On our way to the car we were trying to think of the nearest AT&T store. We both were drawing a blank. By sheer reflex I pulled out my old iPhone to look one up. The laugh was on me. No service. DUH!! We drove down the street and found a free Wi-Fi signal and looked one up. When we got to AT&T they were real nice. I explained to them what I needed to do. They then asked “why didnt apple re-activate them” I laughed and said I have no idea. They explained I would have to buy new SIM cards. I explained to them that “that will not work for me”. They then made a few phone calls and managed to give them to me for free. The AT&T store just wanted to make me happy and that went a long way. But not good enough to keep me as a customer. Lets hope the droid x is better. So far it is.

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Replacement cartridges are a bit pricey, but getting your old ones refilled would be fine on a simple printer like this.

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Google Review Page

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TECH SOUP

We know you’re not making a profit, this economy is serious business!  But what if that’s how you intended it in the first place?  Yup for you registered non-profit organizations you have Tech Soup.  Tech Soup will get you just about anything you need, and stupid cheap prices.  You might end up making a profit, then you’re screwed.

OTHERS :

There are lots of people looking for cheap copies of XP.  I can’t really explain why, but they are.  Getting the right copy of the software depends on the machine you’re installing it on mostly.  If you are looking for a cheap copy of XP, take a moment to register here and post a message about how you intend to use it.  I’ll try to respond with a link to the right place to buy it.  Be sure to include the type of machine you’re going to be installing it on.

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http://download.cnet.com/GetRight/3000-2071_4-10005533.html

Hope this works for you.

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So far I am really impressed with the iPad. I have been excited for
weeks for it to come out, but at the same time I was expecting to be
disappointed. For example I thought the typing on the landscape
virtual keyboard was going to be a pain in the butt. Even when I took
it out of the box and saw the keyboard for the first time I thought to
myself “no way”. But then I started to type on it. Believe it or not I
was able to type on it with very little problems. In fact I am typing
this on it now. I have to say apple did real good work on it.

Over the past few days I have heard a few big news web sites say that
it is a kindle. Well they obviously have not touched a iPad. The iPad
does so much more. To call it a kindle is like calling a bike a car.
Yes they both get you someplace but wouldn’t you rather get there
faster, with ac, a radio, and perhaps a video player (for your
passengers)? Does the kindle have a web browser? Yes it does but how
well does it reproduce the web site? The iPad shows it to you like it
was meant to be viewed. That’s not to mention that it’s in full color.
The crispness of the screen is nothing short of amazing.

What about the things the kindle doesn’t have? Well let’s see. How
about the ability to watch netflix movies. This free application blew
my mind. When I first downloaded it I thought for sure it was just a
iPad version of the iPhone app. Well to my surprise you can watch
streaming movies. There is also a ABC app. With this app you can watch
ABC tv shows. I wouldn’t be surprised if fox and and the other major
networks have apps coming out soon. And if I can’t find a good movie
on netflix or I am already cought up on Lost then I can just watch a
movie that I have downloaded in my Library. How about playing a game.
Yes there are hundreds of games out right now made for the iPad and I
have to say they are pretty good. The graphics are clean and clear.
The UI is very easy to use. Let me see you do any of that on the
kindle.

How about something the kindle can do. In fact the very thing it is
suppose to be the best at. Let’s look at reading a book. The kindle
has a monochrome screen. So what you see is grey with black lettering.
Now this is not hard on the eyes. In fact if you had not ever used a
color screen before it would be fine. The UI it has to do simple
things like going to the next page is just that… Simple. Now the
iPad on the other hand has a backlit fully color screen. I have
already read a few books on it and i can say I have not had any eye
strain. Not only that but I can read in bed without having to have a
light on. That alone is a marriage saver. Lol. The UI that the iPad
has on it’s books is beautiful. Want to turn a page? Grab the corner
of the page and flip it. At first glance it looks like it is automatic
but if you slowly flip the page it goes with your finger. I know it may
not seem like much but when you are reading a 500 plus page book it
makes it that much more enjoyable. If the iPad did only book reading I
would say it was worth it. The one thing that I thought the Kindle would have beat the iPad at would be the book library because it is amazon and it has been out longer. But to my surprise amazon made a Kindle application for the iPad. That alone to me is amazon amitting defeat. If they thought the Kindle would still hold a place in the reader market they would not have done that. But good for them knowing a good thing when they see one.

