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**** NewsBytes ****
PC management will get cheaper
The next 4 years will see a 50% fall in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of new PCs, as deployed by businesses and other organizations, according new Gartner research. By 2010, we could be spending half as much effort keeping our PCs going, is
the prediction based around the trends that user PCs are becoming increasingly well-managed through automated procedures and that operating systems are better at isolating simultaneously-running applications, often otherwise the cause of crashes.
Gartner research VP Brian Gammage takes this argument further to suggest that, because software applications will run transparently on most devices, the PC platform will soon become irrelevant. The 9MB podcast is well worth the 9-minute listen.
Try HP printers for free
HP and offering a "Buy & Try" promotion on their multifunction printers and all-in-one products until the end of January, or the end of April for large format printers. The 30-day money-back-guarantee trials apply to colour lasers and photo printers too giving potential customers a chance to assess expensive equipment before commiting themselves. Visit the HP Buy & Try page.
Blogging off
The term "blog" derives from "Web log", but it may soon be on its way down the charts, according to Stamford Research Analyst, Adam Sarner, in one of Gartner's top ten trend predictions. The blogging phenomenon has made a huge impact on the way people push and receive ideas, opinions, reviews in the web community, but some won't miss the flotsam of 'web diaries' that arrived along with the tide of usefully readable info. The first half of 2007 will be your last chance to ride the peak of the wave, says Gartner in the podcast hosted by Daryl C. Plummer, GVP and Chief Gartner Fellow.
Office 2007 licensing
The appearance of the new Microsoft Office 2007 suite later this month, heralds the phase-out of its predecessor Office 2003 Pro. Those needing additional licences but wanting to retain the conformity of the old 2003 Office software throughout the organisation can still buy 2007 licences which are usable with their existing 2003 media.
Spam-a-lot goes for a new image
How would summarise the close of 2006? "Spam crazy" is probably not the first thing that comes to mind but that's how email filterers Postini saw it, with a 73% increase in spam messages crossing their radar in the last quarter. A record total 92.6% of all emails transmitted were spam during the period, confirming reports of big increases among the client base and elsewhere. Up to 25% of the junk more commonly now contains images, an attempt to circumvent or confuse spam filters, and also a major change from before, affecting the bandwidth of those who download it.
If only computers were like the movies
Now that we are all full to saturation with festive blockbusters, spare a thought for the poor souls living on another planet (but probably not containing apes) who are responsible for depicting computers in movies. Ever wondered why the Minority Report-style user interfaces that control computers by waving your arms still elude us today, or why screens always have such enormous fonts, and email users always find the right message first go and never ever suffer from spam? It's a world where Spooks and jewel thieves always download the building plans to their computer correctly without a hitch, while heroes and time travellers from the past are somehow instantly familiar with modern technology. Guru of web usability design, Jakob Nielsen explains the the top 10 usability bloopers on film
Authorised PC refurbishers
Anyone looking to pass on old computer kit, following on from new purchases or upgrade projects perhaps, might feel a bit stumped as what to do with the old stuff. A good place to start is to donate to one of a list of Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers, such as the Forest Recycling Scheme in East London.
*** More NewsBytes ***
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1. How to choose Windows Vista
Vista appears on the horizon, but how to know which one is right for you? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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30th November 2006 saw business users getting their first taste of the official Windows Vista. The rest of us have to wait until the end of January 2007. The latest Windows has been talked up for 2 years, so what's another 2 months' wait? 
Windows Flip 3D navigation During the heady times of the turn-of-the-century dotcom boom and bust, computer users complained of 'Windows overload': too many flavours all tumbling out after each other – 95, 98, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP. You could say Microsoft had responded by slowing down production of new operating systems, with nothing mainstream since XP's launch on 25th October 2001 except 2003 Server. However, that would be to ignore smaller editions like XP Tablet, XP x64-bit and Media Center – though given Google's 16 million hits on "Media Center crashed" perhaps that's the best thing for the world's most unloved TV recorder. Windows 6.0 - the longest wait ever?Now we are back to boom time, with a bevy of Windows editions, arriving not just rather close on each others' heels but all on top of each other: 5, 6 or 8 versions depending on how you categorise them. A more cynical way of looking at the operating-system-formerly-known-as-Longhorn is that it is 2 years late; easy to sneer perhaps, if you have never entered the unpredictable world of system design on the global stage. At the other end of the spectrum, industry analysts are beginning to agree that Vista will one of the biggest sellers yet. 
Stick or Twist?Faced with the question "Should I be an early adopter?" charities have traditionally looked backwards rather than forwards and opted to stick with what they know best – their current desktop platforms probably being a combination of Windows XP and 2000. This was a justifiable stance a decade ago when Windows life cycles were barely conceived let alone formalised, and viruses and malware a little-understood threat. Now however, organisations have to plan for the future too. To turn the question round: "How long will we receive support and security updates for our existing Windows?" And what about buying additional licences for a growing staff? Licence availability is now pegged directly to the release of a new Windows operating system with OEM/Retail and System Builder supply phasing out 12 and 24 months respectively behind the release dates of Windows Vista general availability (see Windows Lifecycle). Essentially this means, that once the new Vista greyhound is out of the traps, the timer is counting down. Or perhaps "Rien ne va plus" to emphasise the gambling trade-off. Even though the Windows XP Professional licence will cease to be sold as of end 2007, it is likely that support will continue for some time since an XP security service pack (SP3) is being planned provisionally for the first half of 2008. (see Service Packs lifecycle). Common featuresThe new features inside Vista promise improved security, more search options, an improved 3D interface, plus new sound and networking technologies. 
Common among all systems are:
Choosing ...With 6 versions of Vista to choose from - three for business, two for home use and one for developing nations - the selection process has moved up a gear from the XP days of 'plumping for one or the other', especially when price tags range anywhere from $100 to nearly $400.
Straight away the Starter edition can be eliminated being destined as it is for developing nations and which cannot be bought retail. To make the picture clearer still, it's worth realising that the "N" denoted versions of Home and Business are the same as their brethren minus Windows Media Player and Media-related technologies, which was a requirement to satisfy anti-trust regulations in the EU; you should consider these where no media facilities are needed or where you intend to substitute your own alternatives. Enterprise is only available under volume licensing Microsoft's Software Assurance scheme and is functionally similar to Business. By the time Home Basic is eliminated from the pack on the grounds of simplicity and the fact that it only supports 5 simultaneous peer connections, the whittling process leaves us a more manageable selection of 3 editions to consider: Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Coincidentally, all 3 of these have the new Windows Aero (3D) User Interface, with the Business version being minus parental control features. Will Vista help my organisation?What are the advantages for the charity sector? It seems that Vista does indeed have something to offer for both large and small groups. For those with enough PCs (say more than 15) to consider deployment in terms of a structured plan, Vista has many advantages that are aimed at system admins and managers:
System admins should examine the greater detail on the background for deployment in this excellent Technet article 10 Things You Need to Know about Deploying Windows Vista by Microsoft's Systems Design Engineer, Michael Niehaus. There is also an expanded backup which brings in some of the features like Volume Shadow Copy from Windows Server; read more on Vista Backup. But Vista is very large - one operating system image might take 3 to 4 CDs or one DVD. A good image storing solution just coming on stream would the new larger optical discs. For smaller groups, there are equally exciting features - all with slightly morning-goods style brand names (but there's then no accounting for marketing taste): ReadyBoost – not actually an oat-based porridge, but a neat way to overcome the fact that opening a machine adding more performance-boosting memory to a PC is still too technical for most. Hence Vista lets you simply add a removable flash memory device, such as a USB stick, to improve system performance without opening the box SuperFetch – could be a carbo-rich dog food, but in reality is a technique for pre-loading the applications you use most - even recognising usage patterns by times of day or week - with resultant speed benefits when resuming work after the computer has been idle or when switched from another user's session. ReadyDrive – great name for a car de-icer or perhaps anti-freeze, but this is Vista's Monika for acceptance of a new breed of hybrid disc, one that includes flash memory as well as a normal hard drive. The benefits are faster performance and resumption from hibernation, lower power (with battery savings for laptops) and lower wear and tear on the drive. Sleep – a means of combining 2 modes on previous versions of Windows - Hibernation (write to disc) and Sleep (write to RAM memory) - with the result that a sleeping PC is ready for use again in a couple of seconds as well as reducing power consumption. And you thought it was a new alarm clock snooze function. Read more on Vista performance features. Refining the choice for small officesHere's where we get to be more selective still. Of the 3 remaining contenders weeded out - Home Premium, Business and Ultimate - here are some highlighted features particularly appropriate for small offices, businesses and charities: 
It's becoming clear that MS means "business" when they say Business. If you have particular media requirements like Windows Movie Maker, DVD Maker or Media Center support, then Vista Home Premium or the top end Ultimate will be your choice, but for everything for the small- and medium-sized office Business is the one to go for. Windows Anytime UpgradeDo you need to be 'Vista-ready'?
Since all Vista product editions ship on the same install DVD, Microsoft are offering new upgrade options - called Windows Anytime Upgrade - from some older versions as of January 2007. This means that just by purchasing a new product key, you can unlock the additional features of the various Vista versions. It's these upgrades should be slightly cheaper than buying the boxed copy of the upgrade version of your choice, presumably due to savings on admin and shipping. Finally, when you pass on your unwanted Vista machine to someone else, they can upgrade to a higher level of Windows just by buying the product key and slotting in the original optical disc. Contacts
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2. Phone-to-Calendar synchronisation: OTA is no longer OTT
Start the New Year with a more robust means of looking after the contact list, calendar and to-do lists on your phone. | ||
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When it comes to appointments, to-do lists and contacts, we are surrounded by a plethora of storage media and applications to pour those details into: Outlook on laptops PCs and desktops, personal organisers (PDAs), server databases, files on memory sticks. Chances are though that while your Outlook files are backed up on the server, your phone contents are being backed up ... nowhere. And because a phone makes them easy to carry everywhere, those are probably the important ones. 
Comes the day when the phone is lying forgotten on the table at home, suddenly you're all alone! No colleagues to email, nobody to call, nowhere to go. (I could get to like this!) All that changes with the arrival of services that provide Over-The-Air (OTA) synchronisation from the vast majority of PDA-style phones, instantly affording backup and sync in one hit. You press a button on the phone and it talks directly to a machine on the Internet. Another big plus is that, at a stroke, you cut out the middle guy – the PC. All that fiddling with cables and syncing software is history, but because these online services are browser-based, they are still accessible but the good ol' PC too. The basic gear that's needed is a SyncML-capable phone with a WAP service connection in place and preferably a GPRS data allowance, which means you only pay for the data you upload or download (syncing is a 2-way process). We did a test run with a couple of services on a Sony Ericsson P910i with a well-established Vodafone contract bundled with GPRS. Features common to both services are:
Neither Mobical nor ZYB offer synchronisation of email, hardly surprising since attachments can run into MB of data these whereas contacts and calendar info take up only a few KB of the storage space that these sync providers are making available for free. Neither of these schemes sync automatically – say, every day or week - though this feature is hinted at becoming a standard one. 
How long to get going?Setup routine auto-generates a not very memorable password, although this can changed later. Initial password is sent to mobile. Setup takes under 2 minutes. How does it run?Sign-up and sync process worked very smoothly. What's in the sync?Calendar, Contacts To-do list, Notes Fancy features12 fixed and coloured categories, like appointments, business, vacation, sick day (book them in advance?) 
How long to get going?With just a login and password combination to set up on the the web site, the ZYB setup should have been just as quick, but we immediately got stuck at the verification process even though a manual setup eventually seemed to recognise the phone. However the sync didn't even connect and after a few automated and then helpful personal messages from ZYB support, the problem was tracked down to the fact that Vodafone laudably enforces a minors protection policy against pornography, gambling and violence by implementing a content control bar on its connected phones by default. Curiously, Vodafone's content blacklist includes ZYB who are campaigning to get themselves removed, to which they replied: Dear user, Thank you for writing back to us and explaining Vodafone's policy, we are looking into the issue and trying to find out the contact in Vodafone who can actually help us include zyb in their "whitelist". We don't want every zyb+vodafone user to remove content bar before they use zyb. Hopefully we'll manage to do that, your feedback and help is always appreciated. Best Regards, Sadly we didn't have time to go through the Vodafone content bar removal process (which costs a re-creditable £1), so we will have to assume that ZYB's sync service works more seamlessly with other mobile network providers. What's in the sync?Calendar, Contacts, Fancy featuresShareable multiple calendars, the ability to overlay home and/or work calendars at a click.The limitations of syncIf you are used to employing categories and colours to spice up a calendar's readability, syncing almost always comes to shatter your orderly schemes, whether it's OTA or syncing with a PC. On the phone, you may have scrupulously labelled work appointments with a category of "business" and coloured them a drudging grey, while "holidays" are set to show up as a sunny yellow. However as soon as you edit their web site counterparts (by moving an appointment or adding an alarm reminder, the next sync will turn all your phone equivalents back to a default light blue (or whatever the "unfiled" category is represented by). Suddenly your diary (and life) looks very dull again. As with any free service providers are looking to provide premium offerings on the back of the basic setup. Mobical has already entered the fray in a kind side-door fashion by promising SMS features like sending contacts to friends and colleagues direct from their site when you buy SMS credits. The idea seems to have sprung somewhat unexpectedly out of the fact a minority of subscribers were abusing the free SMS to send advertising, and a limit of 10 credits has now been applied. Contacts-IB- Paul Craig |
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3. New optics: Blu-ray v. HD DVD
The latest optical disc war goes a whole lot deeper than a mere battle between recording formats. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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We have been here before. In the seventies we had the tussle between Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS video, and only a few years back the manufacturers of DVD optical discs were slugging it out over format designations so similar (DVD -R, +R, -RAM) one may have wondered “Why all the fuss?” For the last year or more, two new consortia are squaring up against each other and this time we, the consumers, at least have the benefit of two identifiably different brands, namely Blu-ray and High Definition (HD) DVD. This time it's Sony (again) versus Tosh (previously an ally). Who will win this round? 
Lite-On LH-2B1S Blu-ray disc writer Who's backing what?Sony's Blu-ray blue laser technology is backed by Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, TDK and Thomson. Lined up behind Toshiba's rival HD DVD are NEC, Intel and Microsoft and recently-switched HP. HP entered the fray last Autumn with its external optical HD100 drive that can read HD DVD-ROM, DVDR/RW and R double-layer discs. as well as CD-R/RW and CD-ROM discs. The picture is confused by the fact that some companies (like HP) started in one camp or may still be board founders, but have shifted their allegiance to the other. What do Blu-ray and HD DVD offer?In a word - capacity.
That means ...
So we are looking at three to five times the storage capacity of current DVD technology. That's over 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video on a 50GB disc or about 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video. Looking at the table, we can see that Blu-ray discs offer larger data capacity, though their production costs are higher. BR discs are even more resistant to scratches and fingerprints than today's DVDs. Backwards compatibilityFortunately, manufacturers of both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players have thus far included backwards compatibility to today's DVDs, so that current DVD library collections will be playable on either Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD players. Expectations are that most Blu-ray and HD-DVD recorders will also be able to record in at least one of the current DVD recording formats, like DVD-R/-RW or DVD+R/+RW. RecordingBlu-ray and HD-DVD technology both support high definition video recording, with TV recorders in both formats appearing round about now, while Blu-ray drive writers are also available to install in your PC from manufacturers like Lite-On, Pioneer, Samsung and Philips to name but a few. The two types of Blu-ray Recording formats are:
Formats announced for HD-DVD recorders are record-once format discs (similar to BD-R) are:
Thin film blockbusterAs with the current entry of DVD formats to the market, it's not just about backup discs for computers and data repositories for home consumer electronics. From a long time back, the major movie studios have had their eye on the next big disc storage medium, and guaranteeing acceptance into the consumer market for film and video means launching with a sufficient variety of titles to ensure the big bang doesn't end up up as a damp squib. Media companies are equally divided between formats too: in the Blu-Ray camp one finds big players such as 20th Century Fox, Electronic Arts and MGM Studios while HD DVD sports the likes of New Line Cinema and Universal Studios (originally a BR supporter). Hedging their bets in both arenas are Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney and Warner Bros. The blues v. the redsBlu-ray gets its much greater storage capacity by employing blue laser technology which has a much shorter wavelength than the red laser technology used in current DVDs. The blue laser data is stored at 0.1 mm below the disc surface while HD DVDs store theirs at 0.6 mm. Optical illusionAnyone wondering why companies couldn't just agree on a single format in the first place might be relieved to hear that a Warner Brothers research team has come up with a one-size-fits-all solution. With Blu-ray discs storing their data closer to the surface than HD DVDs, the proposed multi-layer technology aims to literally 'see-through' the top layer to read the lower one. However, this logical progression has only reached the stage of being filed as a patent by the engineers at Warner Brothers so is unlikely to change the course of the current conflict. Win, lose or compromise?Industry pundits are musing that unification is unlikely at this late and now that production of both formats is in full swing, even though all factions have a couple of years to get it together. As with rewritable CD (DVD-RW and DVD+RW), we may even end up with two competing standards side by side, in which case, drive and player manufacturers will start to produce dual-format drives, with Samsung apparently mooting this move unilaterally if co-operation over standards continues to elude the industry. Last time Sony's (arguably superior) Betamax format lost the battle because the machines were more expensive and the recording time only a sixth that of the reigning VHS. Now Sony's Blu-ray is the leading contender in the storage stakes. Contacts-IB- Acknowledgements: Ryan Block |
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4. How full is your inbox?
Make a New Year's resolution that actually saves time throughout the year: manage your email better. | |||||||||||||||||
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How many emails do you keep on the go? Ten ... a hundred ... thousands perhaps? More importantly, does the number get you down?
There are acres of articles proclaiming the next-to-Godliness prestige achieved only by maintaining a completely empty inbox, but they largely overlook the practicality of actually doing any work rather than spending the day doing the digital equivalent of filing. By harnessing the power of built-in management features, the email client software can be made to do the hard graft. Manual stuffIf you have already dealt with or responded to a mail, put it in a folder or delete it. A quick click or drag-n-drop should comprise the entire manual effort you should have to expend on managing your inbox. Resist the temptation to look at your email every 10 minutes; you'll spend more time checking email than achieving any of the tasks required in the messages. Automated stuffUse colours to highlight important email sent by important people: Look at auto archive features that can turf out the old stuff automatically. A favourite is to dump everything in a folder called "Done". There, the messages older than 13 months automatically get dumped by the auto-archiving, so we know that stuff dealt with isn't entirely lost, but if it's just over a year old that won't matter. The trick here is that you just have time to catch 12-month anniversary messages like subscription reminders before they hit the bin. Use filtering rules - triggered on the the "To", "From", or "Subject" fields - to shunt non-essential communications into their own folders:
In Outlook it's as easy as Right-click | Create rule. Most other email clients like Thunderbird and and Eudora now have similar features too. The result is more time to spend on the urgent and crucial tasks and less time re-reading mails or dropping them in the wrong folders. If you are a system administrator or IT is part of your job function, consider allocating email size quotas to user mailboxes, especially the large consumers. These simple measures will help to extend the life span of the mail server. Be diplomatic and give users fair warning first though. Don't know how to do all this? Ask us! Employ anti-spam software: Cloudmark or F-Prot AVES for the office and McAfee SpamKiller for remote users with stand-alone PCs. Increasingly is filter out the spam online, before it ever reaches your in-house servers. -IB-
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5. How safe is that web site?
So you've been recommended to visit a web site, but will it give you worms? | ||
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Barely a day passes when a friend or colleague suggests you visit a site, but you're not quite sure whether your browser is going to be at risk from potential hijacks, or the PC subsequently beset by Trojans and email by spam. Now you can check it from afar. 
McAfee's www.siteadvisor.com does the job for you, before you ever go anywhere near the actual web pages themselves. Just plug in the web address and get a site report. Even better, just type the address on to the end of http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/ to get a report straight away. ExamplesThus, a visit to ... http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/cnn.com ... tells us that on registering your email address at the global news media giant will get you an average 7.2 emails per week with an average SpamAssassin score of -4 and an inbox view that consists largely of messages from "CNN Breaking News". Out of the 3 downloads tested from the site, all were free of adware, spyware, and other unwanted programs. Also shown are links to affiliate 'green' sites such as yahoo.com, apple.com and doubleclick.net. 
So CNN receives an overall rating of safe with a big green tick. Reading the same analysis of the popular download site, download.com, reveals that of 11034 downloads a very small percentage contained adware or other unwanted programs, though download.com prohibits these programs and removes them when found. Although this site received a green tick for safety overall, download.com loses a few marks for "annoyances" (things like third-party cookies placed on visitors' computers) and its online affiliations profile shows it has links with one site (dw.com.com) that does not get a a safety approval, containing as it does a small fraction of downloads that some people consider adware. All in all siteadvisor is an invaluable tool for the cautious web surfer. Contacts-IB-
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6. Q&A: OWA won't compose messages
Question 
Hi Mark, I have installed IE7 on my computer, which I find runs much better than earlier releases, by the way. However, it seems that remote workers with IE7 have problems when connecting to our Exchange mail server on Outlook Web Access OWA 2003. In fact it causes the thing to crash completely with an Internet Explorer error report saying information might be lost! Is there a solution? | ||
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Microsoft has acknowledges this to be a problem (read MS KB 924334 for more info) and has posted a hotfix that needs to be installed on your Exchange server. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=924334 "The Compose Message form stops responding after you install Internet Explorer 7.0 and the S/MIME control on an Outlook Web Access client in Exchange Server 2003" 
We have done our own tests an the latest Exchange 2003 patch does indeed appear to resolve the OWA compose message problem. The exact symptoms are explained clearly here. Clients on FM programmes with this problem should contact us for the server update. Acknowledgements: Mark Curtis, Daniel Petri -IB-
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Clicks of the Trade - Retrieving the administrator login on XP
--- Quick tips for happier clicks! --- | |||
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-IB-
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