* Gearhead: More BGInfo, UI trickery and stuff * Backspin: Exploding heads and running in circles * Gibbsblog: The past 7 days
Gearhead: More BGInfo, UI trickery and stuff
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about a tool called BGInfo. Reader Paul Kru pointed out that “BGinfo . . . is a great tool, but it’s not completely freeware. No Sysinternals products are really freeware . . . unless you download them to each PC [or] server individually.”
To read this week’s Gearhead, click here.
Backspin: Exploding heads and running in circles
You’ve got to wonder sometimes how people can open their mouths and say things that are so stupid, so downright transparently ridiculous and illogical that their heads should simply explode.
To read this week’s Backspin, click here.
Gibbsblog: The past 7 days
Crisp delivers Fabilous Fabiograms
Sometimes a press release appears that lightens our day. Such was the effect of a press release from Crisp Wireless (“a provider of mobile content creation and delivery solutions” — unusually modest for a press release skipping as it does claims of being a “leading” or “the foremost”) that announced (the emphasis is all mine):
… [Crisp Wireless] has delivered a rich media mobile brand experience to MindShare Interaction for Unilever
This Week in Gearhead: More BGInfo, More UI Trickery and More Sleep
This week in Gearhead we field reader feedback on the BGInfo utility we discussed a couple of weeks ago, discuss a neat user interface enhancement that you don’t need but that’s pretty cool all the same, and review a neat tool for ensuring you get your sleep.
This Week in Backspin: Exploding Heads and Running in Circles
In Backspin this week I discuss Rupert Murdoch, O.J. Simpson, Microsoft, the ACLU, and the government and wonder why there aren’t more exploding heads.
Testing the Snap.com Link Target Preview Popup Script
This Gibbsblog entry is to test the Snap.com link target preview popup script. See next week’s Network World on Web Applications for a discussion.
Only this link should show a preview popup.
The Risks of Reduced Functionality Mode
You have probably heard of Reduced Functionality Mode in Windows XP, Office XP, and Office 2003. In case you haven’t it is simply that those products, should they fail the built-in authentication tests Microsoft performs to detect pirated copies, suddenly become brain damaged and refuse to do all the fun and exciting things they are supposed to until the user gets the product re-authorized …
So, here’s my question: How long do you think it will be after the launch of Vista, which will have even more pervasive authenticity checking built-in, will it be until a virus writer creates malware that intentionally triggers Reduced Functionality Mode and leaves tens of thousands of users fighting to get reauthorized?
PS. Check out next week’s Backspin [Note: that link will not work before November 27th, 2006] wherein I will be having a few words about Microsoft spin on the topic of Reduced Functionality Mode and “Genuine Advantage” …
Novell Denies Linux Infringes MS IP
The deal that Novell made with Microsoft is looking more and more bizarre (the two companies appear to have slightly different versions on their respective Web sites) with each passing day and it appears that the new chums are already falling out. Novell’s CEO, Ron Hovsepian, published an open letter declaring that Novell completely disagrees with Steve Ballmer’s assertion that Linux infringes on Microsoft’s intellectual property:
We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. When we entered the patent cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.
There’s no doubt: This is going to get ugly …
