Vista Sucks – Windows XP still Reigns Supreme for Microsoft Users

Vista still sucks in the eyes of the public and now Microsoft is admitting it! The Windows Vista reputation is so poor Microsoft has even verified it by the launch of their Mojave ad campaign.

On Friday October 3rd, Microsoft bent over again and gave computer makers a six-month extension for offering Windows XP on newly-shipped PCs.

Will this move drive the final nail in Vista’s coffin?

IT departments have basically been ignoring Vista. Back in June 18 months after Microsoft had launched Vista, Forrester Research reported that only 8.8% of enterprise PCs worldwide were running Vista. Microsoft appears to have put Windows 7 on an stepped up schedule that could speed up it’s release date to sometime in 2010. This just provides IT departments with all the reasons they need to simply avoid Vista like the plague and wait to eventually upgrade to Windows 7.

So why did Microsoft Windows Vista Fail?

• When Microsoft released Windows Vista a lot of existing software and hardware was not compatible with it when it was released in January 2007. Many important programs and peripherals were totally unusable in Vista. Vista became known as the OS that broke things that Windoz users were used to doing in XP.
• Vista wasn’t supposed to even exist. When Microsoft launched XP it was actually trying to change its OS business model to convert customers to software subscribers. Windows XP would essentially be the on-going product name and would include all the software upgrades and updates, as long as you kept paying for your subscription.
• No one wants to use a new computer that is slower than their old one. Vista has over 50 million lines of code. This has the effect of slowing down Windows Vista, especially when it’s running on anything but the latest and greatest hardware. Even then, the latest version of Windows XP will outperform the latest version of Microsoft Vista hands down.
• Many low-cost netbooks and nettops, soon to b flooding the market, are powerful enough to provide a solid Internet experience for most users, they don’t have enough resources to run Windows Vista they will run on XP. Over 1.1 billion PCs in use worldwide and over 70% of them are running Windows XP. That means almost 800 million computers are running XP, which makes it the most widely installed operating system of all time.
• Apple has put Windoz Vista in the spotlight and shown everyone that the emperor really has no clothes. The great “I’m a Mac” ads have given Vista a merciless pummeling and made the bloated OS the but of many jokes. Microsoft tried to counter with the Bill Gates – Jerry Seinfeld adds but they went nowhere. Now they are trying the I’m a PC ad campaign but is it too little too late?

By the way just in case you don’t know I use a Mac.

Late,
Gary Pool

Will Microsoft Windows XP Out Live Windows Vista? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

With the Beta 2 release of Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft is hoping to stop the flood gates that are going right to Firefox.

Will Internet Exploder 8 be successful?

It has been downloaded by many and the reviews are mixed. If you’d like to test it out yourself Internet Exploder 8 can be downloaded from Micro$oft. As expected there is no Mac version but XP and on both the 32- and 64-bit editions of Vista, Server 2003, and Server 2008 are all supported. There are different downloads for each OS, so be sure you choose the right one.

In my opinion like most of the new Micro$oft releases they are just trying to copy the ones that are already out there doing well. (i.e. Longhorn Windoz OS X I mean Vista or is it Mojave now?) This is still just a Micro$oft copy of Firefox and Safari. Sometimes a copy is a good thing.

10 things about IE 8 that stand out good and bad

1. IE 8 loads faster than IE 7
2. IE 8 much more stable than IE 7
3. Firefox like crash recovery
4. InPrivate browsing feature (porn mode)
5. Tab Grouping (right-click a tab, you have options)
6. Accelerators (little add-ons to make it quick and easy to apply tasks to highlighted text)
7. Firefox like suggestive search
8. New Security (hey it’s a M$ product)
9. Tool bars become part of suggested sites bar
10. Like Firefox and Safari has become W3C compliant

Microsoft Updates Internet Explorer to the 21st Century

Well at least for us that work with code if IE 8 takes off it will help by not having to create IE specific CSS and other oddities like IE 6 and 7 have required. Does any one still design for IE 4.5, 5.0 or 5.5?

