NJN Network

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 15th, 2009

The 800 lb gorilla is driving me nuts. Microsoft’s programs have become obnoxious. Internet Explorer hides the menu bar on a regular basis. They say I must be hitting F11 to turn on Full Screen. I don’t use F keys at all so that doesn’t seem logical. If I memorize the problem and solution it would be less frustrating.

I use Firefox which is better than IE7 except the tabs can be inadverently closed with the little x on the right corner of the tab. One minute I have an article, the next minute poof.

I can’t memorize any more stuff because I’m trying to learn where they put everything in Word 2007. Where is everything? I’ve been using MS Word for 20 years and in one update they removed all of my prior knowledge. I could get more done with Notepad. I struggle looking for the simplest tasks. Grrr.

Vista is a blessing and a curse. I wish we could retire from Microsoft like Bill Gates did.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PE, Canada, January 29, 2009

I’m repeating this article from Eclectic Mind – the same guy is trying to rip people off all over Canada, in Winnipeg, MN Fort McMurray, Al, Granby QC. According to one comment “This scammer is also selling motorcycle parts on Craiglists from the Atlantic Provinces.”

So be careful…
I almost got ripped off on a Mac Pro today. David Cole answered my Kijiji add in Charlottetown with a sweet deal that was a total scam. His email addresses are gloryandpride@msn.com and david.cole@msn.com. The add from last month, when my XP box was dying, said

Wanted: MacPro or iMac Quad or dual quad is best configuration although I will consider anything midrange and up

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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, January 29, 2009

So you’re a struggling musician trying to find a way in the world, living on grants and small club jobs. Don’t burn your resume because Microsoft Songsmith will make a singer composer out of everyone who can’t carry a tune. Look out Karaoke. After you watch the Microsoft promo, search YouTube for Microsoft Songsmith parodies.

After that see how fast your mishap can be famous with the Vail Skier, some poor guy who got caught pantless on the ski lift. Nothing a little video software can’t enhance. The world is changing faster than we think and it comes right to your desk.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI Canada, January 27th, 2009

Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking is the most popular voice recognition software but it is not compatible with Vista, despite the package label. “Works with Windows Vista” means only the 32 bit version of Vista. Microsoft reports that 64 bit Vista grew from 3% of installs to 20% of installs as of July 2008. “Based on current trends, this growth will accelerate as the retail channel shifts to supplying a rapidly increasing assortment of 64-bit desktops and laptops.” Windows Vista 64-bit Today. As of September, Nuance as brushing off demands for a 64-bit version. Vista 64 expands the available memory beyond the 3.4 GB restrictions of XP and Vista 32 bit. For a resource hog like Dragon Naturally Speaking, that’s important. Vista 64 is being installed on Vista Home Premium by Dell and other manufacturers with no fanfare, so you may have it even if you didn’t ask. My new Dell has it – what do I know?

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PE Canada, January 26, 2009
with story from IT World Canada

IBM just announced 4th quarter profit of $4.43 billion, bright expectations for 2009 and layoffs of 16,000 employees world wide, or about 4% of its total staff. Toronto was hard hit with 2,900 jobs lost at the venerable Toronto IBM software lab. IBM is trying to remain low-key about the layoffs, which were revealed by “Alliance@IBM” the union blog. Corporate layoffs are classic business response to a downturn and reflect the policy of taking opportunities to economize when the public expects it. IBM joins the rest of the IT sector with Microsoft’s 5,000 cuts and 6,000 at Intel. Unlike the North American auto sector which is in trouble for failure to innovate, the IT sector has learned to regularly prune staff which build during economic booms. IBM, Intel and Microsoft all report large cash reserves and profits in the billions of dollars. However, layoffs are not academic for the people. They need to work quickly to replace the income and stability of employment.

Stephen Pate, NJN Network. January 26, 2009

Endgaget has published an in depth article on Windows 7 that contradicts some of the negativity. “We’ve covered a few tidbits of what the Windows 7 Beta has to offer, including the mess of machines we’ve installed it on, but we finally gathered together all our thoughts and impressions of the OS into one meaty pile of words and screencaps.” Read the article. We also hear the Windows 7 Beta has been so popular that Microsoft is extending the download until Feb 10,2009. Here’s the link if you’re tempted to try it. I might get out my Intel dual processor CPU and give it a spin.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PE Canada January 26, 2009
with a story from BMighty.com

