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The HD market is big and getting bigger:

The transition from analog to digital broadcasting has triggered a surge in demand for TVs capable of providing the highest-quality picture. Sales of HDTV sets are expected to reach $37 billion in 2010, up from an estimated $24 billion this year, according to DisplaySearch, an industry research firm based in Texas. Maker of HDTVs Aims for Big Time

In June, an NPD survey of major retailers found that 41 percent of all TVs sold in the United States were HDTVs, compared with 25 percent a year ago. (NPD, a research firm that tracks sales of technology products, owns DisplaySearch, a research company specializing in all aspects of the display industry.) The HDTV Juggernaut Gathers Steam

Samsung have a SSD HDD now, and I think it is available in some parts of the world (though not seen it myself yet so who knows).

...the worst tech product of all time

"...has left the Windows-based player market to the four big players -- SanDisk, Samsung, Sony, and Creative."

So, let's do some math here. Apple currently has, according to the most recent reports, about a 75% market share in the portable music player market. If Apple has sold 50+ million iPods to date, that would give us a rough estimate of about 67 million portable music players sold, in total, from all companies who produce said products. 50M iPods, 17M "others."

Last quarter, Apple sold a little over 1M Mac computers, while it sold over 8M iPods. This is not a new trend, either: there are far less Mac owners than there are iPod owners in the world.

So, you're really trying to convince us that out of the 50M iPods that have been sold, there are more people who bought one of the 17M other players that use Windows than there are iPod users who use Windows?!

Did everyone already forget how a big a boon iTunes for Windows was for both Apple and iPod sales?

Chess is not violent enough... now Battle Chess, that's violent :)

More ignorance from the company recently voted worst technology of all time. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125772-page,2/ar ticle.html

Where the hell is the.... Oh wait, there it is

Thank you.

Disclaimer: This comment is meant to be funny, please take it as such.

Actually they are trying to develop fuel cells for laptops: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3031870.stm, http://www.pcworld.com/article/112533-1/article.ht ml, http://www.physorg.com/news3656.html. I have been looking forward to them. I suppose this plot will make it hard to get them approved for use on aircraft, though.

I see two very serious potential problems with an overabundance of RF-based wireless peripherals, problems which I believe will insure that wired ones will be with us for some time to come.

First and foremost: Security, and I'll start with wireless keyboards as a great example. There have been lots of articles about keystroke-logging malware, but there seem to have been precious few warning about the fact that wireless keyboards cheerfully broadcast every keystroke whoever uses one types, free for anyone with the right knowledge and hardware to just pluck off the air.

Second issue: Mutual interference. I read just recently (don't recall where) that someone brought home a nice wireless access point for their home network, and they were having a heck of a time getting it to work consistently.

As it turns out, the WAP had been set up right next to the microwave oven in the kitchen. Every time someone started heating up their frozen burrito or whatever, ZAP! The wireless part of their network went down, hard. Yes, microwave ovens and 802.11b/g networks operate right around the same part of the RF spectrum (2.4GHz).

Third point: Hamateur radio folks, commercial radio stations, and (especially!) labs where RF experimentation and development takes place, all need to be extremely leery about wireless peripherals because of the interference the things can cause to non-computer devices. Heck, I've got enough problems trying to filter Ethernet leakage out of my own station without worrying about wireless widgets on my computers adding to the problem!

This doesn't even touch on the possibility of licensed RF devices (such as portable 2-way VHF or UHF radios, or high-power commercial or amateur stations) causing interference to wireless peripherals. Being that such peripherals have to, by law, comply with FCC Part 15 regs, and "accept any interference received, including that which may cause undesired operation," the owners of such devices have four choices in such a case: Work with the licensed radio user, to try and resolve the issue, or try and resolve it themselves; Grin and bear it; Switch to infrared-based wireless devices; Or go back to wired devices.

Do wireless peripherals have their place? Of course they do. However, users of such would do well to remember that the RF spectrum is a very crowded place, and simply getting wireless for the sake of having wireless may not always yield the results that they expect.

Keep the peace(es).