Will IE 8 stop the migration to Firefox? We will have to revisit this question upon the release of IE 9. Regardless, my hat is off to Micro$oft for updating Internet Explorer into the 21st century.

Late,
Gary Pool

Internet Explorer | Microsoft Updates | 10 Features? | W3C is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

According to Forbes Warren Buffett is now the richest man on the planet.

Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRK – news – people ) stock, America’s most beloved investor has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. That massive pile of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) co-founder Bill Gates, who was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.

Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been perhaps as rich–or richer–than Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO – news – people ) at the beginning of February.

2001

2008

If you saw Bill’s retirement movie I think he’s not worried about it.

Enjoy your retirement Bill you earned it. Being number two in the race for the worlds richest man isn’t too bad.

late,
gary pool

Did retirement cost Bill Gates his richest man in the world title? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Today I got an email from Micro$oft that was extremely irritating.

You can’t even reply to it.

You have to go through the support on their website!

Dear adCenter customer,
We’re writing to let you know that we were unable to authorize or charge your MasterCard credit card, with the last four digits of XXXX, that you used when you signed up for Microsoft adCenter.

Back on January 31st I received an email from PayPal stating “Your bank declined your electronic funds transfer”. Luckily we were in the process of modifying our bank account.

I was wondering what was going on.

Now I know.

My adCenter account has been inactive for about a year and they tried to ding my card. Is this how they are going to pay for Yahoo!?

If you have ever had an adCenter account that is now inactive make sure M$ doesn’t try to gouge you.

late,
gary pool

Microsoft Tries to Charge My Inactive adCenter Account is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

A Windows iPhone?

Was there a “Windows iPhone” displayed at CES? Yes. No. Maybe.

Here is a site where you will find a large collection of images and commentary on the “next” Windoze device…

It’s more than a rumor.

Wow a Windoze iPhone what will they think of next.

late,
gary pool

Was there a Windows iPhone unveiled at CES? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Explaining the Macintosh Surge

A Quote by David Pogue:

At the risk of enraging the Apple bashers, I can’t keep my mouth shut any longer: Something is going on with the Macintosh.

At this week’s Macworld Expo, there were 475 exhibitors. That’s 100 more booths than last year.

There were 50,000 attendees. That’s 10,000 more people than last year.

A book publisher told me that 2007 Macintosh book sales were up by double-digit leaps over the previous year.

Gartner’s fourth-quarter 2007 research shows that Mac shipments grew 28 percent over the year before, giving it an 6.1 percent market share. (It was 3-point-something only a couple of years ago.)

According to Net Applications, use of the Mac’s Web browser, Safari, climbed 32 percent in 2007.

Apple sold 2.16 million Macs in the last quarter–a new company record.

And anecdotally—well, you probably know somebody who’s switched to the Mac recently.

David goes on to dismiss the iPod “halo effect” and people being fed up with viruses and spyware on Windows.

He lays the blame right in the lap of Windoz Longhorn OSX I mean Vista. Quoting a source as saying “Well, if I have to buy a new machine and learn a new interface, I may as well get the cool-looking, virus-free one.”

This is a very possible explanation of Apple’s gigantic 35 percent leap in just 12 months.

Sounds very plausible to me. I’m on board.

Do you have a better theory?

late,
gary pool

The Macintosh is on Fire | Is it Apple or Vista? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Bill Gates gave his last keynote at CES 2008 in Las Vegas.
Bill talked about the technology landscape he shaped and let the real Bill Gates show through in a star studded video.

Before I get to that, I want to talk about the fact that this is my last keynote. It’s the middle of this year, in July, that I’m move from being a full-time employee at Microsoft to working full-time at the foundation, as you heard. So this will be the first time since I was 17 that I won’t have my full-time Microsoft job. And I’m not really sure what that last day is going to be like. It could be a bit strange, you know, what do you do on your last day. So I have some friends to help me prepare for that. So we got together and did a little video. So let’s take a look at that.

