Thanks to Steve Bass and his great TechBit newsletter for passing this along.
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Happy New Year from Disney
Thanks to Steve Bass and his great TechBit newsletter for passing this along.
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Bill's Predictions for 2009
I hate predictions for the New Year but I have no self-control so here goes.
Solid State Drives
This is one I made two years ago and is probably my most accurate prediction of the past. The market has been flooded with solid state memory and some companies have scaled back production in an effort to keep prices stable. As the year goes on, the cost of SSD’s will come down and the size and speed will go up.
Year of the Laptop/Netbook
Even though we’re getting a new Windows this year, sales of Desktops won’t come close to the increase in large laptops and small netbooks. Companies will try their best to differentiate themselves from the competitors. Lenovo is even coming out with a ThinkPad with a screen that slides out to provide a dual screen experience.
3G Networks When Traveling
I have discovered when I travel Wi-Fi coverage can be spotty. Hotels which boast high speed Wi-Fi connections but they aren’t doing a very good job. Even at a recent Microsoft conference I ended up using my Verizon EV-DO connection because it was faster than the Wi-Fi provided. Currently the best reason to use 3G over WiFi is security. Keep your WiFi networking at home and use 3G when you travel.
Cloud Computing Will Be Boring
I’ll admit I’m not a fan of Cloud Computing. As far as I’m concerned I’ve already done Cloud Computing, it was called a main frame and dumb terminals. The reason we got rid of main frames wasn’t just COBOL.
Newspapers Will Want a Bail out
While television still tops our source of news, a recent Pew study said for the first time the Internet has passed newspapers as a more popular source of news. We will see the failure of many newspapers and you can bet they’ll go to Congress for help in keeping the news print tradition alive.
Windows 7 Won’t Suck
What I’ve seen so far of Windows 7 is promising and I think many people really really want it to succeed. My real prediction is the Microsoft will actually price Windows 7 so that people might actually buy it instead of trying to get a copy from their friend. When Vista first came out Bill Gates said it would be “less than a hundred dollars”. That was the price for Vista Basic which was useless and a downgrade from Windows XP. Expect fewer versions of Windows 7 to be available to ease the confusion.
What are your predictions? Disagree? Click on the Comments link below.
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Best Games for the Wii
Like many of you we had a very Wii Christmas. Everyone on Twitter seems to be talking about their new Wii and our three adult daughters all received new Wii’s from Santa.
Everyone on Twitter is either nursing their sore Wii arms and asking the Wii pros what game to get next. I’ve had my share of Wii injury’s so I thought I’d share my favorites.
The ultimate addition to your Wii is of course the Wii Fit. This was a popular gift over the holidays. Our daughter Amy has already been shopping online for a Wii Fit hoping to have it at her house in Portland by the time she returns. We had planned on a Wii Fit for her February birthday but she couldn’t wait.
This is probably my favorite. I’m not a real gamer but I’ve had a blast with this one. We have grand kids in Germany and every Saturday we connect to the Internet, play Mario Kart and race against the kids in real-time.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a true game for all ages. Our six year old grandson has mastered this game which requires a combination of fast action and a puzzle-like thought process. We can also play this one together and seriously play as equals.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels scared me when I first saw it but then I realized the kids don’t actually hit each other. They swing the lightsaber and the characters on the screen do the fighting.
I’ve only scratched the surface of great games and it’s time for me to play again. Please share your ideas. What are your favorite Wii Games? Click on Comments and let us know.
For the programmers out there I have one other recommendation. Learn how to create a program on your PC that uses the Wii controllers by checking out Coding4Fun: 10 .NET Programming Projects for Wiimote, YouTube, World of Warcraft, and More.
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Happy Holidays to All
May this day bring you all peace, relaxation, fun and lotsa love. I share the following photo of the good cookies to whet your holiday spirit.
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Thanks to Everyone at CastleCops.com
I first met Paul and Robin when they were just beginning to be a family and immediately knew they were good folk. Along with the help of many brilliant friends their CastleCops website was one of the top forums to go if you needed help with spyware. They were so successful that they were constantly the target of denial-of-service attacks by the bad guys.
I was sad to see this final note when I visited CastleCops.com.