I'll jump on the bandwagon when we can get rid of the power cable. When is power over wireless coming to computer peripherals?

A few years ago I read about a technology that does intend to get rid of the power cables. It's a mat you can plug in and then place on the desk. Any compatible device placed on top of the mat is then able to draw power directly from that. The interesting thing is that you can place several devices on it at once, each one draws the appropriate voltage and current for its operation, and the whole thing is safe for you to put your hands on. The last I heard, there was already a small version for sale (maybe 12x12 inches) and you could also get simple conversion kits for devices like phones and music players, so that you could charge them up by just placing them on the mat.

Ah ha! I found it, the MobileWise Wire-Free Electric Power: ABC news story, another link, and one more. The company's website (mobilewise.com) appears to be something else entirely now, though.

The case, of hiding your web travels while at work, was mentioned in this article which was cited in the post.

I recently had an employee, an MIS employee at that, fired. He was using Anonymizer at work. We have a tracking system (Web Inspector) and I kept noticing that he was leaving no tracks.
I consulted with my supervisor and he decided that I should analyze the employee's system. I found footprints, hacking, and a batch file he...

You'll note that, though the company did find out where their fired employee was surfing the reason for his dismissal was the use of the web anonymizer to hide his tracks in the first place. There is a simple rule known by anyone who is a parent. If there isn't any noise then the kids are probably getting into trouble. Take note of that when you choose your stealthing tools.

Were you planning on making some counterfeit currency? http://www.pcworld.com/article/118664-1/article.ht ml/

I just want to point out that AOL has been marked the WORST tech product ever according to http://www.pcworld.com/article/125772-2/article.ht ml# PC World Magazine.

This is truly a sign that people are starting to realize this. But speaking as a benchman who actually gets to see the computers this TOTAL CRAP is on, and the people bringing them in proclaiming their undying love for it makes me think that AOL will continue to have a presence for a while until someone can figure out how to get the old people (and I mean it, more elderly use AOL than any other client that ever comes in) off of it. Either that or sadly, we'll have to wait for them to die before AOL finally goes out as well.

AOL is a wretched tool, I'm glad they're finally starting the trek into internet oblivion. I just feel bad for all the people they screwed in the process, client and employee alike.

• Mac sales were up 12 percent compared with last year, during what was considered a poor quarter for the PC market. Apple said 75 percent of all Macs sold during the period used Intel's chips.

• Taiwanese PC maker Acer also continued to gain PC market share on growth that outpaced all other top vendors, IDC said. Gateway shined as its growth topped 15 percent for the second quarter, while Dell remained the PC market leader and gained global market share despite facing tough competition.

For the curious: Real Player's Questionable Practices. On the other hand, Some might be cheered by the fact that they Bypassed FairPlay.

Yes, but not the same ones that explode, catch on fire or shock you.

I'm not sure there is going to be a "Winner". There is already a hybred drive in the works. I see two scenerios.

1. Hybred drives become the norm and most people have no idea which format they are renting/buying because it all works in their player. Since these media morons can't seem to compromise, I see this as the best case scenerio.

2. Blu-Ray wins simply because in a few years there will be 10 million PS3's in homes. I'm not saying this is good/bad/whatever, its just simply the facts.

I'm an early adopter with a HDTV and there is no way I would buy any of these players, which isn't a good sign.

Sorry, allow me to clarify:

When Apple disabled the functionality to "download from iPod" (iTunes 4.7) the actual file system became a part of the DRM scheme, and thus protected by the DMCA. When a third party (Real Networks) allowed users to transfer files to their iPods, Apple sued under DMCA, claiming that any use of 3rd party software (including windows explorer, mind you!) was a violation of the DMCA. See details here: Apple Accuses RealNetworks of Hacking [PCWorld.com]

And there's a whole bunch of "terms and agreements" you agree to when you purchase an iPod and install iTunes for the first time. The legal notice included in both the iPod manual (at least the last one I had, which I admit is a few versions back. I stopped using iPods the first time my battery died and they told me it'd cost $160 to replace it) and in the iTunes install expressly forbid the use of non-Apple-approved software to interface with the iPod. While this isn't legally binding, it does allow them to sue. And sue they do.

