Thor's Archive
Each time Microsoft releases a "bigger and better" operating system, it seems that someones favorite program is obsoleted because it is not compatible with the latest version of Windows. While Microsoft's efforts at improving the compatibility mode settings in Windows Vista will help programs, many others will simply not work with Windows Vista.
A new Wiki posted on www.iexbeta.com lists a number programs that work well with Windows Vista. However more importantly, it also lists programs that have minor issues with Vista, or that are completely incompatible. I have compiled a short list of some of the more popular programs that appeared on their list here. Is your favorite program Vista compatible?
Compatible, but has issues:
- PKZIP
- Adobe Photoshop CS2
- Intervideo WinDVD 7 Platinum
- Trillian
- Firefox 2 Beta 2
Currently Not Compatible at All
- AVG Anti-Virus Free
- Avast! Home Edition
- Ahead Nero v6.6.0.13
- Ahead Nero v7.2.3.2b
- Ahead Nero v7.2.7.0
- SimCity 4 (64-bit versions)
- ACDSee v6.0 and above
- GameSpy Arcade
- Microsoft Money 2006
- Symantec/Norton Partition Magic
By no means is this a complete list, and there are many other programs listed on www.iexbeta.com that have issues with Vista. I have tried to pick out some common ones we see on our customers' computers.
Also keep in mind that the current Release Candidate 1 is not the final version of Vista. Microsoft releases these candidates so people can bring any issues to their attention before the operating system is set in stone. The bottom line I would give to one of my customers interested in Vista in January would be to wait a couple months and let some other pioneer take the arrows first. Once workarounds and patches have been made and delivered, then you can jump in with both feet.
I would like to welcome Phil Walker and his website, www.plattevisions.com to the family of websites hosted and optimized by Schrock Innovations. Those of you who know who Phil Walker is may also know that his award-winning Visions Along the Platte River Valley CD series has sold more than 10,000 copies and is now featured in classrooms across the state as an interactive tool to teach Nebraska's rich history.
Phil called me about a month ago and asked me to take a look at his website to see what could be done to improve its ranking in Google and other search engines. Before we started, I though it would be interesting to see exactly where Phil's website on Nebraska History actually ranked in Google, so I did a quick check. I was shocked to find that despite his site being up for over a year and being publicised all over the place, that it was not ranked in the top 10,000 Google results for the search terms Phil Walker or Nebraska History.
We evaluated Phil's website and proposed some small, but significant changes. We added a sitemap, some meta tags, and converted words that was contained within some images into standard text. Once the changes were complete, Phil's website moved into the top 50 results for both sets of search terms in less than 4 weeks.
While our efforts to elevate Phil's website will continue, his case illustrates an important point for anyone out there who owns or operates a website. Organizations put websites up on the Internet to serve content to visitors. If your website is not attracting visitors, your content - and your money - is wasted.
With that in mind, more than 80% of all website traffic originates in a search engine. That means someone goes to a website like Google and searched for a term - in Phil's case we chose Nebraska history. The object of the game is to engineer your website and its supporting components to be as close as possible to the #1 search engine result. This is how you can get traffic and this is how you can deliver your content to the maximum number of interested visitors.
I think it is ironic that business people understand that it makes no sense to advertise on a radio station that has no listeners, but they will dump thousands of dollars into a website that has no visitors. An audience is an audience, and anyone running a website needs to ask themselves what have I done lately to attract and please my audience?
Schrock Innovations does free website evaluations over the phone for any website owner who is looking for an extra edge over their competition. My advice to business owners is pick up a copy of this weeks Midlands Business Journal, read the feature article about Search Engine Optimization and then call Schrock (866-496-8772 or 423-9595 locally in Lincoln) and ask one of their web guys to look over your website. It could be the best 5 minutes you have spent on your website in some time!
In the past week, a number of OEM manufacturers as well as Toshiba have joined Dell, Apple, HP, and Panasonic in the list of vendors who inadvertently provided defective Sony batteries to their customers. After receiving a few emails and getting dozens of phone requests to check the recall lists, I have decided to put together one complete resource for laptop users out there so you can easily find out if you should be the proud recipient of a brand new laptop battery (not a bad deal if I say so myself!).
To start, you are most likely to be effected by these recalls if you own a Dell, HP, Toshiba, or Apple notebook computer. Ironically, Sony has not recalled any of its own Sony Vaio notebook computers. I would assume that Sony uses Sony batteries in their systems, but as of now they are considered safe. (They may have been built by a different subcontractor than the afflicted batteries). In a separate recall unrelated to Sony batteries, Panasonic is also recalling some batteries in its notebook computers.
The root of the Sony battery problem lies in small metal fragments that made their way into the actual battery cells that are linked together inside the plastic casing of the notebook battery unit. These fragments, under certain rare conditions, can cause a short in the battery that continually generates heat. If the short-circuit mechanism in the battery also fails, the battery could melt down and cause personal injury.
