Microsoft COFEE device

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I've been keeping up today with a story that was reported in the Seattle Times regading the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor device Microsoft has made available to law enforcement agencies. So far I've read Ed Bott's response and recently The Register's response and I have to say that I think that they are overreacting at this. I'm going to go through some of the points made in The Register article below, my points are in bold.

Microsoft has reportedly developed a USB key that allows investigators to
extract forensic data from PCs.
COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence
Extractor) comes in a USB key form factor, and was distributed to a small number
of law-enforcement agencies last June, the Seattle Times reports. The device includes 150 tools that allow
investigators to extract internet history files, for example, or "decrypt
passwords".

The 150 tools are simply based on the 150 commands that forensic experts must enter anyway and that normally take 4+ hours. Microsoft claim that they are simply making this stage easier.

Rather than pointing to the existence of a backdoor

There are people that have climed that this tool circumvents security such as BitLocker and exploits backdoors in the system. It doesn't! Never did, that's just anti-Microsoft propaganda. Nice to see The Register rubbishing it.

the decrypting password
feature appears to relate to password auditing tools. COFEE also allows
investigators to upload data for analysis.
The device is used by more than
2,000 officers in at least 15 countries, including Germany and the US. Microsoft
supplies the technology to law enforcement agencies without charge. The tool
reportedly allows investigators to scan for evidence on site without necessarily
having to cart PCs back to a lab.
Computer forensics is a painstaking process
carefully designed to make sure data on a suspect computer isn't changed -
simply plugging a device into a computer to extract data seems like a quick and
dirty fix. The admissibility of such data in court in debatable even before we
get into considering the possibility that the USB key might harbour
malware.

Do we honestly think that this is a revelation to the people who designed the tool or consulted on the tool? I honestly do not believe that there is a room in Redmond where someone is now thinking, "I wonder should we have asked a computer forensic professional about this stuff before we built this. The fact that the Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith has commented about it makes me think that they've done a lot of research into the legal viability of the evidence the tool will produce. Anyway, I suspect the tool is meant to indicate the presence of evidence and produce passwords rather than actually produce the evidence. It's not designed to replace forensic experts just make their lives a bit easier.

Another, even greater concern is that the kit will get into the
hands of hackers. The form factor for COFEE would be just their cup of
tea.

To start with hackers would need to actually gain physical access to the machine they are trying to attack for this to be a real threat. Secondly do you think they don't have similar tools already? Anyone heard of Switchblade?

The extraction and analysis of digital evidence features in the
investigation of more on more crimes, not just those specific to computers such
as internet fraud and child abuse investigations. UK specialists we've spoken to
tell us they're struggling to cope with the volume of work from law enforcement
clients. There's a genuine problem here, but we're not convinced COFEE is the
solution.
Law enforcement officials from forces in 35 countries are meeting
in Redmond this week to talk about the role of technology in combating crime. A
similar event two years ago led to the development of COFEE, the Seattle Times
reports. ®

So the industry has been involved in this tool for while then?

My only problem with it is that by the time law enforcement agencies have finished testing it and ensuring it's going to work in virtually all conditions there'll be a new set of technologies out there and it'll have to be updated again anyway. Great place to start though so I say well done Microsoft. Reading the comments on Ed's blog, as well as on the Seattle Times site, though it's obvious that there are people out there that are willing to believe anything anti-Microsoft and no matter how sensationalist and obviously false the story they want to believe it.

XP3 Pulled From Windows Update

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Microsoft have pulled Windows XP SP3 from Windows Update at the last moment due to incompatibility issues. Paul Thurrott has the following quote from Microsoft on his blog regarding the delay:

In the last few days, we have uncovered a compatibility issue between
Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) and Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Microsoft Dynamics RMS is a retail chain management solution for small and midsize customers.
In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center.
To help protect our customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center.
Until we have published a fix for this issue, we advise
Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers to not install either service pack.
Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers running Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1 should contact Microsoft Customer Support Services for additional
information. The fix is currently in testing and will be available as soon as
that process is complete. For further information regarding Windows XP
SP3, please visit the TechNet Forum.