Greetings Folks,
You have arrived at the CastleCops website, which is currently offline. It has been our pleasure to investigate online crime and volunteer with our virtual family to assist with your computer needs and make the Internet a safer place. Unfortunately, all things come to an end. Keep up the good fight folks, for the spirit of this community lies within each of us. We are empowered to improve the safety and security of the Internet in our own way. Let us feel blessed for the impact we made and the relationships created.
With respect to the server marathon, by March 17 2009 CastleCops will refund contributions made through PayPal that were specifically designated for servers. Unfortunately, server donations made via check cannot be returned because we do not have the addresses for the donating entity. Unless instructed otherwise, CastleCops will re-allocate these funds as a donation to the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC.org). This organization sponsored our hosting environment for approximately the past 2 years. Please contact us [cc at laudanski dot com] before March 17, 2009, if you would like a return of your server marathon donation. Otherwise, we would like to thank the ISC for their unfettered support.
We thank everyone in creating our unique footprint and memories in time.
Love, Best Wishes and Happy Holidays, CastleCops
PST 23 Dec 2008
Thanks to Paul and Robin and all the hard working volunteers who helped all the CastleCops visitors over the many years.
Monday, 22 December 2008
Is Google Still the Best Search?
As a Microsoft MVP I was asked to just try Live.com for a week and report back to Microsoft. What I discovered surprised me. In May 2007, I wrote about testing Ask.com. In October 2007 I did some extensive testing of Yahoo Search. So I thought it was time to update my impression of various search engines.
Search Habits
I discovered that I never go to a main search page like Google.com anymore. That means I miss what ever cool Google logo has been created for the day. The main Live.com has nice color photo background which changes daily but I guess I’ll never see that either. Live.com does provide some mouse-over links relative to the image which is nice.
For the last couple years I found myself just using Google toolbar for my search. I’ve actually been using Google’s Chrome most of the time so now I just type my search directly into the address bar and voila. So good bye to toolbars and sayonara to main search pages.
Search Results
Using my traditional search, the Pytlovany Test Live Search didn’t score to bad. For years I’ve been able to test search engines by using my last name because it’s so unique it has always worked well.
Live Search reported it found 4,710 results
Google reported “about 5,720”
Ask.com now reports 1,330
Yahoo claimed the most with 32,500 pages in English. I didn’t get a chance to check them all out.
Search Value
Typically, I never go past the first page of displayed results so the number of pages found becomes less important. I was surprised to see that Ask.com cleaned up their results so it no longer included a lot of the bogus sites they used to list. I started to test other search terms and Ask.com failed again. Live.com and Google both provided the best results in the way of relevant pages.
I did notice one big change in Google from previous tests and other search engines. They now seem to give more weight to the social Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and even Twitter.
Danger of Ads and Related Sites
Google and Live.com did best in presenting related ad based sites. Yahoo and Ask.com failed and displayed sites that are either dangerous or use keywords of their competitors to steal your business. I could still find some questionable ads on Google and Live.com so they both need to spend more resources on reviewing their advertisers.
Like Google, Live.com has been introducing some special features that will help bring on new users but as expected Google still maintains its hold on the search market. According to my most recent research Google still holds over 65% of the search market. Yahoo and Live/MSN are still doing their best to put a dent in this but Ask.com has all but disappeared from the stats.
You never know what how the market will flow so Google will need to continue to innovate. During the coming year it will be fun to watch and evaluate what Google and Microsoft come up with. I’ll also be keeping an eye on other unique search engines like the following…
And for real-time information you can’t really beat Twitter Search
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Zero Day Vulnarability for Internet Explorer
Over the years most of you have been inundated with buzz words like virus, spyware, worm, trojan, rootkit and over the last year Zero Day has been popular. The zero-day term refers to an attack or virus which is previously unknown so no patch or virus defination is available to catch it on day zero. It won’t be caught by your antivirus scanner because they don’t know about it yet.
A Zero Day “Vulnerability” is the worst. This attack uses a flaw in a program such as the browser that allows code to execute with no warning to a user. You don’t have to be tricked into downloading anything. All you need to do is to visit a web site or in some cases just be connected to the internet. The only protection will be programs like WinPatrol that monitor for changes to your system.
This week Microsoft has released an advisory to protect users until a patch is available. Click “Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution”. Microsoft advises some pretty serious work arounds including.
