vista & Office Programs available for download -- finding them all is extremely difficult . . . until now.

Keystrokes Recovered by Antenna

Real or hoax?

Wired keyboards, like those found on desktop PCs, emit electromagnetic waves that can be read remotely, according two Swiss researchers.

Researchers Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini of the Swiss Security and Cryptography Laboratory at LASEC/EPFL, were able to recover keystrokes from wired keyboards at a distance up to 20 meters (about 65 feet), even through walls, simply by reading the electromagnetic emanations of the peripheral device. The experiments focused on wired keyboards attached to a computer either by PS/2 or USB connections.

In two videos, Vuagnoux demonstrates the attacks.

Click here for the full article


Compromising Electromagnetic Emanations of Keyboards Experiment 1/2

10 Steps Techies Should Take to Keep Their Jobs in a Financial Meltdown

As the economy gets shakier each day, workers everywhere are concerned about losing their jobs. Here are 10 steps the corporate techie toiling away in the server room or the help desk can take to help keep his or her job.
OK, the stock market is falling like a rock. Big banks are being bought and sold like overripe bananas. The masters of the financial universe are looking like suckers at the horse race track buying tip sheets printed after each race. And now, even the venture capitalists of Silicon Valley are telling their captive companies to skip the party, tighten the belt and get yourself sold.


So, with all the highly educated financers showing that they have no clothes, what is the corporate techie toiling away in the server room or the help desk supposed to do to keep a job and pay the mortgage? Here’s my 10-step program.

1. Heads Up!

Don’t think that just because you are doing a really good job at your one task that you can avoid the corporate grim reaper. You really need to understand not just your little corner of the IT world, but all the technology tools that keep your company running. The more you know about all the parts of the machine, the more valuable you become as the company looks for utility players rather than specialists.

2. Take a Hike

That’s right, get outside of your cubicle and spend some time visiting other parts of not just your company’s technology universe, but also the business brains. This is not easy, but after your first small forays, you will be surprised in just what regard the company holds the techies. You’ll learn the language of business and soon find yourself in the ambassador-at-large role, able to form your own opinions about what tech projects are seen as valuable outside the world of the techie cubes.

3. Make Friends

This is foreign territory for lots of techies. It is a lot easier to deal with your computer than a real person. But unless you want to see that e-mail that puts you on the goodbye list, you need to build some sources in the company who can give you an early storm warning. Without access to the corporate radar, you will be flying blind. Become the unofficial computer help desk, and you will soon have the chance to make lots of new friends.

4. Lose Friends

You are trying to keep your job, right? You know how much corporate time is being taken up with fantasy leagues, Web surfing, non-business e-mail, IMing, YouTubing, etc. Someone is going to drop the dime to the higher-ups on the huge waste of time taking place as employees run eBay stores and exchange photos of the party the night before. Might as well be you.

5. Protect the Boss’s Wallet

Make one of your corporate walkabouts after hours. How many terminals are still glowing, printers are running and computers are sitting idle? Take a good guess at how much power is being wasted and let the boss know. Pick another simple target: printer supplies and costs. All those printers add up to a lot of supplies and paper being wasted. Wade through all those software license agreements to find out exactly what your company is paying for. You can become not only the boss’s favorite cost cutter, but you can fashion yourself as an eco champion as well.

Click here for the rest of the list

Tech Support Song

Google Unveils Tool to 'Crowdsource' Meeting Questions

Cool stuff...

"There was never enough time for all the questions, and it wasn't clear that the best questions were the ones actually getting asked," Heath said. "To help with this, I designed a tool that would allow anyone attending a tech talk to submit a question, and then give other participants a way to vote on whether or not that question should be asked. This way, the most popular and relevant questions would rise to the top so that the presenter or the moderator could run the discussion more efficiently and in a transparent manner."

Click here for the rest of the article.

Android (gPhone) in October on TMobile?

Hmmm... not sure what I think yet.



Official: First Android Phone on September 23rd

"T-Mobile has sent out invitations for the official announcement of the first Googlephone, the HTC Dream. The press conference will be held in New York on September 23rd, although the Android-based phone won't hit stores until October (probably October 20th)."

Google to Take to the High Seas?

