Cloud Madness

I really can't see why Microsoft are embracing the Cloud concept. Their dominance is based on the Desktop and if the desktop becomes irrelevant then so will they - perhaps they decided that they can't fight the inevitable but if people are using cloud apps and cloud documents then devices based on alternate OSs will become a whole lot more desirable - it's only their incompatibility with desktop apps that holds them back now. Certainly both Mac and Linux desktops are completely useable and of course Google OS is appearing on netbooks - MS dominance could be at a crossroads here.

Virus Tests - Ribbit....

Some manufacturers of AV products test for loads of viruses that don't actually exist in the wild - purely in labs. This makes their products have great looking stats for detection percentages and numbers. It's worth in the real world to you and me is precisely zero - the only test that matters is the wildlist test - viruses that actually exist in the wild and need to be stopped cold. So as a starting point when you are choosing an AV you should be making sure that it passed the wildlist test and from there going on to other considerations like heuristic analysis, update frequency, system footprint and ease of use.

The VB100 test is a good place to start which is done by http://www.virusbtn.com - you will need to register to see the results but if your AV manufacturers website doesn't say it passed the VB100 test you can be pretty sure it didn't as they are quick to put it up if it does.

bzzzzp...bzzzrr...bzzmmmbbrszzzphht

Google Buzz surfaced the other day - nobody yet knows if its of any use to anyone but I suppose that like Twitter that doesn't matter it only matters that people use it even if it gets full of hot air and nonsense. Knowing Google it will be cool and it looks like a stage in unravelling Google Wave - perhaps they identified a way to stream bits in gradually and lessen the impact http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/11/google_buzz_privacy/

iPad underwhelms - what's the point of it

I personally have been waiting for ever for a big fuck off phone without the phone part. I can see why a massive iPod touch would be handy ...no wait actually it seems quite pointless :(

Windows Update kills XP

A patch tuesday update to the windows kernel is causing some machines to go into a reboot loop or BSOD see http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/2010/02/new-patches-cause-bsod-for-some-windows-xp-users as yet unfixed just don't install it on your XP box for now...

Film Review - Up in the Air

I was robbed while watching this film, robbed of 2 hours of my life and £3.99 and when I called the Police to report the crime they reckon that it isn't illegal - it boody well should be.

Firefox 3.6 released

Mozilla released the new 3.6 version of Firefox with some plugin checking stuff, faster javascript processing and support for more web standards get it while its hot.