Thor's Archive
On a voice vote today the United States Senate passed the 163-page revision to the Child Protection and Safety Act. The bill would make it a federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison to lure minors to a website using words like "furby" or "barbie" that is intended to deliver pornographic images.
This revised version of the House bill is expected to be signed by the President and enjoys bi-partisan support. Among other things, the bill would:
- Assign prison time to any webmaster with the intent to deceive minors as to the content of a pornographic website
- Assign Prison time for the intentional Internet sale or distribution of date rape drugs
- The computers, or any other electronic communication or data storage devices or media owned by convicted offenders must be made available to police examination without a warrant at any time
- Force convicted Internet sex offenders to provide a DNA sample
- Establish an Internet sex offender registry with the FBI
- Use Internet sex offenders as test subjects for a real-time location tracking system
According to lawmakers the bill was carefully worded to avoid any violations of the First or Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. For example, a webmaster may try to claim it is his first amendment right to put whatever he wants on a webpage as protected speech. However, the bill specifically gives judges and jurors the power to decide what the intent of the webmaster is. Hence, the words are not a crime, but the webmaster's intent is.
While the bill is expected to arrive on President Bush's desk next week, I would not expect to see a radical change in the practice of using child-friendly words to lure minors into the dark corners of the Internet. These laws only apply to US citizens and websites housed within the US, and it takes all of 5 minutes to move a website to an overseas server. In addition, the law only applies to gateway pages that lure minors to click on links that lead to pornographic websites. Since there is nothing inherently illegal about a pornographic website, and may even be protected speech under the Constitution, it will not be long before webmasters simply outsource the underhanded baiting techniques to others in Russia, China, Europe, and Australia.
With that said, I can almost hear some of you asking, why pass a bill that will have little impact on the problem? During floor debate Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said, "I appreciate the willingness of all members to put aside unrelated controversial issues so that we could focus on the core purpose of this bill--protecting children." A national politician invoking the protection of children in an election year may seem genuine, but it was no coincidence that the bill was put to a voice vote (requiring each Senator to tie their vote to their name publicly). No politician would want to be against protecting children in an election year.
Nevertheless, incremental progress is better than no progress at all, and I suspect you will not hear too many voices speaking out to defend any perceived "right" for webmasters to abuse children. Good intentions, decent bill, but not a total solution.
The Journal Star's feature article today about the new E-Waste recycling program available at Schrock Innovations has generated a surge in demand for computer recycling services.
Last week Schrock Innovations announced a major change to its policies on recycling old and obsolete computers. We are now the only place in Lincoln where businesses and consumers can recycle unlimited e-waste with no disposal fees.
Some people have asked me how Schrock Innovations makes money recycling e-waste when most companies charge a fee to accept it. To dispel the most common suggestions, we do not use the parts from recycled computers to build new computers and we do not "cash in" the scrap metal, gold, silver, or any other element from e-waste with any scrap yard. We do not profit from recycling e-waste - in fact, we actually recycle it at a loss.
To illustrate my point, the average computer has about 2 pounds of metal in it, and it takes about 15 minutes per computer to separate it. Most scrap yards have a minimum threshold of 1 ton of scrap metal to cut a check. A ton is 2000 pounds, so that would be about 1,000 computers. The going rate for scrap metal is about $63 per ton. So for recycling 1000 computers we could make $63, but it would cost us 250 hours of labor. Even at minimum wage, that would amount to nearly $1,300. So as you can see, Schrock is not in this for the money.
So why did we change our recycling policy then? Because it is the right thing to do. Lincoln has given Schrock Innovations so much opportunity, and there was a distinct need in our community for a viable e-waste option. People would rather store old computers than pay to get rid of them, and with the rate of technological obsolescence, stored e-waste is going to become a major problem.
Someone had to get the ball rolling, and our industry is a VERY competitive one. People respect companies that respect the community. If Schrock Innovations begins earning respect for doing the right thing with e-waste, our competitors will have to follow or be left behind. If all of the computer repair companies in Lincoln started recycling e-waste, together we could make a substantial difference in the quality of our ground water and ecology.
If you have old computer-related e-waste around your house, feel free to drop it off at Schrock Innovations in Lincoln or in Omaha. All we ask is that if you are bringing 20 items or more you call 423-9595 to let us know you are coming so we can make transportation arrangements.
