The following is in Sony's FAQ on why they are closing their Connect online music store

Why is the store closing?
We are moving to the open Windows Media® platform in North America. In line with hat, Sony will phase out the CONNECT™ Music Service in the U.S. and Canada. Specific timing will depend on market demand, but will not be before March 2008. To be clear, the CONNECT eBook service for the Sony Reader will not be affected.

Uh what? Windows Media is open? I don't think so. It may be very much more popular than ATRAC (Sony's music format) and licensed by a lot more companies, but it isn't open.

The solution is to download the Windows Install Cleanup program from Microsoft. I had to remove Apple Software Update, Itunes and Quicktime. Since I don't use iTunes on my Windows machine, I didn't worry about backing it up. But if i did use it, would have backed it up.

I went back and reinstalled all the Apple programs without any problems

Microsoft has recalled Halo 2 for Microsoft Vista due to "nudity". Don't get too excited. A Bungie programmer left a funny error message that shows someone mooning.

Not the kind of nudity I was hoping for but funny still. Image via Shiny Shiny.

The FBI still has their "mega contract" with Microsoft. They have infinite Microsoft resources to help them figure out how to get to your stuff if you've used a Microsoft encryption solution.

The FBI has particular trouble with Apple's Filevault encryption if the passphrase is of "excellent" quality. That tells me they have thousands of monkeys doing brute-force attempts on filevault sparseimage files. Interesting.

FBI: Encryption Really Pisses Us Off.

I've been looking for a way to organize all the receipts I get, espcially the ones from Home Depot and Lowes. There's a few programs out there for the Mac but they require you scan them in with another program. They seemed more work than they are worth.

Neat Receipts attempts to solve this problem. They have a program for managing recipts that works directly with a scanner.

Just scan your receipts into the NeatReceipts software. The program will automatically crop, rotate and resize the receipt image, then apply patented Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and character analysis technology to read and understand the text on the receipt.

The killer feature here is that it uses OCR to extract the information from the recipt, eliminating the need to manually enter the information. It also has some sort of IRS certification so that you can keep the scanned doucments for tax purposes, so you can throw out the paper version.

Currently, Neat Receipts on works on Windows XP (a Vista beta is available). They are working on a Mac version for release in 2008, in which I've signed up to be notified. The Neat Receipts scanner and softare are $229.

Pretty much sums it up.

Many of the applications included with Windows Vista look similar to OS X applications. The gadgets are basically the same thing as dashboard widgets, Windows Calendar is very similar to iCal, the photo gallery application is just like iPhoto and Windows Movie Maker is just like iMovie and iDVD.

I've been trying to find a dirt cheap copy of Windows XP or Vista recently. Not that I would ever want to buy a copy of Windows exactly, I'm looking for a copy for my sister, who can't get with the program.

I was very interested to read this article from ArsTechnica on OEM versions of Windows, which are about half the cost. I wasn't aware about the motherboard limitation.

Buying OEM versions of Windows Vista: the facts: "OEM software is also tied to the motherboard it is first installed on. Unlike the retail versions of Windows which can be transferred to a new computer, OEM versions are not transferable. What about upgrading hardware? Microsoft says that anything is fair game, except the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard in a computer results in a 'new personal computer,' which the company considers to be synonymous with a transfer. It's not permitted with an OEM edition of Windows.

Nevertheless, I've known users who got around this limitation by calling Microsoft and reporting that their motherboards died when they wanted to build a new computer. It is Microsoft's policy to allow motherboard swaps in instances where a system is defective or has suffered a hardware failure. But you shouldn't bank on this approach; there's no guarantee it will work and, well, liars don't get ice cream. Also, while retail versions of Vista include both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, OEM versions are specific. You get one or the other. This follows from the per device restriction. The end result is that OEM versions may not be that attractive to users who frequently build new computers from the ground up."

24 things you can do with your laptop, some which relate to computing.

"My IBM laptop makes a great veggie squeezer!"

Google posted some interesting news on their blog regarding a new "feature" to their search experience. The idea is, when you search and Google has determined that the first result is likely the one you're looking for, they will pre-fetch that page behind the scenes for you.

This is the sort of reason that I keep my work computer for work only and have my own personal computer for my own personal use. Imagine that you liked to search google for things that your work might not like, er... I don't know what. That job listing on your competitors site, porn, bomb making instructions. Whatever.

Now suppose your setting there at your desk, actually doing your work for once, when Mr. IT manager and Mr. Security Guard come by to escort you out of the building. See, your automatic prefetch thingy was busy downloading that porn for you while you worked and while Mr. IT Manager watched.

The other reason I keep my personal and work computing life separate is because my home computer is a Mac and my work computer is a PC.

Thank's Fark!

Mac OS X, which has like a 100% more users than Windows Vista (because it's not out yet), has less viruses than Windows Vista. Ok, there is some example code that show how to write viruses for the new OS so I guess it's not a real virus yet.