- Set Internet and Local intranet security zone settings to "High" to prompt before running ActiveX Controls and Active Scripting in these zones
- Configure Internet Explorer to prompt before running Active Scripting or to disable Active Scripting in the Internet and Local intranet security zone
- Disable XML Island functionality
- Restrict Internet Explorer from using OLEDB32.dll with an Integrity Level ACL
- Disable Row Position functionality of OLEDB32.dll
- Unregister OLEDB32.DLL
- Use ACL to disable OLEDB32.DLL
- Enable DEP for Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista and on Windows Server 2008
- Disable Data Binding support in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2
These are pretty drastic actions but this threat should be taken seriously. Most experts are recommending folks stop using Internet Explorer completely until Microsoft has a patch available. I’m among those experts who also recommends finding a new browser for a while. Personally, I’ve become a fan of Google Chrome which is now out of beta and has an official version 1.
Alternate Browsers in order of my preference:
Update: Microsoft has released an emergency patch to fix this serious vulnerability. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-078.mspxDownload Apple Safari (You may have already be tricked into installing this along with iTunes)
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Top Ten Reasons to Try WinPatrol Again
WinPatrol is known for many functions and is often classified as a spyware monitor or an AutoRun program manager. Over the years I’ve packed a number of important functions into two small program files that make up WinPatrol.
WinPatrol was a first of its kind intrustion detection program 11 years ago and continues to have many unique features not found in other utilities.
WinPatrol is a program I use personally on every computer I own. It really runs in the background without slowing down other applications. Its small foot print, robust proformance and new features are based on what I want myself and I hope you do too.
I’ve put together a list of features that some folks may not know about.
- Delay Startup Programs
While WinPatrol can be used as a one time tool to clean up your startup programs, perhaps you have some programs you’d like to keep. Using WinPatrol, you can schedule some programs to run once your system is up and running successfully. - Warn if Auto Update Status Changes
It’s not unusual for malware to change your auto update setting but some folks noticed that occasionally Microsoft has been known to change this value also. Either way WinPatrol is one of the only programs designed to alert you to this kind of change. - Track Date/Time Programs are First Detected
Have you ever wondered when you installed a new program? WinPatrol will keep track for you. This works best when, as many do, you install WinPatrol as the first application on your new or restored computer. If you’re ever infected with malware with random filenames this feature makes it easy to pick out all the related bad guys. - Automatically Remove Reoccuring AutoRun Programs
Many legitimate programs from Apple, Adobe, Google and Microsoft think they’re so important that just running the program they’ll add companion applications to your startup list. WinPatrol’s “Disable” button will tell WinPatrol to remove them automatically when added to your Startup list. - Prevents Changes to File Type Associations
This feature was originally designed to prevent malware from changing .exe and script settings. It has proved to be useful to stop programs that try to reassign themselves to play your MP3’s or edit your JPG files. - Kill Multiple Tasks in One Step
Unlike Windows Task Manager, WinPatrol uses the standard multiple select keys to highlight more than one program so you can kill multiple tasks in one step. This is especially useful for removing malware that reproduces itself - Twenty Thousand Program Descriptions
WinPatrol PLUS is designed to be educational. We now have over 20,000 program descriptions created so they can be understood by mere mortals. PLUS members can just double click for more information on any program they find. - Secret Startup Registry Entries
While MSConfig will show you the basic RUN registry startup locations, WinPatrol digs deeper into the registry to display programs using non-traditional locations commonly used by malware and even some legitimate programs.
Click for list of secret locations - Disable Vulnerable ActiveX Controls
You won’t have to wait for a Tuesday security patch when a new activex vulnerability is found. WinPatrol allows you to safely use the kill-bit function to disable any dangerous code objects. - Create Hijack Style Log Files
Many online helpers have become accustom to reading logs from HiJackThis. WinPatrol creates a log using this familiar format while including additional benefits.
If you haven’t looked at WinPatrol lately, I’m hoping you’ll give Scotty another look. It’s a small download at http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html.
(International versions available as well)
Thank you to everyone who has supported the development of WinPatrol by upgrading to WinPatrol PLUS. I wouldn’t be able to continue adding new features without your support. Feel free to add some of your own favorite unique features as comments.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Sale This Week on WinPatrol Stuff
First, thank you to all for the cards, Emails, Prayers and well wishes while I was recovering from a recent hospitalization. Everything is progressing according to plan and I’m anxious to get back to work on new WinPatrol features.
While I was recovering I was able to spend time doing a little holiday shopping. I know most of you will be doing the same this week so I wanted to offer some specials on the purchase of WinPatrol stuff for your friends and family.