I received a call today from a Deputy Attorney General with the California Attorney General's office regarding MoviePass and their MediaPipe software.
Last week I tracked down the individuals who own the corporations responsible for MoviePass, MovieLand and MediaPipe and published it on the Schrock Innovations website.
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of interest in locating the individual responsible for the annoying "Pay Now or Else" pop-ups that follow a 3-day free trial of the MediaPipe software. Evidently, the CA Attorney general's office has received complaints about this software and they were interested about how we tracked the owner down and if it would "hold up in court."
I spent about 30 minutes on the phone explaining how I traced their multi-layered corporations through the CA Secretary of State's website to find their names. After the conversation, the Deputy AG I was speaking with said that he was going to drive by the addresses we provided and investigate any criminal or consumer cases that could be brought. If you are unaware of what MoviePass is, MoviePass.tv is a website that advertises video content that it delivers to your desktop via its MediaPipe software for a monthly fee. They offer a free 3-day trial of their service, which many people have downloaded and installed.
In the terms of service (which almost no one reads) it explains that if you do not cancel your service before the 3-day trial expires, you will be required to pay MoviePass a monthly fee for the service.
Needless to say, many people installed the software and forgot about it - that is until it MoviePass started reminding them.
The "reminder" was actually a pop up window that continually appears on the user's screen demanding payment. Supposedly, the only way to remove the pop up is to pay them what they say is due. While the MoviePass Terms of Service appear to cover them from any criminal charges (although I am not a lawyer and do not claim to be) California has many consumer protection laws against deceptive trade practices.
The California Attorney General's office said they plan to "look into" any laws that may have been violated by the MoviePass ( also known as MovieLand) business model.
Between now and January - and even a bit beyond that - I will probably be asked a thousand times if it is wise to immediately purchase Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, as soon as it is released.
My answer is always that the pioneers are the ones who take the arrows, so sometimes it's ok to wait a couple months so you know if the product lives up to the marketing hype. While this was true of Windows XP (remember Service Packs 1, 1a, and 2?) it will be an even greater concern in Vista. Many pieces of Vista have been completely rebuilt from the ground up to be more secure and stable according to Microsoft, but the new code is fresh and not tested to the extent that Windows XP's core has been over time.
Symantec, a rival of Microsoft's in the security market, released a study yesterday that suggested the completely redesigned networking system in Vista will be less stable than the existing networking stack in Windows XP - at least in the short run. The company critiqued one of Microsoft's beta versions of Vista and found numerous stability concerns that could give network administrators who deploy Vista in January a migraine of epic proportion.
Microsoft responded that Symantec was testing a beta version of the operating system, and that the purpose of a beta was to identify and resolve issues like these before the software is released to the public. While it is highly doubtful that Symantec, who is currently suing Microsoft in an unrelated case, is helping the Redmond, WA software company out of the goodness of its heart, their study does raise an interesting point.
The core engine of Windows XP has been around since Windows NT, with some files and code dating back to Windows 3.1 for Work-groups. This code is battle tested, has been attacked, patched, retested, and finally certified "reliable" for professional use. Symantec is insinuating that Microsoft is abandoning these hardened technologies and replacing them with new, untested code in Windows Vista. A ZDnet.com news story quoted Symantec as calling Vista's networking stack as "virgin code."
The concept behind this argument is a simple one. If you are an IT administrator who is responsible for keeping a corporate network up and running would you want to put your neck on the chopping block because Microsoft says Vista is safer, more secure, and more reliable? Wouldn't you want to let someone else try first before you risk your career on what would be a huge network upgrade with what some say is little gain in functionality?
However, it is important to note that Symantec has a vested interest in delaying the adoption of Windows Vista. The new operating system is the culmination of 5 years of Microsoft's focus on security, and includes a host of new technologies that will render many of today's spyware threats obsolete. In addition, Microsoft is planning on deploying anti-virus software to Vista users via a free trial offer that could be offered as a Windows Update. With Symantec subscription renewals at stake, any delay in the release, or the acceptance, of Vista is money in Symantec's pocket.
