Category: Software
Having a bad day? Bailiffs taken away your netbook? Tell the world at F*** My Life
Here’s a new social networking micro-blogging toy that Stephen Fry hasn’t signed up to yet – F*** My Life.
Founded as an IRC channel and quickly growing into full micro-blog status, the idea of FMyLife is to broadcast an unrelenting stream of misery and examples of forehead-slapping idiocy people have encountered, creating a nice antidote to the cheerful, kitten-related rubbish spewed out by most vacuous…
Windows 7 gets schizophrenic, multiple personalities emerge
Oh dear. It’s the move that everyone was hoping Microsoft wasn’t going to make, but it looks like it’s going to make it. Seems that Windows 7 will come in a bunch of versions – much like Vista – titled Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.
The news surfaced in a screenshot on a Chinese blog depicting Beta build 7025. Most people are running 7000 – which is the version currently (but not for much longer) available to the public.
Microsoft’s forthcoming OS has been getting rave reviews from all corners of the internet – even those traditionally very pro-Apple. I’m a big fan myself – I’ve got it installed on a laptop that struggled with Vista, and it runs like a dream. It remains to be seen exactly how cut-down the ‘Home’ versions will end up being, and if unlike Vista, the Ultimate edition is worth the extra cash.
(via Engadget, image courtesy of regular commenter Leon)
Related posts: Microsoft extends availability of Windows 7 beta | Windows 7 public beta available NOW
Less is more – new socially-networked nano-blog Chirp gives you ten letters to express yourself
New tech start-up Chirp is the hottest new, lime-green-coloured, nano-social-blogging tool on the web, offering users a chance to “Keep fellow Chirpers up to date with your every thought” – in ten characters or less.
So if you find that Twitter is simply too long-winded and you can’t be bothered doing a whole sentence-worth of typing because you can never think of as many interesting things to say as Stephen Fry, give Chirp a go.
It is, of course, a joke. And a very good one. The sort of joke most of us will go to the grave without having created…
Knockoff of iWork '09 contains Mac-unfriendly Trojan Horse
There’s a new Trojan Horse for Mac in town and it’s riding around in pirate copies of iWork ’09.
OSX.Trojan.iServices.A secretes itself in otherwise fully-functioning copies of Apple’s latest office software. It installs itself in a startup directory and gives itself full root privileges (in other words, it’s God to your Mac).
Security firm Intego is warning anyone who has downloaded installer software from filesharing/Torrent sites that they could now be infected. Intego’s latest updates for VirusBarrier X4 and X5 will now protect against and disinfect the virus…
Microsoft to cut 5,000 jobs – no one immune to the credit crunch
Microsoft today announced its quarterly financial reports to Wall Street saying it would be cutting 5,000 jobs starting with 1,400 jobs next week, probably a bit of a bummer if you happen to work there.
Shares in the company fell by 8.5% in pre-market trading…
Apple still not down with the "netbook" scene – insists software is more important than hardware
Still oblivious to the fact that over 90% of the western world’s disposable income is being spent on cheap netbooks right now*, Apple has once again underlined its reluctance to join the miniaturisation scene – because smaller computers aren’t necessarily better. Or usable.
“We think the products there are inferior and will not provide the experience to customers that they’re happy with,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, on the subject of netbooks, while presumably still laughing from watching a Vaio P spend three minutes booting up Vista…
DIGG THIS: Micro-blogging citizen journalism toy Twitter beats granddad Digg in traffic war
Internet traffic tracker Hitwise has reported a readership boom kicking off for mini-blog portal Twitter, with the number of visits to the “citizen journalism” gonzo reportage site topping that of Digg for the first time.
The graph generated by Hitwise – stolen by us and shown to the left there – tells the story of Twitter’s unstoppable rise, with recent high-profile Twitter events pushing user numbers to new highs…
Useless feature of the Week: Schlage and its internet-opening door lock
Have you ever wanted to unlock the front door of your house via the internet? Have you? Have you?
I doubt you have. If you have, you’re MAD. I certainly haven’t, but someone who works for lock specialist Schlage has – hence the arrival of the LiNK deadbolt…
EU starts waving around the ban-hammer at Microsoft again
Way back in 1993, Novell made a complaint to the EU that Microsoft was indulging in anti-competitive practices. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the EU eventually decided (ten years later, in 2003) that Microsoft had to make a version of Windows without Windows Media Player available, and in 2006 hit the company with massive fines, totaling £1.07 billion.
Fast-forward to 2008, and the makers of the web browser Opera filed a similar complaint, claiming that bundling IE with Windows makes it tough for others to compete. I’m not convinced that’s true – Firefox has 20% market share – but clearly someone in the EU still has it in for Microsoft, because they’ve now filed a new complaint against Microsoft saying that IE must be unbundled.
Interestingly, a similar complaint was filed against Microsoft in the USA ten years ago, but it didn’t stick, and Microsoft still bundles IE with its operating systems. It’ll be fun to see whether the EU agrees, and could result in another massive payout. Poor Microsoft. In the meantime, I’m sticking with Chrome.
(via Mashable)
Related posts: Psystar antitrust claim dismissed by judge | Microsoft extends availability of Windows 7 beta
Introducing the virus that farts at you, fool
Programming computer viruses must be a fairly mundane job at times, which is why I’m not surprised that some have decided to inject a bit of humour into their work.
According to customer calls to Panda Security, there are some new bits of infectious code becoming installed on PCs that either hurl insults — repeatedly calling the owner a fool — or else make squelching or farting noises.
One customer, who clearly has an extensive knowledge of what it sounds like when body parts are removed from foodstuffs, said that the noise was similar to “taking a foot out of jelly”…