A virus writer has published the first examples of malicious code that targets Microsoft's upcoming command-line shell, code-named Monad, according to Finnish antivirus maker F-Secure. If the technology is included in Windows Vista, these could be one of the first viruses to target the new operating system formerly known as Longhorn, F-Secure said Thursday.

How convenient that this came from a company that makes antivirus software? The same thing happened a while back whenn Intego ran around saying it had found a Mac OS X virus. Nothing ever came of that either. You have to consider the source. I have no doubt that considerable effort will be put into virus in Vista however.

Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer -- and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In an effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

It's just wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong.

Thanks Boing Boing!

I want to mention that Apple never used the My Whatever for folder names. So now Windows will, again, adopt another Macintosh way of doing things.

Ending a longstanding tradition, Microsoft Corp. plans to stop using the word "my" as the default prefix for such folders as "My Documents," "My Music," "My Pictures" and others along those lines. Starting in the next Windows version, due out next year, folders will be known simply as "Documents," "Music," and so on.

News that Intel wants to rip off the Mac mini.

A new Wintel prototype that openly apes Apple Computer's popular Mac mini is due out this week, sources told Wired News, giving Intel a showcase to prove its chips are a match for anyone when it comes to tiny PC designs.

Working prototypes of the Mac mini look-alike running Microsoft Windows and based on Intel's Pentium M CPU have already been built by Taiwan PC maker AOpen at Intel's request, according to two sources in Taiwan's PC manufacturing industry who have seen them.

A seattle coffee house has turned off it's free WiFi for the weekend. With surprising results.

Strongin said that the five-year-old cafe added free Wi-Fi when it seemed their customers wanted it a couple of years ago. It initially brought in more people, she said, but over the past year %u201Cwe noticed a significant change in the environment of the cafe.%u201D Before Wi-Fi, %u201CPeople talked to each other, strangers met each other,%u201D she said. Solitary activities might involve reading and writing, but it was part of the milieu. %u201CThose people co-existed with people having conversations,%u201D said Strongin.... Worse than just the sheer number of laptop users, Strongin noted, is that many of these patrons will camp six to eight hours%u2014and not buy anything. This seemed astounding to me, but she said that it was typical, not unusual. The staff doesn%u2019t want to have to enforce the cafe%u2019s unspoken policy of making a purchase to use the space (and the Wi-Fi), and on the occasions that they approach a non-buyer about a purchase asking, %u201CCan I get you a beverage?%u201D the squatter often becomes defensive, explains they%u2019ve bought a lot in the past or just the day before... They%u2019ve gone two weekends with no Wi-Fi, and so far, they%u2019re pleased with the results. The staff %u201Cloves it,%u201D she said, and regular customers are %u201Ccoming up to us and thanking us.%u201D They have received a few nasty emails. But Strongin said that last Sunday was one of the best revenue days they%u2019ve had on the weekends in a while. %u201CIt was kind of a bold move.%u201D

I frequent a local coffee shop called Satellite. I always buy a ice tea (sorry, not a coffee drinker) and muffin and make use of their free WiFi for several hours.

Get amber alerts via text messaging on your cell phone or pager.

AMBER Alerts come to SMS - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "Starting today, AMBER Alerts, the service for bringing attention to missing children, will be available on cellphones via SMS. Cellphone users simply have to sign up on the Wireless AMBER Alerts website and enter the areas they would like to receive alerts for. Apparently, 90% of US cellphone subscribers are currently covered by the service, with most of the rest receiving coverage in the next two months. There%u2019s no charge for the service other than the usual carrier imposed SMS fees."

I manage these 2 PCs at work. Both run Windows XP and are multi user systems. One of them became infected with Spyware. I still haven't rid the machine completely of the spyware and whenever a user tries to launch Internet Explorer they get this error:

Funny thing is it IE works for me in my admin account, just not the other users non-admin accounts. If you open Windows Explorer and type a address in the address bar you can get on the web without problem. I've tried multiple things, but I think I'm going to have to send the machine to the IT people for a Windows reblast.

I've been a long time user of Intuit's TurboTax (formerly MacInTax). 2 years ago I paid a tax consultant a lot of money to have them save me no more than TurboTax would have, therefore I love it even more. I have a lot of tax "situations" that require I use all kinds of funky forms but TurboTax makes it easy for me to understand the various options.

I'm aware that Intuit has been blasted for their policies. I can't disagree with those criticisms, but there's really isn't any decent competition. Nothing beets Quicken on the Mac. H&R Blocks Tax Cut makes a good attempt with their tax software but it's still not quite there.

You can get a pretty good price if you order via Amazon, where I just did. Here's the differences between the various flavors of TurboTax.

TurboTax Premier 2004 Win/Mac ($69.95 - $20 mail in rebate) - It includes everything in Basic, plus extra tools and tips for maximizing tax savings, including investments, Schedule C business taxes, 401(k) plans, and rental property.

