After Long Silence
I started this blog in 2001, partly so I'd have a blog to play with (along with Neil McIntosh, I'd just become the Guardian's first real blogger at Onlineblog), and partly so I'd have accessible links to my own articles. Changes to the Guardian's site meant those links stopped working, and in any case, I was too busy to keep it going....
Things have changed now I've left the staff of the Guardian, though we're still friends, and I'll be maintaining a connection by posting to the eponymous Ask Jack blog.
But in the absence of anywhere else to blog, I've dusted the cobwebs off this old thing, to see if it has any potential. You never know, I might even manage another post before the next six years have passed....
6.2.04
Faster, smaller, cheaper and more profitable
Intel introduced a new range of enhanced high-volume Pentium 4E processors this week, with small but significant benefits. In the long term, buyers will get faster PCs for less money, while Intel could make bigger profits.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Music downloads and digital rights management: if buying a player, make sure it works with the service(s) you want to use, and vice versa. Apple iPod battery failures? Getting better performance with Windows XP. Backchat: EventSounds.com is back up and running.
Ask Jack
Intel introduced a new range of enhanced high-volume Pentium 4E processors this week, with small but significant benefits. In the long term, buyers will get faster PCs for less money, while Intel could make bigger profits.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Music downloads and digital rights management: if buying a player, make sure it works with the service(s) you want to use, and vice versa. Apple iPod battery failures? Getting better performance with Windows XP. Backchat: EventSounds.com is back up and running.
Ask Jack
30.1.04
Mobile doubts
I don't hate mobile phones, but I have doubts about the mobile phone industry. It shouldn't be painful trying to use a mobile abroad.....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Your Amazing Brain; Topix is a good place for news fiends; Microsoft follows he crowd with a popup-blocking toolbar, and Yahoo lauches Yahoo Labs; European Schoolnet events; Net squirrel offers presentations for downloading; Victorian robot times. Six of the best: Social networks.
Web watch
I don't hate mobile phones, but I have doubts about the mobile phone industry. It shouldn't be painful trying to use a mobile abroad.....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Your Amazing Brain; Topix is a good place for news fiends; Microsoft follows he crowd with a popup-blocking toolbar, and Yahoo lauches Yahoo Labs; European Schoolnet events; Net squirrel offers presentations for downloading; Victorian robot times. Six of the best: Social networks.
Web watch
23.1.04
Tagging goes global
VeriSign has been awarded a contract to provide the ONS (Object Naming Service) for RFID tags. It plans to run it on the same servers as the internet's DNS (Domain Name System).
Guardian Online
Is open source being oversold?
Everyone now accepts the benefits of the open source approach, but it also has potential drawbacks.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Random words in spam; sorting e-mail in Outlook Express; dialler attack; installing a new Windows Startup sound; taking your address book when you leave AOL.
Ask Jack
OnSpeed speeds up your Web browsing, and while it isn't a replacement for broadband, dial-up users could find it worth trying.
Review
VeriSign has been awarded a contract to provide the ONS (Object Naming Service) for RFID tags. It plans to run it on the same servers as the internet's DNS (Domain Name System).
Guardian Online
Is open source being oversold?
Everyone now accepts the benefits of the open source approach, but it also has potential drawbacks.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Random words in spam; sorting e-mail in Outlook Express; dialler attack; installing a new Windows Startup sound; taking your address book when you leave AOL.
Ask Jack
OnSpeed speeds up your Web browsing, and while it isn't a replacement for broadband, dial-up users could find it worth trying.
Review
16.1.04
Casino rewards total loyalty
Harrah's uses a loyalty card that pays back points and "comps" in exchange for the ability to track your gambling habits.
Guardian Online
"It was not a rational buy."
The Mac was launched 20 years ago, and while the launch advert was brilliant, sales flopped.....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Phishing warning: an unfixed bug in Microsoft's Internet explorer means you can't trust links in e-mail, and you can't trust the address bar to tell you where you are -- as customers of a large British bank have recently learned. Also, tracking paperwork with bar codes, connecting wirelessly to the garden shed, and finding an upgrade to the antique Schedule+.
