Category: Tech News
The wonderful cross browser bookmark sync tool, Xmarks, is closing up shop on January 10th, 2011. According to the Xmarks blog, they just couldn’t find a business model to keep the lights on.
I’ve been using the service for years and it will be missed. There is nothing like installing a browser add-on, filling in your user info and having all your bookmarks and passwords available to you in less than 5 minutes.
This is great news for Small Business owners.
We have more good news to help keep your Windows 7 Professional PC secure. If you haven’t already seen it, today we announced that small businesses will be able to download and install Microsoft Security Essentials on up to 10 PCs for free. Microsoft Security Essentials is a no-cost antimalware service that provides real-time protection to address the ongoing security needs of genuine Windows PCs, helping to protect from viruses, spyware and other malicious threats.
I’ve been using Microsoft Security Essentials on my home systems and as my free AV installation of choice for all client PCs needing anti-virus protection. Now I can recommend it to Small Business owners too. Kudos to Microsoft for this decision.
I signed up for Google Voice last year during the beta but since it is US only I haven’t been able to use it. Now we have news this week of Google rolling out integrated VOIP calling into GMail. Tonight I’m able to have free calls to the US and Canada for the rest of 2010. I only tried a couple of calls but the quality as quite good. Now all I need is for Google Voice to open up to the rest of the world.
A bit of a controversy over a recent Microsoft IE 8 advertisement. While it has caused many a Maude Flanders “think of the children” diatribe, I think it is actually quite funny.
Take a look for yourself.
Last year I posted a video that would make any IT pro laugh hysterically. I said the creators should win an award for their work, and they did just that. The folks over at thewebsiteisdown.com have not rested on their laurels and have produced two more gems. I feel for the IT pro who has to deal with Chip the sales guy as he uses “Excel” in inventive ways and as Chip calls for tech support for his failed hard drive.
Remember to all ways remain calm. 
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It has been quite some time since I’ve had a new theme here at the blog. I’ve decided it is time to get up to date on HTML 5 and what you see is a minimalist HTML 5 based theme. I will be styling to my liking as time permits.
Top 5 Features to look forward to
Warning: Highly technical one and a half hour video on HTML 5 goodness.
I have been using Diskeeper’s products for 6 years and have commented on them before. It is my opinion that their products are slipping.
But another review of their products is not the reason for this post. I received a Christmas card from them this year and inside of it was a quote from L. Ron Hubbard, of Scientology fame. I thought it was quite odd to feature a quote from him inside a Xmas card and noted it on Twitter, saying something along the lines of “seriously thinking of ending my business with Diskeeper”.
Not long after a had a comment on said Tweet which informed me of a legal dispute with a former employee suing Diskeeper for forcing Scientology down his throat.
I really cannot stand the integration of church/religion and state or your place of employment. I do not care that it was a quote from the writer of this classic pile of crap or if it had been a quote from the Pope, or the Dalai Lama. Leave your preaching to your personal life.
So this ends my business relationship with Diskeeper. Time to find a new application to keep my disks unfragmented. Note: On home machines I like Defraggler
The Windows 7 Beta launch yesterday had its share of problems and the Windows 7 team took notice. They have extended the beta download time and increased the number of keys beyond the 2.5 million initially slated for download.
I tried for most of Friday to get my keys but was unable to get past the green circle of death. Today the process was painless and carefree.
I haven’t had the time to install it yet, but look forward to doing so and seeing if the hype meets expectations.
Browse Safe with Firefox 3
Firefox 3 was released yesterday to much fanfare. The first tallies are showing over 8 million downloads in 1 day. Of that total 269,901 were by Canadians.
Update June 19: Download total is now over 11 million, 320,000+ by Canada.
I’ve been using it for about a day, here are my initial impressions.
I don’t have any stats to back it up, but Firefox 3 seems faster. Pages come up fast, there is very little lag when switching tabs and so far the memory used by Firefox 3 is not growing by the second. Now I never had the memory issues some users of Firefox 2 have had, but, I regularly have 8-10 tabs open a time, often even more, and Firefox 3 so far seems to hang around 120-140K. Much like my old install of Firefox 2. This may be because I keep the amount of add-ons I use to a minimum, so I was never affected by the memory issues.
After installing Firefox 3 the first thing I noticed was the update interface. Thankfully Mozilla didn’t mess with the standard browser placement like Microsoft did in IE7. I also noticed that a new folder showed up on my toolbar. Firefox 3 adds a “Most Visited” folder. I’m not sure if i will use it yet, but could see how it could be useful.
I’m still learning & playing with all the new features in Firefox 3, and getting used to the new url bar, but, so far I like the new version. This is a required upgrade to all Firefox 2 users. I also strongly recommend IE users to take the plunge and give FF3 a try. I really think you will be impressed.