There are presently a total of 13 manufacturers that are recalling notebook computer batteries that use the flawed Sony cells. These companies are listed below with links to their recall pages where you can see if your battery is listed. Even if you are not concerned with the safety of your laptop battery, this is an opportunity to trade in a used laptop battery for a new one. Any notebook user that has had to purchase a new battery can see this as a rare opportunity that should be exercised!
Toshiba Notebook Computers: Toshiba was kind enough to write a small program that will examine your battery for you and tell you if it is on the recall list. The link below will take you to their detection program. You only need to install this program if you have a Toshiba laptop or notebook.
http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/.../batterycheck_en.exe
Apple Powerbook Battery Recall
https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange
Dell Notebook Battery Recall:
http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/batterymodels.aspx
HP Notebook Computer Battery Recall
http://bpr.hpordercenter.com.../landingpage.aspx
OEM Manufacturers of Notebook Computers Recall List:(Includes: ARM, ChemUSA, HyperData, Jetta, MPC, PC-Club, Sceptre, Systemax, TTX)
http://www.cpsc.gov/.../02037.html
Panasonic Notebook Battery Recall (Not Related to Sony Battery Problem)
No website address provided.
Let me know if there are any I missed, but as of today I believe this to be a complete list of the current recalls. Each page also provides instructions on how to have your battery replaced at no cost to you.
On September 12, 2006 a new security vulnerability was discovered in Internet Explorer that was confirmed by Microsoft Security Advisory (925568). This vulnerability has been used by websites to take control of a user's computer. Microsoft has stated that they will not release a patch for the VML rendering security vulnerability until October 10, 2006. This security problem affects all Windows users from Windows 98 to Windows XP, even if you use a browser other than Internet Explorer.
The only way to protect your system at the present time is to completely disable VML rendering in your Internet Explorer browser.
We have created a small utility that easily turns your VML rendering on or off. If you use this utility to turn off VML rendering, the utility will automatically re-enable it on October 11, 2006 - the day after Microsoft's expected patch release. This is accomplished by adding a start-up item that checks the current date each time your computer is booted. After October 11, 2006 the start-up item is automatically removed.
If you use the Schrock utility to disable your VML rendering you may notice that some pages (like Google Maps) will not display their graphics properly. As a work around for this, our utility will also prompt you to install the free Mozilla Firefox web browser unless you have done so already. Firefox works almost the same as Internet Explorer, but it is not affected by this security problem. We recommend users temporarily switch to FireFox until Microsoft releases an official patch for this problem.
You can download the utility at: Disable VML Rendering Utility
*Note* This utility requires Windows 2000 or Windows XP and the .Net Framework 2.0 (available from Windows Update)
I received a request for an interview today from the Midlands Business Journal regarding the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I staunchly believe that SEO is a must-have tool in any small or medium size businesses' marketing toolbox, and after the 45 minute interview and numerous real-time examples of our current efforts and results, the interviewer had what she needed for her story.
The Midlands Business Journal is a weekly business newspaper that has been circulating state-wide for more than 75 years in Nebraska. Jill Hanson was the interviewer and we started our conversation speaking about how Google rates websites where it does. I explained that there are black-hat (bad) and white hat (good) methods that can be used to "encourage" Google to rank a website near the top of its results for a given search term. The good methods are above board and accepted by Google, while the bad methods are far easier to implement but will eventually get your website de-indexed (removed from all Google search results).
I used our newest client, Phil Walker as an example of the dramatic improvements that can be made in a website's ranking with the smallest of changes. Phil Walker produces the Visions Along the Platte river Valley CD Series, and has sold more than 10,000 copies of his Nebraska History CDs since he started the series.
Phil's website is www.plattevisions.com and after listening to my speech on the importance of SEO at the last LIBA luncheon, he took me up on my offer of a free website review. A quick Google search revealed Phil's website did not place in even the top 10,000 results for the search terms Phil Walker or Nebraska History. After only 5 minutes I found four critical problems with his website that contributed to his lack of a search result position.
- His website did not have a Site map
- There were no Meta Tags on any of his pages
- Much of the text on his page was contained within graphics
- Nobody was linking to his site
After a brief discussion, Phil decided to keep his existing website, but switch his hosting to Schrock. We always provide free SEO work to our clients for to help promote the sites they host with us, so we started working on Phil's website. In only 10 days, we had placed him on the map at a Google search engine result of 49. We expect to have him in the top 10 results within the month.
It is always a pleasure to have an opportunity to educate business owners to the value of generating traffic for their website. Keep your eye out for the next issue of the Midland Business Journal. I have no idea how large of an article it will be, but they did request a photo.
A new chapter in the history of Mozilla's Open Source browser, FireFox, was started this week as the first ever recorded FireFox malware infection was reported.
The infection reportedly caused popups to appear on the users computer and defied all reasonable attempts at removal. The Schrock Innovations MCHE research team has investigated this infection, and has posted complete removal instructions at: http://www.schrockinnovations.com/removensismedia.php
After Microsoft released a whole new batch of security patches early this week, a new and previously unknown security vulnerability in Internet Explorer could allow websites to corrupt the memory of computers running the Microsoft web browser. I am recommending that all computer users temporarily switch to the FireFox browser until a patch is released for this latest flaw. You can download Firefox free of charge at http://www.getfirefox.com.
As a rule, Microsoft releases patches once each month on "Patch Tuesday." In these releases, the company closes security loopholes and repairs newly discovered flaws in their software products. In an increasing trend, it appears that discoveries of new, previously unknown security problems are being posted to the Internet shortly after Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. The new trend allows the flaws to go unremedied for a longer period of time and increases the likelihood that they will be exploited to attack computer users.
While there is no patch available now for the problem, Microsoft suggests Windows users disable ActiveX and active scripting controls to prevent infection on their computers. Performing these tasks can be somewhat technical, and will could also interfere with the operation of valid websites on your computer, such as the Windows Update website its self.
IE versions 5.01 and 6 on all current versions of Windows are affected by this problem, which means if you use Internet Explorer now, you are at risk. With that in mind, Microsoft said it had not heard of any attempts to use this exploit to attack computers as of yet. Microsoft added that a patch will come, but failed to specify if it will be before October's "Patch Tuesday."
Another viable workaround that is far less technical and will allow you to retain full use of the Internet would be to install the FireFox browser. FireFox is a browser very similar to Internet Explorer. FireFox is free, and because it works differently than Internet Explorer is not susceptible to this exploit. Schrock Innovations recommends that all computer users install the FireFox browser on their computer, even if they do not plan on switching away from Internet Explorer. If you have FireFox on your computer, you can switch on a temporary basis until a patch is release for this problem.
It seems that suddenly people are realizing that cellphones have become small computers. There have been dozens of stories ranging form the Journal Star, the Omaha World Herald, and many Internet websites about the kinds of interesting (and important) data that can be recovered from a cell phone by anyone with the ability to download a program off the Internet.
Cell phones are becoming more and more sophisticated as they include web browsing packages, text messaging, ringer downloading programs, and the ability to make wireless online purchases. But when you upgrade your cell phone, what happens to all of the stored text messages, credit card information and contact information?
A company named Trust Digital bought 10 phones on EBay to see what they could recover fro them. Recent reports indicate that even if you use your phone's reset function the data in your phone can still be recovered by some sophisticated, but readily available recovery software. Here is what they found:
- One company's plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract.
- E-mails about another firm's $50,000 payment for a software license.
- Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments.
The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages.
So needless to say, before you drop your phone in the donation box or sell it on EBay, you might want to visit the manufacturer's website and inquire about a more complete erasure option. Many phones, including Palm's Treo, have advanced erasure options, but they take much longer than the quick erasure options so they are typically buried deep in the phones software.
Another strategy to prevent data loss while still donating your old phone to charity is to store all of your data on a removable flash card. Most advanced phones have a port for adding a removable flash card. Once you are done with the phone, you can remove and destroy the card.
It seems that information and possibly identity theft have now moved form the mailbox, to the Internet, and straight into your own cell phone.
A previously unknown security flaw in Microsoft Word 2000 was discovered today as malicious attackers used it to execute code on infected computers. The vulnerability only impacts computers running Windows 2000 AND Microsoft Word 2000.
The Trojan MDropper.Q virus started exploiting the security flaw on Tuesday and uses a 2-step assault to take control of a computer.
The virus uses the security vulnerability in Microsoft Word vulnerability to place a second Trojan virus on your computer, Backdoor.Femo.
To complete the infection process, the computer user must open a Word document that is infected with the Trojan MDropper.Q virus on a computer running Windows 2000 and Word 2000.
As this was just discovered today, Microsoft has not released a patch as of now for this problem. The software giant suggested that users who are running Windows and Word 2000 do not open documents that appear to have been sent by someone they do not know.
In August two programs surfaced on the Internet that allowed users to remove the Digital Rights Management (DRM) copyright protection that prevents the songs from being duplicated without permission nor payment.
One of the programs targeted Apple's FairPlay DRM protection and the other circumvented Windows Media DRM protection. While attempts to circumvent copyright protection on online music services is not new, Microsoft was forced to hastily release a patch to close the vulnerability in Media DRM, while Apple plans to solve its most recent woes in an update to its popular iTunes software package.
Fast resolutions to new vulnerabilities are vital because is copyrights are violated at will, music labels and artists are likely to turn a cold shoulder to selling their music online.
Microsoft's patch must be applied by each online music service to be effective, which means implementation has been slow.
As usual, there is a fine line between security and freedom. Online music companies need to be careful not to become so militant with their patches as to annoy their users. On the other hand, if abusers are not dealt with decisively, there might be a whole lot less music to go around (legally at least) online.
We have finalized the specifications for this year's Holiday special, and I need one more person who wants a computer that will run circles around anything else out there for years to come.
As many of you know, each year at Schrock we put together an amazing computer for the holiday season and sell a limited number of them at our cost. The system always retails for $1,499.99, and has become know in Lincoln and Omaha as a unique opportunity to lay your hands on an extremely advanced system.
This year's special will be no different with words like widescreen, terabyte, and dual core floating around the marketing flier. Before we start the printing presses and prepare customer mailings, we always want to get 2 systems into the hands of our customers so we can get unbiased feedback about the systems and their features.
Steve S. in Lincoln purchased one of the two systems on Saturday, so one is left for beta testing. As an incentive to encourage your participation, I have reduced the purchased price from $1499 to $1399 on the second system. We are willing to take a $100 loss on it as long as you don't mind talking to us from time to time over the course of a month about the computer and your likes and dislikes.
While I can not release the system's entire specifications here, if you contact our Computer Repair Service Centers (Lincoln 423-9595 and Omaha 934-9423) we would be happy to share the specifications in detail prior to your purchase.
We have been on a quest for the past two months to find firm pricing numbers on Window Vista that has lead us to Microsoft conferences, channel partner phone calls, and countless blogs. Ironically enough, the answer came today on Amazon.com.
After numerous delays that pushed the retail availability of Windows Vista back beyond Christmas, Microsoft has set a firm release date of January 30, 2007.
Amazon had a list of 16 different ways you could purchase Windows Vista, based mostly for the 6 different full and upgrade versions of the operating system. Here's are the basic prices for those of you who plan on being in line when stores open on the 30th.
Windows Vista Home Basic (Closest to XP Home)
$199 Full Version / $99.95 Upgrade Version
Windows Vista Home Premium (Closest to XP Media Center)
$239 Full Version / $159 Upgrade Version
Windows Vista Business (Closest to XP Professional)
$299 Full Version /$199 Upgrade Version
Windows Vista Ultimate (The Whole Enchilada)
$399 Full Version / $259 Upgrade Version
If you own a laptop or a notebook equipped with an Intel Centrino processor, you need to manually install a patch NOW, or your computer could be taken over by anyone with some technical savvy. Oh, by the way, if you have already installed the patch, keep reading. You are not out of the woods yet.
Over the past week, a vulnerability has been exposed in Intel's PROSet wireless networking software that comes preinstalled on all notebook computers equipped with an Intel Centrino processor. Apparently, there is a security flaw in the PROSet wireless software that can allow an unauthorized user to take complete control of a laptop or notebook computer that is equipped with an Intel Centrino processor. You can download the Schrock Innovatiosn "Detect and Patch" utility here to see if your system is effected.
Centrino processors integrate wireless operations directly into the CPU to save on power consumption. Because this capability is built into the processor its self, Intel includes software with all Centrino-based laptops to manage their wireless networking capabilities. Earlier this week a patch was released by Intel to solve this problem, however technical problems with the patch soon surfaced that caused unexpected crashes and memory leaks. Today, Intel has released an updated patch that resolves these issues and closes the security loop hole.
Unfortunately, there isn't any auto update mechanism for the Intel PROSet software and drivers. Each notebook or laptop needs to be manually tested and if needed, the patch needs to be manually applied. The PROSet update is a whopping 51 MB, so dial-up users may want to do this one overnight. Because this patch does not come from Microsoft, it will not be included in any future Windows Update. The only way to get this patch is to download it directly from the Intel website and install it yourself.
The Schrock Innovations software development team is working on a small application that detects the current version of your PROSet software and determines if you need the patch. If needed, your computer will be automatically sent to the Intel download website. to our knowledge, this will be the only detect and patch application available at this time for this situation.
1) If you are an IT manager for a small (or large) network with a lot of Centrino processors you might appreciate these tips.
2) If you do not use the Intel Wireless Connection Manager software to connect laptops and notebooks to your network, select the driver only installation method to prevent connectivity problems after installing the patch.
3) If you use Windows XP Select the "Driver Only" installation option.
4) If you use any other operating system (like Windows 2000) Install the entire package. ("driver plus software")
In April of 2005 I brought you a story on our radio show Compute This (Saturdays from 10-11 in Lincoln, NE) about a small Fremont law firm that managed to successfully sue Microsoft for 22.6 million for anti-competitive practices in the state of Nebraska.You can listen to the archived interview here.
Microsoft settled the class action suit and agreed to pay 50% of any unclaimed funds from the settlement in the form of technology vouchers to Nebraska's public schools. Schools were awarded the vouchers based upon need as measured by participation in the Federal School Lunch Program.
Based on those calculations, the Omaha World Herald reported today that Omaha Public Schools was awarded $4.05 Million after filing some grueling paperwork to prove that they were qualified to receive the funds under the settlement.
The unexpected influx will allow the district to augment their planned technology expansion and allow for the purchase of additional equipment that had not been budgeted.
"This is like manna from heaven," school board member Mona McGreggor said on Monday. Assistant Superintendent Dennis Pool said that there was a significant effort put forth to prove that OPS qualified for the award under the settlement.
Half of the money will be used for computer software (Microsoft's or that of a competitor) and the other half will be used for hardware purchases.
The Milliard Public School District received just over $95,000, and calls to the Lincoln Public School District were not returned as of yet.
Today on Compute This I had the opportunity to speak on the air with Jeff Schwartz, of the Law Offices of Manuel H. Miller from California. Jeff is the attorney who is working to assemble a class action lawsuit against the makers of the MovieLand, MoviePass, and Popcorn.net spyware infections.