While I've seen this referred to as a cock-up once today already we have to give Microsoft credit for how well the development of SP3 has gone and from the quote above it appears as though this problem is going to be fixed very quickly. For anyone desperate to get SP3 it can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. Paul has a link to the download on his blog.

Ed Bott on Vista UAC

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Ed Bott contiunes his excellent series of articles on fixing Windows Vista with an article on taming Vista UAC. The UAC is an excellent security feature in my opinion and in daily use I do not see UAC any more often than I would see Leopard's permission request window so I can't see the problem with it. However for those out there that normally turn UAC off please read this article first. It outlines how to get rid of the annoyance without having to seriously compromise security.

Messenger 7 for Mac Released

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Microsoft have released version 7 of Windows Messenger for Mac. I'll be downloading it later and will post more on it then but I've taken a quick look through the features that are on offer and to be honest they're a little disappointing. For business users there's a number of great features but for the home users it's still far behind the Windows version of the product. Still, it's great to have Messenger on the Mac and was one of the first things I downloaded when I got my Macbook.

Image: www.microsoft.com

Microsoft No. 1 Tech Company

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Fortune has published a list of the 20 most profitable tech companies and Microsoft is at no. 1 again with $14.1 billion in earnings last year. The top 5 in the list are:

1. Microsoft


2. IBM - $10.4 billion


3. Cisco - $7.3 billion


4. HP - $7.3 billion


5. Intel - $7 billion





Google and Apple came in 7th and 8th with $4.2 billion and $3.5 billion respectively. For a company that certain people are claiming is collapsing and who are supposed to have released an OS that is alledgedly massive failure, personally I have no problems with it but that's another post, they've still made some pretty good money this year. They really would be unstoppable in a few years if the Yahoo merger goes through and turns out to be a success, however, expect Microsoft to slip down the list next year if the Yahoo takeover goes through because $44billion to purchase Yahoo, let alone the cost of actually bringing the companies together, is a lot of money even for the Seattle Giant.

Asda offering £5 phones!

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Asda, the supermarket chain in the UK, has started offering mobile phones for £5. The phones in question are basic but this is certainly a great deal for anyone looking for a cheap but quality pay as you go mobile. The models on offer are:

Sagem My212x:

Sagem My220x:

Sagem My150x:

Nokia 1112:

Apple Store Down

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The Apple store UK is presenting the "We'll be back soon" sign. What's on it's way? Is it the rumoured iMac redesign. We'll know soon.

iPhone Sold Out!

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I got a very interesting email from Carphone Warehouse today informing me that they had officially sold out of iPhones.

Thanks to the most phenomenal response to the promotion, The Carphone Warehouse is now out of stock on the Apple iPhone.

...

Carphone do not expect to receive any additional stock at this time.

It's not the sales that surprise me it's the expectation that no additional stock will be received. I wonder does this mean the 8Gb is disappearing and the 3G one is on the way. Time will tell I suppose.

There's A Flaw In Cloud Plan

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As I've mentioned in previous posts the computer network in my current job is very restrictive. There are good reasons for this of course and I can certainly see the logic behind it but working in this environment has brought me to a realisation that I've yet to see mentioned on other sites, Cloud Computing has to fail. In my last job and at home, obviously, I have access to all the services online I want and can hook it up to any installed software I want and create a nice services and software architecture. This is great in a limited environment. In my current situation most people do not have access to Google, Yahoo or MSN. They cannot install Live, Adobe AIR or Google Gears. This presents a massive flaw in the cloud computing mission.

I've had my reservations about the move to online services for a while now and while I'm not against progress, as long as it's actually beneficial, I can't help but feel that this bubble is going to burst sooner or later. You see Enterprises are not going to entrust their sensitive information to Google or Microsoft or anyone else. They want it stored on a nice secure server where only a very select few can get anywhere near it and the software used to access it is tightly controlled. They don't want someone working on the Q1 numbers on Google Docs! They also don't want someone installing tools that can in any way interfere with the work that's being done. A manager once told me that software, and you can stretch it to networks, have to be designed with the idea that the user is stupid and will always make mistakes. While I don't for a second believe they are stupid, and neither did my manager, you are building it with the worst case scenario in mind. Therefore Enterprise customers want total control over everything that's installed and used on the clients machine. Cloud Computing does not offer this level of control.

