It appears that Google now supports background images, just like Bing. This raises some questions…
a) doesn’t that look like oil-tainted swampland, perhaps a retort to the fact that BP bought a whole bunch of AdWords on Google and Bing to try to do damage control?
b) isn’t Bing turning one this week?
c) I am *pretty sure* this is a clever joke, though every website says “oh wow, you can set your background image on Google now like Bing!” I think they’re missing the sarcasm…
It took a while, but it looks like the legal system is starting to catch up to the “Fake Antivirus” guys who were pushing ‘Scareware’:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/052710-alleged-100m-scareware-sellers-facing.html
Hopefully this helps put an end to this practice, but I’m sure someone somewhere else will come up with something like it down the road. Be vigilant!
Google has announced ‘Google TV,’ a way to more easily search for and watch media on your television, no matter where the media is located. This platform should be built-in to set-top boxes, Blu-Ray players and TVs as early as this fall.
Yes, you too can get Google’s very targeted advertising mechanism delivered directly to you on your very own TV!
http://hothardware.com/News/Google-TV-Is-Official-The-Web-And-PayTV-Have-Finally-Clashed/
Expo 2010 opened on May 1, 2010 in Shanghai, China.
This is the largest Expo or World’s Fair in history, and they expect to attract 70-100 million visitors by the time it closes on October 31, 2010. This year’s theme is ”Better City, Better Life.”
As a huge fan of World’s Fairs I feel it is my duty to make sure everyone attends. 
Here’s an ultra-cool video (made by a friend of mine) of some of the 160+ pavilions at night:
Find out more about the Expo here at the official site:
http://en.expo2010.cn/
-Brian
Folding a towel may seem easy to you, but it’s not easy to teach a robot how to do it:
Introduced nine years ago, Windows XP is ubiquitous in corporate environments but it’s creaky and showing its age. As hardware & networks have improved Windows XP has had new services “bolted on” to it over the years but it’s really time for a new client operating system.
The introduction of Windows Vista was a mess — Microsoft did a ham-handed job developing and marketing that operating system, which was supposed to universally replace Windows XP. It didn’t — many large organizations decided to hold off and sit tight on Windows XP for several more years.
Microsoft has tried to make good with these organizations by finally releasing Windows 7 in October, 2009.
I’m very happy to say that they did a very good job on this operating system, and it’s finally ready for business use.
Windows 7 is a streamlined, faster version of Microsoft Vista. It combines new interface improvements that will be instantly noticeable to the end-user with a lot of necessary back-end improvements designed to complement modern technologies & improve security and administration.
Microsoft received lots of negative feedback about Vista’s interface changes — there were too many places to find things in the OS; attempting to perform a simple task could take minutes of wading through menus. To address this they simplified the entire menu structure and cleaned up the Start Menu, the Desktop and the Control Panel. Out of the box, Windows 7 presents a cleaner, simpler interface that’s very reminiscent of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. (Like Apple, Microsoft also decided to bundle in some very beautiful high-quality photographs as background images!)
Microsoft added some new taskbar functionality as well: multiple windows of the same program now show up as a single tab on the taskbar, reducing clutter. Hovering over running programs in the taskbar shows a thumbnailed image of the application. And as many people have seen in the commercials, dragging running programs to opposite sides of the screen will resize the windows automatically so that the programs can be quickly viewed side-by-side. There are numerous small improvements that when taken together can really speed up a person’s navigation of the operating system.
Things are even more interesting under-the-hood — Microsoft built a fault detection & repair system into the OS; it tracks (in great detail) every time a program fails or crashes, then attempts to locate information on how to repair the problem in a giant online database. The OS will even track how often this happens and give advice on how to stabilize things if it feels programs are crashing frequently. Part of the reason for this subsystem is designed to show that Microsoft is not the culprit in most crashes — it’s usually due to badly-written software or device drivers from a third party — but regardless of the reasons for it it’s a worthwhile system that has lots of potential. And for the record, no similar system exists in Mac OS X (and yes, programs crash in Mac OS X too, despite what you may have heard.)
In addition to this, they’ve improved all of the features that were added to Vista, such as better memory handling and cool geeky software technology such as SuperFetch and ReadyBoost — all of which can squeeze the most performance out of your hardware as is physically possible.
Microsoft has also improved the interface for their networking features which will be a great time saver for people who regularly switch from wired to wireless networks or move from office, to airport, to cafe, to home.
DEPLOYMENT
We are (finally!) specifying computers with Windows 7 installed as a default, instead of Windows XP – and this is a major change for us. While not every third-party Line of Business application is certified to be compatible with Windows 7, we haven’t encountered any major problems yet in our deployments. Still, you should check with your vendor (or ask us) before you purchase a computer with Windows 7 pre-installed. (There are many creative ways around compatibility issues as well–I can think of several very interesting workarounds Microsoft has built-in to Windows 7 itself to try to ensure very old software will still work correctly.)