I think that is a great video.

Marketing genius like Bill Gates’ doesn’t come along every day.

Thanks for the memories Bill, Micro$oft will miss you. I hate to admit it but Mac users, including myself are going to miss you too!

late,

Bill Gates | Consumer Electronics Show 2008 | Microsoft is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

According to the Wall Street Journal article by Kevin J. Delaney, Robert A. Guth and Vauhni Vara, “Microsoft Fires Volley At Google in Ad Battle”…

The battle between Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. over their part the future of the Internet is about to get even hotter.

Micro$oft has recently approached Facebook with proposals to invest in the fastest growing site. According to sources Microsoft is willing to purchase up to 5% of Facebook for some where in the range of $300 to $500 million.

Microsoft is playing catch up to Google who continues to widen its lead as being the fastest growing internet advertising business. To help M$ catch up they have recently hired an executive from outside the company and granted them broad powers in expectation of helping Microsoft to shake up their online business.

The major hang up in the M$ plan to invest in Facebook is the fact that Google has also shown strong interest, according to sources. In addition, adding to the mix is the fact that Facebook has shown aspirations of competing with Google and Microsoft on its own.

It’s all about traffic. “Microsoft’s push is the latest in a string of attempts to energize its Internet activity in recent years, with mixed results. The company, for instance, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to release its own search engine to replace technology it was licensing from Yahoo, then saw its search market share drop.

Such disappointments have spurred an openness among Microsoft’s top management for new deals such as the one with Facebook and new perspectives. Mr. McAndrews, 48 years old, is a central player in the online advertising industry and has strong ties to traditional advertising companies and large advertisers, connections that have been lacking at technology-centric Microsoft.”

Micro$oft is ranked number 2 only to Google in visitors according to World Metrix comScore.

Facebook has its own plans for an advertising platform, aimed at displaying ads that appeal more to individual users, based on those users’ personal information. Microsoft also has plans to improve targeting for the display ads it brokers on Facebook. Is this a potential deal breaker? Only time will tell.

And so it is in the Who is number one in the visitors to your site game.

late,
gary pool

Microsoft vs. Google | Facebook is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Do you live in Portland? Do you have some computers or computer stuff lying around the house or office that you would like to get rid of? Are you looking for a good buy on particular computer stuff?

If the answer to any of the above questions is “yes” I have the answer for you – the PMUG Swapmeet.

This event is for both Macs and PCs. It also includes anything that can be used for either. Microsoft stuff is welcome.

PMUG is holding a Computer Swap Meet Saturday August 4th at the MAC from noon to 3 pm.

Multnomah Arts Center
7688 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland, OR 97219

Tables are available for $25 and half a table for $15.
This event is FREE to buyers.

For more information visit the PMUG website.

See you there.

Late,
seopdx/gary-pool.html”>Gary Pool

Mac and PC Computer Swap Meet in Portland, Oregon is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Can we learn a Marketing lesson from a short shopping trip? My answer is a hearty YES!

I just stopped by Costco (brick and mortar in Clackamas Oregon). We had Pictures to drop off and I needed a bottle of Tabasco. You know the monster bottles that last a month. What I say was amazing. As I passed other shoppers 1 out of 3 had a copy of the new Harry Potter book. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is final book of seven in the Harry Potter series of novels by JK Rowling.

The current Harry Potter book actually went on sale at 12:01 this morning. And now it is on sale at Costco. I spotted it in the carts of one third of the shoppers. The most interesting thing was there were no children attached to these shoppers. Was this a great job of marketing or just the result of consumer demand?

My opinion is both. Sure the Harry Potter series was very popular with the public but marketing has done it’s job. Which came first the word of mouth or the marketing of the book? Did the movies promote the book or visa versa? This is a good example of synergy. Each one feeds off the other until you forget which came first the chicken or the egg. Or does it really matter?