(from article linked above):
"We are stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the IPod, and we are investigating the implications of their actions under the DMCA and other laws", says Apple's statement. "We strongly caution Real and their customers that when we update our IPod software from time to time it is highly likely that Real's Harmony technology will cease to work with current and future IPods."

Is THAT the company you're backing? Threatening their own customers and calling them criminals in an official press release? Just sounds like a little kid throwing a tantrum.

"Conventional LCD displays are made from glass panels. The flexible prototype is made from a plastic backing that is thin enough so it can be bent."

"The first products using the screens will be notebook PCs and other portable consumer electronics product, Lee says. The sizes of the panels have yet to be decided, but they could be bigger or smaller than 5 inches, she says. More exotic wearable display products such as helmets, glasses,and fashion accessories could come later."

This technology has been around for a few years for mirror/televisions. eg: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111100,0 0.asp

This looks suspiciously like self-promotion, trying to win a few dollars from Google AdSense placement. Yes, folks, Google can be used to make money. Who woulda known?

Skip the linked article and go straight to the source:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,126371,0 0.asp

All the link does is duplicate the story summary, and then link to the PCWorld article.

Rhetorical question, obviously Cowboy Neal didn't want to spend more than 30 seconds on it.

by the time you get to the point where a potential passport snooper isn't making himself *really* suspicious by running around an airport waving his briefcase next to everyone's baggage, you've got yourself quite an RFID reader.

Of all the possible threat models, you've picked the least likely. If you are in an airport you can probably just look at the guy's luggage tags.

No, the threat is out in the real world where there is plenty of opportunity to disguise super-huge equipment. Like a doorway where the entire frame is a field generator and detector and the target is still only a few inches away, or the entire trunk of the car parked along the roadside, or along the sidewalk where the wall of that warehouse you are strolling by is just a thin piece of wood and on the other side is a some big-ass (and relatively cheap since there is no need to miniaturize) detection equipment.

Not saying it's impossible to make a device that effectively identifies Americans by their passports, just saying that everyone should probably put their tinfoil hats on now because a device like that would probably give you one heck of a headache.

Yeah, because humans have that 6th sense - the one that lets us detect EM waves. If you are lucky, maybe your watch will stop working, or your cell phone will drop a call and crash. Neither of which are particularly obvious clues to the layman that he's been whacked with a ton of EM.

BTW, here's a guy demonstrating a system to detect these RFIDs from at least 50 ft and who claims it goes a lot further. Note that whether or not he actually reads any of the data from the RFID is irrelevant, the fact that you've got one in the first place is plenty of information all on its own. http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/000798 .html

No I have not read every EULA, and yes the market will take care of them...

I'm always debating with my friend about this, but ... In any market (free or otherwise) people get hurt. The market WILL and has punished the company, the only question is; How MANY people get screwed before Dell changes things (or dies)?

I know from experience, as many of you probably do, the problems with Dell in the past 5 years (was happy with them before then). Now Dell is scrambling to build their reputation again (Alienware, AMD, etc...) but until the MARKET decides that they are as good as they were back then, they're screwed.

Google "ipod killer" -> 1,160,000 results.

We've seen iPod killers from Sony, iRiver, Dell, Nokia, and of course Creative.

Microsoft has been killing the iPod for years now. They need to get their other iPod killers out of the way to give their new device a piece of that tasty iPod flesh that Apple competitors have been feasting on for years.

If you've got URLs, please post 'em. I try to have a neutral view of things, it's just that market penetration numbers are very hard to find... (manufacturers hide theirs, analysts charge lots of money for theirs).

I thought it was pretty well established that LCD prices were clearly dropping a decent amount every year [1], though I guess that's partly due to lower than expected demand.

Well, whatever. HDNet+PVR and bittorrent are always alternatives for geeks.

One could argue that the industry should indeed force down the consumers throats the new formats, using HDCP to reduce piracy, but since it's so weak, there's no point.

