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IPv6 calls renewed at IGF

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-15T13:45:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Sunday 15 November 2009 at 13:45:00

Regional Internet Registries call for responsible management of IP addresses

The fourth annual Internet Governance Forum kicks off in Egypt today, with registry group the Number Resource Organization (NRO) using the event to highlight the importance of fair access to internet number resources across all regions, and the need for the move to IPv6.

The NRO, which is comprised of the world’s five Regional Internet Registries, will argue that responsible management of IP addresses is vital to the future success of the internet. It pointed out that 90 per cent of the current IPv4 addresses have already been allocated, making the migration to the new protocol a matter of urgency.

"The RIRs will each receive one of the last five blocks of IPv4 addresses from IANA at the same time," said Raúl Echeberría, executive director of the Latin Ameican and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry.

"Because the RIRs’ that serve the least developed regions (LACNIC and AfriNIC) allocate addresses at a slower rate, it is likely that we will continue to allocate IPv4 addresses after the other RIRs have run out. This will allow these developing regions some critical extra time to deploy IPv6 efficiently and effectively.

“Regardless of the exact date of IPv4 address exhaustion, the NRO, and the RIR system that it represents, will ensure that IPv6 addresses are distributed responsibly and fairly.”

Developers walk out on App Store

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-14T13:51:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 13:51:00

Increasing frustration with Apple's approvals process

Just a day after the developer of the popular iPhone Facebook app turned his back on the project, another high profile developer has walked away from the ecosystem after expressing dismay at the reviews process.

Rogue Ameoba, the firm which makes the popular Airfoil software for the iconic device had its Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0 software approved months ago by Cupertino, but the firm then discovered a bug which they duly fixed by creating an update – version 1.0.1.

Paul Kafasis, chief executive of Rogue Ameoba, explained in a blog posting that despite the new version being merely a bug fix and identical in functionality to the original, it took Apple over three and half months to approve.

He added that a key reason for the delays was that the app used “Apple Logo and Apple-owned Graphic Symbols”, even though it used them according to Apple’s own fair usage rules.

“Apple is acting as a gatekeeper, and preventing you from getting the software that developers such as ourselves are trying to provide you,” wrote Kafasis.

“We wanted to ship a simple bug fix, and it took almost four months of slow replies, delays, and dithering by Apple. All the while, our buggy, and supposedly infringing version, was still available. There’s no other word for that but ‘broken’.”

Kafasis and his firm seem not to be alone in their frustration with Apple’s App Store approvals process. Joe Hewitt, who developed the hugely popular and high profile Facebook app for the iPhone also quit the ecosystem, telling TechCrunch, “I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process.”

Microsoft opens up Windows 7 to advertisers

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-14T13:45:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 13:45:00

Redmond sells desktop branding experience

Microsoft has taken the unprecedented step of allowing marketers to re-brand its new Windows 7 operating system.

Redmond announced yesterday new “Windows 7 theme experiences” which are currently being trialled by a handful of big name brands, including Ducati, Porsche and Twentieth Century Fox.

The Windows Theme Experience includes Internet Explorer 8 add-ons, Windows 7 and Windows Vista Web-connected gadgets, Windows 7 backgrounds and borders, and operating system audio elements, all designed to help advertisers better connect with consumers.

The Windows Personalisation Gallery, meanwhile, gives advertisers the opportunity to use backgrounds, slide shows, borders and application audio elements to push their brands via the desktop experience.

“The new Windows Theme Experience and Windows Personalisation Gallery in Windows 7 allow consumers to customise their technology to reflect the things in life they are most passionate about,” said Darren Huston, corporate vice president of the Consumer & Online organisation at Microsoft.

“These are great examples of Microsoft innovation and technology coming together to enable top global brands to reach audiences in new and interesting ways.”

Although the move may strike some observers as a strange one for Microsoft, which has never sold desktop space before in this way, it clearly shows the firm seeking to boost income from areas hitherto untapped.

The themes can be downloaded from the Personalisation Gallery, although they are being promoted on an opt-in basis.

Top 10 issues overloading IT managers

Iain Thomson and Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-14T05:04:00.000Z

Iain Thomson and Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 05:04:00

Things that cause sleepless nights for the IT plumbers

As we bring our Information Overload summit to a close, we have decided to name and rank the biggest culprits for the overload, the issues which more than anything else are causing companies to drown in a deluge of data.

Some of these problems have been around since the dawn of the computer age. Others are new, brought about by new technologies and different ways of working and servicing IT infrastructure. Nevertheless they all cut into the IT manager's time.

Honourable mention: Web management

Iain Thomson: Watching what people are doing on the internet is one of those tasks that IT managers are increasingly being tasked with, but I've yet to meet one that like the job.

Managers are increasingly overloaded these days and the prevailing view is they have more than enough on their plate without playing censor to an entire company. Yes, if someone's spending all their time looking at porn on the internet that's an issue for a company, but it's a problem in management, not in IT, seems to be the prevailing view.

If a company is that worried about web management then they should hire the services of someone like Websense to do the job for them, not force stretched IT departments to take up the role. The only time the IT department should get involved is after a complaint – either from someone on the floor who's spotted what's going on or from a manager who's concerned about lost productivity.

Shaun Nichols: The tasks of monitoring and managing web access has only become more difficult as interest in new web services has grown. Now, sites such as Twitter and Facebook aren't purely for consumers, but many companies are also making use of them for promotion and customer relations.

This means that simply blocking everyone off from these services is no longer possible, as they have become work tools.

At the same time, more and more new sites are popping up, more blogging platforms, social networks and casual gaming portals are emerging every day, making it far more difficult to keep up with what can and can't be blocked.

Then on top of it all, there's the ever-growing ranks of malware infections and phishing scams connected to web applications and tools, making the risk of security breaches through the browser stronger than ever.

As such, the task of web management at the corporate level is becoming both more complex and crucial at a most inopportune time.

Honourable mention- Integration of Web 2.0 tools

Shaun Nichols: It's one thing to have to deal with cloud computing, taking existing processes and applications online. It's another headache entirely when you're asked to find completely new uses for web tools.

We've all known at least one or two bosses and executives that love to throw about the latest buzzwords and demand that everyone adopt the latest business crazes, even if nobody is completely sure why they are doing so. Blogs, wikis and social networks are increasingly popular for companies as internal tools, and their implementation can be quite a task for IT staffs, particularly when nobody is quite sure how they will be used.

The only reason that we haven't placed this issue higher on the list is because it isn't really IT's problem. Yes, setting up and managing those services takes a bit of time and effort, but the real issue is how those services will be used, and that is mainly the concern of executives, managers and end users.

Web 2.0 tools can be very valuable to a company, but they are only useful when implemented correctly and used to improve communication and collaboration. Really, it's far more a human issue than a technological one.

Iain Thomson: The growth of Web 2.0 has caused some additional headaches for IT managers, but it's not as bad as it could have been.

Because much of this content is user generated then the demands on the T ma nager's time aren't too onerous. It's setting up the systems in the first place that's the real time waster.

A lot of I managers have also been rather smart about how they deploy such systems. Increasingly they will set them up, but in the spirit of user generated content they are tapping the users to police and edit such information. It's a smart move, but also a logical one.

10. Cloud integration

Iain Thomson: In many ways cloud is nothing more than a fashionable term from client/server but no matter – it's this year's thing and as such there's strong pressure on IT managers to get into cloud services.

While cloud computing offers many advantages it is increasingly looking like firms are better off hiring third parties to set up and run a cloud infrastructure. EMC is currently working with Intel to set up a do it yourself cloud system and Amazon is involved too. But building a cloud syste3m from scratch is still an enormous responsibility.

