Windows 7 Tip of the Week

Windows has had a Performance Monitor since the earliest days of NT, but with Windows Vista, Microsoft added a great new utility, the Reliability Monitor, which tracks the overall reliability of your PC over time, keeping up to a year of PC use history. In Vista, the Performance Monitor and Reliability Monitor were part of a combined tool. But now, in Windows 7, they live as separate tools. You can access the Reliability Monitor, shown here, by typing relia into Start Menu Search.

The Reliability Monitor assigns a reliability rating to your PC on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is horrible and 10 is perfect. Out of the box, Windows 7 gets a perfect 10 but from there on its all downhill: Any glitch or failure in any application, hardware, or Windows will cause the reliability rating to immediately plummet. Meanwhile, days with no problems are barely rewarded, with only a slight upward bump. If anything, Microsoft is being too hard on itself, as most of these problems aren’t even the fault of Windows. But then, the Reliability Monitor isn’t monitoring just Windows. It’s monitoring everything on your PC.

This Panasonic Toughbook has Shock Mounted Hard Drive and Magnesium alloy LCD case. This unit is perfect for rugged environment.
Buy, With Confidence, From Better Business Bureau Member.
45day warranty
Call 403-279-4455

Panasonic ToughBook CF-51 MK3
Shock Mounted Hard Drive – Magnesium alloy LCD case
CF-51RCVDNBM
CPU – Intel T2300 – Core Duo 1.66GHz – 667MHz FSB – 2MB L2 Cache
Memory – 512mb
Hard Drive – 80GB – 5,400 RPM
LCD – 15″ 1024×768 – TFT Active Matrix LCD
Graphics – Integrated Intel GMA950
Audio – Intel High Definition Audio – Built-in speakers
Optical Drive – CD-RW/DVD-Rom Combo
Network – Wired – 10/100 Ethernet
Network – Wireless – Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG – 802.11a/b/g
Modem – 56K V.92
Serial Port RS232
Ports – 1×1394 Firewire, 4xUSB, 1xSerial, 1xPS/2, 1xRJ45 (Network), 1xRJ12 (Modem), 2xPC Card, 1xVGA, 1xHeadphone, 1xMIC, 1xDocking
AC Adapter & Battery – Included. Battery is not tested and sold as is.
Software – Windows XP Pro installed. COA included.
Tested – Yes – Windows Pro oem Installed
Notes – CDs & manuals are not included. Some Normal Wear.

45day warranty
Call 403-279-4455

Business Systems
Unit 104a, 3716-61Ave SE
Phone [403] 279-4455
Hours:
Mon-Fri 9-6
Sat 10-4
Sun Closed
Call 403-279-4455

Internet Explorer has continued its gentle drift southwards, having missed any boost from last year’s release of IE 8 and the sales onslaught behind Windows 7.

Meanwhile, rival Firefox saw its forward market-share march apparently halted by continued uptake of Google’s Chrome for the month of January.

Netmarketshare numbers for January 2009 reveal that Microsoft’s browser has lost more than seven per cent market share compared a year ago, taking it to a new low of 62.12 per cent for all versions of IE. The browser is also down from 62.69 per cent in December 2009.

IE 8, released in March 2009, has 22.37 per cent market share, just inching past the browser-that-won’t die, IE 6, on 20 per cent. While it was crowing about IE’s growth and overlooking the market share decline, Microsoft repeated past calls for customers to abandon IE 6.

The decline in market share for Microsoft’s browser came despite what should have been a fillip produced by the sale of new PCs running Windows 7 during the last three months of 2009. Microsoft last week claimed 60 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold to date, a fact that saw income for its Windows business unit grow 98 per cent to $5.3bn on revenue that also grew 69 per cent to $6.9bn.