After all of the dust settles, Microsoft will address the concerns Symantec raised and probably a lot more that will come to light over time. But my core recommendation has not changed. You won't find me in line at 12:01 AM on January 1st waiting for Vista. I hear that the Surgeon General says arrows are bad for your health, so I am sticking with XP after Vista's release, at least for a couple of months.
Dell has announced it plans to begin shipping its laptop computers with the brand spankin' new draft version of the 802.11n wireless network standard. However, those who adopt the "n" standard now may have a headache on their hands next year if the standard is not adopted as written today.
802.11n promises a faster connection, greater signal range, and more networking possibilities, but not everyone is in agreement that the technology is ready for prime time.
In a recent meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers 802.11n task group in Cairns, Australia, the 1.0 draft version of the 802.11n standard failed to pass a vote required to become an accepted standard. A 75% yes vote of the delegates was required, but the draft version fell well short with only 57% in agreement.
While most home networking users who buy Dell notebooks don't really care about the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, these users will care if they buy a Dell notebook today with the 802.11n draft technology and then the standard is changed in any significant way before it is finalized and accepted later this year. It is entirely possible that a consumer who buys a Dell notebook today with 802.11n technology will not be able to use the "n" standard next year.
To complicate matters even further, the Farpoint Group recently published a study that was based upon tests of draft "n" wireless devices that found performance and interoperability claims advertised by chip vendors didn't live up to expectations.
I would recommend that users DO NOT purchase any 802.11n based products until it becomes an official standard and the concerns of critics of the new-born technology have been addressed.
No, I don't mean watch your back on a Caribbean cruise. While processing a network replacement quote for a local (and well recognized) charity, I found that software piracy is alive and well in Lincoln, Nebraska.
On Saturday we received a request for quotation from a local charity that does a TON of great work for kids in Lincoln. They need to completely scrap and replace every PC on their network and they asked us to provide a quote. To help us understand what they were looking for they gave us an estimate they received from another local Lincoln computer company who has "been serving Lincoln since 1984" according to their yellow pages advertisement.
I started to digest the bid they had already received, understanding the implicit suggestion that we beat their price. The hardware they quoted for the system was decent for what it was going to be used for, and the price for the hardware was agreeable. I was getting myself prepared for a razor-thin margin push to get the job until I read the software section of the quote.
Windows XP Professional with Software Assurance $20.00/ea
Microsoft Office Professional 2003 with Software Assurance $30.00/ea
I called our regional Microsoft representative to find out if there was a program that I was not aware of offering deep discounts on Microsoft Windows XP Professional and/or Office 2003 Professional. Our representative told us the prices seemed "unnaturally low" and that we should call the Microsoft Charity Software team to find out if they had offered the software at a discounted price since the charity had a 501c3 designation.
I called the Microsoft Charity Software Team and they advised me to contact an authorized charity reseller. This group of resellers is a tightly controlled group of companies that are mainly large national providers. Hewlett Packard in Omaha was on the list, so I called them and was shocked at their response.
I was told that the prices that were quoted for Microsoft Software we "substantially lower" than the discounted prices Microsoft offers to charities. I pressed a bit and the HP rep told me that a typical charity would pay $106 for Windows XP Professional with Software Assurance and $88.00 for Office 2003 Professional with Software Assurance. The more the HP representative talked the more concerned I became about this local competitor.
Next, I checked the hardware pricing one more time to make certain the company didn't pad the price of the hardware to cover the loss on the software. There was not an ounce of padding. The truth is, this is improperly licensed software, according to HP and Microsoft. No company can compete against a provider who is placing improperly licensed software on the computers they sell. We would have had to pay well over $350 for legitimate OEM copies of Office 2003 Professional and XP Professional. How was I supposed to go back to this charity and say that our systems are $350 more expensive than theirs, but you should really buy from us?
More importantly, how am I supposed to warn this charity about the problem? This isn't the first time Schrock Innovations has crossed this bridge. In 2001 a corporation in downtown Lincoln had problems with their computers and called us in to help. We found that every one of their computers was running the same Windows 2000 license, and that the company who sold them their systems did not provide them with the required licenses for all computers.