It's also something that shouldn't be rushed into. Some board members don't seem to get this. A cloud system is incredibly complicated to set up and operate and the consequences if it all goes wrong are huge.

Shaun Nichols: One of the biggest problems of could integration is that not everything goes into the cloud. As a result, companies are left with a mixture of cloud-based services and locally-stored applications.

This presents several headaches, the first of which is integration. How do you get your cloud applications compatible with your other applications, and how do you make sure that everyone is on the same page?

Then there's the management issue. Instead of simply having to manage who has access to applications and accounts on the local network, administrators now also have to keep track of online identities and access to web based services.

9. Internal/external data breaches

Shaun Nichols: IT has enough to worry about these days, and adding new security worries only adds to the problem.

Companies should already have policies and protections in place to deal with security and data breaches, but the growing piles of data only make it harder. As new storage systems go live and archives expand, the task of managing and tracking access only gets harder, and sometimes files and users can slip through the cracks.

Then of course there's the worry that not only are files left unencrypted and drives unaccounted for, there's also the possibility that people purposely decide to steal data and destroy systems. With more data than ever and fewer people to manage it, the chances of a disgruntled employee causing damage to a system only increase.

Iain Thomson: As we're seeing the greatest threat to a company's data is not the spooky external hacker, but the enemy within.

The insider problem is something that IT managers are only just getting to grips with. The biggest threat is still the clueless user – the idiot who decides to set up their own Wi-Fi point and forgets to lock it, the user who clicks on an unidentified attachment or the half-wit who sets their password as Passw0rd.

But there is also the problem of the wilful thief. This can either be the employee who is leaving for another job with a competitor and is sweetening the deal by bringing over corporate data or someone with a grudge who wants to cause harm. With more and more people getting laid off it's this scenario that is increasingly a concern.

8. OS migration

Iain Thomson: Shaun and I disputed this in the list, with Shaun thinking it should barely have made an honourable mention. But with the launch of Windows 7 it's higher on the priority list than it has been in the past.

Windows 7 is going to make operating system migration a much bigger deal than it has been in the past. Most companies have steered clear of upgrading from XP to Windows Vista because of the failings of that operating system. Instead XP, which is stable, has been left to rule the roost.

However, upgrading these systems to XP is going to be a major headache. To move from XP to Windows 7 will require a full system wipe and that spells a lot of trouble. I suspect IT managers are going to simply suggest a full hardware upgrade instead.

For those corporates not in Windows the problem is much simpler. If you're running Linux then the steps for upgrading the operating systems are much simpler but still problematical. If Apple is the company's operating system of choice then the job is also less difficult, but such companies make up a tiny fraction of the market.

Shaun Nichols: Last week we noted that the operating system was becoming less and less relevant to the actual practice of computing. And while I maintain that belief, I must also concede that it's still a huge issue, particularly in times of transition, such as what we are now in with the move to Windows 7.

This latest transition could be especially tough for the many companies who opted not to move to Windows Vista. For those companies, there is the unenviable task of taking stock of which machines are capable of running Windows 7 and which will need to be upgraded or replaced.

If you decide to switch to Linux or OS X, you have other headaches to deal with, such as making sure you have the same applications or at least new ones which can handle the old files. While operating systems have become far more compatible in recent years, there are still big problems to deal with.

7. Patch deployment

Shaun Nichols: This is a given to anyone who has spent time in enterprise IT. With more users, more workstations and more software to manage, the process of installing patches and fixes only becomes more difficult.

The addition of virtualised machines and servers only makes things more complicated, particularly as malware loads increase and exploits become increasingly common and dangerous.

One bit of relief has come from the vendors. Companies such as Microsoft, Adobe and Oracle have begun issuing regular, scheduled updates rather than issue individual fixes for each bug. This allows administrators to set a date and plan ahead for testing and deployment of patches. The down side is that this can leave machines vulnerable for a longer amounts of time, but for most the trade off is more than welcome.

Iain Thomson: Patching has certainly improved, and the lot of the IT manager has got a lot easier. But not so fast Shaun, a lot of these easing up has come from a difference in malware writing rather than a great effort from application and operating system vendors.

In the good old days when malware writers were simply maladjusted amateurs computer networks were beset by worms whose jobs was to spread as fast as possible and provide the author with bragging rights. In such circumstances when a worm hit the IT manager had to drop everything and patch systems as soon as possible.

But these days the opposite is true. Malware writers want to get in under the radar and steal all that valuable information without being recognised. Patching is still essential, but the need for it is less visible and I fear this may be fostering a dangerous sense of complacency, particularly given the speed with which patches are reverse engineered.

6. Remote workers

Iain Thomson: It's difficult to dispute the value of home working in most cases. People working from home are generally more productive, happier and healthier than their office brethren. I can say this with some confidence since both Shaun and I are writing this in the comfort of our own homes and communicating electronically.

But home workers are often not the friend of the IT manager, under certain circumstances. If the worker is using their own PC at home then it is an unknown quantity and the IT managerm can't control the security settings on the remote worker's computer. The one time (we know about) that Microsoft has lost source code for example came about because a home worker got an infection and allowed hackers into the network.

The other problem comes when staff are working overseas on business trips. When you entering the US and many other countries then the government retains the right to take a copy of the hard drive of any computer entering the country and that can be a security nightmare.

The simplest way to handle this is to issue company hardware to remote workers. For those working from home this ensures that security standards are kept. For those travelling a blank laptop can be issued and then confidential data can be sent via VPN once the traveller has cleared customs.

Shaun Nichols: Iain, we are lucky in that we were working from a branch office to start with. Since even when we are in San Francisco we're remotely accessing systems based in London, telecommuting is pretty much a non-issue. It's also a nice snapshot of just how much we take for granted the work behind setting things up for remote workers.

For IT staff, this sort of thing can be a major headache, as evidenced by the number of companies which specialize in setting up and managing network access and management for telecommuters. Aside from the headaches of leaving the network open to outside connections, there's also the matter of access controls and oversight of what information is being accessed and stored.

As Iain noted, one good way to solve this is to simply issue employees with hardware for home use, but not every company has an extra notebook to hand out, and sometimes employees will simply insist on connecting with their own machines. Either way, you're left with more machines to manage and more traffic to worry about.

5. Compliance

Shaun Nichols: Whether its Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA or any of the other regulatory acts, more and more firms are being tested with compliance regulations. Dictating everything from access policies to the use of encryption, local and federal laws are making file protection and management mandatory.

This is a big enough issue on its own, but when combined with the increasing amounts of data and stricter financial pressures, ensuring that everything is in compliance can become a huge task.

What's even more troublesome is the risk involved with not being in compliance. Violations alone can be bad for a company, but should a massive data breach or other incident occur while a company was not meeting government standards, the consequences could be devastating.

Iain Thomson: While regulations are essential for the maintenance of stable, beneficial capitalism they are also the bane of the IT managers life.

Companies are increasingly having to hold increasing amounts of information in order to comply with the regulations government has been laying down, and it needs to be stored for years but accessible when the auditors come knocking.

When these regulations were first brought in management just threw up their hands and ordered the IT department to save everything. After all, storage was dirt cheap and getting a few hundred extra gigabytes cost a pittance compared to the fines the company would accrue if they were found to be in breach of the law.

This however is no longer sustainable. The amount of data companies are generating and the costs of keeping it are growing at such a rate that we are going to need new storage options, or better regulations.

4. Overmanagement by non-IT staff

Iain Thomson: To my mind this should have been higher but Shaun talked me down. I've just lost count of the number of IT managers moaning about the fact that they are being asked to do the impossible by management that have no idea about technology.