If you are planning a Marketing Strategy take a look at the successful ones. What can you learn from them? This should be second nature. What most people forget to do is take a look at the failed Marketing Strategies Do you remember Microsoft BOB and or Windows ME? What can we learn from the flops? The biggest lesson we can learn from the above is when you release a product that is supposed to be better than the previous one make sure it really is. You can’t put new clothes on an old product and call it new and improved. “Roger, you are still a tiger!”

What is in your list of flops? Let’s find out if we can learn anything from them.

Food for thought.

Late,
seopdx/gary-pool.html”>Gary Pool

Costco, Harry Potter, and a Marketing Lesson is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Web 2.0: Social Strategies

Hi from the floor of the 2007 Internet Strategy Forum’s Executive Summit. I will actually be posting live.

Rob Smith the editor of the Portland Business Journal is the MC for today’s event. At the end of the day I will be attending a networking event. Just by attending I will have a chance to win a $200 Best Buy gift certificate. Rob just introduced Robert Scoble. Robert is rated the #34 blogger in the world.

Robert Scoble told us the story of when he left M$. He had told his friends to not to tell anyone. In no time at all a blogger Robert didn’t even know had a blog post on his leaving M$. In no time at all it had had been reposted all around the face of the earth. Wow the power of the net. He told us about Twitter and how fast the word spreads over the world.

FaceBook, MySpace for College kids. You are allowed to investigate people with similar likes. Who’s friends are who’s. You can send videos to just your friends or to just one person.

Flickr is up on the screen. Robert is telling us about when he was invited to join John Edwards in his airplane in the campaign trail. John actually had a blogging expert, photo expert, and video person to take care of the internet marketing.

Blog Search tool by Google. You need to see what people are saying about you and or your company.

Kyte.tv is a place where Robert plays or works as the case may be. Techmeme is on the screen now and Robert is talking about how fast the reports are being updated. It has a great page that gives you the hottest tech topics on the web with very quick updates.

By the way Robert uses a Mac.

Rob is now introducing Mark Colombo VP Electronic Channels FedEx. We are getting a lesson on Ben Franklin. Mark is relating Ben Franklin to web 2.0. The way I see it this is a tough comparison. Ben Franklin can be defined to the the details. Web 2.0 is such a hard term to nail down it is like trying to squeeze jello without having it escape through your fingers.

The slide on the screen shows Ben Franklin in front of a Macintosh computer. Mark is using a PeeCee for the presentation. Ummm interesting. Mark defines web 2.0 as the use of newer internet applications. This presentation is really a marketing piece for FedEx in disguise. Final thoughts on FedEx… they are not a web 2.0 company. They don’t even believe in having their own blog.

We are taking a 10 minute break. We are back from the break. Rob just introduced a representative from Rubicon Marketing Group Inc. They are a speaker sponsor for ISF Summit West.

Tim Kopp the CMO of WebTrends is the next speaker. Time came to WebTrends from Coca Cola. Marketing is a conversation not just an information push. Consumers have an explosion of choices today and this brings about increased expectations. This includes personalization.

Technology – Finance – Marketing the intersection is where Web 2.0 pays off. The consumer is in charge. People are using RIA and the over whelming majority believes that it is adding value to their lives. WebTrends will launch their new engagement software in 2 weeks.

Rob is introducing Cammie Dunaway CMO Yahoo!
Building Brands in a Web 2.0 World.

Cammie Dunaway – Chief Marketing Office

Panelists:

• Bryan Rhoads, Sr. Internet Strategist, Social Media, Intel
• Mark Erickson, Sr. Computer Scientist, Adobe
• Linda Gold, Founder, President & CEO, M3i Works
• Thomas Powell, Founder and President, PINT

They Promised we would gain insights from the frontline experiences of Web 2.0 leaders. Maximize the positive impact of the intersection of technology and cultural shifts. Demystify Web 2.0 tools and incorporate practical business and marketing approaches that leverage engineering, applications and worldwide social media. They delivered.