I think the best argument is, considering HD is already widely accepted, and people are just looking for a definition on the war, that the bigger(and supposely cheaper to make) format win, beacuse size apparently matters.

I vote for a boycott to HD-DVD and Blu-ray in favor of EVDs.

Automatic tiered storage is definitely coming, but probably not in the form of multiple disks that run at different speeds or RAID levels.

Microsoft announced a while back that Windows Vista would support three technologies designed to improve disk speed called SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, and ReadyDrive. SuperFetch is simply a way of preloading applications and data when the OS anticipates that you'll be loading those soon.

ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive both utilize persistent memory caches to speed up access to the disk.

ReadyBoost treats normal USB keys and flash disks like temporary caching locations for data from the disk.

ReadyDrive is essentially the term Microsoft uses to described their support for hybrid hard drives, which are disks that have a built in flash memory module that's used as a persistent cache.

Not only do hybrid disks dramatically increase performance, but they also result in huge power savings for mobile devices like laptops and media players.

This is all developer marketing (hint: msDn).

For some reason you and your buddy have a completely double-standard about this

perhaps caused by irrational sexual lust for Apple products.

How long has the promise of WinFS been on the table? Microsoft has dragged this teaser on 10-lb test in front of drooling long-time loyalists as the newest and amazingly innovative piece of their "best OS ever". Aside from the fact it really wasn't amazingly innovative (well, in vernacular maybe it was), now they're close to closing the door on this. I wonder how many sales they've pulled off with these lies?

HINT: Here's a snippet from an October 2003 PC World article:

On top of the fundamentals, Longhorn features three major innovations. It sports an XML-based visual presentation system, code-named Avalon; a new file system, dubbed WinFS; and new technology for communications between applications and devices, code-named Indigo.

Microsoft may not have thought they were lying at the time but they must have had an idea they not only weren't on target but they weren't even close! It's amazing a company can get away with this -- call it genius marketing, I call it deception at all costs to keep their customer base intact.

Sometimes these outcomes seem to say more about the Microsoft loyalists than Microsoft.

I just did a little further reading on blu-ray/hd-dvd movies out today and came across this:

First Movie Titles and Disc Capacity.
In a recent column, I observed how much disc space was utilized by eight HD DVD titles. Even though all eight titles relied on the latest video codecs--VC-1 and MPEG-4 AVC, both of which are more efficient encoders than MPEG-2--most of the titles showed signs of pushing HD DVD's capacity limits. The Last Samurai topped out at 27.3GB, Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles at 25.4GB, The Phantom of the Opera at 24.8GB, Jarhead at 24.7GB, The Bourne Identity at 22.7GB, Serenity at 19.6GB, The Fugitive at 18.2GB, and Doom at 16.5GB. It seems that the first wave of Blu-ray titles are also pushing the space constraints of the format. For now, these titles are limited to 25GB single-layer discs; 50GB dual-layer discs are forthcoming, though. Using Sony's new Vaio AR Premium, a $3500 notebook that includes a Blu-ray Disc burner, I checked out how much disc space Sony's first seven Blu-ray titles (encoded in MPEG-2, and many of them light on extra features) required. The results of this survey were quite telling: The Fifth Element needed 22.8GB; The Terminator, 23GB; House of Flying Daggers, 23.1GB; xXx, 22.3GB; Hitch, 22.9GB; Underworld Evolution, 22.5GB; 50 First Dates, 18.8GB.
My one takeaway from this random survey of both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles: The physical disc format's capacity is going to be more integral to the future presentation of content than perhaps Hollywood, or even industry observers, originally anticipated.


So the HD-DVD movies are almost out of space as it is and there seems to be no space savings at all in using MP4 over MP2. And it seems that space is at more of a premium than we had thought, with Blu-Ray having a distinct edge once dual layer discs arrive.

Also, I could not find any reference to the Samsung player not supporting dual-layer Blu-Ray discs, just that it shouldn't read DVD+ media (though apparently it actually does) and that most launch discs with single layer. Care to point out the review you read that from?

...there's a printer friendly version with the entire article on one page, so you don't have to click through 458 different pages, each with its own half-sentence of the article on it.