In the educational sector it's even worse. You can't give school children free access to the Internet and you can't give them easy access to services such as SkyDrive and GMail simply because you can't be sure what they are accessing and what they are bringing in. Therefore the school network has extreme limitations placed on it which can lead to all access to Google and others being cut.

In environments such as those mentioned above it's very hard to see how Cloud Computing can be expected to thrive. It's a great consumer oriented architecture and it will make money from advertising, no question about that, but I can't see it breaking into the same world as the one Microsoft Office currently controls. The only way Cloud Computing will ever take over is if either the Internet becomes completely free of cyber crime or if the software companies take away the option of having your software based on the client machine. Hardware makers are never going to let the client die, neither will Microsoft for that matter, and cyber crime is increasing not disappearing so I really can't see a happy future for Cloud Computing.

Microsoft Gives Yahoo Free Advertising

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A study by SearchIgnite has shown that Yahoo's search and ad business grew faster than Google's in Q1. While it's easy to jump to conclusions and say that Yahoo's plan to fend off Microsoft is working perfectly and business is back on track it's difficult for me to look past the possibility that advertisers are backing Yahoo because of the Microsoft deal. With everyone talking about this deal, traffic to Yahoo must be increasing as people visit to have a look at what Yahoo have to offer. The idea that Microsoft are interested therefore Yahoo must have something of quality has to have occurred to other people. Is there anyone else out there who is visiting Yahoo more since the deal was talked about because I know I am. Leave a comment if you are.

The New Trojan War

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Microsoft has released it's Security Intelligence Report for July through December.  There are some interesting conclusions in this report such as

 

During 2H07 the MSRT proportionally cleaned malware from 60% less Windows Vista-based computers compared to computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Similarly, the MSRT proportionally cleaned malware from 87% less Windows Vista-based computers than from computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 1 installed, and 91.5% less than from computers running Windows XP without any Service Pack
installed.

The most significant statistic in this report however is the increase in the number of Trojans.

During the second half of 2007 there was a 300% increase in the number of trojan downloaders and droppers detected and removed. The increase observed in 2H07 is vastly larger than the already large increase observed between 2H06 and 1H07. Clearly this category of malware has become a tool of choice for some attackers. IT Professionals and Security Professionals alike should become familiar with this type of malware so that they can better protect their networks from attacks that leverage it.

Be careful everyone and make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date and you do not open email attachments or visit sites you do not trust or know.

Live Mesh Is Here

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I'm probably the last person to blog about this but I'm going to do it anyway. Microsoft has announced the availability of Live Mesh. This is Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's 'big' project. The build up for this started back in October 2005. Mary Jo Foley has the following top 10 things to know on her blog:

1. The definition. As has become the norm with so many of its Software + Services products and strategies, Microsoft isn’t the best at coming up with a succinct Live Mesh definition. The closest I found (in a Live Mesh reviewer’s guide) was this: “Live Mesh is a ’software-plus-services’ platform and experience from Microsoft that enables PCs and other devices to ‘come alive’ by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications seamlessly on the Web and across their world of devices.” If I were in charge of defining Live Mesh, I think I’d go with “a Software + Services platform for synchronization and collaboration.”

2. The codename(s). Prying codename confirmation out of anyone at Microsoft these days is a chore. But I did get a couple of Softies to admit that Live Mesh is the instantiation of Microsoft’s Windows Live Core strategy. “Horizon” was the codename for the build of Live Mesh that Softies have been testing internally, officials added. (Hat tip to the LiveSide.Net guys here for initially unearthing these codenames, not to mention the whole Live Mesh concept, earlier than anyone else out there.)