We informed our customer, who of course called the system builder, who promptly called their attorney. I did not want this to wind up in a similar situation, so I called the charity and informed them that there were some "irregularities" in the quote they provided to us regarding the legitimacy of the software. I explained the pains I went through to attempt to confirm the price points as legitimate, and advised them that if they did purchase improperly licensed software from anyone they would be responsible for rectifying the situation - not the company who sold the systems.
Our quote has gone out the door today and our price is a couple hundred dollars higher than the quote they received from our local competitor. Even if we don't get the job, I hope I this charity finds a solution provider who is willing to follow the rules. Until then, there is not too much we can do but try to educate and try to compete on a playing field that, like life, is often unfair.
Jennifer Murray with Alltel sent me an email today to inform us of an upcoming change that will impact all Alltel telephone and Internet customers. Alltel is separating its land line business from its wireless business and merging the land line business with VALOR Telecom. The new company will be named Windstream Communications.
To promote the merger, Windstream (formerly Alltel) is introducing new promotional Broadband offers to compliment the Windstream company launch. The new promotions will run from July 17th - September 30th. The promotional rates are only valid for new Internet customers. See below for details.
DSL Lite Broadband 1.5Mb Broadband 3MB Broadband 6Mb
Stand-alone or with Dish $19.95 $24.95 $29.95 $39.95
In addition, Windstream is introducing a new Satisfaction Guaranteed policy. Some customers may be hesitant to sign-up for broadband (high speed) if they're not familiar with the service. The Satisfaction Guarantee policy will provide new customers the comfort of knowing they can try broadband without risk.
If they decide that Windstream Broadband is not right for them -- for whatever reason -- you can disconnect without penalty within the first 30 days. You will receive a credit for the monthly service charge that was added to your account at the time of sign-up. It is important to note that certain conditions do apply --- (1) the $9.95 shipping and handling charge will not be refunded. (2) the modem must be returned; otherwise, a charge for the equipment will be applied to your account.
This is by far the best opportunity for new customers to try out broadband services that I have ever seen in Lincoln. In my professional opinion, I would suggest you take advantage of these offers if you think you would enjoy the world of DSL. One word of caution - as unbearable as dial-up is sometimes now, once you taste high speed it is hard to go back!
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told local software partners at a Cape Town technology conference Articles in the Omaha World Herald today as well as on ZDnet.com reveal that the release of Windows Vista in January is not a 100% certainty.
ZDnet writes:
There was an "80 percent chance" Vista would be ready as scheduled for broad release in January, a company spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, said the current plan was to begin releasing Vista to business customers in November, with the general release in January.
There has been speculation that the much-expected new operating system could be delayed, although this has been denied by top company officials.
Microsoft originally targeted a 2005 launch for the new Windows, then pushed the release to 2006 before announcing in March that Vista would again be delayed to improve the product.
The new versions of Microsoft's Windows and Office software are central to the company's efforts to revive a stock that has underperformed major indexes since the start of 2002.
Gates made his comments to Microsoft software partners at a conference in Cape Town to discuss how technology can be harnessed to boost Africa's competitiveness.
The new thorschrock.com interface is ROUGH. I had to get something up on the root of that URL so I didn't lose the PR5 (Page Rank 5) ranking with Google in the next big index update. Google ran a small correction to its PR indexes last week and ticked a lot of people off by dropping the false PRs that sites were accidentally given.
Mine was not effected, but nevertheless, it was a reminder that any day now Google will be updating the PR index again. I will tweak the content and layout in the upcoming days.
Alltel has announced today that they are no longer supporting dial-up or high-speed internet users who have computers running Windows 98, 98SE, or ME. This shouldn't be a problem for most people. For those who have these operating systems, it is just one more reason to upgrade! Here is an excerpt from the Alltel email:
Effective Tuesday, July 11, 2006, Windows 98, 98SE and ME will no longer be supported by Microsoft. Due to the "end-of-life" status of these operating systems, Alltel will make changes to our minimum PC requirements for Broadband and Dial-Up services. We will continue to provide "best effort" support of existing customers who have these OSs. Also, we will not deny service if a potential customer has one of these systems. However, we do ask that you be aware that our mutual customers may need to upgrade to a newer OS if they experience problems with their service as a result of their older software. Please click here for the updated requirements.