We really think Windows 7 is a worthwhile upgrade for many businesses, but not necessarily across the board. If you are interested in upgrading (and there are many good reasons to do so) it’s a pretty clean and straightforward process on computers that are 1-2 years old. Hold on to anything older than that until the next PC refresh cycle and just replace it with a Windows 7 computer in a couple of years.
Incidentally, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 will interoperate without issue on the same network, and all three operating systems can connect to Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. (You’ll gain more network functionality with the newest versions of the client (Windows 7) and server (Windows Server 2008) operating systems.)
I’d like to specifically mention that HP has some really fantastic new desktop business computers (with shiny new Intel i-series processors) out right now with Windows 7 preloaded — if you are interested in those please let me know. (We are an authorized HP Agent — this means we specify HP hardware & set up the quote so you can order directly from HP.)
Have you upgraded to Windows 7 or do you have questions about it? Please leave feedback in the comments below.
-Brian
For over a year we’ve been aware of an emerging security threat that targets (primarily) home PCs. But we’ve seen this security problem jump to corporate PCs as well. This threat is a serious problem as we’ve seen it show up in the field many times.
This threat shows up in the form of ‘Fake’ antivirus software – it’s usually inadvertently downloaded by someone casually browsing the web with Microsoft Internet Explorer – and alerts the user that “Your computer is infected” or “Your computer is not protected with antivirus software.” The graphics are very realistic and are designed to look like legitimate security software. The “software” (it’s actually spyware) can be called ‘Antivirus 2008,’ ‘Antivirus 2010,’ or ‘Antivirus Pro’ or some variant of those names.
(Click the pictures to see a detailed view of some actual examples of what this threat can look like.)
Recently, we’ve seen the software become more convincing, and harder to remove. One variant of it literally locks up your operating system - holding it ransom (claiming that the entire OS is infected with viruses or spyware) until you pay to upgrade to a “Premium” version of the software. This “Premium” version “removes” these non-existant viruses.
“Fake Antivirus” software is somewhat difficult to remove, but it can be done — though it’s far easier to prevent it. While we’re finding that many popular antivirus packages won’t block it (because it uses many tricks to get around them) you can do a few things to keep it at bay:
If your computer is behaving very strangely or trying to scare you into thinking it’s loaded with viruses, CALL US ASAP — we know how to get rid of “Fake Antivirus” safely.
Our service plans at BDPNetworks employ a multi-pronged approach to computer & network security. While there’s no such thing as perfect security our tools & methods can prevent your corporate data & employee productivity from being compromised by security threats such as “Fake Antivirus” spyware.
Do you have questions or comments on this article? Or do you just want to vent your frustrations about this problem? Please leave feedback below.
-Brian
AT&T in conjunction with Cisco has just announced the “MicroCell” – a miniature cell phone tower for your home or office. If you suffer from poor reception (and what AT&T customer hasn’t had problems with service?) you can stick this on your Internet connection and use it instead of AT&Ts service for your phone calls. Your cell phones will see it just like a regular AT&T cell tower.
Here’s my fundamental problem with this: it is well known that AT&T has had major problems with their network over the past few years, especially with the proliferation of Apple’s iPhone. It appears that they’re saying, “Look, we know you have trouble with our network, so why not use your Internet connection instead?” Then they have the audacity to charge you an additional $20/mo for the privilege of not using their network to make your calls. They’re saving tons of bandwidth by piggybacking on your other connection.
AT&T has been very quick to blame iPhones over the past year for their poor service, but I tend to think it’s a very simple case of AT&T not putting enough money in their infrastructure. In the absence of any real regulation, companies like AT&T are going to spend as little as possible to extract as much money out of their customers as possible. Most customers will gripe and complain about it but won’t be moved to act on it. So the cycle continues.
We’ve used AT&T for years at BDPNetworks (and I have an iPhone myself) – but at this point I would jump at the chance to switch to Verizon, and our new employees will likely end up with Verizon phones as well.
-Brian
Here’s an item about a new study which shows that seventy-five percent of all businesses suffered losses due to cyber attacks last year, resulting in an average loss of $2 million per incident!
http://www.daniweb.com/news/story262199.html#
It may not immediately sound like this applies to small business, but small businesses are often far less protected from these threats unless they work with a Managed Service Provider (like BDPNetworks!) who can institute a comprehensive IT security program. Internal IT staff, independent consultants and traditional “break/fix” IT service companies are simply ill-equipped to handle current and emerging security threats for companies of any size. A structured management program which includes regular updates, maintenance, agressive security management and training is the only good solution.
Has your company been hit by a cyber attack? Tell us about it below!
Here’s an interesting article about a new type of malware that infects poorly-configured or unpatched consumer-grade DSL modems, routers and firewalls. This one’s called ‘Chuck Norris” and is an interesting example of a “botnet” which spreads through network equipment, not PCs. This is yet another example of how regular maintenance, security management & patching is essential to keep the “bad guys” out – even at home:
