Monthly Computer Chronicle MCC O CTOBER 2007 I N THIS ISSUE: N EWS AND VIEWS By Chuck Hajdú NEWS AND VIEWS 1 ies rhetorical question I’ve ever asked myself. To scare potential Once again MSFT is creating an buyers away from competing prod- atmosphere of Fear, Uncertainty ucts of course! TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT 2 and Doubt (FUD). This time it’s for ROBOFORM2GO the release date of Service Pack 1 Over the years I’ve been subjected for WinV. The latest rumor we’ve to countless MSFT presentations SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF 3 heard is “the second half of 2007”. showing their latest groundbreak- MULTIMEDIA Let’s see, October 1st starts the ing software that will be available second half of the second half of “soon”. Of course, the demo was 2007. Yep, that’s MSFT. BLACKBERRY 8830 5 all vaporware and the whole exer- cise was designed to get them OTTERBOX 1933 CASE 6 Why is SP1 important? Simple, positive ink and cause potential most experienced users always buyers of superior competing prod- 6 OTTO OT-9 EARBUDS wait for the improved version of ucts to delay while they waited for 7 US GLOBALSAT G-SAT GV-370 any MSFT OS. Do you remember MSFT stuff. Win3.0? Win95, before OSR2? LEXMARK C500N 8 WinMe (never SP’d because it was The second part of the WinV SP1 so bad)? I think you get the picture. rumor is that it’s going to be enor- Once SP1 comes out many more mous! I’ve heard a lot of conflicting corporate users will be willing to MATROX DUALHEAD2GO, 9 numbers but everyone agrees that test the waters and start to it’s not just a tweak, it’s more like a SOYO GO.VIDEO 19” LCDS “upgrade” their systems. full .1 version of the OS. 10 SAMSUNG L74 WIDE Once again, the difference in phi- The last bit of news I’ve been fol- losophy for MSFT and the Open lowing is the conflict between Source community is glaringly ob- MSFT and the Open Source com- vious. Would you like to know the LINUX WORLD 2007 11 munity on whether or not MSFT update schedule for all of the Ub- has to comply with the GPL be- untu versions and variations? Just cause of the agreements they’re go to www.ubuntu.com and you’ll making with Linux companies. This THE DEALS GUY 13 find the schedule of updates. will make it to the courts and I pre- dict another MSFT legal loss. Why does MSFT continue to use FUD as a weapon? That’s the eas- MCC MCC OCTOBER 2007 P AGE 2 TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT S IBER SYSTEMS ROBOF ORM2GO By Linda Webb It’s challenging enough to remember your web site login information when at home or at work. But it can be especially difficult to recall that information when you use a computer elsewhere. RoboForm2Go password manager and form-filler software remembers everything for you on a portable USB drive. You simply plug the drive with its special copy of RoboForm Professional into any internet- connected computer. It took about a minute to copy the RoboForm2Go software to my USB test drive. After I opened Internet Explorer, a window confirmed that RoboForm had RoboForm disappear from the computer. And if you launched, and then the RoboForm toolbar appeared happen to remove the drive while your browser is in Internet Explorer, right under the address line. An open, RoboForm does its removal trick, but politely icon was also added to my Windows systray for easy leaves your browser intact for continued use. access to all of RoboForm2Go’s system options. Extra features are plentiful. You can create and pass- Next I logged into a web site, and the RoboForm word-protect identities -- files that hold extensive per- AutoSave window appeared, offering to store my sonal and financial information -- to fill online registra- login data in a passcard. It created a suggested tion forms or complete order checkout pages. Your passcard name, and then saved the website address, passcards can easily be organized into folders. And if plus all of the data needed to fill in the fields on the you already own a RoboForm license for your main login form. computer, you can copy its existing passcards to your RoboForm2Go drive. Once saved, when you open your browser and select a passcard, it launches the website, fills in the login I really liked safenotes, little files where you can pro- information, and then submits it to log you into the tect snippets of secret or sensitive data for quick re- site automatically. Or, if you visit a site for which you call. And instead of the familiar passwords we tend have an existing passcard, you can either have to create that are all too easily hackable, the pass- RoboForm