The cycle usually goes like this. A salesperson gets a meeting with a senior manager and promises them the moon on a stick with a flashy demo, lots of promises and occasionally a night on the town. I know of one senior IT salesman with a large corporation that can get virtually anythingt through expenses in the quest for a contract – hookers included.

The manager who's been one over then tells the IT manager about this new technology and insists that it be implemented. With any luck they will do this before the contract has been signed, since they need the IT manager to tell them if the plan is feasible or not. However, it isn't unknown for the whole deal to be signed and sealed before the IT manager even knows about it.

The second way this manifests itself is when managers ask for the impossible. They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and this is true, especially in IT. There are too many cases of managers watching something like 24 and ordering such systems to be installed in their company, only to be told that they are living in a fantasy world, in the nicest possible way.

Shaun Nichols: There's the old saying that too many cooks spoils the broth. It's even worse if several of those cooks lack the culinary skills to make so much as a bowl of cereal.

We're still in a strange era in that a great many senior executives are at an age where they need to know technology but are just not able to completely grasp it. The type of people who only a few years ago learned how to send email and still worry about teenage anarchists "hacking the mainframe." These are the same people who see IBM commercials during golf telecasts and on Monday morning say "I was watching Tiger Woods sink a putt this weekend when I got this idea I think we should try…"

Add the aforementioned to Iain's picture of slick salespeople and junior executives who feel it is fine to promise the world and then dump all the actual planning and implementation off on the IT people, and you can understand why your company's tech staff can be more than a bit cranky at times.

3. Virtualisation

Shaun Nichols: Virtualisation can be a great way to save money, increase efficiency and generally give IT departments much more to work with.

Unfortunately, it can also make things far more complicated. The problem is elementary: you take one physical server and turn in into several virtual ones, and you will be left having to monitor, manage and maintain far more servers than you ever had to before.

The number of tools and systems for managing and monitoring virtualised server deployments is growing every day, which only pays further testimony to how complex the task can be. Not only do you have to manage the various virtualised servers themselves, but there is also the hypervisor and virtualisation platform as well as the server hardware itself.

All in all, a virtualisation deployment can be a major asset to a company, but it can also be a nightmare for IT when problems arise.

Iain Thomson: Virtualisation is like living in the Playboy mansion with a whisky swimming pool – great idea but in practice it can be less than edifying, as anyone who's seen Hugh Heffner or the effects of liver failure can tell you.

Nevertheless it is the wave of the future, and as some have pointed out can bring major cost savings in terms of operation costs. But the downside is increased management time and complexity.

There's no getting around the fact that we will all be running a lot more virtualised servers in the future. But how we handle them will be the true test of the technology. I suspect that we're going to see a major shift in management tool technology, of the same scope as the shift to object orientated programming revolutionised the software industry. It is needed, and cannot come soon enough.

2. Storage

Iain Thomson: As companies and individuals we are now generating more content than at any point in human history. We're also having to store it for compliance purposes and this presents the IT manager with something of a problem.

It's an understandable human need to store everything that's done online. However, simply storing the data isn't the only problem, it's when someone wants to access it that the real fun kicks in. A good storage strategy needs to address both concerns.

Storage is essential, particularly off-site storage. If the company takes a physical hit you need off-site backup to be safe. In my first journalism job we had a break in and lost all our hardware, with two issues of the magazine and one handbook on and no backups. It took three weeks of hard labour (ie 100 hour weeks) to pull us back from financial ruin.

So an IT manager needs to be a master of the craft. Simply copying everything on the hard drives takes a huge amount of space and is rather wasteful. After all if someone has sent a large Powerpoint presentation to fifty staff there's no point in saving it 49 times when once will do. This explains why the bidding for Data Domains was so fierce.

Storage also remains a security problem. It's scary how often companies create storage systems that don't involve encryption. Miss this and the company not only faces a loss of data but also a law suit.

Shaun Nichols: This is of course the heart of information overload. We are creating more content than ever, through more channels than ever, with more tools than ever and it all has to go somewhere.

No matter how many analysts, hardware vendors or service providers we talk to, the warning is always the same: don't just throw more hard drives at the problem. Archives have become so large and so complex that it's not sufficient to simply increase the storage volume any more. Indeed, with budgets shrinking it isn't even possible for many companies.

Instead, the constant theme seems to be make better use of the storage you have. Iain mentioned de-duplication, erasing multiple copies of a file you only need to back up once. Other suggested fixes include tiering data, moving to online backup systems and using snapshots rather than full system backups.

Whatever the remedy, it's clear that simply expanding storage isn't enough any more, companies have to take a new look at how they manage their data and approach storage.

1. Budget constraints

Shaun Nichols: There's never a good time for a recession, but from a technological standpoint, this latest one could not have hit at a worse time.

Advances in hardware, software and network technology have given birth to entirely new fields of the industry, and just as many companies were looking to see the fruits of those new technologies, the economy took a dive and IT budgets everywhere took a major hit.

When you get down to it, the top two items on the list are pretty much interchangeable. The amount of data keeps growing and the budget for managing it keeps shrinking. From these two issues the entire problem of information overload really springs.

The crisis may, however, have a silver lining. Just as the Great Depression brought about economic and social reforms that improved the quality of life in later decades, this latest recession could necessitate advances in the approach to IT management and the business culture that will help speed up the recovery.

Having learned how to do more with less, IT departments could emerge from the crisis better able to manage their systems and with a greater understanding of how to squeeze the most out of the resources on hand.

Iain Thomson: Oh Shaun, you are a little ray of sunshine at times. I hope you're right about the recession being a good thing.

There is never enough money to do everything in IT. The only people with unlimited budgets are government security systems and even they must bow to the accountants at times. I suspect in a hundred years from now IT managers will still be complaining about having to do too much with too little funding, unless we're reached the Singularity by then and are no longer running the show (and I for one welcome our new overlords.)

But your broader point you may have hit the nail on the head. We have to learn to do more with less, and if the recession helps that then it's certainly a silver lining in a very dark cloud.

Programmers charged in Madoff case

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-14T03:13:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 03:13:00

Developers took payoff to cover up Ponzi scheme

A pair of computer programmers have been charged by the US government for their roles in the infamous Bernie Madoff case.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), developers George Perez and Jerome O'Hara helped Madoff run his elaborate Ponzi scheme for some 15 years by falsifying computer records and forging financial documents. The men are said to have played a crucial role in Madoff's multi-billion dollar scam.

The commission alleges that the two programmers helped Madoff by creating phony trade records and stock reports to cover up non-existent transactions. Additionally, the SEC said that the two maintained a system known as "House 17" which created falsified documents and reports.

"Without the help of O'Hara and Perez, the Madoff fraud would not have been possible," said SEC New York regional director George Canellos.

"They used their special computer skills to create sophisticated, credible and entirely phony trading records that were critical to the success of Madoff's scheme for so many years."

At one point, the commission said that O'Hara became unsure about his role and threatened to leave the operation. Madoff is said to have retained the two by raising their salaries 25 per cent and giving each a $60,000 bonus.

The commission is asking that the men turn over the money along with other earnings from the work, in addition to imposing other financial penalties. Additionally, the pair could face up to 30 years in prison on related criminal charges.

Activists launch online copyright database

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-14T03:04:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 03:04:00

Copyright Watch will catalogue international laws

A number of advocacy groups are teaming up for the launch of a new copyright database.

The new Copyright Watch site is slated to serve as a reference base for users on copyright laws around the world. Amongst the groups participating in the effort are the US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL.)

By providing clear explanations of local and international copyright laws, the groups hope to keep users from running afoul of regulations and avoiding suits from copyright holders.