Predictions… Here is how I see this play out. Within the next five years I believe apple will no longer sell computers. All they will sell will be what is called ” electronics.” This includes smart phones mp3 players and of course the iPad. I doubt they are making enough money on their computers to keep it going for much longer. If they didn’t charge as much as they do for the computers they would have stopped selling them a long time ago. If they are smart they will just let Microsoft and soon to be Google battle it out in the PC world and focus only on the consumer electronics.

Overall I can say the iPad is a great product. It reminds me of star wars or star trek. They would carry around these touch screen data pads for their day to day use but they still had a computer at there desk to do the heavy lifting. One of the guys down at the shop went as far as saying that other than World of Warcraft he could only use the iPad for his day to day use. I don’t see that being far from the truth. Can’t wait to see what apple comes out with next…

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http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_windows.html

With this running you will be notified about new emails in your Gmail account, and when you click on a mailto: link gmail will launch.

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My current ISP is selling me a package of 5mbps download speeds for a nice sum of only $17 per month.  It is only $17 per month for the first year, and once that year is up the cost will triple to approximately $55.  With the dramatic increase in price from year one to year two, I will not see any improvement in my service.  This is due to the current design model of broadband service in general, as the more customers in your area, the slower your connections speeds will be.   There is a wealth of information regarding the design principles of this, but a great summary can be found at

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cable-modem10.htm

Pros and Cons to Cable Modems

If you are one of the first users to connect to the Internet through a particular cable channel, then you may have nearly the entire bandwidth of the channel available for your use. As new users, especially heavy-access users, are connected to the channel, you will have to share that bandwidth, and may see your performance degrade as a result. It is possible that, in times of heavy usage with many connected users, performance will be far below the theoretical maximums. The good news is that this particular performance issue can be resolved by the cable company adding a new channel and splitting the base of users.

Now that only directly applies to cable modems, but every broadband technology has its drawbacks.  If the FCC has its way, in 10 years that will be a thing of the past.  The FCC will be promoting its plan of getting 100mbps internet connections to every American within the next decade.  Although this is great news, it doesn’t help anyone that is currently overpaying for slow broadband connections.  Waiting for the FCC to fix this isn’t a timely solution, so the first step in addressing your slow connections is to talk to your ISP.  It is likely they will remind you that your 5mbps plan is a theoretical maximum, and it is expected you will never see those speeds.  Be prepared for disappointment or at least an hour of your time spent on the phone or online chat with an ISP rep.  By providing this single bandwidth test, the FCC has created a speed test that will be considered the standard benchmark for consumers that want to complain about their speed.  As I mentioned there are many free test available online, but as word spread, the FCC’s speed test will absolutely catch on as the de-facto standard.  What interest does the government have in providing inaccurate results?  It could be argued that  the FCC’s results will only help to promote its own agenda.  What the FCC is trying to do is in the best interest of the American people, by pushing the ISP’s and to deliver on its service and not hide behind ‘theoretical maximums’.   I would suggest that you run the FCC speed test from every new location you happen to be at.  Spread the word about it to all your friends and colleagues.  Help promote the test as the standard by which consumers can demand the service we are actually paying for.

Try it out here :

http://www.broadband.gov/

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Microsoft Windows NT #GP Trap Handler Allows Users to Switch Kernel Stack
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

CVE-2010-0232

In order to support BIOS service routines in legacy 16bit applications, the
Windows NT Kernel supports the concept of BIOS calls in the Virtual-8086 mode
monitor code. These are implemented in two stages, the kernel transitions to
the second stage when the #GP trap handler (nt!KiTrap0D) detects that the
faulting cs:eip matches specific magic values.

Transitioning to the second stage involves restoring execution context and
call stack (which had been previously saved) from the faulting trap frame once
authenticity has been verified.

