Back when PeoplePC was first created it provided a “free” PC (replaced every three years), dial-up Internet service and in-home warranty service for a monthly subscription of around $25. Despite ads promoting it as a free PC with an Internet subscription it had all the earmarks of a financing plan. These days PeoplePC is just a dial-up ISP brand that’s part of Earthlink. Zonbu has taken the PeoplePC model and updated it for Web 2.0. And then dropped the Internet connection. Zonbu is getting ready to offer a service that [...] Read the rest »
DRM Free Music and Paul McCartney Arrive on iTunes
Along with the iTunes update Apple added DRM-free music and Paul McCartney’s collection (not the Beatles) to the iTunes store. The FAQ says the DRM free music is available in all countries that have an iTunes store. This appears to have made iTunes very popular. The store is slow for me and my attempt to upgrade my library timed out during the downloads yet downloading a couple podcasts went just fine. The song downloads finally completed the morning of June 2nd at 5:30am. The new DRM-free songs are called iTunes [...] Read the rest »
Apple Updates Quicktime Security and iTunes DRM
Apple has released updates for both Quicktime and iTunes. The updates are for the software on both Windows and OS X. The Quicktime patch is a security update that patches two vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities allow a malicious website to either run code on a computer or get infomation from a computer. Apple also released an update to iTunes that adds support for DRM free music. It looks like Apple might just make their promise of DRM-free music available in iTunes by the end of May. The updates will be pushed [...] Read the rest »
Site Upgraded to WordPress 2.2
I finally got around to upgrading this site to WordPress 2.2. It took me so long to get to it (it was released May 16th) that the Fantastico scripts at Bluehost were updated and I used them to do the upgrade. The last time I upgraded manually but only beat Fantastico by two days. After my experience with Yahoo, where then didn’t update their install scripts the entire time I was there, I’m impressed with Fantastico’s speedin updating their scripts. There was really only one problem (at least that I’ve [...] Read the rest »
CA Gives Away Antivirus Software/USB Drive
I don’t know what it means CA thinks of their software but I’ve noticed that CA has been bundling their antivirus software with a 2GB USB drive and making it free after some rebates. As always, there’s some catches and hoops to go through. Several retailers are offering a competitive upgrade rebate of $40 along with a general CA rebate of $10 which means the $50 bundle can be had for the cost of shipping and tax (if they apply). You have to be willing to go through the hassle [...] Read the rest »
Maxtor OneTouch III Update
I first wrote about the Maxtor OneTouch III back in December and now that I’ve had it awhile it’s a good time for an update. I’ve been running it connected to my iMac since my initial review. I also gave one to my father as to use as a backup drive with a Windows PC. The hardware has been reliable. My main complaint is it’s slower than other drives when spinning up from sleep mode. It’s fast enough for use as a backup drive although I haven’t tried running applications [...] Read the rest »
Apple Security Update 2007-05
In keeping with it’s “one-a-month” trend for then year so far, Apple has released Security Update 2007-05. According to the Apple notification it contains updates to the following components: bind CarbonCore CoreGraphics crontabs fetchmail file iChat mDNSResponder PPP ruby screen texinfo VPN I applied the Universal version of the update to my iMac through software update without a problem. The update does require a reboot and on my iMac it did a bit of a double reboot. During the first reboot, which took longer than usual, another reboot was done. [...] Read the rest »
.MAC – Time to Leave
My .Mac subscription expired this week. It finally outlived it’s usefulness so I didn’t renew. It’s almost a good service but just doesn’t justify the cost. Your needs may vary and for some people it would be worth the cost. Here’s what .Mac includes and my impressions of it. For the $99 yearly subscription (less from other retailers) you get 1GB of storage on Apple’s servers. This space is shared by all .Mac services. The space is split in two and you can allocate the space between email and everything [...] Read the rest »
Western Digital My Book 500GB Drive w/ EMC Retrospect Software
I purchased the Western Digital My Book Pro Edition 500 GB External Hard Drive with Triple Interface (slight variations in the name indicate different models so be sure to check the specs when buying) to become a backup drive for my iMac, but I want to give it a spin under Windows first. This article is my first impression of the drive and Restrospect Backup software (included) under Windows. I mentioned the drive last month when I commented on a Computerworld review that picked the drive over the other 3 [...] Read the rest »
Backup Strategy
Updated Oct.23, 2007: Information on my latest backup strategy and tools now has it’s own page. I wrote about various backup strategies I’ve had in the past but it’s time to update that and to do it in a smaller, concise article. iMac Backup My iMac, with a 500GB hard drive, is the only computer I have that contains data that I need to back up. Full Disk Clone The iMac wakes from sleep at 3AM every morning and SuperDuper! runs a scheduled clone of the hard drive to a [...] Read the rest »