The groups hope that the new site will serve as a single destination for users looking to obtain information on copyright laws both within their own countries and in locations around the world.

"Details of copyright law used to be important only for a few people in creative industries," said EFF international outreach coordinator Danny O'Brien.

"But now, with the growth of the Internet and other digital tools, we are all authors, publishers, and sharers of copyrighted works."

Additionally, the groups hope that the site can highlight the differences in copyright laws around the world and help push lawmakers to reassess copyright laws which may be overly restrictive or at odds with those around the world.

OpenSuse project releases major update

David Neal — 2009-11-13T16:22:00.000Z

David Neal, V3.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 at 16:22:00

New version boasts new collaboration tools and better security

The Novell-sponsored OpenSuse Project has announced that a new version of its namesake operating system is available now.

OpenSuse 11.2 is a free secure Linux-based operating system, featuring the latest versions of Firefox, OpenOffice, Gnome and KDE, and about 1,000 other open-source desktop applications, server software and development tools.

The latest version of OpenOffice – 3.1 – includes enhancements to its change tracking and collaboration tools, new social networking tools including microblogging clients Gwibber and Choqok, a major update to the KDE platform, and the latest incarnation of the Gnome desktop.

Storage provisioning has also been improved, and functionality which allows users to encrypt an entire hard drive.

Also included is the first preview of WebYaST, a new, simple-to-use, web-based remote management and administration tool, and installation improvements such as the ability to boot up from a USB.

The release is available in four versions for both x86 and x86-64 platforms.

RSA shuts down scam site

David Neal — 2009-11-13T15:45:00.000Z

David Neal, V3.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 at 15:45:00

Job seekers scammed by shipping crims

RSA Security's research lab, AKA FraudAction, has shut down a scam involving reshipping and cash mules.

In a blog post, the firm said the scam involved a recruitment ad on a bogus web site for a fake parcel delivery firm. Luckily, the web site was so riddled with errors that most people who were lured to it got wise to the con.

RSA said that "candidates" were asked to send in their personal information as part of the application process. Apparently, 1,900 people fell for the ruse and lost sensitive personal information as a result.

The company said the site contained several tell-tale signs of fraudsters at work. "For example," it wrote, "the copy written in English is not very good, and there is too much of it. A new warehouse is noted in Latvia, a country where fraudsters often dwell.”

The blog post concluded with the warning: "What makes these scams even more attractive is that they offer 'easy money' while working from home. While these jobs may sound alluring, they can oftentimes be completely illegal."

Transmute 1.65

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-14T15:53:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 15:53:00

Quickly convert your bookmarks between browsers

Most of us use the same web browser across multiple computers. Synchronisation tools such as Mozilla Weave or Foxmarks enable us to keep the same bookmarks across various computers where you have Firefox installed. It’s a seamless process. Just add a website to your bookmarks and, when you start up your other computer, you’ll find the same bookmark updated in Firefox.

Snag is, we don’t always use the same browser on every machine. Some users prefer Firefox on their Windows desktop and Safari on their Mac-based laptop. Now with Google Chrome, some users have moved to this as their browser of choice. Sadly there’s no Mac or Linux version available.

Synchronising different bookmarks across your computers is another problem entirely. You can’t synchronise your Firefox and Safari bookmarks, automatically.

Transmute is an answer to this problem. It is a simple conversion tool that enables you to import bookmarks from one browser and then export for another. For example, load the bookmarks from Google Chrome on your Windows desktop and export for Apple Safari on your Mac.

The only downside is that this app is Windows-only, so you can’t convert between your Mac browsers.

Transmute Portable 1.65

Lee Collins — 2009-11-14T11:54:00.000Z

Lee Collins, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 11:54:00

Quickly convert your bookmarks between browsers

Synchronising different bookmarks across your computers is another problem entirely. You can’t synchronise your Firefox and Safari bookmarks, automatically.

The only downside is that this app is Windows-only, so you can’t convert between your Mac browsers.

Note that this is the portable version of Transmute.

Wine 1.1.33

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-14T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Saturday 14 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Run Windows apps on a Unix system

This is the software publisher's description.

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix.

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.

The Wine project started in 1993 as a way to support running Windows 3.1 programs on Linux. Bob Amstadt was the original coordinator, but turned it over fairly early on to Alexandre Julliard, who has run it ever since. Over the years, ports for other Unixes have been added, along with support for Win32 as Win32 applications became popular.

Wine is still under development, and it is not yet suitable for general use. Nevertheless, many people find it useful in running a growing number of Windows programs. Please see the Application Database for success and failure reports for hundreds of Windows programs, as well as the Bug Tracking Database for a list of known issues, and the Status page for a global view on Wine's implementation progress.

Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-13T12:05:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 at 12:05:00

Burn audio or data discs quickly & easily with this full commercial application

Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 is a simple, yet powerful suite that aims to get back to the disc burning basics. No bloat, no unnecessary features, no confusing options to get in your way, just the core functionality you need delivered through an easy-to-use wizard-based interface.

In just one click you can be creating a simple data disc, for instance (CD, DVD or Blu-ray). Drag and drop the files or folders you need onto the work area, and the disc can be burned in another two clicks.

It's just as easy to create an audio, Video or Super Video CD. Point and click, drag and drop your files, click Next > Write and watch as your disc is burned. The interface is virtually identical in every case, so once you've used one you'll feel at home with them all.

A handy design tool will help you create attractive disc covers, labels and booklets. (Don't worry if you're artistically challenged - there are plenty of bundled templates to choose from.)

There's all the usual supporting functionality you expect from any disc burning package: you can copy discs, erase rewriteable discs, rip audio CDs, and work with several types of disc image (ISO, CUE/BIN, ASHDISC).

And just in case that's not quite enough, Ashampoo also throw in a very competent backup tool. This displays the contents of your hard drive in an Explorer-like tree, letting you check boxes to decide which files and folders you'd like to back up. Customisable filters reduce the backup size by excluding files you don't need. Then the backup can be saved to CD/ DVD/ Blu-ray disc, with the program automatically splitting the backup across multiple discs if it's too large.

How Do Get Your Serial Code

You need a serial code to use Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010. Leave "Get full version key" checked during installation to start the process of receiving your free registration key

UPGRADE OFFER - save 75% on Ashampoo Burning Studio 9

Upgrade to Ashampoo Burning Studio 9 and you'll gain features like the ability to create animated DVD slideshows from your favourite photos. You can now create DVD movies from QuickTime source files (amongst many other supported formats), preview them with sound, then burn them to video DVDs. And the whole process has been optimised for even better performance and compatibility. The program would normally cost £34.99, but as a registered owner of Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 you can upgrade for only £7.49, a chunky 75% discount. Click Internet > Upgrade to Ashampoo Burning Studio 9 to place your order.

SmartDraw 2010

Paul Rowlingson — 2009-11-13T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Rowlingson, V3.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Drawing tool for business diagrams

Whether you need to design a flowchart, floor plan, map, flyer, timeline or engineering and science diagram, SmartDraw can help. The best part is that you don't even have to know how to draw.

Every possible graphic available is viewable within the useful graphic explorer at the side of a document, enabling you to see clearly the immense range of graphics available.

Simply drag-and-drop required shapes onto your document and, for the uninitiated, built in hints will guide you through every possible process. Fully compliant with Word, Excel and WordPerfect among many others, SmartDraw can be exported into these programs. Word and Excel documents can also be added to a SmartDraw diagram.

The new SmartDraw 2007 contains a number of new enhancements, including:

* Better Graphics with all-new special effects - see all the enhanced graphic capability built into SmartDraw 2007.

