Jul 26 2007

Google Talk: what now?

Posted by Jeff as Editorial, Google, Software Features, VoIP

While not very uncommon in the Google universe where products and services are in a perpetual state of beta, Google Talk sticks out like a sore thumb in contrast to the adoption and improvements other products have seen, such as Gmail (where frankly, the only thing missing is IMAP support and I'll be a happy boy) and Google, the one search service to rule them all in the Web 2.0 world, that not so long ago implemented "integrated search results" where links, images and video all appear in the same search results page without having to go to Google Image Search and Google Video separately. Google has made enough truckloads of money to cover acres and acres of ...

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Jul 23 2007

Windows Home Server: networked computing comes to the home

Posted by Jeff as Gadzooki News, Hardware and Gadget Features, Software, Windows

While not exactly kept under the tightest of wraps as WinFS was until it was unveiled, to everyone's surprise, on a previous Microsoft PDC (only to be axed from Windows Vista later on), the project known under the name "" has gone "gold", which means it is of production-level quality by software terms. The gold code has been released to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), and we can expect retail "boxed" editions and actual server boxes to hit the shelves in the next two to three months. So what is Windows Home Server, and is there really a need for a "server" for the home? Now that digital media has reached ubiquitous levels, and storage - be it in the form of ...

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Jul 21 2007

Smarter Microsoft for a happier Windows

Posted by Jeff as Editorial, Google, Microsoft

Some weeks back, Google jumped at Microsoft for - or so the charge goes - making it difficult for third-party providers to implement desktop search solutions - in Windows Vista. Microsoft responded by promising a change in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 where desktop search options will be included in the "Program Defaults" control panel option. From here you can select built-in search, Google Desktop Search and whatnot. Microsoft insists that native search indexing is too baked into the core operating system that it's impossible to shut it down altogether, but a link alongside each window's search box results which they will be providing should compensate. End of story? Not just yet. Google, probably thinking it has one-upped Microsoft, tries ...

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Jul 20 2007

Your first step towards online security awareness

Posted by Jeff as Reviews, Software Features

It seemed only yesterday when I first received my first phishing email: one fine and dandy Tuesday afternoon, I saw in my self-hosted mailbox what purported to be "PayPal" sent me a very lengthy (it was very lengthy, I tell thee!) email to verify my (at least the email said so) latest online purchase. The message was fancy in HTML, complete with the logo, pale blue PayPal-style border and all that jazz, with a confirmation link at the bottom. It took me a few minutes to realize, and thankfully I did, that I actually used my Gmail account to register for PayPal instead! (I would also like to point out that Gmail with its community-driven spam mail filtering system

...

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Jul 19 2007

Taking portable browsing to the next level

Posted by Jeff as Mac, Software, Software Features, Windows

This would be the first of Fire Eye'd Boy's software picks for the power users. No better way to start than with my favourite killer duo: Portable Firefox with Google Browser Sync

The first piece of the puzzle is Portable Firefox; if you've been living under a rock, Firefox is the alternative to that blue "e" you're so familiar with, only with a bajillion more ways to make it work the way you want it to. The "Portable" part of the name is just that - it's a version that extracts (like a ZIP file), say, to a USB thumb drive, that you can run from there without having to install the vanilla version on every PC you use. In

...

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Jul 05 2007

What [that darned phone] tells about the next iPod

Posted by Jeff as Hardware and Gadget Features, Portable Media Players, iPod

(My apologies for the title; I did not want to upset anybody with yet another iPhone article, or so some might think if I used the iPhone word) Now that the immaculate phone of multiple facets is finally out the door, we can finally start looking into the next generation of iPods, like any true Apple fanboy. Apple is a company with the most extreme of marketing strategies and generally play its cards close to the chest. And while they never had a history of making product announcements until they are made available on that same day, last Friday's events will certainly go down as the release date for another product that's been pre-announced (oh, how times have changed) - and ...

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Jun 27 2007

Is Google showing signs of growing pains?

Posted by Jeff as Editorial, Google

In a move that will potentially position me as Gadzooki's official Google warden (after Mac basher, Microsoft fanboy, and what-have-you), today we will delve into the wonderful world of technology politics making it more obvious that Google is not an industry sweetheart out to just spread the love. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Google is laying out (and probably already has!) the foundations of its world domination schemes. Earlier this week they already took center stage for whining to the authorities about how Microsoft, with Windows Vista, is making it difficult and unfair to third parties who think they can do a better job at local/desktop search. Google's contention is that like the browser and ...

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Jun 22 2007

No, desktop mail is not dead just yet!

Posted by Jeff as Google, Microsoft, Software, Windows

If you happen to have lived your early- to mid-teen years in the late 90's, you realize those years have greatly influenced your habits both online and offline. This was the height of the first dot-com era, when Yahoo! and Hotmail doled it out on a battle for audience share. Incidentally, this was also the time when people were weaned away from Eudora and the now-forgotten Netscape Messenger, among others, and the new age of web mail has dawned. And it wasn't a very bad thing. Browsers were able to cope up with their new role as desktop mail replacement clients. Fast forward to 2004 and Google unleashes Gmail with extensive use of AJAX, and it seemed like desktop mail is ...

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Jun 07 2007

Reality check (stoking the fire long after the Apple fanboys vs Ryan Block faux pas)

Posted by Jeff as Apple, Editorial, Mac

Short version of the title story: Engadget reports "they have it on authority" that the iPhone and Mac OS X Leopard will be delayed; Apple's stocks go down; the whole thing was found to be a kludge; Apple's stocks shot right back up. The story doesn't end there, however. The debacle stirred the Mac faithful, and illogical, inconsistent, and irrelevant attacks were all there was to find among rabid Mac fanboys' podcasts and blogs (no need for a link there, that's a whole lot of pimping work). Surprised? You must have been sitting duck with your Windows 98 machine without an internet connection, but that's just because you're careful of catching the latest attacks against the NT kernel ...

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Jun 05 2007

Jumping to Windows Vista this early is a grin-and-bear-it proposition

Posted by Jeff as Random Thoughts, Windows

My Windows XP machine runs Blink. Compared to Symantec and McAffee's monster suites, it's very lightweight and has the least impact to the system by any other utility suites I've seen. This thing has everything - system and application firewall, intrusion detection, and protection against identity theft, malware, registry protection, and application and execution protection that work in tandem with data execution prevention for those sneaky rootkits the big, bad, and evil companies are itching to plant on your systems. The best part: the Personal Edition (with everything that's been mentioned) is free* (disclaimer: this is not a paid ad). Windows Vista users are out of luck, at least for the time being: it is currently not compatible, and ...

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