This verification relies on the following incorrect assumptions:

  - Setting up a VDM context requires SeTcbPrivilege.
  - ring3 code cannot install arbitrary code segment selectors.
  - ring3 code cannot forge a trap frame.

This is believed to affect every release of the Windows NT kernel, from
Windows NT 3.1 (1993) up to and including Windows 7 (2009).

Working out the details of the attack is left as an exercise for the reader.

Just kidding, that was an homage to Derek Soeder  

- Assumption 0: Setting up a VDM context requires SeTcbPrivilege.

Creating a VDM context requires EPROCESS->Flags.VdmAllowed to be set in order
to access the authenticated system service, NtVdmControl(). VdmAllowed can
only be set using NtSetInformationProcess(), which verifies the caller has
SeTcbPrivilege. If this is true, the caller is very privileged and can
certainly be trusted.

This restriction can be subverted by requesting the NTVDM subsystem, and then
using CreateRemoteThread() to execute in the context of the subsystem process,
which will already have this flag set.

- Assumption 1: ring3 code cannot install arbitrary code segment selectors.

Cpl is usually equal to the two least significant bits of cs and ss, and is
a simple way to calculate the privilege of a task. However, there is an
exception, Virtual-8086 mode.

Real mode uses a segmented addressing scheme in order to allow 16-bit
addresses to access the 20-bit address space. This is achieved by forming
physical addresses from a calculation like (cs << 4) + (eip & 0xffff). The
same calculation is used to map the segmented real address space onto the
protected linear address space in Virtual-8086 mode. Therefore, I must be
permitted to set cs to any value, and checks for disallowed or privileged
selectors can be bypassed (PsSetLdtEnties will reject any selector where any
of the three lower bits are unset, as is the case with the required cs pair).

- Assumption 2: ring3 code cannot forge a trap frame.

Returning to usermode with iret is a complicated operation, the pseudocode for
the iret instruction alone spans several pages of Intel's Software Developers
Manual. The operation occurs in two stages, a pre-commit stage and a
post-commit stage. Using the VdmContext installed using NtVdmControl(), an
invalid context can be created that causes iret to fail pre-commit, thus
forging a trap frame.

The final requirement involves predicting the address of the second-stage BIOS
call handler. The address is static in Windows 2003, XP and earlier operating
systems, however, Microsoft introduced kernel base randomisation in Windows
Vista. Unfortunately, this potentially useful exploit mitigation is trivial
to defeat locally as unprivileged users can simply query the loaded module list
via NtQuerySystemInformation().

--------------------
Affected Software
------------------------

All 32bit x86 versions of Windows NT released since 27-Jul-1993 are believed to
be affected, including but not limited to the following actively supported
versions:

    - Windows 2000
    - Windows XP
    - Windows Server 2003
    - Windows Vista
    - Windows Server 2008
    - Windows 7

--------------------
Consequences
-----------------------

Upon successful exploitation, the kernel stack is switched to an attacker
specified address.

An attacker would trigger the vulnerability by setting up a specially
formed VDM_TIB in their TEB, using a code sequence like this:

/* ... */
    // Magic CS required for exploitation
    Tib.VdmContext.SegCs = 0x0B;
    // Pointer to fake kernel stack
    Tib.VdmContext.Esi = &KernelStack;
    // Magic IP required for exploitation
    Tib.VdmContext.Eip = Ki386BiosCallReturnAddress;

    NtCurrentTeb()->Reserved4[0] = &Tib;
/* ... */

Followed by

/* ... */
    NtVdmControl(VdmStartExecution, NULL);
/* ... */

Which will reach the following code sequence via the #GP trap handler,
nt!KiTrap0D. Please note how the stack pointer is restored from the saved
(untrusted) trap frame at 43C3E6, undoubtedly resulting in the condition
described above.