Ask Jack
Mars today -- with the first 360 degree panorama; The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook online; making molecules out of balloons; free legal advice in the UK; Microsoft community sites with built-in blogging, and the Goat Game that teaches kids about recycling. Six of the best: Chinese New Year.
Web watch
Harrah's uses a loyalty card that pays back points and "comps" in exchange for the ability to track your gambling habits.
Guardian Online
"It was not a rational buy."
The Mac was launched 20 years ago, and while the launch advert was brilliant, sales flopped.....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Phishing warning: an unfixed bug in Microsoft's Internet explorer means you can't trust links in e-mail, and you can't trust the address bar to tell you where you are -- as customers of a large British bank have recently learned. Also, tracking paperwork with bar codes, connecting wirelessly to the garden shed, and finding an upgrade to the antique Schedule+.
Ask Jack
Mars today -- with the first 360 degree panorama; The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook online; making molecules out of balloons; free legal advice in the UK; Microsoft community sites with built-in blogging, and the Goat Game that teaches kids about recycling. Six of the best: Chinese New Year.
Web watch
8.1.04
Delivering the goods
Ten tips to improve your Google searches.
Guardian Online
Happy birthday to GNU
It's 20 years this week since Richard Stallman started to develop a free operating system called GNU (Gnu's Not Unix) though it ended up being called Linux.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Media on the go
Microsoft boss Bill Gates was expected to show off a portable video/music player during his opening CES keynote last night -- the same as last year.
What's New
Is it worth asking Metronomy for a free PC? Should you buy the Home or Pro version of Windows XP? What happens after Microsoft stops supporting Windows 98 and Windows 98SE on January 16? What can you do when AOL blocks your e-mail?
Ask Jack
Ten tips to improve your Google searches.
Guardian Online
Happy birthday to GNU
It's 20 years this week since Richard Stallman started to develop a free operating system called GNU (Gnu's Not Unix) though it ended up being called Linux.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Media on the go
Microsoft boss Bill Gates was expected to show off a portable video/music player during his opening CES keynote last night -- the same as last year.
What's New
Is it worth asking Metronomy for a free PC? Should you buy the Home or Pro version of Windows XP? What happens after Microsoft stops supporting Windows 98 and Windows 98SE on January 16? What can you do when AOL blocks your e-mail?
Ask Jack
19.12.03
Good tidings
Things are looking up for the PC industry. Research company IDC has just raised its forecast for worldwide PC shipments to a record high of 152.6m units in 2003, and PC companies are starting to expand into the consumer electronics market....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Upgrading to a new PC, and feedback on film scanning.
Ask Jack
e-Xmax cards, getting your SMS message displayed to the world, searching Google for numbers (eg US patents, FedEx packages), trivia at the NoRelevance site, another new book about Google -- with an online tutorial, MSN's newsbot, GeoSnapping, and original album cover art.
Web watch
Things are looking up for the PC industry. Research company IDC has just raised its forecast for worldwide PC shipments to a record high of 152.6m units in 2003, and PC companies are starting to expand into the consumer electronics market....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Upgrading to a new PC, and feedback on film scanning.
Ask Jack
e-Xmax cards, getting your SMS message displayed to the world, searching Google for numbers (eg US patents, FedEx packages), trivia at the NoRelevance site, another new book about Google -- with an online tutorial, MSN's newsbot, GeoSnapping, and original album cover art.
Web watch
9.12.03
Can Hewlett-Packard topple IBM to claim the title of the world's biggest computer company?
Schofield column
Computer Weekly
Schofield column
Computer Weekly
14.11.03
Don't believe the hype
Gartner has been telling European clients which technologies it thinks are ready for adoption and which ones can wait a few years.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Choosing a digital camera for copying and other close-up tasks. Printing multiple pictures on a single sheet of paper. Eliminating some of the Google-spammers who are getting their sites too prominently displayed. A browser hi-jacked by Lucky Search, and how to get rid of it. Backchat: a drive to store photos on the move, and more ways to pickup RSS feeds with and without Microsoft Outlook.