* Faster Results, thanks to SmartTemplates that almost automatically create correct flowcharts, Gantt charts, software design diagrams, electrical engineering diagrams, ecomaps, genograms, floor plans, and more.

* Easier next-generation user interface puts tools and functions into intuitive groups for quicker access. And, SmartPanels give you one-click access to the exact six tools you need to keep moving.

Note that the download here is merely a stub. When you've downloaded this stub, and install, the installer will always attempt to download the latest version.

Maxthon 2.5.10

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-13T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Alternative IE-based web browser

In the past, Internet Explorer has received a lot of bad press for lack of updates, security issues, poor CSS support and more. However, since the release of Internet Explorer 7, we now have a web browser that offers tabbed browser, a much improved web engine and enhanced security features.

When you install Internet Explorer 7 on your system, the installed HTML web core is built in to Windows (and this element is very hard to remove), there have been a number of attempts to create a replacement for Internet Explorer that take this core HTML engine and add additional features to produce a even better web browser.

Maxthon is one of the more popular Internet Explorer replacement browsers and is constantly updated.

The latest version Maxthon 2 contains a new streamlined interface, which looks a bit like a mix of the Mac OS X Safari web browser and Firefox. Other features include multi-user support from the same web browser, so each user has their own preferences. There are tons of other minor updates, too.

SUPER AntiSpyware 4.30

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-13T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Protect your system from spyware

We tend to overly rely on our anti-spyware and security software. For instance, we download the latest commercial security tool and then setup the application to automatically scan for Trojans and spyware that may have installed on our system, at the end of every working day.

This is fantastic and works well if we’re in the office. However, we often forget that we can be out of the office, other people use our computer or we simply finish work early, ending the day before the anti-spyware tool starts its automatic check. Result? Our system is only checked randomly, which means that the Trojan could have used that time to access our system and track our online activity, then reported our personal information.

SUPERAntiSpyware is another anti-spyware tool, but the free version requires you to manually check your system. It will look for and detect the latest worms, Trojans and other problematic applications, but it won’t block these on a ‘real-time’ basis, nor can it schedule to check on an automated basis. You’ll need to perform these tasks manually.

This is the ‘free’ version. The Professional edition will schedule, automatically check for Trojans and will update definitions automatically.

Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2

Laurence Gunn — 2009-11-13T14:52:00.000Z

Laurence Gunn, Computeractive, Friday 13 November 2009 at 14:52:00

Mix music like a professional disc jockey

The Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2 ‘DJ controller’ for PCs and Mac computers can be used to create mixes and add musical effects to your tunes, from playlists or audio CDs.

The pads and buttons on the controller adjust certain functions in the software, making it easy to mix between tracks.

It is larger than its predecessor the e1, with bigger jog wheels (used to cue up and scratch tracks) on each of the two decks and more backlit buttons, which makes it easier to work with than its predecessor in darkened conditions.

Those new to DJ mixing will have some learning to become accustomed to the device but the same is true of any DJ setup.

However, the controls, manual and VirtualDJ LE software are extremely well thought out and the results that can be achieved make learning highly rewarding. The device itself connects to the computer’s USB port.

To get the best out of it requires a computer to have a four-channel sound card, otherwise you can’t use headphones to monitor a second track for cueing and effects.

The DJ Control MP3 e2’s functionality and software are both excellent, as is the price.

Kingston V-Series 40GB SSD Kit

Tom Royal — 2009-11-13T12:56:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Friday 13 November 2009 at 12:56:00

Give your computer a speed boost

Solid State Disks, or SSDs, are designed to replace hard disks in computers. Unlike hard disks, which have moving parts, they use the same type of memory found in USB memory keys.

At just £75 Kingston’s 40GB SSD kit is the cheapest we have seen.

The kit includes the disk itself, the cables and bracket needed to fit it into a desktop PC and a program that can copy the contents of your entire hard disk onto the new SSD in one go.

If you have less than 40GB of files on your hard disk this is a simple process, but if not you will have to move some to another storage device first – the process copies everything in one go.

The main advantage of an SSD is speed. We copied a new Windows 7 system from hard disk to the SSD: with the hard disk the computer took 52 seconds to start, but on the SSD this was cut to 35 seconds.

Files copied at 15MB/sec on the hard disk and 24MB/sec on the SSD. It’s also silent, and with no moving parts it should be more reliable than a hard disk.

By modern standards 40GB isn’t much space so this SSD would best be used to store Windows and programs, with your files stored on a separate hard disk. It’s expensive per gigabyte, but this is a simple way to give a computer a real speed boost.

Kensington Slimblade Trackball

Andrew Zarkesh — 2009-11-13T12:09:00.000Z

Andrew Zarkesh, Computeractive, Friday 13 November 2009 at 12:09:00

An alluring, but awkward alternative to the mouse

Most of us are used to using mice but there are alternative methods of moving the pointer on the screen. We have looked at graphics tablets recently, but an older device making something of a comeback is the trackball. These can be better for those who find mice hard or painful to use.

A trackball can also be a good choice for people who use photo-editing and graphics programs as it’s likely to allow more precise control of the pointer.

A good trackball will allow the user to move the cursor while their hand remains in a relaxed position, minimising the amount of stress exerted on the fingers and wrist and ultimately helping to prevent wrist injury.

The Kensington Slimblade’s grey casing and red ball look good and it has a low profile. However, this low profile made the Slimblade ucomfortable to use for long periods.

Due to the size and height of the ball in relation to the wrist rest, we had to raise our wrists to quite a sharp angle to use it properly.

Controlling the ball with the thumb was more comfortable, but this meant using the other hand to operate the left and right click buttons, which was awkward.

Those mouse buttons are located on the lower half of the device and two smaller buttons toward the top activate Viewing mode and Media mode.

Viewing mode turns the ball into a scroll wheel, rolling it up and down to scroll on a page. It can also zoom in or out by rotating the ball clockwise or anti-clockwise but this did not work with all applications.

Media mode lets the user control volume and track selection using the ball and buttons. This only worked fully with iTunes.

Skipping between tracks using the ball was too vague for our liking – it was hard to select a particular track – and having a volume control on the trackball was of little benefit. Annoyingly, the buttons cannot be customised any further.

There are good alternatives to mice, but sadly the Slimblade is not one of them.

Apple Mac Mini

Tom Royal — 2009-11-13T11:46:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Friday 13 November 2009 at 11:46:00

The former mini marvel doesn't look quite so impressive

When Apple first launched the Mac Mini back in 2005 very small desktop computers were rare. These days alternatives are available for as little as £150, making this latest version look rather expensive.

The difference, however, lies in the processor inside. Most cheap mini desktop computers use low-cost, low-power processors such as Intel's Atom. This latest Mac Mini uses a far more powerful Core 2 Duo chip of the type you'd find in larger computers.

The version we tested runs at 2.53GHz, with 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard disk. There is a fast network socket on the back, or it can connect to the fastest type of wireless network, 802.11n.

Despite the Mac Mini's small size it's fast enough for tasks such as editing video files, taking around 90 minutes to convert a DVD into a file suitable for playback on an iPod.

Try this on an Atom-based computer and you will be in for a very long wait. It's also beautifully quiet: although not entirely silent, it's hard to hear when the DVD burner is not in use.

With five USB2 ports and one Firewire 800 socket adding peripherals is easy, and the latest version of the Mac OSX operating system includes plenty of handy software.

There are some annoyances though. Adding your own keyboard and mouse is easy, but with only mini-DVI and Mini Displayport connectors on the back plugging in a VGA or HDMI monitor will require an extra adapter.

And although the Mac Mini itself is tiny, its power supply is rather large and will need tucking neatly out of sight. The built-in speaker is poor, and although it will suffice for the occasional system sound it might as well have been omitted.

