General

There is a new variation of the Virut Trojan, which began life in 2007, going around called Win32:Vitro. You obtain and install Vitro by visiting websites that ask you to install a video codec that is fake, before you can watch free movies online.

It’s about damned time that all of us opinionated gadget junkies, tech geeks, and people who appreciate listening to music we paid for anywhere in our household or having an ebook reader read us the book we paid for, put our money where our mouths are and stop beefing about the problem. Let’s do something about it. Oh, let’s not forget our movies. They are included.

Talk it up. In the forums and on the blogs. Start a movement. Form an organization. Hire a lobbyist or two. Start playing like the big boys. When in Rome…

I was just reading a story in ZDNet about whether Internet Explorer should be unbundled from the operating system. It seems the European Union is going after Microsoft again for being anti-competitive based on a request from the company that makes the Opera browser.
Like all ZDNet articles, there is a section called Talk Back [...]

It never ceases to amaze me how much negative press Microsoft gets when a new attack on Windows hits, when in fact, many times it’s undeserved.
As in example, several weeks ago, I did a short story on CBS news in Chicago about the out of band update Microsoft did in December. No hype. [...]

You bet we are!
Before Microsoft Vista was released to the general public, we had a discussion on the show about what to look for when buying a new Vista ready computer.
I mentioned that I was fearful that the tier 1 computer makers, Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, and the rest, will be selling low priced machines [...]

I just spent 15 minutes at a listeners home to repair their desktop computer after they spent 2 hours on the phone with their ISP, Comcast, and an hour and a half on the phone with Microsoft. What they were trying to find out is how to get back on the internet. The [...]

Aren’t you getting tired of seeing headlines like the title above? I am.
Why is it the more tech related articles I read about Vista the more I see writers blame Microsoft and Vista for not playing nice with hardware, drivers, and software.
Does anybody believe as I do? That, in most cases, it isn’t [...]

I found an article in the Washington Post, read it, that caught my eye this afternoon.
It had to do with the potential ability, yet undocumented, to use the voice-recognition feature built into Vista to do delete files on your hard disk.
The first comment made by a reader named Joe sent me ballistic. It was [...]

I had a interesting experience today getting my new broadband connection installed.
First a little history. I have been using a broadband provider called Foresite Wireless for several years because there was no other service available in my area.
It works great. I love it.
However, my phone bill is huge because of the type of [...]

Its that time of year again. When we get together with our family and friends to celebrate.
For Christians, like myself, we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ.
However, there are a lot of people who also celebrate at this time of year.
Our African American friends celebrate Kwanzaa and our Jewish friends celebrate Chanukah.
This [...]

About a week ago I was reading the NY Times and came across a story regarding an IT department support person who was repairing the president of the company’s computer and thought he had discovered child porn.
The tech was wondering if he should risk his job and turn in the head of the company to [...]

I was reading a story at Computerworld earlier that made me think about how the porn industry makes gobs money on the internet, and has since the first porn sites were developed.
As a matter of fact I remember reading a story in one of the big business magazines some years ago, sorry I don’t remember [...]

Hi. My name is Mike DiMichele. I am one of the technology specialists on Steve and Johnnie’s Website Wednesday Night computer call in show at WGN Radio in Chicago.
I also maintain a support site for listeners at Savemybutt.com for anyone who needs computer help but could not get through on the phones or email.
I want [...]