Windows 7 Free For The Next Year….. Sort Of….

The Windows 7 release candidate hit MSDN and TechNet today and it came with a bit of a surprise. According to PC Pro, the release candidate won’t expire until June 1, 2010 which means you’ll get just over a year to play with it free of charge. Of course this is not the final product so you’re using it at your own risk, but it’s still free.

Having said that, it generous of them to make this free until next June. But you have to wonder why they’re doing this. Could it be:

• A sign of confidence as they are expecting people to go out and pay for it AFTER using it for a year and seeing how well it works.
• A sign of desperation given how craptastically Windows Vista has performed.

It’s hard to tell. But I will be downloading the release candidate to try it out tonight. After all, free is good. For those of you who aren’t part of MSDN or TechNET, the public beta will be out May 5th according to winsupersite.com.

Route1 Completes DHS Deal…. Stock Soars… Sort Of….

You might recall that I had talked about a deal that Canadian software company Route1 had landed to provide its remote access services to the Department Of Homeland Security. A press release today indicates that they have completed the installation of their DEFIMNET (DEFense Identity Management NETwork) system:

The DEFIMNET platform also supports the newly introduced Telework Improvements Act of 2009 by enabling United States Government federal employees to securely perform their duties and responsibilities from home or from other work sites removed from their regular place of employment. DEFIMNET enables federal agencies to comply with the Act’s teleworking technology guidelines and incorporates telework into their continuity of operations planning (COOP) strategy, such that mission critical personnel are equipped to telework in time of a catastrophe. DEFIMNET controls access to and protects agency information and information systems, limits the introduction of vulnerabilities and safeguards wireless and other telecommunications capabilities that are used for teleworking.

Given the Swine flu outbreak, this likey couldn’t have been completed at a better time for both parties. This has caused the stock to shoot up from it’s opening value of $0.04 CDN today. Okay, it’s a penny stock on the TSX Venture Exchange that’s currently at $0.055 cents as I type this. But given this little tidbit, it may not be a penny stock for long:

In addition, the Company announced in January 2009 that it had entered into an exclusivity agreement with Qwest, granting Qwest the exclusive rights to resell Route1′s solutions to the U.S. Federal Government for 2009, which would include sales to DHS. In exchange for Route1 granting this exclusivity, Qwest has committed to purchase and accept for delivery in 2009 a minimum of 30,000 Route1 MobiKEY(TM) devices along with 30,000 TruOFFICE one (1) year subscription-based services, which is valued at approximately US$8.0 million. The future reoccurring revenue stream to Route1 from these 30,000 TruOFFICE one (1) year subscription-based services is estimated at US$5.5 million per year.

“With this binding purchase commitment from Qwest in 2009 plus our current subscriber base, we will have surpassed our break-even point on an annualized basis and will start generating positive earnings and cash flows in 2010,” said Andrew White, President and CEO of Route1. “We are proud to be recognized as a leader in the provision of security solutions to a complex organization such as DHS, and look forward to further adding value to other government agencies in the U.S.”

They say that the proof is in the pudding. So we’ll see if this happens for them. All I know is that I use their stuff and it’s  great, so perhaps this is another step to that “big thing” that I spoke about when they originally landed that deal.

Office 2007 SP2 Hits The Streets

Microsoft released Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 today which the company says contains previously unreleased fixes as well as all the public updates, security updates, cumulative updates, and hotfixes released through to February 2009. According to this posting, this service pack is a significant step forward according to Jane Liles, group program manager, Office Sustained Engineering:

Users should notice the improved performance and stability of Outlook, better charting functionality in Excel, and more control over the appearance of SmartArt graphics.

On the server side, IT professionals will notice several enhancements to the security and performance of SharePoint Server 2007, including support for read-only content databases, improvements to forms-based authentication, and an STSADM command-line utility that enables administrators to scan sites that use the variations feature for errors. SharePoint Server will also feature better support for newer versions of the Firefox browser.

Also, having a wider array of file-format choices should really benefit customers. With SP2, Office 2007 now has built-in support for Open XML, ODF and PDF, along with the dozen or so other formats that were already supported in Office 2007.

Supporting a ton of file formats is a big deal. Espically the support for ODF or Open Document Format. I guess that Microsoft clued in that they are not in a position to dictate what file formats the planet uses and decided to get on side with the ones that matter.

Perhaps Microsoft is getting a clue? Time will tell.

Firefox 3.0.10 Is Out…. Wow That’s Quick!!

These days, if you blink you’ll miss a Firefox update. Less than a week after the last Firefox update comes Firefox 3.0.10 which fixes a security issue as well as a “major stability issue.” Check the release notes for more details. To get it, click “Help” followed by “Check For Updates” or you can download it here.

Conficker Wakes Up And Attacks PC’s By Serving Up Spam And Spyware

If you were waiting for the other Conficker shoe to drop, it has now. According to MSNBC, the notorious virus has begun to attack:

Conficker installs a second virus, known as Waledac, that sends out e-mail spam without knowledge of the PC’s owner, along with a fake anti-spyware program, Weafer said.