This week I’ve reduced the price of our WinPatrol 1 GB wristbands and WinPatrol Sport Shirts.
Click Order Now to go to WinPatrol Store
Click Order Now to go to WinPatrol Store to select your size
Happy Holidays!
Bill
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Home from Hilton & Albany Medical Center
A quick note of thanks to all the kind messages regarding my recent surgery. I’m happy to report I’m home recovering in the hands of my loving wife Cindi.
Special thanks to the folks at Hilton Garden Inn which is connected to Albany Med. I decided spending the night before the surgery would give me an hour or so more sleep and a comfortable place to rest for Cindi while I spent the night nearby in the hospital. Unfortunately, the very loud guest in the next room was not in on the plan. I called down to the desk to request a different room and Brandon upgraded us to an especially nice quiet corner suite. I’ll be booking a hotel in the Hilton family on our next trip.
Albany Medical Center viewed from Hlton Gardan Inn.
At this moment, I can’t remember the names of all the wonderful doctors, nurses and others at Albany Medical Center. They were wonderful and did a fantastic job at making me comfortable.
I’ll post again soon but it might be a good idea to wait until I’m no longer taking the Oxymoron drugs they gave me.
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion
This will be my last post for at few days at least. Tomorrow, I’m having what Dr Cheney assures me is a text-book procedure at Albany Medical Center. I’m told it’s very common and I’ll be back to work in a couple weeks.
It’s amazing how many people tell me they know someone who has had this procedure. I’m surprised at how many people have had their throat cut open, their cervical discs removed, replaced with new bone and then fused together with a little clip.
While it sure doesn’t sound like fun, I’m looking forward to the relief it will provide. For the last few months I’ve been connecting to my office computer via my ThinkPad and GoToMyPC so I’m looking forward to sitting up straight again.
Feel free to read through some of my older posts and check out the search box for previous topics. BitsFromBill.com will be three years old next week. I’ll have some time to come up with some new topics and will be posting again as soon as I get a chance.
If you found me searching Google because you have neck problems stop back and I’ll tell you how it goes. One of my old friends helped create http://www.revolutionhealth.com so I’ll probably post reviews of my medical care there.
Sidenote: November 19th is also the 11th Anniversary of the launch of our very first WinPatrol to the public.
Monday, 17 November 2008
Photo From Your IPAddress Has Been Uploaded
It starts with an innocent message that you think comes from one of your Facebook friends. Below is a classic example of social engineering designed to steal your password. It didn’t take a brilliant hacker to come up with this scam. It just took someone with evil thoughts and no life.
I noticed this message on a friends Facebook page this morning and my experience told me right away that something smelled funny. When I cautiously went to the web page listed via my test machine it all become clear.
First, they try and scare you.
It might seems safe because they only want your Email right?
If you entered your password, it’s time to go to Facebook
and other sites listed before and change it now.
Next Step
Now, they want to know where to use your name and password.
And finally, you get the final let down.
If you fell for this, you’re not alone. Like most social engineering scams they use fear to throw you off.
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Start Your Holiday Shopping Now
It's never too early to start your holiday shopping and this year I have some recommendations I promise will be popular with your loved ones.Bakugan Starter Pack
My recommendation for kids is Bakugan, Bakugan, Bakugan.
They will be the hottest item under tree this year and you better purchase now. I predict you’ll have a hard time finding these in December.Bakugan Battle Arena
We’re already a Bakugan family and have already had problems finding new Series 2 packs.
For the adults, I recommend a digital photo frame. We received one last year and love it. Ours came from a company I had never heard of before called SmartParts but it turned out to be one of the best I’ve seen. My biggest surprise is that ten year old photos I took with my first low-res Casio QV-PC 0.23 megapixel camera look great on our digital photo frame.
Smartparts 10.4 inch Digital Picture Frame
Mario Kart for Nintendo Wii
I’m not a real gamer but I’ve had a blast with this one. We have grand kids in Germany and every Saturday we connect to the Internet, play Mario Kart and race against the kids in real-time. It would be perfect if they could also integrate it with Wii Speak but for now our unlimited Germany plan with Vonage allows us all to chat on speaker phone while we play.
And for the entire expanded family, get your Nintendo Wii now while they last. Nintendo claims they’ve increased production so there will be plenty on the shelves but I recommend if you plan on a Wii Christmas, order now.
