CyberCoyote - December 4, 2008

NEWS and NOTES
Business

Bryson let things get out of hand today (the business meeting stretched from the usual 5 minutes out to 12 or so). Synopsis: We have lots of money. George was authorized to research the purchase of a new laptop to use for demo preparation. Next spring, we will consider a nice contribution to the good of the resort. We don't need a nomination committee — all the officers have agreed to stay on for another year. Yea!

Demonstrations

George showed us a free, but amazing, photo-stitching program today.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. The application takes a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location and creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all the source images at full resolution.

He also took us through the first of four segments of "Accessibility" (making it easier to use your computer). There are demos and such at Microsoft.

Dead on arrival

Those of you monitoring your inboxes may have suspected that as of 5 PM today, not a single soul had responded to the announcement of a Vista class in December. I love it when I can make a sweeping statement like that. :-) Consider it abandoned. Maybe next year... ;-)

Satisfaction

I'm enjoying the change to announcement only distribution for this newsletter. I like being able to make it visually interesting, and it's considerably easier to produce. I hope it's working for you too. :-)

TECH TOPICS
Windows 7 User Interface

The Windows team put up an in-depth look at what they're doing to make using the Windows 7 taskbar, the most used part of the graphic interface, easier and more efficient to use. Dig into it if you're interested in getting a feel for what's coming up. There's also a recent PC Magazine article that shows many screenshots of the Windows 7 user interface. Click the "Print" icon, just above the comments section, to get the 20 pages all on one page (nothing will actually print).

Cruft remover

That's my polite term. :-) The renowned PC Decrapifier's sole purpose is removing cruft from your shiny new computer. Deals you don't want. Pre-installed programs you don't need. Intrusive programs that start automatically and bog down your computer. Cruft like that. A new version has just been released just in time for the holidays. [free for non-commercial use]

SECURITY
Sinowal, the Super-trojan

Woody Leonhard wrote an informative article on this perennial piece of malware. It's a good example of constantly evolving crimeware that just keeps coming back. You don't need to be paranoid to realize how much you need first-class online protection.

How Suite it Is (sorry)

There's a technical term — kludge — for what Security Suites have been until recently. With all their resources, I've wondered why an outfit like Symantec (Norton) never offered a lean, mean security suite. They may have finally produced something that does what a suite should do. Their Norton Internet Security 2009 is getting good reviews. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro v2 has also joined the list of suites that are finally living up to their potential. And Microsoft is working on their own security suite [next item] due out next year. I still prefer to roll my own though.

Microsoft Morro

As in Morro Bay? :-) Windows Live OneCare has always been a so-so malware defense suite. Microsoft has suddenly announced that they will replace OneCare with (currently codenamed) "Morro", a free anti malware product. It will likely be available mid-2009 -- perhaps in conjunction with Windows 7.

It will be interesting to see how good Morro turns out to be. Security programs are greatly misunderstood products. People judge them by how well they work in terms of interfacing with Windows, the user, and other programs. That's important but not imperative.

Security programs should be judged first by how well they defend against known and emerging threats and attacks. Most security programs are less than 90% effective. 10% is a giant hole in the online security game. I'll be looking for how close Morro comes to 100%. Meanwhile, there are still a few good choices to go with. :-)

ODDS and ENDS
Cell phone karma

See why Bryson reminds us to turn off our cell phones before he starts our meetings.

Here kitty, kitty.

On second thought, maybe not — unless you're a 500-pound canary.

Emoticons

Smiley demonstration...

That's all, folks.

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