The Waledac virus recruits the PCs into a second botnet that has existed for several years and specializes in distributing e-mail spam.

“This is probably one of the most sophisticated botnets on the planet. The guys behind this are very professional. They absolutely know what they are doing,” said Paul Ferguson, a senior researcher with Trend Micro Inc, the world’s third-largest security software maker.

So much for the theroy that this was just a lot of hype about nothing. I guess I should mention that if you haven’t taken steps to protect yourself, now is a good time to do so. You could start with this article that I wrote about the virus and work from there.

Canada Revenue Agency Stockpiles Hard Drives Because They Can’t Be Erased….. WTF?

In another installment of “Your Tax Dollars At Work” (at least if you’re Canadian), comes this story. The Canada Revenue Agency (the Canadian version of the IRS), is stockpiling hard drives that contain taxpayers data because they can’t be erased:

About 1,000 obsolete devices have been locked away at offices across the country as technicians search for software that can wipe them clean.

The problem began in October 2007 when the RCMP warned all federal departments that standard disk-erasing software, previously sanctioned by the police force, was no longer reliable.

So-called DSX software “could eventually fail to properly function on newer, larger drives,” said a Mountie bulletin. “Use of the software is ‘at your own risk’. ”

The RCMP’s technical security branch found that DSX left traces of sensitive data on newer drives that can be read by modern devices, a sticky problem known as “data remanence.”

Here’s a free suggestion: They could try Darik’s Boot And Nuke which I talked about previously. Or they could try BCWipe which does the same thing. I’ll even offer my services to help deal with this, for a fee of course.

Microsoft Takes A Hit In Profits… Wishes They Were Apple

Apple came out with stunning quarterly numbers yesterday, but it seems that Microsoft couldn’t do the same today:

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said that in its third quarter, which ended March 31, profit was $2.98-billion, or 33 cents per share. In the same quarter of 2008, Microsoft earned $4.39-billion, or 47 cents per share.

Microsoft’s profit included a $290-million charge for severance from some of the layoffs announced in January. The software maker also wrote down $420-million related to investments that lost value.

Excluding such items, Microsoft said it would have earned 39 cents per share, matching the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

To save you the trouble of doing the math, Microsoft’s profits dropped by 32%. Oh yeah, Microsoft won’t offer any guidance for the coming quarter. A sure sign that business for them will continue to be bad.

Besides chairs being thrown around CEO Steve Ballmer’s office, do you think that Microsoft type are wishing that they were Apple right now?

What’s The Cost Of A Lost Laptop? About $50K.

If you have a company issued laptop, you might want to pay attention to this. If you lose it, the value of that loss is up to $50K [Warning: PDF] according to a recent study:

The average value of a lost laptop is $49,246. This value is based on seven cost components: replacement cost, detection, forensics, data breach, lost intellectual property costs, lost productivity and legal, consulting and regulatory expenses.

And why is that you ask? Simple:

What makes a lost laptop costly to a company is the potential for a data breach to occur. In the cases we studied, the occurrence of a data breach represents 80% of the cost.

That’s not good. Perhaps companies should rethink how they issue laptops to avoid this issue? Or perhaps remote access products like the MobiKEY (which I’ve written about before) are the way to go?

Thoughts? Comments?

Apple Reports $1.2 Billion In Earnings…. Says “What Recession?”

I guess those Microsoft laptop ads haven’t affected Apple at all. I say that because Apple has just posted their earnings and they are in a word, stunning:

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Wow. Clearly the recession isn’t affecting them. But the news isn’t all rosy:

Apple sold 2.22 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a three percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 3.79 million representing 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Okay, so Mac sales and iPod sales were basically flat. But those iPhone sales are off the hook. How does Apple feel about those results?:

“We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.

I bet you are. The markets seem to like this as Apple shares which were down ahead of the earnings report, are up a bit in after hours trading.

If you want all the details straight from Apple HQ, the earnings webcast is available at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq209/ starting at 5PM today.

Time Warner Cable Hints That Network Updgrades Won’t Come Because Users Don’t Like Usage Based Billing

If Time Warner Cable really wants to piss users off, I think they’ve succeeded. These geniuses who came up with a usage based billing scheme, only to back down when it’s customers went ballistic, have now started dropping hints via Alex Dudley’s (VP Public Relations for Time Warner Cable) Twitter feed that planned network speed upgrades are going to be shelved because of the consumer backlash over usage based billing. Just look at some of these comments:

@gigastacey it was scheduled as part of cbb trial, but we all know how you feel about that.

@netpro2k It doesn’t…just that the rollout was scheduled with the trial and now all of it is on hold.

@Stryph Biggest cost is actually bandwidth allocation.

BTW, CBB is Consumption Based Billing which is Time Warner speak for Usage Based Billing.

This Alex Dudley guy has got to be the worst PR droid person since Bell Canada’s Jason Laszlo. If he thinks that his comments aren’t going to cause a backlash, he’s smoking crack. Somebody really needs to smack these idiots into reality. In the meantime my advice is that if Time Warner Cable is going to act like this, it’s time for their customers to change their Internet provider. After all, nothing changes the behaviour of a company like the loss of income.