Microsoft has done it again. After six Windows Vista editions, now it has decided to continue with six Windows 7 editions. The editions are going to be called Home Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.
The list differs at one item from Windows Vista: Business became Professional. Is it because Windows Vista didn’t do good business, Business edition or otherwise, and because Windows XP Professional did?
I am disappointed.
The Home Starter edition is supposedly designed especially for netbooks. One of the edition’s stark defining startling features is that not more than 3 applications can be run simultaneously. Duh! Already …read more

After the touchpad mouse failure (overuse and abuse) and the keyboard failure (accidental food spillovers), one of the most common failures in a laptop is the hard disk failure.
A quick survey using Google tells us that there are nearly a million results for laptop hard disk, about a half million each for laptop hard disk recovery and laptop hard disk replacement, and a quarter million for laptop hard disk failure.
Let us look into mechanical hard disk failures as there are recovery tools which can very well work in case of other kinds of failures.
One obvious reason why a hard disk …read more

Google returns 497,000 results for the search “Microsoft jokes”. It is justified by experiences like this. I haven’t tried Windows Live Writer until recently. It is a wonderful blogging software that makes lives of bloggers simpler, but installing it can be a daunting task.
A search for “Live Writer” in the Microsoft Download Center took me to this page. It is an old page from which I downloaded the 2.3MB installer and tried to install the required software. Thrice. It gave me hell, with the installation hanging at 99% each time.
I then googled for a direct setup file of Live Writer …read more

I came across an amusing short film through one of my twitter friends, @stanleytang. The video has some wonderful visual effects, takes unexpected turns, and keeps us at the edge of the seat. Inspired by Transformers, what starts off as a harmless debate about whether the PC or the Mac is greater turns into a full-blown battle between… you will see what.

I am looking forward to the sequels. Tell me there are sequels. Dan Chianelli and Nick Granlee are the directors of the movie. The latter calls himself a digital impositor and you can find more of his videos on his website.
Follow …read more

While the 12 Days of Christmas start on the 25th night, I believe the 12 days of Christmas spam start 12 days before that night. Because spammers know that this is the time when shopping is at a peak and the actual 12 days are “duller” with people celebrating and taking vacations more than shopping.
Around this time last year, Symantec released the 12 days of christmas spam song. It is not as popular as it should have been but is worth watching again. It is a bit outdated because of changing trends. Help me edit it. I can’t let go …read more

The Mac users can cheer up once again. Juan brings us news that Google Calendar supports iCal. In fact, I’ve read somewhere that Google Calendar is trying to be as syncable and integrable with other calendars as possible.
Milo recently summarized a Sandra Gittlen series called “Mac Vs Vista” quoting her excerpts. The series covering Manageability, Reliability, Security, Price and Others is going to surprise every reader in more than one way. Be sure to glance through them if you don’t have enough time to go over the actual series itself.
You’ve all heard about Microsoft and Yahoo! talking. Again. But have …read more

Congratulate Milo on the occasion of Windows Vista Weblog finishing 6th in the Best Windows Vista Site competition.
The office has been a bit desolate for a while. So Colleen is taking over Office Tweaks. Join me in welcoming him.
Jason introduces us to the Super Bowl Single Girl. Pardon the dumb question, but why would anyone want to raise $3M and pay it to some television network? Aren’t Mr. Right’s for sale anymore? The big cynical question is: what if she realizes that she isn’t interested in Mr. Right? This comedienne is funny. So I wish her the best.
Claire wants you …read more

I use an old Lenovo T60 and like to grumble about its performance. I’m sure the feeling is mutual. I also use a docking station at work. Makes life simpler. Recently, I had a problem with the way it powers the laptop.
The laptop had been docked, but the power supply unplugged due to some neighbourly reasons. When I restarted the laptop, it simply shutdown. When I powered it again, it brusquely answered with a series of flickers across three of its LEDs (power supply, battery life and something else that I don’t remember now) in a most NSFW manner. The …read more

Look, I know 15 character, multi-symboled, including 3 numbers and 4 capital letter passwords are no picnic or walk in the park and should probably be outlawed but this is no way to store them. There are plenty of password managers out there like KeePass, Billeo, and PassPack (now known as Passpack) — so please use them instead of this.
Check out the blog post at SECURE-ID’s blog below.

Image Courtesy Of: http://securid.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/new-way-to-store-passwords/

It’s never easy to do but its a necessary evil. Sometimes you have to open up and tell the people what’s going on. This is something that Twitter has learned recently. With all of their downtime and problems, they have found that simply notifying their users that something is wrong makes everyone feel a bit more comfortable that their favorite micro blogging service will be around.
The IT folk out there could really learn from this. Inform, don’t shelter.

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004566.html