Jeff Partridge

Ever submit a problem and have the vendor flat out say “It’s not our problem?” It’s more than a little annoying in this day and age. I really thought that the PC universe had evolved beyond that kind of blatant BS. Boy, was I wrong!

Well, people, are you ready for Vista? I hope you’re concerned about the answer to that, at the very least. Microsoft, though it seems to have been taking its sweet time, has finally loosened up a little on information about the new OS.

By this time, most of you should know that the job hunting sites are fertile ground for identity theft. The thieves pose as companies looking for help in order to gain access to personal info on applicants. This is a double disaster for those poor people: they’ve lost their jobs and now they have their [...]

Did you hear that sound? It was the nearly silent sound of a long era come crashing to an end. Nearly every computer user knows the name WinZip. What may or may not have come to your attention was that the company (for company it was) was recently acquired by Corel Corporation.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a big fan of the IE front end called Avant Browser. Apparently, I’m not entirely alone. Microsoft itself has included a link to Avant Browser to the featured add-on section of the IE7 Web site.

You know, it’s not often that we get to stand up and say ‘I was right all along.’ The things we predict aren’t always happy things, such as the current case of Windows. But at least I can celebrate the fact that what I have been saying for the last two years is true: Vista [...]

By this time, nearly everyone should know the name Acronis. In a short time, it’s managed to build itself into a real force in the data safety field. I say data safety, because the whole focus of drive imaging and databackup software is to keep your system and its data up and safe. The news [...]

Many of you will be familiar with the show ‘Call for Help’ on what used to be TechTV (and ZDTV before that). Then G4 game network got hold of the property and things technological went downhill fast. Staff got fired and shows were falling faster than the leaves will in a few weeks.

I’ve seen my share of FUD articles shrilly complaining that Microsoft’s Sender ID is really an evil plot to extort money from ISPs and take over the (Internet) world. They’ve always struck me as having a large gap in them where they’re supposed to explain how Sender ID is the secret weapon that will let [...]

Windows 2000, even though it’s been around even longer than XP, isn’t being ignored by the security community. Or possible hackers. A critical flaw has been found that would open the way for worms written to use the exploitable hole.
The hole is so bad that there’s no possible workaround. The hole was discovered by security [...]

AOL has always been the perfect example of a ‘Locked door’ ISP. It has tons of content, but if you want to see it, you’d better bring your credit card along for the ride.
Now comes word that AOL may be about to do what the tiger couldn’t: change its stripes. The report is that [...]

It looks like Hotmail isn’t immune to the sudden surge of Upgrade Fever in the computer industry. A source at Microsoft has pointed me in the direction of the blog run by the (hold your breath!) Codename KAHUNA development teams.

It’s been widely reported today that Hotmail is in the midst of being enhanced and upgraded. Sorry to say, the report is, like the reported death of Mark Twain, ‘a little premature.’
As Deep Byte, my source at Microsoft put it, “the detail these guys are all missing is that we rolled users onto a restricted [...]

Time: Yesterday.
Did you hear it? It was the sound of a big, big door slamming.
The door was virtual, but the sound it made will echo across the world for years to come. Yesterday was Day One of the Microsoft lockdown using the Genuine Advantage program.

A number of readers with sharp eyes or more time on their hands have written to me about what happens when you zoom in all the way on the Google Moon map. I won’t say what happens.
All I will say is that I would have expected it to be green :). I guess the point [...]

Ever since reports of Microsoft’s interest in buying Claria (Formerly known as Gator), it’s been under the microscope of the public eye. That scrutiny intensified when it downgraded the threat level of Claria products in MS AntiSpyware Beta. Now, though, Microsoft itself has confirmed the aforementioned wimp-out and tried to defuse the outcry.

Google has pretty much taken over the Earth (as in its Keyhole service). Now it’s raising its sights. It wants the Moon, as well. Yes, it’s true: its online mapping service now covers the Moon!
Well, to be honest, it doesn’t exactly COVER the Moon, but it has a good start and I hope it keeps [...]

We can FINALLY stop thinking Longhorn. Now we start plastering ‘Windows Vista’ all over the Internet. The announcement was made today at 6 a.m. PDT in Redmond.

Do you have two or more computers on a network in your home or small office? Do you wish that you didn’t have to keep running back and forth when you need to do something on the other system(s)? Then Multipicity is for you.

While Firefox may be more secure than Internet Explorer, it’s having its own share of security woes. The latest involves an add-in named GreaseMonkey. It comes less than a week after the last security patch. In this case, the add-in causes a security hole in Firefox that allows outsiders to control the computer.