I'd also note that Apple's .Mac service is missing. It provides AFP, WebDAV, and web-based access for Mac (and Windows) users, as well as online file storage, online file, calendar, mail, and preference syncing, online backup, and the normal collection of web and email services.

Thank you AOL, for confirming and accepting your ranking as PC World's Number One (1) Worst Tech Product of All Time http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125772,0 0.asp.

...at all.
"Once AOL had you in its clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult. Several states sued the service, claiming that it continued to bill customers after they had requested cancellation of their subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a $1.25 million fine to the state of New York and agreed to change its cancellation policies--but the agreement covered only people in New York."
Full article
This was taken from a past Slashdot-featured PC World article.

From the same article...

Please, a little fresh news.

...at all.
"Once AOL had you in its clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult. Several states sued the service, claiming that it continued to bill customers after they had requested cancellation of their subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a $1.25 million fine to the state of New York and agreed to change its cancellation policies--but the agreement covered only people in New York."
Full article
This was taken from a past Slashdot-featured PC World article.

From the same article...

Please, a little fresh news.

Its backwards over there and I do wish someone would sue to change this.

• The FTC issued a complaint and ordered AOL to change their practices.
• There were two class-action lawsuits settled in 2004.
• Ohio sued and settled in 2005.
• Finally, most recently, the State of New York sued as well, and the agreement reached with AOL requires AOL to have a third party verify all cancellation calls by the end of this month.

As for new computers, yes the Big Boys preload, but not all PC sales have Win preloaded. From http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5561113.html

Last quarter, for example, Microsoft saw revenue in the Windows client unit grow by 5 percent, but PC shipments grew more than twice that fast.

The study found that 35 percent of software worldwide is pirated. In North America alone, the piracy rate for software is 22 percent.

Anyways, just think how much of an impact Linux has had on computers with only a sub-5% market share, and then just imagine how much more influential it will become as the numbers grow up to and over 10%...

In Europe, the Internet will be a place (more like what we in the US have today) where ideas are exchanged freely.

you must be in Amsterdam smoking some weed to say something as incredibly daft as "Europe... where ideas are exchanged freely"

In Europe, you can exchange ideas so long as they're everyone else's ideas. Jeremy Clarkson would beg to differ that ideas can be freely exchanged.

you can't even bring up actual real history without getting into trouble. You can't sell WWII memorabilia in France if it is German in nature.

and those are only two off the top of my head.

As insightful as your comment is what does it have to do with a stand alone blu-ray movie player?

Sony isn't holding this back for 'technical' reasons, Blu-ray have been selling in japan for a while now. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109617,0 0.asp

The problem is that Sony needed time to improve their fabrication process to keep foriegn buyers from shelling out $1,000 for a player that might have had a defective chip in it. While I guess you could call that a 'technical' problem, it's that you need to have certain production volumes to have enough 'good' chips. Early in the design phase if you sell way more units than expected, you wind up shipping out slightly inferior chips, which tested good but which have the kind of issues that can lead to burnouts etc.

The movie studios didn't want to launch blu-ray movies without evidence of a sucessful market, so they really made a situation where sony could only delay the global release of blu-ray. Hopefully all the delays will mean that early adopters will have a lot of top quality chips in their players, rather than shell out $1,000 for a movie player that would be obsolete a couple months later.

Have you been living under a rock?

http://fuckbluray.com/
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114850,0 0.asp

I stopped buying Sony's crap after discovering that a normal memory stick (which was a STUPID, unnecessary format to begin with) wasn't good enough for my sony mp3 player, I needed a more expensive, DRM encumbered 'magic gate' stick. I also had no choice but to use Sony's buggy software to put music on the darn thing.

This isn't FUD, Sony just keeps shafting and screwing customers when it comes to the content market. They've been doing it for years, and will continue to do so.

Give Foxit Reader a try (the download link is on the left). It's super fast, integrates with IE and Firefox and has ctrl-f search functionality. PCWorld rates it higher than Acrobat Reader. I've only ever had trouble with one PDF and unfortunately that's the PDF in the article - the password 'grail' isn't opening it.

