Pic of Toby

Table of Contents

 

============== Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7 is out (bundled with Outlook Express 7) and if you have your Windows Update settings to automatically download and install updates, you already have it installed. You can de-select the IE7 download and continue to install the other updates automatically, but Microsoft doesn't make the setting all that easy to find. They don't want anyone running anything but IE7 is short order.

At our shop we use QuickBooks Pro 2004. If we upgrade to IE7, parts of QuickBooks won't work and Intuit has no intention of updating QB to work with IE7. Right now, I've upgraded to IE7 while Rick is stuck on IE6. Anything I have to do that requires IE6, I have to mooch his machine. There are several other smaller, vertical market software packages that don't work with IE7 as well. Several of our customers have them and we've had to uninstall IE7. If automatic update has installed IE7 on your computer and you are running into problems with a program that needs IE6, just go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and uninstall IE7. You'll be rolled back to IE7.

However, everyone is going to have to fix whatever is broken so everyone can upgrade to IE7 soon. You (like us) may have to upgrade from a 2004 version to a more recent one or vertical vendors will have to update their programs. The reason for the hard push from Microsoft is three-fold: (1) IE7 is more secure than IE6. Microsoft charges for some support but also provides free support and the burden of assisting users with spyware and other malware that IE and Outlook Express let in has become difficult. By forcing users to upgrade they will cut support costs significantly. (2) Users who upgrade have to have valid Windows XP installs, so forcing the upgrade to IE7 also helps catch pirated copies of XP. And (3) IE6 (and earlier) isn't standards compliant, so web pages that look great in FireFox or other standards-compliant browsers frequently look awful in IE6 and pages designed to comply with IE6's non-standard implementation of html frequently break in FireFox. Microsoft is having trouble with Front Page as well as .Net and other server software. It didn't used to be much of a problem, but with FireFox's increasing popularity it is rapidly getting more difficult. IE7 is significantly more standards-compliant that IE6. If Microsoft can force nearly universal acceptance of IE7 they can render pages adequately for all browsers. If they can't, Sun's Java will increase market share on servers at the expense of Microsoft's .Net at least for the portion of the market that uses FireFox, Opera and the other browsers. Since the governments of several nations have standardized on non-Microsoft browsers, this is a much larger issue that it would first appear.

So, don't expect to continue running IE6 on a Windows XP machine. If you do much online browsing, you are going to be forced to upgrade soon.

On a personal note, I can't wait. As a designer of web pages, I am hugely tired of writing two different formats just to cover the bugs in IE6. Pretty soon, I'm going to stop bothering to look at how the pages render in IE6. I suspect many web page designers are going to do likewise.

============== Freeware

I use a lot of freeware, mainly open source. Lots of people have asked me why, so I thought I'd cover the subject here. There is a perception that if it's free it can't be any good, But in many cases open source freeware is the best software available. There are some well-known, well-established and excellent freeware projects that nearly everyone knows: Linux, Mozilla (Firefox, Thunderbird), Open Office, MySQL and dozens more. There is one important thing about open source that is misunderstood and under-appreciated: open source means you can get a copy of the source code and even change it if you know how and care to do so. Most of us don't know how or care to make changes to the source code, but there are lots of programmers out there who do. It would be impossible for the writers of the original code to slip in spyware, viruses, keyloggers or other malware. Far too many professional coders would spot it instantly. So you know that while there may be bugs in the code (and all large projects have bugs) none of the bugs are deliberate.

The most common question I receive is, "If the program is so good, why would anyone code it for free?" The answer, strangely, is that you can make more money giving it away than you can by selling it. Ask any shareware author. Tons of people try, very few buy. But all expect support. You spend so much time supporting the project you don't have time to develop it adequately. The end result is that you don't make enough money to pay for the effort involved. There are several companies who used to sell multi-thousand dollar software to corporations, who now give it away. Once they give it away, they no longer have to support it -- unless the user pays for support. And by giving it away, many times as many users give it a try than they used to. Lots get it working in their business and like it. Then they discover that they could do even more with the program if they could figure out how some advanced features work. So they pay for support. Other developers get book deals and go out on the speakers tour. Still others need applications for their work and rather than writing the job solo, contact others in similar situations and invite them to collaborate. Quite a few corporations make sizeable donations to projects so they can have a voice in the development of the project. All in all, there are lots of reasons why some of the very best software available is open source.

The largest depository of open source projects is at http://sourceforge.net. If you need a program to do something, be sure to check there first. They have more than 130,000 registered projects on their site. Some of these are still in planning stages, others are for Linux or Mac, but that's still a lot of software.

============== Rick's Rants: Shopping online can save you money, if ...

It has come to that time of year when we as a society gather together with family and friends to celebrate many things. But for the majority of Americans, it is for the blessings we have as a nation and for our families. The majority of us celebrate this by the giving of gifts. Here is a little (or a lot) of background information.