If you frequent the Schrock Innovations Computer Repair website you may have noticed a new graphic on the bottom left corner of all of our pages. This is a tool provided free of charge by AltaVista that will allow you to instantly translate any page on the Schrock Innovations website into 8 different languages!
Since the launch of the Do It Yourself Computer Repair section of our website, we have been getting an ever increasing number of visitors from outside the United States. While our primary concern is always our local Nebraska customers, people outside of Nebraska and outside of the US also have computers and need help too.
If you speak or read a language other than English, please post a comment here to let me know how accurate the translation is!
For those of you who follow this blog, you have read about the MoviePass and MediaPipe software that seems to find its way on to people's computers who have no recollection of installing it. The software is designed to provide you access to free video content and is usually installed when the user clicks on an advertisement online for free video content and installs their trial software.
30 days later, the MediaPipe software begins to demand its subscription fee though pop ups that increase in frequency until you pay.
There used to be a toll-free number to cancel the account that was opened in your name when you installed the MoviePass trial, but now that number is frequently too buy to get through, and when you do make it through it goes to voice-mail.The makers of MoviePass were undoubtedly barraged with callers seeking to cancel their accounts, so they have created a website where you can cancel your MoviePass subscription instead.
If you visit http://members.moviepass.tv/customerservice and you are infected with MoviePass you are granted access to the cancellation website. If you are not infected with MoviePass, then you are given a "You don't have permission" message before you are redirected to a page that offers you the handy opportunity to reinfect yourself by clicking on a button.
We have updated our Remove MoviePass Tutorial with the latest variant information and updated cancellation instructions. We will keep you posted if anything new develops with these people and their software.
We have added another new computer help article to http://www.schrockinnovations.com. This article will show you how to increase your computer performance by setting your Windows XP based computer to run in performance mode.
Some of our customers have reported as much as a 25% performance gain by trading XP's eye candy for horsepower! This one should be popular!
Check out this performance booster by visiting Set Windows XP to run in Performance Mode.
A company in China has created a browser called Maxthon that allows users to visit websites through their proxy server, and thereby avoid China's aggressive censorship policies. The tiny Beijing company (also named Maxthon, has attracted millions of users in China for functionality that can circumvent government controls on information in search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Baidu.com.
Here is an example. Do a search for the word Tienanmen at www.google.com (Here's a link). The first results you see are about the Tienanmen Square Massacre where Chine ran over protesting students with tanks.
Now do the same search through the Google's China search engine (Here's a link). Note that the images of tanks are missing and the summaries of the top results have to do with vacationing and travel - not a protest.
Anyone who remembers the incident would also remember that to this day China officially declares that no one was ever run over with a tank in Tiananmen Square. It never happened as far as the Chinese government is concerned.
This is exactly what this small company is trying to circumvent. What is not entirely clear to me is why would a country who would run students over with tanks to silence them would allow a Beijing-based start up company to do this... Time will tell I suppose.
We have posted a new tutorial on the Schrock Innovations website in the DIY section. Last week a caller on the radio show asked how he could make a backup copy of his Outlook Express email messages. We successfully walked him through the steps on the air, and promised a step-by-step tutorial for everyone on the website.
As I have mention to many of you before, I like to under promise and over deliver. As promised, the tutorial on the Schrock Innovations website tells you how you can backup or transfer your Outlook Express email messages to a new computer. However it will also tell you how to transfer your address book, your email account settings, and your email sorting rules! You can transfer everything in your Outlook installation in one easy step-by-step process!
Check it out on the Schrock Website at http://www.schrockinnovations.com/backupoutlookexpress.php
Sorry about the outage this morning folks. I could just pull a "Baghdad Bob" and say outage? What outage? There was no outage...
The truth is we had to cooperate with an investigation that required our hosting company to pull some log files from our server. It required a few hours of down time, so for those of you who did not get your Schrock Blog fix, feel free to indulge now!
My uncle bought a new HP multifunction printer for my father and called me to come over and hook it up. I stopped by after work thinking it would only take a few minutes to get everything up and running. Boy was I wrong!
The printer is a photo quality printer that uses an HP 6-cartridge system to obtain high quality prints. I unpacked the system, started the software installing and followed the directions to get everything hooked up. When I powered the unit on for the first time, it informed me that one or more of the initialization cartridges were not installed correctly.
