* Posts by borat

9 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Apr 2008

DoH tells NHS to dump IE6

borat

IE7 on 2000?

I think users running windows 2000 may have a slight difficulty installing IE7, as it requires XP!

The sooner Mozilla make an MSI for firefox (and support for ADM files/registry entries), the faster we can get rid of IE altogether in these corporate environments.

Windows 7 - the Reg reader verdict

borat
Thumb Up

Works for me

I've been running Windows 7 on my Dell Latitude D610 for a few weeks now (courtesy of the MS Action Pack), and I have to say I'm generally impressed.

Having skipped Vista altogether there's much more that is "new" to me than a previous Vista user, but I particularly like:

1) The simplified installation process that asks all the questions up-front rather than halfway through. I particularly like the fact that I don't have to jump through hoops to remove English (United States) - by selecting United Kingdom that is the only language that ends up on the desktop.

2) Hardware/driver support - this is a real leap from XP - *all* of my hardware was recognised on install, including bluetooth, wireless, graphics adapter etc. The only thing that "needed" a driver was the touchpad to enable the swipe-to-scroll functionality.

3) Boot time is faster than XP, and resume from suspend is lightning-fast.

4) The interface is very "OS X", and I mean that in a good way - it's a good looking interface.

5) General speed/usability is good - it doesn't seem to slow down when I'm performing large file operations (which I understand Vista is berated for).

6) I *like* the new taskbar - the ability to rearrange programs and the "quick peek" functionality works nicely.

I have to say I wouldn't hesitate to equip a new PC with Windows 7. I certainly wouldn't upgrade the hardware on an older PC in order to run 7 as the benefits, whilst nice, aren't worth the cost of hardware plus the cost of a 7 license.

In a corporate environment I would be very surprised if any FTSE-100 company started rolling out Windows 7 any time soon - Microsoft are in an awkward position whereby corporates running XP need a damn good reason to upgrade to a new OS, and some eye candy and out-of-the-box driver support are nowhere near a big enough incentive for them to make a change. The fact is that XP (on the whole) *works*, and given that support/patches are going to be around for a while yet I don't see corporate adoption of Windows 7 picking up until 2012 at the earliest.

WordPress bug resets admin password

borat

Not as bad as it seems...

The bad guy can only reset the admin password, not get full access to the admin account.

Errata published here: http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2009-August/070139.html

I know it's still bad, but not quite as "train smash" as first thought.

Whose notebook is it anyway?

borat

Don't give people the choice

You'll only regret it when they have a hardware/driver problem that you've *got* to fix, and you've no idea what hardware is in front of them.

We have one type of desktop here and one type of laptop. Users don't have Administrator (or Power User) rights, and group policy is nice and tight. All web traffic goes through our internal proxy, so no home pr0n for the laptop users.

We have Acronis TrueImage installed, and a "perfect" image of each type of machine ready. Setting up a new machine or rebuilding a machine when someone leaves takes 5 minutes. All software is pushed out via GPO, so that handles all upgrades (e.g. Java, Flash etc.). WSUS handles all patches and F-Secure looks after security.

We don't have blackberry, we have Nokia E71s. When Mr. Shiny Hotshot Salesman joins and demands a blackberry, he gets an E71 irrespective of the number of toys he throws out the pram.

At the end of the day ***it doesn't matter*** what the kit is as long as it lets you do your job. Having a slim number of devices to support makes it easier on the IT department, and also reduces the sales department's laptop or blackberry willy-waving contests, and helps the budget as well.

It helps when you have an MD who listens to you and is willing to tell the sales guys to stop making childish demands for the latest toys because, when push comes to shove, they don't really make any difference on his ability to sell.

</rant over>

Logitech Squeezebox Boom wireless music player

borat

Quality products

I've been a Logitech (nee SlimDevices) customer for many years, best gadget(s) I've ever owned - can't remember the last time I touched a CD, all my music at the touch of a button and no freakin' iTunes anywhere to be seen.

The Boom! is on my christmas wish list for sure :)

Sun Java piggybacks Microsoft searchbar, divorces Google

borat

opt-out should always be opt-in

It totally sucks that so many of these common applications (e.g. flash player, java JRE etc.) come bundled with "opt-out" installers for unrelated programs. The amount of times I sit at someone's PC and see shortcuts to "install openoffice" and the stinking yahoo toolbar that primarily, the customer does not want.

Sure they should have un-checked the box on install, but this "opt-out" mentality preys on the novice user who just click next -> next -> next without reading anything and ends up in the customer's PC being cluttered with stuff they didn't ask for and don't want.

Miscreants hijacking machines via (freshly patched) Adobe flaw

borat

Why..?

Why people still use Adobe Reader I don't know. The download is 34MB which should set alarm bells ringing before you even install it. 34MB for a friggin' PDF viewer?

In comparison Foxit is only 3MB, and they also provide an .msi file so you can easily roll it out to your windows domain. Consequently updating it is also easy, new .msi and away you go.

Microsoft says ‘hasta la vista XP’ - well, kinda

borat

@ Simon Aspinall

"Could you really imagine your Gran running a linux machine. causes my blood to run cold."

Could you imagine thousands of grannies (and other typically computer-illiterate users) running windows? Sadly you can, and they do. Consequently we have botnets with more collective bandwidth available than some countries and spam coming out of our arseholes - mainly because these people don't know how to secure their PC properly.

For your typical granny linux is no worse an alternative than windows - all they need is a web browser, mail client and (possibly) a word processor. All of these come bundled with most mainstream linux distributions, for free, and they work well. Better still, they're significantly less likely to get malware/botnet shite all over their PC and end up in PC World in 12 months time because their PC is "too slow".

Apple gets (slightly) less sneaky with Windows Safari play

borat
Jobs Horns

I agree with Lilly

This is a step in the right direction listing Safari as new software, but to have it ticked by default is just flicking the V at everyone who complained.

"We will make changes to the software updater to make it clearer, but given this is the only way we can get the great unwashed to download our unwanted browser we'll carry on doing it, thank you very much."