Long before Christmas was an established tradition, ancient peoples celebrated the Winter Solstice on Dec. 21. The Winter Solstice marked the shortest day of the year and was considered to be a time of renewal as the Sun began its return.

Over time, the Romans extended the celebration to a week and came to dedicate these festivals to Saturn, their god of agriculture. During the week of Dec. 17-23, the Romans held banquets and exchanged gifts to mark the festival of Saturnalia. Our modern Christmas traditions of elaborate dinners and gift giving likely have their origins in these pagan roots.

As the Roman Empire spread into Persian lands, soldiers encountered stories of the god Mithra. Long associated with the coming of the new dawn, Mithra was adopted by some as the new Roman sun god. Worship to him, Mithraism, became an official religion of the empire and was most popular from around the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD. Because he was the new Roman Sun god, Mithra's birthday now was associated with the Winter Solstice. Consequently, the Saturnalia was replaced with celebrations to Mithra. Some scholars contend that the original 12 Days of Christmas referred to those 12 days between Mithra's birthday on Dec. 21 and New Year's Day, Jan. 1.

In 325 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine began to allow the practice of Christianity. As the leaders of the church spread the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire, they reinterpreted some of the old pagan beliefs as consistent with the new theology.

Because the actual birth date of Christ was unknown, the councils decided to identify Christ's birth with the existing birth celebrations for Mithra. Thus, the sun god's birthday festival turned into the son of God's celebration.

Ultimately these councils decided to move the day of celebration to Dec. 25. Sources are a bit inconsistent as to when this actually happened: It may have been at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, by decree of Constantine in 336 AD, or by Pope Julius I in 350 AD.

At this point, the 12 days of Christmas came to represent the time between Jesus' birth and the coming of the Magi (Dec. 25 to Jan. 6).

I know that was a bit much, but I just found it so fascinating. The point is, and I will get to it someday, is that if we are going to give things how can we get the most of our hard-earned dollars. THE INTERNET! Internet shopping can be a magical wonder or minefield depending on where you step. But with a little knowledge and caution you can save a lot of money and time. Let's look at the obvious. You can, right out of the gate, almost always save on shipping and sales tax. Most online retailers are so competitive they almost always offer discounts on shipping. This, combined with no sales tax and no overhead of expensive retail footage, can mean much lower prices for items. If you look for clearance items, the savings can be huge.

But also let the buyer beware. You need to be very careful as you purchase items about the ease or difficulty of returns or service if the need arises. This is why for some items, such as computers, you should always purchase from local vendors where you can get immediate satisfaction if you have problem just by going back to them and telling them off in person. Hard to do on the Net with e-mail. It's just not as satisfying. But anyway, with that said, you also need to be educated about what you are buying. Knowing the normal retail and sale pricing of an item is helpful. Knowing which brands offer better quality is a plus, too. If you are buying an mp3 player, at least you know the IPOD will always work well as compared to BRAND X for one-fourth of the price.

Recently I purchased a few baby items to support the new member of our household. I had a good idea of what I wanted and started searching. I came a c r o s s a GREAT s i t e c a l l ed babyage.com. Not only did they have VERY competitive pricing, but they also had a very easy to navigate and well designed Web site. Always a plus! They charged no sales tax and had a flat shipping rate of $7.99 regardless of how much you purchase. But before I gave my credit card info I added one final caveat. I did a search of their site name and coupons. Guess what? They had a 20 percent off the entire order coupon at an online coupon site. This, combined with buying our Toddler bed from the clearance section marked down 33 percent, made for quite a savings. They shipped four large boxes weighing many pounds each from back east for almost nothing. I received e-mail notifications as soon as the order was processed and also when the item was shipped along with tracking numbers. I probably saved more than $200 from shopping at Babies-R-Us in Oxnard.

Last but not least was my purchase of Toby Scott's birthday present. I use a Discover card and receive cash back bonuses for all our household purchasing. You can select gift cards instead, and they add value to cash back. I selected Sharper image and received an $80 gift card for my $40 purchase. I also got a coupon for free shipping in the mail and went straight to their outlet store. I purchased $149 Outdoor Wireless Speaker with an IPOD hookup for Toby so he could listen to his favorite classical music while smoking cigars and contemplating life out by his koi pond. I found a refurbished unit for $67, and with all my stuff it basically cost me nothing except that now I can't look like I spent lots of money on him so he will feel guilty and go out and by me an expensive gift, too.

============== 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.

This Saturday, December 16, Zinc Matrix Power will be here to talk about battery life and introduce a new battery technology that can significantly improve battery life.

January 27: Corel will be here to demonstrate CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® WordPerfect® Office, Corel Paint Shop® Pro, Corel DESIGNER® Technical Suite, Corel Painter®, and iGrafx®.

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