Laptop sales will soon pass desktops. They’re convenient and cheap. I’m writing this on a first class HP laptop found on clearance for $550 with a printer. Netbooks are even smaller than most laptops and may be all you need for surfing the net, email and writing. They cost less than $500 and can be found everywhere including Wal-Mart where the Acer Aspire costs less than $350. Pretty cool. Check out the story for
7 options.BMighty.com

Though telco won’t recognize ruling, keeps running ad...
08:48AM Wednesday Jan 21 2009 by Karl Bode dslreports.com
Tipped by MacGyver

Users in our Bell Canada forum note that the Canadian telco has had their wrist slapped by Advertising Standards Canada (ASC), the Canadian advertising industry’s national self-regulatory body. According to the Toronto Star (via P2PNet), Rogers Wireless is disputing a Bell Canada ad claiming Bell has the “the fastest … network across North America.” The ASC found the claim to be false, but Bell Canada ignored the ruling and continued to run the advertisement, because they don’t recognize the organization as legitimate. The U.S. has their own occasionally useless advertising self-regulation operation that is frequently ignored as well — yet carriers like AT&T and Verizon want a similar system created to oversee user privacy and behavioral advertising.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI Canada, January 23, 2009 It’s easy to get some free publicity with Wikipedia. You just post something they don’t like, they take it down and you report that in the media. Instant attention. Although I hadn’t planned it that way, it’s what happened when juvenile Wiki editors hit my stubborn streak. Wiki War hits Disability Alert It gave Disability Alert national media attention across Canada. Apparently the Wiki editor sits in his room pouring over Wiki entries 18 hours a day, that is when he’s not working as a stooge for the Conservative Party. TechDirt reports that a rock band got lots of free publicity the same way. “…eventually one of the band’s fans wrote one about them — and it was deleted later that day because the band wasn’t, according to Wikipedia editors, “notable.” Cue the newspaper article… and then the follow-up, saying the band was back in Wikipedia, with an entry linking to the original story.” After my Wiki war got national Canadian media attention, some newspapers sent a memo banning Wiki quotes which is a smart move.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, January 23, 2009

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed in the press conference January 22nd that President Obama has gotten his way: he will keep his Blackberry. Gibbs didn’t go into details except to say messages would be personal and not work related. Two things: that’s hopeless and that’s hopeless. For the Blackberry addicted like the President, the little device is plugged into their psyche and never out of their hands. Second, nothing a President says is personal. The US press dissect every word Obama says. In the same press conference, the reporters tied themselves into knots asking if Presidential Orders were valid if signed before he took the oath again “out of an abundance of caution”. Obama represents a different world of connected and open compared to traditional politics. It’s the same world that wants to shut down the Internet as dangerous. I’d say it’s too late: the cat is out of the bag. He does connect well with younger cool people. (From live televised news conference).

From TechDirt, January 22, 2009
In the past week, you may have seen various news stories about Nigerian scammers hacking into Facebook, and then sending their “friends” messages, saying they’re stranded in London without money. It is, of course, just the latest improvement on the venerable old Nigerian 419 scam, this time upgraded to use hacked/phished Facebook accounts to trick trusting friends into coughing up their money. However, one of the biggest issues is raised by Yehuda Berlinger, who points out that for those who are hacked, Facebook doesn’t seem to have any reasonable way to contact them and fix the problem. Considering how much of your “identity” might be tied up in your social networking profile, you would think that a company like Facebook would have a ready made system in place to handle such “emergency” situations.

File under: lies my mother never told me

From MacWorld
Intego, makers of VirusBarrier and other security software for the Macintosh, issued a security alert for Mac users on Thursday, advising them about the existence of a new Trojan Horse, which they’ve named OSX.Trojan.iServices.A. This new Trojan Horse can be found in pirated copies of Apple’s iWork ‘09 application suite, which has been downloaded over 20,000 times, according to Intego’s numbers. The malicious software connects to remote servers over the Internet, so a malicious remote user will know that the program has been installed. The malicious user will be able to connect to the infected Mac and perform various actions; the Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.

