WWDC Sells Out In Record Time

It turns out that Apple has decided not to participate in the economic downturn. Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) sold out in record time yesterday. Tickets went on sale a few weeks ago. Early registration was well over $1,000 per person.

This promises to be a great event. It will be the first time that the public gets to see OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard. There is also talk about the release of the new iPhone and a touchscreen netbook.

This is going to be exciting!

Bull In A Grocery Store

You have heard of a bull in a china shop. This is funnier.

Conficker Virus Is Spreading

The Conficker virus that was to begin spreading on April 1 seems to be slowing spreading across the Internet. It is quietly turning thousands of personal computers into servers of e-mail spam and installing spyware.

According to Paul Ferguson of Trend Micro "This is probably one of the most sophisticated botnets on the planet. The guys behind this are very professional. They absolutely know what they are doing."

Here is the thing that is really scary. It is only able to load on computers that do not have all of the current Microsoft patches installed. Come to find out, this represents millions of computers worldwide. The moral of the story - make sure that auto-update is turned on in your operating system.

Keith Alexander Named To Head Cyber Command

Keith Alexander, West Point graduate and Director of the NSA, has been named to head the new Pentagon Cyber Command. This comes with the recent increase in attacks against various networks across the country.

This is great news! There is no one better to head up the new Cyber Command than the director of the NSA.

The new Cyber Command will be located on the NSA campus at Fort Meade.

The Honda Symba Is Back

The number one motorcycle in the world is coming back to America after a 26 year hiatus. You have to see this YouTube video to get the full story.

Computer Components That Will Not Die

This article in PCWorld is hilarious. It lists 25 computer products that will not dye. On the list are such biggies as the dot matrix printer, Hayes modems, and floppy disks. Who knew?

iPhoto Works Too Well

Gizmoto ran a story on the iPhoto face recognition function. It seems that it works a little too well :-) Click on the photo to get a better idea of what I am talking about.

Windows 7 Is Broken

Man, who saw this coming. Well, anyone that has used Windows maybe - yet I digress. It turns out the Windows 7 is broken and can't be fixed.

Today at the Hack in the Box security conference, researchers Vipin Kumar and Nitin Kumar demonstrated a hack to Windows 7 that is "unfixable." This sounds nasty. The researchers devised a way to gain control of a Windows 7 machine during boot up. It bypasses the hard drive altogether and loads itself into system memory. According to the researchers, this is a software design issue that assumes that the boot process is safe. Oops!

New Alpha Jawbone Prime Available

OK, I am a sucker for cool toys. The new Jawbone Prime bluetooth headset was announced today. It will be mostly a firmware upgrade and have Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR (multipoint connections, easy pairing). It will also include modifications to NoiseAssassin 2.0 to improve noise reduction.

It is also going to be available is a lot of new colors :-)

Relaxed

Another kitty discovers multitasking.

Four Corners In Wrong Place - Oops

It turns out that the four corners marker, which is the intersection of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona is 2.5 miles off.

Four Corners — is the only place in the United States where four state boundaries come together. It was created based on a 1868 U.S. government survey.

This is a true demonstration of 'close enough for government work!'

Wall-E Case Mod

This is one of the coolest case mods that I have ever seen. Someone custom built a Wall-E replica and installed a PC inside. The level of detail that went into this is pretty amazing. Everything was custom made.

There is a fatal flaw in the design though. Wall-E would have Mac components, not a PC. Actually, it would be easy to place a Mac Min into this case. Very cool anyway!

New 'Get A Mac' Ads

Apple has created four new 'Get A Mac' ads. The professional quality of these ads makes me wonder why Microsoft can't do better than 'The Laptop Hunter.' I think that the answer is that the issue is much bigger than price alone.

Apple Once Again Tops Customer Satisfaction

Last Friday, Forrester Research released its latest customer satisfaction survey related to computers. Apple again came out on top.

The closest competitor was 14 points behind. Dell rounded out the bottom of the survey with an average of 58 and had the distinction of being the first computer company to break the 50 barrier, in the wrong direction.

Winnie Is Growing Up

Winnie has turned into such a handsome young man. He is eight months old now and weighs six pounds. It is hard to believe that he has grown so much. When he came home in October of last year he weighed a whopping pound and a half.

There Is No Hiding In Cyberspace

CIPAV is a piece of spyware designed by the FBI to infiltrate a target's computer and gather a wide range of information. The information is then sent to an FBI server in eastern Virginia for analysis. CIPAV has been in place for several years.

The key take-away is that anything that you do on the Internet is visible to the FBI should they desire the information. Some people still believe that they can hide behind proxy servers. If you break a federal law, that is not the case.

Are You The Next 'Q'

If you want to be James Bonds go-to guy for toys, here is the job for you. MI5, Britain's domestic spy agency is looking for people that have 'Q' skills. This job involves working with all kinds of cool toys. The only caveat is that you must be a British born citizen.

Nikon D5000 Announced

The long anticipated replacement for the very successful Nikon D40 was announced today. The new Nikon D5000 is small and full of great features. This is how digital works. More features than the camera that you bought six months ago :-)

This little camera is 12.9 megapixels and will capture video like the Nikon D90. Other than an internal focus motor, this meets or exceeds everything that the Nikon D90 can do in a smaller package.

It looks like Nikon has another success on its hands.

Businesses See No Need For Windows 7

In a recent survey, the majority of businesses, 83%, will not install Windows 7 the first year after release. Others may consider making the switch the third year after release. The largest group sees no reason to leave XP.

What does this say about Microsoft's reputation with operating system releases?

Steve Jobs Still Running Apple

Although Steve Jobs is on medical leave, the WSJ reports that he is still keeping a grip on Apple.

People familiar with Apple’s operations say they still expect to see Mr. Jobs return in June, perhaps giving the keynote at WWDC.

Definition Of Relaxed

I think that Boo Boo has redefined relaxation!

Cat Burglar

This is a true cat burglar!

Microsoft Silverlight Strikes Out

Major Leave Baseball (MLB) decided against using Microsoft Silverlight to broadcast games in year in favor of Adobe Flash. It seems that MLB feels that Silverlight is unstable. After the blue screen that Silverlight caused during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, I am surprised that MLB considered it at all.

Downgrade From Windows 7 To XP

What everyone had hoped for is finally true. Microsoft officially says that downgrading to XP is a right built into the licenses of its higher-cost Business and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. It seems that OEM's will even be allowed to offer a downgrade for "Win 7 Professional once available."

It looks like Microsoft is preparing for another "Vista" launch.

Hilarious Cat Attack

This is a hilarious video!

Spring Is Here

Spring is finally here. Here are the boys visiting with the duck couple that comes to our house every Spring to have their babies. Pretty soon the yard will be filled with baby ducks. Boo Boo will actually sit at this window for hours on end watching the great outdoors. Spring is finally here.

That Has To Hurt!

Man, Microsoft can't catch a break. Of course, if they built an operating system that worked this would not be an issue. The state of Texas banned the use of Microsoft Vista for all state governmental agencies.

Microsoft's reputation certainly isn't what it used to be.

Happy Fifth Birthday Gmail

It is hard to believe that today is Gmail's fifth birthday. I can't imagine not having it now. It has revolutionized the way that we look at email. Most people are proud to tell others that they use Gmail. The same certainly can't be said about Hotmail :-)