The reason I didn’t give you a more detailed description of this panel discussion is that I was too involved in to take copious notes.

So what’s my take on Web 2.0?

You are going to be involved in Web 2.0.

To use a sports expression. Whether you are playing at home or away is up to you. (good thing I don’t have to define web 2.0)

Up next is Mike Moran

Distinguished IBM Engineer

IBM
Author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site.

Mike’s topic is Marketing 2.0: Do It Wrong, Quickly.

Mike is contradicting earlier information we received earlier this morning. (About Diet Coke and Mentos)

• Be real
• Be relevant
• Be responsive

What is it we are looking for?

• How are we watching people to see if things are better than before?
• How can you drive demand for your products?
• What are your conversions?
• Your website is for getting people to respond to you and take the next step.
• Whatever that next step is it doesn’t matter.
• How do you measure the results?
• Did the see the message?
• Did they choose it?
• Did they buy it?

Customers will vote with their mice.
Respond to the world not to just your customers.
Do it wrong quickly and then fix it!
Listen Learn and adjust.

Steve Gehlen just introduced the last speaker of the day, Erik Kokkonen
Vice President, Global Publishing Services
CNET Networks

Erik’s Topic: Could The Web 2.0 Party Be Over Already? The Move Toward Enterprise 2.0.

Erik’s presentation was weak. Every third word was “uh” and he read his slides to us. Once I got over the previously mentioned stuff there was content being delivered. Too bad it had already brought to the podium earlier in the day.

The party after was crowded but the energy was high. All and all it was a very good day. Even if I had to wait until I got home to see the “Tour de France”. I can’t wait until tomorrow’s Internet Strategist Career Path Symposium.

Late,
seopdx/gary-pool.html”>Gary Pool

Internet Strategy Forum Summit West 2007 is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

1986 Mac Plus Vs. 2007 AMD Dual-Core.

Old Mac vs. New PeeCee!

I ran across this on the internet and had to share it with you.

It pits an old Mac Plus running System 6.0.8 against a New PeeCee running Windoz XP and Longhorn Windoz OSX Vista.

You Won’t Believe Who Wins!

The Most Outlandish Computer Comparison Ever!

Bloat. If you think that Americans are getting fatter, take one good look at the operating system (OS) your computer is running right now. It gets larger and more weighed down with every update. We are in the third decade of global personal computing, and have we really progressed that far?

The Comparison

The generally recommended configuration for a Mac Plus is System 6.0.8. This is an OS that needs a legitimate minimum of 1 megabyte of RAM to be able to multitask, connect to a network, print, display WYSIWYG in millions of colours (on modular Macs), as well as run a reasonable GUI. Those are functions that usually require at least 500 times more memory under Windows XP and 1,000 times more memory under Windows Vista.

When we look at OS hard disk requirements, we find similar discrepancies. System 6.0.8 requires 1MB, Windows XP requires 1.5GB and Windows Vista 15GB. Yes, Vista needs 15,000 times the hard disk space as System 6.0.8. In simple text format, you can write 175,000 words in one megabyte which is the size of System 6.0.8. That works out to about two full-length novels. Windows Vista demands enough real estate on your hard drive that you could easily fit 30,000 full-length novels into it.

System 6.0.8 is not only a lot more compact since it has far fewer (mostly useless) features and therefore less code to process, but also because it was written in assembly code instead of the higher level language C. The lower the level of the code language, the less processing cycles are required to get something done.

The Mac Plus has a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 8MHz. The AMD has an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ with two cores, each running at 2.4GHz. In absolute computing power exclusively measured in processor speed, AMD’s combined 4.8GHz is 600 times faster than the Motorola. However, the AMD is a far more advanced processor, thus performs in conventional benchmarks much faster than the old 68000 per Mhz. So it’s very safe to say that the AMD is at least 1,000 times faster than the Mac Plus.