For those of you who are not aware, these three software programs solicit people on the web to install a "free" 3-day trial service that allows them to download movies and other media files from the Internet. However, unless you cancel the 3-day trial before it expires, you will be haunted by continual pop-ups that nearly debilitate your computer until you pay their subscription fees.
If you missed the show, you can listen to the entire interview here.
Apparently there is a law in California that requires a firm to provide a cease and desist request in situations involving deceptive advertising which gives the company 30 days to reign in their practices. Jeff files this request about a week ago, and to that there has been no change in the business or advertising practices of these websites. If that trend continues, in about 3 weeks a class-action lawsuit will be filed.
If you have been infected by these software programs, paid their subscription fees, paid someone to remove the popups from your computer (yes even us), or if you have purchased anti-spyware software to help you remove these infections, you may qualify to become a member of the class.
Jeff told our listeners that the object of this lawsuit is to put these websites out of business. While there is no guarantee of any kind of monetary payout by involving yourself in this case, for the first time EVER you have the opportunity to strike back at the people who infect your computer with this undesirable software.
I can't tell you how many people have said at one time or another that they wished someone would have to pay for this kind of behavior. If you were "touched" by these websites or their software programs, you should contact Jeff's firm at http://www.manuelhmiller.com
With everything going on this past week, Microsoft's visit to Omaha for a technical seminar was unfortunately buried in the news. However, our own Blaze was in attendance and asked the questions our customers have passed to us about Office 2007 and Vista over the past few months.
The question I have been asked more often than not is how much the products would cost. The question caught the presenter off guard, as he seemed very qualified to speak to the technical aspects of the software rather than the business and supply channel plans. He told Blaze that he was not absolutely certain, but he could not imagine Vista costing more than Windows XP does now.
While that answer is better than none, there are six different versions of Vista, so which versions will match in price against the five different versions of Windows XP that exist? He could not answer that, but my follow up questions to our Microsoft Partner Support Representative indicated that final retail and OEM pricing will not be revealed until Vista and Office 2007 are out of Beta.
In addition to some great information and presentations, Blaze also got a goodie bag full of Microsoft toys. The biggest catch of the day was a copy of the most recent Beta version of Windows Vista that has not been released to the general public yet. This was whisked away in the night to our Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) development team for use in testing our Beta Version 2 of the MCHE with Vista for compatibility.
The only way anyone can stay on top of the rapidly developing world of software is to take advantage of educational opportunities like the one Microsoft provided last week. Blaze reported that the others in attendance were mostly from Iowa and Omaha. He was the only person from Lincoln represented in the group.
As many of you heard, Schrock Innovations began accepting E-waste (old computers and computer equipment) at no cost early this month from businesses and consumers. Many people believe that we are making a profit on sending E-Waste to recycling facilities, despite my comments to the contrary.
Unfortunately circumstances which I did not anticipate are forcing us to make changes to our recycling program. Some of these situations include two of our local Lincoln competitors who took advantage of our recycling program by dropping more than 10 truckloads of computer waste in front of our door in the dead of night. Additionally, we have had two prowlers and two attempted burglaries in the past week alone. Because of situations like this, we must take steps to limit the scope of what we will accept in our recycling program.
1) Effective immediately, Schrock Innovations will accept a maximum of 20 items of computer waste per household per year for recycling.
2) While we will still accept computers and peripherals at no cost, we must charge $15 per monitor that we accept. Again, I will stress that we are not charging money to make a profit. It costs Schrock Innovations about $15 per monitor we accept to transport it and turn it over to a recycling company. We originally had a budget for E-waste, but the sudden middle-of-the-night influxes of equipment have exhausted the funds we had set aside for recycling.
3) We can no longer accept E-waste after business hours. We are open Monday - Friday from 10 - 6 and Saturday from 12-5. We are closed on Sunday. In addition, we have been forced to install a closed circuit camera to record the vehicle makes, models and license plate numbers of those who are dropping off equipment at our office.
4) Our recycling program is now restricted to consumers only. We will accept equipment from businesses, but a fee will be charged.
Since the start of the month, we have already shipped tons (and I mean that literally) of E-waste for recycling, and we are glad to provide this service to all consumers. I personally regret that we must now charge for recycling monitors. There always seems to be a few bad apples that spoil things for the rest of us, and I guess this is just another example.
I was just informed today that Schrock Innovations was voted the #1 Independent Computer Repair Company in the 2006 KFOR Best of Lincoln Survey for the 4th year in a row! Thank you to all of our radio show listeners and KFOR fans who voted for us.
This year we will be trying something new with the radio show. Typically we move to Sunday mornings during the Husker season to avoid any potential conflicts with football game coverage. this year we are going to buck that trend and stay on at 10:00 on Saturday mornings. Listeners have told us that they lose track of our show for a few weeks when we move to Sundays, and again when we move back to Saturdays after the season concludes (hopefully in January this year!).
We understand that priorities are priorities, so we will continue to make our previous radio shows available free of advertising on our website. In addition, we will be having special "Game Day Only" sales that offer products and services at drastically reduces prices, but only on that Saturday from 12-5.