just fill in the word generator can create strong passwords -- and login fields, or have it automatically enter them into password fields for you. both fill the fields and log you in automatically. RoboForm2Go contains no adware or spyware, and supports 28 languages. It runs on Windows com- Passcards are easily ed- puters with Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and itable. And you can set a Firefox. Responses to my two questions were pro- master password to pro- vided in the password-protected online support site tect passcards containing within only hours. sensitive personal or fi- nancial information, a Price: New License, $39.95; Add to existing Robo- comforting idea should Form License, $19.95; RoboForm 2Go USB Drive, your RoboForm2Go drive $9.95 with license purchase get lost or stolen. Minimum requirements: Windows 98, Me, NT4, 2000, 2003, XP or Vista; Internet Explorer 5.5 or later When you remove the Rating: 6 of 6 Linda Webb, M.Ed. USB drive, all traces of www.roboform.com Emerging Technology Editor MCC MCC OCTOBER 2007 P AGE 3 SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF MULTIMEDIA MICROSOFT WIRELESS LASER DESKTOP 5000 By George Harding Wow, what a collection of useful stuff! This Microsoft product packages a keyboard and a mouse which intends to eliminate your regular keyboard and mouse. The two are still separate, but are connected to the computer not by wires, but by a wireless con- nection. The mouse operates with a laser, which replaces both the old ball type mouse and the newer optical mouse. The mouse is ergonomically shaped to fit your hand, with grooves on both sides. There are two buttons on the upper left side and upper right side of buttons on keyboard and mouse are used to signal the mouse, buttons not usually present on a mouse. the receiver. If the receiver doesn’t recognize either one, one problem may be that the devices are too The upper left and right buttons can be assigned to far away or are physically blocked. The Help manual any function you wish. The default assignment is points out that the maximum distance for the mouse Back (as with a web page) for the upper left button, is about 6 feet from the receiver, but does not men- and Magnify for tion a distance for the keyboard; presumably it also the upper right is 6 feet. button. Magnify is a better magnify When either device is not recognized by the re- than the one that ceiver, the procedure is to reset both with the con- ships with Win- nection button, then re-signal with the receiver. That dows, because worked for me. you can increase or decrease the Both the keyboard and the mouse require two AA size of the magni- batteries, which are provided in the product pack- fication window. age. The package also contains a Help manual, It’s easy to use which gives very little actual help. There are 8 and you can turn pages, each of which has a picture and an instruc- it off by clicking tion; the English instruction is repeated in four other the upper right languages. One further manual is included, with 53 button again. pages of warnings of various sorts and support con- tact info; all is repeated in four other languages. The back end of the mouse has a small triangular button used to communicate with The package also contains a CD-ROM, which in- the wireless receiver. There is a stalls the drivers for mouse and keyboard, as well as similar button on the underside Help files for each. These files are the real source of the keyboard as well. The re- for help on understanding the mouse and keyboard ceiver is an small oval block functions. which is connected to a USB port on your computer. Physical installation is simple. First the CD-ROM to install drivers, then connect the receiver to a USB To make both the keyboard and port, then install the batteries in keyboard and mouse work, they must be prop- mouse. Both units should now work. It is not neces- erly connected wirelessly. Mak- sary to disconnect your prior keyboard and mouse, ing this connection was trouble- though you probably will. Some BIOSes will object if some for me. The connection George Harding (Continued on page 4) MCC OCTOBER 2007 P AGE 4 SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF MULTIMEDIA (Continued from page 3) to go to previous and next pages without having to no keyboard is attached to the keyboard port. click on the Back and Forward browser buttons. The keyboard has a very nice, quiet touch. It is ergo- Next on the left comes a group of six buttons, each nomic, being slightly sloped away from you to keep of which is labeled fairly intuitively.