If you can't beat'em... leave! :) This would certainly help lower their legal costs for dealing with all of the government regulations/lawsuits, etc.... :)

"Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own “computer navy”.

The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.

The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google’s costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres, which are sited across the world, including in Britain.

In the patent application seen by The Times, Google writes: “Computing centres are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away.”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Why Is the Internet So Infuriatingly Slow?

Ok, so mine isn't... it's kind of hard to complain about 20-30mb down and 3-8mb up.

"Everyone hates their Internet service provider. And with good cause: In the age of ubiquitous Internet access, Web service in America is still often frustratingly slow. Tired of being the villain, telecom companies have assigned blame for this problem to a new bad guy. He's called the "bandwidth hog," and it's his fault that streaming video on your computer looks more like a slide show than a movie. The major ISPs all tell a similar story: A mere 5 percent of their customers are using around 50 percent of the bandwidth—sometimes more during peak hours. While these "power users" are sharing three-gig movies and playing online games, poor granny is twiddling her thumbs waiting for Ancestry.com to load."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Trackback... Comcast to Cap Monthly Bandwidth Usage

Eight reasons CIOs think developers are clueless

"CIO.com has published several stories that examined the sometimes volatile, often misunderstood and never dull relationship between CIOs and application developers -- from "9 Reasons Why Application Developers Think Their CIO Is Clueless" to "8 Reasons Why a Developer Would NEVER Want To Be a CIO" to "Getting Clueful: 7 Things CIOs Should Know About Agile Development."

Those articles were presented solely from the programmer's viewpoint, however. We wanted to give the bosses -- CIOs and IT leaders who perhaps were irked by the "clueless" label -- a chance to respond. Because, certainly, developers can be out-of-touch too -- just in different ways.

CIO.com asked IT leaders what they wish developers knew so that the programmers don't appear clueless to the rest of the organization. The bosses' responses, gathered from eight CIOs and IT managers and which have been anonymously condensed, show that many developers need to gain the bigger-picture view of their organizations to appreciate the challenges of those "clueless" CIOs. "

Click here for the rest of the article.

New Google 'Chrome'

Comcast to Cap Monthly Bandwidth Usage

Hmmmm...

"NEW YORK (AP) -- Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, Thursday said it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month.

On Oct. 1, the cable company will update its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of traffic per month, the company announced on its Web site.

Comcast has already reserved the right to cut off subscribers who use too much bandwidth each month, without specifying exactly what constitutes excessive use.

"We've listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive," the company said in a statement on its Web site."

Click here for the full article.

The Future Of Web Browsing?

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Click here for more info.

US Lags In Internet Speeds

Although "85% of consumers are satisfied with their speed", why? Because they haven't experienced anything better and don't know the possibilities of a faster connection.

"Also, the CWA's data measures speed rates, not consumer satisfaction. Despite the slower speeds, consumers are generally happy with their current Internet speeds, according to surveys conducted by research firm In-Stat."

Click here for the rest of the article.

10 Maxims for System Administrators to Live By

"The following 10 items are guidelines more than rules, that I have learned over the years doing intensive work on the IT infrastructure. These guidelines are mostly common sense and can be helpful for anybody who administers an IT system, including Linux/Windows Administrator, Network Administrator and DBA. "

1. Keep it simple.
2. Backup regularly
3. Test your backup regularly
4. Proactive Monitoring
5. Document Everything
6.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Google Knol is Available

"7/23/2008 10:31:00 AM
A few months ago we announced that we were testing a new product called Knol. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone.

The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone.

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good. "

Click here to read more.

Bug Shooting: The Perfect Screen Capture Utility for Windows - Free

Bug Shooting is an awesome screen capture program for Windows that is completely free and offers loads of features that are normally available only in commercial screenshot applications like SnagIt.

To give you an example, Bug Shooting has a "Delayed Capture" mode that is like setting a timer for your screen captures and can be used for grabbing menus & tool-tips.

Bug Shooting has a built-in screen magnifier that enlarges the screen area and helps you place the mouse cursor at the exact location on the screen before the screenshot.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

http://www.bugshooting.com/web/

Epic Bill Gates Email Rant

No Apple comments please :). I'm sure there are a few of these types of emails from Steve as well. ;)

---- Original Message ----
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.


Dramatic reading of the email :)

Taken from Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog

Five things you should never tell your boss

"June 20, 2008 (Computerworld) In the information biz, more isn't necessarily better. Though full disclosure and transparency are buzzwords today, that doesn't mean your boss wants to hear about everything going on in the office. In fact, there are some things your CIO definitely doesn't want to hear, and if your career is going to thrive, you'd better know what they are.

We asked a group of Computerworld's 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders to talk about the kinds of messages they never want to hear from their staffers. Here's what they said.

1. All about the technology -- and nothing about the business. Acting like the business is terra incognita is a no-no. "Never tell me you don't know what the business wants but you'll build it when they decide," says James E. Schinski, CIO and vice president of Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator in Carmel, Ind.

Joseph J. Tufano,vice president and CIO at St. John's University in New York, agrees, saying IT workers need to tell him how technology can help the organization and its staff do their jobs better. "You bring so much more credibility to the discussion when you're presenting technology in the context of business," he says.

2. There's only one solution. "People can sometimes develop a fondness for a certain technology or programming language or manufacturer into almost a religion, but it's never the case that one type of solution is the proper one for all situations," says Neal Puff, CIO for Arizona's Yuma County. "And when you develop an attitude like this, you're viewed as an obstacle or a roadblock. People will assume you're just going to like it this way and you're not going to like it any other way."

3. Bad opinions about your colleagues. It's a simple rule that can get overlooked when your team is struggling with a missed deadline or a failing project, but think before you point a finger, because bosses generally don't want to hear about it -- especially if you haven't tried to work it out on your own.

"I want a team that works together and not one that's political, and if I see it happening, then I think people are trying to score points," says Kumud Kalia, CIO and executive vice president of customer operations for Toronto-based Direct Energy, an integrated energy company and part of Centrica PLC.

Of course, there are times when you need to discuss personnel issues with your boss. For example, Kalia wants to know from managers when workers are thinking of leaving. Just be sure the boss really needs to know about the situation; then be discreet and objective. "

Click here to read the rest.

Net Neutrality: Google Developing ISP Throttling Detector

Interesting...

Google To Develop ISP Throttling Detector

Innovation 08 panel on Net Neutrality at Santa Clara University

Visio Alternative: Dia

http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Dia: A Strong Open Source Answer to Microsoft's Visio

Top Five Antivirus Applications?

Five Best Antivirus Applications

Move Over AJAX, ARAX is Here!

"At the RailsConf conference for Ruby on Rails developers in Portland, Ore., on May 30, John Lam, creator of the IronRuby project at Microsoft, told eWEEK that as Microsoft's Silverlight rich Internet application environment takes off it will provide Ruby developers with a way to deliver AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)-style applications without having to use JavaScript.

"If you're a Ruby programmer and you like Ruby as a language, context-switching into JavaScript is just something you have to do," Lam said. "It's a tax. You're trading productivity away arbitrarily because that's just what runs in the browser. And it's much more interesting when you can run the same language on both sides [the client and the server] so you don't have to do that context switch."

In essence, using ARAX, Ruby developers would not have to go through the machinations of using something like the RJS (Ruby JavaScript) utility, where they write Ruby code and RJS generates JavaScript code to run on the client, Lam said. "Sure, you could do it that way, but then at some point you might have to add some JavaScript code that adds some custom functionality on the client yourself," he said. "So there's always that sense of, 'Now I'm in another world. And wouldn't it be nice if I have this utility class I wrote in Ruby…' Today if I want to use it in the browser I have to port it to JavaScript. Now I can just run it in the browser."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

GMail Labs

I like their approach to development... "not that much testing". I wish our environment was that flexible... :)

"The idea behind Labs is that any engineer can go to lunch, come up with a cool idea, code it up, and ship it as a Labs feature. To tens of millions of users. No design reviews, no product analysis, and to be honest, not that much testing. Some of the Labs features will occasionally break. (There's an escape hatch.)"

Click here to read the rest of the post.

Google Android: iPhone Killer?

I would have to say that it's going to be a close matchup. My only hope is that Verizon picks up a device with Android as soon as it comes out.



Google Maps (with Street View and Compass!) - sweet!





Original Android post

Click Here for more info