We decided to splurge and fit the maximum possible 4MB RAM into the old Plus. After all it was going up against AMD with its 2x512MB RAM for a total of 1,024MB or 1GB. That’s about 250 times more memory than the Mac.

The Mac was fitted with an external SCSI 40MB Hard Drive. The AMD had an internal IDE 120GB Hard Drive with a 3,000 times greater data capacity. Both drives were under 10% filled.

Conclusion

Check out the results! For the functions that people use most often, the 1986 vintage Mac Plus beats the 2007 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+: 9 tests to 8! Out of the 17 tests, the antique Mac won 53% of the time! Including a jaw-dropping 52 second whipping of the AMD from the time the Power button is pushed to the time the Desktop is up and useable.

We also didn’t want to overly embarrass the AMD by comparing the time it takes to install the OS vs. the old Mac. The Mac’s average of about a minute is dwarfed by the approximately one hour install time of Windows XP Pro.

Is this to say that the Mac Plus is a better computer than the AMD? Of course not. The technological advancements of 21 years have placed modern PCs in a completely different league of varied capacities. But the “User Experience” has not changed much in two decades. Due to bloated code that has to incorporate hundreds of functions that average users don’t even know exist, let alone ever utilize, the software companies have weighed down our PCs to effectively neutralize their vast speed advantages. When we compare strictly common, everyday, basic user tasks between the Mac Plus and the AMD we find remarkable similarities in overall speed, thus it can be stated that for the majority of simple office uses, the massive advances in technology in the past two decades have brought zero advance in productivity.

late,
Gary

Mac Vs. PC is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

No one expected fists to fly when Micro$oft chairman Bill Gates and Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs appeared on stage together this week. But it’s clear there’s no love lost between Apple and M$.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage Wednesday night, May 30th at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference.

Jobs and Gates at times seemed to be overcome about their history together. Indeed, by the end, both men seemed choked up by the emotion of the moment.

Even after being praised for his recent philanthropic efforts, Gates talked more about what he did in the technology industry than what his charitable foundation is doing now.

“The most important work I got a chance to be involved in – no matter what I do – is the personal computer,” Gates said. “That’s my life’s work.”

Of course this appearance wasn’t all “lovey dovey”. At one point Jobs tried to convince Gates that Apple isn’t trying to be mean by poking fun at the “PC guy,” the lovable loser who stands in sharp contrast to Apple’s cool “Mac guy” in the popular series of commercials.

Gates in an interview with Newsweek earlier this year, he’d even questioned the ads’ veracity.

“I’d give a lot to have Steve’s taste – in terms of intuitive taste for people and products,” he said. “The way he does things, it’s just different. It’s magical.”

Similarly, Jobs said that Apple could have learned a lot from Microsoft’s penchant for partnering with other companies in the industry. Partnering simply wasn’t in Apple’s DNA, and the company didn’t learn how to do it until decades after its founding, he said.

“The funny thing is Microsoft’s one of the few companies we were able to partner with (where) that actually worked for both companies,” he said.

The event was the first time Jobs and Gates have made a joint public appearance since the 1997 Boston at Macworld, when Gates joined Jobs via teleconference to announce a landmark deal between their two companies. The previous time the two appeared together at a public event was in the early 1980s.

Jobs is well known for taking pot-shots at his company’s bigger rival. And he didn’t disappoint on Wednesday. The company’s iTunes software is one of the most popular programs on computers running Micro$oft’s Windoz operating system, Jobs noted in his conversation earlier in the day with Mossberg. Indeed, he said, some users have written to tell Apple that iTunes is their favorite Windoz application.

“It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell,” he said.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at The Wall Street Journal Executive Conference, D: All Things Digital at the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, California.

late,
Gary

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Share Same Stage once Again – Apple vs M$ is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

As more and more M$ PeeCee users begin to use Mac they will be looking for the stuff they had to do with their old computers.

I ran across this interesting TOP 10 list today and I thought you might be interested in checking it out.