/* ... */
.text:0043C3CE Ki386BiosCallReturnAddress proc near
.text:0043C3CE     mov     eax, large fs:KPCR.SelfPcr
.text:0043C3D4     mov     edi, [ebp+KTRAP_FRAME.Esi]
.text:0043C3D7     mov     edi, [edi]
.text:0043C3D9     mov     esi, [eax+KPCR.NtTib.StackBase]
.text:0043C3DC     mov     ecx, 84h
.text:0043C3E1     mov     [eax+KPCR.NtTib.StackBase], edi
.text:0043C3E4     rep movsd
.text:0043C3E6     mov     esp, [ebp+KTRAP_FRAME.Esi]
.text:0043C3E9     add     esp, 4
.text:0043C3EC     mov     ecx, [eax+KPCR.PrcbData.CurrentThread]
.text:0043C3F2     mov     [ecx+KTHREAD.InitialStack], edi
.text:0043C3F5     mov     eax, [eax+KPCR.TSS]
.text:0043C3F8     sub     edi, 220h
.text:0043C3FE     mov     [eax+KTSS.Esp0], edi
.text:0043C401     pop     edx
.text:0043C402     mov     [ecx+KTHREAD.Teb], edx
.text:0043C405     pop     edx
.text:0043C406     mov     large fs:KPCR.NtTib.Self, edx
.text:0043C40D     mov     ebx, large fs:KPCR.GDT
.text:0043C414     mov     [ebx+3Ah], dx
.text:0043C418     shr     edx, 10h
.text:0043C41B     mov     byte ptr [ebx+3Ch], dl
.text:0043C41E     mov     [ebx+3Fh], dh
.text:0043C421     sti
.text:0043C422     pop     edi
.text:0043C423     pop     esi
.text:0043C424     pop     ebx
.text:0043C425     pop     ebp
.text:0043C426     retn    4
/* ... */

Possibly naive example code for triggering this condition is availble from the
link below.

http://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/c0af0967d904cef2ad4db766a00bc6af/KiTrap0D.zip

The code has been tested on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Vista
and Windows 7. Support for other affected operating systems is left as an
exercise for the interested reader.

-------------------
Mitigation
-----------------------

If you believe you may be affected, you should consider applying the workaround
described below.

Temporarily disabling the MSDOS and WOWEXEC subsystems will prevent the attack
from functioning, as without a process with VdmAllowed, it is not possible to
access NtVdmControl() (without SeTcbPrivilege, of course).

The policy template "Windows Components\Application Compatibility\Prevent
access to 16-bit applications" may be used within the group policy editor to
prevent unprivileged users from executing 16-bit applications. I'm informed
this is an officially supported machine configuration.

Administrators unfamiliar with group policy may find the videos below
instructive. Further information is available from the Windows Server
Group Policy Home

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/grouppolicy/default.aspx.

To watch a demonstration of this policy being applied to a Windows Server 2003
domain controller, see the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRVI4iQ2Nug

To watch a demonstration of this policy being applied to a Windows Server 2008
domain controller, see the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8pfXW7crEQ

To watch a demonstration of this policy being applied to a shared but
unjoined Windows XP Professional machine, see the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Y6d-BVwxk

On Windows NT4, the following knowledgebase article explains how to disable the
NTVDM and WOWEXEC subsystems.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/220159

Applying these configuration changes will temporarily prevent users from
accessing legacy 16-bit MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 applications, however, few users
require this functionality.

If you do not require this feature and depend on NT security, consider
permanently disabling it in order to reduce kernel attack surface.

-------------------
Solution
-----------------------

Microsoft was informed about this vulnerability on 12-Jun-2009, and they
confirmed receipt of my report on 22-Jun-2009.

Regrettably, no official patch is currently available. As an effective and easy
to deploy workaround is available, I have concluded that it is in the best
interest of users to go ahead with the publication of this document without an
official patch. It should be noted that very few users rely on NT security, the
primary audience of this advisory is expected to be domain administrators and
security professionals.

-------------------
Credit
-----------------------

This bug was discovered by Tavis Ormandy.

-------------------
Greetz
-----------------------

Greetz to Julien, Neel, Redpig, Lcamtuf, Spoonm, Skylined, asiraP, LiquidK,
ScaryBeasts, spender and all my other elite colleagues.

Check out some photography while at ring0 @ http://flickr.com/meder.

-------------------
References
-----------------------

Derek Soeder has previously reported some legendary NT bugs, including multiple
vdm bugs that, while unrelated to this issue, make fascinating reading.

- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2004/Oct/404, Windows VDM #UD LocalPrivilege Escalation
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2004/Apr/477, Windows VDM TIB Local Privilege Escalation
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Apr/357, Zero Page Race Condition Privilege Escalation

-------------------
Appendix
-----------------------

SHA-1 checksum of KiTrap0D.zip follows.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

99a047427e9085d52aaddfc9214fd1a621534072  KiTrap0D.zip

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)

iQEVAwUBS1W6+RvyfE4zaHEXAQK//QgAvo/VhPdeASGe7SSfC3jLwNzsfVfM+FMo
x7JZMMfVUh6b/+FxvokIpsCUf7QQkv+YcyCiatutVjUok5aw5BirFtPLHORIIKPX
B5gN2a4G8RIXh5yKE6FffKGQsPJNW1Ua5Jss8rf59TEj3EDky1vco+WVmmz7TsHn
TQdUreVcL8wFmCAgq5X0AKrdepYDBmYLF0AUFOdG3mKJ43dnP59p9R7+ckv0pfLW
XtvOgzZDNMew4z2Z53YQpE7dO+Y3H3rnhLN7jF7i9We9iiG4ATDke8byFAIDZQZx
ucq5EOcRsfAAWW3O8EbzQa0NiHHScJrKDjvg0gX1Y69MBBwCLNP6yg==
=LHU0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
-------------------------------------
taviso () sdf lonestar org | finger me for my gpg key.
-------------------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.

Courtesy of http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2010/Jan/341

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Arizona Computer Guru is looking for an experienced technician with comprehensive hardware and software troubleshooting skills. We are seeking talented, motivated self-starters who are able to quickly and accurately diagnose and repair both laptop and desktop computers. In addition to the required technical skills, professionalism in work ethic, attitude, customer interaction and appearance is extremely important. The person we are looking for would be required to interact with customers and help them resolve their technical issues both in person and over the phone. They would need to maintain detailed records of all work performed while maintaining customer contact throughout the entire repair process.

This is a FULL time position and compensation (either hourly or salary based) will depend upon experience.

If you think you have what it takes we’d love to hear from you. You can also check out our website at www.azcomputerguru.com and catch our radio show Saturdays from Noon-2:00pm on Tucson’s #1 News/Talk Station 104.1FM!

http://tucson.craigslist.org/tch/1606018155.html

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For detecting and removing TDL rootkits you can try a program named Hitman Pro 3.5 which seems to be the only publically available program that can remove all current TDL3 variants (up to TDL3.241). Although if your computer is already patched with MS10-015 and fails to boot it can only be fixed with a boot CD.

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Utilizing each team’s current roster and the latest player statistics, Madden NFL 10 was able to accurately predict the outcome of both the NFC and AFC Championship games within a margin of three points for each game. EA SPORTS utilized this same simulation formula to predict the outcome of Super Bowl XLIII (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals) with unprecedented accuracy – down to the final score and individual player statistics. EA SPORTS has correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner for five out of the last six years, since the official Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation began in 2004.

Madden NFL has been pretty reliable in the past, predicting the winner every year except 2008, when the Giants took down the Patriots, 17 to 14. Still, the series recovered from that fumble the next year, predicting the Steelers over the Cardinals, with the final simulated score only one point away from the actual scores for both teams.

Here’s how EA Sports’ simulation played out:

“The first three quarters display the offensive fireworks that both teams have become known for, with the Colts leading 24-21. A nail biting fourth quarter begins with a big play, courtesy of the Saints’ special teams, when Reggie Bush returns a punt for a 42-yard touchdown. However, with minutes left in the game the duo of Joseph Addai and Peyton Manning put the Colts back on top with a go-ahead touchdown pass. With the game hanging in the balance, Drew Brees hits David Thomas for an 11-yard touchdown and the game winning score.”

Well, we know it didn’t happen quite like that, but the end result is the same. Those guys take their games seriously.

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Now we’re finally getting caught up in the shop. We had been almost a month behind on most of the machines…. needless to say I’ve been under a bit of stress about this. I’ve added a few more techs, and refined the ranks a bit – which seems to make the chemistry in the office much better, and a bit smoother. We’re back to getting systems out in less than a week again. I expect we’ll be back into the 4 days or less range again very soon.

