TechTalk - Friday 24th November (Pirate Windows, Internet Oppression and more)

TechnoBabble

Well, after last week’s little rant about emails etc., I thought that I better do a catch-up this week on the techy side and, as a result, I have spent some time trawling around my usual news sources to find out what’s new, interesting, amusing etc. in the world of computers and the internet.

First up is some interesting news re Microsoft’s new Windows Vista Operating system and Office 2007.

Frankly, I never cease to be amazed by the speed at which software hackers manage to flood the internet with pirated software and they have not failed again as the software pirates appear to have already gotten their hands on Windows Vista and are circulating a "cracked" version of the operating system on the Internet.

Windows Vista and Office 2007 have just finished development and are now being released to business customers prior to their official January 30th public release date. However, if you know where to look online, you can find both products available now !!

In the case of Windows, the supposed "crack" isn't really a crack to get around the activation process. When mooching around it appeared that the general conclusion is that the Pirates have actually replaced pieces of code in the system with alternatives taken from the earlier beta versions of Vista.

This apparently allows the use of a product key that worked with the betas and two release candidates to basically bypass the normal Microsoft activation process. Astounding !!

As to Office 2007, the Enterprise (big company) version appears to have been spread onto the net. As this is a version used by big companies who buy volume licences with it, it doesn’t require individual end users to input a license key over the internet – Hey presto, free software !!

Notwithstanding the ingenuity of the pirates, I am positive this “free lunch” won’t be around for too long. Apparently Microsoft has confirmed that they are aware of the hacks, and how they were achieved. As such, they will likely soon be blocked. If not from full use, certainly from getting important security and functionality updates, which ends up making them unusable anyway.

Regardless, it is of course illegal to use pirated software and you can also bet your bottom dollar that a lot of this pirated stuff, as in the past, will continue to be flawed/corrupt in various ways and is also likely to carry Spyware and viruses that can really mess up your PC. So, do the wise thing and stay away from it!!

Moving on, I found an interesting article on CNN this week relating to one of my favourite Websites, WikiPedia.

News sources state that, barely a week after Chinese WikiPedia viewers were finally allowed to access the Web site after a year-long ban by the Chinese government, the site has been blocked again in several parts of China.

Although it wasn’t immediately clear whether it was a technical glitch or not, the general feeling is that the Chinese powers that be are up to their old tricks again.

This really makes me mad !!

Whilst we must take care to ensure that content on the internet is not damaging, offensive etc., to block a whole country from one of the finest sources of general information and knowledge because it might not be in the best interests of the governments overall brain washing program is truly ludicrous.

This is not the first time either. Google themselves agreed a deal with the Chinese government that allowed them publish in China with a “.cn” domain on the proviso that the Chinese could censor results etc.

As such, if you search for "tiananmen square" on google.com or .co.uk, articles relating to the awful events of 1989 are first up (WikiPedia entry first funnily enough !!). If you carry out the same search on google.cn, it’s a little different !!

I have to say this makes me realise, regardless of how much we moan, we really mustn’t forget the freedoms we take so much for granted in the west !!

And does anybody have money with the Nationwide in the UK ?

The Nationwide has only just informed customers that sensitive data they entrusted to the institution's care may have been stolen when an employee's laptop was taken in a domestic break-in a number of months ago.

They have stated they didn’t mention it earlier because they didn’t want to cause “undue anxiety amongst our customers” or further compromise security by making the theft public knowledge !!!

You’ve got to laugh haven’t you really? These institutions literally spend millions on computer and internet security systems that really do the job, only for some idiot to leave a laptop with customer’s details on it lying around, waiting to be pinched! Excellent !!

Lastly some good news for those of us who are fed up with having to inconveniently pull out and use cables when the battery runs out on our laptops. It appears wireless electricity is in the offing as, according to reports, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered it !!

Although it has been known for some time that a wire carrying an electric current will transfer that current across thin air to another wire that is in very close proximity, this hasn’t been exploited to-date as the current dissipated rapidly as soon as the distance between cables was more than a few inches.

Now, apparently, by using something called 'non-radiative' electromagnetic field rather than by electromagnetic waves, it is possible to transfer energy over longer distances, across a room for example, and ensure that only devices specially designed to “resonate” actually receive the current. Left over energy, instead of making your hair stand on end, would be reabsorbed by the “transmitter”.

The possibilities for this technology are fairly obvious. All household appliances could be moved around and used without having to worry if there is a power socket nearby (a common issue here in Spain !!) and communication and computing would finally be fully mobile.

