Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone in the VertexHost family to yours!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/21 at 11:56 PM
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Vista not so safe in 2008

A threat researcher with McAfee’s Avert Labs feels that computer viruses and other malware designed to affect Microsoft Vista will begin to emerge in 2008.  Since its release, Vista has been surprisingly attack-free, but that’s probably because Vista has a market share of less than 10%.  With so few users, it’s just not lucrative enough for hackers to target it.  Vista’s market share is constantly on the rise, however, so next year it should be on the radar of the folks who write viruses, trojans, and other annoyances.  Avert Labs has even gone so far as to predict that Vista will suffer approximately 40 to 45 vulnerabilities in 2008. 

A complete list of Avert Lab’s predictions for 2008 can be found on their website in PDF form.  It’s a huge file, so be patient as you wait for it to download if you choose to view it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/21 at 09:57 AM
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Black Friday beckons

With only 72 hours remaining until the annual retail spectacle known as “Black Friday”, I keep telling myself that I’m not going to get caught up in the hype again.  Every year I salivate over the outrageously low-priced electronics in the sale flyers, but last year was the first time I ever took the bait.  I stayed up all night from Thanksgiving Thursday, onward, determined to get to a major electronics retailer so I could buy a new laptop for half-price.  I arrived at the store in the wee hours of the morning, just before 5am, and was stunned to find that thousands of people had already arrived.  The store didn’t open for another ten minutes, yet people were lined up for hundreds of feet, wrapped around buildings, shivering in the cold blackness.  It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.  My odds of getting into the store at all, let alone putting my hands on one of the 200 sale laptops available, were nil.

On the way home, I stopped by another electronics giant.  This time I was able to get into the store, but the aisles were teeming with mile-high shopping carts.  People who’d been let in when the store opened had thrown everything they could reach into their cart, and large sections of store shelves were already empty.  I found one small item I needed (but which wasn’t on sale), but the wait for a checkout stand must have been close to an hour.  I left, but went next-door to an office supply store which was also open early.  They didn’t have any sale items.  The silence was deafening.

The two things I purchased last Black Friday were an Egg McMuffin and a cappuccino from Starbucks.  I came home, turned on my computer, and went to eBay.  The laptop I’d wanted to buy that morning was probably already up for sale.  I’m positive that a majority of Black Friday shoppers are now resellers, looking to make a profit, and not people just looking for bargains on gifts.  The Internet has changed a lot of things!

This year, I will not leave my house for Black Friday, and I’ll stay snuggled up in bed for as long as possible to enjoy a lazy day. I might be snuggled up with the laptop I eventually bought at full price a few months ago, however.  A few Internet retailers, like Amazon, are having Black Friday specials, and I don’t want to miss them.  Maybe I can get Starbucks to deliver a latte to me.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/20 at 04:13 AM
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Monday, November 19, 2007

Reminisce about the early years of computer gaming

Are you old enough to remember owning a Commodore computer?  The Commodore 64 holds good memories for lots of middle-aged computer users, and it was the first computer system specifically aimed at games and entertainment.  A couple of decades later, Commodore has returned, and they’re again manufacturing desktop computers for gamers.  Sadly, this review of a Commodore model by PC World isn’t particularly shining; the hardware isn’t overly impressive and the price is somewhat inflated.  It’s tough to beat the concept of ”C-kins”, though - they’re Commodore’s impressive desktop case skins, and they’d really make your PC stand out in a crowd!  How can you beat a desktop PC covered in bunnies?

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Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/19 at 04:28 AM
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Sunday, November 18, 2007

Will you buy “The Kindle”?

Tomorrow, Amazon.com will release its first branded piece of technology.  It will be an ebook reader, called “The Kindle”, and it will be able to download and display digital books, magazines, and newspapers from the Internet.  The name implies that you can “burn” your regular books and just rely on the Kindle for your reading needs, but it’s tough to say if this sort of reader will be a big hit.  Sony has had an eReader on the market for some time, the Sony Reader, and no other big companies have bothered to jump in to compete.  I have an eReader from about eight years ago, an old device called the “Rocket Book”, and it never caught on.  Why Amazon felt this would be a good first product for them is a bit of a mystery.  Rumors say the Amazon Kindle will be priced at $399, a full $100 more than the Sony Reader.

I found a ”Kindle Store” listed at Amazon, but for now, it’s blank.  You might want to check back later on Monday to see if there’s any stock, and to look for more details about what makes the Kindle so innovative.

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UPDATE:  Check out CNET’s first impressions of the Kindle.  Amazon, if you’d like to send a Kindle my way, I’d be happy to review it for you!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/18 at 06:01 AM
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