3. The team. So who’s behind Live Mesh, other than Ozzie? A team of about 100 is considered the core Live Mesh group, said Jeff Hansen, General Manager of Service Marketing. Given the connection between Windows Live Core and Live Mesh (mentioned in Talking Point 2), it seems as though a lot of Microsoft’s heavy hitters have had a hand in Live Mesh. The Live Mesh team is part of Microsoft’s Live Platform Services unit under David Treadwell, which has 400 folks in its ranks, Hanson said. Live Platform Services is one of the four “Live platform outlined by Ozzie last year.

4. The buzzwords. All the new requisite Microsoft checkboxes get a tick. Live Mesh is open to developers (not just .Net ones). It’s going to be cross-platform and cross-browser, the Softies say. It will be based on standard protocols and feeds — HTTP, RSS, REST, ATOM, JSON and FeedSync. And it’s chock full of Web 2.0 goodness, with a Facebook-like news feed about your contacts and your devices and lots of “social graph” info built in from the get-go.

5. The guts. I am an unabashed fan of architectural diagrams. Microsoft’s pictures of Live Mesh don’t disappoint. At the base level (click on the diagram at right to see full size) Live Mesh builds on the cloud storage, management, service and provisioning and computational fabric that other Microsoft Live services use. On top of that, Live Mesh uses the same identity, synchronized storage and connectivity services that Microsoft uses for other Live offerings. The “platform” services (a k a the “developer stack”) include the new Mesh Framework, as well as both a cloud and a client software run-time Mesh Operating Environment (MOE). Live Mesh “experiences” from Microsoft and third-party providers will build on top of these layers. (Thanks to Ori Amiga, Group Program Manage for the Live Development Platform, for spending a lot of time walking me through this.)

6. What about sync? Wasn’t Live Mesh supposed to be all about sync? Early descriptions of Horizon/Live Mesh focused on the service’s online/offline and cross-device/folder synchronization capabilities. At Microsoft Mix ‘08 in March, the Softies made it seem as though Microsoft’s Synchronization Framework and FeedSync would be the most important elements of the vague device and social meshes outlined by Ozzie. FeedSync is definitely one building block of Live Mesh (as one can see in this architectural diagram showing the Live Mesh developer stack). And synchronized storage is a key building block of the platform/service. Instead of relying on many of the existing synchronization and collaboration products/technologies that Microsoft offers today — things like FolderShare, Windows live SkyDrive, Office Live Workspace, etc. — the Live Mesh team seems to be building its platform pretty much from scratch.

7. What about Silverlight? Even though the Live Mesh team went out of its way to emphasize that Microsoft sees Live Mesh as an open platform, and not just one designed to appeal to the Windows/.Net choir, both Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (Silverlight) are key elements of the Live Mesh developer stack (a diagram of which — here on the left — can be enlarged to full size by clicking on it). Support for Flash, Cocoa, JavaScript and other non-Microsoft-centric technologies is there, too. But given Live Mesh is from Microsoft, I’d wager Silverlight applications and services will look and work better as Live Mesh endpoints than apps/services built on and for Mac OSX/Safari, Linux and Mozilla ones.

8. Live Mesh-isms. In addition to the aforementioned MOE (Mesh Operating Environment), other Mesh-centric concepts that will be important to developers working with early iterations of Live Mesh include: Mesh Bar, a “fly-out” adjunct to Internet Explorer that will provide you with notifications and activity updates on your devices/folders; Live Remote Desktop, an extension of Windows Remote Desktop, giving you the ability to directly access and control other devices within your mesh; Live Desktop, a user’s view of his/her cloud storage mesh; Mesh Object, a feed or collection of feeds (member feeds, news feeds, custom feeds); and the “ring,” which is all of the devices in/on your mesh.

9. Consumer vs. business. Live Mesh the service is definitely starting out as a consumer play for Microsoft. In describing the kinds of scenarios users might rely on Live Mesh to provide, Microsoft execs mentioned being able to share photos across devices and with preselected contacts. In the near term, Live Mesh will support PCs and Web browsers. As time goes on, it sounds like Microsoft expects it to work on/with portable media players, gaming consoles, TVs, printers and more. Live Mesh will allow users to choose to sync home PCs and personal devices with work PCs. But Microsoft also foresees a broader scenario, with Live Mesh being customized by various Microsoft development teams, as well as third-party ones, to be able to sync/share line-of-business data. Someday.