Defective Cartridges Described in Instructions?
After double check in the cartridges and making sure they were all positioned properly, the message persisted. My uncle had also purchased some replacement cartridges so I figured I would try those in place of the ones that were not working. After inserting the new cartridges, the machine told me I had to insert the original cartridges. Talk about frustrating!
So in a last ditch effort to find a solution on my own, I read the troubleshooting section of the instructions page. It said that if you receive the message that your cartridges are bad, you may have defective cartridges and that I should call HP to request replacements at the toll-free number below.
Disconnected Support Number
Frustrated, I called the number only to find it was disconnected! I then called toll-free directory assistance and asked for the H support number. They gave it to me and I called it only to get a recorded message saying, "Welcome to Technical Support. we are not affiliated with HP and do not provide warranty services for HP products. We will need a credit card number to continue."
So I turned to the web. There was no mention of this problem in HP's online support website, so I initiated a chat conversation with an HP tech. He had me power cycle the unit three times until he finally agreed to ship me new initialization cartridges.
Here is my question:
If you knew that the cartridges were bad, why not replace them before you ship? They knew enough to put a paragraph on the instructions about it with the wrong number listed. I guess sometimes even the big boys screw up...
Here is something interesting I found today on the web that should keep you amused for a while. The internet archive is a repository of web pages form the past. In a way it acts like an internet time machine to show you what a website looked like years ago.
This website allows you to look at the revisions of a website over time going back as far as 1996. The Microsoft we all know and love today has a pretty advanced website, but that was not always the case.
Take a look at the Microsoft website in 1996. Some of the images are long gone, so they don't load, but you get the idea.
Its really amazing how far web design and technology has come in the past few years!
I have teamed up with two other individuals to help launch a new anti-spyware website. It is located at http://www.databaseofspyware.com and it is designed to act as a global repository of all Spyware, Malware, and Adware infections. Eventually we will have manual removal instructions for all of the 7,500 infections that are currently housed on the site.
I found this story on an Australian news website. I have no idea if it is true, but either way it is funny.
Microsoft executives love telling stories against each other. Here's one that platforms vice-president Jim Allchin told at a recent Windows Vista reviewers conference about chief executive Steve Ballmer.
It seems Steve was at a friend's wedding reception when the bride's father complained that his PC had slowed to a crawl and would Steve mind taking a look.
Allchin says Ballmer, the world's 13th wealthiest man with a fortune of about $18 billion, spent almost two days trying to rid the PC of worms, viruses, spyware, malware and severe fragmentation without success.
He lumped the thing back to Microsoft's headquarters and turned it over to a team of top engineers, who spent several days on the machine, finding it infected with more than 100 pieces of malware, some of which were nearly impossible to eradicate.
If this story is true, it would be incredibly humorous. Although it would be a good test system for Microsoft's new security service!
Maybe it is the fact that I am exposed to my programming staff many hours a day, or maybe it is because the FireFox browser is better than Internet Explorer... I am almost using Firefox as much as IE now.
If you have not downloaded Firefox, I recommend you do so and see what I am talking about. You can get Firefox free at http://www.getfirefox.com. While it takes a little longer initially to open FireFox, it does seem to surf a little more quickly.
For those of you who listen to my radio show, or know me personally, you know that I will always use IE. Why? Because that is what my customers use, and I need to know how to support it. When it comes right down to it, Firefox is probably a better browser, but sine IE comes reinstalled on all PCs, more people are always going to use it.
Maybe we should start installing Firefox on all of our new Modular PCs... Hmm....
I am proud to announce that the National Council on Economic Education has selected Schrock Innovations to perform a significant upgrade to their website, http://www.econedlink.org. The NCEE website allows teachers to look for or submit lesson plans for multiple grade levels designed to educate kids about economics.
Schrock Innovations placed a bid with the New York non-profit organization to rewrite their current ColdFusion website in PHP with a MySQL backend. We will also be developing a new lesson plan development tool that will allow NCEE employees, volunteers, and interns to design web pages that display lesson plans in a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) environment.
It was exciting to learn that the NCEE found us by doing a web search for programing companies. We always tell our clients that optimizing your website for search engines is a MUST, and this opportunity illustrates that point.