Imagine hoovering, mowing the lawn, trimming the bushes, using the Garden Vac, all without having to worry about cables !! I’ll keep an eye on this one and update you on progress. Mind you, the scientist behind it will have to ensure that our neighbours can’t pinch our electricity out of the air won’t they !!

Well, that’s it for this week.

Next week, I am going to bow to the pressure of the many requests I have had over the months and write an article on a very interesting and sometimes contentious subject – Internet Dating !!! So, if you have had any real experience of this phenomenon or, indeed, run a dating site yourself and would like to contribute your thoughts/opinions on the subject, please email me with them at techtalk@inspirese.com. If appropriate, we can even a range a quick chat/interview. For those of you who would like to contribute but do not wish to be identified, I can assure you your anonymity will be fully protected !!!

Until next week then and don’t forget you can visit TechTalk on the web for the current and past articles at our Blog located at www.webtechtalk.org. Don’t forget to register for email updates etc. too !!

Peter Reed-Forrester
inspírese

Surfer’s Corner

A range of different sites this week, kicking off with something educational:-

The Encyclopaedia Romana (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/)

For me, studying the Roman Empire was one of the highlights of my schooldays. Gladiators, Emperors, beautiful architecture, Julius Ceasar, intrigue, hedonism, it had it all. This site is a great resource for finding out anything about Rome, the centre of the empire.

The Cloud Appreciation Society (http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org)

Now don’t go thinking I’ve really lost it here !! This site is actually amazing. The photographs are mostly stunning and in some cases simply astonishing. Try the “lightening” section or check out the various “optical effects”. It doesn’t take long to realise just how beautiful nature can be !!

Animal Reviews (http://animalreviews.zelica.net/)

Some sites review films, some music, some gadgets and some sites review other sites. This one reviews animals. Well written and very humorous, you have to visit this place to understand. Really, don’t miss it (I like the Goose review).

BarcodeArt (http://www.barcodeart.com/art/yourself/yourself_frames.html)

This section of an interesting websote lets you create a Bar Code for yourself. Go on, give it a try. I’m going to have mine tattooed but I’m not telling you where J

FutureMe (www.futureme.org)

Brilliant !! You can use this site to send yourself or anyone else an email in the future. Reminders (Don’t forget the anniversary ever again !!), jokes, whatever. Why not ?!?

Cricinfo (www.cricinfo.com)

With the Ashes underway, this is the only place to be on the web for enthusiasts. Literally everything Cricket is here !! Come on England !!


Gadget of the Week

Stronghold Legends PC Game – c£UK17.99 + Delivery (available on www.amazon.co.uk)

With Xmas fast approaching, thinking of what to buy the kids can be a nightmare so here’s a suggestion. The excellent “Stroghold Legends” PC game. Rather than just blasting away at some nonsensical alien or trading punches with a raft of computer generated psychopaths, this, which is intensely challenging and highly involving, game requires thought and engagement to play it successfully.

The latest in the “Stronghold” series of castle and combat simulators, Legends offers a hugely entertaining and testing mix of city management and strategic combat. This time round, each of the three campaigns - King Arthur, Siegfried and Vlad the Impaler - has a strong fantasy element.

Maintaining (and defending) your own castle is tricky enough, but the goal is to overwhelm your enemy's. To this end, you must amass an army of archers, pikemen, knights and assorted siege equipment, but the fun really starts when you send the giants in to breach the castle walls and raze the castle to the ground with your dragon.

HelpDesk

Had enough of Explorer 7 ??

Q) Dear Peter,

I have recently tried both the new Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla FireFox V2. I have to say it is Firefox for me and I would now like to uninstall IE7 from my computer but have no idea how to do this properly.

Can you enlighten me ?

Arthur C – Cabo Roig

A) Hola Arthur,

I had to search around a bit to find the proper answer to this one but finally found it on Tech Republic, one of the IT professionals Websites I subscribe to. I have to warn you (as they do below) that messing around in windows at the registry level can have some unwelcome effects, so I would really advise backing up everything (Ghost if you have it) before you start !! Here’s what they say:-

If your installation of IE7 was successful and uneventful, then uninstalling IE7 is a relatively simple process. The following steps will uninstall IE7 and restore IE 6.

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove Programs.
3. Scroll down to Windows Internet Explorer 7, click it, and then click Change/Remove.
If for some reason Windows Internet Explorer 7 does not appear in the Add or Remove Programs, you should:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click Tools Folder Options
3. Click the View tab
4. Make sure the radio button next to Show hidden files and folders is on
5. Click OK
6. Click Start, and then click Run
7. Type: %windir%\ie7\spuninst\spuninst.exe into the text box and click Enter
Specified user account

In some cases, you may get an error message when you try to uninstall IE7 that says you cannot uninstall from a specified user account. To get around this check you will have to edit the Windows Registry.