10. The timing. Microsoft is opening up a technology preview (pre-beta) to 10,000 testers this week. By the time the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) rolls around in late October, Microsoft is hoping to be able to offer the Live Mesh service to a broader set of beta testers. The Softies also are promising around the PDC time frame more information on how the Live Mesh framework (Mesh FX) fits in with the Windows Live Developer Platform (Live Contacts, Live Mail, Live Messenger and other related application programming interfaces) that the Softies already have started making available to developers. And details also are allegedly coming at the PDC about how users will be able to store Live Mesh data and information on their own servers, not just in Microsoft’s datacenter. Hansen said Microsoft will provide a way for developers to “go back in and mesh-enable existing applications.” No word (yet) on how that will work. And no word on when Microsoft hopes to make the final version of Live Mesh available to any/all interested parties.

Live Mesh

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I'm on the waiting list for Live Mesh but is there anyone out there who has an invite? I'm looking forward to giving this a try.

Ed Bott Fixes Vista

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Ed Bott has written an article that walks us through some steps on repairing Windows Vista and getting it up to speed. This is a great read for anyone who owns a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista installed and is cursing how slow it is. He make the point that the problems with Vista on this laptop have nothing to do with the Operating System itself but has to do with the substandard drivers and the crapware that Sony have installed on it, a point I've been making for a while now. I have a Sony laptop running Windows XP, it's not running XP because I hate Vista it's just because the machine is 3 years old :). XP is terrible on it when it is rebuilt simply because of the amount of junk Sony put on it. It takes me a good 3 hours to get it up to speed and another hour to get the lateset drivers found and installed. Ed talks about not wanting this free stuff and I completely agree with him. I don't want Norton or the Office trial and I always remove the Vaio's media playing software. We should be able to choose if we want this stuff installed when we create the recovery discs. Sony make fantastic hardware but the fill it so full of rubbish that to the average user the OS seems terrible.

In the current environment were Apple are shipping machines, not that many granted but enough to keep themselves in a healthy profit, based partly on perceived weaknesses in Vista the OEM partners need to start removing the crapware from their machines and start shipping the most up-to-date drivers they can. It's in their interest to ensure that Vista performs flawlessly out of the box and this just isn't happening at the moment. I've said it before and I will again, Microsoft need to build their own machines. Microsoft software on optimized hardware will put to bed the idea that the OS is weak and will highlight the weaknesses in the vendors products. I know I would buy a Microsoft machine in the blink of an eye afterall I bought a Macbook.

Having To Resort To Google

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I'm now working away in an environment that means that I cannot download any of the Windows Live applications I would normally use, i.e. Live Writer, Outlook Connector and Live Messenger. I'm going to ignore Messenger simply because I cannot even get Windows Messenger to work due to built in restrictions but the others are more of an issue. I personally do not like the current trend towards moving entire applications to the Cloud and I prefer having information stored in the cloud but accessed from a lightweight app installed on my machine. For example I like the fact that I can get my email into Outlook through the connector and I can set up RSS feeds. However it annoys me that I cannot setup a shared area online from which Outlook will download the feeds. I know Google has Reader, and I'm using it now that I can't access Live, but I want a shared area where any of my devices can access my RSS feeds which are stored on Live and are up-to-date. The software-and-services approach. After 3 days working in a restricted environment I'm starting to appreciate the Google approach of having full applications online and I would like to see Microsoft following this a bit more. A version of Live Writer that is accessible from the Internet and doesn't need any downloads would be great, an RSS reader similar to Google Reader, Live Mail with similar functionality to Live Mail Desktop i.e. ability to receive mail from other accounts and a proper Live Calendar that I can sync with my other devices without having to pay.

There are people who will probably be wondering why not just use Google Apps instead but I prefer Microsoft's products I just feel that there's currently too many holes in the lineup to make it entirely viable at the moment. From my Vista machine and XP mahine it's great because I'm in control, in a working environment I have to move to Google. Come on Microsoft I need the online apps before I decide to simply write my own.