And your a dumbass that doesn't know what your talking about. Microsoft wanted to go PDF but Adobe threatend them with lawsuits. PDF, nice and open huh? Yeah as long as it's not comercial. Check this article here:

****** Begin Quote ******
The dispute between the companies began in February when Adobe raised concerns over Microsoft's plans to offer a "Save as PDF" feature in its Office 2007 suite. Beta versions of the software with this feature are already available.

Now, with Microsoft's decision to remove the function, users who purchase the final Office 2007, due out later this year, must separately download free software to save documents created in Office applications as PDF or XPS files, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft representatives say Adobe wants its software to be removed from Office and offered separately for a fee, and the companies had been trying to work out a compromise.

"We have taken a number of significant steps to accommodate Adobe and offered many proposals in an effort to avoid a dispute," Evans said. "But we have now reached a point where we feel what they are asking for is not in the best interest of our customers."
********* End Quote ********

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,1259 60,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

But I guess just bashing Microsoft is soooo much easier than doing a little basic research. Some of you people are just a little to happy to jump on a story and bash Microsoft.

According to IDC Research, there may be a rise in mobile operating system use and Linux will probably retain around 15% of the market share. Granted, this isn't for laptops but instead for things like phones or tablet PCs, it still probably holds some weight.

I doubt Lenovo would be changing their tune because it seems to be that (as of 2004), Linux runs on something like 2.4% of desktops and probably less laptops. Lenovo probably is imagining their products getting smaller and competing with cell phones & PDAs. In order to do that, they're going to need to support applications written for Linux or maybe even Symbian OSs so that they can steal users from the other side of the market.

Plain and simple: Laptops, PDAs, cell phones & tablet PCs are all about to vie for the "must have" device that does it all. Any manufacturer needs to be sure they can support the other side's applications if they want a piece of the market share. I think Lenovo knows the winds are changing and they are trying to support as much to satisfy their consumer. It's only natural that a buyer wants as many options as possible even though they have no intent whatsoever to utilize said options.

Timex had a product for you at one time. The Data Link Watch ( http://www.212.net/computershop/prod96/timex_pr.ht m ). Only problem is that it was in PCWorld's list of Dis-honorable mentions on their 25 Worst Tech Products Of All Time ( http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,12577 2,pg,7,00.asp ), so it may not be the best choice.

Maybe you can improve on the idea though. Just don't do too good of a job, or else someone may start limiting the frequencies of light we are allowed to see.

This doesn't work.

Modern rootkits cannot be removed without booting from "known-good" media.

Once your system is owned, unless it is by a script kiddie du jour, you *have* to wipe and reformat. There's simply no other way to know that you clear out the infection. A high-end rootkit that has succesfully taken over your system will not expose itself to malware scanners.

Here's a quote for ya:
According to Russ Cooper, who founded and moderates the NTBugtraq newsletter, looking for the kinds of techniques that rootkits use is a good idea. But Cooper doesn't think that rootkit infections are on the rise. "Rootkits are no more prevalent now than they've ever been," he believes. And as for rootkit removal tools, Cooper remarks that "only a person with very little knowledge would try to remove a rootkit," adding that the one certain cure is to wipe the hard disk and reinstall the OS. Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure's director of antivirus research, mostly concurs with Cooper, but points out that Blacklight can address situations where no known good backup is available.

If you maintain md5 signatures of all your installed executables, and you boot from known-good media (read only), perhaps you can verify that your system is clean. If you're booting into an infected system, however, all bets are off. The long and the short of it is that virus/malware tools are only really useful as tripwires. Once you've found something that shouldn't be there, you've already lost. The exception, of course, is things that are caught at the entry points; virus scanners on incoming attachments, or network shares and the like.

That worm you found in system ram, with copies all over $WINNT\system32; don't even bother. You're screwed already.

Although that might be a quick-and-clean way of restoring your system in the event of a catastrophic infection (yes, I admit that phrase sounds weird), it's absolutely ridiculous to say that the only way to insure safety is to make an image. Bullshit. It's called "preventative actions."

