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Table of Contents
============== Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft has just released Beta 3 of their upcoming Internet Explorer 7. The final product should be available before the end of the year. If you want to see what it looks like, download the production version of FireFox. This isn't really a fair comment, but the Microsoft team sure had a long, hard look at FireFox and Opera before coming up with this beast.
Behind the release of IE7 is a dirty, little secret: Spyware nearly wiped out Windows. Really. At one time in 2004 security experts were saying that upwards of 80% of computers were severely infected with spyware. Our experience at VCC would tend to echo those numbers. Local companies charged flat rates as high as $300 to get rid of it -- at a time when you could buy a new computer for $500. Browser hijacking had become big business, with some companies earning 9-digit incomes by changing your default search engine from MSN, Google or Yahoo to a proprietary one that only gave search results for paying customers (mostly porn sites). Here at VCC, spyware removal became our most important profit center.
Spyware is software that attaches to your browser (usually Internet Explorer) and changes the behavior of the browser without your knowledge or knowing consent. Many companies are willing to pay companies to drive users to their site, so browser hijackers would send you to one of their paying customers every time you clicked on the Google icon -- or you'd go to Google, but a pop-up window would come up in the background where you couldn't see it, but where automatic monitoring software on the vendors site would count it as a "hit." By hijacking millions of computers, spyware companies were able to reap gigantic rewards for something as simple as getting you to "click" on a site that you never wanted to visit.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 was the first major effort at spyware prevention. By making it obvious when someone wanted to install an ActiveX control on your computer, SP2 made it far more difficult for rogue companies to install stuff without you knowing it. And the stuff they could still install was less potent. Then products like Spybot and Ad-Aware started doing a more effective job of spyware removal. Now, if you run your scans regularly, you can keep spyware at arm's length. If you've switched to FireFox, you can keep it much further away than that.
Had Microsoft not figured out how to the the upper hand in this fight, users would have switched to Macs and Linux by now. Had hackers figured out rootkits earlier, it would have been even worse.
IE7 will make spyware considerably more difficult to install. It still won't be as effective as FireFox or Opera, but it will be a huge improvement for the 90% of users who are sticking with IE.
Beta users are reporting that many web pages don't look right in IE7. This is because Microsoft is finally starting to abide by International web standards (see www.w3.org). Webmasters have had to create essentially two versions of all websites, with special handling for IE. IE7 fixes many, but not all, of the oddities in IE5/6, so right now it's messed up if it uses the code for IE or for web-standards. Hopefully, webmasters (including yours truly) will get it all sorted out soon. In the meantime, if you see some strange-looking pages, it isn't the webmaster's fault. Microsoft did it. And it's a good thing (in the long run).
============== AT&T/SBC Install Shortcut
We used to tell people they had to install the SBC software when they started up their dsl subscriptions so they could log on, get a username, password and email account. Then they could uninstall or turn off all that junk, plug in a router with their username and password and be home free.
There's an even easier way. Insert the AT&T/SBC disk, but when the install wizard pops up, close it out without installing. Open up Windows Explorer and look at your CD drive. In the root of the SBC disk there is a file called ManualSetup.html. Open that up and you'll be able to go to the SBC servers, create a username, password and setup email. At the end of the process, plug into your router, configure your router with the username and password you just secured and presto! You are surfing.
============== Rick's Rants: Dishing it up and Dishing it out
Welcome to my nightmare was a song by Alice Cooper and it applies to my latest adventure. As the master of technology that I claim to be I always have to be keeping up with the Jones's. So I proceed to update my home theatre system with a new remote control by Logitech called the Harmony remote. You can hook it up to your PC and download all the components in your home right from the web. It has an LCD screen with pictures and text to choose what you want to do. This little gadget gets rid of all the remotes and is so simple to use my father can even use it (That's saying a lot). Along with my system upgrade I decided to order a new DVR unit from Dish Network. In case you're unaware dish provides a unit that is similar to what most people know as TIVO. Their competition is a company called REPLAY which puts out a product branded with Dish's logo. Well, the new unit is a dual-tuner input which allow you to record two programs simultaneously, view one program and watch another in a PIP or output a different channel than the one you are viewing to another TV. It's a wonderful little device that once you get one you'll wonder how you lived without one. Dish calls their program "DISHING IT UP" when you upgrade to a newer unit. This begins the saga of our story with me trying my best to DISH IT OUT to DISH. So away we go.