And finally, of course, there is the price: you can buy a far more powerful desktop computer for £649, and the cheaper £499 Mini is limited by a measly 160GB hard disk.

Apple doesn't offer Blu-ray drives in any of its computers at the moment, and upgrading the parts inside the Mini's tiny case is tricky.

This is an impressively quiet and smart computer, but it's not particularly good value.

Canon Digital Ixus 120 IS

Gavin Stoker — 2009-11-11T16:30:00.000Z

Gavin Stoker, Computeractive, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 16:30:00

Canon’s smallest wide-angle compact camera yet

Canon’s cute Ixus 120 IS has a 4x zoom lens, equivalent to 28-112mm on an old film camera, with 12-megapixel images from a body only 2cm in depth.

It’s the manufacturer’s slimmest wide-angle camera to date and has no optical viewfinder.

The combination of the 28mm wide angle, suitable for panoramic views or group portraits, and the credit card-sized dimensions make it an ideal companion for travellers.

Build quality is excellent thanks to a largely metal construction. This explains the fairly high list price, even if the finish does little to hide scrapes and scratches.

Photographs can be composed and reviewed on the 2.7in rear screen that, on our review sample at least, displayed an image slightly warm in appearance.

It powered up in just under two seconds and features Canon’s Smart Auto feature, in which the camera recognises common subjects and types of scenes and alters its settings accordingly.

With this mode selected, all we had to do was point and shoot. The highest resolution pictures were saved to the memory card in less than three seconds.

Even though pictures from the IXUS 120 IS were not the sharpest we have seen, they were detailed and the colour was natural. And noise didn’t become a problem until we used the highest light sensitivity settings (in low light conditions).

Like its rivals the Ixus 120 IS features three fashionable must-have features: face detection, high-definition video at the 720p resolution (a HDMI port allows the camera to be hooked up to a flat-panel TV) and blink detection, which warns the user when a subject has their eyes closed.

There’s also automatic red-eye removal.

A brief description of each icon popped up while we scrolled through menus, which meant we didn’t have to wade through the manual supplied on CD. More experienced users can choose to disable the help.

All these features eat up power, though. Canon promises 220 shots from a freshly charged battery, so if you are going on a trip take the charger too.

If cool design and portability top your wish list for a new digital camera, this latest IXUS fits the bill.

Verbatim Executive Portable Hard Disk

Paul Allen — 2009-11-11T16:01:00.000Z

Paul Allen, Computeractive, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 16:01:00

Back up and synchronise data with the disk's included tools

Verbatim's Portable Hard Drive Executive is a 2.5in disk that can store 500GB of files and plugs into a USB socket using the supplied cable.

Unlike some portable hard disks, it can draw sufficient operating power from the older USB1 sockets too, although you may find it slower to copy files over such connections.

The disk is small enough to fit in your pocket and comes with a soft, padded case to protect against minor knocks. However, there is no space for the connecting lead inside this case.

The Executive comes with two pieces of software to help make the most of the disk: Nero's Back It Up 4 Essentials for simple backups, and Verbatim's own synchronisation tool that keeps documents, emails and a calendar up to date when working on more than one PC.

This information can also be encrypted in case it is lost or stolen. No manual, printed or PDF, was provided for the Nero software but it was fairly self-explanatory in use.

The disk also contains a program that claims to speed up data transfer over USB but our test showed no difference.

If you need to carry this much data around regularly then the Verbatim Executive is capable enough, if a little pricey.

But if all you need is extra capacity at home, products based on the larger 3.5in disks are better value.

Mobiu Smart Key

Paul Lester — 2009-11-10T16:47:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Computeractive, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 16:47:00

Back up and securely access files from any computer

If you work away from home or the office with sensitive information, you may be concerned about privacy and leaving traces of what you are doing, or leaving important documents on a temporary computer.

Security company Mobiu’s answer to this is the Smart Key, a device that combines the Pin security you might find on a bank card with online storage of documents to bring convenience and peace of mind when working from an unfamiliar location.

The device comes in the form of a 1GB USB memory key and offers 1GB of online storage by default. When connected it requests the user to enter a pin to grant access to a screen from which files can be accessed.

Backups can be created from relevant folders on your computer’s hard disk and when documents are changed on your usual computer they can be refreshed to bring the online copies up to date.

It’s also possible to save multiple versions of your documents so if you make a change you don’t like you can go back. There is no restriction on the size of each file or the number of files that can be uploaded.

When you access a document from a different computer it is temporarily downloaded to the storage on the Mobiu device while you work on it. The Mobiu interface also offers dedicated, secure software to handle common documents.

A word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package are included and offer a wide range of features as well as full support for common files such as those created by Microsoft Office.

It also includes a web browser, archive software and a PDF reader so a wide range of documents can be retrieved and modified without any trace being left on the host computer.

You can even invite other Mobiu Smart Key owners to access your storage at the same time, which makes it an effective way for business users to work on group projects.

The Mobiu Smart Key is very effective if you need security for your documents while on the move. It’s easy to use and offers all the tools required.

Nikon D3000

Tom Royal — 2009-11-10T15:00:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 15:00:00

Don’t need video from your camera? The D3000 may be for you

Lately, more and more digital SLR cameras shoot high-definition video, but the new Nikon D3000 bucks this trend to focus purely on photos.

The D3000 replaces the D60 at the bottom of Nikon’s range. Its body is clearly derived from those of the D60, D40x and D40. It’s impressively small and light with a small protruding grip for the right hand and very little bulk to the left of the lens.

This small body necessitates a relatively small optical viewfinder, but it’s still better than composing images on the screen.

The controls are simple with only one command dial – the D90, a couple of models up, has two. It offers a mind-boggling array of scene modes including Guide, which explains how to pull off simple effects such as soft backgrounds or sharp pictures of objects in motion.

Nikon is selling the D3000 body in a kit with an 18-55mm lens that includes its vibration reduction stabilisation technology. Like all previous versions of this lens it’s hard to focus manually but works fine with the camera’s autofocus system.

With no motor in the body the D3000 can autofocus only AF-S lenses, but its 11-point focus system was more than adequate.

We were happy with the 10-megapixel photos produced by the D3000, and the Automatic mode produced decent results.

The kit lens is not perfect, with some very slight colour fringing near the edges of a few test shots, but the results are generally sharp and well exposed.

Those looking to move up to an SLR from a compact camera will be impressed.

But is it good value? At the recommended retail price of £500 this kit looks like a stretch, but it was easy to find online at around £400 in most shops.

Around £150 more will get you the video-ready D5000, but for those looking to move up to an SLR for stills only, this is a great rival for Canon’s EOS 1000D.

Incomedia Website X5 Evolution 8

Simon Williams — 2009-11-12T17:19:00.000Z

Simon Williams, Computeractive, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 17:19:00

Make a website easily with a template-based program

There are two basic categories of website creation programs: the kind which starts with a blank page that the user fills with text, graphics, menus and links, and there’s the template-based type, in which most of the design is already done and the user just changes the words and pictures.

The first is usually more complex, more expensive and suited to advanced users, with programs such as Adobe’s Dreamweaver or Serif Webplus X2, while the second includes programs such as Incomedia’s Website X5 Evolution 8.

It comes with a printed manual and an irritating requirement to ‘authenticate’ the software before we could run it, which involved entering a 38-digit unlock code.

The program is template-based, with 1,400 of the templates supplied. You can modify these by changing the colour and adding your own graphics.

Menus are added automatically and a site map is used to provide a visual aid to the structure of the site. The page layout uses grids of cells into where page elements, such as text, pictures, slide-shows, audio and video clips can be loaded. Support for Youtube videos is also included.

