One stock maven believes that the Wall Street collapse may
reignite
Microsoft's interest in Yahoo. The theory is that Yahoo is now far cheaper
and the value of Microsoft cash is relatively undiminished.
This could well be true, though I still think buying Yahoo is a terrible me-too
idea. And Microsoft has recently
spent $80 billion buying back its own stock (a better investment than AIG,
I dare say). Does Redmond still have the cash to snag Yahoo? And if not, can
it borrow that amount in today's market? You tell me at [email protected].
By the way, we can no longer call Wall Street types gurus, experts or pundits
after losing so much money. I lost the equivalent of a fully equipped BMW 640
last week -- what about you? Stories of possessions lost welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 13, 20080 comments
Tomorrow will be a particularly busy
Patch Tuesday, and once again remote code execution attacks are taking center
stage, with no less than four fixes. Active Directory will get plugged, as will
Windows Server 2000, Internet Explorer and Office.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 13, 20080 comments
It's been a bit of secret how much Microsoft has been pushing SQL Server 2005
and 2008 as a business intelligence (BI) platform. But Microsoft doesn't want
it to be such a secret anymore, and has a range of
new
features to increase the IQ of BI in the next rev of SQL Server. Topping
the list? New reporting and analysis services aimed not just at BI gurus, but
rank-and-file managers and information workers.
Like any important initiative in Redmond, it may take a while, but eventually
Microsoft usually gains a leadership position. Who knows? It may even happen
some day for the Zune!
Posted by Doug Barney on October 09, 20080 comments
It might not be a reversal of XP's death sentence, but if reports are to be
believed, XP did at least get a
six-month
reprieve and won't be yanked from OEM hands until July 2009.
Some say this is a bunch of hooey, but whether or not Microsoft has formally
made the decision, I have to believe the company will offer XP as long as humanly
possible. After all, people want it, Microsoft gets paid for it and the monopoly
remains intact. Where's the downside? There isn't one.
Tell me where I'm wrong (yeah, I stole that line from Bill-O) at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 09, 20080 comments
Here's one more scareware story to cap off the week. At least in this one, the
user learns his lesson:
I have a boss, the company vice president yet, who has a bad habit of
going places on the Internet that he shouldn't and clicking on things better
left unclicked. In the past, I have been able to clean some of the scareware
off his system, but the last couple of times I couldn't. The scareware folks
had gotten smarter. The first thing they did was disable anything I could
use to get rid of their work, such as Task Manager, the Run box, any malware
or anti-virus products it could find, and even access to the c: drive (they
hid it).
I basically told him that I couldn't get rid of the crap and that it
would take me two days to reformat and reload his machine...two days during
which he would have no access to his e-mail or anything else. Since the second
two-day outage, he has been behaving himself much better.
-Phil
Readers share their thoughts on the "Vista
Capable" logo lawsuit and the fuss over hardware requirements:
This is much ado about nothing. I've been in the industry for over 25
years and every edition of Windows which has ever shipped has needed twice
the minimum RAM requirements to "get by" and four times that number
to perform well. Vista is no different.
For instance: XP requirements were a 300MHz Pentium II with 128MB of
RAM but it had to have an 800MHz Pentium 3 and 256MB of RAM to work OK and
512MB to run well. Vista requires an 800MHz Pentium 3 and 512MB to run but
has to have a 1GHz Pentium 4 HT and 1GB of RAM to work OK and 2GB of RAM to
run well. Nothing new here. That doesn't change the fact that Microsoft oversold
Vista's new features and failed to get its ISVs and OEMs on board before going
RTM. Missing the 2006 holiday season didn't help, either. That said, with
any system sold today, Vista will run very well with 2GB of RAM.
-Marc
Specs on today's hardware are most impressive, particularly when you consider
the low prices. The only thing more impressive is current Microsoft software's
ability to drag it down. At first, I was thinking the hardware makers were
inflating their claims, but if you run old benchmark programs on the new machines,
the numbers are off the charts! Same thing if you load Win2K Pro or Win98
on a modern machine. They boot so fast, you'll miss it if you yawn. And Win98
shuts down so fast that you can't even get your finger away from the button!
So what exactly is Vista doing when (after a fresh install) it takes
many minutes to boot on a triple-core 2.3Ghz machine with 2GB of memory?
-Robert
Doug suggested yesterday that when it comes to prices, PCs have greater appeal
to the Joe Six-Packs of the world than Apple. One reader agrees:
I believe you might be showing your conservative values with that Joe
Six-Pack statement. Good for you.