My last personal recommendation saved my butt when I went out to LA for the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. I don’t regularly drive on highways with over 6 lanes so I was happy to have this available.
Technologizer, New Playground for Harry McCracken
Last year I wrote about the adventures of former PC World Editor, Harry McCracken. I had the pleasure of getting to know Harry while on vacation in early 2007. He’s a true gentleman and an absolutely classic geek.
- Harry McCracken Doesn’t Hate Apple (5/4/2007)
- Harry McCracken Is Having a Good Day (5/10/2007)
Last year, Harry left his 13+ year position with PC World due to a conflict between editorial content and pressure to please advertisers. PC World owners IDG recognized the folly of their directive and asked Harry to return which he did.
Now Harry has left the hard copy publishing world behind to start a new venture called “Technologizer”. This time he left PC World in good hands as he starts his new job, expanding his editorial coverage of the industry.
Technologizer includes a social network element thanks to technology from Ning.com. Technologizer, A Smarter Tech Community is like a personal facebook dedicated to the kind of technology that Harry loves best.
One of PC World’s other great assets has gone off to expand his audience. Columist Steve Bass who wrote PC Worlds “Tips & Tweaks” can now be found at TechBite: Take a Bite Out of Technology. You can sign up for Steve’s newsletter and have it delieved to your Email free of charge.
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The Truth Behind Windows 7
It’s been a couple weeks now that I’ve been playing with Windows 7 so I figured it’s about time to speak out. To the delight of the folks in Redmond, I’m not the only one talking about the new Windows.
There are currently two versions of the new Windows. The first one was given to developers at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference to get us excited. The 2nd is what the developers were shown at the conference. Most of the images you’ll see online are from the 2nd version available to internal Microsoft developers.
Developers at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference were all given a Western Digital USB hard drive with the alpha version of Windows 7.
I’m happy with the version of Windows 7 I’m running. It’s stable and so far has been able to handle everything I’ve thrown at it. This is the diversion that Microsoft had hoped for. Redmond desperately needs the buzz to prevent a mass exodus from Windows Vista toward Apple.
A recent survey by ChangeWave predicts that 33% of laptop sales during the next three months will be from Apple. I’ve seen this coming but my prediction would be closer to 15–20%.
Looking under the hood of my Windows 7, what I found looks like Windows Vista, smells like Windows Vista and feels like Windows Vista. I did find some memory optimization related to accessing the registry but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad yet. It seemed to speed up WinPatrol’s real-time detection but could slow frequent scans with the free version. I’ll be waiting for an official beta before doing serious benchmark testing.
So far the main difference seems to be new applications, configuration applets and some tweaking to the window manager that provides just a little performance gain. Most of the changes that I learned about during the conference are yet to be included.
“Ignore that man behind the curtain”
In one of the sessions at Microsoft PDC I learned how to integrate WinPatrol with new Windows 7 “Jump Lists” available off the cool new Task Bar. Unfortunately, I have to wait for a spring beta build before I can actually start programming for this feature. Jump Lists aren’t supported in my version of Windows 7 and the documentation still calls them “Destinations”.
Now, there is a little secret. The PDC version of Windows has a secret user flag that can make it appear like the 2nd. It works if you trick Windows 7 into thinking you’re on a specific Microsoft domain. If you’re one of the folks with access to the officially released version of Window you can find the instructions at WithinWindows.com.
Here's how WinPatrol looks on the taskbar if you're running the internal Microsoft version of Windows 7
Final Thought
If Microsoft allows Windows 7 to be technology driven I think we’ll be happy with the results. The Microsoft developers I met at PDC are highly motivated, and sincere. They did get me excited. If however, it’s market driven to meet holiday PC sales in 2009 it could be a disaster.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Removing AntiVirus 2008/2009 The Easy Way
Last week, I wrote about how to prevent getting infected with the to common AntiVirus 2008 or other similar branded attacks. I have been hearing from far too many people who have been getting infections lately.
In my post, I talked about preventing this infection but I didn’t cover how to remove this infection in case it was too late. I started working on details and steps on how to use WinPatrol to remove this infection but realized there is an easier way. Many folks have also run into the problem that this infection will block access to any WinPatrol pages. In some ways I’m honored that the bad guys are afraid of WinPatrol and how things were easier when WinPatrol only had a small following.