Ask Jack
Gartner has been telling European clients which technologies it thinks are ready for adoption and which ones can wait a few years.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Choosing a digital camera for copying and other close-up tasks. Printing multiple pictures on a single sheet of paper. Eliminating some of the Google-spammers who are getting their sites too prominently displayed. A browser hi-jacked by Lucky Search, and how to get rid of it. Backchat: a drive to store photos on the move, and more ways to pickup RSS feeds with and without Microsoft Outlook.
Ask Jack
7.11.03
The coming software patent crisis
Tim Berners-Lee, the Web's inventor, has joined in the fight to help Microsoft, which lost a software patent case over browser plug-in technologies.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
The Royal College of Art's Secret postcard sale. A launch pad for sites about the US presidential elections. A great collection of police mugshots. Google now lets you define: words. Mooter -- a search engine that clusters results. Brainstorm -- software to help you organize your thoughts.
Web watch
A resistible offer from Top-Sites; one way to keep your digital pictures on a long trip; getting RSS feeds in Microsoft Outlook; and dealing with a PC that dials by itself. Backchat: synchronizing a PC's clock; keyboard shortcuts; and more on movie formats.
Ask Jack
Tim Berners-Lee, the Web's inventor, has joined in the fight to help Microsoft, which lost a software patent case over browser plug-in technologies.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
The Royal College of Art's Secret postcard sale. A launch pad for sites about the US presidential elections. A great collection of police mugshots. Google now lets you define: words. Mooter -- a search engine that clusters results. Brainstorm -- software to help you organize your thoughts.
Web watch
A resistible offer from Top-Sites; one way to keep your digital pictures on a long trip; getting RSS feeds in Microsoft Outlook; and dealing with a PC that dials by itself. Backchat: synchronizing a PC's clock; keyboard shortcuts; and more on movie formats.
Ask Jack
31.10.03
Google fights for top spot
Google is planning to go public, but Yahoo and Microsoft are planning to knock it off its search perch.
Guardian Online
Clash of the Titans
Sony Ericsson P900 v XDA2. Which is best, the phone that includes an organizer or the organizer than includes a phone?
Guardian Online
Portable memory devices: we've moved on from floppies....
Start here
Guardian Online
The keys to productivity: learn some combos, speed up your work, and reduce the risk of RSI.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Getting your PC to fetch the correct time. Accessing sites that redirect you to a different country -- inlcuding the Microsoft Update site. The Thumbs.db file in Windows XP. Backchat: more on sending video clips and controlling Windows start-up programs.
Ask Jack
The passage of call centre jobs to India is causing alarm in the UK, but IT companies operate in a global market that depends on free trade. And India also represents a huge potential market....
Computer Weekly
Google is planning to go public, but Yahoo and Microsoft are planning to knock it off its search perch.
Guardian Online
Clash of the Titans
Sony Ericsson P900 v XDA2. Which is best, the phone that includes an organizer or the organizer than includes a phone?
Guardian Online
Portable memory devices: we've moved on from floppies....
Start here
Guardian Online
The keys to productivity: learn some combos, speed up your work, and reduce the risk of RSI.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Getting your PC to fetch the correct time. Accessing sites that redirect you to a different country -- inlcuding the Microsoft Update site. The Thumbs.db file in Windows XP. Backchat: more on sending video clips and controlling Windows start-up programs.
Ask Jack
The passage of call centre jobs to India is causing alarm in the UK, but IT companies operate in a global market that depends on free trade. And India also represents a huge potential market....
Computer Weekly
24.10.03
On the up PC sales are stronger than predicted. Reasons include: the move towards notebook PCs; the battle between Dell and Hewlett-Packard; the fact that PCs bought to avoid Year 2000 problem are slow by today's standards; and the success of Microsoft Windows XP.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Sending video clips to the grandchildren (or anybody else). What to do when you have lost your web-site address (because you forgot to pay to renew it). The end of support for Windows 98. More ways to access data when you're away.
Ask Jack
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Sending video clips to the grandchildren (or anybody else). What to do when you have lost your web-site address (because you forgot to pay to renew it). The end of support for Windows 98. More ways to access data when you're away.
Ask Jack
17.10.03
US risks losing software business
Andy Grove told the Global Tech Summit in Washington, DC that it was National Depression Screening Day, and "I'm here to be the skunk at your garden party". The software industry could follow the steel and other industries overseas....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Your installation of Windows is getting clogged up with resource-grabbing apps and parasites or just suffering from bit-rot. Here are some things you can try, up to a complete re-installation.