I agree with you. I went to get an MP3 player/radio for working out. iPod:
$120. Radio tuner: another $50. Phillips player with radio that has the same
memory and half the size: $60. I may get an iPod for my kids if my arm is
twisted, but for me, no thank you.
-Joe "Six-Pack"
And finally, Mailbag gets political! Here are a few of your thoughts on the
presidential candidates and the current economy:
In response to your query regarding the economic savvy of either of the
anointed presidential candidates, all I can do is laugh. Both are completely
freaking clueless about most things, in my opinion, but especially about the
economy. As were all other candidates from both parties except one: Congressman
Ron Paul. He's the only one who could get former Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan to sweat during committee testimony and the only one who can
not only explain the issues, he predicted the current fiasco and took steps
to avoid it.
Google "Ron Paul" and read his writings. Easier yet, do a search
on YouTube and listen to him explain his philosophy. The man is short on sound
bites but long on substance. Here's
a place to start your education.
-J.C.
It has become painfully obvious to me that our country has been hijacked
by some of the most vile, evil people imaginable who care not one iota about
the middle class, lower class or even upper class. They are the 'elites' and
they have done a really good job of creating a system that rewards criminals
and punishes people who are good. They have ruined the U.S. economy and I
personally don't want to play a rigged game. It is laughable that there are
so many willing slaves.
-M.J.A.
Let us know what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 09, 20080 comments
This isn't the first time this newsletter has warned about the need for better
virtualization security. The whole issue is that virtualization is a relatively
new form of computing (and yes, I do know IBM mainframes were virtualized in
1968), and many security tools haven't kept up. Add to that the fact that a
single virtualized server can act as dozens of machines. Compromise that server
and you can compromise the whole shooting match.
A new survey by security vendor nCircle Inc. shows just
how nervous IT is. About half of those polled don't trust security in virtual
environments. Meanwhile, Shavlik surveyed VMworld attendees, and while 80 percent
of these folks are very concerned about the issue, only about a third have taken
concrete steps to secure virtual servers.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 09, 20080 comments
Last week, I
wrote
about scareware, those pesky pop-ups that claim your PC is infected. Click
the pop-up and you're either buying security or performance software you don't
need and doesn't even work, or your machine is now infected and ready to cash
it in.
I've been getting plenty of horror stories -- you can check out a few of them
in yesterday's
Mailbag section -- but the topic also prompted me to write a feature story...and
that's where you can help. Drop me a note at [email protected]
and tell me how you or one of your company's machines was compromised by scareware.
I'm also very interested in how to prevent the pop-ups and repair the damage
they do. You could well be quoted in a future issue of Redmond magazine.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 09, 20080 comments
Scareware victims have been
venting
to us
all
week. Here are some more of your thoughts, including some praise for Vista's
scareware-fighting tactics:
My own laptop became infected and I could not even turn my Office on!
I turned the machine off and prayed I would not have to format it. A colleague
sent me this
link and it worked well. I have not had a problem since running the malware
removal software.
-Susan
Regarding your scareware item, I am a system admin responsible for over
40 Vista machines. I've had Vista deployed since March 2007 with User Access
Control enabled. The users don't have administrator rights to their box. I
haven't had a single virus or malware incident reported by my users or by
Symantec AntiVirus.
You tend to bad-mouth Vista in many of your articles, but you can put
me down as one admin that loves it because the users can't mess it up.
-Ken
Oddly enough, I can give some support to Vista on this one. After having
set up a computer that I was not concerned about, I decided to put Vista to
the test. I went to any number of search engines and started searching for
any site that I thought might give me a nasty bug. I finally found one. I
allowed the system to accept whatever was being offered despite Windows Defender
screaming at me not to do it. Yup, I was then infected. Symantec AV was helpless
against this new computer corrupter that I picked up and Vista sure hated
it, as well. Ended up just rebuilding the system.
This along with another experience I had taught me one lesson: My system
is more secure with Windows Defender on and without Symantec AV than the other
way around (as you're not supposed to run AV with Defender on). To date, I
haven't seen anything to prove me wrong. Now, I'm sure there are others who
have had the opposite experience, and I'd like to hear from them. That way,
I'll know where not to go as well. The additional experience was that I ran
a test computer for around three months with Defender and no AV. I then installed
AV and ran a scan. No virus. Two weeks later I had a virus; my Defender was
turned off. But hey, maybe that's because I'm not using Forefront/Antigen,
right?
