Tuesday, June 6, 2006, 06:02 PM - techFoo
Allchin says Ballmer, the world's 13th wealthiest man with a fortune of about $18 billion, spent almost two days trying to rid the PC of worms, viruses, spyware, malware and severe fragmentation without success.
He lumped the thing back to Microsoft's headquarters and turned it over to a team of top engineers, who spent several days on the machine, finding it infected with more than 100 pieces of malware, some of which were nearly impossible to eradicate.
Among the problems was a program that automatically disabled any antivirus software.
"This really opened our eyes to what goes on in the real world," Allchin told the audience.
(Emphasis mine)
It's 2006 and it took this for them to realize this?
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Friday, March 31, 2006, 03:07 PM - techFoo
6. The discoverer has worked in isolation. The image of a lone genius who struggles in secrecy in an attic laboratory and ends up making a revolutionary breakthrough is a staple of Hollywood's science-fiction films, but it is hard to find examples in real life. Scientific breakthroughs nowadays are almost always syntheses of the work of many scientists.
"the lone genuis" ... I thought he was referring to me for a minute there.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006, 08:15 PM - techFoo
;)
Take the test:
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
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Friday, February 3, 2006, 02:53 PM - techFoo
in Cartoon Format.My dad made us learn with flash cards when I was in grade school, 35 years ago. I'm glad he did.
UPDATE: Used it last night to teach my 12 year old daughter about Base-2 (binary), and Base-16 (hexadecimal). w00t!
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Wednesday, February 1, 2006, 03:13 PM - techFoo
Interesting article regarding telcos “$200 Billion Broadband Scandal.”
Broadband Scandals is a well-documented expose, 406 pages and 528 footnotes. Using the phone companies’ own words (and well as other sources), the book outlines a massive nationwide scandal that affects every aspect of state of the Internet. Not only the web but broadband, municipalities laying fiber or building wifi networks, not to mention related issues such as such as VOIP, cable services, the cost of local phone service, net neutrality, the new digital divide, and even America’s economic growth.
The fiber optic infrastructure you paid for was never delivered.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006, 04:25 PM - techFoo
O'Reilly books have long been my recommendation for non-novice users (Dummies series for novices; I've used them myself). Their website is both deep and wide with content. I just discovered Hacks.| [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Monday, January 16, 2006, 03:51 PM - techFoo
The Web's Download Disasters, Inaugural Edition
When we first started crawling the Web looking for bad downloads last year, we weren't sure what we'd find. Today, a million Web sites and 140,000 download tests later, I can say with confidence that there are some great programs to be downloaded out there. I can say with equal confidence that there's also plenty of train wrecks waiting to happen to your PC.
Wallpaper, screensavers, and smileys; you've been warned.
Unless you use Linux, UNIX, or a Mac.
Then you'll just laugh.
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Monday, January 16, 2006, 02:03 PM - techFoo
A Selfridges spokeswoman said the courses were one-to-one "iPod Survival" sessions and follow questions from its dimwitted customers on how to use iTunes, installing and deleting videos, creating playlists and downloading Podcasts. The courses are given either in-store or on a home visit.
P.T. Barnum would be proud.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2006, 03:36 PM - techFoo
Far out in the Nevada desert, miles from prying eyes, is a secret Air Force facility that has been known by numerous names over the years. It has been called Paradise Ranch, Watertown Strip, Area 51, Dreamland, and Groom Lake. Groom is probably the most mythologized real location that few people have ever seen. According to people with overactive imaginations, it is where the United States government keeps dead aliens, clones them, and reverse-engineers their spacecraft. It is also where NASA filmed the faked Moon landings.
However, for humans whose feet rest on solid ground, Groom is the site of highly secret aircraft development. It is where the U-2 spyplane, the Mach 3 Blackbird, and the F-117 stealth fighter were all developed. It has also probably hosted its own fleet of captured, stolen, or clandestinely acquired Soviet and Russian aircraft. Because of this, the United States government has gone to extraordinary lengths to preserve the area’s secrecy and to prevent people from seeing it.
The also have a great article on JFK and the Missle Crisis.
Linking them on right for further reading...
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 04:29 PM - techFoo
#1 – Users Lie
Oh yes, they do. Don’t think you’re immune either. Have you ever been on a tech support call, convinced that you know the problem and the guy on the phone says something like “Would you put in the recovery CD, restart, and scan your memory?” “Oh, I’ve tried that,” you say with eyes rolling. Believe it or not, sometimes we crazy admin peeps suggest these fixes because they work. When a user is protesting my assessment, the best is to politely insist them to do what was asked until the doing is done.
#2 – Email is the Lifeblood of Non-Techies
I love my non-techie bretheren—I mean, how else would I know what happened on the OC and Gilmore Girls?—but at the end of the day, email is #1 in their book. Now a lot of it is business related, and certainly that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but most likely they were waiting on a warm, fuzzy message from their daughter or sister and really needed their email back up ASAP (“I’m waiting on a proposal!” they screech — see #1)
Read it all.
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Monday, August 1, 2005, 04:30 PM - techFoo
I have three little words for anyone who flies: Noise Cancelling Headphones.I bought a pair for my last business trip to Arizona. I also picked up an MP3/CD player, so I could enjoy the flight (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Dave Brubeck were to be my travelling companions).
The player didn't seem to want to work, but I learned I'd need headphones for the in-flight movie (Sahara -- not too bad; not too good either).
I had the fortune of sitting across from four children under five, whose petulent voices were sure to test the capabilities of the headphones. I was unaffected, as the headphones broached no intrusion. After the movie I found an in-flight music channel streaming Mel Torme. Still, no discordant voices penetrated my reverie.
Ahh.... bliss
Remember travellers, don't leave home without them.
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