Ask Jack
Andy Grove told the Global Tech Summit in Washington, DC that it was National Depression Screening Day, and "I'm here to be the skunk at your garden party". The software industry could follow the steel and other industries overseas....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Your installation of Windows is getting clogged up with resource-grabbing apps and parasites or just suffering from bit-rot. Here are some things you can try, up to a complete re-installation.
Ask Jack
25.9.03
Spam, spam, government legislation and spam...
British governments so often seem to get things wrong that the latest "anti-spam" action should come as no surprise. The quotation marks have been added because if it does have any effect, the new regulation seems more likely to encourage spam.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Spy software; Make a Difference Day wants your IT input; hurricanes online; the 100 documents that helped shape America (and can we have a UK version); Ikea games, and World Globe for Windows. Plus: Six of the best alternatives to Google.
Web watch
Yes another Microsoft virus -- but it didn't come from Microsoft. Predictive text: word processors that guess what you are writing. Baby steps in home networking. Removing Norton AntiVirus. Backchat: more programs that watch the web for you.
Ask Jack
How their kids will learn
What will schools be like in 2033? Will they change as society changes, and how will society change if we develop computers that are smarter than we are?
The Classroom of the Future
Education Guardian
British governments so often seem to get things wrong that the latest "anti-spam" action should come as no surprise. The quotation marks have been added because if it does have any effect, the new regulation seems more likely to encourage spam.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Spy software; Make a Difference Day wants your IT input; hurricanes online; the 100 documents that helped shape America (and can we have a UK version); Ikea games, and World Globe for Windows. Plus: Six of the best alternatives to Google.
Web watch
Yes another Microsoft virus -- but it didn't come from Microsoft. Predictive text: word processors that guess what you are writing. Baby steps in home networking. Removing Norton AntiVirus. Backchat: more programs that watch the web for you.
Ask Jack
How their kids will learn
What will schools be like in 2033? Will they change as society changes, and how will society change if we develop computers that are smarter than we are?
The Classroom of the Future
Education Guardian
19.9.03
Sony hopes to create its Dream World in reality by exploiting "synergy" between its hardware, software and content offerings, starting with a music download service....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Time for Windows users to install some of those patches that Microsoft is putting out regularly. Moving IE mail from a Mac to a PC, hiding Internet Explorer and other Microsoft programs in Windows XP, and services that will watch Web pages for updates.
Ask Jack
Orange unveils its Signature version of the new quad-band Handspring Treo 600 smart phone.
What's New
Buying a PDA
Start here
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Time for Windows users to install some of those patches that Microsoft is putting out regularly. Moving IE mail from a Mac to a PC, hiding Internet Explorer and other Microsoft programs in Windows XP, and services that will watch Web pages for updates.
Ask Jack
Orange unveils its Signature version of the new quad-band Handspring Treo 600 smart phone.
What's New
Buying a PDA
Start here
12.9.03
Costly medicine The cost of dealing with computer viruses and worms, and the threat to the public infrastructure, seems finally to have stirred the forces of law and order -- or at least, the FBI.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Can't reach a Web site? If you use NTL broadband, it may be a cache problem. AV spam: bouncing SoBig e-mails is not useful. Finding the Ask Jack archive, and the propblem of stopping "windows messenger service" pop-ups revisited. Backchat on Thunderbird and sites that tell you your IP address.
Ask Jack
Yahoo gets into blogging -- but only in South Korea. Privacy and Human Rights: read the sixth annual survey. Pop Idol games and ringtones. Freenet founder gets into search with WhittleBit. The BBC's online courses and styleguide are helpful -- and there are other free styleguides. Getting a free trial print from Canon. Understanding American Pie moves to a new address. Six of the best 9/11 sites.
Web watch
Buying a portable PC
Start here
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Can't reach a Web site? If you use NTL broadband, it may be a cache problem. AV spam: bouncing SoBig e-mails is not useful. Finding the Ask Jack archive, and the propblem of stopping "windows messenger service" pop-ups revisited. Backchat on Thunderbird and sites that tell you your IP address.
