CHRISdotTODD

With Microsoft's pending release of the consumer version of Windows Vista, there have been many blogs and articles about the pros and cons of moving to Vista. Before I discuss some of the details, need I remind you as I did with iTunes , you DO NOT want to be the first to adopt new software. Let others use it first and see if the reported issues play out or not. Okay, so you are not going to be an early adopter to Vista. If you were recently in need of a PC, you bought one while you could still get XP, right? If you didn't, now is the time to give Apple another shot. Why am I taking this position? Well for one thing, Microsoft completely re-wrote the security layer for Vista, and there certainly will be bugs (and their track record for fixing bugs in a timely manner is abysmal). But don't just take my one reason, let's consider some other compelling arguments. franticindustries recently posted a good article on why power users will hate Vista. Case in point, with the

As companies try to develop a better search engine, it turns out it is much more difficult to dethrone Google than I believe most realize. I looked at four new search engines, Snap , Ms. Dewey , ChaCha , and Rollyo , and found that they all had a long way to go. To be fair, I did not do an exhaustive test, but in most case the user interface is bad enough to not want to use the search engine. In two cases, if you have a particular niche need, you might find help. If you are struggling to find something on the Internet, you might try ChaCha's guided searches, where someone will actually help you. Or, if you search for the same topics over several sites, frequently, Rollyo may be worth a further look. Before I share all the details, as I said, I did not do an exhaustive test. What I did do is search for these four phrases: 1) content effectiveness; 2) fingertip knowledge; 3) Chris Todd; and 4) Excel tips. I also considered that for a successful search, it takes two things: 1) a good

Daniel Berninger posted a great article on GigaOm about how Internet bandwidth providers would need to inspect your data packets to provide non-neutral routing. More importantly than having net neutrality, Mr. Berninger points out the privacy issue of this behavior -- something that telcos are forbidden to do with telephones. So why should they be allowed to with Internet data? I believe he makes a good point. In addition to being no different than telephone calls, it reminds me of the AOL mistake of publishing search data of more than 650,000 users. In the wrong hands, which they could not ever guarantee it wouldn't be, would provide data about everything you do, all your account information, your hobbies, and any other information you want to keep private. Remember that Thelma Arnold was the first person (publicly) found from the AOL data -- and this was only search data, not websites, account numbers, and other data you enter into websites. Perhaps it is time to use the sam

Did you know that you can easily load data from a website into Excel? You can even do it with a Macro for sites you visit often. For example if you were tracking your investments or you were monitoring the stats for fantasy basketball. Collecting the data is 7 easy steps. Select Data from the menu Select Import External Data Select New Web Query... Enter the URL of the page that contains the data to import Excel will recognize tables. Select the table(s) that contains the data you want to import Select the Import button Confirm the first cell of where the data should be inserted That's all there is to it. If you want to create a Macro, use the Macro Recorder (Tools menu) and repeat the steps. You can then add additional code if you want to import different sites into different sheets. Happy data collecting!

I ran across a clever utility, HoeKey , which is used to configure keyboard shortcuts. HoeKey is a small program (only 12k) that with a little configuration, can make daily computing much easier. You can use it to launch programs, modify existing windows, eject a CD, and more. It may sound a bit hokey, but HoeKey can be a big productivity boost for those who prefer the keyboard over the mouse. While you're getting HoeKey, check out the other little utilities available.

Apparently if you are a user of Symantec's security software, and have not kept your software and virus definitions up-to-date, you have been vulnerable to Spybot -- malware that will use your computer in malicious ways. In November of 2006 , Spybot (a varient of the original Spybot from 2003 ) started showing up on machines with Symantec security products; and a fix had been available since May . Clearly there is an issue with folks not keeping their security software up-to-date. Unfortunately if you are a Windows user, your machine is much more likely to be under attack -- hackers looking for vulnerabilities. And the general user population just want to use a computer, not be a technology geek, which seems to be the requirement. I think it is worse than owning a car. With a car, the buy-in cost is much higher, so in general terms, there is more recognition that maintenance is required. Further, there is an infrastructure in place to make it easy to keep up on basic maintenance.

Windows XP has a tendency for the autorun feature to quit working. It is a great feature, and a big headache if you are not real familiar with computers. I found this easy utility that will change your settings and/or fix your corrupt Registry , so that autorun works again. You can download it from The Software Patch . Run it, follow the prompts, and reboot. That's all it takes. The Software Patch also has a handy tool to help you remove files that Windows XP wont let you delete . Once you tell the tool what file you want to delete, reboot your computer and your file will be deleted before Windows XP starts again.