Greg Hughes

On the Google blog, Jesse Alpert & Nissan Hajaj posted an article today called “We knew the Web was big…” which indicates Google engineers recently noted that the number of Web pages on the Internet passed the one-trillion mark. That’s 1,000,000,000,000 pages. For those who don’t process the impact of adding that many groups of [...]

I especially appreciated the Mojave Experiment that Microsoft recently shared with the world (where Vista-negative opinions were tested with a “new” version of Windows, code-named Mojave; it was then revealed to the participants after seeing the new version that what they were looking at was actually Vista). I’ve been using Vista since well before I [...]

For the past several months I have had the pleasure of improving my communication effectiveness while at the same time reducing my reliance and the massive amount of time I used to spend on email. Tools like Twitter, blogging, and - yes - actively making sure I am using the telephone (remember that thing?) have [...]

Microsoft’s Steven Lindsay posted a video a couple months ago showing his top five things you didn’t know you could do with your Media Center PC. Cool tidbits for people who want to get deeper into using a few more of the capabilities of Windows Media Center. Worth the viewing time.

Windows XP Media Center 2005 [...]

Mark Russinovich, a Microsoft Technical Fellow, presented a very good session at the TechEd IT Forum last year on the topic of advanced eradication of malware on Windows machines. It’s a great session and has some useful advanced techniques for removal. It is also a very good resource for those who want to better understand [...]

Vista SP1 is available (details in the document available at this link and Ed Bott did a great what-to-expect write-up and FAQ), so it’s time to head on over to Windows Update (it’s in your start menu) and grab it. Assuming it shows up in the available updates list, of course. Apparently there are certain [...]

Guy Kawasaki and a couple of his friends recently fired up a site/service called Alltop, which displays a variety of popular topical areas in which various popular blog/news feeds are aggregated. Think of each of the topical sites as a one-stop-information-shop. High-level topics include the categories of Work, Living, People, Interests, Culture, Geekery, Good and [...]

Favorday is coming on March 12th, and it’s being organized on Facebook. Nothing quite like doing something simple and kind for someone else to make the world a better place. You should be a part — spread the word!
Here’s how you celebrate Favorday — on Favorday, March 12th, 2008, you do planned favors for people, [...]

The FBI is contacting more than one million computer owners and operators whose computers have been victimized and taken over by fraudsters and other criminals who have installed “bots” which they then use to launch distributed criminal computer attacks and fraud scams.

“The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised [...]

I ran across the Giveaway of the Day Web site the other evening and was intrigued. I’ve watched it for a few days now and have downloaded a couple of the programs it’s offered. Basically, the site has a different piece of commercial software (typically smaller, utility-style stuff but you never know) that it gives [...]

Every good (and bad) geek child needs a fast, efficient, and electronic way to send that proverbial letter to Santa. And good geek kids, of course, procrastinate along with the rest of us. So, for those of you still needing to send that letter and can’t stand the idea of paper, pen, and licking [...]

Each year, NORAD keeps an eye on Santa as he makes his Christmas journey. You can track Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve with the kids at the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site.
On December 24th, the kids can call the tracking service toll free at 1-877-Hi-NORAD anytime after 9AM Eastern Standard Time (7AM Mountain Standard Time) [...]

I just finished reading For One More Day, the latest book by Mitch Albom, on flight from Providence. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone. Everyone, in fact.
Albom has a way of writing things that hit life’s most important nails right on the head, whether fact or fiction. His Tuesdays with Morrie had [...]

Some things just bug me. Sometimes I write them down!
For example - What is it that makes the concept of putting stuff into the overhead bins on airplanes so freakin’ complicated? People just don’t seem to get it, despite the repeated intercom begging performed by the flight attendants to put rollaways in wheels first, wheels [...]

Last week’s column discussed the difficulty I have making specific hardware recommendations for my senior clients. Even when I take into account their abilities, expectations, and budget, the choices are overwhelming. Maybe I shouldn’t feel like this, but if the client is happy with a choice I made, then it is moderately satisfying. If the [...]

One of my clients wrote this week and said she wanted to buy a new laptop. Did I have any recommendations? For a foolish moment, I thought of writing back and telling her that any Dell or other laptop with a Sony battery would probably be cheaper this week than it would have been last [...]

Just downloaded Windows Live Writer, a blog publishing tool that was released in Beta by Microsoft while I was on vacation. Omar was using it (without being able to say exactly what he was using) and said to keep an eye out, someone was releasing a sweet blog authoring tool, and this is it. I [...]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday ratified the first and only international treaty designed exclusively to combat computer crime. You can read the full text of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime here.
What does this mean? Well, a lot of things. But all told, it means law enforcement officials from around the world will have [...]

Tell me what you think, share what you know… In large part, I help catch bad guys for a living. So I have my own perspective and base of experience, but please share yours.
You may already be familiar with the term “phishing” and possibly you have a good idea of what it means. If you’re [...]

Everyone and their brother has already written about Zune, Microsoft’s planned new digital music player, service and whatever else comes of it (rumors and facts abound).
But have you seen the latest MS marketing virus? As in Zune viral marketing?