From Engadget Now that the Windows 7 beta is out, the benchmarks are coming fast and furious, and while 7’s been previously found to best XP and Vista during “real-world” tasks, it looks like XP is still the outright speed champ on current hardware. That’s at least the word according to InfoWorld, which pitted all three systems against each other in a suite of tests designed to suss out how each performed on modern multicore systems. There’s nothing complicated about the final results, which showed that “any illusions about Windows 7 somehow being leaner or more efficient than Vista can now be thrown out the window.” 7’s just slower on dual- and quad-core hardware than XP. However, there’s a silver lining here: InfoWorld says the slowdown is in large part due to the extra code Vista and 7 use to manage multicore processors, and as the number of cores increase, the corresponding performance gains are much bigger than with XP since they can be used more efficiently. Right now we’re just going to get back to installing the Windows 7 beta on anything we can find and reveling in the glory of perceived speedups.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, January 22, 2009 – CNET Asia’s Crave site does a hands-review of the new X-mini II that looks like the ideal portable speaker. Just slightly larger than the 1.5 year old X-mini, the new model has improved speakers and can handle larger volumes before distortion. The review called them “richer and fuller sonics, the greater convenience of a built-in audio cable, and the longer battery life. Even sweeter is the proposed sticker price of US$29.” Expected on these shores in March 09.

January 21, 2009 – TechRadar Microsoft announced it will cut it’s payroll by 5,000 with 1,400 going immediately. Despite a profit increase of 11% to $4 billion in the quarter, yes three months, this is pure Microsoft. Microsoft is one of the most profitable companies on the planet earth and take any chance they can to cut costs. They have done this going into each and every recession and come out with billions more in the bank account. Smart money hides during a downturn. “Cuts at the Redmond giant have been mooted for some time, but the confirmation has finally been made, with Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell announcing the news. “Economic activity slowed beyond our expectations in the quarter, and we acted quickly to reduce our cost structure and mitigate its impact,” said Liddell.”
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Consumers expect bargains at Circuit City or the just announced The Source bankruptcy sales should be aware those prices are no bargain. TechDirt reports “you might think there would be some decent bargains on electronics. Not necessarily. Consumerist points out that a local TV station checked out some of the prices and found that, in many cases, the liquidation prices were actually higher than buying the same items at Wal-Mart online. Apparently, the liquidation experts running the sales figure that as long as people think they’re getting a steal of a bargain, they’ll really believe they are.” Buyer beware.

PC Magazine reports the new Downadup and Conflicker worm may have infected more than 6% of computers. “The worm, discovered earlier this month, exploits the Windows MS08-067 service vulnerability, a patch for which was released three months ago. It spreads through USB memory devices like USB drives or MP3 players. The Windows option menu that appears after inserting the USB device will disguise the option to run the program as the option to open the folder. Open the file and release the worm.” F Secure has a special removal tool that scans computers for the worm which enters on USB devices. Other reports say the worm can avoid the Microsoft fix. Keep your virus checker current. I like Avast Home which is non-intrusive and free for consumers.

By Stephen Pate
NJN Network
January 19, 2009
with story from the New York Times

The New York Times reported that Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, and Roy J. Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman met secretly last week in New York. Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo to bolster its Internet search engine business last year. The plan was scuttled by then Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang who is out the door and replaced by new CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz has admitted meeting with Ballmer. Yang was plainly stubborn and holding out for more. Considering the stock market crash since when both Microsoft and Yahoo have lots billions in valuation, Yang is clearly the looser. Yahoo peaked at $30 and is now in the low teens, $13. Microsoft which was about $30 per share at the time has dropped to about $20. Tough times are consolidation times in business.

I has lunch one day with Ballmer at the launch of Windows NT in Toronto. He is not a man to listen to “no” from anyone. He virtually lectured the table on why we weren’t moving our clients to Windows accounting. He was right. He usually is and he never quits. People worry about Microsoft after Bill Gates. I don’t because Bill was tough but Steve Ballmer is tougher.

Seagate has admitted the unusually high number of problems with its Barracuda 1 TB drives, Barracuda 1 TB 72000.11 drive failures on Jaunuary 16th, 2009. The word got out and back to Seagate at warp speed. After initially ignoring the problem, they promised a firmware fix and data recovery services according The Register, who first reported the story. “The company will provide a free firmware upgrade for those affected by the problem, and if you’ve lost data thanks to this firmware issue, it will provide free data recover services as well.” Link to Seagate to see if your hard drive is affected or read the Register story here. All’s well that ends well.

By Stephen Pate
January 17, 2009

We hate change and resist it with a passion. Now that the word is out about Windows 7, the articles are everywhere: should you wait for Windows 7, get Vista or try to keep Windows XP? CNET has a user story which is interesting if not instructive.

Of course you should upgrade to Vista. Why not? You heard it had bugs? For a generation raised on technology it’s hard to believe we are so stuck in the past.

