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
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
31.7.03
Are most commercial websites designed by children? It does look that way, given the number of sites that put a "cool" appearance above usability, accessibility and functionality.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Home page hi-jackers and other parasites are now running rampant in the Windows/Internet Explorer world. However, there are some free programs you can use to clean up your PC, and some utilities that try to prevent scumware from being installed. The lottery scam: how you can lose $1,500-$3,000. Plus: how to stop spam.
Ask Jack
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Home page hi-jackers and other parasites are now running rampant in the Windows/Internet Explorer world. However, there are some free programs you can use to clean up your PC, and some utilities that try to prevent scumware from being installed. The lottery scam: how you can lose $1,500-$3,000. Plus: how to stop spam.
Ask Jack
25.7.03
Schofield's First Law of Computing Standardisation and ubiquity mean that buying PC-based systems is virtually risk-free, but this does not mean that computers are no longer a threat to your financial health. There is still a huge risk involved in the part of the system that is the most expensive to create and the hardest to replace: your data.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Advertising on eBay and someone wants to send you too much money in a form that is supposed to be as good as cash? Yes, it is still a scam. How to get the right keyboard set in Windows. Removing temporary files: it's safer if you do a "staged delete". Backchat: disposing of CDs, alternative browsers, software to change files that are marked as read-only, and software for blogging.
Ask Jack
Formula One 2003, the official Formula One game for the PlayStation 2.
Gameswatch
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Advertising on eBay and someone wants to send you too much money in a form that is supposed to be as good as cash? Yes, it is still a scam. How to get the right keyboard set in Windows. Removing temporary files: it's safer if you do a "staged delete". Backchat: disposing of CDs, alternative browsers, software to change files that are marked as read-only, and software for blogging.
Ask Jack
Formula One 2003, the official Formula One game for the PlayStation 2.
Gameswatch
18.7.03
Beware "migmaf", a new Trojan that could make it look as though your Windows PC is distributing spam, or worse.
Guardian Online
Decorators with keyboards I would love to see a few web designers thrown in jail for designing unusable and inaccessible sites. Not much chance of that, but the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) is backing a number of individuals in taking legal action against various as yet unnamed websites that they say do not comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Black and Asian history sites. Internet shopping day. The Schools Web Directory UK reckons it has found all the state secondary schools with Web sites. Building a database of US government employees. A multimedia visit to the Burarra Gathering of indigenous people in northern Australia. Six of the best: Tour de France.
Web watch
What is the best way to destory a CD? Where would you start blogging? Teporary files left around by Microsoft Word. Can you lock a window in Internet Explorer? (If you can, please tell me how!) Backchat: that XP password, software that will click the mouse for you, and changing file attributes from DOS.
Ask Jack
Guardian Online
Decorators with keyboards I would love to see a few web designers thrown in jail for designing unusable and inaccessible sites. Not much chance of that, but the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) is backing a number of individuals in taking legal action against various as yet unnamed websites that they say do not comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Black and Asian history sites. Internet shopping day. The Schools Web Directory UK reckons it has found all the state secondary schools with Web sites. Building a database of US government employees. A multimedia visit to the Burarra Gathering of indigenous people in northern Australia. Six of the best: Tour de France.
Web watch
What is the best way to destory a CD? Where would you start blogging? Teporary files left around by Microsoft Word. Can you lock a window in Internet Explorer? (If you can, please tell me how!) Backchat: that XP password, software that will click the mouse for you, and changing file attributes from DOS.
Ask Jack
10.7.03
Browser wars 2.0 Netscape has just released the last version of its eight-year-old web browser to not much acclaim. AOL, which owns Netscape, won't use it and has signed up with Microsoft again -- and last year, AOL also laid off almost all of Netscape's browser programmers. But Firebird and Thunderbird -- the next browser and standalone mail client being developed as open source by the Mozilla project -- are starting to look pretty cool, and you can try them now.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Peter Leckie wants to keep people out of his notebook PC running Windows, while Alan Fletcher has been locked out by Windows XP and wants to get back in. Backchat: Sente has a free program that will change all those read-only files (copied from CD) to read-write format, while SDP from the Streaming Download Project to record Microsoft streaming formats.
Ask Jack
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Peter Leckie wants to keep people out of his notebook PC running Windows, while Alan Fletcher has been locked out by Windows XP and wants to get back in. Backchat: Sente has a free program that will change all those read-only files (copied from CD) to read-write format, while SDP from the Streaming Download Project to record Microsoft streaming formats.
Ask Jack
3.7.03
Can Michael Dell keep it up? The company has grown from less than $1bn in sales to $35bn in a decade, and now it plans to target consumers and the digital home.
Schofield column
Guardian Online
America's Do Not Call registry is a huge success. Learn online writing, free, at trAce in Nottingham. Get Usenet newsgroups tracked, with email alerts. The Knockoff Project -- fun with album covers. Karl Marx was an immigrant. Google launches Toolbar 2. Barbie doll collectors and the ones Mattel hasn't produced -- Latex Fetish Barbie, Dominatrix Barbie, Neo-Nazi Barbie etc. Six of the best: Katharine Hepburn.
Web watch
Email for kids -- preferably without the porn spam. Is it worth dividing up a Windows XP hard drive? Those 419 West African scams -- if we all replied, would it slow them down? Backchat: readers suggest free or cheap Web space; Messer -- another program for recording Web audio.
Ask Jack
Why has Sun spent the past six years bashing Microsoft when everybody knows which companies are going to eat its business for breakfast: Intel-based hardware suppliers such as Dell, and Linux suppliers such as Red Hat and SuSE.
Schofield column
Computer Weekly
Schofield column
Guardian Online
America's Do Not Call registry is a huge success. Learn online writing, free, at trAce in Nottingham. Get Usenet newsgroups tracked, with email alerts. The Knockoff Project -- fun with album covers. Karl Marx was an immigrant. Google launches Toolbar 2. Barbie doll collectors and the ones Mattel hasn't produced -- Latex Fetish Barbie, Dominatrix Barbie, Neo-Nazi Barbie etc. Six of the best: Katharine Hepburn.
Web watch
Email for kids -- preferably without the porn spam. Is it worth dividing up a Windows XP hard drive? Those 419 West African scams -- if we all replied, would it slow them down? Backchat: readers suggest free or cheap Web space; Messer -- another program for recording Web audio.
Ask Jack
Why has Sun spent the past six years bashing Microsoft when everybody knows which companies are going to eat its business for breakfast: Intel-based hardware suppliers such as Dell, and Linux suppliers such as Red Hat and SuSE.
Schofield column
Computer Weekly
27.6.03
Spambusters Time to get tough on spam -- and that means action at all levels, from changes in software to changes in legislation.
Guardian Online
IT Matters The Harvard Business Review has stirred up a bit of controversy by claiming it doesn't, but it's not to be taken too seriously....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Broadband choice -- Ethernet or USB? Changes you don't want -- correcting an AutoCorrect entry in Microsoft Word. The search for free Web space. Backchat: recording Internet radio broadcasts, and another free firewall to try.
Ask Jack
Guardian Online
IT Matters The Harvard Business Review has stirred up a bit of controversy by claiming it doesn't, but it's not to be taken too seriously....
Schofield column
Guardian Online
Broadband choice -- Ethernet or USB? Changes you don't want -- correcting an AutoCorrect entry in Microsoft Word. The search for free Web space. Backchat: recording Internet radio broadcasts, and another free firewall to try.
Ask Jack
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)