TurboTax Deluxe 2004 Win/Mac ($39.95 - $10 mail in rebate) - Basic gives you the extra guidance you need to claim more deductions ? and reduce your risk of an audit.

TurboTax Basic 2004 Win/Mac ($19.95) - 1040EZ.

If your just filing the 1040EZ, you can likely skip the $20 software and file for free. But if you need to fill out the long form the software is worth the investment, and you can write it off for the next years tax return. Also check out Yahoo's Tax site for some other alternatives.

Ars Technica has a look at Windows XP Service Pack 2, which translates to Windows XP.2 for us Mac users. It's worth taking a look at if you use Windows XP or even if your a Mac User and want to see what Microsoft is copying from Apple this time around.

On Christmas day I hauled my PC with us over to my Girlfriends sisters house. My "brother-in-law" and I both play a game called Aces High. It's a flight combat simulator using World War II vitage planes. It's PC only game and one of the few things I use my PC for.

Usally he brings his rig over to my house, since I have the broadband. He hooks his PC into my router and it's up and running. He has dial-up so the plan was for me to hook my PC to his PC via ethernet and he would enable internet sharing. With my Mac way of thinking I figured I could use a regular ethernet cable to connect the two. That's because Mac released in the last few years have auto sensing ethernet jacks. That means that the ethernet port knows what the wire configuration needs to be depending on how you have them hooked up. Otherwise for this sort of computer to computer connection you need a cross over cable that has some wire swapped.

Neither of the ethernet ports on our PCs had auto sensing ports. And we didn't have a cross over cable. Hmmm... What to do. I had an idea! I hooked my Powerbook up to his computer via ethernet. Internet sharing worked with my Mac since I had the auto sensing ethernet jacks. I also have firewire ports on my PC and Mac. So I connected the Mac to the PC via a firewire cable. Enabled internet connection sharing on the mac via the firewire port and enable the firewire network port on Windows. I turned off the firewire on the the Mac and viola! The PC had a network connection via the Mac which had one via his PC.

Believe it or not Aces High was very playable with both of us on his dial-up. I think it's because A: He has a very clean line and gets a pretty fast connection for dial-up and B: Aces High has low bandwidth requirements.

I support a few PCs at work that are shared among many users. I came in yesterday and was told one of them didn't work. Internet Exploder pops up lots of windows when launched and Outlook doesn't launch properly. I knew what it was. I ran AdAware and found 5 different Spyware programs running on the system. Not to mention the gazillion of cookies, support files, folder and registry entries (something like 600 total). Only took and hour to run the scan.

Once all that was removed it all worked fine. What a pain in the arse.

If your a Windows Users there are 4 Patches from MS for "a cumulative patch for Internet Explorer, a fixfor a buffer overflow vulnerability in components of Microsoft's FrontPage Server and a patch for a flaw with Workstation Service that could crackers to inject code on vulnerable systems are all deemed critical by Redmond. A fix for a flaw in Microsoft Word and that could allow arbitrary Code to run is given the lower category of "important".

This means more forced reboots here at work and I am so looking forward to that. I have a taste of the MS proposal to force future version of Windows to Update wether you like it or not and it's sure a pain in the arse.

"The virus arrives in a compressed file via e-mail with a subject line of "our private photos." The message text says: "All our photos which i've made at the beach ... " and is signed "Kiss, James." according to this article . It's being called "Mimail.C". It appears that it turns the victims machines into Spamming machines. Since my PC stays turned off most of the time and I don't use it for email I'm not to worried. Normally I would say if you open the email you got what's coming to you but I will probably be the one to get the spam.

[Update:] Turns out that this virus does not generate spam but tries DDOS attacks on anti-spam sites.

From a USA Today article, Borg, er I mean Bill Gates says the following:

"We bet on the 16-bit PC. We bet on graphical user interface. We bet on the NT technology base. Now we're in the process of betting on a combination of technologies called .Net; Longhorn Web services go along with that. You always have to do something very dramatic to move things up to the next level. Who has the guts and the willingness to do risk-taking to get ink into the standard user interface? Who else is going to push that forward? Who else has the guts to get speech, get the recognition levels up, get the learning levels up in the standard interface? We've chosen to do that. If we didn't believe in those things we wouldn't be increasing the R&D budget the way that we are."

First off, when did Microsoft ever have a original idea? When did they come out with something first. Oh, he doesn't mention the Tablet PC. Thats really taking off. Everyone I know has one. Oh, no. Maybe I don't know anyone with one. And how about Microsoft Bob? He didn't mention that. That WAS an original idea from M$.

My alter ego in the PC world? [UPDATE 6/18/03] Its not there anymore since I ran out of space. Will bring it back some time in the future.

Yes I am a Mac fanatic. I'm about as fanatical as they get, and for good reason. But we do live in a world with the dark side's looming presents. Thus I have been playing a online game called "Aces High" and there is no Mac version. Check out my page. I've got some videos there that I made with iMovie