We were told that our proposal was one of the most detailed and well-designed they had seen. After a quick trip to New York and some reference checking, the NCEE web development job was ours! (Those of you who listen to Compute This may have noticed the pre-recorded shows with no callers - sorry about that)
This job provides Schrock Innovations a high-profile national client for our portfolio. In addition, its nice to know that our work will be viewed / used by over 100,000 unique visitors a day. Kudos to the Schrock development team and good luck!
Schrock Innovations is proud to sponsor the Deer Park Neighborhood Association's new tshirts! The shirts will feature the slogan, "A Rich Past - an Exciting Future"
The Deer Park Neighborhood Association is one of Omaha's most active neighborhood associations. The Association recently raised over $125,000 to build a brand new park in Omaha off of 13th and I-80. It was impressive to see so man families picnicking there this holiday weekend.
As of today, over 15,000 unique individuals have visited the www.schrockinnovations.com website looking for help removing the SpyFalcon, SpywareQuake, and SpySheriff spyware infections. SpyFalcon and SpywareQuake are the latest spyware threats in a string of similar programs that started with the SpySheriff infection in 2005. For complete background information you can read our SpyFalcon, SpySheriff, and SpywareQuake Press Release.
It is somewhat surprising to me that an infection that came out in 2005 is still posing a threat to computer users today. In fact, Ad-Aware, Spybot, Windows Defender, and even the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition have difficulties removing it.
If you or someone you know has the annoying pop-ups from SpySheriff, SpywareQuake, or SpyFalcon, direct them to the removal sites we have established below:
Remove the SpySheriff Spyware Infection
Remove the SpyFalcon Spyware Infection
Remove the SpywareQuake Spyware Infection
You can also help rise awareness of this threat by Digging our press release on Digg.com
As many of you know, the popular search engine Google regularly tasks it graphic artists to craft variation of its logo to celebrate holidays large and small. For example, Google recently adjusted their logo to honor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Birthday. They also change it for major holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July.
So when I woke up this morning and found the standard Google logo on www.google.com, I was a bit shocked. I checked around some Google forums on the web and found that I was not the only one who was surprised at the lack of a change.
Some people gave Google the benefit of the doubt with excuses ranging from "their graphics designers took a long weekend" to "Google is international and this is an American holiday." Each of those excuses is flawed because taking the day off to honor those who you refuse to honor on your website would be truly ironic, and if anyone has the ability to detect what country a visitor is coming from it would be Google. Seriously, Google can tell me what HOUSE visits my website in some cases!
Another writer pointed out that Google has never changed their logo for Memorial Day, so it is unlikely this is a deliberate slap to those serving in the War on Terror. This makes some sense, although I don't know that it answers the original question. At some point the powers that be in Google sat down at a conference table and someone said "wouldn't it be cool to change our logo to match different holidays." Then someone sat down and compiled a list of important holidays (like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Birthday *note sarcasm*). Evidently, Memorial Day did not make the list back in 1999 and it continues to miss the 'Google standard' today.
These are the type of things that make people like myself angry, and angry people are motivated people. Motivated people will look for alternatives for searching, advertising, and mapping. Unfortunately, there is not currently a website that comes close to measuring up to Google in any of those areas. But who knows... Someone out there who was planning on BBQing today may just sit down with some friends and start doodling on a napkin. That's how Google was born and came to dethrone the search giant Yahoo.
People who were angry with AOL for various reasons (too numerous to mention here) demanded an alternative. And when one became available that could viably compete, hundreds of thousands of people ditched AOL in a heartbeat.
Tread lightly Google. As many veterans will tell you, you never know when you might step on a toe-popper that could change your whole world in a heartbeat.
For the veterans who have served and the soldiers who are currently serving, I say THANK YOU. Keep up the good work because there are some of us who understand and appreciate the sacrifices you make.
The Schrock Innovations newsletter has started to hit the homes of our customers (I received mine yesterday). If you have not received yours yet, or you are not on the Schrock mailing list, you can download and read an electronic copy at www.schrockinnovations.com.
The newsletter is in PDF format, so you will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to open it. You can download Acrobat free on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com.