Firefox seems to have lost a fraction of its market share to Google’s Chrome according to Netmarketshare. Firefox’s market share for January was 24.43 per cent versus 24.61 per cent in December. Chrome scored 5.22 per cent, up from 4.63 per cent. A year ago, Firefox had 22.11 per cent market share while Chrome scored 1.52 per cent.

Earlier this week Apple unveiled its long awaited tablet, now known as the Apple iPad. While much of the conversation has been around justifying the purchase, others have been more concerned with the name. First, there was a sketch on MADtv a few years back about an iPad feminine product, and now it’s coming to light that as of this writing, three companies (Fujitsu, MagTek, and STMicroelectronics) have been using the name iPad as either the name of their device, or as an acronym. 

Now the big question is whether or not Apple is violating any trademarks and if so, if the company will either have to change the name of its new tablet or reach a settlement. 

Since I’m not an attorney, I reached out to Doug Wolf, Co-Chair Trademarks, from Wolf Greenfield & Sacks for his opinion, and have quoted him below: [disclaimer: Doug has advised me in the past] 

    “Just because Fujitsu has the senior rights does not mean that they can stop Apple. They need to demonstrate that they are in a sufficiently close marketplace or other such factors so that the consuming public may be confused as to source. Would someone buying the Apple iPad believe it comes from Fujistu (or vice-versa)? Not sure that this is necessarily the case since the purposes of the goods seem to have some difference and the price points are probably significant.
Plus, the Apple product will have the housemark APPLE all over the place (and Fujitsu will have its mark) that many of the determinative factors in trademark infringement analysis may possibly favor APPLE. 

    One interesting note, but not of real trademark significance, is that Apple filed this application in Trinidad to establish an early date (July 2009) and then filed in the US. They also filed the mark in the name of a company called IP Application Development which is probably intended to preclude detection. They need to be very careful if they are going to transfer that mark to Apple, Inc. since they need to have set up IP as a legitimate business rather than
merely for filing and transferring the mark to Apple, Inc. later. If they created the holding company merely for the purpose of filing the application with the decision to transfer later, they could be jeopardizing their filing. 

    Finally, one of the problems with marks like IPAD is that the fewer the letters, the more likely you will have a crowded field. The Trademark Office basically gives no weight to the letter “I” since it has been determined to stand for electronic or internet. I understand the goal of Apple to continue its family of “I” marks, but it carries many difficulties in creating a distinguished brand when the number of other short “I” marks already exist.”

I then asked Doug if Apple runs the risk of losing this battle if more companies surface that have been using the name iPad. His response is below: 

    “No. Picking a 4 letter mark with the first letter being “generic” is very difficult, almost impossible to clear. I am sure that they have litigation in the budget and/or money to try to buy these other marks.” 

With Apple now being a $50+ billion company, according to Steve Jobs, I’d say that there’s plenty of money in there for some litigation. 

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Apple was previously in a trademark dispute with Cisco over the iPhone name, but then both sides reached an agreement, allowing each to be free to use the “iPhone” trademark on their products throughout the world. Will the same thing happen again for Apple? We’ll see soon enough.

Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.
Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It’s a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing "msmsgs" in it. Near the end of that particular line, you’ll notice that the word "hide" is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete "hide" (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see "Windows Messenger" in that list. Remove the checkmark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove "hide" and the subsequent programs at your
own risk.

Embattled ratings company Nielsen has published some Internet findings that may interest you. (If not, go make a sandwich or something.) The big finding is that mobile access to the Internet has jumped 34 percent compared to last year, and it looks like women, teens and, yes, seniors make up the bulk of that increase. The mobile Internet: not just a place for 20-something men anymore. Darn.

So what are people looking at while on the mobile Internet? Women are all about People.com and other celebrity nonsense. For shame, women, reading that trash.

Men, meanwhile, are all about, yes, GIZMODO! They also like Maxim (of course) and sports. I’m very happy to see Drudge in the top 10—I probably represent a full 10 percent of Drudge’s mobile visits!