Yahoo! Do Enough Thankfully

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Yahoo! announced their Q1 results today and as expected they are strong, not amazing but string none the less. Now the ball arrives back into Microsoft's court and we wait to see when they will up their offer for Yahoo, I suspect to $35 per share. I would feel however that this is now the time for Microsoft to withdraw from the deal completely. A final offer from Microsoft for about $33 per share would be a good next move. Once that bid is rejected the next step will be to either attempt to replace the Yahoo! board if they're that desperate to take them over or withdraw from the bid altogether. Within a couple of days I hope to take a full look at Yahoo! and MSN offerings and see just how far away from being truly competitive Microsoft actually are but I suspect if the money being spent trying to take over Yahoo! was spent on R&D and hiring new blood Microsoft wouldn't have to worry so much.

Microsoft To Take A Leaf From Apple's Book?

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At a Seattle event on Thursday Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about areas Microsoft will focus on in the future. While much is being made of the comments he's made about Windows Vista many people seem to be disregarding the comment he made regarding hardware. He talked about Paul Allen approaching Bill Gates in the early days and talking to him about building computers and each time Bill would say no, Microsoft are a software company not a hardware company. At the end he said, "We're on that same strategy 30 years later ... but we do have an expansive vision." While we could assume that he's talking about the Zune and the XBox I personally don't believe he is. Apple have been given credit for how efficiently their OS runs and a major reason for this efficiency is the fact that the hardware and software are so closely tied. If Microsoft started to build own brand PC's optimised to run Windows 7 and Windows Vista as well as offering the OS to other PC makers they should be able to open up a new revenue stream and I know I would personally buy a Microsoft branded PC if I knew it was as well optimised as the Macs are.

The XBox should've been the perfect live experiment to get the problems ironed out of their hardware designs. Hopefully the overheating problems will be solved in the new desktops because they will realistically get one shot at this release. It must be well designed, must be at least comparable to the iMacs, as well as performing better than the majority of vendor PC's currently on the market. I know these goals are high but as this is a tough market with Apple slowly gaining ground and most PC's lacking in aesthetic pleasure Microsoft will be expected to produce or risk getting lost in the market.

iPhone To Get Keyboard

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The Times of London is reporting that Apple has placed an order with it's suppliers for 200,000 of the new 3G iPhones by the end of May. According to reports the new iPhone will be different to the current device. The possibilities given are a flip version giving the user a larger screen and sliding version which would have a fully functioning QWERTY keyboard rather than a touchscreen keyboard.

The most likely outcome is that we will see all three versions of the device released. This would give the touchscreen version for users who want music and videos, the flip version for those who want Internet browsing on a larger screen and I would also say easier use of enterprise software and the slide for the average user and the Blackberry users who want a device similar to the one they are using.

The release of these three products could catapult Apple into a dominant position in the handheld market and bump RIM into second place. The timing should also guarantee an excellent quarter 2 for Apple. The image above shows the next Blackberry which RIM hope will be the iPhone killer, I doubt it though,

Are We Being Neglected By US Software Companies?

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The more times I visit the .com version of major US company's websites the more I feel that we are being shortchanged here in the UK. For example today on the Microsoft.com site there were links to downloads and deals for Vista owners, free help to setup a new business and ways to work with slower Internet connections. The Microsoft.co.uk site on the other hand had a pixilated looking set of Vista graphics with the headline "Introducing Windows Vista" and then links to a security updates and a trial for Office 2007. You can't seriously be telling me that the same amount of effort goes into the two sites. Windows Vista has been out for over a year! We don't need introduced to it yet again. Come on Microsoft give us the same level of effort at least on your site, it's bad enough that we have yet to see any sign of the Zune over here and those of  us who do own it can't get any help with problems. There's a reason I now own an iPod Touch and Shuffle.

This isn't limited to Microsoft however. There are other companies that have a difference between the US and UK version of the sites and the UK versions are nearly always lacking the information and quality of the .com site.

