Microsoft Windows

That’s a wrap – Windows 7 is RTM – Released to Manufacturing

July 22, 2009 By Dan Perlman Leave a Comment

windows7 Like it or not, Windows 7 is finished and going out to partners and manufacturing. It will be generally available October 22d.

The current Windows 7 Release Candidate program will end in August, though if you have already downloaded the code you’ll continue to be able to get product keys. The current free Windows 7 RC versions will be able to be used until the end of March 2010.

I’ve been using it since May and I find it easily to be the best version of Windows, so far. It is lighter and faster than the ill-fated Vista, released in 2007 and never widely adopted. That being said, I’m writing this on my Macbook.

Filed Under: Windows 7 Tagged With: Microsoft Windows, Window 7

Google Chrome for Mac is so cool, now finish it!

June 8, 2009 By Dan Perlman 1 Comment

The Chrome team has released a developers copy of the browser for Mac and Linux, so far Google Chrome has just been available for Windows.

While to call me a developer would be a gross misuse of the term, I’ve been using the browser ever since it was released last week. It is so cool. Well actually so fast!

The team admits it’s far from finished. Among other things, it doesn’t print, it doesn’t display YouTube-like videos and there seems to be not much in the way of bookmark management. So let’s give it a number and say it’s 75% done. What it does well is render a web page really fast and when I’m digging around the web that’s what’s most important to me.

The Chronium Blog warns you not to download this version unless “take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.

How incomplete? So incomplete that, among other things , you won’t yet be able to view YouTube videos, change your privacy settings, set your default search provider, or even print.”

It hasn’t crashed for me in about 20 hours of use. The only gotcha for me was when checking a blog post and panicking when I couldn’t see the YouTube video, but I had been warned.

mac_chrome_screen

Anway, if you live life on the bleeding edge and are so Type A that anything faster is better, download the browser and give it a try on Mac or Linux.

As for me? I’ll probably use it for most of my work on my slight aging Macbook because it just makes the experience so darn fast!

Filed Under: browsers, Google Chrome, Linux, Mac, Technology Tagged With: google, Google Chrome, Linux, Mac, Microsoft Windows, YouTube

I hate startups, programs not businesses

June 1, 2009 By Dan Perlman Leave a Comment

I must be getting old and cranky because when I don’t like something, I really have no use for it. The current object of my disgust are those little programs that it seems every software writer thinks they must install in order to make their little piece of your software pie work better. These timegrabbers tend to run at system startup especially on Windows.

These suckers make your system startup all so slowly and then continue to sit there and use memory and the occasional CPU cycle while you’re trying to work. The longer you’ve had your PC, the more of this digital pocket lint you will have picked up.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Utilities Tagged With: AutoRun, Microsoft Windows

Need a way to keep your passwords secure?

October 29, 2008 By Dan Perlman 2 Comments

I’ve managed network security startups several times. What the experience taught me was how basically insecure and haphazard most people are about their computers and accounts.

I’m not usually much better, but I think we can agree that the yellow sticky with your account password stuck to your computer monitor is not a good idea.

Still, the question of how much security is the right amount persists. I hate to think how many accounts I have between websites, computers, email accounts, networks and homebanking. Ideally each of these accounts would have its own username and password. How to keep track of all those passwords, how to keep track?

Enter KeePass, an open source, encrypted password password manager for Windows.

You can enter and organize all of your passwords by categories and subcategories and secure the entire database with a master password. A nice feature allows you to copy your usernames and passwords to you clipboard so that they can be pasted into the application requesting them.

As you become a fan of KeePass, you’ll find there are a slew of plugins to extend the function and integrate KeePass

Download KeePass [via portablefreeware.com]

keepass_screen