If you are used to working with a page design program either for print or the web, this simpler way of working may take some getting used to.

None of the objects added are shown as they are made. They only show up when you hit the Test button that draws the current page.

The same applies to objects when they are edited. This can be annoying, but it is still a simple way of putting a site together.

Most of the extras you might want, such as RSS feeds, sound and video are available and there is a shopping cart system, complete with Paypal payment support, if you want a site that will sell things.

There is support for blogging, too, and the program can handle feedback from web surfers, with the ability for readers to post their comments. There is even a fun, though slightly gimmicky, page-peeling effect for adding adverts to your site.

Unlike some other systems, such as Mr Site, there is no need to rent space on a specific server to host your site. You are free to upload to any service you like and the program has built-in FTP software to handle the transfer.

Review: C2C ArchiveOne Express

Alan Stevens — 2009-11-06T09:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 09:00:00

An affordable and easy-to-use message archiving tool

Developers often add 'Express' to product names to signal that that they're cut-down or simpler versions of an enterprise application, repackaged for the small business. This is exactly what C2C has done with its popular Exchange archiving add-on, now available in a fat-free Express edition aimed at companies looking for basic message archiving for up to 200 users.

Based on the same core technology as enterprise versions of ArchiveOne, the new ArchiveOne Express includes the ability to archive public folders, plus local message stores (PST) discovery and management. However, according to C2C, it's a lot quicker to install and much easier to manage.

Like other versions it can also be used with any release of Exchange from 2000 upwards. It took no more than 15 to 20 minutes to install using one of our test servers, in our case, running Exchange Server 2003.

Installation

The speedy install was largely down to wizards that stepped us through the installation and subsequent configuration required to get started. However, another factor is that, instead of having to set up complex archiving rules, you start out with a simple choice between archiving based on message age and mailbox size, an approach that really does reduce the amount of work involved. We tried both in turn; from the MMC plug-in used to manage ArchiveOne Express, we simply selected the mailboxes we wanted to manage and scheduled the pre-set archiving jobs created during the setup process.

For the most part we took the offered defaults, which further speeded up our deployment. Plus, unlike a lot of other archiving programs, there's no need for a supporting database, as any accessible network storage can be used to hold the archived files, including network-attached storage shares.

On the downside it did take a while to get to grips with some of the terminology, and the accompanying documentation didn't explain everything as clearly as we would have liked, particularly how to go about including users' PSTs in the archiving process. A separate agent needs to be run on each client to facilitate this, but it took a lot of time, and trial runs, to work out exactly how to get it working.

Zero training?

Another claim is that ArchiveOne Express users need "zero training". This is because you carry on accessing mail in the normal manner using either Outlook, Outlook Web Access or a mobile client such as a BlackBerry or Apple's iPhone. More than that, archived messages are still listed but, instead of the normal content, you get a link to the archived message in the associated repository. Click on this and the content is displayed via a browser and, if wanted, can be taken out of the archive and moved back to the normal Exchange mailbox store.

New folders are also added to the Exchange mailbox to enable users to browse and search the archives for information and, on the whole, we found it all pretty self-explanatory. Whether or not that justifies the "zero training" claim is debateable and, in our opinion, users are likely to need some hand-holding, at least to begin with.

Exchange administrators, on the other hand, should have little difficulty working out how to use the software and, having got the basic archiving to work, we found a lot more that we could do with ArchiveOne Express. For example, it's possible to specify more detailed criteria when deciding what to archive, including who messages are from or addressed to, and whether or not there are any attachments, their size and so on.

Public folders

Archiving messages in public folders is another option, together with the ability to use ArchiveOne Express for regulatory compliance with legal hold and so-called Bates stamping (where each message gets a unique date/time stamp) built-in. However, you need to be using the Exchange journaling option to automatically keep copies of all incoming and outgoing messages, and fully exploit these capabilities.

Another benefit with ArchiveOne Express is that, as with other archiving tools, the C2C software can significantly enhance Exchange server performance. It can also help to reduce storage costs as older messages get moved out to cheaper disks. Backup is still required and isn't included in the product, although C2C does offer a hosted disaster recovery service called ArchiveOne CloudDR that can be used to protect archive repositories against local outages, data corruption and the like.

We were very impressed with ArchiveOne Express, which is priced to appeal to small business buyers, but still employs proven enterprise technology to archive messages in a straightforward and seamless manner. It's quick to install, lives up to most of the claims made for its ease of use, and represents good value for anyone looking for basic yet robust Exchange archiving.

M-Audio Pro Tools Keystudio

Cliff Joseph — 2009-11-05T11:55:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Computeractive, Thursday 5 November 2009 at 11:55:00

An affordable music keyboard-and-software package

M-Audio is well known in the music business for its music keyboards and other recording devices used in studios around the world.

Its new Pro Tools Keystudio is an attempt to make a more affordable music product for home users and less-experienced musicians.

The Keystudio package is good value. For just £79 it includes a music keyboard that plugs into a USB port on your computer (PC or Mac) and a powerful piece of recording software called Pro Tools Essential.

The keyboard is excellent. It has 49 keys covering four octaves (groups of eight notes), and it has an Octave button that raises or lowers notes by an octave at a time to cover a much wider range.

It’s also pressure-sensitive, which means that, like a piano, the keyboard produces notes more loudly or quietly depending on how hard the keys are hit (cheaper keyboards play at the same volume regardless).

If you don’t want a keyboard there is a Vocal Studio version for the same price that includes a high-quality microphone instead, or the Recording Studio package that provides a gadget for recording guitars and other instruments.

Unfortunately the software is not as attractive. The Pro Tools Essential program is very powerful but it’s also complicated.

When the program opens you are presented with two overlapping windows that contain an intimidating selection of controls and menu commands.

Matters are not helped by the half-a-dozen different manuals included on the disk in PDF format and people who have not used recording software before may struggle.

You also need to attach a special adaptor into a USB port to use the Pro Tools Essential Software. If you lose or damage this you will not be able to use the software.

We like the idea of combining music hardware and software into an affordable package, but the complexity of the Pro Tools Essential software and the need to plug in the adaptor before running it means that Keystudio is not user-friendly enough for newcomers to digital music.

Norton Internet Security 2010

Cliff Joseph — 2009-11-05T10:15:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Computeractive, Thursday 5 November 2009 at 10:15:00

A new approach to eliminating internet threats

Anti-virus companies such as Symantec employ large teams to monitor new viruses and other types of malware as they appear on the Internet.

However, Symantec says the virus threat has now reached the point at which it’s almost impossible to keep up with the thousands of new viruses that appear every day.

So, for its Norton Internet Security 2010 suite, the company has developed a new system called Quorum.

In effect, this is a huge database compiled using information drawn from the PCs of millions of people who already use Norton software

This information is provided on a voluntary opt-in basis, so users don’t have to provide any information if they don’t want to.

Whenever you download a file from the Internet, or open an email attachment or load a file from anywhere else, Norton 2010 checks the Quorum database to see if the same file has been found on any other users’ PCs, and whether or not the file has caused any known problems.

If the file has a bad ‘reputation’ on the Quorum database then the security software will automatically attempt to remove the file before it can do any harm.

If there is no record of a particular file on Quorum then it can use another new feature called Insight to analyse the effect the file has on the computer.

The software can remove files that appear to be slowing the computer down or taking up large amounts of memory.

And to avoid affecting the computer’s performance, Norton 2010 uses less memory for itself – just 10Mb – and can scan the computer’s hard disk more quickly to ensure it doesn’t slow you down while you are trying to work.