Here’s a stunning revelation: every operating system since the beginning, since Noah pre-released Ark 1.0, had bugs and incompatible drivers, devices and programs. That’s the nature of technology. New things are better, hopefully, but always different and usually a bit of trouble. There is one law I’ve learned: you can’t go backwards in technology or life. Try driving your car backwards to the store, work or Toronto.
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By Stephen Pate
January 17, 2009

We hate change and resist it with a passion. Now that the word is out about Windows 7, the articles are everywhere: should you wait for Windows 7, get Vista or try to keep Windows XP? CNET has a user story which is interesting if not instructive.

Of course you should upgrade to Vista. Why not? You heard it had bugs? For a generation raised on technology it’s hard to believe we are so stuck in the past.

Here’s a stunning revelation: every operating system since the beginning, since Noah pre-released Ark 1.0, had bugs and incompatible drivers, devices and programs. That’s the nature of technology. New things are better, hopefully, but always different and usually a bit of trouble. There is one law I’ve learned: you can’t go backwards in technology or life. Try driving your car backwards to the store, work or Toronto.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Stephen Pate
NJN Network
January 11, 2009

Over the past week it became clear that Facebook has suffered a major security breach.Several people are reporting getting wall post messages but nothing is posted to the wall, such as

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By Stephen Pate

My dad taught me never to take shit from anyone. Talk about an independent streak. That was a pretty brave thing for him to teach a little crippled boy since everyone has to mange merde most of your life.

That streak of independence, a poor man’s Cool Hand Luke, has stuck with me. Cool Hand Luke combined inebriation with ne pas mange merde. He continued to act inappropriately and generally doomed himself.

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My tip on Dell not stocking at FS was wrong.

I got a great Dell XPS box at FS the other day. It works great except Vista 64 is not compatible with my Linksys BEFSR81 3.1 router.

Hard wired the XPS to a Linksys WRT54GS V7 Wireless G router and it works fine. No help from Dell since they don’t support boxes that come from FS – bummer.

Some smart girl helped me.

Now I get to fry my brains out with another piece of electrical gear near my ears.

Future Shop employees are telling customers that Dell Computers can not longer be ordered through Future Shop. With the bankruptcy filing of Circuit City computer manufacturers and distributors are nervous.

Wow is Dell in trouble? Rumours of bankruptcy surface 2005 to 2007 but I couldn’t anything more recent.

It could be that or they may just have an unannounced break-up, like with your girlfrend or boy friend but over money.

Could be Future Shoo didn’t pay its bills on time. Those are the usual explanations.

Anyone have answers?

My life has been too intense lately, all this social advocacy broken up with music gigs. Did you know that every time you think about politicians 1 million brains cells cry out for relief.

I need to stay inside and explore new technology like Microsoft Sphere and Surface.

Way cool! I want them! Now.

This could be the breakout for dull and boring computers, which are essentially the same as they were 10 years ago, boxes with software.

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eBay is gone to the dogs? It has been taken over by fraud artists and cons. The only safe way to bid is with Power Sellers who have no or few negative ratings.

This year I’ve been hit by three different scams: no product, rigged bids and inflated product descriptions.

Here’s how no product works. You bid on something like a camcorder and win. That’s cool until all communication with the seller stops and the product doesn’t arrive. My guess is they are taking orders and then trying to source it cheaper on eBay. Or they are just crooked.

Rigged bids are cute. You see an item you see at a good price and Watch it. The price stays low until 2 days before close. Then 2 or 3bidders move the price up double or more of where it started. Checking who they are, you’ll find the bidders only bid on this Seller’s auctions. Golly gosh Batman does that smell or what. If you want to get ripped keep bidding.

Inflated description is the worst since you win, pay the freight and are disappointed when the “Like New” item arrives and is worn out and probably not working. This happened twice this year to me. Duh eh?

If you get ripped you can ask PayPal to mediate. Never send a money order – that’s goodbye money time. Better yet use a credit card on PayPal. Most credit cards allow charge backs for goods not received or fraud. Check yours.

Usually you get your money back, but not always. Sometimes you lose $30 to $100 for freight. Each bad deal takes 1-2 months and a few inches off your life.

I still use eBay but I’ve sworn off the stunning deals from small Sellers.

By Preston Gralla

An investigation by the U.K.’s National Consumer Council has recommended that Microsoft and 16 other software companies be investigated for unfair practices related to End User License Agreements (EULAs). The investigation found that as a result of the way the EULA are designed and written, consumers agree to unfair terms, and sign away their legal rights without realizing it.

The NCC report found that software companies, including Microsoft, “mislead computer users into signing away legal rights.” It concludes that Microsoft and other software companies, “are shifting the legal burden onto consumers who buy computer programmes, leaving them with less protection than when they buy a cheap biro (pen).”