Looking beyond site differences and to prices and we saw from Apple's iTunes the overcharging that was going on at this side of the pond. The basic Macbook comes in at $1099 (£550 approximately) from the Apple.com store. The same Macbook on the Apple.com\uk store comes in at a surprising $1395 (£699 approximately).

It's difficult not to get fed up with uneven pricing, differing standards in websites and lack of assistance and I wonder just how many other people over here feel the same way as I do.

iPhone Now £169

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Carphone Warehouse have announced today that the price of the 8Gb iPhone has gone from £269 to £169. You still have to take a contract but with 600 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited Internet for £35 pounds a month the iPhone is now looking like a viable option. However the question now has to be asked, is the 3G iPhone a short time away and are we better off waiting?

For those people who have just bought an iPhone for £269 don't worry Carphone Warehouse are giving you the £100 back.

Is this clear enough for you?

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Microsoft's US Senior Manager in charge of Small Business Community Engagement Eric Ligman published a post on Friday outlining, in what he regards as very simple terms, the fact that to upgrade to Windows Vista you must have something there to upgrade from! The article can be found here but I've quoted a couple of paragraphs below,

It seems that there are some people out there who don’t quite get the concept of an upgrade.  Some have even written articles fully articulating how little they know.  Because of this, I am going to explain it again and even use pictures to try to make this very simple…

You can buy a software full license that gets you the rights to install and run the software. You can buy a software upgrade license that allows you to upgrade from the full license you have to the upgraded product you purchased the upgrade for.

and

So if you see anyone stating, or writing, that buying an upgrade by itself (Windows Vista Upgrade for instance) without having a full license first gets you the rights to run the software, just realize that what the person is actually stating is, “I clearly have no clue what I am talking about and so I am writing a bunch of gibberish that proves this hoping people will think I have a clue, even though I obviously don’t.”

The post is worth reading but it basically states what we should all already know. If you're going to buy an upgrade version of Vista then you must have an earlier, fully licensed, product installed to upgrade from. And for those buying OEM copies remember that they are meant for registered OEM vendors who are reselling the computer they are building, not for the average user on the street. For everyone else you have to buy a full copy of Vista. It's that simple.

Rowling Going Too Far?

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JK Rowling and Warner Brothers are suing a Harry Potter fan, Steven Vander Ark, because he was planning to publish a Harry Potter Lexicon, through RDR publishers, based on the contents of his website. The site was setup in 2000 to catalogue the characters, creatures and spells in the Harry Potter universe and was praised by JK herself a few years back. Things have turned sour now however with Rowling claiming that his book amounts to "wholesale theft", as well as accusing Mr Vander Ark of "an act of betrayal" by using her fiction as a basis for his book.

Mr Vander Ark has claimed to have read the books "30 or 40 times" and that it has ben an important part of his live for 9 years. I'm sorry but to me this seems like a cheap case. If the Star Trek series had started bringing cases against their fans for publishing books, etc then, while they certainly could've made a few quick pounds, they would've killed off the massive fan base that has brought the world of Star Trek from a TV show to a cult hit. Harry Potter was well on the way to having a fan base that would eclipse Star Trek and sustain it for years to come. This case could kill it. Does everything have to be run past Warner Brothers and Rowling before it's released? What about online material or is this simply to do with any material that makes money? Well the Harry Potter fan sites are probably making money through advertising so will they be next in line for the lawyers? No more fan material published, is this the goal? It's also nice to know that as the books are now finished and the fans aren't being relied on to buy them anymore the court cases have started.

Even the language used by Rowling is harsh. This is a fan who has read everything on Harry Potter, runs a hugely popular website that, in reality, is free advertising and publicity for the series and the merchandise, who regards Rowling as a "genius" and yet she said that what he is doing is "an act of betrayal". This case stinks. Do they really think that an unofficial guide to Harry Potter is going to do the series any harm? If she decides to publish her own encyclopedia it is guaranteed to be a massive success whether an unofficial version exists or not. This guy was not a threat to the Harry Potter universe. He's not a threat to her vast fortune. It's not like he's writing an eighth book. He's certainly even competition to Warner Brothers. He's just a fan. That's it. In fact it seems to me like his guide will only help the series make more money. But this isn't about fans. This is about having total control over every penny the series makes even if it means standing on the people who helped to make it the hit that it is. I'm sorry JK but you've dropped in my estimation and I'm truly disappointed.