-Jacob
I wrote an article re-infecting a VM with a sample malware I obtained
from a client's machine, and documented all the corners of the VM that were
infected. See it here.
-David
A recent story about Mac Pros emitting
a bad smell that may or may not be benzene prompted Doug to ask readers
whether they fear their gadgets. One reader is keeping a wary eye on his phone:
My phone might not be popping popcorn but it sure is sending strong signals
into my head. I am sure the Bluetooth isn't much better. Sometimes I feel
like one of the fish in the water by the nuclear tower in the "Simpsons"
after the nuclear waste has oozed in.
-Anonymous
And while hotel Internet connections are getting
a bad rap for being unsecure, John thinks they're not that dangerous. In
fact, they could be worse:
Want to talk about really unsafe connections? Some workers hit the strip
clubs. Maybe these clubs should offer hot spots...umm, never mind. Seriously,
though -- as long as you have proper security on your laptop and only enter
information on secure Web sites with certificates, it is no more vulnerable
than your home network.
-John
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 08, 20080 comments
Steve Ballmer defended himself, it seems, even more than his own company in
a class-action lawsuit over "Vista Capable" logos. Many consumers
are angry after buying a Vista Capable Computer (I call them VCCs) only to find
out it only ran lower-end versions of the OS. And sometimes, even that was a
stretch.
Ballmer claims
he was out of the loop and not part of the logo decision. I believe him.
Heck, this guy is busier than Paris Hilton at an all-male revue! But Ballmer's
reasonable excuse doesn't excuse the misleading logo program itself. Consumers
and the fee-hungry lawyers (who'll get most of the award, anyway) are right
on this one.
I have a feeling Microsoft has learned a lesson on Vista and that, in fact,
Windows 7 will be far better. And if it is, the glorious economics that are
the PC market will continue to shine. Here's an example of those economics:
I'm willing to help buy Mac laptops for my kids Lauren, David and Nick, but
can't bring myself to shell out $1,100 for a low-end Mac lapper of my own. That's
Apple's problem, and the PC's Main Street, blue-collar, Joe Six-Pack advantage.
Are you impressed or blasé about the price to power ratio of today's
PCs. Vote yea or nay at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 08, 20080 comments
Public relations folks come in all shapes, sizes and levels of professionalism.
Sometimes, I get calls from a newbie clearly reading tech-speak from a script.
Other times, a trusted longtime pro calls me with information that's of 100
percent interest to my readers. Often, the level of creativity is less than
that of a Backstreet Boys song.
Then there are the moments of true cleverness. I would've never written about
the company Secure
Computing this week were it not for PR spin-meister Richard Mulligan, who
told me that when it comes to spam, "Obama" beats "McCain"
by a factor of 6-to-1 (there's six times as much Obama-related spam as there
is about McCain), and that "Sarah Palin" slightly edged out "Joe
Biden" in the same category -- don't ya know!
I have no idea what this all really means or how it helps Secure Computing
sell security products, but it was kind of fun.
What should each candidate do to help our tech and IT sector? Well-thought-out
thoughts welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on October 08, 20080 comments
If you're one of the richest -- if not
the richest -- men in the universe,
then a little thing like a near-stock market collapse isn't such a big deal.
Bill could lose $50 billion and still have enough to control Third World economies,
give Paris Hilton a clothing allowance and buy everyone in America a six-pack
of Pabst.
Even though Gates lives in a very different world, I trust his economic judgment.
(I try not to be political here, but does either major presidential candidate
understand anything about the economy or how to reduce our federal deficit?
You tell me at [email protected].)
Gates, despite losing billions this week, believes
in the fundamental strength of our capitalist system and doesn't even think
a recession is coming. Say it's so, Bill!
Posted by Doug Barney on October 08, 20080 comments
Everyone, it seems, has a different way of passing their time in a hotel. Some
hit the town, many hit the restaurants, a lot hit the bars and more than a few
hit the pay-per-view. And some of us try to get some work done, and use the
wireless or Ethernet connections at $12.95 a day to connect to the home office.
But like the food in the restaurants or some of the creeps in the bars, these
connections aren't
always safe. It seems hotels are far more interested in collecting their
fees than in protecting your machine. Many of these Ethernet networks are hubs
that are completely unsecured. And the wireless ain't much better -- most are
also simple hubs.
Posted by Doug Barney on October 07, 20080 comments