According to the NCC report:

The survey found a widespread lack of clear, upfront information written in plain English. More than half of the 25 products surveyed did not mention on the packaging that the consumer has to sign an end user licence agreement (EULA) before they can use it.

Among the offending products are Microsoft’s Microsoft Office for Mac standard edition) 2004, and Microsoft Office 2007 (standard edition).

Microsoft isn’t alone in their practices; the NCC is recommending that 16 other companies be investigated as well. Here’s the entire list: Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Chief Architect, Symantec, Magix, Nero, Corel, Sega, Nova Development, Britannica, Sonic Solutions, Twelve Tone Systems, THQ, GSP, McAfee, and Kaspersky.

Here are the main examples of EULA problems the report found:

* complex wording and widespread use of legal jargon

* legal uncertainty, with frequent references to legislation in other countries

* immediate contract termination rights for the provider

* the right for the provider to remove services without notice

* ambiguous references to ‘statutory rights’

* restrictions on the transfer of the users’ rights to a third party

* excessive exclusion of liability.

Does any of this surprise you? Me, neither. No one I know bothers to the read incomprehensible legal rules embedded in a EULA before installing software. They take for granted that the game is fixed against them.

The NCC is asking that the European Commission investigate, and has also referred the matter to the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT). I’m not sure if anything will come of it, but here’s hoping it will. If you want to read the full report, by the way, here’s where to get it.

When one toils away in relative obscurity there is a feeling of…well you know relative obscurity. I have been working away for months trying to shine some light on the Disability Support Scandal – taking money from people in wheelchairs, where did the money go, etc.

So I got some media coverage, like TV stories and letters to the editor, and stories in the Graphic, Guardian and Journal. It’s great to be written up but I also know what they mean – tomorrow’s garbage wrap.

But as a lonely person desperately seeking notoriety, I fall back the next day to my miserable existence. I blog alot but only a few thousand people read them and do they love me or hate me? Who can tell.

The signs have been building for a month or more that I might be making a geek breakthrough, real intense hatred by people with no real lives and little intelligence. Yeah that would be making it.

I got a cyberstalker. That’s the first sign you are moving into the weird zone. Cyberstalker’s usually know you and, having no lives of their own, try to suck some life out of you. Mine has a bona-fide disability but the belief the whole world revolves around his/her problems.

On PEI Talks I got a real flame going a month or so. There were some friends but a real ignorant type called BD kept coming at me. I was on the ropes. I bounced back but he was hopeless. The man was unremitting in his ignorance. I kept telling him, it’s not about me: it’s about wheelchairs stupid. OK so I held off on the stupid comment.

Then last week the dam burst. A story in the Guardian got me the drive-by-slur in the comments section. There were 40 comments – I was in heaven. Old BD was there with his friends. I had reached down to the lowest level of irrationality on PEI. What could be better?

I got three posts on the worst political blog of all time. The true cowards award for not identifying yourself, not allowing comments, and drive-by-slamming everyone in the Liberal party goes to PEI Political Home Page.

The amazing thing is: I like it. I mean they are talking about me for awhile. Someday they might talk about you but this week they are talking about me. And its all old new like how I grew my business and got government grants (oh shock oh horror of horrors on PEI), and how Gilbert Clements might be my friend.

If I have a relative who’s Tory or NDP what does that make me? My son was in a TV story with Susan Labchuck’s daughter: does that make me Green? One of my clients in that horrible business world was the President of the PC Riding Association. Was he a mole or was I a mole or were we double-agents? Can I have a medium black with two double-double agents please?

What other dark secrets will they expose. I lived on a farm and like Jersey cows. He’s an apologist for the agriculture sector and hates Holsteins.

I know my moment of glory will pass. Soon these people will move onto other targets. But there, then, for one shining moment I was in the spotlight of hatred. Infamy is so fleeting.

I got this email from a nice sounding gal named Nancy Roman. She is one of the dozen or so people who know me even though I don’t know them.

I get excited when I see their mail in my in box and then disappointed.

She doesn’t want me: she just wants my money. What’s wrong with this world when people can’t email each other just to be friends? Why is money always an issue?

If I meet Ms. Roman some day I will ask her that question.

I wonder what she looks like?

—–Original Message—–
From: Nancy Roman [mailto:tvo@leejun.co.kr]
Sent: September 29, 2006 3:02
To: stephen_pate@hotmail.com
Subject: weed centralize