All in all, nothing too crazy here. I don’t see Twitter anywhere in the top 10s, but that’s probably because Twitter didn’t really blow up till this past spring. Before that it was just the TechCrunch crowd on there, if you know what I mean.

Security researchers have stumbled on a new botnet that uses an interesting technique to mask its nefarious intentions.

The Monkif/DIKhora botnet, which is pushing out Trojan downloaders to infected machines, is encoding the instructions to appear as if the command-and-control server is returning a JPEG image file, according to SecureWorks researcher Jason Milletary.

Milletary explains:

The server sets the HTTP Content-Type header to “image/jpeg” and prefaces the bot commands with a fake 32-byte JPEG header. The bot checks if the header matches and decodes the rest of the response to retrieve its commands. The commands are encoded using a single byte XOR with 0×4. The malware that CTU has observed being installed by Monkif is a BHO (Browser Helper Object) trojan commonly referred to as ExeDot, which performs Ad Hijacking and Ad Clicking.

The Trojan associated with this botnet also attempts to disable anti-virus and personal firewall software to maintain its foothold on the system.

I don’t even want to know how much this shipping option is, but one thing is certain: it’s not worth it. Not only is the box being crushed, but it’s upside down! Dude, you’re getting a Dell broken computer.

Thanks to this driver who for actually taking the picture, receives today’s unsafe driver award. Congratulations!

Add the Radisson Hotels & Resorts chain to the growing list of businesses reporting significant data breaches that exposed sensitive customer data.

In an open letter to guests, Radisson chief operating officer Fredrik Korallus said the hotel chain’s computer system was hacked between November 2008 and May 2009 and customer data, including credit and debit card numbers, was stolen.

From the Radisson letter:
Radisson has been coordinating with federal law enforcement to assist in the investigation of this incident. While the number of potentially affected hotels involved in this incident is limited, the data accessed may have included guest information such as the name printed on a guest’s credit card or debit card, a credit or debit card number, and/or a card expiration date.

The company did not say how many customer records were accessed.

Working with law enforcement and forensic investigators, Radisson is conducting a thorough review of the potentially affected computer systems, and has implemented additional security measures designed to prevent a recurrence of such an attack and to protect the privacy of Radisson’s valued guests. The company also is working closely with major credit card suppliers and law enforcement to ensure the incident is properly addressed.

Radisson operates about 400 franchised locations in some 65 countries.

Amazing Deal!!!
Buy, With Confidence, From Better Business Bureau Member.

$249 for a Laptop with 45 day warranty!!

IBM ThinkPad T41 2373 Intel Centrino 1.6G, 512GB Ram, 40GB hard drive 5400rpm, XP Pro, Wireless, Gigabit network card, DVD/CDRW and lots more…

45day warranty

Features

* Processor: Intel Pentium M 1.6 GHz

* Screen Size: 14.1″ TFT active matrix

* Memory: 512 MB (installed) / 2 GB (max), DDR SDRAM, 533MHz

* Hard Drive: 40GB, 5400 rpm IDE

* Integrated Features: CDRW/DVD-ROM Combo, Wireless LAN Antenna

* Networking: Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g

* Weight: 4.9 lbs.

* Included Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional COA / no media

* Warranty 45 days

Other

1 x display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)

2 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A

1 x parallel – IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) – 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25)

1 x infrared – IrDA

1 x modem – phone line – RJ-11

1 x network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45

1 x display / video – S-video output

1 x microphone – input – mini-phone 3.5 mm

1 x headphones – output – mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm

1 x docking / port replicator

56k modem

ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 64 MB Max. Resolution 1024 x 768

Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b

Battery

AC-Adapter

P/N 2373-7fu

Business Systems
more info at

www.ascotpc.com

Unit 104a, 3716-61Ave SE

Phone [403] 279-4455

Hours:

Mon-Fri 9-6

Sat 10-4

Sun Closed

Call 403-279-4455