In the event of catastrophic infection, it is a decent assumption to assume that a sophisticated rootkit has made its way into your system. Unless you think your preventative action is 100% effective, maintaing backup images of ANY Windows system on a regular basis is necessary.

You make it sound like keeping a Windows system clean is easy. Statistically, that's simply not the case. Check out my links here. Roughly 85% of PCs worldwide are infected with some kind of spyware, and 20% of PCs worldwide are infected with viruses. Keep in mind that most of those results are corporate PCs, not home users.

Preventative action as your Maginot line makes sense in situations like the Measles, where we have virtually eradicated the disease. In the computing world, where infections are rampant, preventative action should only be one tool in your arsenal.

Yup, and further research reveals a lot more:

    http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109951,0 0.asp

Hmmm. It didn't impact me as a customer, so I had no idea. Guess I gotta shut up about stuff I don't know about. :-)

RIAA sues 216 more swappers

The settlements are usually around 5000-20,000 dollars.

FTA:

The slew of suits will put a serious price tag on those actions for the first time. Under copyright law, violators can be held liable for up to $150,000 per violation--a measure that could result in stunningly high damage figures for some of the defendants in this round of suits. According to the RIAA, most of the people sued Monday were sharing 1,000 songs or more on the file-swapping networks.

Few of the suits are likely to go to trial, however. In the RIAA's previous round of copyright suits, filed against four university students in April, each defendant quickly settled, agreeing to pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,000. Many of today's defendants are also likely to settle.

Lets not forget our friends at the MPAA.

The MPAA filed an unspecified number of lawsuits in courts across the U.S., seeking damages and injunctions against the P-to-P users. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, people can be liable for as much as $30,000 for each movie traded over the Internet, and as much as $150,000 per movie if the infringement is proven to be willful.

Typically, a virus using macros infects a template, which is then read when opening other documents and infects those also, Schouwenberg said. The Stardust virus is contained in a StarOffice document that uses macros and then infects a global template.

If a user opens a document infected with Stardust, every StarOffice text document, with a ".sxw" extension, or document template, with a ".stw" extension, will be infected, Schouwenberg said.

Maybe this post is flamebait itself, but the page linked in the PP definitely is, so I guess this is response to a flamebait...

<rant>

That guy is just another BSD evangelist. The short summary of his long story is "BSD is from a better breed created by superior software designers". I quote, he says Linux is "beat up, punched around, tweaked, poked, prodded, manged, digested, spit out, stomped on, chewed up, tossed out, brought in, and otherwise manipulated", and in the description of what BSD is, it comes down to "BSD is pedigree". Baseless Elitist Crap(tm), that's what it is. It's the 'we are better because we are' in long format as is commonly seen in BSD evangelists. Total 11 Pages of Blah Blah Blah

I'll touch on a couple of things from his first page here:

He says SCO owns the Unix code, which is wrong. The Open Group's website says SCO bought it from Novell and this guy is happy to repeat that, but Novell itself says it didn't transfer nor sell the copyright of its Unix code to SCO. Novell sold the UnixWare business to SCO, not the copyrights (==ownership) of the code. From http://www.opensource.org/sco-vs-ibm.html : "On 28 May 2003 Novell stated[40] that SCO owns neither the patents nor the copyrights to the Unix source code." See also http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110904,0 0.asp

He repeats a mantra that says "BSD is what you get when a bunch of Unix hackers sit down to try to port a Unix system to the PC. Linux is what you get when a bunch of PC hackers sit down and try to write a Unix system for the PC.". Note the consistent 'PC' as the target for the OS... With Linux supporting many more non-PC platforms than the BSD's, that statement is too wrong in its core to even begin talk about the details.

What I don't get is how the BSD people keep feeling so superior when there is so much that Linux has and can do that BSD doesn't have or can't do. All the while they often claim to know Linux better than Linux people know BSD. I guess they simply enjoy bathing in their ignorance.

</rant>

Anybody notice the iTunes icon in an image of the Microsft Bob link?! Just below the picture of the dog sitting on a desk with an exit button on it.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/bob7.jpg