Its called RichCopy and it seems to be a great little backup program, You can download it from the technet article. The download is called “HoffmanUtilitySpotlight2009_04.exe”

But!! Good news the once king of the hill beaten by google is back and on the iphone, and it talks to you…

MapQuest has released the “MapQuest 4 Mobile” iPhone app. It sports Voice Guidance and Off-Route Assistance if you stray off course. It finds the closest Hotel, Resturant, Shopping Center, Gas, Coffee Shop, Post Office, Parking Garage, Grocery Store, School, and Traffic (yeah I doubt the last one works very well but nice and ambitious).

Here is the link to the blog over at mapquest and a link to the app

However, it looks like a new day dawning for the company formerly owned by Bill. They’ve come closer than ever before to an actual operating system with Windows7 and now they have what looks to be a great Anti-virus solution. It is full featured, free anti-virus, anti-malware, auto-updating software. I’ve installed it on 3 PCs, 2XP and 1 Win7beta and it hasn’t gotten in the way yet. I have it running at a couple of client locations and haven’t had any new infections reported or reports that it is bugging the client every few minutes.

Supposedly the scan is much deeper (the initial and weekly deep scans take for-flippin-ever) and as a result returns fewer false positives than with other faster scanning solutions (avast, kaspersky in my experience).  All in all, I’m hopeful that this is the product that should have always been in Windows, but I’m glad that it is here now, and freely available.

That having been said my biggest problem with Microsoft and its security policies is that to install Security Essentials or any of the security patches you have to validate your install of Windows. Thats fine for all the legitimate installs but the problem is that the majority of bots and internet attacks come from illegitimate installs of Windows. The internet, your PC, and all other computers for that matter would be safer if Microsoft pushed the security patches to all Windows users- legal or not, and made the bootleggers validate for features. Actually I think the installation should be validated before any functionality is turned on making it nearly impossible to bootleg a copy of windows at all.

Regardless Security Essentials looks to be a great product and if you aren’t protected or are at the end of your subscription, I would cancel and try http://microsoft.com/security_essentials

Be Safe out there.

Seeing as I rarely ever has an original thought. The opinions expressed in this post were shaped by the Security Now podcast with Steve Gibson and Leo Laportte. There is also a great “First Look” at Arstechnica

Molly Wood, Veronica Bellmont, some Scott Johnson , and Leo Laporte had a conversation on TWIT recently about companies sponsoring tweets (stupid word).There ia a service, Izea, (there may be more than one) that will pay users to put ads in their Twitter streams. I don’t like it. Its difficult to listen to a show where the hosts talk around your point-of-view but they can’t hear you over the internet. Anyway. Here’s why I don’t like the idea:

When I go to my mailbox I expect, even though it rarely happens, to get a hand written letter or package from someone I know. Needless to say, I come away from the mailbox disappointed with a hand full of junk mail from business trying to “Sell me.” The only time  a commercial enterprise doesn’t disappoint me is when I initiated the correspondence.  If I want the catalog or coupon then the interaction is favorable.  The same is true of my email inbox. Ideally it is the point of contact for my friends and the services I’m interested in.

Again, the same is true of twitter. I follow people based on their profile, if they are micro-blogging about their business or service that I’m interested in then I’m on board when they promote to me. But, when, for a real example, when I follow a guy that writes about alternative energy, I get a little slap in the face when I see, next to his avatar, an ad for a service to get more Twitter followers, or a mass email service. But when he tells me about a new energy service or product then he has much more credibility with me.

So, as @ScottWilliams says, “U do U.” Be who you say you are on Twitter and everywhere else in life.

Step 1 open the printers and faxes window. Step 2 goto tools on the menu bar and select folder options. Next in the general tab the first grouping of options is Tasks. Select the radial button next to Use Windows classic folders. You should now see an Add Printer icon at the top of the page. While holding down the shift key, right click the Add printer icon and select Run As. Supply the correct administrative credentials and you can now add a local printer without logging off and back on as an admin.

Awesome idea.

Via TechRepublic

15 Awesome Gmail Tips and Tricks by The Geek Stuff

• Waste the time of the people that read and forward them
• They cause well meaning citizens to notify the authorities and waste public funds and resources only to find out there is no “missing person” or other crime
• Shifts public opinion negatively. Pepsi doesn’t hate God, Starbucks DOES support our troops, and Obama isn’t a Muslim (as far as you know, and he’s in the whitehouse now so quit spreading the hate. (I voted for the other guy).

Here’s what I do to verify an email. I copy the subject line of the email (if it isn’t descriptive enough I will note a couple of key words in the message) then I go to google and paste it in with the word “snopes” (without the quotes). Within the first couple of links you’ll find a link that either tells you the story is a hoax or is true.

Snopes.com is THE last word in internet hoaxes, scams, and urban legends. They heave been collecting them since 1995.

On any given day I probably delete at least a couple of emails with subject lines that begin with “Fw:” Its not that I’m not interested in what my friends and family get passionate about, its just that I’ve been around these Internet pipes for quite a while now. Nowhere more than the web is the saying, “If its too good to be true, then it probably is” more true. Most of these emails are impossible at there primise. There is no way for Applebys to track how many people you sent a message to so that they can send you a $50 coupon. There is no way that the disposed ruler of a small African nation has access to your email address.

Read every email as if the sender approached you in a parking lot. How easily would you fall for what they were selling then?

Please people be careful out there.

To turn on Windows Update for domain users.
Start – Run – type “mmc” – ok -> This opens Microsoft Management Console.
File – Add/Remove Snap-in.
In the “Available Snap-ins” list select “Group Policy Management Editor and click “Add.”
Select “Browse” – from the “Select Group Policy Object”
Highlight “Domain Controllers.domainName.com” and click “OK” and “OK” and “OK” once more to get to the Console Root
Click the plus signs next to “Default Domain Controllers Policy,” “Computer Configuration,” “Policies,” “Administration Templates: Policy definitions,” and “Windows Components.” Go to the bottom of that list to find “Windows Update.” In the the window to the right you’ll find all the settings that can be enabled to make client PCs update automatically. Not all are beneficial and a few are very annoying so to avoid making your users mad… Double click on a setting and go to the “Explain” tab to read the consequences of enabling or disabling a setting. If you don’t know what you’re about to do, leave it “Not Configured.”