Ask Jack
Yahoo gets into blogging -- but only in South Korea. Privacy and Human Rights: read the sixth annual survey. Pop Idol games and ringtones. Freenet founder gets into search with WhittleBit. The BBC's online courses and styleguide are helpful -- and there are other free styleguides. Getting a free trial print from Canon. Understanding American Pie moves to a new address. Six of the best 9/11 sites.
Web watch
Buying a portable PC
Start here
4.9.03
28.8.03
Licence to 'drive' a computer? You don't need one but maybe you should: users who don't know what they are doing can be a danger to others on the Internet. Having said that, Microsoft could improve things by delivering its systems with security defaults etc turned on instead of off.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Google now includes a rather wonderful calculator function. Brainboost is another attempt at putting natural language processing on the front of a search function. Collect Britain, from the British Library, has started to put documents online in an entertaining form. An online music competition for piano, oboe, violin and trumpet players, to begin with. European blogging site 20six has moved to a new platform. Gamers can now vote in the C&VG Golden Joystick awards. Tiscali Entertainment has started streaming short films. Plus: Six of the best sites for students.
Web watch
Getting better search facilities in Microsoft Windows XP. Can you keep e-mail addresses away from mass-mailing viruses? You don't need to download the Java version of the Opera browser, unless you need Java for other purposes. Proxyconn caching, and better software for iPod users with Windows.
Ask Jack
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Google now includes a rather wonderful calculator function. Brainboost is another attempt at putting natural language processing on the front of a search function. Collect Britain, from the British Library, has started to put documents online in an entertaining form. An online music competition for piano, oboe, violin and trumpet players, to begin with. European blogging site 20six has moved to a new platform. Gamers can now vote in the C&VG Golden Joystick awards. Tiscali Entertainment has started streaming short films. Plus: Six of the best sites for students.
Web watch
Getting better search facilities in Microsoft Windows XP. Can you keep e-mail addresses away from mass-mailing viruses? You don't need to download the Java version of the Opera browser, unless you need Java for other purposes. Proxyconn caching, and better software for iPod users with Windows.
Ask Jack
21.8.03
Let's go Nutch... Some of the net's self-appointed guardians have launched a project to develop an open source search engine. Apparently there's a fear that Google is or could become too powerful. In fact, it faces tough competition from Yahoo, Microsoft and others.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
The Blaster worm, uploading files to a PC from an iPod, spam, and accessing secure Web pages.
Ask Jack
How to beat Blaster
A step-by-step guide to removing the MS Blast worm from your PC.
Guardian Unlimited
New strain, old refrain
The latest version of the SoBig virus may be the precursor to something far more destructive.
Guardian Unlimited
Challenge-response systems could beat spam. They are a terrible idea, but at the moment, it doesn't look as though there is going to be a viable alternative....
Schofield column
Computer Weekly
Schofield column
Guardian Online
The Blaster worm, uploading files to a PC from an iPod, spam, and accessing secure Web pages.
Ask Jack
How to beat Blaster
A step-by-step guide to removing the MS Blast worm from your PC.
Guardian Unlimited
New strain, old refrain
The latest version of the SoBig virus may be the precursor to something far more destructive.
Guardian Unlimited
Challenge-response systems could beat spam. They are a terrible idea, but at the moment, it doesn't look as though there is going to be a viable alternative....
Schofield column
Computer Weekly
7.8.03
Should Linux users pay a licence? What we now call Linux started as a project to clone Unix, through GNU (Gnu's Not Unix). If you wanted to guarantee a non-infringing version, it should have been done as a "clean room" implementation -- but the open development methodology made that impossible.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
The problem of "copy protected" audio CDs, and what to do about them. You can't have Gator without GAIN (Gator Advertiser Information Network). Putting a pinboard online, and a simple UK accounting program for a sole trader. Backchat: old printer cartridges can help the British Red Cross.
Ask Jack
Schofield column
Guardian Online
The problem of "copy protected" audio CDs, and what to do about them. You can't have Gator without GAIN (Gator Advertiser Information Network). Putting a pinboard online, and a simple UK accounting program for a sole trader. Backchat: old printer cartridges can help the British Red Cross.
Ask Jack
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