Friday 29 February 2008 17:50
One month ago I posted on why I'm switching to Linux. One month on, and I'm still using it. In fact, all the Tech-Pro.net computers are now running Linux, which was a surprising development and not part of the original plan. True, I have Windows Vista installed in an emulator under Linux for software testing, and I'll probably set up a similar virtual machine to run XP. That's mainly because the business we're in means we still need Windows. But I haven't found any really compelling reason to use Windows for ordinary day to day work. Read more...
Computers no trackbacks § ¶
Wednesday 27 February 2008 17:16
The European Union has fined Microsoft $ 1.4 billion for failing to comply with sanctions imposed on it for alleged anti-competitive behavior. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, but this strikes even me as unfair. The EU says Microsoft is "guilty" of excluding rival products such as media players and web browsers from its operating system. This is just the kind of crazy ruling you get when you allow bureaucrats who do not understand technology and who have never had to earn a living in a competitive commercial environment to make decisions about what businesses can or cannot do. Read more...
Computers no trackbacks § ¶
Thursday 21 February 2008 10:36
Yesterday I (somewhat belatedly) updated the version of Pivot in use at The PC Guru to the last version, 1.40.4. In the process I discovered that the site had been hacked. A hacker had exploited a vulnerability in the image uploader present in an older version of the software to upload PHP files containing exec commands, which they had then executed to hack the site. I had not noticed this before, because the calling card they left was simply a file called "hacked.html" leaving the hacker's details and a rude message, and didn't overwrite any other file. In fact, the hack had probably occurred prior to the previous update I did that fixed the vulnerability. Read more...
Internet no trackbacks § ¶
Tuesday 19 February 2008 14:44
While researching web server backup solutions I came across this web page describing a web server implemented on a 20 year old Tandy TRS-80. I don't think it's for real (I'm sure there weren't any TCP/IP interfaces for the TRS-80 so the author would have had to implement a protocol stack as well as a web server) but the article is good for a chuckle or two.
Internet no trackbacks § ¶
Friday 15 February 2008 13:43
For over twelve years and nearly 150 issues I have been PC Advisor magazine's computer agony uncle. I wrote the popular Helpline (later renamed Helproom) column in which I answered readers' questions about the trouble they were having with their computers. But I have just written my final column. Issue 154 (May 2008) will be the last one written by me. It feels like the end of an era. Time for a little reflection, perhaps. Read more...
Other stuff no trackbacks § ¶
Wednesday 13 February 2008 16:48
I gave up using visual wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) web editors some time ago. When you are authoring the content it does somehow help the creative flow to see how your words will look on the web page. But most visual editors I've used leave the underlying HTML looking very untidy, and since I often want to work with the raw code, I find that unacceptable. I've tried cleaning the code up using the excellent HTML Tidy, but while it's great for spotting errors in the code, it tends to interfere with the position of comments that I've placed in the code to assist my block-replacing tool that I use to update menus, footers and so on. Read more...
Web development no trackbacks § ¶
Wednesday 13 February 2008 12:14
Tech-Pro.net is quite an old site. It started off several years ago (using the domain tech-pro.co.uk) as a personal vanity site when I was earning my full time living as a freelance computer journalist. Most of the articles that you find on the site were written at that time, and they are largely responsible for the site being considered relevant today by Google and other search engines for various technical topics. Read more...
Web development no trackbacks § ¶
Monday 11 February 2008 20:27
It's probably just a coincidence that my last posting was about malware, but today I got hit by something suspicious. I don't really know what happened. I downloaded a trial version of a program I was going to review, from a reputable download source. When I clicked on the installer to run it, Comodo BOClean popped up to say it had detected a Trojan Horse, and stopped the program from running. Read more...
Windows no trackbacks § ¶
Friday 08 February 2008 09:59
There are five and a half million different malicious programs in circulating online, according to security test organization AV-Test, and the numbers are increasing with unprecedented speed. Most of these programs target Microsoft Windows, or software that runs on it such as the Internet Explorer web browser. Anti-virus and anti-spyware software vendors generate digital signatures and release updates daily to enable their products to detect this malware, but with so many new threats appearing it's inevitable that some slip through undetected. What are PC users to do? Read more...
Computers no trackbacks § ¶
Thursday 07 February 2008 16:39
Here's a tip you might like if you're fond of starting things from the Run... box. You can open a web page in a new Firefox tab by typing firefox name. It works with Internet Explorer too: just type iexplore instead of firefox. Read more...
Tips and tricks no trackbacks § ¶
Thursday 07 February 2008 14:59
Yesterday I created my first Linux application. I copied the source files from the Windows box, compiled them, and there it was. It was that simple. The tool with which I accomplished this task was Lazarus, a cross-platform rapid application development system based on Free Pascal, which I have been using for several months now under Windows. Read more...
Software no trackbacks § ¶
Tuesday 05 February 2008 11:33
A couple of weeks ago we noticed a red squirrel passing through the garden, so we decided to put food out to encourage it to stay. I was researching on the internet about squirrels and came across this amazing video of a gray squirrel negotiating an obstacle course to get to its food. Enjoy!
Other stuff no trackbacks § ¶
Monday 04 February 2008 10:28
Linux advocates like to boast how their operating system is superior to Microsoft's Windows. This is certainly true of one particular irritation. Linux has addressed the problem of "DLL hell" - the situation where one Windows application won't run because another more recently installed one has replaced shared dynamic link libraries with other, incompatible versions. Linux installers carry out dependency checks to prevent this kind of situation from occurring. But the result can be to make it completely impossible to install a piece of software on a particular distribution because it just won't let you. Read more...
Computers no trackbacks § ¶
Friday 01 February 2008 13:33
So Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo! The question that immediately comes to mind is, why? Microsoft is a rich and successful company. It has spent a fortune developing MSN and Live! What does it hope to gain from buying an ailing rival that has been as much of a failure to oust Google from its position as king of search as Microsoft itself? Read more...
Business no trackbacks § ¶
Friday 01 February 2008 11:10
It might come as a surprise to some readers, but most of the software you find sold on the net sells no more than a few dozen copies a month. It doesn't make enough profit to be a full time living for its author, at least not if he lives in the USA or Western Europe. Yet more and more new software titles pour on to the market daily, making the slice of the cake they can expect to earn even thinner for existing authors. Read more...
Software no trackbacks § ¶