The Quorum system may take a little while to prove its worth, but Norton 2010 ran very efficiently on our test PC. Its quick scan took just a few seconds to run and managed to pick up a few worrying cookies that were attempting to store information about our web browsing habits.

As with most modern security software the £50 price includes a licence for protecting three separate computers, making it good for families or small businesses that need to protect all their computers.

Apple OS X Snow Leopard

Cliff Joseph — 2009-11-03T14:35:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Computeractive, Tuesday 3 November 2009 at 14:35:00

The latest Mac update adds little gloss but plenty under the bonnet

Sometimes, as the saying goes, less is more.

Like the new Windows 7, the latest version of Apple’s OS X operating system for Macintosh computers focuses on better performance rather than the eye-catching features we normally expect from Apple.

After you install Snow Leopard on your Mac the display on the screen will look the same as it did before – in fact, you might be wondering why you bothered to pay £25 for the ‘upgrade’ at all.

But while it looks the same on the surface, Apple has completely rewritten the Finder, the part of the operating system that displays the contents of the hard disk on the computer screen, in order to make it run much more smoothly.

The main area in which we noticed an improvement was when using the Quicklook option that allows users to quickly peek inside files and preview their contents without actually opening them.

When a user hits the space bar to activate Quicklook the preview window pops up more quickly, even with complicated files such as video clips.

It can also browse through long documents containing multiple pages, which is handy when you are looking for specific information. Other options, such as Exposé, which neatly organises all the open windows on the screen, also respond more quickly and smoothly.

There is one big new feature but it’s mainly suitable for business users. Snow Leopard now allows Macs to work with the PC-based Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail system that is used by many businesses.

Its new ‘autodiscovery’ option allows the Mac’s Address Book, Mail, and Calendar programs to automatically connect to Exchange Server running on an office network.

That means people can take their Macs to work – as long as their IT departments allow it – and easily exchange emails, contacts and calendar details with PC-using colleagues.

Snow Leopard requires at least 1GB of memory before it can be installed and it will only run on Macs that use Intel processors rather than the old PowerPC processors that Apple used until about three years ago.

But if you have a Mac that fits the bill then Snow Leopard is a worthwhile upgrade that will make your Mac run more smoothly and efficiently.

Review: Bento 3 personal database

Stewart Meagher — 2009-11-03T12:09:00.000Z

Stewart Meagher, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 3 November 2009 at 12:09:00

An easy-to-use database tool aimed at home users and small businesses

Bento is named after the Japanese lunch box which keeps various bits of food neatly contained in separate compartments, and is a perfect choice for Mac users who need to keep every aspect of their lives organised.

The personal database is now in its third revision, and takes the familiar feel of Apple's OS X and applies it to keeping neatly organised just about anything you could make a list of. If you're the kind of individual who can't sleep unless your CDs are in alphabetical order, or needs to know exactly when and where every snap in your iPhoto library was taken, or craves a neater wine cellar, then Bento is for you.

Databases can be dizzyingly complex beasts, and those of you who like to footle about under the bonnet of your organisational tools are well served with the likes of Filemaker Pro, Bento's complex and infinitely adaptable elder sibling. But if you just want to get on with keeping every aspect of your life in shape without having to worry about creating your own relational database, then this £29.95 option could be the solution you've been looking for.

It's true that there are a panoply of cataloguing programmes for the Mac out there, many of which are cheaper than Bento, and some even free. A quick search on Mac Update will return hundreds of database applications, which will keep track of your DVDs, CDs or Star Wars action figures, but none of them offers the kind of seamless integration with a host of core Apple applications as Bento.

Start Bento up for the first time and, at the tip of your mouse pointer, you have full access to your iCal calendars, Address Book entries, and entire iPhoto library. The only application conspicuous by its absence is iTunes, which seems to be a bit of an oversight, considering that one of the most popular uses for Bento is cataloguing music collections.

Out-of-the-box templates

That aside, Bento presents even those users who would normally run a mile at the mention of the word 'database' with a user-friendly, familiar and intuitive interface, which will soon have your Beanie Baby collection in regimental order. Bento supplies a broad spectrum of genuinely useful templates straight out of the box, grouped into Educational, Work and Personal categories. These range from set-ups for keeping your digital media, user names and passwords, and customers in order, to party planning, time billing and expenses.

All of these templates can be tweaked and customised should you wish to add an extra field, or a new drop-down menu. Or if you want to go it alone you can start a new custom database from scratch, adding as many data and picture fields as your heart desires.

In addition, Bento has set up Template Exchange, a web-based depository for new templates created by the application authors and those uploaded by Bento users. These range from the somewhat mundane 'Books I have Read', to the rather more esoteric 'Lab Antibody Database' which, according to its author, is "an easy way to catalogue primary and secondary antibodies in a laboratory environment. Includes URL and image fields for quick access to the antibody web site and all the essential information to make searching easy." Phew. Our search is finally over.

Drag-and-drop data import

Importing data is a doddle, and you can drag and drop entries from Mail or iCal straight into data fields. Your entire photo library is accessible from the handy sidebar, and is organised in exactly the same way it is in iPhoto. Again, pics can be dragged and dropped into database entries without fuss, as can short video clips.

One feature which does seem to be missing, however, is the ability to import images directly from a scanner, although it is possible to grab frames from a webcam. Not a lot of use if you have a shoebox full of receipts you need to catalogue, especially as you only get three seconds to get the item in frame and in focus before the snap is taken, and the default setting provides a flipped mirror image.

Creating templates from scratch is a simple procedure with basic pallets of useful drag-and-drop items provided, all of which can be customised and repositioned at will. If you have data you don't want to share, individual entries or entire libraries can be password protected by adding an encrypted field.

Libraries can be easily shared across your local network, but any form of web sharing has been omitted as Apple would obviously like you to buy its Filemaker Pro software for £260 if you need that kind of functionality.

If you need to carry your data around with you, however, there is a solution in the form of the Bento for iPhone app which, at £2.99, is a cheap alternative to full web functionality.

F-Secure Internet Security 2010

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-10-29T13:04:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Thursday 29 October 2009 at 13:04:00

Comprehensive security and parental controls

Keeping a computer secure online is an ever-more-complex job.

The days of merely needing a firewall and anti-virus program are now over – with its various components F-Secure Internet Security is a good example of these changes.

The main screen is fairly simple with a large icon showing whether the computer is safe or not, accompanied by shortcuts to three main sections – status, tasks and statistics – and smaller icons for updates and settings. The large green tick denoting a safe computer still appears if scheduled virus scanning is disabled, although we would recommend running regular scans.

The Status screen gives an overview of the different kinds of protection offered. Virus and spyware protection are bundled together, while the firewall keeps an eye on what programs are trying to talk to the internet as well as keeping hackers out, and dial-up protection prevents modem users being scammed into dialling premium-rate numbers. A toolbar in Internet Explorer gives a warning of anything untoward in websites and checks search engine results and webmail, there is email spam filtering and, finally, parental controls.

The Deepguard protection is an interesting solution to the problem of malicious software being released much more often. Deepguard decides whether or not software should be allowed to run based both on lists created by F-Secure and on what the program is trying to do. Behaviour such as trying to change the Windows Registry would trigger an alert unless it is on a list of approved software, in which case there is no interruption to the user. Likewise, if the software is on a list of known miscreants it is blocked without question.

The parental controls have two levels of protection, for small children and teenagers. Each has separate limits for time spent online, though the restrictions don’t apply to chat or online games. Children are only allowed to browse sites in an approved list, whereas teenagers are restricted the other way round with full access except to some blocked sites.

There are free security tools available, but the full-on F-Secure package keeps everything simple and working properly. F-Secure Internet Security 2010 includes some useful tools and is easy to use.