Whenever I talk to someone on the phone for business I always state my name and where I'm calling from as conversation starter, followed by a query of the person on the other end as to their location which can lead to various comments on the weather and other pleasantries. My adventure begins by calling DISH networks to DISH IT UP. I ran into the usual voicemail hell and once I selected upgrade I could hear the line noise change and I realized I was traveling across the known universe at warp speed to an unknown location. The gentleman who answered the phone said his name was MIKE. Judging by his accent and the chatter in the background I realized I had been teleported to the other side of the globe. Isn't it funny how parents in India are giving all their children Christian names? I immediately asked where he was located? He replied "I can't give out that information sir because of security reasons." Oh, I said. Well then what is the security reason? He replied "security sir." I told him I got it the first time but what security reason was it? Are United States Homeland Terrorists planning to blow up all the call centers in India to recover lost American jobs? He said Security reasons. By this time I realized that famous quote from the movie "COOL HAND LUKE" where the warden says "What we have hear is failure to communicate!" I pestered this man to no end and avoided all his tries to get back to selling me product but I wasn't going to budge till I got my answer. Well, He hung up on me. I called back but this time called sales and immediately someone enthusiastically answered that he was in TEXAS and couldn't wait to sign me up. He had to transfer me back to the upgrade queue because I was an existing customer and we started the whole process with JOHN. JOHN got equally flustered with my seemingly pointless questioning as to where his butt was parked and without telling me just dropped me back into the queue for another hapless and unaware person to have the next go around with me. I guess the manual doesn't cover what to do when someone strays from the subject matter. Well it wasn't long before GARIMA pickup up the line. After the same run around I asked to speak to her supervisor and lo and behold I was put on hold for a long period of time. When I awoke I was instantly transported back to the USA with Jennifer. Jennifer was sympathetic and was quite amused by my humor of the situation. Being American, female and laughing at my jokes seemed to be softening up my demeanor but I pressed her nonetheless. She honestly replied that management didn't give a reason but she would transfer me to a manager as she was just a supervisor. Even my seeming limitless capacity for wasting time was starting to drain so I told her to make my file and I would call back later as TOBY was getting mad that no work was getting done at the office. Once I got a hold of someone I could talk to it was much more comfortable to do business as I discussed my options and programming changes.
My new unit came to the door the next day and I waited for my appointment for a one time installation charge of $39.00. The person who showed up did not work for Dish network and barely, and I mean barely, spoke English. He was in a huge hurry since he was getting a flat fee and had no interest answering any of my questions. He had to wait for Dish on the phone and spoke Spanish the whole time. I had my wife listen in and at least he was respectful when he referred to me. I guess the cold glass of lemonade helped. When he finally finished he handed me the remote and walked out. I sat down to enjoy the fruits of my labors and guess what? The remote he gave me was used! The jerk didn't even bother to tell me. So I called Dish and spent half an hour on hold to get my new remote. Whew!
The moral of the story and reason of my rantings is that companies doing business in the United States represent themselves as caring about you as a customer but what really happens is once they have you setup it's unlikely you'll change services because of the hassle. So they send you overseas for tech support. They don't even pay for local employees to service their customers and instead hire companies that don't provide competent long term employees because of the expense of unions and benefits. So they contract out most of their workforce and we pay the price. Cheaper costs but poorer service. It took all of my skills at being a jerk to get the service I wanted. I could have just been force fed crappy service and liked it but I wanted to have own personal nightmare. Welcome to it!
============== CIPCUG Notice
You don't have to be a member of CIPCUG to subscribe to this E-letter, but we do make a short notice of upcoming events.
Be sure to join writer, philosopher, humorist and computer expert, Harley Hahn, the best-selling Internet author of all time this Saturday while he waxes eloquent on trends on the Internet and what this means for the future. Harley always has interesting and unusual ideas that make you think. Can't do better than that.
August 26: Intervideo/ULEAD
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