In this quarter's newsletter you can read the Lovely Kimberly's kids summer activity article to learn where your kids can go online to find games that will get them outside to play. There are also tips and articles on keeping your computer running smooth. Oh... and did I mention the $25 dollar coupon? We can't forget the coupon, now can we!
Ok, and for the academically astute among us, we know there were a couple spelling errors in the newsletter, but if you feel you must point them out, feel free to comment below. I am not a world-class speller, but I promise to do better next quarter :-)
A new security loophole has surfaced in Microsoft Word 2002 and greater that could leave your computer open to any number of attacks. Microsoft acknowledged the threat today and explained a work around that does not immediately fix the problem, but would limit some of the effects if you were hit by a bug that exploited this vulnerability - run Microsoft Word in Safe Mode.
Running Word in safe mode is a little like running Windows in Safe Mode. It will restrict some of its higher-level functions such as integrating with Outlook as your email client.
People have reported that their computer started acting strangely when they opened a Word document they received in an email. Microsoft is working on a permanent patch for the problem, but admits that the fix may not be available until June 11th.
My friend Shoemoney has issued a challenge to those of us out there who like to optimize pages for search engines. Shoemoney is offering a prize for anyone who can beat him in the ranking in Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Good luck on that. Shoemoney has been earning "shoemoney" doing this longer than anyone I know.
Judging based upon shoemoney's new H2 and his kick butt house in Lincoln, NE, shoemoney is doing pretty well for himself. He has been crowned the "ringtone king" in some blogs and forums. Alas... As good as we are at Schrock, Shoemoney and his 1,200 domains can put a footprint on anything I have to offer!
Today Microsoft released the official minimum system requirements for Windows Vista. To run Vista in its most basic form you will need at least a 20 GB hard drive (not a problem for most people) and 800 MHz processor, and 512 MB of memory. Microsoft calls this the requirements for Vista's "core" features. As usual, I would not recommend trying to run a Microsoft operating system with the minimum requirements. Vista has other features ranging from improved functionality to some pretty cool eye candy, but you will need some more horsepower to enjoy everything there is to offer.
In case you don't understand what all of the gigabytes, megabytes, and video bandwidth, Microsoft also launched a beta program you can install on your PC that will ask you what you use your computer for and will tell you if your system is ready. This download is called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor Beta and is available on Microsoft's Vista "Get Ready" website. The tool is designed to tell you if your computer can run Vista, and if so, which options you could take advantage of.
One of the biggest surprises is that Windows Vista will run in a 32-bit environment, but you will need to have a seriously beefed up computer to take advantage of Vista's high-end Ultimate Edition. In fact, Windows Vista will have six different editions, each geared toward the specific user's needs and desires. This is an except from the Get Ready website that describes each edition and who it is designed for:
Regardless of the size of your organization, Windows Vista Business will help you lower your PC management costs, improve your security, enhance your productivity, and help you stay better connected.
Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to meet the needs of large global organizations with highly complex IT infrastructures. Windows Vista Enterprise can help you lower your IT costs while providing additional layers of protection for your sensitive data.
Whether you choose to use your PC to write e-mail and surf the Internet, for home entertainment, or to track your household expenses, Windows Vista Home Premium delivers a more complete and satisfying computing experience.
If you want all of the best business features, all of the best mobility features, and all of the best home entertainment features that Windows Vista has to offer, Windows Vista Ultimate is the solution for you. With Windows Vista Ultimate you don't have to compromise.
Windows Vista Home Basic is designed to deliver improved reliability, security, and usability to home PC users who just want to do the basics with their PCs.
It is going to be interesting to watch how computer manufacturers attempt to pigeon hole their customers into the correct operating systems. Microsoft has not released the final market price of each operating system yet, but just as Windows XP Professional costs about $100 more than Windows XP Home Edition, you can bet that Vista Ultimate will be more expensive than Vista Basic.
I am proud to report that for the first time ever the Schrock Innovations website at www.schrockinnovations.com has had more than 10,000 visitors in one month. That means that between May 1 and May 16 more than 10,000 unique individuals (not just hits, but unique hits) took advantage of the free services on the Schrock website.
By far, the greatest demand was for our tutorials and help articles, but our free virus alerts, product pages, and contact page did well also. This probably doesn't mean a hill of beans to anyone but me. But heck, I am proud of it and the month is only half done!