Defensive Computing

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Netbook: Not a first look

I just got a Lenovo S10 Netbook computer and couldn't have been more enthusiastic about kicking the tires. As I've written before, I think Netbooks will be very big, and this was to be my first.

So this posting should have been a first look. I should be offering my opinion on whether the keyboard is too small, what it's like to use Windows XP on such a small screen, and how hot the thing gets. But I didn't get that far.

After a delay in getting the machine the box arrived all beat up. Not more

Two problems with Secunia Online Software Inspector

Update October 20, 2008 Noon EDT. According to Secunia they now detect version 10 of the Flash Player and they have corrected their FAQ. However, the most important issue, treating version 9 of the Flash Player as good rather than bad has not changed.
Update October 20, 2008 9 PM EDT. An email from Secunia said they don't consider version 9,0,124,0 of the Flash Player to be bad because it is the latest edition of version 9 and because Adobe still supports version 9.

I've mentioned previously that I'm a big fan of Secunia'more

Seven steps to update the Adobe Flash Player on Windows

Adobe just released version 10 of the free Flash Player Web browser plug-in. The new version (10.0.12.36) replaces version 9,0,124,0 (yes, those are commas, not periods) and includes an important fix for a security flaw known as "clickjacking," as well as fixes for other problems.

Everyone should update their copy of the Flash Player, and this post explains how to do so on Windows machines (the Flash Player also runs on OS X and Linux).

Updating the Flash Player on a Windows machine is unusually cumbersome. In part, this is because the Internet Explorer more

A really cheap Netbook

When I wrote an introduction to Netbooks a couple days ago, I mentioned some of the cheaper models but didn't include any from Asus. From what I'd read, their keyboards were on the smallish side, so that ruled them out for my adult fingers.

But I just ran across two Linux based Asus Eee PCs, model 900, selling for only $300, a price that forgives a multitude of sins.

There are too many Eee models for me to keep straight, but suffice it to say the 900 is last year's model. In the Netbook world, "last year" more

Lenovo and UPS: A problematic pairing

Twice this year I ordered a computer directly from Lenovo and they shipped it via UPS. Both shipments got screwed up.

Back in January I wrote about how UPS lost my computer. That machine, a desktop, was supposedly delivered to the wrong address. Lenovo built and sent a replacement computer and a few days after the replacement computer arrived, and roughly a month after the first one was shipped, the first machine magically showed up.

On October 8th Lenovo shipped me a new S10 Netbook (see The Lenovo S10 Netbook is here, count me in. On the 9th, I checked more

Data theft: What really accounts for it

If you work in a corporation, then you might be interested in a blog posting by Joel Hruska over at Ars Technica that reviews a report by Compuware on how and why corporations lose data.

Compuware surveyed 1,112 "IT practitioners" and found that only 1 percent of data losses could be attributed to hackers.

The other 99 percent? Mostly negligent insiders. The next biggest sources of trouble were outsourcing and malicious employees.

Asked about their employer's ability to monitor and detect information theft, most of those surveyed said their employers did a poor job.

If you like to more

What is a Netbook computer?

Last time, while describing the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, I offered my opinion that Netbook computers will drastically change the computing scene. A quick look at the best selling computers at Amazon.com shows many Netbooks (as of October 15, 2008 the top three computers were all Netbooks). In writing a follow-up posting, I realized that an introduction to Netbooks might be needed. So, here I try to explain just what Netbooks are and how they differ from the millions of laptop computers that existed previously.

A Netbook is a new type of laptop computer, defined by size, price, horsepower, and more

The Lenovo S10 Netbook is here, count me in

The S10 is here, I ordered one yesterday and I'm psyched. The IdeaPad S10 is Lenovo's just-released entry in the Netbook market. "Netbook" is a new term that's applied to cheap small laptops that run either Windows XP Home Edition or Linux. No Vista or OS X here (neither is cheap).

One reason Netbooks are cheap is that they are underpowered, by current standards. Yet, they have more than sufficient horsepower to do the things most people do most of the time.

I think Netbooks will drastically change the computing scene.

For some of us, they should more

Being smart about Web mail

There was an interesting article recently in The New York Times about getting locked out of a Gmail account.

In August, blogger Alan Shimel of StillSecure wrote about his problems regaining access to a Yahoo e-mail account. Suffice it to say that if someone learns your Web mail password, it's a very difficult situation--one that may not end well.

For one thing, the Web mail provider may not know enough about you to determine the true account owner. Worse still, anyone using a free Web mail account from Google (Gmail), Yahoo, or Microsoft (Hotmail) can't expect to talk more

Off topic: Ford Fusion frustration

Things aren't going well at Ford Motors.

The automaker just reported that September sales were down 34.6 percent compared with the same month a year ago. For the first half of 2008, Ford posted net losses of $8.6 billion.

Ford blames a weak economy and a tight lending market. But there may be another factor at work--unhappy customers.

In August, I rented a Ford Fusion from Hertz. When I saw a Microsoft logo under the dashboard, I suspected trouble ahead. Sure enough, it seems that poor design choices, so common in the computing world, have migrated to more