Nick Bradbury just put a great post on his blog titled Why do firewalls have to be such a PITA? Right, software firewalls are generally a serious pain, and so are “security suites”.

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A couple of days ago I spent the evening helping a not particularly computer savvy friend to set up her new Windows laptop computer. Among other things, she wanted me to set up Skype for her and during the installation process I created an account and asked her what user nickname and password she would like to use. The resulting conversation made me realize that computer security is not going to happen in our lifetimes.

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The Sony K800i as an MP3 player

December 4th, 2006

Steve Jobs and everyone else at Apple must sometimes wonder why their competitors make everything so easy for them — it must feel like shooting fish in a barrel. I just updated my cellphone account and got a new Sony Ericsson K800i as part of the deal. Among other things, this phone has full MP3 player capabilities, and since you can insert a memory card with up to 1GB of storage you could theoretically put quite a few songs and podcasts on it.

If only…

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Alongside all their travails with the Playstation 3, the audio CD rootkit disaster and the fact that a Korean manufacturer (Samsung) is in the process of taking over their former position as Asia’s leading innovative tech company, Sony now has the dubious distinction of being the manufacturer of a series of high-end laptops with the world’s worst keyboard.

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Like many geeks I tend to be treated as the universal computer guru resource and free support line and repair shop by many of my friends, at any time of the day or night. Liked many others in my position, I’m always trying to find ways to reduce my FFSO in an effort to get a life back. The Mac’s easy-to-use operating system and programs once seemed to be the ideal solution.

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Even though I work in the Windows software industry, I’m still planning to switch all my hardware from PC to Mac as soon as possible. I know that there are a lot of “practical” reasons to switch, but if I really look at my own motives those aren’t really the reasons. The real reasons are more emotional than practical.

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