I had the opportunity to listen in person to Steve Pederson talk about the outlook for the Husker season off camera, and he managed to get me fired up for this year's team. Go Huskers, and thank you for making Schrock Innovations #1 in Lincoln again!
Channel 10/11 stopped by the Lincoln Service Center today to interview someone about Dell recalling 4.1 million batteries that could overheat and explode. The batteries, made by Sony, span more than 4 years of Dell notebook computers.
I was giving prepared remarks at the LIBA Luncheon, so Blaze filed in for me and did an outstanding job. You can watch the entire interview on the Schrock Innovations website.
Today the Lincoln Business Journal ran an article on how to pick the right e-commerce consultant or company for your business. We have done some e-commerce work for our clients, so the Lincoln Business Journal asked me to answer a few questions.
The article is full of useful information if you are planning on establishing an e-commerce presence on the web. Pick up a copy if you get a chance!
Schrock Innovations is sponsoring August's LIBA Lunch meeting next Tuesday. I will be addressing the membership about the often underestimated value of a website as part of a well rounded marketing plan. I also had a corresponding article published as part of this month's LIBA Magazine that is mailed to the membership.
Although the majority of my prepared remarks have been ready for well over 2 weeks, I will have an 8 lb 12 oz. helper who will help me drive home the value of a well constructed and deployed website.
My wife and I adopted our son, Jacob nine days ago. Jacob's birthmother found us by doing a Google web search for Nebraska Open Adoption. Our website was the first result - ranking higher than adoption.com and the state of Nebraska adoption pages.
After Jacob's birthmother looked over our website, she decided to give us a call and introduce herself. We were shocked and thrilled that our website had attracted a birthmother for us. In fact, at first we thought this was some sort of scam. Our fears proved to be unfounded and 8 days later we were parents.
Now when prospective clients mention Search engine Optimization, I smile and tell them if it was good enough to get me my son, it should be good enough to generate a few sales leads for your company too.
Steve Pederson is the guest speaker at the luncheon on Tuesday. I strongly encourage LIBA members to attend the lunch if possible this month. Steve plans on giving us a Husker update, which should be interesting given all of the recent excitement on the team.
Easton Herd and Andrew Garroni, the men behind the MoviePass spyware infection, have spun their software off under a new name in an attempt to lure more unsuspecting victims into 3-day trials of the new Popcorn.net Download Manager service. You can view complete Popcorn.net removal instructions on the Schrock Innovations website.
MoviePass has earned a reputation across the Internet as deceptive software that collected unreasonable information about the computers on which it was installed. The MoviePass software was distributed by luring visitors with a free 3-day trial of the movie and video download service. If the user failed to cancel their subscription before the end of the trial, they would be billed for the service whether they wanted it or not. Those who refused to pay were haunted by near continuous pop-up messages that plagued their PCs and slowed their productivity.
Now that MoviePass is even getting some attention from the California Attorney Generals' Office, it may be proving too hot to handle. The software's conversion to the Popcorn.net name marks the third such transition in less that 3 years.
We have seen our first case of a Popcorn.net infection, and thankfully it is so similar to MoviePass that the removal procedure is almost identical. You can view complete Popcorn.net removal instructions on the Schrock Innovations website.
A new spyware infection has started showing up on our benches called Brave Sentry. The Brave Sentry and Brave Sentry 2.0 infections are modeled after the SpyFalcon, SpySheriff, and SpywareQuake infection models.
This particular infection is usually delivered when someone using your computer clicks on a pop-up message that states the computer is already infected with spyware. The message claims it can remove the spyware for you. When users click on the message, they are instructed to download Brave Sentry to clean their systems.
Once Brave Sentry i installed, it will run a 'scan" that ALWAYS finds a ton of infections, whether they are there or not. To the users surprise, the software then begins generating pop up messages demanding the user purchase the commercial version of the software for $50 to continue the removal process.
Obviously, this is a scam, but attempts to remove the Brave Sentry software do not eliminate the pop up messages that appear almost constantly. We have devised a removal method for this infection. The complete instruction to remove Brave Sentry and Brave Sentry 2.0 from your computer can be found here.
Microsoft released 12 new security updates on Tuesday, and the Department of Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install them as quickly as possible to plug a new security vulnerability similar to the one that the MS-Blaster virus exploited.
Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install Microsoft's MS06-040 patch as soon as possible. Viruses that exploit RPC vulnerabilities like MS Blaster did tend to cut through antivirus programs like Swiss cheese, resulting in a potentially hefty repair bill.
Microsoft has already reported that the exploit is being used to begin infecting computers, and some security companies have already started making tools that will help you determine if your computer has been patched or not.
Microsoft partnered with Homeland Security to issue this recent security alert, and noted that users of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 should be protected by the Windows Firewall from this threat. However, many people have disabled the Windows Firewall to facilitate other home networking or connectivity goals.
