The PC Informant

Is Steve Ballmer the worst CEO?

Vic Laurie — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:00:19 +0000

Forbes has an article by Adam Hartung about five CEOs of large publicly traded companies that he says should be fired. He writes about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:

Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today. Not only has he singlehandedly steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets (mobile music, handsets and tablets) but in the process he has sacrificed the growth and profits of not only his company but “ecosystem” companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and even Nokia. The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value – and jobs.

However, at InformationWeek, Larry Seltzer defends Ballmer.

What do you think? Has Ballmer fumbled the ball or is he getting a bum rap?

Traveling

Vic Laurie — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:06:23 +0000

I will be traveling all week.

Quote of the week

Vic Laurie — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:21:23 +0000

And while Microsoft isn’t the only culprit, I live, breath, and work in a Microsoft world so I’m pretty much only concerned with what this company is doing. And from what I can see, there’s not a lot of clarity coming out of Redmond these days. And I think Microsoft’s customers deserve better than that.
Paul Thurrott commenting on something he calls the “dumbening [his spelling] of technology”

Chaucer and text messaging

Vic Laurie — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:46:01 +0000

Source: Wall Street Journal

Useful sites

Vic Laurie — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:03:33 +0000

Here are some sites worth looking at that were unearthed by my fellow editors at Gizmo’s Freeware:

20,000 Free Books To Browse And Read Online
At HotFreeBooks.com you can read online more than 22,000 high quality classic and modern books on a comfortable screen, where you can change the letter size, page width and contrast. All books are full-text and free. No need to download.—Site description
RT Bot
RTBot is a real-time information service that gives you current news, video and audio about any topic you’re interested in
Listverse-Ultimate Top 10 Lists
Listverse serves over 10 million pages a month to more than 2 million readers. We are focused on lists that intrigue and educate, specializing in the bizarre or lesser- known trivia. —Site description
WhatsRunning.net
What’s Running is a product that gives you an inside look into your Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7 system.—Site description

History of the computer virus

Vic Laurie — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:53:37 +0000

Here is an infographic showing how the computer virus evolved over time from its beginning in the 1980′s, starting out as a prank and finally becoming the tool of criminals.

Source: Daily Infographic

Firefox tips and tricks

Vic Laurie — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:58:16 +0000

Do you use the Firefox browser? Then look at these links with various tips for using the browser:

Disable the Download History
By default, Firefox keeps a history of everything that you have downloaded. While you could constantly maintain this list to keep it tidy, it is much easier to disable the download history completely. All of the files you download will usually be in your Downloads library under your User folder, unless you’ve manually changed your download folder, so disabling download history won’t cause you to lose any files.—TechRecipes
The Best Tips and Tweaks for Getting the Most Out of Firefox
A collection of articles on how to customize and configure Firefox from the How-To Geek

New phishing emails pretend to be from Amazon

Vic Laurie — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:44:18 +0000

I am starting to get emails with phony notices of cancelled Amazon orders. The emails have links in them that are dangerous to click. A lot of us use Amazon so this is going to catch some people. Be on the lookout for this phishing exploit.

Monday links

Vic Laurie — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:54:24 +0000

HomeOS A Microsoft Operating System for the Home
Imagine…You open your home PC…but instead of running your office suite, or your internet connection, you look at your home appliances…start your coffee, run the microwave oven, start your TV. And your devices are running on a Home Operating System.— Everything Microsoft looks at Microsoft’s experimental home-automation OS
What a future cyberwar will look like
BBC discusses the nature of future wars
They Ain’t Making Any More of Them: The Great Engineering Shortage of 2012
At TechCrunch, Jon Bischke talks about a shortage of people going into engineering
Is time running out for Nokia and RIM?
Commentary at MarketWatch by Therese Poletti on the decline of two erstwhile leaders in the mobile phone market
Leave only footprints: how Google’s ethical ignorance gets it in trouble
At Ars Technica, Casey Johnston looks at Google’s ethical lapses in its collection of personal data from WiFi networks

Internet Explorer being hit with new Flash malware- get patched

Vic Laurie — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:23:51 +0000

Another security hole for Adobe Flash has been announced. This one affects Internet Explorer on Windows. If you do not use automatic updating for Adobe Flash, get the patch here.