Warning: Editing the Windows Registry incorrectly can cause the Windows operating system to stop functioning completely. This is a advanced operation and you are encouraged to back up the Windows Registry before you attempt any editing of the file. You have been warned.
Bypass the user account check with this Windows Registry edit:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer.
3. Right-click the Internet Explorer key, click New, and then click DWORD value.
4. Type InstalledByUser as the name, and then press ENTER to finish creating the new registry value.
5. Try to uninstall Internet Explorer 7 again.

Bollards !!!

Hi All,

Check out this link - Superb !! -

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/flvplayer.swf?file=http://media.biertijd.com/movies/200610/onderen.flv&autostart=true&fs=true

I genuinely feel for these people as this actually happened to me in Ghandia on the Costa Blanca c7/8 yrs ago.

Driving happily behind another car into the main square and we suddenly experienced a massive "thump" underneath the car. This was, I found out later, caused by an auto-raising bollard. NO signs warning of this anywhere of course (don't be silly, it's Spain and that would be just to easy). Car in front was obviously permitted to enter the area and had bollards lowered.

Red light with glaring "STOP" lit up on dashboard after c150m and car started to fail. I Stopped and parked up and got the wife and kids out.

I looked under car and found the sump had been ripped out of our Hertz Hire Car and, after following the oil trail back to the main town square, I also found that the oil spill that had been left as a result, had caused the guy on the motorbike behind me to skid, smash into the side of a police car and break his leg.

As providence would have it, all this took place directly outside the Ghandia Town Hall and Police station in the main Town Square !!

In a state of shock and confusion, not knowing what to do, we all sat down at a café and watched for five minutes. The scene being played out in front of us was almost surreal.

The square was in total mayhem with ambulances and fire engines already there, sirens whooping.

The injured bike rider was sitting up with his back to a car smoking a fag and chatting to cops, whilst ambulance man splinted his leg.

Firemen were spreading sawdust over the oil slick and hordes of manic Spanish policemen were standing around smoking, talking very loudly and alternating between pointing animatedly at the motorbike imbedded in the side of one of their cars and throwing their hands up in the air. They had the look of a posse in the making.

Of course the obligatory huge crazy crowd was also there, adding to the ambience. This was not by chance but due to the fact that the main square was surrounded by café's/restaurants and it was slap bang in the middle of lunchtime.

I have to admit, the fear of being lynched was very real at this stage and knowing the guy on the bike was obviously OK and being very well looked after, the idea of scarpering and sorting things out later when calm had descended was now playing very strongly on my mind.

So, after catching breath, we quietly made our way back to the dead car to remove our property and call Hertz etc. Unfortunately, my luck was continuing in the direction it had chosen for that day and we turned the corner only to find several very fractious cops had also followed the oil slick and were there waiting for me.

I knew the game was up and told the wife and kids to return to the café whilst I gave myself in.

On identifying myself to the cops, a rapid and obviously unpleasant tirade was issued in my direction in a language I had no idea existed (I now know it was Valenciano) and I was actually forcibly restrained/cuffed and effectively thrown in a Guardia Van. The lynching idea was now, in my traumatised mind, rapidly moving towards reality. That is if they didn’t shoot me first of course.

Through stuttering Spanglish and frantic waving of my mobile phone, I persuaded them to let me make a call and I phoned American Express (car hire and travel insurance through them) desperately seeking help. Fortunately, and with the first piece of luck I had experienced that day, I was put through to a very lovely Spanish girl who, after getting the story from me, proceeded to talk with the ranking Guardia in the van.

Thankfully, she managed to persuade them it was an accident (I did this on purpose ??!!) and to, grudgingly, let me go on the basis that I was a foreigner and that Amex would vigorously contest any action against me and sue for damages if I was mistreated, as she told me afterwards !!

After providing all sorts of personal information and with assurance from Hertz that they would come and remove the defunct vehicle, we were allowed to go on our way.

The day was not over though......

All was capped off by a ride back to our rented Villa in Javea in a taxi driven by a raving French lunatic that came unbelievably close to killing us all.

I repeatedly tried to tell him (in awful French, terrible Spanish and very profane English) to slow down and stop overtaking every car in front like a crazed bolting horse, regardless of any danger factor involved. It didn't work.

Finally the stress of the day exploded the threat of destroying his cab when we stopped was issued. He seemed to understand this and, presumably, the crazed look now on my face convinced him it was a real possibility. The remaining five minutes of the journey was spent in relative peace.

Looking back it was all actually hysterically funny.

By the way, I never heard a word about it from Amex, Hertz or the police afterwards !!