Archive for June 17th, 2008
Vista or XP

I like Windows XP, but I don’t much like Vista. I tried it for a few months and found it gorgeous to look at and fairly easy to navigate. I didn’t much care for the search feature. I actually use search for just about everything on Windows XP, but Vista would find everything. For example, if applications weren’t made for Vista, it would find them or show them in the Add/Remove Programs. Which brings me to that subject. Its so new that it still lacks the drivers to support even my fairly recently purchased printer. I also had trouble running VMWare and other applications. VMWare 6.0 must be purchased to work fully with Vista. I got VMWare 5.x to work partially, but it would do strange things like shut down the computer for seemingly no reason or not run certain operating systems (Ubuntu) from a disc. Ubuntu did work as an ISO image on my local computer, though.

Vista has potential to be a great Desktop OS in about a year when more vender’s support it and it becomes the new standard, but until then I will stick with XP and use Vista for practice. I really enjoyed the Media Center (which is also in some version of XP). I would NOT use it as any kind of operational system running critical resources. I’ve heard Windows 2003 Server is good stuff and I wouldn’t doubt it.

When XP first came out I was all about 2000 and not fully convinced about the new kid on the block. I now feel the same about Vista. One thing I am definitely sick of is that Microsoft releases Vista and then promises to completely stop supporting Windows XP some time in the summer of 2008. This forces everyone to move to Vista. That is pretty aggressive and I am personally not going to take it any more. I’m going to start moving to Ubuntu slowly but surely. I’d like to stay on top my MS OS skills but I don’t want to be completely at their mercy anymore.

Internet fraud has taken a sinister new turn

Organised crime has identified the web as a goldmine – providing opportunities to launch cyber attacks that will earn large amounts of money at a relatively low risk. Learn more.

A “compromised” computer – one that has been attacked – via the internet has become a commodity on the underground economy, an online equivalent of the black market.

Once a computer is compromised, it can be used for a variety of purposes designed to make money, including stealing users’ personal identity information, like internet banking logins. It’s relatively easy and it’s the websites we visit every day that make it money for jam for criminals.

read more | digg story

Cisco Predicts Big Growth for the Internet to Continue

Traffic on the world’s networks will increase 46 percent from 2007 to 2012, nearly doubling every two years. As a result, there will be an annual bandwidth demand of approximately 522 exabytes2, or more than half a zettabyte.
Gigom’s commenter Pavin of http://www.3ginternet.blogspot.com/ also mentioned this:
3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology, superseding 2G. It is based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) family of standards under the International Mobile Telecommunications programme, IMT-2000. 3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

WiMAX will also have a big push in the next two years. I’m not sure what kind of devices will take advantage of the increased wireless bandwidth but whatever it is it will compete with cable which will hopefully drive pricess waaaay down. Cisco’s stock is sure to benefit.

read more | digg story