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Back to this Rovio thing. You can program waypoints in your home and it will patrol the house. You can tell it to email you snapshots or you can remotely view/control/program the unit from just about anything that gets online. There are accessories for this thing too. You can get range extenders which they call “beacons” that allow you to extend the range of your primary wireless network, and a headlight for really scaring the life out of your spouse.

Destroyer of Worlds

Have a suggestion for a topic on the show? Drop us a line!

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Last Saturday was a little different.  I had the little pieces of paper and placed them on the living room table when I got home.  When I came back to them I found a shredded pile of call-back confetti.  My new dog has developed an obsession with paper products.  So, for the first time ever, I can say my dog ate my homework.  If I was supposed to call you, please send me an email, or call me at the shop.  I’m sorry.

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IE6+ :

FireFox :

Check this article that talks about managing the bookmarks file. : http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

Once you find the file on your machine, you can print the bookmarks.htm

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“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas
decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had
more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two
things made me take it down.
First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they
almost wrecked when they drove by.
Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself
putting it against my house and didn’t realize it was fake until she climbed
to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who
attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a
few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

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1. Select Tools, and then click Options.
2. In the left pane, click Security.
3. Clear the Always ask me for my password when checking Hotmail or opening other Microsoft Passport enabled Web pages check box.
4. Click OK.

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Hi All,

As some of you may know, we had a pretty scary incident recently.  Attached are pictures of what remains of our 2007 Suburban.  We are all okay but I wanted to warn everyone not to make the same mistake I did.

This fire resulted from leaving an Iphone charger/docking station plugged into the car outlet.  It overheated and started a fire, while parked in our garage.  PLEASE unplug anything you have in your car outlets once you turn off your car!

We were VERY fortunate that we accidentally found the fire, at 11pm, before going to bed and before it spread to the house.  None of our garage heat detectors or house fire alarms went off (another item to take care of on my to do list).  The boys, Jonathan and I were pretty freaked out but we’re all enjoying our new car at least.

Feel free to pass this along to anyone you want.  Better safe than sorry.

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Be on the lookout for ANY email from anyone that is claiming to be from the likes of MySpace, Facebook, UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc., that has any type of attachment.  Especially beware of zip files.  These are all scams.

-Guru

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I’m hoping we can help people with free services and the occasional free computer.  If you know anyone that needs help with their computer (or any other technology) please let us know.

And please tell your friends about us!  Similarly, if you know anyone that would like to sponsor the show the help would be really appreciated!

-Guru

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Eric was looking for ways to connect his Razr phone to Ubuntu : http://www.linuxscrew.com/2007/09/03/ev-do-internet-access-with-ubuntu-linux/

Hope that helps, thanks for listening to the show!

Guru

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Over the last few years both sides are creeping toward the middle. Historically Apple has focused on Quality and virtually ignored cost while PC manufacturers have overlooked everything except cost. PC builders have recognized a need to improve the quality and stability of the PC. Apple has adopted PC style architecture to reduce cost. Both of these changes were inevitable.

On the software side it’s a slightly different story. Apple pushes out sub-major releases very regularly, and from what I can tell uses very minor changes as an excuse to get everyone to upgrade. Microsoft only charges for major releases, and sub-major versions are a free upgrade (service packs). Apple only has one variant of their OS, MacOS. Sadly Microsoft has too many flavors of Windows. And by too many, I mean more than one. Windows should be just that, “Windows”. Do away with the Home/Business/Ultimate stuff and make it all available to anyone. It’s dumb to make an crippleware version of Ultimate and call it Home or Basic. And while they’re at it, they should make the registry portable. Make it easier to move from one machine to another.

Since doing the radio show I’ve run into so many people that flat out tell me that they’ll never need my services, “I have a Mac!”, they proclaim. Oddly enough I’ll tell them that I’ll try not to remember how smug they were when they bring their machine to me. Holding the distinction of being one of the only PC and MAC repair shops in the area I see many of both. Considering that Macs only make up about 15% of the total market, and I attribute nearly 30% of my business to Mac repairs – I’m seeing twice as many Macs as I should be if they are merely AS reliable as PCs. So… well that’s enough said on that.

