Archive for March, 2009

The PortableApps.com application suite is a package of Windows programs that you can run from a USB flash drive. The platform comes with a program menu that pops up when you insert your USB stick, or when you launch the program, and a suite of apps including a web browser, instant messenger, and office suite.

I have been using Portable Apps for a long time. I highly recommend keeping a copy on a thumb drive in your pocket because you never know when you’re going to have to plug in.

Hmm. Are they really unlikely to buy them soon, or is this just a ruse to make us think they won’t? My bet is on the second choice.

Google has a short message for those wondering whether the search giant will soon buy micro-blogging site Twitter: “unlikely.”

That was Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s response Friday when queried on the topic during a wide-ranging interview with journalist Charlie Rose. Schmidt said:

I shouldn’t talk about specific acquisitions. We’re unlikely to buy anything in the short term partly because I think prices are still high. And it’s unfortunate I think we’re in the middle of a cycle. Google is generating a lot of cash. And so we keep that cash in extremely secure banks.

It seems like the hackers are trying to stay one step ahead.

Computers infected with the Conficker worm are being updated with a new variant that sidesteps an industry effort to sever the link between the worm and its hacker controllers, researchers at Symantec Corp. said Friday.

The new version, dubbed Conficker.c, represents the first set of “orders” that researchers have witnessed being sent to infected systems, said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Symantec Corp.’s security response group. The update shows that the hackers want to defend their collection of compromised PCs, Weafer argued.

They’ll trip soon enough.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 development team yesterday confirmed that users will be able to remove Internet Explorer 8, as well as several other Microsoft applications, from Windows 7.

This appears to be a major step by the company in addressing the long standing anti-trust complaints of bundling their applications with Windows, and may account in part for the recent scaling back by the European Union in its monitoring of the software giant.

Too bad we can’t remove Windows from Windows 7. Okay, okay, chill out, I am not an Apple fanboy and you know it, but you have to admit Microsoft had that one coming.

It seems we weren’t the only ones who had trouble with Best Buy recently.

Best Buy charged Nicole $99 to backup her data but then replaced her hard drive without backing up a single byte. Nicole’s service contract clearly stated that Best Buy would perform the backup before any other service. Now Best Buy is claiming that her old hard drive is their property and that she has no right to the data that they failed to backup or restore.

Read the rest over at the Consumerist.

I wondered why my installation of Firefox updated itself. Now I know.

The latest update to the open-source browser shores up a number of security risks, including some that Mozilla says could be exploited by an attacker to run commands on a vulnerable computer. But the flaws still affect the current Thunderbird release, 2.0.0.19.

One of the bugs involves a library used for PNG images, and could presumably be triggered by a poisoned image on a Web page. The second would be harder to exploit, as its description says you’d have to reload a page specially crafted to target a memory management flaw to get hit.

I hope Thunderbird updates itself soon.

I was pretty busy around here the past few days with the whole Best Buy incident.

Feel free to read more at my personal blog,

It’s Time For An Apology

Holding Those Accountable

An Optimistic Outlook

I’ll return to regular tech news blogging, soon.

Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Carly Fiorina has been diagnosed with breast cancer, a top aide said Tuesday.

Fiorina was diagnosed with the disease Feb. 20 and underwent surgery Monday at Stanford Hospital, her chief of staff, Deborah Bowker, told The Associated Press. Bowker said the surgery was successful and Fiorina has an “excellent” prognosis for a full recovery.

I hope she has a speedy and full recovery.

Childish, if true.

While we knew that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had forbidden his offspring from using competitors’ products like iPods and, yes, even Google, we always thought his predecessor, Bill Gates, hovered above the fray, unconcerned with such earthly matters. Alas, it seems our otherworldly faith in Mr. Microsoft might have been misplaced.

I wonder if he keeps all of his house rules on a compact flash card too? You know, just in case his system crashes. heh.

Many PC users think Mac users are snobby. Maybe they’re just more mature.

With the experiences I have had with Apple, I can see why this happened…

For the second consecutive year, Apple has grabbed the top spot in Fortune’s ranking of the world’s most-admired companies, beating rivals such as Google (fourth place) and Microsoft (10th place).

Since 1997, Fortune has partnered with Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, to survey approximately 15,000 industry executives and financial analysts in 64 industries to determine the company that has the strongest reputation, both in its industry segment and across multiple other segments. In 2008, the survey combined the previously separate listings of most admired U.S. and global companies into a single listing.

With their awesome products, intuitive designs, and top-knotch kick-ass support staff, any other company would be hard pressed to beat them in a poll like this.