Amnesty for Windows XP pirates

Microsoft is offering an olive branch to users of pirated versions of Windows XP, eWeek reports. Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled the Windows XP Counterfeit Project in the UK, offering free replacements for what it describes as "high-quality counterfeit versions" of Windows XP. It is not yet clear, eWeek said, if the offer will be expanded to […]

Google stumbles with desktop search

In PC World‘s January 2005 edition: “Google Desktop Search puts the index of your data in a well-known place on your hard drive,” says Stephen Green, principal investigator of the Advanced Search Technologies Group at Sun Microsystems. “It’s only a matter of time before there is a spyware application or a worm that sends your […]

Konfabulator bugfix release

If you use the excellent Konfabulator for Windows released earlier this month (see post), a bugfix version has just been released. The new version 1.8.1 fixes some issues with widgets not running if you delete Konfabulator files from your temp folder. Details in the support forum. Konfabulator for Windows download page

Blog Wars Episode II

A report yesterday by Microsoft Watch said that Microsoft is about to launch a blogging service, MSN Spaces, this week: MSN is expected to tout MSN Spaces as a direct competitor to blog-creation and hosting tools, such as Blogger, Blog*Spot, LiveJournal and TypePad. Microsoft also will position MSN Spaces as a way to allow users […]

100 million broadband users in Europe

More than half of Europe’s internet surfers now have a high-speed broadband connection at home, which has helped to push the number of web users in Europe through the 100 million mark, according to a Neilsen/NetRatings survey published yesterday. Reuters reported that while millions of consumers decided to swap their slow dial-up internet subscriptions for […]

More trust and transparency, less command and control

Managers with outdated notions about controlling employees are misusing technology to monitor and micro-manage those employees, according to Microsoft-sponsored research published by the London School of Economics. InfoWorld reports that The Future Role of Trust in Work, released this week by the LSE, collated research from 15 field studies done around the world over the […]

IBM getting out of the PC business

In today’s New York Times: IBM, whose PC in 1981 moved personal computing out of the hobby shop and into the corporate and consumer mainstream, has put the business up for sale, people close to the negotiations said yesterday. […] The sale, likely to be in the $1 billion to $2 billion range, is expected […]

The future of MSN Spaces, Hotmail and Messenger

Neowin has a detailed report today on developments in Wave 11 of the MSN offering, including: MSN SpacesMSN are planning to create “Group Spaces”, although like the recently launched blogging service these will allow you to create a place to share ideas, to do lists, notes, calendars, etc. with your family and friends. On the […]

PubSub brings news you might never see otherwise

I find PubSub extremely useful for tracking themes and topics I’m interested in. For instance, one of the PubSub subscriptions I have looks for blog posts that contain the phrases “organizational communication” and “corporate communication.” Every instance it finds, it sends me the posts as an RSS feed which I then see in FeedDemon. PubSub […]

Mapping visitors

As ever an embracer of new tools and apps that let me customize my Windows or my blog, I’ve just found a rather interesting tool that will show who’s visiting my blog at any given moment. What’s cool about this one is that it shows this info as a world map and identifies which countries […]

Getting interesting in China

China is high up in the business news headlines at the moment following the completion of IBM’s deal to sell its PC business to Lenovo, a Chinese computer manufacturer, for $1.75 billion. Lenovo will become the world’s third-biggest PC maker, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Here’s an interesting commentary from John Patrick, former VP of internet […]

Search for the best search

CNET News: Google has launched a new feature that tries to guess what people are looking for as they type queries into a search box. Google Suggest quietly debuted this week on the company’s Labs site, CNET says, which showcases Google features that “aren’t quite ready for prime time,” according to a message on the […]