I STRONGLY recommend that any Windows XP user immediately download and install all critical Microsoft patches to avoid the fallout from this security loophole. When the Blaster virus hit last year, there were alerts in newspapers, on the national news, and from computer experts around the globe, yet many people did not heed those warnings and we met quite a few of them in our Service Centers.
You can obtain the free updates from the Windows Update website.
Microsoft released 12 new security updates on Tuesday, and the Department of Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install them as quickly as possible to plug a new security vulnerability similar to the one that the MS-Blaster virus exploited.
Homeland Security is urging Windows users to install Microsoft's MS06-040 patch as soon as possible. Viruses that exploit RPC vulnerabilities like MS Blaster did tend to cut through antivirus programs like Swiss cheese, resulting in a potentially hefty repair bill.
Microsoft has already reported that the exploit is being used to begin infecting computers, and some security companies have already started making tools that will help you determine if your computer has been patched or not.
Microsoft partnered with Homeland Security to issue this recent security alert, and noted that users of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 should be protected by the Windows Firewall from this threat. However, many people have disabled the Windows Firewall to facilitate other home networking or connectivity goals.
I STRONGLY recommend that any Windows XP user immediately download and install all critical Microsoft patches to avoid the fallout from this security loophole. When the Blaster virus hit last year, there were alerts in newspapers, on the national news, and from computer experts around the globe, yet many people did not heed those warnings and we met quite a few of them in our Service Centers.
You can obtain the free updates from the Windows Update website.
For those of you who are not aware, my wife and I are in the process of adopting. We received a call last Thursday from a birthmother in Hastings, NE who was due that day with a baby boy. Our birthmother found us on our open adoption website and after a long conversation, she decided to place her baby with our family for adoption!
We received a call today that she was going into labor and that we needed to get to Hastings as soon as possible. When we arrived we had the opportunity to meet her in person, speak with her parents and meet a number of her friends. We prayed with her preacher and friends and spent 6 hours talking, laughing, and counting contractions.
As I write this, Kim and I have checked in at the Holiday Inn in Hastings to catch some sleep while there is still time to! I will post more information here when our baby boy is born, and of course pictures will follow.
We are so glad that we kicked the Independent Adoption Center to the curb and did this on our own!
As more and more big security players create products to help consumers rid their computers of Malware, the creators of the malware are incorporating a new tool into their arsenal - stealth.
It is estimated that 90% of all computers are infected with some degree of Malware (malware is a global term that encompasses spyware, adware, and scumware). Typically systems become infected when users install software programs from the Internet that contain the malware as an additional component.
At present, the delivery vehicle that installs the malware on a user's computer remains behind after the infection is complete. This makes it easy to dissect it and release information on how to prevent the delivery vehicle from deploying the malware in the first place. But the days of easy removal instructions may be coming to a close as a new strain of malware threats is waiting in the wings.
However, malware authors are beginning to take steps to delete the delivery vehicle once the malware is installed. Without the delivery vehicle available for study, the user will notice what the malware is doing, but will have no idea how it was installed on the system. That means that anti-spyware software can be updated to remove the malware, but will not be able to prevent the infection from recurring.
Stealth malware threats promise to bring a whole new level of attacks into the more secure world of Windows Vista. Windows Vista has a host of built-in anti-malware features that are too numerous and technical to be detailed here. However, once Vista is widely adopted and available for study, malware authors will begin to unleash this new generation of "smart" malware.
People sometimes ask me if there will ever be a single program that will prevent all malware and get rid of this problem for good. The bottom line is that will probably never happen, as this digital arms race between those who secure the Internet and those who terrorize it continues on a day to day basis.
Pentium
Died: 2006
May the processor that changed
the world rest in peace
Adios. Its over. No more Blueman Group, no more Weird Al Yankovic songs, no more MMX - Pentium is dead. The Pentium-Class processor officially ended its 13-year run as Intel's flagship processor today, while its replacement, the Core 2 Duo, takes center stage.
When the Pentium processor was released in 1993, it revolutionized the world of computing. Intel's unique microarchitecture allowed a processor to complete tens of thousands of instructions much more quickly than its predecessor, the 486dx. Rivals soon fell by the wayside as the Pentium overdrive processor boosted processing speeds to a staggering (at the time) 90 MHz. Technologies like MMX allowed for more detailed graphic processing than ever. The Pentium processor was a recommended system requirement for Windows 95, and the world took its first toddler steps into home supercomputing.
Intel continued to chase MHz ratings as a way of benchmarking the performance of its processors into the mid 1990's. The microchip market witnessed the death by fire of the Cyrix processor (if you have ever installed a Cyrix processor you understand the pun here) and AMD pulled up as Intel's only competitor of note. Intel was incrementally ratcheting up the MHz speed and avoided a publicity liability by labeling their 666 MHz processor as 667 MHz. No one seemed to mind the small fib, and Intel certainly didn't mind avoiding a satanic stigma.
The Pentium eventually gave way to the Pentium II, which topped out at 450 MHz. Then that record fell to the Pentium III and eventually the Pentium IV. As Intel began to reach the limits of how many MHz it could squeeze out of the Pentium architecture, its rival AMD started working on processors that completed more calculations per MHz, and therefore could do more work that a Pentium processor of the same (or greater) speed. AMD started closing on the Pentium fast with its Athlon line of processors.