There are a couple of brave souls out there that are selling Mac software on PC hardware (as if that distinction can really be made anymore), and marketing them as High Performance Macs on a budget. Apple is all tied up in knots over the issue and is currently taking legal action with at least one of them. They are saying that running their OS on non-Mac hardware violates the terms of use. However Mac users have been using Windows on Macs for years. It’s one of the very key selling points you’ll hear in an Apple store. And while we’re on the subject, I have to give a tip of the hat to the sales people at the Apple stores. They manage to tell you that you can run Windows on any Mac, and manage to tell you that you are incapable of getting a virus on a Mac. This sales strategy is surprisingly effective. It’s as though the Mac hardware is immune to infection, even if you’re running Windows. Now they don’t tell you that, but it’s as though there is something in the air in the Mac stores that prevents the average person from making that connection or they are preying on those that don’t understand the difference. I suppose that if I were surrounded by Genius’ that I would keep my head down and do as I’m told too.

Pretentiousness aside, Apple makes wonderful computers. They are aesthetically pleasing, and thanks to Open-Source programmers becoming useful. The drawback to Apple has always been their unwillingness to be compatible, and the cost (in dollars) of being the renegade. PC’s are finally understanding that utility isn’t everything. Consumers want a good looking machine like a Mac, as well as the compatibility that comes with using a PC. More importantly users are tired of the infections that plague the PC world. But infections are present in the Mac universe too. People who urge caution to the Mac community (like myself) are shouted down by the ultra believers that no Mac virus has ever been detected ‘in-the-wild’. This simply means that infections aren’t rampant – which I’m forced to agree with. My response is simple; there was a time when PC viruses were gnats, irritants, non-infectious, and very easy to remove — just like the ones Macs get today. The pain is coming.

Microsoft has apparently had it with the infections too. They are taking steps to deal with infections both by preventing the infection with more stringent security policies, and by taking another stab at controlling their own Anti Virus product. Defender and One Care were both miserable failures, but Security Essentials looks promising. It has the best features of both previous products, and adds a few new tricks as well. The truth is Microsoft could drastically reduce the rate of infection in PCs, by tightening up security when it comes to the core of the OS. Wait… they did that once and everyone complained. Vista was initially too stringent, and one of the biggest complaints there was about Vista was that a lot of software wouldn’t run. Microsoft had made it much harder to install software, and software vendors were not really willing to conform to the new standards. Then there is public outcry, and the security is backed off.

I’ve always wondered why MS couldn’t make an Anti Virus that was anything but superb, after all – they know better than anyone how everything works on the inside of Windows. Maybe someday, Microsoft will tell me.

In the end it comes down to the simple fact that both Macs and PCs are striving for the same market…everyone. With that goal they are both becoming the same thing. They are going to have the same problems, and the same users. Looks like the PowerPC is going to make a comeback.

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In most cases there is no benefit to installing these utilities, and certainly no reason to pay for a utility that has no utility.  In our experience you’ll generally notice a performance decrease after running one of these cleaners, and in some cases render the machine unusable.  The registry is a delicate thing.  It’s maintained by Windows and under normal circumstances will manage itself pretty well.  The trend started when Windows95/98 instituted the registry.  The 9x operating systems didn’t manage the registry database very well, and a few companies came up with registry compressors or compactors.  Given the low amounts of usable system memory and slow hard drives this could improve the performance of your computer.  Today’s registries are better manged and with significant improvements to available system memory and faster drives the need for registry cleaners has gone away.

Listen to the podcast for more ranting!

Part 1

Part 2

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He said that any memory stick he inserted came up as an Unrecognized Device.  There are various disputes as to how to solve this problem, but I’ll share with you the one I would recommend for users with Low to Moderate tech skills.  If you have IE8 installed you should uninstall it, it will roll you back to IE7.  Then you download the network install of your current service pack.  Click here for SP3.  In many cases, this will revive those devices.  You can then put IE8 back on if you had it installed before.

Hope this helps.

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