Our friends over at MalwareBytes.org have often dedicated their programs to specific threats and they have a solution that works great for most of the common infections I’ve been seeing this fall. The free version of their Anti-Malware program is simple, easy to use and can automatically scan your system cleaning up many of these threats.
The bad guys are also blocking MalwareBytes.org so it might be easiest to download from a 3rd party site like CNets Download.com.
Download Here
It’s a never ending cycle as we all battle various computer threats but fear not, there are plenty of good guys out there too. Marcin and the folks at MalwareBytes are just part of a larger group who sincerely want to help. I recommend helping them by licensing their full version. Just like my WinPatrol PLUS they provide a lifetime of free upgrades and support with no hidden fees.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
Veteran's Day is special all week long.
I’m lucky that I frequently get a chance to honor our veterans with special offers or reminders to others who read my bits. On Memorial Day 2008 I took all the purchases of WinPatrol PLUS, matched them and donated the funds to the Honor Flight Network.
Our son Chris during a break with his friends in Kosovo
For Veterans Day 2008 I’d like to provide something special just for vets. Good this week, I’m offering a 50% discount to anyone who is a veteran. This offer will expire midnight Saturday Nov 15th EST.
This offer does rely on the honor system and doesn’t require proof. It’s a reasonable risk since those without honor are typically using a friends PLUS code or an illegal keygen type PLUS code.
To obtain your discount use the coupon code, “IAMAVET” when ordering WinPatrol or other items at the BillP Studios online store. This includes WinPatrol shirts and Wristbands. (Limit 2)
Given all the friends Scotty has made around the world, this offer is extended to veterans who fought for freedom even if it wasn’t in a US uniform. I would request you’re at least a citizen of one of our of allies.
Pssst… If you’re currently the wife, husband of, or someone currently deployed in harms way, just Email support@winpatrol.com and I’ll see you get a complimentary Winpatrol PLUS activation code.
Friday, 7 November 2008
Passwords Up for Grabs on Social Networks
I’m not a big fan of new Web 2.0 Social networks but I have participated in some new ventures. You won’t find me on MySpace, BeBo or other silly services. I am active on LinkedIn which is geared towards professionals and yes, I’m addicted to Twitter. I did join Facebook to write about their Beacon privacy problems and still participate now and then to see what my friends are doing. I don’t participate in any of the Facebook applications because like many services they always try to trick me into sending invites to my friends.
The services I really hate are the ones who try to get you to hand over your address book so they can spam your contacts with invites to join. In many cases, they just want you to give them access to your Email accounts so they can suck out your contacts and automatically populate your new friends list. While this might be convenient it can be very dangerous.
The most annoying is a service called Tagged.
It Gets Worse
Many sites will transmit your name and passwords as unsecured data. This makes your name and password visible to anyone along the Internet path.
When you’re entering or giving someone else access to your name and password you should first look to see if you’re on a page that is https:// or shows the locked symbol indicating a secure transmission of data. There’s also a method which can be used encrypt data called OAuth but it’s impossible to know which sites actually support this.
Recently, I joined BrightKite which allows me to integrate messages to Twitter. They tell me Twitter doesn’t support “OAuth” which means I sent my Twitter login information across the net unsecured. This is scary because there are a wide variety of tools which integrate with Twitter. None of them will encrypt your name/password when logging on to Twitter. So if you see me say something really stupid on Twitter, it might not be me.
I’m sure you don’t use the same password for different online sites ( cough cough) but in the case of social networks, it’s very important you create different passwords. Just like I periodically remind readers to review their backup procedures, and today is a good day to look at your current password scheme.
Monday, 3 November 2008
$10 Coupon on 1 GB WinPatrol Flash Wristband
On my recent trip to the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference I brought some of my WinPatrol Flash wristbands to giveaway. It turned out I didn’t get a chance to give out as many as I had expected so we can afford a special offer for Bits From Bill readers.
Good until November 15th, the coupon code “Windows7” will get you $10 off when ordering the 1 GB Flash memory wristband. Retail price is $24.95. (Approx. 12 EUR down from 19.5 EUR)
Included:
- 1 GB Flash memory
- WinPatrolFlash.exe Portable version of WinPatrol for helping others.
- wpsetup.exe For installing the newest WinPatrol build.
Use your WinPatrol USB Wristband to copy your music, photos or even your data from one computer to another.
Paypal orders enter code in comments and you’ll receive a $10 rebate.