If you’re reading this list, you probably know that the Mac is one of the best machines around when it comes to keeping you secure on the Internet. But it’s also been receiving more scrutiny from the press and security professionals recently, and no machine is 100% safe. As the Mac becomes more popular, and as more services become Internet-based and cross-platform, so do the associated risks.

You can help keep not only your Macintosh, but also the Macintosh community as whole secure on the Internet by taking a few simple steps beyond those many significant ones that Apple has built into Mac OS X. Here’s our "top 10" list. We welcome any additions or alternatives you might have.

1. Physical security first. Although not strictly an Internet security issue, the odds of something bad happening to your Mac due to a physical problem are much higher than something happening to it over the Internet. So take precautions appropriate to your situation, such as physical lock-down cables, surge protectors and proper care of data on portable machines (such as encryption of any important files). And be sure to keep good, up-to-date local and remote backups.
2. "The only constant is change." Especially on the Internet. New security threats are discovered, temporary fixes and updates are issued, mistakes are sometimes made. It’s important to keep up as best you can:
   1. Subscribe to Apple’s Software Update and install security fixes soon after they’re available, although not necessary immediately
   2. Utilize online (for instance our blog isfym.com) and offline (for instance users’ groups) sources to keep up with new security issues, implement temporary protection as needed, and make sure updates appear good.
   3. Keep up on updates for any other popular applications you use, especially cross-platform ones like Microsoft products and security applications like your firewall and anti-virus applications.
   4. And of course stay knowledgeable about everything you can.
3. Use a personal firewall. You need a personal firewall on each of your machines, and the one Apple includes in Mac OS X is only sufficient for keeping you safe until you can get a better one. Be sure your firewall has logging fully enabled, and use a log analysis application to highlight issues that need to be addressed. And, no, the so-called firewall in any router you may have isn’t good enough either (although it does help).
4. Use good passwords. Until the day we log into everything through retinal scans or other "biometric" means, passwords will be the main way we identify ourselves to Internet-based services. Use passwords appropriate to the importance of the service they’re protecting, choosing longer, harder to guess (and more unique) passwords for the more critical services. Apple’s password assistant, built into Keychain Access, can be a big help here.
5. Do not send confidential information by email, unless you know how to use encrypted email. Also treat all email messages received, even from people you know, as suspect. Same applies to IM (with certain exceptions like encrypted iChat). On the Web, be sure the Web page is a secure one (look for the lock icon) before entering confidential information.
6. Never open attachments in email messages, which are more often than not viruses. This advise may seem a bit over the top, but you should apply it as the general rule, with the only real exception being when you know the person who sent you the attachment and the context from the rest of the email makes it clear that that person really did intend to send you that attachment.
7. Never click on links sent in email messages. Again this is the general rule, with similar exceptions as with email attachments. These links are often to "phishing" Web sites that will attempt to steal personal information from you, or to "maliciously-crafted" Web sites that will attempt to do even worse things, like take over your machine (yes, even if you do use a Mac). Always type URLs directly into your Web browser, use known-good bookmarks, or click on links from reputable sites (including search engines) that you’ve gotten to through one of these methods.
8. Consider an anti-virus application. There are essentially no known Mac-specific viruses, and use of anti-virus applications can help keep it that way. Right now, anti-virus applications are essentially insurance policies, which you hope to never need to use, but are glad you have if you do. Also like insurance, you need to be sure to keep your anti-virus application, and its associated virus definitions, up to date.
9. If at all possible, do not provide any services from your Macintosh. In other words, all services in the Sharing pane of System Preferences should be off, along with other services like iTunes music sharing and iPhoto photo sharing. If you do need to offer services, use your personal firewall to restrict access to as few machines as possible (preferably just machines on your local network). And of course use good passwords for those services, in particular for the cross-platform Remote Login (ssh) service, which is often subject to dictionary attack.
10. Properly secure your wireless (AirPort) environment, both at home and on the road. At home the most important things are to change your wireless router’s password and to use WPA encryption. Beyond that, don’t allow your router to be administered over the Internet and add other security measures (like creating a closed network and limiting access by ID) if you feel comfortable configuring them. On the road, be sure to turn off or block any services your Mac is providing through your firewall, be cognizant of who’s looking over your shoulder, use a VPN if you’re talking back to your home or work network and watch our for rogue access points

While I don’t actually buy in on all this paranoia, I do feel that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I believe in being prepared. I have found, by experience, that if I prepare well I will never need it. A worth while trade in my book.

