August 06 Tech Update: The "Ready For The Weekend!" Edition

Hey everyone!
It’s down and dirty and quick this month. Well it’s late on a Friday at least. Enjoy!

Steve’s Word Of The Month

Astroturf:
Definition: The term used to describe a fake Grass Roots marketing or internet driven campaign.
http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/06/08/06/209244.shtml

Special Note:

The Dell laptop battery situation seems really bad but Dell isn’t the only one who has endured battery issues of late. Humanware, Telesensory and Ash Technologies all had bumps in the road over the last year with these types of batteries. One major shipping company almost lost a plane when a shipment of these batteries caught fire in mid flight. So please don’t think your immune to this problem if “Dude .. you don’t own a Dell”. Read this Ars Technica article for more.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060816-7523.html

And here’s a good article on how to spot if you have one of the batteries amongst you..

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6105977.html

@@ NFB Presentation Live!

It’s a shame Mr. Chong could not post the Microsoft presentation but what is available from IBM is really worth a listen. Oh yeah and read my notes on Vista because I think they make more sense than my live show. Geez I used to be in radio..

Download the three files from this FTP:


ftp://ftp.nfbnet.org/files/nfbcs/

~~ Lightning Round!

* Pac Mate 4.1: Free for 4.0 users.

http://hj.com/fs_downloads/DL_PACmate_41_Update.asp#cost

* DBT 10.6 Released: Freed if you bought 10.5SR2 before 6/1/06. $$ for everyone else.

http://www.duxburysystems.com/dbtwhst.asp

* Smartview Xtend FAQ: Think there’s not much to using a CCTV? Eh think again.

http://www.humanware.com/Products/Video_Magnifiers/smartview_xtend_faq.asp

* Top Tech Tid Bits for 8/16: Good issue Dean!

http://www.topdotenterprises.com/tid85.htm

* Windows Office Updates: Patch Tuesday brought us 23 fixes. Or 9 depending on what you have and what you have updated already. Largest one was like 4 MB by the way.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6102073.html

* Windows Live Messenger Review: Here’s a good look at the new version of what used to be called MSN Messenger.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/wlm.asp

* Zero Tention Mouse: A neat idea for those who have Carpel Tunnel or other hand disabilities.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1994914,00.asp

` Firefox 2.0: Looks like the next release of this popular browser has been pushed back until October. Right about the time IE7 is said to come out of Beta. How interesting.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060816-7522.html

* Web 2.0 Security: Java can be dangerous. Yes too much caffeine is bad but I am talking programming here. Get an eye full of the downsides behind Web 2.0.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6099228.html

* Flash into HDD: The future young one lies in RAM. No more hard drives even if Hitachi is releasing that 1 GB by Xmas.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9002083

* Best Tech Jobs:: Thinking of IT? Well read this first before you decide to join the Geek Squad.

http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome.shtml

* Game Crazy Training Video: One of the funniest things I have seen in a very long time. Reminds me of my days as a Corporate Sales Trainer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm9qIc4pGlk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edestructoid%2Ecom%2Fpage%2F2%2F

!! “Viva La Vista!”

Looks like RC1 is on it’s way. Those in the gilded halls of Redmond are already on a later build of what we commoners get in RC1 but still you have to admit.. anything is better than running Beta 2 at this point.

` Longhorn Blogs: My new most favoritest blog on Vista.
http://www.longhornblogs.com/

` Direct X 10.1: WTF? Can we please see a DX10 card first!
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/08/13/2148241.shtml

` Vista free with purchase:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060810-7467.html

` Vista Authentication Made Easy: Someone asked me for positive stuff on Vista. Um .. here’s one.
http://www.longhornblogs.com/kmkenney/archive/2006/08/10/16566.aspx

` Windows Live Marketed In Vista: This one may make you ill.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/8/17/5014

` Windows Live Services 40: And if you thought that was a little much…
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/8/14/4979

` Undelete in Vista and Office: It’s like that Apple Time Machine thingy wich is like that Windows Server 2003 tool.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060730-7383.html

` One Note in Office 07: Um I am not even going into this again. But it’s worth reading.
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/office2007_beta2_02c.asp

` IE7+ Now With Longer And More confusing title:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/93064/windowspaulthurrott_93064.html


~~ “Mactacular!”

Okay maybe not. But there was enough news out there to give Apple it’s own section. Plus a good buddy of mine is recovering from eye surgery and I want to give him an incentive to read my opinion on all things Mac. Get well Chris!

` Apple Security Fixes: Yes Apple does have security issues no matter what those dumb commercials say otherwise. 29 patches in fact.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6101192.html

` Apple to change compilers?: Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon?
http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits.ars/2006/8/17/5024

` Mac Service Outages
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/7/31/4824

* Apple Hotkeys link
http://rixstep.com/2/20040510,00.shtml