Eventually AMD would widely surpass Intel's performance with the release of the Athlon 64 processor. But Intel held to its guns, promising a whole new kind of processor that would once again change the world.
That processor has been officially released as the Core 2 Duo Processor, and it should be available for widespread purchase by Christmas this year. With Windows Vista coming in January, many analysts say this could be 1993 all over again. New processor, new Windows, and perhaps the grand child of the Pentium will take the torch of a new computing generation. Amazing advances are promised, but with AMD hinting about a few surprises of its own, only time will tell.
I received an alert today from Symantec about a disturbing rise in the number of fake email messages that purport to be from legitimate online retailers. Apparently, these messages are sent via bulk-email to unsuspecting individuals. The emails state that an invoice for a recent purchase at the online retailer is attached, and that you should open it to verify your order.
When the email attachment is opened, the user's computer is infected with a Trojan horse virus that allows an unknown party to take control of your computer and its Internet connection at a later time for any number of nefarious purposes.
While the download Trojan virus category is nothing new, this new socially engineered method of delivery is. Symantec has rated this threat as a level 3 (5 is the worst) - the first level three threat they have issued in some time.
If you receive an email from an online retailer such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, or any other company who you have not done business with recently, treat it as suspect. As always, we recommend you use Norton Anti-Virus to protect your computer from such threats. If you have Norton and it is up to date, the infected attachments will be removed from your email before it hits your inbox.
We issued a virus alert to our subscribers about this tonight. If you are not a subscriber to our email virus alerts, click here to become a virus alert subscriber.
If you fail to ride the wave of change you will find yourself beneath it. For the past 4 weeks that overused motivational phrase has been my compass as all of the employees of Schrock from our web developers to our technicians have come together to launch a new chapter in Schrock Innovations history.
As many of you may have heard on the radio Saturday, I launched Schrock's 2006 Back to School Sale. For the first time ever, we are now carrying notebook computers in stock. While I could bore you with all of the logistics and reasons we have not done this in the past, I think it is much more interesting to explain why it is important for the future.
It is common knowledge that the price of computer hardware has been on a downward spiral for years now. There are actually places you can buy a desktop tower system for a mere $299 on occasion. Schrock has never claimed to be the least expensive PC maker in town, but we do pride ourselves on having the best service and support. For the past few years we have catered to individuals who are willing to pay a few extra dollars to have a local, trusted source for help and support. I understand that is what makes us special and that will never change.
The challenge we have faced (and will face moving into the future) is that declining margins on desktop computers will make it difficult to pay for our high levels of support. We had to find some way to increase the number of computers we were selling per year, or we would be in a long-term pinch. Last year we started making efforts to capture more market share by reducing our desktop prices, offering additional features not available elsewhere, and heavily promoting our service after the sale.
Despite these efforts, our sale of desktop computers only rose slightly. It was becoming clear that if we wanted to increase our volume we would have to expand our product line to encompass more computing options than desktops alone. Because we did not have the buying power of the big box stores, it was difficult to promote a particular laptop at a particular price because we never knew when it would be discontinued or fall into shortage.
Someone once told me that you don't do something because you think you can't. I thought we couldn't carry notebook computers in stock, so we did our best to special order them as our established customers asked for them. We had the opportunity to order an Acer notebook for one of our customers, and I was impressed at the features, the look, and the feel of their product. Best of all, the price was comparable to what you would pay at the big box stores, so my customer was very pleased with her purchase. I started to look into Acer after that to determine if there was any way we could become an authorized reseller and carry their products in stock. After working with our regional representative I quickly learned why Acer was the fastest growing computer manufacturer in the world.
Acer understood our dilemma, and offered the perfect solution. After clearing some bureaucratic hurdles, we were granted authorized reseller status and it was like the world of notebook and tablet (yes, I said tablet) PCs had opened up to us at last. We were able to obtain discounted units to use as display models, we were granted a generous credit line, and we now had access to more sales and marketing materials than I could have hoped for. I had 4 weeks to get something together for Back to School and the clock was ticking.
We successfully launched our sale on Saturday during our radio show, Compute This. I can not begin to tell you the anxiety that I felt about this sale. I had launched countless sales in the past, but this one was different. This sale marked the first day in the future of Schrock Innovations. After the show I went to the Service Center to make certain everything was ready for our launch. At 12:01 our first customer came through the door and bought one of our Acer notebooks. Then a second, and then a third. We actually sold our entire inventory of one model that afternoon!
When it comes down to it, there are only 4 places other than Schrock that you can go to lay hands on a notebook computer before you buy it. Lincoln knows we offer local, award-winning service and support. We have earned our customers' trust and we finally have the products they have been asking for. Now it is just a matter of spreading the word and trying to keep the units on the shelves!
If you have not done so already, make a trip to our Lincoln Service Center and see these amazing notebooks for yourself (on a brand new retail display!) Rest assured that while many things will change over time at Schrock, our personalized, local service and support will always be there. You can count on that.