The DoorStop X Security Suite costs less than $50. No I don’t own it yet, but there is a free evaluation download.

late,
Gary

Internet Security for Your Macintosh Computer is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Just to keep you updated on Micro$oft adCenter, I found this post online at SearchEngineWatch.com posted by the Microsoft adCenter Community Team.

Hi All

We are pleased to announce the arrival of adCenter 3.7.1. As communicated in advance of the upgrade, reporting will remain out of SLA until around Tuesday May 1st 2007 due to the massive amounts of data that we must process as a result of the upgrade.

Users ‘may’ see some partial data in our BI reporting for day, month, year when compared to hourly:

This is an expected side effect of the upgrade and catch up of data.

This is only affecting data after Friday the 27th of April. All data prior is complete for all grains – hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.

This is only temporary. We expect to catch up on the data end of day Tuesday 1st May 2007.

Users will likely see blanks or ‘-’ in the Keyword Performance tab (under the Campaigns Tab) instead of the actual keyword data. We are working hard to investigate root cause. The good news – there is a work-around:

Simply run a Keyword Performance report in adCenter and you should get the data you are looking for.

We’ll keep you informed as the progress of this post-upgrade data catch-up.

Please do let us know what you think of the new UI and features.

Cheers

adCenterEU

late,
Gary

adCenter Upgrade – Temporary Reporting Delay is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

That right I said threes plural. Not to be out done by Micro$oft’s Longhorn OS X Vista release, the folks at Adobe are offering quite a few offerings of CS 3. All dig deep into your pocket.

Adobe CS 3 isn’t ready to ship but Adobe will let you preorder, take your money now, and ship it to you when they are ready.

Here is a cartoon that explains it all.

If you would like to see the cartoon in its full size and glory you can visit their site.

late,
Gary

Adobe Announces Creative Suite 3s is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Webmasters, if you are planning on using the advanced query searches at Live search don’t bother. It is not just broken it has been shut down. According to a blog entry from Eytan Seidman the lead program manager at Live Search. It was shut down because of too many automated queries.

For those of you who use some of the advanced query syntax in our search engine such as link:, linkdomain: and inurl:, you may have noticed that this functionality has been recently turned off…mass automated usage for data mining. So for now, we have made the tough call to block all queries with these operators…get this back online as soon as possible … Keep an eye on our blog for updates.

MSN once again lives up to its reputation. I was starting to use Live Search more and more and even enjoying it. Oh well, Once again Google and Yahoo! leaves MSN in the dust. Now all I have to do is keep going to the Live Search Weblog to find out if I can use all their search engines features. Man they are really pushing Longhorn (excuse me I mean Vista) there. I guess they had better. Once Leopard is released, M$ OS X Longhorn Vista will loose its luster.

late,
Gary

Link Checking shut down by Live Search (MSN) is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Skype Gift Day!

Today is a Skype Gift Day you can receive free 10 minutes.

Log in to your account and you will get 10 free minutes.

Free is a good thing.

late,
Gary

Do You Skype? If you do visit TODAY! is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Vista is crap
The post I found in TechRepublic forums seems to have disappeared. Maybe M$ is buying them off. Being a Mac guy I have to work hard to keep up on Microsoft products. The entry I found about Longhorn uhm, I mean Vista very interesting. Anyone else have any information they would like to share about the new M$’s OS?

late,
Gary

Vista is crap is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician