A few days ago I wanted to get onto a website which I occasionally use to store Web bookmarks. There are easier ways to store bookmarks online, like Delicious or spurl.net, but these were bookmarks were from some time ago.

Anyway, I was quite surprised to get a warning from McAfee Site Advisor that this was a “Reported Attack Site”. Not thinking, I clicked on the “Ignore this warning” link, and the ZoneAlarm Security Suite started popping up warnings. After I had hastily exited the web browser, ZoneAlarm informed that it had removed some spyware from Firefox’s cache.

I was rather glad that I had been browsing with McAfee Site Advisor installed (it works with both Firefox and Internet Explorer). The ZoneAlarm Security suite has previously warned me about websites,  but didn’t pick this one up as a threat.

McAfee Site Advisor is part of the McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008, but I use the free version. There are also a number of similar products available. A Firefox add-on called “LinkExtend” uses the McAfee Site Advisor database as well as a number of other sources. There is also the “Web of Trust” which has a free add-ons for Firefox and Internet Explorer. These tools can save you a lot of problems on the World Wild Web.

Is Windows 7 merely a cleverly disguised update to Windows Vista, or is it a brand new Operating System?

The skeptic in me would label Windows 7 as simply being a Major Update to Windows Vista. Of course Microsoft would not want to call it “Windows Vista Update 2“, as Windows Vista really doesn’t have a good name in the marketplace. So Windows 7 sounds
better and Microsoft can charge for the update instead of releasing it for free.

A number of Tech folk who have spent months with Windows 7 would not agree. Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report on ZDNet Blogs “Windows 7 first look: More than just “Vista, fixed“, says “if you assume that Windows 7 is simply “Vista, fixed,” you’ll miss many small but meaningful changes and several large ones that give Windows 7 its own identity.”

CNET’s Review of Windows 7 says:
“Although the look of Windows 7 may seem to be nothing more than some polish applied liberally to the Vista Aero theme, make no mistake: This is a full replacement operating
system, and more than just “Vista done right.””

The “Bottom Line” of CNET’s review has this interesting statement:
“How much damage Vista did and whether Windows 7 is enough for people to finally abandon Windows XP are questions that nobody has the answers to right now.“

It is so sad to see an Operating System die, particularly one which has been around for so long, and which I’ve grown with and even written programs for.  I’m not referring to Windows XP, but to the Palm OS for handheld computers and smartphones. Some would say that it has been dead or dying for some time. When a Operating System dies, it seems that the software development tools start dying first. A week or so back I logged onto a website of a Palm OS development tool I’ve used to be dismayed at the news that the website and the forums were closing down soon.

The Palm Operating System’s replacement is the Palm webOS as featured in the Palm Pre. At present there is only one smartphone being sold by Palm which still runs the Palm OS – the Palm Centro. With Palm (the company) it is hard to tell how long the Centro will be around. On the Palm website, the Centro is referred to as “Access Powered“, but that merely means “Running Palm Operating System licensed from Access, previously known as PalmSource”.

If the Palm Centro was to be killed off tomorrow, and the Palm OS was officially dead,  people would continue to use Palm OS devices, from old Sony Clies to Tapwave Zodiacs.

Even though the iPhone is getting more useful with each firmware release, I’m still using a Tungsten C which runs Palm OS, while moving to a Treo 680, which also runs Palm OS. Of course, if the Palm Pre or another webOS based smartphone comes to Verizon, I would take a good hard look at it.

The special pre-release upgrade pricing for Windows 7 Home premium and Windows 7 Professional ended yesterday. I only realized that today. Rats!

With Windows 7, Microsoft has tried to address all of the many complaints of Vista users. Instead of a new Operating System, Windows 7 shares the same core as Windows Vista. It could almost be a Revision of Windows Vista if it were not for all the improvements.

Paul Thurrott, on his Supersite for Windows, says of Windows 7:
“it looks like a prettier version of Windows Vista. But it’s small and fast, usable and secure. It is the first version of Windows, perhaps ever, that I can recommend wholeheartedly, and without reservation, to virtually anyone.”

This is a recommendation from one of the industries leading Windows experts, although one who regarded Windows Vista, as far better than Windows XP. There are also numerous people who are already running Windows 7 (previously the latest beta, now the Release Candidate) as their main Operating System.

As some have said, Windows 7 is a Vista that works.

Just after the iPhone OS 3.0 was released I was waiting to upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0 until it could be “easily Jailbroken” (see “Need for Speed II“). Well, I couldn’t wait. Within two days I had upgraded my iPhone to OS 3.0 then Jailbroke it almost as soon as the iPhone Dev Team released their “redsn0w” multi-platform Jailbreak utility. The main cost of being on the bleeding edge was discovering first hand a number of apps which were not iPhone 3.0 OS compatible.

But enough about Jailbreaking. I’ve been using the iPhone OS 3.0 for over a week now, and I like it.

One of the new features of the iPhone OS 3.0 is that you now have more pages for Apps. It looks like it has been increased to 11 pages (or “Homescreens”). Now instead of a maximum of 148 Apps, the max is 180 Apps, although I have heard that this is affected by available (storage) memory. This is great, because now there are more pages for me to try to group my apps more logically, the most used ones on the first couple of pages, eBook and reader type apps on one page, games grouped together over two pages and other apps after that.

The new landscape keyboard also really does make a difference, and is much more conducive to “Thumb- typing”, with my typing speed considerably faster than in portrait mode.

At the everythingicafe forum, members came up with this list of the more than 100 changes in the iPhone 3.0 OS and iPhone 3G S.

It was inevitable I guess, that sooner or later there would be cracked Apps available for the iPhone. (for a explanation of what I mean by “cracked app” or “pirated software” see the article “Software cracking” in the Wikipedia.).

I had heard that some cracked Apple App Store Apps were being distributed in some way on Jailbroken iPhones. It was only when I was doing some research for the Blog Entry “148 Apps“, that I came across some evidence of this. I was going to refer to a blog where someone had installed the maximum amount of apps on his iPhone, and had a picture showing all the screens of his iPhone full of Apps. Then I spotted a suspiciously named app, Googled the name and discovered it was a source for cracked Apps. It was a good picture but I could not use it.

So why am I writing about cracked Apps? Well, first I must make this disclaimer: as a former Software Developer, I’m definitely against using cracked apps. Also, searching the web for and downloading cracked apps for any platform is one of the surest ways of getting some sort of malware on your machine.

One of the primary methods to install cracked apps on an iPhone is by using tools only available on Jailbroken iPhones. However, the developers of software for Jailbroken iPhones are very much against cracked apps. The last thing they want is to give Apple another reason to want to shut them down. Also, their apps are among the ones being pirated.

Of course cracking of Applications happens on every popular platform. One of the most pirated applications in the world today is an Operating System: Windows XP Professional.

The launch of the Palm Pre is coming up soon, on June 6 (see Keith’s Blog posting “Palm Pre Debuts June 6“). This is a couple of days before Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) where Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 3.0. Although I have used Palm products for years, and really wish Palm all the best with the launch of their new smartphone and the webOS, the thought of switching to the Palm Pre, or at least trying it has not even crossed my mind. There are a lot of technology experts studying it with interest and ready to jump in. Maybe if the Palm Pre wasn’t being released on Sprint first I would be more interested. Personally I have had one bad experience with Sprint which put me off them totally.

Palm does seem a bit touchy about their webOS though. Several months ago, TealPoint Software came out with a launcher for the Palm called TealOS. It mimicked the look and feel of the WebOS on the Palm Pre. So you could have a your old Treo 680 sporting what looked like a webOS interface.

Now TealPoint develop software almost exclusively for the Palm platform, and are likely to already have some applications in the works for the new WebOS. After a beta testing phase TealOS was released. I tried it and was interested enough to buy a copy. Several point releases later, Palm objected and forced TealPoint to withdraw the software. Now this launcher was basically giving users a taste of what the PalmPre interface could be like, and Palm appeared to get uppity and had it shutdown. Nice one Palm!

148 Apps is one of my favorite iPhone App tracking websites. It is also the maximum number of apps you can get on the iPhone and iPod Touch. That is 16 Apps per page and 9 pages equals 144 plus 4 applications on the Dock at the bottom of the screen .

With so many iPhone Apps coming out all the time, it is harder and harder to stay within the 148 App limit.  There are even Apps which track or review Apps, like PandoraBox, BargainBin and AppReview.

If you happen to install more than 148 Apps, the apps at the bottom of the ninth page are moved to a tenth hidden page (see “How Many Apps Can Your iPhone Hold“). This can be temporarily used to hide App Icons, but on a Jailbroken iPhone the “BossPrefs” App will hide the icons you want - for example if you have no need to track the Stock market, you can hide the Stocks app which comes pre-installed. Of course not everyone wants to Jailbreak their iPhone, which quite understandable, considering the cost of the iPhone and the possibility of doing it some damage.

The only way I’ve found to keep on top of too many Apps is to be in constant cleanup mode. Fortunately Apps which are deleted from the iPhone can be easily reinstalled from iTunes or the Apple App Store.

Tripped up by levels of “compatibility”!. I had mentioned that I was having problems after installing Eeebuntu NBR (Net Book Remix) on my Asus EeePC 701 Netbook (see “Neglected Netbook gets new OS“). Important Dialog Boxes were cut off at the bottom of the screen, making it impossible to configure Eeebuntu properly. I though it would simply be a matter of looking at an Ubuntu distribution on another PC to see what the buttons are, and work from there. It wasn’t.

Then I came across some interesting information. The Ubuntu wiki had a page
“HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks” which gave three Tiers of compatibility for Netbooks which had been tested with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04. Tier 1 was “…netbooks that work reasonably well, with few or any issues, and no major issues“. Unfortunately, the Asus EeePC 701 Netbook fell into Tier 2:
“…netbooks that work somewhat, but have problems that may interfere with typical activities at the moment, or many smaller issues.”
For the EeePC701 there was this note “This netbook basically works, but most of the problems with it center around the fact that it has a very small screen with a default resolution of 800×400 and many apps simply won’t scale down to that size.” Two of the issues were “Evolution setup assistant takes more space than available on Eee 701SD” and “Display preferences takes more space than available on a Eee 701SD“.
By space they mean screen space.

This wasn’t even mentioned on the main Eeebuntu NBR website, and if I’d known about it, I certainly would have thought twice before installing Eeebuntu on my Asus Netbook.

After neglecting my Asus EeePC 701 Netbook for a number of months, I’ve now loaded a new Operating System onto it. The Netbook had fallen into misuse even before I started “playing” with UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs). The UMPCs with all their miniature delights almost put the Asus EeePC right out of my thoughts.

Then, a several days ago I charged it up , booted up and looked at the same old pre-installed linux Operating System, which for some reason is giving error messages when I try to get updates. Fortunately, I had just seen (and downloaded) Eeebuntu, after reading “Let Eeebuntu Free your Eee PC” on the GHacks blog.

I followed the steps mentioned in the blog. This took longer than expected - which is almost always the case when working with computers – the third step (”Plug in a >= 1 Gig Usb flash drive to your computer.“) taking the longest. For some reason the smallest USB flash drive I could find was a 4GB SanDisk micro. It had files on it, so I had a “quick” glance through them, backed some up, then deleted them from them removable drive; formatting it would definitely have been faster. An hour or so later I had Eeebuntu installed on my Asus EeePC 701 Netbook.

Now the downside. I should have spent a little more time trying it out, because for some reason the screen resolution is cutting off the bottom of dialog boxes. What that means is that I cannot see the buttons at the bottom of the dialog boxes to apply settings (I need to look at an Ubuntu distribution on another PC to see what the buttons are). Once I know the layout of those all important buttons, I can change the screen resolution and join the Asus EeePC to my home wireless network…