Images from www.bbc.co.uk.

Beginners Guides and Q&A

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Just a short post to let readers know that over the next few weeks I'm going to publish articles on 22hundred.net for newcomers to the IT world. I'm going to try to clearly explain the terms and as much as possible use clear English. Over the last few weeks I've watched TV shows and read articles about the dangers of the Internet but none of these have actually tried to give people proper step by step advice on how to stay safe. I'm also going to answer some questions users may have regarding their current PC, new PC and future PC's. Stay tuned for the first article and please feel free to submit any ideas or questions you may have. Since graduation I've worked almost exclusively in Microsoft products, from a development position and also helping friends and family to setup their systems, so I hope I can help with your queries.

Microsoft deserves credit for the lengths they go to make up for mistakes.

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A story on the WWE website shows how far Microsoft will go when it has made a mistake.

After accidentally removing WWE Superstars’ signatures from a 9-year-old boy’s XBox game console that he sent in for repairs, Microsoft officials contacted WWE in an attempt to work something out, reports the Nottingham Evening Post on April 7. The outcome is more than the boy could have ever hoped for. He and his mother will now receive another chance to meet with the Superstars and to get the console resigned at a WWE live event at the Nottingham Arena on April 13.

While many will just say that it's Microsoft's mistake and they should be making up for it, I say well done MS.

Toddler's will soon be saying "I want a Wii"!

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Another interesting Nintendo patent recently released is the answer to many parents prayers. Nintendo are looking at educational games for young children that will use the Wii to help them learn. Here is a sample from patent number US2008070682:

Apple Life Manager

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A browse through some recently released Apple patents has turned up an interesting new Apple idea. According to the patent the idea is:

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a lifestyle companion system can be provided for coordinating multiple corridors of a user's life. The lifestyle companion system can include devices and methods for providing a platform for conducting user interviews, suggesting activities and references based on interview responses, providing a platform for a user to schedule activities, collecting data about a user during performance of activities or throughout the user's day, and/or providing progress reports. The method also can include assigning user category levels (e.g., activity levels) based on interview responses. In some embodiments of the present invention, the lifestyle companion system can coordinate a user's fitness, nutrition, and medical experiences.
[0013] The lifestyle companion system can integrate user-selectable plug-in modules that are focused on specialized topics. For example, plug-in modules can be specialized for particular periods in a child's development, students, expectant parents, new parents, seniors, specific sports enthusiasts, food connoisseurs, geographical regions, health conditions, holidays, etc. Each module can have coordinating questionnaires, suggested activities, suggested references, instructions, logging tools, audiobooks, videos, podcasts and other types of activities or information tailored for the specialty of the module.

This is an extremely interesting idea and worth keeping an eye on.

iPhone SDK Beta 3

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Apple dropped me a line this morning to inform me that beta 3 of the iPhone SDK is now available for download. I'll be downloading it this morning and will post about it soon.

Microsoft to Yahoo: it's the easy way or the hard way.

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Microsoft sent Yahoo a letter yesterday, April 5th, that expressed the Redmond company's frustration with the way Yahoo have been handling the offer Microsoft made two months ago. The letter can be found here. Microsoft have given Yahoo 3 weeks for the two companies to come to a deal before they will take the offer directly to the shareholders and try to replace the Yahoo board.

It's about time this letter was sent. Yahoo have made Microsoft look like a fool over the last couple of months and it's been embarrassing to watch. Personally though I don't think Microsoft should conclude any deal at this stage. They need to pull out of the deal, let Yahoo sink and then move back in with a lower offer if they really want to purchase the company. The better choice however would be to pull out and not move back in. Keep the war chest intact, especially in this growing time of economic unrest, and bare in mind that if the Google numbers are correct and the money from online ads is decreasing then this deal may not be as big a money making idea as it was in February.